Month: April 2016

Their Great Gift by John Coy

| Tasha

Their Great Gift by John Coy

Their Great Gift: Courage, Sacrifice and Hope in a New Land by John Coy, photographs by Wing Young Huie

This picture book is filled with gorgeous photographs of diverse people who live in the United States. The book speaks about the way that families came to our country. It talks of the dreams that they had and how difficult it was to make the journey and learn a different language. It is about the hard work that it takes to be an immigrant, the mistakes that are made, the way money is sent back home. At it’s heart this is a book about determination, grit and resilience, qualities that make our country great and that exemplify the immigrants who add so much.

Coy’s words are simple and yet very powerful. He states each fact in a way that makes it easy to understand but also in a tone that rings with truth. His focus is on humanizing immigrants, showing that they are just like all of us who may have been born here, no matter how they worship, dress or what language they speak. Don’t miss the final pages of the book where the author and the illustrator speak to the ways both their families arrived here.

The photographs in this book are what make it so lovely. Done in a mix of black and white and color, the photographs capture people of various backgrounds and cultures. There are children, adults and the elderly and each page opens to reveal faces that form a tapestry of diversity on the page.

A very timely and important picture book, this book will open discussions for elementary-aged children about the larger topic of immigration in a way they can understand. Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

 

Waylon! One Awesome Thing by Sara Pennypacker

| Tasha

Waylon One Awesome Thing by Sara Pennypacker

Waylon! One Awesome Thing by Sara Pennypacker (InfoSoup)

Waylon loves science and spends a lot of his time thinking about all of the cool inventions he could create from his scientific knowledge. His favorite ideas right now focus on how to manipulate gravity for his own means. But things in his life are not all going smoothly right now. His sister, who insists on being called Neon, doesn’t act like she used to now that she’s a teenager. One kid at school is splitting the fourth grade boys into two teams and Waylon isn’t sure which team he is on. A kid with a criminal record just came back to school and is even scarier than last year. It’s all changing around him and it looks like only Waylon can solve the crisis by being a bridge from one side to the other.

This novel brings young readers another amazing character from the author of the Clementine series. Waylon, just like Clementine, is incredibly easy to relate to. He is dynamically human, getting into scrapes and situations that readers may face themselves. As always, Pennypacker’s prose is written with a surety and skill that allows young readers to relax and simply immerse themselves in the world that she has created for them.

Pennypacker makes sure to bring just enough humor to the novel to make it accessible for reluctant readers. The playground dynamics set just the right tone. The unique way that Waylon views the world through science makes those issues more dramatic as Waylon sees himself very isolated. The theme of loneliness and then finding a way to reconnect is done in just the right tone.

An awesome new protagonist from Pennypacker is something worth celebrating! Appropriate for ages 6-8.

Reviewed from e-galley received from Disney-Hyperion and Edelweiss.

 

Wet Cement by Bob Raczka

| Tasha

Wet Cement by Bob Raczka

Wet Cement: A Mix of Concrete Poems by Bob Raczka (InfoSoup)

This is a second book of playful and wonderful poems that follows Lemonade: And Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word. It offers poems that demonstrate over and over again the delight and fun of concrete poetry. Some poems twist and turn, others light up the sky, others read in a different and surprising order, almost forming a puzzle before the reader realizes how to read it. There are poems that zigzag, others that arc, and still others that hang from the top of the page. This is a radiant book of poetry should to create smiles.

Raczka makes concrete poetry look effortless in this book, yet his are so well done that you know they took serious craft to create. I particularly enjoyed the icicle poem, since I haven’t seen one like that. Even more importantly, the words themselves are masterfully done, each poem reading as a true poem and not losing its zing because of the limits of the form.

Brilliant and great fun, this book makes poetry approachable for young children. Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brooks Press.

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:

betterbooktitles: Eric Carle: The Very Hungry Caterpillar We’re a month away from the release of Never Flirt With Puppy Killers, so I’d like to share the best of Better Book Titles this month. Here’s my favorite.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Green Books for Eco-Minded Kids & Parents | Brightly

Kwame Alexander on winning the Newbery Award: ‘I’m going to keep it real with you’

Why I Came Out As A Gay Children’s Book Author

LIBRARIES
The 7 most beautiful new libraries in North America
The fall and rise of subscription libraries – BBC News
Need a ukulele? Grab one at Toronto’s 1st musical instrument library
Survey Shows Fewer Americans Are Visiting Libraries
TEEN READS
36 of Your Favorite YA Romances
TV deal for O’Neill’s Asking For It | The Bookseller

Peggy Fortnum Dies

| Tasha

Peggy Fortnum - Paddington:

The illustrator for Paddington Bear has died at the age of 96 according to an article in the Washington Post. She was a British illustrator who brought to life the bear so fond of marmalade. With his floppy hat and duffel coat, Paddington will live on in many of our minds exactly the way that Fortnum depicted him.

 

Elliot by Julie Pearson

| Tasha

Elliot by Julie Pearson

Elliot by Julie Pearson, illustrated by Manon Gauthier (InfoSoup)

Elliot was a little boy whose parents loved him very much. But there was a problem, when Elliot cried his parents did not understand why and when he yelled they did not know what to do. So one day a social worked named Thomas came and Elliot was taken to a new family with a new mother and father. It was different there and Elliot’s new family understood when he was hungry, when he was upset and when he needed attention. Elliot still got to see his parents sometimes too and they had a lot of fun together. His parents did try to care for him once again, but they still did not understand what he needed so he got moved to another family who could respond to his needs. Finally, Elliot came to a family where they wanted him to stay forever. They understood his needs even more deeply than any other family had and said things like “I love you forever, forever.”

This book is so very important. It is a book about the foster care system and one that is so intensely honest that it can be hard to read at times. Pearson manages to not make Elliot’s parents bad at all, keeping their neglect of Elliot vague enough to fit the experiences of many children. That also keeps the book appropriate for the youngest listeners. At the same time, Pearson shows the way children are moved from home to home, the way that they can go back to their parents, and the ability to finally find a permanent home where they are loved and cared for. The moment where parents finally use the word “love” with Elliot is so powerful because readers until that moment will not have realized that he had not been told it before. It’s a moment of realization that stings the heart.

Gauthier’s illustrations are done in cut paper collage. The colors are muted and quiet, creams and tans with lines on them. The background colors change slightly with the various families that Elliot lives with, but they are always muted. I appreciated this subtlety in the colors that supports the quiet and undramatic feel of the entire book.

Honest and vital, this picture book fills a huge gap in children’s books with its depiction of the foster system for small children. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Pajama Press and Myrick Marketing & Media.

 

ALA’s Frequently Challenged Book List for 2015

| Tasha

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has released their list of the most challenged books in the United States for last year. Here is the top ten:

  1. Looking for Alaska by John Green
  2. Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James
  3. I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
  4. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
  5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
  6. The Holy Bible
  7. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
  8. Habibi by Craig Thompson
  9. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan by Jeanette Winter
  10. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

Ah, once again so many of my personal favorites on the list. Though I am not surprised to see LGBT books on the list, since they have always featured prominently on the list, I am saddened to see two that are specifically about transgender teens and children being targeted. Both are about real people and offer a glimpse into the transgender experience from those who are living it.

Though this list always makes me sad, it also lights a fire to make sure that my community has open access to these books as well as books like them. To make sure that LGBT members of our community see themselves reflected in our collection. To make sure that those from religions other than Christianity see themselves in children’s books on our shelves. To have books for teens that contain sexual experiences because, seriously, they are teens.

What lights your fire?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Trailer

| Tasha

Another peek at the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film that opens in November:

Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston

| Tasha

Exit Pursued by a Bear by EK Johnston

Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston (InfoSoup)

Hermione is headed into her senior year as the co-captain of her school’s cheerleading team. At her school, cheering is more important and more prestigious than the sports themselves. She’s dating one of the boys on the squad and they are all at summer cheerleading camp getting ready for the competitions coming up, knowing that they are probably heading for nationals again. The safety of Hermione’s world is shattered when she is drugged at the camp’s dance party and then raped near the lake. She is found unconscious on the lake shore, half in the water. Hermione must now face being the victim rather than the queen bee, a label that does not sit well for her. She must also wait for a pregnancy test and the decisions that that will bring with it. Hermione fights not to be defined by what has happened to her and to find her footing again so that she can still fly.

Johnston, author of The Story of Owen, once again sets a teen novel firmly in Canada, though this time not in a fictional Canada at all. Instead this book is richly real, a book for teens about a rape where it does not consume the victim or define her life. It’s a book where Hermione’s family and friends come forward to support her, never to question her own role in the attack, never to push her feelings and emotions aside, but to support her completely. A mention must be made of Polly, Hermione’s best friend who is a zingy mix of support and healthy attitude, exactly the friend you want at your side. This novel is a guidebook to how we should be treating assault survivors, not as victims but as survivors who should have our support not our pity.

Johnston takes it one step further and also has Hermione get an abortion. It was at this point in the novel that I found myself entirely overcome. Johnston writes about a Canadian abortion system, one that Americans will have problems relating to due to its ease. Still, there are emotions here, ones that are not questioning Hermione’s decision or situation at all. The emotions are large because here is another sisterhood that Hermione is a part of. It’s not dramatic for any effect or statement, it’s dramatic simply because it is. Because it’s necessary. Because it’s a choice being made. And that is so beautiful and moving.

Immensely powerful and empowering, this novel has so much to say to teens in our world. Appropriate for ages 14-18.

Reviewed from library book.