Book Reviews
A Bowl Full of Peace: A True Story by Caren Stelson; illus. by Akira Kusaka Intermediate, Middle School Carolrhoda 40 pp. g 8/20 978-1-5415-2148-3 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-5415-8219-4 $18.95 Each evening Sachiko’s family gathers around their table in Nagasaki, Japan. Before the Second World War, Grandmother’s bowl is the centerpiece...
Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk Intermediate, Middle School Dutton 359 pp. g 4/20 978-0-525-55556-8 $17.99 Since the Great Depression forced twelve-year-old Ellie’s family to move from town up to Echo Mountain, she hasn’t known how to interact with her mother and older sister; they miss their former life and blame...
Not all deserving books bring home ALA awards. Our annual Mind the Gap Awards pay tribute to our favorite books that didn’t win. Here’s how we reviewed our 2020 winners. A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation by Barry Wittenstein; illus....
The Blue House by Phoebe Wahl; illus. by the author Primary Knopf 40 pp. g 8/20 978-1-9848-9336-9 $17.99 Library ed. 978-1-9848-9337-6 $20.99 e-book ed. 978-1-9848-9338-3 $10.99 Wahl’s picture book tells an affecting story about loss and starting over. In it, interdependent text and art channel a Molly Bang–like artistic style...
How to Find a Bird by Jennifer Ward; illus. by Diana Sudyka Preschool, Primary Beach Lane/Simon 48 pp. g 8/20 978-1-4814-6705-6 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4814-6706-3 $10.99 “There are a lot of ways to find a bird.” The two children in this enticing and beautiful picture book demonstrate how. After doing...
Sharuko: El arqueólogo Peruano Julio C. Tello / Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello by Monica Brown; illus. by Elisa Chavarri; trans. into Spanish by Adriana Domínguez Primary, Intermediate Children’s/Lee & Low 40 pp. g 8/20 978-0-89239-423-4 $19.95 This picture-book biography of Peruvian archaeologist and educator Julio C. Tello (1880–1947) forefronts...
With a Star in My Hand: Rubén Darío, Poetry Hero by Margarita Engle Middle School, High School Atheneum 150 pp. g 2/20 978-1-5344-2493-7 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-5344-2495-1 $10.99 Written in first person, this heartfelt verse novel tells the fictionalized story of Rubén Darío (based on his autobiography), who was born...
I Am Here Now by Barbara Bottner High School Imprint/Macmillan 347 pp. g 8/20 978-1-250-20769-2 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-250-20770-8 $9.99 Fourteen-year-old Maisie characterizes her 1960s coming-of-age in the Bronx as “one of those fairy tales / where the witch eats the child.” And for good reason. Her perfume mogul dad...
The Book of Fatal Errors by Dashka Slater Intermediate Farrar 322 pp. g 7/20 978-0-374-30119-4 $16.99 Slater (winner of a Boston Globe–Horn Book Nonfiction honor for The 57 Bus, rev. 1/18) here presents an entertaining, fantastical summertime story. Twelve-year-old Rufus’s grandfather lives at Feylawn, an estate overtaken by nature and,...
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