Elisa Gall
30 Articles
Last 30 days
Last 6 months
Last 12 months
Last 24 months
Specific Dates
From:
To:
Review of We Will Rock Our Classmates
We Will Rock Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins; illus. by the author Primary Disney-Hyperion 48 pp. g 7/20 978-1-368-05959-6 $17.99 This second installment about T. rex Penelope (We Don’t Eat Our Classmates, rev. 9/18) centers on the school talent show. Penelope loves to rock and roll, and using her...
Review of Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir
Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir by Tyler Feder; illus. by the author High School Dial 202 pp. g 4/20 978-0-525-55302-1 $18.99 This moving and candid graphic memoir offers a refreshingly honest portrayal of grief and growing into adulthood “for anyone struggling with loss who just...
Review of This Place: 150 Years Retold
This Place: 150 Years Retold by various authors; illus. by various artists Middle School, High School HighWater 265 pp. 5/19 Paper ed. 978-1-55379-758-6 $36.00
e-book ed. 978-1-55379-782-1 $29.00 This comics anthology celebrates Indigenous peoples and stories of Canada past, present, and future. In a foreword, writer Alicia Elliott asserts that Indigenous people have...
Review of Stepping Stones
Stepping Stones by Lucy Knisley; illus. by the author; color by Whitney Cogar Intermediate, Middle School RH Graphic/Random 223 pp. g 5/20 978-0-593-12524-3 $20.99 Paper ed. 978-1-9848-9684-1 $12.99 e-book ed. 978-1-9848-9686-5 $9.99 This tender graphic novel by Alex Award winner (for Relish) Knisley illuminates the challenges of finding oneself in...
Review of One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey
One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey by Henry Cole; illus. by the author Primary Scholastic 48 pp. g 4/20 978-1-338-35997-8 $18.99 e-book ed. 978-1-338-59929-9 $11.99 This wordless story follows a family and a paper bag through the generations. A tree becomes a log that gets hauled to a paper mill,...
Review of Johnny's Pheasant
Johnny’s Pheasant by Cheryl Minnema; illus. by Julie Flett Primary Minnesota 32 pp. g 11/19 978-1-5179-0501-9 $16.95 Minnema (a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) and Flett (of Cree-Métis descent) present an engaging and humorous intergenerational story of patience, hope, and surprise. Johnny spots a motionless pheasant in...
Review of Pet
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi Middle School Make Me a World/Random 204 pp. 9/19 978-0-525-64707-2 $17.99 Library ed. 978-0-525-64708-9 $20.99 e-book ed. 978-0-525-64709-6 $10.99 A haunting and poetic work of speculative fiction—the first for young readers by adult author Emezi. Jam, the adolescent protagonist, is a transgender hearing person who communicates...
Why the Hell Hasn’t a Book Won the Newbery AND the Caldecott?
ELISA GALL: The Newbery and Caldecott committees used to be one and the same. Before they were divided into two separate committees (this happened in the late 1970s), a book was either considered for one of the awards or the other: never both. Now a book can win both the Newbery...
No Small Potatoes: Junius G. Groves and His Kingdom in Kansas
No Small Potatoes: Junius G. Groves and His Kingdom in Kansasby Tonya Bolden; illus. by Don TatePrimary, Intermediate Knopf 40 pp. g10/18 978-0-385-75276-3 $17.99Library ed. 978-0-385-75277-0 $20.99e-book ed. 978-0-385-75278-7 $10.99This informational picture book spotlights the life, work, and legacy of African American farmer and businessman Junius G. Groves (1858?–1925), known...