Welcome: A Mo Willems Guide for New Arrivals by Mo Willems; illus. by the author Preschool Hyperion 32 pp. 5/17 978-1-4847-6746-7 $15.99 An offstage narrator addresses listeners using the language of the hospitality industry: “THANK YOU FOR JOINING US. / Your arrival has been anxiously awaited…PLEASE / ENJOY YOUR STAY.” Our world is presented as a cruise […]
Review of Trudy’s Big Swim: How Gertrude Ederle Swam the English Channel and Took the World by Storm
August 30, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Trudy’s Big Swim: How Gertrude Ederle Swam the English Channel and Took the World by Storm by Sue Macy; illus. by Matt Collins Primary Holiday 40 pp. 3/17 978-0-8234-3665-1 $16.95 e-book ed. 978-0-8234-3825-9 $16.95 Bitter cold, fatigue, leg cramps, driftwood obstacles, jellyfish stings, threats of shark attacks — it’s the rare individual who would risk […]
Review of Let Your Voice Be Heard: The Life and Times of Pete Seeger
January 4, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Let Your Voice Be Heard: The Life and Times of Pete Seeger by Anita Silvey Intermediate Clarion 104 pp. 8/16 978-0-547-33012-9 $17.99 “Pete Seeger became the most important folk singer of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. But he might have chosen a very different path.” In addition to abundant primary source material, Silvey makes terrific […]
Review of Esquivel!: Space-Age Sound Artist
December 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Esquivel!: Space-Age Sound Artist by Susan Wood; illus. by Duncan Tonatiuh Primary, Intermediate Charlesbridge 32 pp. 9/16 978-1-58089-673-3 $17.95 e-book ed. 978-1-60734-825-2 $9.99 Growing up in Mexico, Juan Garcia Esquivel got an earful of mariachi, but he wanted to create his own sound. Self-taught and persistent, he was playing piano at a radio station at […]
Review of 88 Instruments
August 22, 2016 by Leave a Comment
88 Instruments by Chris Barton; illus. by Louis Thomas Primary Knopf 32 pp. 8/16 978-0-553-53814-4 $17.99 Library ed. 978-0-553-53815-1 $20.99 g e-book ed. 978-0-553-53823-6 $10.99 Move over, kid in the candy shop: a child has been unleashed in a music store, and the sight of its many — eighty-eight — instruments has the effect of […]
Review of Snappsy the Alligator: Did Not Ask to Be in This Book!
February 22, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Snappsy the Alligator: Did Not Ask to Be in This Book! by Julie Falatko; illus. by Tim Miller Primary Viking 40 pp. 2/16 978-0-451-46945-8 $16.99 g The omniscient narration begins normally enough: “Snappsy the alligator wasn’t feeling like himself.” After a bit more in this vein, Snappsy turns to the reader: “This is terrible!…Why is […]
Review of Don’t Call Me Grandma
February 15, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Don’t Call Me Grandma by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson; illus. by Elizabeth Zunon Primary Carolrhoda 32 pp. 2/16 978-1-4677-4208-5 $17.99 g e-book ed. 978-1-4677-9559-3 $19.99 Ninety-six-year-old great-grandmother, Nell, doesn’t answer to “Grandma.” She doesn’t do hugs and kisses. She growls her disapproval at her great-granddaughter, who narrates this book. But belying Nell’s starchy exterior is the […]
Review of First Grade Dropout
August 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment
First Grade Dropout by Audrey Vernick; illus. by Matthew Cordell Primary Clarion 32 pp. 7/15 978-0-544-12985-6 $16.99 “I can’t stop thinking about it. How everyone laughed and slapped their desks and stomped their feet. And pointed. At me.” The narrator’s social infraction? “I. Called. My. Teacher. MOMMY!!!” It’s a typical-enough blunder among kids new to […]
Review of Last Stop on Market Street
March 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña; illus. by Christian Robinson Primary Putnam 32 pp. 1/15 978-0-399-25774-2 $16.99 CJ, a young black boy, has a flurry of questions for his grandmother one rainy day: “How come we gotta wait for the bus in all this wet?” […]
