Month: October 2009

Star of the Week

| Tasha

Star of the Week: a story of love, adoption, and brownies with sprinkles by Darlene Friedman, illustrated by Roger Roth

It is Cassidy-Li’s turn to be star of the week in her Kindergarten class.  She and her mom are making brownies with sprinkles and she also has to make a poster about herself.  As she looks through photographs, Cassidy-Li’s history as an adopted baby from China is told.  Her parents holding her in China, the first person to meet her at the airport, her cousins, her best friends, and her pets.  But she doesn’t have any pictures of her birth parents, so there is a hole in her poster.  She fixes it by drawing a picture of these people she has never met.  She is nervous about her poster and about answering questions about her adoption.  But by the end of the day, she realizes that she really is a star.

The beauty of this book is that Cassidy-Li is a wonderfully normal kid with the same sort of worries that others have about their star week.  And yet she has a unique background, multicultural friends, connections to China, and a more complicated story to tell.  Friedman does a great job in balancing the two, creating a character who is unique but universal.  The story is told in very brief prose, with the illustrations telling a lot of the tale too.  Roth’s pictures also create a bridge between Cassidy-Li’s special background and her being a regular American kid. 

Recommended for all families, this book is about connections, understanding, and being special.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by A Year of Reading and A Patchwork of Books.

Winnie Finn, Worm Farmer

| Tasha

Winnie Finn, Worm Farmer by Carol Brendler, illustrated by Ard Hoyt

Winnie loves earthworms.  She knows all sorts of facts about them, pulls them around in her wagon, and even races them.  But when the county fair rolls around, she realizes that there is no category for her beloved worms to compete in.  She speaks with three neighbors.  One is growing corn for the fair and needs a good fertilizer.  Another is raising chickens and needs the right feed to make them the best egg layers.  And the third is raising puppies and needs something to get their coats shining.  She makes a deal with each of them that if she finds the answer to their needs they will share the prize with her.  Then she uses her worms to help with the corn, the corn to help with the eggs, and the eggs to help with the shiny coats.  It’s a clever solution from a bright, scientific girl.

I love any book that breaks with the stereotype of girls not liking worms, dirt or animals.  Winnie is a great protagonist for a picture book because she shatters that myth.  She holds and hugs worms with delight.  I also appreciate how intelligent she is and how she solves her own problems by using her brain. 

Brendler’s text is fun to read aloud.  She has taken a traditional tale format and modernized it.  Readers will find themselves in a traditional format and be surprised, which is delightful.  Hoyt’s illustrations are funny, sometimes frenzied, and wiggly with worms.  Any worm haters out there will love the reaction of Winnie’s cat as it grimaces about the worms she loves.

A strong heroine in a modern picture book, this wiggly mass of worms is loads of fun.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Happy Belly, Happy Smile

| Tasha

Happy Belly, Happy Smile by Rachel Isadora

Every Friday night, Louie has dinner at his Grandpa Sam’s restaurant in Chinatown.  He watches the fish in the tank, visits with the chefs in the kitchen, and listens to the waiters calling to each other.  Then it is time to eat.  Louie and his grandfather use chopsticks to eat their rice, dumplings, egg rolls, and chow mein.  The dinner finishes with a fortune cookie.

Children of all races and ages will see some of their favorite things about eating out at a Chinese restaurant.  They will also be thrilled to glimpse the hidden, steamy world of the kitchen.  Isadora tells a simple story in only a few words on each page.  The book is very visual with her illustrations in collage and oils.  Her interesting use of lines and texture are most impressive when dinner is served.  The paper becomes mouthwateringly edible.

Recommended for story times on food, this book will have everyone sharing their own favorite Chinese meal.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by TheHappyNappyBookseller.

Creature ABC

| Tasha

Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman

See the cracks in the toenails of an elephant.  Marvel at the scarlet of a rooster’s head.  Sink into the fur of a wolf.  From A to Z, Andew Zuckerman has created photographs that are so detailed, so close and so astounding that you will find yourself bumping your head on the page as you lean in to get a better look.  The photographs are so well done that you can see the texture of skin, count individual hairs, and realize the difference between different types of fur. 

This is an ABC book, but for me that is little more than an order to put the photographs in.  Readers much older than the ABC crowd will be fascinated by the images.  Children who love animals will adore this book.  Expect to see many smudges as fingers big and small try to feel the fur or pet the animals through the page. 

One of the problems for libraries will be where to shelve this.  Yes, it is an alphabet book, but it just might be better loved in the animal nonfiction section.  Either way, this is a great purchase for libraries and one that children will read again and again.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Also reviewed by Pink Me, A Year of Reading, and Fuse #8.

Apples and Pumpkins

| Tasha

Apples for Everyone by Jill Esbaum
Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie by Jill Esbaum

Celebrate the fall season with this pair of book from National Geographic Kids.  Both book have simple text just right for beginning readers combined with vivid photographs.  In Apples, readers follow apples from blossom to harvest to different uses.  Mouths will be watering at the caramel apples, applesauce and cider.  In Pumpkin, readers get to see the pumpkins grow on the vine, turn orange, and be made into pies, jack-o-lanterns, and even boats.  Yes, boats.  The photographs feature children of different ethnicities, which is wonderful to see in nonfiction titles.

Esbaum’s photographs steal the show here with their crisp focus, bright colors and interesting compositions.  But her text is not to be ignored.  Her words add context and detailed information that make the photographs even more interesting.

Perfect to expand your fall seasonal shelves, these books come paperback bound so buy a bushel.

Reviewed from copies received from publisher.

Also reviewed by The Well-Read Child.

Book Bloggers Under Scrutiny

| Tasha

The book blogging world is abuzz with the news of the FTC’s new Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials which will be revised to address bloggers.

In a fascinating, but confusing, article, Edward Champion interviews Richard Cleland of the FTC about the changes. 

Bloggers, including myself, have a lot of concerns about these changes.  First, the fact that the rules for bloggers are going to be more stringent than those for review journals in print is very troubling.  I don’t mind disclosing the book I receive from publishers, but it seems to me that Cleland wants disclosure plus return of the books. 

There is no way that I would have enough funds to return the books I receive from publishers.  That said, I don’t keep the books I receive from publishers.  The books that I receive go to my library’s collection unless they are ARCs.  ARCs are shared with colleagues, given away as book program prizes, or put into the library book sale.

For me as a library blogger, it gets even more confusing.  Cleland says that if bloggers are being paid to blog then there is no need for concern.  I blog on library time and for the library’s website.   Does that clear me of concern?  I don’t think so. 

I am entirely confused, a bit concerned, and hoping for more clarifications to come.  How about you?  I’m happy if anyone can shed more light on this for me!

Poetry Friday: Pumpkin Butterfly

| Tasha

Pumpkin Butterfly: Poems from the Other Side of Nature by Heidi Mordhorst, illustrated by Jenny Reynish

Celebrate the seasons with this collection of poems that capture the small moments of each time of year.  Applaud squirrels, feed a maple tree from your old lunchbox, create snow angels, sleep in a bed heaped with snowy blankets, listen for the whisper of falling petals, and groove to the jazz of a flower. 

Mordhorst captures the essence of each season and within each season she finds small details to linger over and enjoy.  Her poetry is clean and crisp, simple and friendly.  Reynish’s illustrations serve as a frame around the verses, setting them off to great effect.  They enhance and support the poems nicely with their simple lines.

A wonderful collection to read straight or to select poems to use in classrooms or with story times.  Appropriate for ages 5-9.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot

| Tasha

How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford

Beatrice is new in town, but that’s nothing new for her.  She and her parents have lived in city after city, following her father’s career as a professor.   Bea tells herself that she doesn’t care what the other kids in school think of her.  She’s a senior and only has to make it through one final year until she heads to college.  In assembly, she finds herself between Anne who is very perky even early in the morning, and Jonah who everyone calls Ghost Boy because he is so pale and reserved.  It would make sense for her to become friends with Anne, especially because that’s what Anne wants.  But she finds herself drawn to Jonah.  They have one vital thing in common: they are both insomniacs and listen to late-night radio to fall asleep.  And so they become unusual friends, true friends who would do anything for each other. 

Standiford does the near impossible here.  She has a male/female friendship with no kissing, no groping, no sexual tension.  It is a real friendship: taut with tension at times, deep with emotion, glassy with superficiality too.  The relationship between these two teens is so genuine.  It is fragile at times, breakable, but iron strong and vital too.  It is shifting, changing, and true.

Standiford excels at several things in this novel.  Her characterizations are wonderful.  Not only the two main characters are real, but Bea’s parents, the radio callers, and other teens are fully realized and interesting.  Standiford’s pacing is also very well done.  It is so well done that it is unobtrusive and unnoticed while reading, which is just what pacing should be. It makes the book hard to put down and a pleasure to read. 

I should mention the cover, which I really don’t like.  It should not be a pink book, especially not a hot-pink book.  And the phone really doesn’t work for me.  With as special as this book is, it deserved a much better cover.  Let’s hope that it gets released in paperback with a better cover that really shows what it’s about.

This is an unusual book. The characters are unique, interesting and fun to spend time with.  Their friendship is so real that it is almost painful at times to read because it is so accurately and unflinchingly portrayed.  Sadly, the cover will have to be worked against to get it into the hands of teens who will relate to it.  Anyone with a real friend will find themselves on these pages.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from publisher.

Also reviewed by Jen Robinson and The Hiding Spot.

All the World

| Tasha

All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Frazee

Scanlon’s evocative but simple poetry draws the world together, creating a universal place for us all to celebrate, live and enjoy.  The poem takes us to the beach, up into the branches of a tree, to dinner, to the silence of evening, and then to the bosom of our families.  Frazee’s illustrations are large spanning views of the ocean, expanses of silent evening, and the grandeur of a large tree on a hill.  But they are also small, detailed, glimpses of real life.  They show drooping swimsuits, spilled buckets, sandcastles, and red tomatoes. 

This play between the minutiae of life and the larger connections of us all makes this book work so well.  Both author and illustrator gracefully create a web of the world this book.  The text reads aloud, dancing on the tongue, with subtle rhymes and gentle rhythm.  The tone is gentle, simple and expansive.  It is nicely echoed in the illustrations which work so well with the words that one cannot imagine it being done with different art.

A wonderful collaboration between author and illustrator, this book is a triumph.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by GregLSBlog, Jama Rattigan, Through the Looking Glass, The Picnic Basket, Reading Rumpus, and Jumping the Candle.