My blog will go quiet as I take time to read some books and spend time with loved ones this holiday season. May your holidays, whatever you celebrate, be filled with great reads and love.
See you in the New Year!
Month: December 2019
Review: What’s Your Favorite Food? by Eric Carle and Friends
What’s Your Favorite Food? by Eric Carle and Friends (9781250295149)
I am a big fan of Eric Carle’s “What’s Your Favorite” series. In these picture books, a variety of illustrators explore the answer to the question posed by the title. So in this book, it’s all about favorite foods! Children will see their own favorites on the page, like Matthew Cordell’s love of pizza or Laurie Keller’s imaginative look at where french fries come from. There are also plenty of more diverse foods included like Dan Santat’s favorite ramen or Karen Katz’s lovely matzo balls.
Each turn of the page enters the reader into a new illustrator’s answer to the title question. The result is a beautiful whirlwind of a book where the reader moves quickly between answers and into new visual treats. This works particularly well with the subject of food and has the feeling of visiting that person’s house or table and then turning to the next delicious offering. The illustrations are varied and marvelous, each one a tribute to the illustrator who made it and done in their signature style.
A delicious treat of a book. Appropriate for ages 2-5.
Reviewed from copy provided by Henry Holt & Company.
Review: Along the Tapajos by Fernando Vilela
Along the Tapajos by Fernando Vilela, translated by Daniel Hahn (9781542008686)
A boy and his family live along the Tapajos River, one of the biggest rivers in the Amazon rainforest. He and his sister take a boat to get to school. He loves to see the alligators along the way, while she prefers the porpoises. Under the water, lurk some even larger animals just waiting for someone to fall in the water. At school, the rain suddenly begins, starting the winter season that is filled with torrential rainfall and flooding. Everyone rushes home to pack up and head away from the flooding. They take everything but the houses themselves. But the brother and sister have left their tortoise behind accidentally. At night, they sneak out to rescue her. They get back to their flooded village and discover the turtle just about to be devoured by a giant anaconda!
Originally published in Brazil, this picture book tells the story of a way of life that is unique to the Amazon rainforest. The author combines the story of the flooding village and the construction of a new place in the rainforest with a tale of bravery when the children rescue their pet. This also gives readers an opportunity to see the quiet beauty of the flooded village, empty of anyone. The setting itself is a major character, including the many animals, the weather and the river herself. It’s a book that carries readers to a place they never knew existed.
The illustrations are done in a mix of woodcut techniques, drawing and collage that is then used digitally. They have a great texture to them and depth thanks to the woodcuts that offer that organic feel to the images. The rain itself falls white against the golden background of the sky and the river. The book often takes a step back from the immediate action, allowing the riverscape to fill the pages in a way that is very impactful.
Journey to another part of the world in this look at the Amazon rainforest and some of the people who call it home. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Reviewed from library copy.
News to Wake Your Brain Cells Dec 20
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
5 children’s books that celebrate our holiday season – Datebook
5 reasons I always get children picture books for Christmas – The Conversation
15 children’s books celebrating food – EcoWatch
Andrew Clements, author of best-selling children’s book ‘Frindle,’ dies at 70 – The Washington Post
The best books of 2019 to teach kids about identity and acceptance – Mashable
The best children’s books for 2019 for all ages – The Guardian
The best Jewish children’s books of 2019 – Tablet
The Caldecott Medal needs an international makeover – The New York Times
Favorite children’s books of 2019 – Brain Pickings
‘Goodnight Bubbala’ and other Hanukkah-themed children’s books for the holiday season – Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Kids’ books to read again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and… – NPR
Prepare for winter with these cozy reading recommendations – ALSC Blog
LIBRARIES
How the Library of Congress unrolled a 2,000-year-old Buddhist scroll – Atlas Obscura
Is my library liable for fake news? – American Libraries
LA libraries will stop charging late fees and forgive your past-due sins – LAist
No holds barred: policing and security in the public library – In the Library with the Lead Pipe
Why it’s time to quantify the library’s role in the reading marketplace – Publisher’s Weekly
YA LIT
The 10 best YA books of the year (and the decade) – Entertainment Weekly
20 queer YA books for your 2020 TBR – BookRiot
34 promising new YA books to look out for in 2020 – PopSugar
The book truck brings free books to thousands of LA students – SLJ
The decade in young adult fiction – Slate
To outsiders, YA is eating itself; to insiders, it’s bettering itself – BookRiot
Upcoming Netflix teen drama ‘All the Bright Places’ is a love story about two suicidal teens – Yahoo
Review: My Winter City by James Gladstone
My Winter City by James Gladstone, illustrated by Gary Clement (9781773060101)
Experience the wonder of a snowy day in the city with this picture book. Told in poetic text, the story invites you to journey with a child and their father through the snowy streets early in the morning. There is slush and moving buses, plenty of footprints from other people. The bus is crowded and steamy as it takes them to the sledding hill. There they sled and have plenty of snowy fun, even stopping to make snow angels in the park. They return home, sleepy from all of the cold activities outside.
Gladstone’s text really makes this a special day. He creatively shows the beauty of snowfall in the city, including all of the sights and sounds of the experience. Readers will love the descriptions of “crinkly ice crystals” and “light powder pillows” of snow. At one point, they walk past a greenhouse which is “like a warm, rainy summer in a country far away.” All of these small elements and quiet touches add up to a full experience of a wintry day.
Clement’s illustrations embrace the falling snow from a variety of perspectives. He makes sure that the urban setting is central to all of the images, showing the bustle and busyness around the pair of characters. There is a sense of warmth and community here as well.
A snowy day filled with urban delights. Appropriate for ages 2-4.
Reviewed from library copy.
Review: Wintercake by Lynne Rae Perkins
Wintercake by Lynne Rae Perkins (9780062894878)
Thomas lost his basket of dried fruit for his wintercake that he had planned to make for Winter’s Eve. His friend, Lucy, the cardinal heads off into the growing snowstorm and takes shelter at a tea house. There she sees another animal with Thomas’ basket of dried fruit. She just knows that he has stolen it to keep for himself! So when he leaves the restaurant, Lucy follows him, all the way to Thomas’ door, where he returns the fruit and the basket. Realizing how wrong she was, Lucy and Thomas decide to make a wintercake for the stranger. They follow his footprints in the snow to an empty hollow where he sits alone in front of a small fire. The two friends approach, accidentally scaring everyone and drop the cake. But there is still cake to be shared and new friends to meet.
Perkins creates her own solstice-like celebration with animals in a forest setting that will work equally well for other winter holidays. She tells a detailed story, showing how assumptions about strangers can be very wrong and also showing how to make up for thinking that way about someone. The sharing, giving and friendship shown here are rich and detailed. It is a picture book that celebrates new friends and new traditions built upon old friends and long-standing traditions.
Perkins’ art is interesting. There is no real clarity of what sort of animal Thomas is, rather like a bear or a groundhog type of creature. The stranger is more of a weasel, which works well with the story. That lack of clarity is part of the charm of the book. Perkins has also created a warm neighborhood of tea houses and cozy homes in trees. The bare hollow is shown in real contrast to those other spaces, making it all the more cold and lonely.
A lovely addition to holiday books. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Reviewed from library copy.
Review: Bodega Cat by Louie Chin
Bodega Cat by Louie Chin (9781576879320)
Explore the life of a New York City bodega cat in this picture book. Chip is the cat who lives in the Matos family’s bodega. He keeps an eye on everything from the breakfast rush, where he knows everyone’s orders, to the stock on the shelves, that he loves to hide and sleep in. He helps with deliveries too. In the evening when Damian comes home, they play superheroes together, dashing through the neighborhood along with the cat from the grocery store across the street. Dinnertime comes with a Dominican meal shared with neighbors and friends. The bodega never closes, so Chip’s job never ends!
Chin, a native New Yorker, pays homage to his city through the lens of the importance of bodegas and small grocery stores in neighborhoods throughout the city. He cleverly uses the iconic bodega cat as the perspective from which to view the store. Chip is a delight of a character, offering pride, a knowledge of his neighborhood, and a dedication to the people they serve.
The illustrations are done in a comic-book style that works particularly well. They are bright, busy and filled with the bustle of a store. Chip himself hides around the store, offers help, and is in the midst of everything.
A great book about a vital part of New York City. Appropriate for ages 3-5.
Reviewed from library copy.
Review: Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz
Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz (9781640637320)
Isabel loves to ask everyone else their opinions. In fact, it’s what she does for her high school paper column. It helps her make sense of a world where her mother just walked out of their family a few months earlier, leaving Isabel with her father who works most of the time as a hospital administrator. Isabel also spends a lot of time at the hospital, both because it’s where she gets to see her father most, but also because it’s where she gets her treatments for her rheumatoid arthritis. While at the hospital one day, she meets Sasha, a boy who also has his own non-fatal illness. The two hit it off, not dating though because Isabel has rules about dating. Soon Sasha and Isabel are spending a lot of time together. They adventure in New York City but also take lots of naps, don’t walk too far in the cold, and handle a lot of nosebleeds. Now Isabel must figure out if she’s going to start dating for the first time, or stick to the rule.
I have to mention that I worried I was in for a tear-jerker of a book and that it would be a lot like John Green’s A Fault in Our Stars. Those fears went away as I realized that Moskowitz was tackling invisible illnesses, the ones that people have but that don’t threaten their lives, just impact them in a variety of ways. This novel is so lovely, filled with first love, the pressures of whether to change for the other person, and the gorgeous connection that can happen again and again with another person. It’s a novel that balances beautifully the impact of being sick with the delight of being alive.
Isabel and Sasha are both great protagonists. Isabel is wonderfully prickly and sarcastic, unwilling to change for a boy but also worried about the sort of person she is inside. Sasha too is sarcastic but very different from Isabel. Their two families are different too, Isabel left behind by her mother to live mostly alone and Sasha surrounded by a loving family who boisterously support him and what he needs. Yet the two of them make sense, clicking in a way that only the best romantic couples in books do.
A great romance that grapples with illness alongside love. Appropriate for ages 12-15.
Reviewed from e-galley provided by Entangled.
Review: Just in Case You Want to Fly by Julie Fogliano
Just in Case You Want to Fly by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Christian Robinson (9780823443444)
This poetic picture book invites children to take a journey, up into the sky with the some wind, a feather, and a butterfly’s wing. On the adventure, there is are other things offered just in case. Just in case you get an itch, here’s a scratch on the back. Here is a fork and a spoon, a rock and a wish. There are jokes, bells that ring, and your toothbrush too. Honey for tea, a pillow for bed, a blanket, a dream and kisses on the head.
This book is exhilarating and filled with dreams of journeys large and small. It makes a regular day seem like it is full of magical moments, where pennies are wishes, bells ringing are special, and snacks are gifts. At the same time, it doesn’t look away from larger magic like rhinos on the pages, favorite giraffes and umbrellas in the bath. It’s a book full of delights and wonders.
Robinson’s illustrations add to Fogliano’s poetry. He embraces the whimsical nature of the text, creating beauty in the every day too. His pages are filled with characters of different races, all merrily playing together and eventually heading to bed.
A marvelous bedtime read all set to create gorgeous dreams. Appropriate for ages 2-4.
Reviewed from copy provided by Holiday House.
Waking Brain Cells 