A Place for Frogs

March 26, 2010 | Tasha

A Place for Frogs by Melissa Stewart, illustrated by Higgins Bond

This book is filled with fascinating information and facts about frogs. It is less about the transformation from egg to tadpole to frog and more about individual species, specific habitats, and what we can do to help save frogs. The book can be read two ways. One way is less wordy and offers a chance to share the book with younger children. The other way, incorporates the detailed information on frog species, which tells the story of how they live and what they need to survive. Readers will be astonished to discover the different habitats that frogs live in and the wide variety of species.

Stewart has a gift for offering scientific information in an inviting way for children. She never talks down to them, but keeps the facts interesting and brief. The focus on the environment makes this book a good one for green units or programs. The information offered gives children a way to make a difference for these fascinating creatures.

Bond’s illustrations are almost photographic in detail, but better. She is able to offer perspectives that would have been impossible to photograph. Her use of long views of habitat combined with close-ups of animals makes the theme of the book even clearer. These animals cannot survive without this place.

Highly recommended, this book belongs in every public library. Children will pick it up for love of the animal and in the process learn about their own impact on frogs. Appropriate for ages 5-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Peachtree Publishers.

One Crazy Summer

March 26, 2010 | Tasha

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Eleven-year-old Delphine has looked after her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, ever since her mother left them soon after Fern’s birth seven years ago. Now she and her sisters have traveled across the United States from Brooklyn to Oakland, California to see the mother they barely remember. Once there, they discover a distant woman who won’t let them into her kitchen, feeds them only takeout, and insists that they are gone outside all day. She sends the girls to a summer camp run by the Black Panthers where they are educated about revolution and black rights. Set during in 1968, the girls see first hand the changing times. Written with a depth of character, pitch-perfect dialogue, and a great deal of warmth, this book is an amazing work of children’s fiction.

Williams-Garcia has outdone herself with this novel. Her portrayal of the girls, their mother and the Black Panthers is done even handedly and with appreciation for what was being done. Cecile, the mother, is a complicated figure with a complex history and a fractured relationship with her children. Williams-Garcia’s depiction of her is captivating in both good and bad ways. This book reads as though it is about real people, with real personalities living during real times. The characters grow convincingly throughout the story, with no one leaving behind their personality for sudden, simple change. It is all deeper and more honest than that.

Highly recommended, I would expect this book to garner Newbery attention as well as Coretta Scott King Award interest. This would work well in a classroom, since it is filled with moments worth discussing. It would also make a fantastic summer read. Appropriate for ages 9-13.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by The Goddess of YA Literature, Bib-Laura-graphy, A Patchwork of Books, Muddy Puddle Musings, Fuse #8, A Chair, A Fireplace & a Tea Cozy, and Young Books.