Reviews of the Week
Crossing On Time: Steam Engines, Fast Ships,
and a Journey to the New World by David Macaulay; illus. by the author Intermediate, Middle School Roaring Brook 128 pp. 5/19 978-1-59643-477-6 $24.99 Macaulay chronicles his own mid-twentieth-century immigration story in full color and a wide trim size—along with plenty of diagrams...
Butterfly Yellow by Thanhhà Lai Middle School, High School Harper/HarperCollins 296 pp. g 9/19 978-0-06-222921-2 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-0-06-222923-6 $9.99 During the 1975 fall of Saigon, twelve-year-old Hang determines that she and her younger brother, Linh, should escape to America. They attempt to impersonate orphans to join Operation Babylift, but...
Double Bass Blues by Andrea J. Loney; illus. by Rudy Gutierrez Primary Knopf 32 pp. g 10/19 978-1-5247-1852-7 $17.99 Library ed. 978-1-5247-1853-4 $20.99 e-book ed. 978-1-5247-1854-1 $10.99 Told entirely through dialogue and sound effects, the story follows double-bass player Nic as he performs an “epic solo” at band practice at...
Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir by Nikki Grimes High School Wordsong/Boyds Mills 325 pp. 10/19 978-1-62979-881-3 $19.99 As poetically written as Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming (rev. 9/14) with a story as hard-hitting as Sapphire’s Push. In her author’s note, poet Grimes (winner of the 2017 Children’s Literature Legacy Award) says that...
Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell; illus. by Faith Erin Hicks;
color by Sarah Stern High School First Second/Roaring Brook 222 pp. 8/19 978-1-250-31285-3 $24.99 Paper ed. 978-1-62672-162-3 $17.99 Graduating high-school seniors Josiah and Deja have worked together at DeKnock’s World Famous Pumpkin Patch & Autumn Jamboree every fall for the past...
Saturday by Oge Mora; illus. by the author Preschool, Primary Little, Brown 40 pp. g 10/19 978-0-316-43127-9 $18.99 e-book ed. 978-0-316-43126-2 $9.99 Mora (Thank You, Omu!, rev. 11/18) follows up her Caldecott Honor winner with another story built around family and community connection. On Saturdays, Ava and her mother (who...
Torpedoed: The True Story of the World War II Sinking of “The Children’s Ship” by Deborah Heiligman Intermediate, Middle School Godwin/Holt 291 pp. g 10/19 978-1-62779-554-8 $19.99 Nonfiction maestro Heiligman (Charles and Emma, rev. 1/09; Vincent and Theo, rev. 3/17) here tells a riveting wartime survival story. As World War...
It’s a Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes, and Other Jewish Stories edited by Katherine Locke and Laura Silverman High School Knopf 311 pp. g 9/19 978-0-525-64616-7 $17.99 Library ed. 978-0-525-64617-4 $20.99 e-book ed. 978-0-525-64618-1 $10.99 In this anthology of fourteen short stories by Jewish authors and about Jewish teens, youth trips,...
A Big Bed for Little Snow by Grace Lin; illus. by the author Preschool, Primary Little, Brown 40 pp. g 10/19 978-0-316-47836-6 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-0-316-47838-0 $9.99 Lin takes readers to the sky once again in this follow-up to Caldecott Honor Book A Big Mooncake for Little Star (rev. 7/18). Whereas a black night sky dominated Mooncake’s palette...
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