Megan Dowd Lambert
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The Shortest Day
Soon after I was assigned The Shortest Day for Calling Caldecott, I heard author Susan Cooper and illustrator Carson Ellis speak about their collaboration at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Scrawled in my notes from that day is the sentence, “This isn’t a poem about merry feudal...
Review of Front Desk audiobook
Front Desk by Kelly Yang; read by Sunny Lu Intermediate Listening Library Rev. 7/18 6 CDs 6.5 hrs. 978-1-9848-4609-9 $50.00 Yang’s vivacious protagonist, ten-year-old Chinese immigrant Mia Tang, is winningly voiced by narrator Lu. Mia’s trials and tribulations, at school and at the California motel where she lives and works...
Review of If I Was the Sunshine
If I Was the Sunshine by Julie Fogliano; illus. by Loren Long Preschool Atheneum 48 pp. 5/19 978-1-4814-7243-2 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4814-7244-9 $10.99 Fogliano and Long present a big, handsome picture book with a poetic text and lush full-bleed acrylic illustrations, highlighting the natural world and relationships within it. The...
Review of Home Is a Window
Home Is a Windowby Stephanie Parsley Ledyard; illus. by Chris SasakiPreschool, Primary Porter/Holiday 40 pp.4/19 978-0-8234-4156-3 $18.99e-book ed. 978-0-8234-4156-3 $18.99Ledyard offers a meditation of sorts on the sense of comfort and belonging that home should evoke, whether it’s a place we know well or a new home to which we’ve...
Review of Another
Anotherby Christian Robinson; illus. by the authorPreschool, Primary Atheneum 56 pp.3/19 978-1-5344-2167-7 $17.99e-book ed. 978-1-5344-2168-4 $10.99For his solo picture book debut, Robinson (illustrator of Last Stop on Market Street, rev. 3/15; School’s First Day of School, rev. 3/16; When’s My Birthday?, rev. 9/17; and more) offers a smart, sly, and...
Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse
The eponymous Adrian Simcox in Marcy Campbell's debut picture book Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse is bullied because of his poverty. Some have likened this book to Eleanor Estes's classic chapter book The Hundred Dresses. I know many readers regard Dresses as a text that fosters empathy, but I can’t...
Review of Piecing Me Together audiobook
Piecing Me Togetherby Renée Watson; read by the authorMiddle School, High School Recorded Books Rev. 7/175 CDs 5.5 hrs 978-1-5019-9779-2 $51.75Watson (winner of the 2018 Coretta Scott King Author Award and a 2018 Newbery Honor for this novel) movingly conveys the emotions of her thoughtful, bright, artistic, African American protagonist...
Review of If You Come Softly audiobook
If You Come Softlyby Jacqueline Woodson; read by Jorjeana Marie, Guy Lockard, and Jacqueline WoodsonHigh School Listening Library3 CDs 3.72 hrs 978-0-525-63790-5 $45.00The twentieth anniversary audiobook of Woodson’s novel opens with her heartfelt introduction about the persistent relevance of this tragic story about an interracial teen couple, Jeremiah (Miah) and...
Drawn Together
I was instantly intrigued when illustrator Dan Santat described on social media how he developed the display type for Drawn Together, writing, “It originates from the original Thai alphabet. Then I integrated Western alphabet components into the design to show a melding of cultures. Lastly, for design reasons, I modified...