Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo Intermediate Candlewick 230 pp. g 10/18 978-0-7636-9463-0 $16.99 Readers first met Louisiana Elefante in Raymie Nightingale (rev. 3/16) as the orphaned daughter of famous trapeze artists and as one of the Three Rancheros, a steadfast trio of young friends who vowed to always have one another’s backs. In this […]
About Betty Carter
Betty Carter, an independent consultant, is professor emerita of children’s and young adult literature at Texas Woman’s University.
Review of Thomas Paine and the Dangerous Word
July 4, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Thomas Paine and the Dangerous Word by Sarah Jane Marsh; illus. by Edwin Fotheringham Primary, Intermediate Disney-Hyperion 80 pp. g 5/18 978-1-4847-8144-9 $19.99 e-book ed. 978-1-368-02251-4 $10.99 Corset maker. Sailor. Tax collector. Husband. Thomas Paine fails at all these pursuits. But what he can do is write and persuade, and when in 1774 he immigrates […]
Review of All That Trash: The Story of the 1987 Garbage Barge and Our Problem with Stuff
May 23, 2018 by Leave a Comment
All That Trash: The Story of the 1987 Garbage Barge and Our Problem with Stuff by Meghan McCarthy; illus. by the author Primary Wiseman/Simon 48 pp. 2/18 978-1-4814-7752-9 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4814-7753-6 $10.99 McCarthy sets her historical scene with three iconic 1980s images: a “speedy white car,” “boxy-looking computers,” and “big hair,” all depicted in […]
Review of Bird Builds a Nest
February 21, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Bird Builds a Nest [A First Science Storybook] by Martin Jenkins; illus. by Richard Jones Preschool, Primary Candlewick 32 pp. g 2/18 978-0-7636-9346-6 $16.99 Striking mixed-media illustrations, collage-like and muted with earth tones, depict a burnt-orange sun rising in the east and a bird perched on a tree branch, perfectly representing the opening sentence of […]
Review of The Magician and the Spirits: Harry Houdini and the Curious Pastime of Communicating with the Dead
October 25, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The Magician and the Spirits: Harry Houdini and the Curious Pastime of Communicating with the Dead by Deborah Noyes Middle School Viking 152 pp. 8/17 978-0-8037-4018-1 $18.99 In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Spiritualist movement swept the nation. Noyes (Ten Days a Madwoman, rev. 1/16) uses Harry Houdini’s attempts to discredit the […]
Review of Robinson
September 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Robinson by Peter Sís; illus. by the author Primary Scholastic 48 pp. g 9/17 978-0-545-73166-9 $17.99 Building on a childhood memory, Sís writes of a school costume party where he and his friends decide to go as pirates. Intervening, his mother reminds him of his love for adventure. Why not go as Robinson Crusoe, from […]
Review of Eye of the Storm: NASA, Drones, and the Race to Crack the Hurricane Code
August 23, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Eye of the Storm: NASA, Drones, and the Race to Crack the Hurricane Code [Scientists in the Field] by Amy Cherrix Middle School Houghton 73 pp. 4/17 978-0-544-41165-4 $18.99 When thirteen-year-old Angela Dresch walks out on the Staten Island Beach on the afternoon of October 29, 2012, neither she nor readers know that in a […]
Review of The Music of Life: Bartolomeo Cristofori & the Invention of the Piano
August 16, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The Music of Life: Bartolomeo Cristofori & the Invention of the Piano by Elizabeth Rusch; illus. by Marjorie Priceman Primary, Intermediate Atheneum 48 pp. 4/17 978-1-4814-4484-2 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4814-4485-9 $10.99 Readers take a journey to Italy during the closing years of the Renaissance to meet a man whose invention is better known than his […]
Review of 5 Little Ducks
July 28, 2017 by Leave a Comment
5 Little Ducks by Denise Fleming; illus. by the author Preschool Beach Lane/Simon 40 pp. 11/16 978-1-4814-2422-6 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4814-2423-3 $10.99 Listeners familiar with the traditional nursery rhyme and song know the general plotline: every day ducks go out; every day the returning group shrinks by one. But the particulars — highlighted in glorious […]
Review of King & Kayla and the Case of the Missing Dog Treats and King & Kayla and the Case of the Secret Code
May 23, 2017 by Leave a Comment
King & Kayla and the Case of the Missing Dog Treats by Dori Hillestad Butler; illus. by Nancy Meyers Primary Peachtree 48 pp. 3/17 978-1-56145-877-6 $14.95 King & Kayla and the Case of the Secret Code by Dori Hillestad Butler; illus. by Nancy Meyers Primary Peachtree 48 pp. 3/17 […]
