The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books announced their picks for the best of 2014 for literature for youth. They mention that poetry is the big story of 2014 and I certainly agree. What a year!
You can also head to their Stellar Series of 2014 list that offers the best in series books for children and teens. The list includes both completed and ongoing series that they reviewed in 2014.
Both lists are definitely worth checking out and are filled with great reads.
Earmuffs for Everyone!: How Chester Greenwood Became Known as the Inventor of Earmuffs by Meghan McCarthy
Chester Greenwood is credited with being the inventor of the earmuffs. The story goes that he was a boy with big ears that were sensitive to cold so he had his grandmother create him a pair of earmuffs from wire and cloth. However, the author also shows that earmuffs were actually invented before Greenwood was even born. He did however get a patent himself at age 19 for ear-mufflers. Chester had a great business sense too, one that he honed even as a boy. He also invented other things besides ear-mufflers, designing new features into kettles and rakes and even creating a portable house. It was an article in Life Magazine in the 1930s that credited Greenwood with the invention and that continued into the 1970s when there was a day named after him in Maine that continues to be celebrated today.
McCarthy immediately invites readers into the earmuff mystery, showing the early patents by others and then turning to Greenwood. Readers will see how convoluted stories can become in history, how distorted credit for inventions can be, and also how hard it can be to piece together the truth fully once again. It is to McCarthy’s credit that her focus is on more than the inventor but also on the others in history and the patent process. Don’t miss her notes at the end which detail even more fully her search for the truth about earmuffs.
McCarthy populates her books with friendly characters with big googly eyes. Her paintings are fresh and colorful. They range from double-page spreads to smaller images on the page. All of them exude a cheery feeling and invite readers to explore.
This nonfiction picture book embraces the complexity of the past and demonstrates the search for the truth behind an everyday object. Appropriate for ages 6-9.
Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster.
Here are the links I shared on my Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr accounts this week that I think are cool:
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Books to breed tolerance: what children can read after the terrorist attacks in Paris | The Guardian http://buff.ly/1IHhuou #kidlit
Check Out Four New Images from the First Fully-Illustrated Harry Potter! http://buff.ly/17Emvml #kidlit
Drawn & Quarterly’s publishing success story | Montreal Gazette http://buff.ly/1AIp1RY – It’s all about the Moomins! #kidlit
Let’s Get Busy Podcast features Steve Antony (Ep. 115) http://buff.ly/1xpA9hL #kidlit
Mac Barnett Interview (The Terrible Two) http://wp.me/p4zm4v-1xa
NYPL | Children’s Books 2014 – 100 Titles for Reading & Sharing – http://buff.ly/1Axx2Jj #kidlit
NYPL Panel Asks: Where’s the Science Fiction for Younger Readers? http://buff.ly/1BW1EE9 #kidlit
Q & A with Meghan McCarthy http://buff.ly/1I3KV5q #kidlit
SLJ’s Seventh Annual Battle of the Kids’ Books 2015 Contenders Announced http://ow.ly/HjFdW #sljbob @SLJsBoB
LIBRARIES
Five Design Teams Re-Envision New York’s Public Libraries | ArchDaily http://buff.ly/1KCg5TZ #libraries
Lose Yourself In These Photos Of Europe’s Most Magnificent Libraries http://buff.ly/1zdhm01 #libraries
Meet the Tabletarians | Mobile Services http://buff.ly/1KtiakX #libraries
Rich Harwood on Libraries as Change Agents, Turning Outward, and the Need for Qualitative Data http://buff.ly/1tTSCZu #libraries
School libraries shelve tradition to create new learning spaces | The Guardian http://buff.ly/17qNUb8 #libraries
This Ferguson Library Twitter Hashtag Just Might Make You Feel Better About the World – CityLab http://buff.ly/1DDJGKD #libraries
Using #becauseofapubliclibrary, Ferguson (Mo.) library director sparked love from Twitterverse http://bit.ly/1Dto1Vp
READING
Children’s reading shows simultaneous rise and decline. How can that add up? | The Guardian http://buff.ly/1x6uoa5 #reading
How to get kids to read — let them pick their own damn books – Vox http://buff.ly/1x6uxKH #reading #kidlit
If we stop telling kids what to read, they might start reading again – The Washington Post http://buff.ly/1KCaay2 #reading
Study Finds Reading to Children of All Ages Grooms Them to Read More on Their Own http://buff.ly/1KstGgg #reading
TEEN READS
Five questions for A. S. King – The Horn Book http://buff.ly/1zdjsNv #yalit
Gayle Forman on why we need to talk about depression | Children’s books | The Guardian http://buff.ly/1DPN3eI #yalit
The Great 2015 YA Series Round-Up – BOOK RIOT http://buff.ly/1KKwQfK #yalit
Madeleine Kuderick’s top 10 books that explore mental health issues | The Guardian http://buff.ly/1DIyDzU #yalit
‘TIME’s "100 Best Young Adult Books Of All Time" Is Very White… And Not Very YA | Bustle http://buff.ly/1DDICGN #yalit
Raindrops Roll by April Pulley Sayre
The author of Eat Like a Bear returns with another great nonfiction picture book. In this book she offers the joy of rain and water. Told in a poetic way, the text conveys the anticipation of rain that you can feel coming and the changes in the sky. When the rain arrives, it makes noise, makes things wet, including animals out in the weather. There is running water, mud, all sorts of changes take place. When the rain stops, the raindrops remain and weigh things down, dot and cling. They change things as they linger until the sun returns to dry them away.
Sayre’s poem dances like the rain itself, pattering along and showing the beauty of the rain. This is a book that celebrates darkening skies and weather, showing the importance of rain, the way that insects protect themselves from it, and the dazzle that it leaves behind. Sayre manages to convey science along the way, though the focus of the book continues to be the loveliness of this type of weather.
Her photographs are part of the dazzle of this book. They are large, clear and brilliantly done. She captures insects before and after the rain, drops that merge together, rain as it runs and dots. Her photos are colorful, filled with water and gorgeous.
A perfect book to share in the spring or just before heading out with umbrellas into the garden. This is just the sort of book we need to encourage children to get outside and play in the rain. Appropriate for ages 3-6.
Reviewed from copy received from Beach Lane Books.
Whale Trails: Before and Now by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
Released January 20, 2015.
A little girl and her father run a whale boat that takes people out onto the water to view the whales in the sea. Her family has worked the sea there for generations, so she explains how different their search for whales is from those in the past where the whalers were hunting whales. Each pair of pages shows modern day and then turns in sepia tones to the past. From changes to the pier and the businesses along it to the design of the boats themselves to the routes and tools used, each pair of pages show how things have changed. Yet at night as they head home, the bay is the same and so are the whales that live there.
Cline-Ransome has cleverly combined history with always-popular whale watching, creating a book that invites exploration. Not only is this a look at the changes of the boats over time and what they do with the whales in the bay, but more subtly and importantly, it also looks at the changes in attitudes towards wildlife. Throughout it is a hopeful book, examining the past with a frank and factual approach.
Karas’ illustrations clearly show the modern and the historical side-by-side. His sepia tones spread all the way to edges of the page while the illustrations themselves are framed by lines. The more colorful modern pages have illustrations that take up the entire page and are less formal feeling thanks to the lack of framing. These cues will help children keep the two time periods clear.
Clever, smart and engaging, this mix of modern and historical whaling is a superb addition to any library collection. Appropriate for ages 6-9.
Reviewed from copy received from Henry Holt & Co.
Leontyne Price: Voice of a Century by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Raul Colon
This picture book biography looks at the life of Leontyne Price, an African-American opera singer who burst through the color barrier. Born in Mississippi in 1927, Leontyne grew up poor in money but rich in music from both her parents. They also taught her that she was just as good as anyone else, no matter what their color. Leontyne was inspired when she saw Marian Anderson perform and then got to sing in the church choir when Anderson performed in 1939 after being barred from a whites-only concert hall. Leontyne headed to Ohio to college where she planned to be a teacher, but when her voice was discovered she changed her major to voice. She then went to Julliard and on to the world stage where she sang on Broadway in Porgy and Bess. She became the first black singer to star at La Scala and broke wide the door that Marian Anderson had first opened.
Weatherford writes in prose that reads like poetry, broken into stanzas and offering celebrations of this inspiring woman on the page. From the pride and power of her upbringing by her parents to the final pages that show how far she has come, the book captures the strength and determination that it took to take a natural gift and break down barriers with it. Weatherford’s words are filled with moments that are inspiring, times that are amazing, but she also keeps things down to earth, showing even on the final page that Price is entirely human even as she reaches incredible heights in her career.
Colon’s illustrations are beautiful. Filled with his trademark scratches and lines, they have a beautiful flowing texture that carries from one image to the next. He uses sweeping colors to show the beauty of the music coming from both Price and Anderson, filling the world with the colors of music.
A beautiful and powerful testament to one of the ground breaking artists of our time. Appropriate for ages 7-9.
Reviewed from copy received from Knopf Books for Young Readers.
There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake
Shelby is about to be hit by a car, in four hours. She lives an isolated life with her mother, one where she is homeschooled and doesn’t really know anyone else outside of the online forums she visits without her mother knowing. Every Friday they have a day out, one with ice cream for dinner, batting in the batting cage, and a visit to the library. There’s a cute boy there that Shelby has seen, another thing that her mother doesn’t know about. But the car is coming, and Shelby’s quiet life is about to change. After she is hit by the car, a coyote appears to her, warning her that she will be told two lies and then she will know the truth. Immediately after she is released from the hospital, her mother takes her away in a car, fleeing from dangers that only her mother understands. As Shelby begins to see her mother in a new light, she also starts leaving real life and spending time with Coyote in The Dreaming, a place where she is responsible for saving the world. And soon she will have to deal with the truth and that may be a lot harder than dealing with the lies along the way.
Lake has written a book that is a real page turner. Readers will know immediately upon meeting Shelby that something is wrong with her living situation, though it is vague enough to be almost anything. I don’t want to ruin at all that exploration of the lies and truth, because it is a large reason the book is so compelling to read. Lake has also constructed the book so it’s a count down. First readers know that the car accident is coming. Then readers will see that the chapter numbers are counting down, one after another towards another impact, one that readers know is coming but can’t avoid or quite understand yet.
One of the revelations that comes early in the book is Shelby’s deafness. Written in the first chapters without any acknowledgement, readers will be stunned by the news that Shelby is 90% deaf. Then they piece together the clues of it, the many gestures used as she communicates with her mother, the subtitles, the way her mother tells her to be careful because she is special. I appreciated this treatment so much because Shelby is a person first and then her disability is revealed. Exactly the way it should be.
Strongly written, compellingly structured, with one strong and very human heroine, this book of family, lies and truths is a riveting read. Appropriate for ages 14-17.
Reviewed from digital galley received from Bloomsbury and Edelweiss.
This is my last list for 2014, but I saved the biggie for last. There are many more that could have been on the list, but this is where I could bear to cut it off. Enjoy!
Baby Bear by Kadir Nelson
Big Bug by Henry Cole
Blizzard by John Rocco
Blue on Blue by Dianne White, illustrated by Beth Krommes
The Book with No Pictures by BJ Novak
Cat Says Meow by Michael Arndt
A Dance Like Starlight by Kristy Dempsey, illustrated by Floyd Cooper
Draw! By Raul Colon
Elizabeth Queen of the Seas by Lynne Cox, illustrated by Brian Floca
The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee
Firebird by Misty Copeland, illustrated by Christopher Myers
Flashlight by Lizi Boyd
The Fox and the Crow by Manasi Subramaniam
Fox’s Garden by Princesse Camcam
Hannah’s Night by Komoko Sakai
Hunters of the Great Forest by Dennis Nolan
Jim Curious by Matthias Picard
It’s an Orange Aardvark by Michael Hall
Jacob’s New Dress by Sarah and Ian Hoffman, illustrated by Chris Case
The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc
May the Stars Drip Down by Jeremy Chatelain, illustrated by Nikki McClure
Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers
The Promise by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Laura Carlin
Remy and Lulu by Kevin Hawkes
The River by Alessandro Sanna
Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen
Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton
The Storm Whale by Benji Davies
Take Away the A by Michael Escoffier, illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo
Telephone by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jen Corace
This Is a Moose by Richard T. Morris, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld
Three Bears in a Boat by David Soman
Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales, photographs by Tom O’Meara
What If…? By Anthony Browne
Winter Is Coming by Tony Johnston, illustrated by Jim LaMarche
A Fine Dessert: Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Sophie Blackall
Released January 27, 2015.
Follow one recipe through the centuries in this exceptional picture book! Starting over 300 years ago in England, the book starts with a mother and daughter out picking blackberries. Once home, the mother skims cream from the milk from their cow and whips it with a bundle of twigs for 15 minutes until she has whipped cream. That is combined with squashed and strained blackberries mixed with sugar to create blackberry fool. The fool then needs to be cooled, so they head to the hillside to chill it with sheets of winter ice that they store there. Then the family enjoys it and the little girl licks the bowl clean. As readers turn to the next family in Charleston, South Carolina about 200 years ago, they will notice so many changes just not in the recipe itself. The method of refrigeration changes, the method of whisking the cream and the time it takes, the way they get the ingredients, and the family setting. Next comes even more changes as the setting turns to a century ago in Boston and then the final family, a modern San Diego father and son. Each family brings updates to the methods but enjoys the delicious dessert exactly the same way, with gusto!
Jenkins has an author’s note at the end of the book that further explains and points out the changes from one century to the next in the way food is procured and prepared. Even the use of actual recipes only appears in the final family. Written in a jolly way, this picture book uses repetition and patterns to make sure that children will see the differences in the way the food is prepared as the time passes. It is a fascinating look at how food preparation has progressed but also in how very much has stayed the same.
Blackall’s illustrations are playful and clever. She too uses repetition in her illustrations, showing the joy of licking the whisk or spatula and the final head dive into the bowl after the meal is complete. There is a simplicity to her art as well, allowing the settings she conveys on the page to speak clearly. One knows even without the words that you are in a different time and place thanks just to the illustrations.
A joy to read and share, this book has all the delight of a great dessert but is also packed full of historical information and detail. Appropriate for ages 6-9.
Reviewed from digital galley received from Schwartz & Wade and Edelweiss.
Waking Brain Cells 