Month: May 2020

I Can Be Anything by Shinsuke Yoshitake

| Tasha

I Can Be Anything by Shinsuke Yoshitake

I Can Be Anything by Shinsuke Yoshitake (9781452180380)

At bedtime, a little girl insists that her mother play a guessing game with her. She pretends to be something and her mother must guess what she is. Her mother is reluctant and it’s clear that the little girl has gotten grumpy playing this game in the past. Readers will soon realize that this is a much more difficult game than they might have thought! The mother makes logical guesses but each time is wrong as the little girl pretends to be everything from an omelette to Mount Fuji. By the end of the game, the little girl is very tired and finally falls asleep in the middle of acting something out. Readers and the mother wonder what that might have been.

Yoshitake takes a classic moment in childhood and makes it priceless. She captures both the tired mother and the dynamic child deftly in this clever picture book. The mother getting everything wrong is pitch perfect as is the little girl’s building frustration with the situation. The relationship between them is quietly loving and filled with acceptance. The art in the book is simple and effective, showing the little girl’s version of the object and then an image of the actual thing.

Just right for all children trying to avoid bedtime. Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy provided by Chronicle Books.

 

News to Wake Your Brain Cells – May 15

| Tasha

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

For kids who don’t have books at home, communities are working to reach them – SLJ

Mem Fox on fear, creativity and Covid-19: ‘What if I die with the story unfinished?’ – The Guardian

Watch Michelle and Barack Obama a read children’s book for Chicago Public Library – Chicago Sun Times

With a dozen new books this year alone, Kate Messner is smashing expectations – Publishers Weekly

LIBRARIES

13 Pioneering Black American Librarians You Oughta Know – Book Riot

Arts, parks and libraries bear the brunt of 472 furloughs as City of Dallas reacts to pandemic – KERA

Corpus Christi Public Libraries reopening with restrictions in place – KIII

Madison Public Library moves to curbside pickup on Monday – Wisconsin State Journal

North Platte (Nebraska) Public Library to open with restrictions – KNOP

TEEN LIT

The return of the YA vampire – Publishers Weekly

Southwest Sunrise by Nikki Grimes

| Tasha

Southwest Sunrise by Nikki Grimes

Southwest Sunrise by Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Wendell Minor (9781547600823)

Told in first person, this is the story of a boy moving from New York to New Mexico. He wakes up to a mountain “striped in rainbows” that he didn’t notice there the night before. He knows that deserts are only tans and browns, so he doesn’t anticipate the colors that he finds. As he leaves the house with a guide book, he quickly notices the patches of desert flowers. He discovers an adobe house, spots a magpie in the trees, and notices the broad blue spread of sky above him. As he moves on, he sees a raven, holds a lizard, and finds a tortoise. Rock formations form new skyscrapers for him.

Grimes has created a love song for the desert here, filled with all of the elements that will fascinate children who either already love the desert or who have never experienced it before. She plays against stereotypes of deserts, noting the bright flowers that bloom there, the various animals who live in that habitat and the span of sky. Through the eyes of Jayden, readers explore alongside him.

Minor brilliantly captures the beauty and expanse of the desert in this picture book. He plays with framing his landscapes at first through windows, and then in a two-page spread allows the landscape to burst in front of the reader as if they too opened a door wide and stepped through.

An ode to the beauty of the southwestern United States and its desert. Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from ARC provided by Bloomsbury.

The Next President by Kate Messner

| Tasha

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The Next President by Kate Messner, illustrated by Adam Rex (9781452174884)

This remarkable book takes presidential history and makes it both an exploration throughout time as well as an invitation to see oneself as a potential president. The book begins with George Washington as president and points out that when he was president there were nine future presidents alive with four of them already working at the capital with Washington. Readers will see presidents as children, teens and adults. They will watch them progress to being president, seeing the similarities and differences among the men who have been president. Yet most important of all is that they themselves might just be the future president who is currently alive.

Messner’s text is marvelous. It appears in bubbles that swirl through the illustrations or short paragraphs, making it bite-sized and inviting for young readers. Moving from one to the next, moves readers to a new president. Each one has interesting facts shared about them as well as glimpses of several of them over the course of their lives before they became president.

Rex’s illustrations are great. He creates recognizable images of past and present presidents as well as younger versions of them that are clearly still them. It’s a wonderful way to view presidents as human and to invite all children to see their own potential to lead.

Inviting, interesting and invigorating. Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy provided by Chronicle Books.

 

Green on Green by Dianne White

| Tasha

Green on Green by Dianne White

Green on Green by Dianne White, illustrated by Felicita Sala (9781481462785)

Explore the changing colors of seasons through this poetic picture book. The colors slide together, dynamically playing in the seasons in ways that surprise and delight. Yellow on green is lemonade and bees buzzing. Spring is new bird song, rain and breeze, yellow on green. Summer comes in on turquoise water with beaches and swimming. It is also peaches, sun and shade, blue on green. Fall is cinnamon and squirrels, brown on green. Corn, pumpkins and candles too. Winter is white with snow and gray skies, white on green. Green as spring returns.

There are so many season books, many that I really enjoy. This one though is very special. It takes colors and shows young readers how they pair and shift and change over the course of the seasons. Green stays constant, always there under snow or next to blue waters. The poetry here invites readers to explore things more deeply, to look beyond the first color they think of for a season. It reads aloud beautifully, the measures actually reading aloud better than they do silently on the page. It turns into a dance like the colors themselves.

Sala’s illustrations are lush and colorful, showing a family of color who experience the seasons together. Children will also notice the mother’s stomach growing rounder as the months pass and then a baby appearing. Throughout there is a strong feeling of family and community.

A lovely new way to see colors and seasons. Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy provided by Beach Lane Books.

Daring Darleen, Queen of the Screen by Anne Nesbet

| Tasha

Daring Darleen, Queen of the Screen by Anne Nesbet

Daring Darleen, Queen of the Screen by Anne Nesbet (9781536206197)

Darleen has grown up in the movie industry, first appearing as a baby and now at age twelve as “Daring Darleen” in a series of silent films. It is 1914 and the trend is to have the worlds of film and real life converge, so Darleen’s uncles make a plan for her to be kidnapped from outside a movie theater while being filmed by them. Everything seems to be going to plan until Darleen is snatched by the wrong kidnappers and discovers that she has been taken along with Victorine, a girl just her age who is an heiress. The two must figure out how to escape, using Darleen’s natural penchant for heights and daring moves that her dead mother also had. Still, she had promised her father to keep her feet on the ground, but that’s hard to do as her adventures continue almost like being in a real screenplay.

There is so much to love here! Nesbet creates the daring and inventions of early film-making in this middle-grade novel. The chapters are meant to be episodes, some offering a great cliffhanger until the next installment. The series of adventures makes for a page-turner of a book with two girls at its center who form a grand friendship along the way and adore one another for being just who they are.

Darleen is a heroine through and through from her day job in front of the camera but even more so in real life as she skillfully figures out puzzles, finds ways to escape, and does it all with real courage. In many ways, Victorine is her opposite. She wants to tell the truth at all costs, knows all sorts of facts and loves books and travel. The two together form an unstoppable force. It is also great to see Nesbet pay homage to Alice Guy Blache by having her as a secondary character in the novel.

A grand adventure of a novel that will have readers enthralled. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Candlewick.

We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom

| Tasha

We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom

We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade (9781250203557)

Two indigenous book creators have created a picture book that celebrates the North American indigenous battles to protect our water. Water is the the first medicine; it is where we all come from and nourishes us in the womb and on earth. There is talk of a black snake that will spoil the water, poisoning it. The black snake had been foretold for many years, and now it is here. Courage is the answer to it and the willingness to stand up and insist that water be protected. Nature cannot speak for itself, so we must speak and fight on its behalf. We can all be water protectors.

Lindstrom has written a book that calls out to be shared aloud. She has used an effective refrain: “We stand/ With our songs/ And our drums./ We are still here.” The importance of standing up and of Native people being visible as modern members of our society is vital here. The call to action in this picture book is also clarion clear and incredibly empowering. This book explains to the youngest children what the protests on Native lands are all about and why they are vital to all of us.

Goade’s illustrations are done in watercolor that washes across the pages in waves, swirls, and skies. The colors are deep and dynamic, showing nature in all of its beauty and demonstrating page after page what we are fighting to protect.

Strong and important. Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy provided by Roaring Brook Press.

Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade

| Tasha

Exquisite The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade

Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera (9781419734113)

Gwendolyn Brooks grew up in Chicago, raised in a family that loved words, books and poetry. At age eleven, she sent four poems to a newspaper, and they were printed. She also submitted a poem to a magazine. But then the Great Depression happened and publications were no longer printing poems. Gwendolyn went to school and then to college. She got married and had children, writing poems all the while. She captured the hardworking neighborhood of Bronzeville in Chicago where she lived. Steadily, she started to get her poems published and then submitted a group of poems to a New York publisher. They not only accepted the poems, but asked for more to complete an entire book. She eventually had two books, but still wasn’t able to make enough money to get by. Her electricity had been shut off when she heard that her book had won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry!

Slade’s picture book biography of Brooks details a life spent with a love of words but also one that is impacted greatly by poverty. Her life is one filled with early promise as a child, but one that was also put on hold by the economy. Her story is inspiring, showing how a life of hard work and speaking the truth of a community can eventually be noticed.

The art in the book is done in acrylic. The pages are filled with pinks, greens and blues as backgrounds that float like clouds. Against this, realistic depictions of Brooks and her family glow.

A splendid biography of an important African-American poet. Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy provided by Abrams.

 

 

Things That Go Away by Beatrice Alemagna

| Tasha

Things That Go Away by Beatrice Alemagna

Things That Go Away by Beatrice Alemagna (9781419744822)

Turn the pages of this picture book and watch as things steadily go away, one after the next. Bubbles float off, bird fly past, small wounds vanish with time. Steam dissipates, leaves fall and bad weather moves on. Emotions are the same with fear going away, tears drying and bad thoughts not staying. The book has a wry sense of humor as even lice moves on out of your hair, baby teeth falling out, and hair moving from one person to another. Everything is changing in the picture book, all going away but for most of it we don’t miss it afterwards.

Award-winning Italian author, Alemagna, has created a picture book with simple text but a deep premise. The sense of change is huge in this picture book and a feeling that things are not within our control either. The book is very cleverly designed, with see-through pages that show the changes happening. The items on the clear page are simple, moving from one page to the next very effectively. The background images have a modern wildness to them that is very welcome.

A dynamic picture book about things going away and constant change that children will adore as they turn the pages back and forth. Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy provided by Abrams Books for Young Readers.