Publications about books for children and young adults
Here is where I confess–I chose this book before I had even seen it, based completely on the rave reviews it was getting from friends and in the press. This happened a few months ago and this reminded me of why I thought, “I think we will have to talk about hello! hello!” When Julie Danielson, in [...]
Well, between the election and storms of all sorts, it’s been a little difficult to concentrate, hasn’t it? My focus is returning and I would like to turn my focus to a book for new readers. Books for new readers have a specific structure to help the new reader successfully negotiate the story. (Some of [...]
There’s just something about a mouse with a paintbrush, isn’t there? Janson, named after art historian H.W. Janson, lives in the museum and is delighted by the art she finds in the modern wing. Inspired, she creates her own spinoffs of the classics and eventually creates enough art to have her own showing. In the [...]
A Home for Bird has been on my radar for a long time. I was on a recon mission at ALA for new books and I sneaked a slow peek while the Roaring Brook folks were busy. It took me a while to read it because I kept slowing down. There is just so much [...]
Some of you who were here last year already know my deep love of Claire Nivola’s work. This year, instead of personal memoir, Nivola returns to nonfiction, a biography of oceanographer Silvia Earle. I heard an NPR interview with Earle the very day I received a copy of this fascinating book. Let’s take a swim [...]
Dear Patient Readers and Lurkers, I interrupt our stream of books with a mini-diatribe (well, not so mini…). Without naming names (and therefore breaking my Solemn Oath of Lifelong Confidentiality), there are some books that contain little problems that become fatal flaws under the white hot glare of the fluorescent lights in a stuffy conference [...]
This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen; illus. by the author Primary Candlewick 40 pp. 10/12 978-0-7636-5599-0 $15.99 g The eyes have it in Klassen’s latest hat book (I Want My Hat Back, rev. 11/11). Klassen manages to tell almost the whole story through subtle eye movements and the tilt of seaweed and [...]
Sometimes I just have to admit it: I would dearly love to hear a committee discuss a picture book where the medium is photography. When I served on the Coretta Scott King Committee, we honored the photography of Charles Smith in My People and that was the first time photography had been honored in the [...]
And now for something completely different. William Low’s work involves details, details and more details. This offering is for the young reader who loves trucks and machinery. It does not disappoint. Following the pattern he introduced in Machines Go To Work, the straight-talkin’ text introduces a piece of machinery and ends with a question. The question [...]
Pirateria: The Wonderful Plunderful Pirate Emporium by Calef Brown; illus. by the author Primary Atheneum 40 pp. 7/12 978-1-4169-7878-7 $16.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4424-3897-2 $12.99 Brown presents a book-length advertisement for an imaginary emporium of all things pirate. Whether you need rags or pantaloons, spinnakers or planks, you can be sure to find them at Pirateria. [...]
