Month: March 2020

Being Frog by April Pulley Sayre 

| Tasha

Being Frog by April Pulley Sayre 

Being Frog by April Pulley Sayre (9781534428812)

This gorgeous photo-filled picture book demonstrates that frogs are alive and that frogs are beings. Frogs have favorite things like we do, favorite logs and favorite rocks to sit on. Frogs hunt for food, jumping and leaping. They hide in the shadows and swim in the water. Frogs may have memories of when they were tadpoles. Perhaps they head on journeys over rocks before stopping to sun themselves for a bit. They might sit and think, letting time roll past, slow or fast. All just being a frog.

In her author note, Sayre speaks to the anthropomorphizing of animals in books for children and the importance of seeing animals as different but also important beings on their own. Inspired by her neighborhood frogs, she captured their days and wonders aloud about what they think, remember and do. It’s a picture book distinctly from a human point of view, wondering about nature and giving space for those moments of though for both the reader and the frog alike.

The photographs are stunning, filled with vibrant colors of yellows and green. The frog is center stage, eyes bulging and occasionally leaping towards its prey. The motions are captured rather like anyone at a pond sees frogs jump with glimpses of extended legs almost out of sight. 

Thoughtful and respectful of nature and our frog neighbors. Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy provided by Beach Lane.

On Wings of Words by Jennifer Berne

| Tasha

On Wings of Words by Jennifer Berne

On Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Berne, illustrated by Becca Stadtlander (9781452142975)

Emily Dickinson grew up in a small New England town. As a little girl, she explored the fields and gardens around her home, discovering new words and ways of thinking about the world around her. Her feelings were deeper than most people’s with higher joys and lower sadness. Her thoughts here also deeper, including her love for so much around her. She found sorrows and looked for solutions in school and church, but refused to put her faith in things she could not see. She had her own brand of hope, one that led her to her own truth too. That truth came to life in her poems, not shared with anyone, just with herself. They allowed her to express her feelings and the way she looked at the world, puzzle through things, and ask questions that could not be readily answered. Those same words now inspire so many readers to do the same, find their own voice, look at the world from their own lens: just as Emily did.

Berne writes her prose with a thoughtfulness that allows her to intersperse many of Dickinson’s own words in the text. Dickinson’s poems fly on the page, lifting it up in the way only she can. Berne then serves as her foundational story, offering clarity about Dickinson’s life and then pairing those with poems. It’s a delightful way to introduce young readers to poetry and to Emily Dickinson herself. 

The illustrations have a lot of historically accurate elements like the Dickinson home and surroundings. Still, my favorite illustrations are the ones where Emily’s imagination soars along with the illustrations which become whimsical and wild. 

A grand look at a great poet’s life and work. Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy provided by Chronicle Books.

2020 Lambda Literary Awards Finalists

| Tasha

The finalists for the 32nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards have been announced. Winners will be announced on June 8th.

They have one category that celebrates LGBTQIAP+ books for children and young adults. Here are the finalists in that category:

All the Things We Do in the Dark by Saundra Mitchell

The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante

Hazel’s Theory of Evolution by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Hurricane Season by Nicole Melleby

The Meaning of Birds by Jaye Robin Brown

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Pride Colors by Robin Stevenson

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

 

Layoverland by Gabby Noone

| Tasha

Layoverland by Gabby Noone

Layoverland by Gabby Noone (9781984836120)

Anyone who has ever taken an airplane can completely get behind purgatory being an airport. Still, it is surprising when Bea finds herself first in a car crash and then waking up in an airplane. When Bea discovers she is in purgatory, she wonders why she hasn’t gone straight to hell after the way she treated her sister just before Bea died. Unfortunately, Bea has been selected for a special program where she is removed from the lottery of names to make their way to Heaven and must help 5000 people find their way to Heaven before she can leave the airport. She gets to wear a hideous orange outfit and then is assigned to help the boy who killed her through to Heaven. Now she has to decide whether to help him or keep him in purgatory with her. The choice gets a lot more difficult when she finds out how much fun it is to kiss him and that she just might be falling for him. This may be Hell after all.

Noone’s writing is deft and exactly on the mark, making this novel’s tone just right. The entire purgatory experience is marvelous with showers that don’t have hot water, food encased in jello, and no Internet or real TV. Throw in a girl who can’t wash the mascara drips from her face or wash her dirty hair, and you have a great recipe for a book. When Caleb enters the novel, readers will respond like Bea, not sure whether to detest him or adore him. Their banter is right on, with Bea often offering her own large opinions on things like mansplaining and high school. 

With a concept and writing this good, it is great to have characters this well drawn too. Bea is angry in a way that will speak to all teenage girls. She cares deeply, yet also doesn’t give a crap a lot of the time too. She is manipulative, something which comes in handy with convincing people to open up to her so they can move on to Heaven. The added pressure of the 5,000 lives she must help is twisted and bizarre, giving her just enough room to both care and not care at the same time. 

Hilarious, romantic and never dull, this novel is heavenly. Appropriate for ages 13-17.

Reviewed from library copy.

10 New Books That Celebrate Women’s History Month

| Tasha

A pile of new books that celebrate women and what they have done in STEM, the arts and sports. The books are all new this year, some not released quite yet:

Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier by Jim Ottaviani

Breaking Through: How Female Athletes Shattered Stereotypes in the Roaring Twenties by Sue Macy

Changing the Equation: 50+ US Black Women in STEM by Tonya Bolden

Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera

For Spacious Skies: Katharine Lee Bates and the Inspiration for “America the Beautiful” by Nancy Churnin, illustrated by Olga Baumert

How Women Won the Vote: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big Idea by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dionne

No Steps Behind: Beate Sirota Gordon’s Battle for Women’s Rights in Japan by Jeff Gottesfeld, illustrated by Shiella Witanto

The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita Lorraine Hubbard, illustrated by Oge Mora

To Fly Among the Stars: The Hidden History of the Fight for Women Astronauts by Rebecca Siegel

 

 

 

Catherine’s War by Julia Billet

| Tasha

Catherine’s War by Julia Billet

Catherine’s War by Julia Billet, illustrated by Claire Fauvel (9780062915603)

This graphic novel from France is a reworking of a novel based on the experiences of the author’s mother during World War II as a Jewish child during the Nazi occupation. Rachel lives at a children’s home in Sevres, France in 1942. Her parents are still in Paris. The children’s home allows its students the freedom to study what they are interested in. Rachel loves photography and developing and printing her own images. She begins to document her experiences of the war. Soon as the danger gets closer, Rachel changes her name to Catherine and gets a new identity. She moves from place to place, leaving friends behind, finding new ways of life with each new place she lands. She works on a farm, helps the Resistance, and along the way finds time to take pictures and find places to develop her film. She even manages to fall in love with a boy who loves photography the way she does. Still, she must leave him behind as well, as she continues to try to find a safe place in a world hunting her down. 

Based on her mother’s story, this graphic novel is a dazzling mix of danger and hope. Billet does not minimize the constant danger the Jewish children found themselves in, hiding in cellars and gaining new identities, missing their families horribly. This book is not an adventure across France, but a fearful dash from one safe place to the next, each move causing more loss and anguish. Billet uses hope and the joy of photography to show that life continued despite the war, but always impacted by it. 

The art is marvelous and the story works really nicely as a graphic novel which keeps the pace fast. All of the danger and the moves from place to place spiral past the reader, as new people step forward to offer Catherine a safe place to live for even a brief period of time. The journey and the devastation are one and the same, even when walking through beautiful French landscapes, there is a sense of loss and dread.

A marvelous balance of resilience, tenacity and war. Appropriate for ages 10-13.

Reviewed from library copy.

On a Snow-Melting Day by Buffy Silverman

| Tasha

On a Snow-Melting Day by Buffy Silverman

On a Snow-Melting Day: Seeking Signs of Spring by Buffy Silverman (9781541581180)

This picture book captures the joys of early spring. Using skilled photography as well as rhyming text, explore the various elements of spring’s arrival. Icicles begin to drip, snow becomes slushy, lakes thaw and snowmen droop. Animals react too with birds singing more and sipping from icicles, frogs peeping, and salamanders emerging. Crocuses start to bloom along with other flowers too. The entire landscape is waking up and celebrating spring!

The photos in this book truly capture that tantalizing moment where spring arrives. The majority of them combine ice and snow with signs of spring, offering those fleeting moments of discovery for readers of the book. The text is simple and reads aloud well. It lets readers get glimpses of animals in thrilling ways from piles of sleeping snakes to the chickadee in flight to snatch a drink.

Spring into action and grab this one to make your winter days a little shorter. Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Millbrook Press.

A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor

| Tasha

A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor

A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor (9780062796783)

Lydia was with her mother as she died and soon after is moving to rural Connecticut to live with her Aunt Brat, her wife and their elderly landlord. Lydia brings with her a box of the goddesses that she and her mother created together as they faced the good and bad in their life. She keeps them hidden from Aunt Brat and everyone at her new home, looking for a private place to hang them in honor of her mother. On the weekend after Lydia moves in, the family also adopts a big yellow dog. Lydia isn’t a dog person, having never lived with one, particularly one this large and untrained. Still, Lydia pitches in to help, something that she does a lot with a chirpy voice that doesn’t seem to belong to her. It helps her also cover up secrets like the growing hole in her wall, a tag that might help them find the yellow dog’s new owner, and even a secret of Aunt Brat’s about baby goats. 

Connor’s books are always surprising in the best way. She takes very interesting characters and throws them together here in a new family with a new dog and plenty to hide. The result is a book that untangles itself slowly, revealing new truths and interesting hiding places along the way. The setting of rural Connecticut plays a large role in the story, inviting readers to explore the hills and valleys filled with farms and fields. 

The characters, both human and dog, are exceptionally well drawn. No secondary character is left without a deeper story, and this is done without crowding the main story out. Still, it is Lydia’s story and she is far more than a tragic orphan who has lost her mother. Instead, she is resilient and hard working, willing to always pitch in to help. As she literally grapples with having a new dog in her life, she is also working on new human friends, fitting into a new family, and finding her way forward with new people to love.

Full of dogs, warmth and love, this is another great read from a talented author. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Katherine Tegen Books.

Welcoming Elijah by Leslea Newman

| Tasha

Welcoming Elijah by Leslea Newman

Welcoming Elijah by Leslea Newman, illustrated by Susan Gal (9781580898829)

In a warm, brightly lit home, a Seder is about to start. Outside sits a lonely kitten, looking at the festivities through the window. Guests arrive to the Seder and it begins lit by candles that glow out into the dark night where the kitten sits. The boy washes his hands, dips parsley into salt water, breaks matzo, and listens to the tale of the Israelites leaving Egypt. Outside, the kitten washes his paws, eats a wet blade of grass, drinks from a puddle, and waits. Songs are sung inside and the kitten mewls outdoors. Finally, the door is opened for the prophet Elijah to enter, bringing peace. When the boy opens the door, there is the white kitten who found a home and a name, Elijah.

Newman’s text moves back and forth between the Seder and the darkness outside, cleverly tying the two together in small moments that echo one another. The beauty and solemnity of the Seder works in harmony with the beauty of the night outside and yet contrasts against it as well with the lone kitten and the house full of people. The text is simple and graceful, completed by an Author’s Note that offers more details about Passover, Seders and Ellijah.

The illustrations are done in ink, charcoal and digital collage. They use warm yellows for the indoor Seder and blues and blacks for the night outside. Readers will glimpse the indoor scenes from the kitten’s perspective as well as the darkness outside from inside the home. That connection is maintained throughout the book.

A lovely Passover book with whiskers. Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Charlesbridge.