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 […]
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 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 […]
Review of Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and the Invention of Modern Photojournalism
May 17, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and the Invention of Modern Photojournalism by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos High School Holt 294 pp. 3/17 978-0-8050-9835-8 $22.99 e-book ed. 978-1-2501-0967-5 $10.99 This passionate, sprawling, multilayered biography begins like a Robert Capa photograph: right in the middle of the action. […]
