Reviews of the Week
The Time of Green Magic by Hilary McKay Intermediate, Middle School McElderry 225 pp. g 7/20 978-1-5344-6276-2 $17.99 Everything changes for eleven-year-old North Londoner Abigail when her widower father marries Polly, mother of Max and Louis, and her beloved Granny Grace returns to Jamaica. Feeling both isolated and crowded at...
I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes; illus. by Gordon C. James Preschool, Primary Paulsen/Penguin 32 pp. g 9/20 978-0-525-51877-8 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-0-525-51878-5 $10.99 Barnes and James reunite, after the multi-award-winning success of Crown (rev. 11/17), for this beautiful and necessary book that affirms Black boys and their...
Finish the Fight!: The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote by Veronica Chambers and members of the staff of the New York Times; illus. by various artists Intermediate, Middle School Versify/Houghton 144 pp. g 8/20 978-0-358-40830-7 $18.99 e-book ed....
Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson Intermediate Paulsen/Penguin 176 pp. g 9/20 978-0-399-54543-6 $17.99 In her latest novel in verse, Woodson (Locomotion, rev. 3/03; Brown Girl Dreaming, rev. 9/14) explores the impact of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) on football players and their families from the perspective of ZJ, son...
Julián at the Wedding by Jessica Love; illus. by the author Preschool, Primary Candlewick 40 pp. g 10/20 978-1-5362-1238-9 $16.99 Love’s follow-up to Julián Is a Mermaid (rev. 5/18) features characters both familiar and new. At the start of the story, Julián and Abuela are strolling down the sidewalk, arm-in-arm...
Cubs in the Tub: The True Story of the Bronx Zoo’s First Woman Zookeeper by Candace Fleming; illus. by Julie Downing Primary, Intermediate Porter/Holiday 48 pp. g 8/20 978-0-8234-4318-5 $18.99 “Helen and Fred Martini longed for a baby,” begins this engaging picture-book biography. Fred spends his days working at the...
Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram High School Dial 352 pp. g 8/20 978-0-59310-823-9 $17.99 Since we last saw “Fractional Persian” Darius in 2019 Boston Globe–Horn Book honor book Darius the Great Is Not Okay (rev. 9/18), he’s come out as gay, and has a boyfriend. Now back...
If You Come to Earth by Sophie Blackall; illus. by the author Primary Chronicle 80 pp. g 9/20 978-1-4521-3779-7 $18.99 Quinn, a small child in a red gnome hat, writes a letter to potential visitors to our planet to explain to them what we’re about: our location in the universe,...
Stay Curious!: A Brief History of Stephen Hawking by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer; illus. by Boris Kulikov Primary, Intermediate Crown 40 pp. g 9/20 978-0-399-55028-7 $17.99 Library ed. 978-0-399-55029-4 $20.99 e-book ed. 978-0-399-55030-0 $10.99 Physicist Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) was brilliant and iconoclastic from the get-go: as a child, he...
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