Martha V. Parravano

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Review of My Very Own Special Particular Private and Personal Cat

My Very Own Special Particular Private and Personal Cat by Sandol Stoddard Warburg; designed and illus. by Remy CharlipPreschool, Primary    Enchanted Lion    56 pp.7/23    9781592703852    $17.95First published in 1963. A playful, singsongy, almost stream-of-consciousness-like text (“He said / Mmm / He said / Umm / He said / Humm /...

Review of Cornrows

Cornrows by Camille Yarbrough; illus. by Carole ByardPrimary, Intermediate    Putnam    48 pp.4/23    9780593625071    $17.99Paper ed.  9780698114364    $8.99This is a welcome reissue of a classic of early African American picture books, first published in 1979, for which Byard won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. A lengthy text by today’s standards,...

Review of Don’t Count Your Chicks

Don’t Count Your Chicks by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire; illus. by the authorsPreschool, Primary    University of Minnesota    40 pp.2/23    9781517914462    $17.95Based on a Scandinavian folktale, this lesser-known d’Aulaires’ picture book, first published in 1943, recalls Aesop’s fable “The Milkmaid and Her Pail.” An old woman walks into town to...
PREMIUM

Review of Is This…Winter?

Is This…Winter? by Helen Yoon; illus. by the authorPreschool    Candlewick    32 pp.9/23    9781536226270    $10.99e-book ed.  9781536234527    $10.99A young puppy experiencing its first winter goes exploring. Its interactions are confusing: it greets a mailbox that doesn’t respond; it tries to play with a snowman but in its exuberance smashes it. “Hey,...

Review of At the Poles

At the Poles by David Elliott; illus. by Ellen RooneyPrimary    Candlewick    40 pp.10/23    9781536205992    $18.99That paragon of poetic pith Elliott (In the Woods, rev. 3/20; and others) returns with another winning entry. Here his focus is on animals of the Polar Regions, from emperor penguins in Antarctica, through two species...

The Indestructible Tom Crean

I've long been fascinated by the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration (thanks to Jennifer Armstrong's edge-of-your-seat 1998 read Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance), so I was predisposed toward Jennifer Thermes's The Indestructible Tom Crean: Heroic Explorer of the Antarctic. But this...

Make Your Voice Heard

It's one thing for this community of picture-book lovers to talk amongst ourselves — but it's quite another to communicate directly with the Real Caldecott committee.  The committee is soliciting (anonymous) suggestions for the best Caldecott-eligible books of 2023. Follow this link, submit the form, and know your voice has...

Now we KNOW awards season is heating up...

Betsy is absolutely right: there are SOOO many wonderful, award-worthy 2023 books for the Caldecott committee to consider. But she's honed her predictions (after spring and summer), and here they are. And we will be covering all her choices on Calling Caldecott this season. What do you notice about Betsy's Fall...

We Dive In ...

Yes it's time to take the plunge. Today we present our tentative (sure to evolve as the year unfolds!) list of eligible 2023 books we hope to cover on Calling Caldecott this season. Here goes: An American Story (Alexander/Coulter) The Tree and the River (Becker) In the Night Garden (Berger) Rock, Rosetta,...
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