Publications about books for children and young adults
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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 [...]
Here’s another book that Robin reviewed for the Magazine but I jumped in and claimed it for the blog. Trust Hyewon Yum (The Twins’ Blanket) to come up with a new approach the tried-and-true First Day of School Book. All the usual elements are there: worries about being too little, getting lost, not making friends. [...]
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 [...]
Since Robin posted about an ocean book, I thought I’d step in next with another. Ocean Sunlight is the second offering from co-authors Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm and it’s Bang’s third book about light. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve spent some time with Molly Bang recently, gaining a little inside knowledge about [...]
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 [...]
Robin just reviewed this book for the Magazine (here it is, complete with Jon Klassen’s take on his favorite chapeau), but I forgot it was already hers and rushed to claim it when we were divvying up titles. I couldn’t let her have both Extra Yarn AND this one. As you can see, we love [...]
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 [...]
With a text so simple it could be an easy reader, Monica Carnesi tells the true story of a dog who got stuck on an ice flow in Poland’s Vistula River, swept out to the open sea, and rescued two days later. I am hoping this outwardly simple book will catch the committee’s attention. The [...]
Can a concept book win the Caldecott? I’m pretty sure none have yet. No alphabet books, counting books or color books. What about this one — a color book about just one color? Putting it that way makes Green sound too simple. Trust Seeger to add layers of complexity and meaning, but with a light [...]
