Let It Shine by Ashley Bryan.

Winner of the 2008 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, this book truly has artwork that shines, lifting it to an entirely different level.  The book offers the words of three hymns:  This Little Light of Mine, Oh When the Saints Go Marching In, and He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.  There is a joy in all three of the hymns that is captured by the cut-paper artwork that fairly sings along with the reader.  The book and the art have rhythms and patterns carried from page to page.  Each page is filled with an exuberance, bright colors, sweeping lines, and always light.  It is a real treat to find such a book, a thrill to share it with children, and a joy to know that it fully deserved the award.

Highly recommended for sharing and singing aloud.  I don’t see how you can even start to page through the book without humming and tapping your toes.

Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller by Sarah Miller.

This is the story of Annie Sullivan, the woman who was Helen Keller’s teacher.  It is the story of her early life and the two months that she spent trying to reach Helen and bring her the gift of language.  The book is written in first person, so the reader can experience Annie’s frustrations, personal tragedies, and loneliness.   There is no mincing of words or shirking from the beast that Helen Keller had grown to be when Annie came to teach her.  Likewise her unorthodox methods are not sugar-coated either.  This leads to a gutsy novel full of great details that explain the young woman who was Annie Sullivan.

I could not put this book down.  It is as different from the film versions of Helen Keller’s life as can be.  Annie comes to life in the prose, her haunting childhood, her own disabilities, her own desperate need to connect with someone.  There are several devices used to show and not tell her loneliness, including her showering attention and love on a doll.  These are powerful and private moments that serve to illuminate Annie, allowing the reader to feel for this teacher who must resort to strong discipline to reach Helen in her deaf and blind world.  There are historical photos and information at the end of the book which further explain their relationship as teacher and student through the rest of their lives.

Highly recommended for 10-13 year olds who enjoy true stories and who may have seen the films.

Lily Brown’s Paintings by Angela Johnson, illustrated by E. B. Lewis.

This is one of my favorite picture books of 2007.  It is the story of Lily Brown, a young girl, and her vivid imagination which she expresses through her paintings.  As you read the book, you will see nods to Van Gogh and Gauguin in the illustrations.  There is a child-like quality evident in most of them that is combined with a lack of constraint that is charming.  Lily creates many paintings that she moves into, walks through, and exists in (rather like some of us with great books).  Readers will find themselves drawn into the illustrations too, understanding innately what is being described in the text.

The text of the book is equal to the art.  It expresses the freedom and joy of art, embraces Lily’s self-made worlds, and draws readers into a full understanding of being absorbed by art. 

Highly recommended for elementary art classes or story times about art. 

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis.

This winningest book of the ALA awards was definitely deserving of each and every accolade. 

Elijah is almost twelve and was born the first free child in Buxton, Canada.  Elijah’s life is filled with nighttime adventures into the forest, fishing using stones, and going to Sunday school and regular school.  The Buxton settlement is filled with people who escaped slavery in the United States and fled north.  They bear the scars, both physical and mental, of their time as slaves.  Elijah is a “fra-gile” child who cries easily, runs when frightened, and tries his best to grow out of it.  He has a trusting soul, despite dealing with the Preacher, who is not really a preacher and has a beautiful revolver with a muddied past.  The book is filled with the rhythm of Elijah’s life in Buxton, until he finds himself caught up in a situation of Preacher’s making and face-to-face with the horrors of slavery.

The writing here is gorgeous.  It reads like a sleepy afternoon spent fishing, where one is lulled into complacency.  But throughout the novel, disturbing things happen to draw the reader back into reality and out of the dream of Buxton.  Curtis has done a masterful job of bringing the settlement and its people to life in small details, turns of phrase, loving discipline, and unique situations.  It is a joy to spend time in this book.  Curtis especially excels at showing rather than telling.  Emotions are conveyed with actions, not narrative. 

But one can’t read about Buxton without the opposite of freedom, slavery, coming into the story.  As jarring as those moments are, as cruel, as evil, they are very necessary for children and readers to understand the entire story of the times.  Elijah is a well-written protagonist who often interprets things through his own lens.  Readers will see beyond that and to the truth of the situation.  The secondary figures of the story are equally well-rendered.  They are unique and interesting, fleshing out the settlement fully.

Highly recommended, this book is appropriate for ages 11-14.  Harsh truths about slavery are revealed and a handy box of tissues is recommended for the ending.