Grace McKinney
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In the City
I’ll be frank: I’ve got some emotional baggage with Chris Raschka. His Caldecott Award-winning picture book A Ball for Daisy is largely the reason I fell in love with the study of picture books. I was so devoted to the emotional depth of that little pup, as she leapt across...
Review of Kondo & Kezumi Visit Giant Island
Kondo & Kezumi Visit Giant Island by David Goodner; illus. by Andrea Tsurumi Primary Little, Brown 80 pp. g 10/20 978-1-368-02577-5 $15.99 e-book ed. 978-1-368-04605-3 $9.99 Kondo, a large yellow creature, and Kezumi, a small orange creature, live on an island full of “berry bushes and flitter-birds and fluffle-bunnies.” One...
Review of What About Worms!?
What About Worms!? [Elephant & Piggie Like Reading!] by Ryan T. Higgins; illus. by the author; with additional illustrations by Mo Willems Primary Hyperion 64 pp. g 5/20 978-1-368-04573-5 $9.99 Tiger is BIG. Tiger is BRAVE. Tiger is afraid of nothing...“except worms.” Tiger, a plush Calvin and Hobbes-ian animal with...
Review of Rita & Ralph's Rotten Day
Rita & Ralph’s Rotten Day by Carmen Agra Deedy; illus. by Pete Oswald Preschool, Primary Scholastic 48 pp. 3/20 978-1-338-21638-7 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-338-59927-5 $10.99 Rita and Ralph are best friends. Each day they meet at the apple tree midway between their houses and play games together. One day the...
Review of My Best Friend
My Best Friend by Julie Fogliano; illus. by Jillian Tamaki Preschool Atheneum 32 pp. 3/20 978-1-5344-2722-8 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-5344-2723-5 $10.99 What begins on the title spread as a small redheaded girl hesitantly approaching another girl on a tire swing becomes an ode to making friends. Our narrator gleefully shares this discovered joy:...
Review of Best Friends
Best Friends by Shannon Hale; illus. by LeUyen Pham; color by Hilary Sycamore Intermediate, Middle School First Second/Roaring Brook 250 pp. 8/19 978-1-250-31745-2 $21.99 Paper ed. 978-1-250-31746-9 $12.99 In this follow-up to her graphic memoir Real Friends (rev. 5/17), Hale straps in to the roller coaster rides, both real and...
Review of Chick and Brain: Smell My Foot!
Chick and Brain: Smell My Foot! by Cece Bell; illus. by the author Primary Candlewick 70 pp. g 3/19 978-0-7636-7936-1 $12.99 Gone are the days of Dick and Jane easy readers, with their boring characters and their notably unthreatening dog. Bell’s (El Deafo, rev. 11/14; the Rabbit & Robot books)...
Sea Bear
I typically shy away from books that carry any sort of “message.” The heavy hand of adulthood often lands a little too hard for my taste, replacing narrative and beauty with “You get it now, right?” Not so in Lindsay Moore’s nonfiction picture book Sea Bear: A Journey for Survival. In...
Water Land: Land and Water Forms Around the World
I saw the cover and a single preview page of Christy Hale’s Water Land online and thought gleefully (and a little smugly) to myself that Hale probably had no idea she’d put together a perfect Montessori picture book. It’s just like our Water and Land Forms! Simple! Elegant! Clean! If only she...