Month: June 2014

Review: Comics Squad: Recess!

| Tasha

comics squad recess

Comics Squad: Recess!

Released July 8, 2014.

Join your favorite children’s graphic novel authors as they romp together in a celebration of recess!  This graphic novel has been contributed to by authors like Jennifer and Matthew Holm, Jarrett Krosoczka, Dan Santat, Gene Luen Yang, and Raina Telgemeier.  Favorite characters like Lunch Lady and Babymouse make an appearance in their own stories as well as appearing throughout the book with a little commentary.   In other stories, new characters make their first appearance which will delight young fans.

It’s hard to be too enthusiastic about this title, since young readers are sure to adore it.  The release in mid-summer is ideal since this will make great summer reading, though it will also be a great addition to any school library or classroom.  Put together cleverly, the book has a nice flow to it and a brisk pace that will have even reluctant readers eagerly turning the pages.

Get multiple copies of this one, since it’s sure to be a hit!  Appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Random House and Edelweiss.

Review: From There to Here by Laurel Croza

| Tasha

from there to here

From There to Here by Laurel Croza, illustrated by Matt James

This sequel to the award-winning I Know Here continues the story of a little girl who has moved from Saskatchewan to Toronto.  She now contrasts their life in the rural woods with that in a new city.  So much of her days are different now.  Her father no longer comes home for lunch.  They live on a city street instead of a quiet gravel road.  Here they lock their doors, there everyone kept their homes open.  There you could see the stars in the sky at night, here there are only the lamps shining.  There the children played all together and there wasn’t anyone her age.  Here there is!

Croza deftly shows the differences between two places, drawing them each with an eye to the positive.  Even as the little girl misses and even yearns for her nature-filled home, she starts to see what is good about the new place she lives.  Any child who has undergone a move will see themselves in this book, yet Croza has also written a very personal story of one little girl.

James’ art is rich and layered.  He uses sweeps of colors on the page to convey motion and change.  At the same time, he also uses parallel images that show the similarities of the places at the same time examining the differences.

Another triumph of a picture book, children will enjoy this as a sequel but it also stands nicely on its own.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Oliver’s Tree by Kit Chase

| Tasha

oliver's tree

Oliver’s Tree by Kit Chase

Oliver, Charlie and Lulu are three best friends who love to play together outside.  When they play hide-and-seek though, Oliver doesn’t have as much fun as the others.  Lulu is a bird who loves to hide in the trees and Charlie the rabbit does too.  But Oliver is an elephant, and he doesn’t like trees at all, since he can’t climb them.  So the three friends set out to find a tree that will work for Oliver.  The low trees are too small for him.  Trees with big branches are too tall.  When they finally find a big low branch, Oliver is thrilled.  But then the branch breaks.  Oliver has had enough and runs off to be on his own.  He settles down on a huge tree stump and dozes off.  That’s when his friends have one great idea that saves the day and creates a tree that even an elephant can love!

Chase sets a pitch-perfect tone here for young children.  It’s a pleasure to see three children playing together in a picture book that is not about jealousy.  This instead is a book that celebrates differences and has children who work together to solve a problem in a creative way.  The result is a jolly book that has a fast pace and a cheery personality.

Chase’s illustrations have the same bounce as the text of the book.  They have a friendly quality that children will immediately respond to as well as a sweet humor that is cheerful.

It’s perfect tree climbing season right now, even if you are an elephant!  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Putnam.

Review: The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang

| Tasha

shadow hero

The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang, art by Sonny Liew

Released July 15, 2014.

The Green Turtle first appeared in comics in the 1940s, the Golden Age of Comics, for a short run.  He was the first Asian-American super hero.  Now he has been given a back story by acclaimed graphic novelist, Gene Luen Yang.  Hank was the son of a Chinese immigrants.  His father was a grocer, who also carried within him a turtle spirit unbeknownst to his wife and son.   His mother was a cleaner of rich people’s homes.  Hank was a normal kid who grew into a normal young adult, until his mother though being a super hero would be the best career path for Hank.  She sewed him a costume, tried to get him special powers through a variety of techniques, and then had him train in fighting with someone.  But it took Hank awhile to find his super hero mojo, perhaps it was finding a man who rules China Town with an iron and greedy fist or perhaps it was vengeance.  Whichever it was, Hank grew to become the Green Turtle.

This is one graphic novel that does not take itself too seriously, making for great reading.  Fans of comic books will love the irreverent humor here that plays up the stereotypical origin stories of most super heroes.  That is matched with a clear respect for immigrants, the difficult choices they have to make, and the desperate need at times for a hero to save them.  It makes for a book that dances the line between drama and humor skillfully and to great effect.

Liew’s art has a freshness that both hearkens back to old comics but also forges ahead with a modern vibe.  The colors are used carefully, often more muted and subtle and then popping into bright colors when important events happen.  It’s very cleverly done.

An amazing and complex superhero arrives in this graphic novel that both pays homage and reinvents the first Asian-American super hero.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from digital copy received from NetGalley and First Second.

Review: Sleepyheads by Sandra J. Howatt

| Tasha

sleepyheads

Sleepyheads by Sandra J. Howatt, illustratedc by Joyce Wan

Head out on a journey in the night to find out where different creatures are sleeping.  Each one is tucked into the space they like best at bedtime.  There is the bear in his cave, the otter rocking back in the water, the pig in the hay, and many more.  Then the owl is on the page, not sleepy at all.  The book then turns to the house and the pets sleeping, but the little human bed is empty!  Where can that last little sleepyhead be?  Safe asleep in Mama’s arms. 

Simple and beautiful, this book has a gentle rhyme that soothes also with a rhythm that is like rocking to sleep.  Young listeners will get to identify the different animals as the pages turn, since the book leaves that up to the reader.  The quiet mystery of where the last sleepyhead is found is a wonderful little twist at the end, just right as children snuggle down to their own beds.

Wan’s art is dark and beautiful.  The night is lit with fireflies and the moon, the darkness deep and velvety but not frightening at all.  As the reader visits each dark page, there is always a source of light beyond that in the sky so that the characters themselves shine on the page. 

A wonderful bedtime read, this one shines with moonlight and dreams.  Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from copy received from Beach Lane Books.

Review: The Feral Child by Che Golden

| Tasha

feral child

The Feral Child by Che Golden

Maddy’s parents died recently, so she is sent to Ireland to live with her grandparents.  She misses London and her friends dreadfully and doesn’t like her cousins or the town of Blarney.  Though she has been told not to enter the grounds of the castle in town, she does anyway one evening because she is so angry and just doesn’t care.  She stays longer than she means to when her grandparent’s dog George runs off.  It is then that she meets a strange boy.  That same boy returns to her house later, tapping at the window and asking Maddy to join him, but she refuses to go to the window at all, because she has realized that he is not what he seems to be.  When the boy goes to her neighbor and steals their little boy from out of his bedroom window, Maddy sees it all.  But with a changeling in the little boy’s place, no one even knows he is actually missing.  It is up to Maddy, her cousins, and George the dog to save him, because no one else can.  They must enter the faerie realm to do so and face incredible dangers on their quest.

Golden manages to not actually modernize the faeries and their world, which is quite refreshing.  Instead what you have in this middle-grade novel is a modern girl thrust into the strange and timeless world of the faeries.  She takes the most menacing and amazing parts of folklore and brings them fully to life, creating a dazzling array of faeries and beasts as the children travel.  The dangers are brutally displayed and there are times when death is so close, readers will be amazing that the characters survive.

Maddy is not a particularly likeable character at first in the novel, nor are her cousins.  Maddy is the main protagonist and undergoes a believable transformation into heroine as the novel goes on.  The same can be said for one of her cousins who comes out of her shell and into her own.  The other cousin, the bully, has too easy a transformation and it happens a bit to early in the book as well.  But that is a quibble in an impressive faerie tale.

Faeries, Ireland and an amazing quest all come together to create a book that is frightening, riveting and a rip-roaring read.  Appropriate for ages 10-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Quercus.

Paddington – The Movie Trailer

| Tasha

Here’s the first full-length trailer for the new movie version of Paddington.  I must admit as a Downton Abbey fan, I’m so happy to see Hugh Bonneville in this.  Yet it seems to have a very different vibe than the books by Michael Bond.  I think I have to see more before I make a decision about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8s3erGGF90

So what do you think?

This Week’s Tweets, Pins & Tumbls

| Tasha

Here are the links I shared on my Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr accounts this week that I think are cool:

SidewalkEnds Fusenews: Of talking tigers and square penguins

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

10 Books For Kids Who Hate Reading| Lisa Graff | http://buff.ly/1hR6QUW #kidlit

25 Books That Diversify Kids’ Reading Lists This Summer | MindShift http://buff.ly/1uFHLOL #kidlit

Beloved Children’s Book Editor Frances Foster Dies at 83 | School Library Journal http://buff.ly/SQdUoK #kidlit

A Diverse #SummerReading List For Kids : NPR Ed : NPR http://buff.ly/1tU8x3E #kidlit

Iconic Italian Graphic Artist Bruno Munari’s Rare Vintage “Interactive” Picture-Books | Brain Pickings http://buff.ly/1hRcVAM #kidlit

Peter Sis and his editor Margaret Ferguson discuss The Pilot and the Little Prince. http://buff.ly/1kDgOth #kidlit

Susan Marie Swanson on Poetry for Children http://buff.ly/Tw7tIg #poetry # kidlit

Top 10 Ways to Enjoy Reading This Summer by Jami Spaulding | Nerdy Book Club http://buff.ly/1s1qVMc #reading

Why adults shouldn’t be embarrassed to read children’s books | Children’s books http://buff.ly/1ikbncZ #yalit

EBOOKS

James Patterson: Digital revolution threatens American literature http://buff.ly/1ovhsZO #ebooks

So true!

LIBRARIES

Dylan’s Desk: Watch this multi-billion-dollar industry evaporate overnight | VentureBeat – http://buff.ly/1hMn15S #journals

In win for libraries, court rules database of Google-scanned books is “fair use” — Tech News and Analysis http://buff.ly/1hMP6dk

Librarians – A Celebration by Justin Stygles | Nerdy Book Club http://buff.ly/1s1rh5J #libraries #librarians

TEEN READS

High School Principal Cancels Entire Reading Program To Stop Students From Reading Cory Doctorow’s ‘Little Brother’ http://buff.ly/1ovhBwe

How Reality Became the Hot New Thing in YA http://buff.ly/1uXXgBQ #yalit

I Think, Therefore I Swear| Brian Conaghan | http://buff.ly/1hR6Y6I #yalit

Ten reasons why it is okay to read YA http://buff.ly/1ihOKpy #yalit

This Is Why Young Adult Books Are Not Only Acceptable, But Beneficial For Adults http://buff.ly/1hR71iV #yalit

What YA Gives Me That Other Genres Don’t Hint: It’s Not Embarrassment | Book Reviews & Recommendations http://buff.ly/SQcbQi #yalit

A Young Adult Author’s Fantastic Crusade to Defend Literature’s Most Maligned Genre | Nerve http://buff.ly/SL6Idu #yalit #humor

Review: The Baby Tree by Sophie Blackall

| Tasha

baby tree

The Baby Tree by Sophie Blackall

A young boy is told at breakfast that a new baby is coming.  He has a lot of questions, but the biggest one is “Where are we going to get the baby?”  So he starts asking different people.  His babysitter Olive who walks him to school in the morning says that you plant a seed and it grows into a baby tree.  At school, he asks his teacher where babies come from and she says “from the hospital” but he can’t ask any more questions because it’s time to clean up.  That afternoon he asks his grandpa about babies, because he is the only person that the boy knows who has been to the hospital, and Grandpa says that a stork brings the baby in the night and leaves it on your doorstep.  The mailman says that babies come from eggs.  The boy is very confused, so that night he asks his parents and they explain about babies growing inside their mom, about seeds and eggs and the hospital.  Now all the boy has to do is explain it to Grandpa who is clearly uninformed!

Blackall weaves an age-appropriate look at reproduction in this picture book.  I particularly appreciated that when the older characters explained it to the boy, there were touches of honesty in each of their answers that come together cleverly in the end, except for Grandpa’s of course!  It is a book that explains just enough of the details to answer preschool questions, without going into details that they are not interested in at that age. 

As always, Blackall’s illustrations are fresh and unique.  Her illustrations are friendly and lovely, focusing on the relationships in this boy’s life beyond his parents.  They demonstrate a richness of connections that is a delight.

A great addition to library collections, this is an ideal level of information for preschoolers expecting a new sibling soon.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Nancy Paulsen Books.