Reviews of the Week
The Book of Not Entirely Useful Advice by A. F. Harrold; illus. by Mini Grey Intermediate Bloomsbury 160 pp. g 3/21 978-1-5476-0677-1 $19.99 e-book ed. 978-1-5476-0678-8 $13.99 Harrold (The Song from Somewhere Else, rev. 5/17) presents poems (a few repurposed from previous collections) full of practical and not-so-practical insights on...
Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood by Gary Paulsen Intermediate, Middle School Farrar 368 pp. g 1/21 978-0-374-31415-6 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-0-374-31416-3 $10.99 The prolific Paulsen dips into his seemingly inexhaustible well of memories to pen yet another memoir. Employing the same third-person narrative voice he used in...
Amber & Clay by Laura Amy Schlitz; illus. by Julia Iredale Middle School, High School Candlewick 544 pp. g 3/21 978-1-5362-0122-2 $22.99 Curation, historical fiction, performance piece — Schlitz (Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, rev. 11/07) brings a bundle of learning, artifice, and intentionality to this highly stylized tale of ancient...
Keeping the City Going by Brian Floca; illus. by the author Primary Dlouhy/Atheneum 40 pp. g 4/21 978-1-5344-9377-3 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-5344-9378-0 $10.99 Caldecott winner Floca (Locomotive, rev. 9/13) presents a love letter to New York City and its essential workers during COVID-19. “We are here at home now, watching...
Hard-Boiled Bugs for Breakfast: And Other Tasty Poems by Jack Prelutsky; illus. by Ruth Chan Intermediate Greenwillow 144 pp. g 1/21 978-0-06-301913-3 $18.99 e-book ed. 978-0-06-301915-7 $9.99 Prelutsky fans specifically, and fans of humorous poetry generally, should find just what they’re looking for here: nonsense confidently delivered in lines that...
Separate No More: The Long Road to Brown v. Board of Education by Lawrence Goldstone Middle School, High School Focus/Scholastic 288 pp. g 1/21 978-1-338-59283-2 $18.99 e-book ed. 978-1-338-59285-6 $11.99 Goldstone (Unpunished Murder, rev. 9/18) takes a long view of the historic 1954 civil rights case Brown v. Board of...
The Ambassador of Nowhere Texas by Kimberly Willis Holt Intermediate, Middle School Ottaviano/Holt 320 pp. g 1/21 978-1-250-23410-0 $16.99 e-book ed. 978-1-250-23411-7 $9.99 The narrator of this sequel to National Book Award winner When Zachary Beaver Came to Town (rev. 11/99) is Rylee Wilson, daughter of the first book’s protagonist,...
The Rock from the Sky by Jon Klassen; illus. by the author Primary Candlewick 96 pp. g 4/21 978-1-5362-1562-5 $18.99 In this collection of five connected short stories, clocking in at over ninety pages and composed solely of dialogue, Klassen introduces readers to a turtle, an armadillo, and a snake...
The Three Billy Goats Gruff: The FULL Story by Richard Jackson; illus. by Katherine Tillotson Preschool, Primary Dlouhy/Atheneum 48 pp. g 9/20 978-1-4814-1573-6 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4814-1574-3 $10.99 It’s “the FULL story” of the classic tale of the three billy goats and the menacing troll, or what late author Jackson...
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