Publications about books for children and young adults
Each week we publish a review of a new book people are--or should be--talking about.
We March by Shane W. Evans; illus. by the author Preschool, Primary Porter/Roaring Brook 32 pp. 1/12 978-1-59643-539-1 $16.99 Many young children know there was a march on Washington a long time ago and that Martin Luther King Jr. gave a famous speech that day. Some know why the march took place; fewer still know [...]
To the Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement [New York Times Books] by Charlayne Hunter-Gault Middle School, High School Flash Point/Roaring Brook 195 pp. 1/12 978-1-59643-605-3 $22.99 One of the first two students to successfully desegregate an all-white college in the South looks back at six pivotal years of the U.S. civil rights [...]
The Cabinet of Earths by Anne Nesbet Intermediate Harper/HarperCollins 260 pp. 1/12 978-0-06-196313-1 $16.99 e-book ed. 978-0-06-209919-8 $8.99 “Well! It is better to read fairy tales than to find yourself caught in them,” Nesbet’s narrator declares, a predictor of what is to be found in the subsequent pages — for Nesbet’s story is a-shimmer with [...]
And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano; illus. by Erin E. Stead Primary Porter/Roaring Brook 32 pp. 2/12 978-1-59643-624-4 $16.99 A small bespectacled boy and his companions, a dog, a rabbit, and a turtle, are on a search for spring. “First you have brown, / all around you have brown / then there are seeds [...]
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate; illus. by Patricia Castelao Intermediate Harper/HarperCollins 305 pp. 1/12 978-0-06-199225-4 $16.99 g e-book ed. 978-0-06-210198-3 $9.99 “I am Ivan. I am a gorilla. / It’s not as easy as it looks.” In short chapters (the book has an open layout and frequent illustrations) that have the look [...]
10 Hungry Rabbits: Counting & Color Concepts by Anita Lobel; illus. by the author Preschool, Primary Knopf 24 pp. 2/12 978-0-375-86864-1 $9.99 Library ed. 978-0-375-96864-8 $12.99 g When Mama Rabbit announces her plans to make vegetable soup for dinner, her ten children—each one wearing a different color—gather ten matching colorful ingredients: one purple cabbage, two [...]
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green High School Dutton 321 pp. 1/12 978-0-525-47881-2 $17.99 g I suppose this is a cancer book, but as its inimitable heroine Hazel would say, “It’s not a cancer book, because cancer books suck.” Evoking yet transcending such teen-illness classics as Paige Dixon’s May I Cross Your Golden [...]
An edge-of-your-seat adventure story, based on a true story, for the very young—with a text that also works beautifully as a beginning reader for older children. Onlookers along the banks of the Vistula River one cold, cold day in Poland see a little dog adrift on a sheet of ice, heading for open sea. Night passes, then another day; finally, fifteen miles from shore and seventy-five miles from journey’s start, he is spotted by the crew of the research vessel Baltica and, with significant effort, rescued. Simple yet dramatic watercolor illustrations effectively convey the wintry setting; the ice-choked, freezing water; and Dog’s emotions, bewildered and forlorn on the ice, cheerful and contented after his rescue and adoption. The economical text is hyper-engaging. A straightforward descriptive narration (“Dog is wet and tired and hungry. And he is scared”) occasionally switches to the voice of an emotionally involved onlooker (“Don’t be scared, Dog! A ship is coming!”; “Dog slips. He falls into the water. Oh no! Where is Dog?”), as if the text itself finds the story too exciting to maintain objectivity. An afterword fills in some gaps, with more details of the actual rescue and its happy aftermath.
The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle; illus. by the author Preschool Philomel 32 pp. 10/11 978-0-399-25713-1 $17.99 In its simplest interpretation, Carle’s book is about an artist—perhaps a child, perhaps an adult—who paints animals the “wrong” color. There is the titular blue horse, a red alligator, green lion, and even a [...]
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler; illus. by Maira Kalman High School Little, Brown 355 pp. 12/11 978-0-316-12725-7 $19.99 Min and Ed’s differences are profound–most obviously, she’s a quirky aspiring filmmaker and he’s a popular jock. Readers see immediately, though, that it’s not simply these practical differences that caused their breakup, the event on [...]
The Horn Book Social Club