Poems in the Attic by Nikki Grimes; illus. by Elizabeth Zunon Primary, Intermediate Lee & Low 48 pp. 5/15 978-1-62014-027-7 $19.95 g On a visit to her grandmother’s house, a little girl finds her mother’s stash of childhood poems in the attic. The poems written by the mom in this story are tanka poems, an […]
Review of Taking Hold: From Migrant Childhood to Columbia University
May 3, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Taking Hold: From Migrant Childhood to Columbia University by Francisco Jiménez Middle School, High School Houghton 200 pp. 4/15 978-0-547-63230-8 $16.99 g In the fourth volume of his memoir series (The Circuit, rev. 11/00; Breaking Through, rev. 11/01; Reaching Out, 2008), Jiménez delivers a moving account of his graduate school years at Columbia University during […]
Review of Hit Count
June 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Hit Count by Chris Lynch High School Algonquin 362 pp. 5/15 978-1-61620-250-7 $17.95 g e-book ed. 978-1-61620-490-7 $17.95 As a lowly freshman, junior varsity football player Arlo Brodie sets his future goals: varsity linebacker by sophomore year, then college ball for a Division One team, then the pros. After freshman year, Arlo works out like […]
Review of Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music
June 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle; illus. by Rafael López Primary Houghton 40 pp. 3/15 978-0-544-10229-3 $16.99 A young girl dreams of becoming a drummer. Though she lives “on an island of music / in a city of drumbeats,” hers is an impossible dream: only boys play drums. An […]
Transformers: But Myth Has No Prototype
June 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Like many fantasy writers born and raised in Britain, I am haunted by Celtic and Arthurian myth; it goes with the territory. Even before I could read, I’d been shown the footprint of King Arthur’s horse up on the mountain above my grandmother’s village in Wales, and the mist that was the breath of the […]
Review of Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America
June 24, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America by Carole Boston Weatherford; illus. by Jamey Christoph Primary Whitman 32 pp. 3/15 978-0-8075-3017-7 $16.99 g Weatherford (Sugar Hill: Harlem’s Historic Neighborhood, rev. 5/14; Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane, rev. 5/08) presents the life of groundbreaking African American photographer […]
Review of Misty
June 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Misty [Stanley & Me] by Christine Dencer; illus. by Jessica Meserve Primary Simply Read 32 pp. 2/15 978-1-927018-59-0 $12.95 The first title in this new beginning reader series introduces Sophie and Stanley, neighbors and best friends. Four cumulative chapters tackle the friendship’s first obstacle, Stanley’s new dog Misty. “I would like to play in Stanley’s […]
Review of Vegetables in Underwear
June 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Vegetables in Underwear by Jared Chapman; illus. by the author Preschool Abrams Appleseed/Abrams 32 pp. 4/15 978-1-4197-1464-1 $14.95 Vegetables are usually not funny. Underpants often are. Vegetables in underwear? Guaranteed preschool hilarity. A head of broccoli gets things started on the copyright and dedication pages with a striptease down to his red skivvies. A similarly […]
Transformers: The Power of Storytelling
June 19, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I grew up in a small brick row house on a dead-end street in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In many ways, my neighborhood block in the 1940s was representative of African American culture as a whole: there were too many things we were told we could not do, too many places we might […]
Review of The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage
June 17, 2015 by 3 Comments
The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage by Selina Alko; illus. by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko Primary Levine/Scholastic 32 pp. 1/15 978-0-545-47853-3 $18.99 The 1967 Supreme Court case that legalized interracial marriage throughout the country is here given a picture-book accounting. Richard Loving was white, Mildred Jeter’s skin was a “creamy caramel”; […]
