Book Reviews
Oasis by Guojing; illus. by the authorIntermediate, Middle School Godwin/Holt 160 pp.2/25 9781250818379 $21.99Paper ed. 9781250818386 $14.99e-book ed. 9781250415790 $9.99As this graphic novel opens, JieJie and her younger brother, Didi, press their way through a windswept landscape toward an isolated telephone booth in the desert. It’s their way of reaching...
And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories by Andrea Davis Pinkney; illus. by Daniel Minter Primary, Intermediate Little, Brown 48 pp. 1/25 9780316182362 $18.99 Toni Morrison (1931–2019), a gifted student, was the only Black girl in her Lorain, Ohio, first-grade class. She grew up to be a trailblazing...
All the Blues in the Sky by Renée WatsonMiddle School Bloomsbury 208 pp.2/25 9781547605897 $17.99e-book ed. 9781547605903 $12.59“I didn’t know / best friends could die.” From the very first line, Watson takes a deep dive into the intricacies of grief and healing. On her thirteenth birthday, Sage is looking forward...
Everything Is Poison by Joy McCulloughHigh School Dutton 304 pp.1/25 9780593855874 $19.99e-book ed. 9780593855898 $10.99In 1650s Rome, Carmela’s mother, Giulia Tofana, runs an apothecary. At sixteen, Carmela is finally allowed to begin training to become an apothecary herself. She learns what goes into healing remedies—familiar herbs such as lavender, rosemary,...
Afloat by Kirli Saunders; illus. by Freya BlackwoodPrimary Levine/Levine Querido 32 pp.3/25 9781646145072 $18.99Saunders, a member of the Gunai people, writes about weaving, water, and wisdom in this picture book first published in Australia. The spare and straightforward text describes yarning, which can refer both to fiber arts and to...
The Lost Ones [Moonwind Mysteries]by Johan Rundberg; trans. from Swedish by Eva ApelqvistMiddle School Amazon Crossing Kids 222 pp.1/25 9781662525940 $17.99Paper ed. 9781662525957 $9.99Rundberg’s pair of 1880s detectives—twelve-year-old orphan Mika from Stockholm’s Public Children’s Home and police detective Valdemar Hoff—investigate the disappearance of a wealthy family’s teenage daughter, Beatrice. “Children...
Head Full of Clouds by Joanne Schwartz; illus. by Afsaneh SaneiPrimary Tundra 40 pp.3/25 9781774881613 $18.99e-book ed. 9781774881620 $10.99A contemplative, inviting second-person text and playfully surreal illustrations capture the nature of dreams and the magic of the real world. One morning a child wakes up with “a little leftover piece...
A Forest Song by Kirsten Hall; illus. by Evan TurkPrimary Random House Studio/Random 40 pp.2/25 9780593480366 $18.99Library ed. 9780593480373 $21.99e-book ed. 9780593480380 $8.99This cento (a poem composed of passages from other writers) pays reverent tribute to the natural world, weaving together the words of poets such as Emily Dickinson, Mary...
Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout; illus. by the authorMiddle School, High School First Second 256 pp.1/25 9781250869814 $25.99Paper ed. 9781250869821 $17.99e-book ed. 9781250412119 $11.99This deeply personal and poetic graphic novel illustrates the heroic actions of everyday Dutch people as they resisted the Nazi regime, as well as...
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