A young girl moves to a different place with her mother and grandmother, taking a plane and a car. Throughout there is a connection to nature, birds pass windows and fish surge in the water. But the sounds are different at her new home and so are the customs and rules. Slowly, new friends are made and a new home is formed.
With illustrations that are an enticing blend of vintage lines and modern color, this book speaks to tradition and family but also new possibilities in both its story and art style.
Two Peruvian-Americans come together to create a warm and delightful picture book biography of Alberto Salas, a Peruvian scientist who dedicated his life to potatoes. Searching for wild potatoes through the Peruvian landscape is a treat with that landscape depicted by a Caldecott-honoree illustrator. From the hilly land to Salas’ notes to finding the spark of a potato in the mud to the potatoes themselves, readers will be amazed by the colors on the page.
This book tackles climate change, the need for scientists and the manual labor that it sometimes takes for science to happen and to discover something that can feed a changing world. Enjoy this game of hide-and-seek!
Just finished Everything Is Poison by Joy McCullough. Just the 17th century Italian YA novel that modern readers need right now. Full of strong women taking care of their community plus the beauty of found family and an apothecary. http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/746825…
A truly great YA read that is engrossing, filled with fascinating details about apothecary work, and a call for women to fight, survive, and thrive on their own terms. The text is an engaging mix of prose and poetry, offering small glimpses of other people of that time who are living very different yet hauntingly similar lives. Highly recommended.
I’ll be taking a break from blogging. Thank you to all of my readers and the publishers who have supported my little corner of the Internet over the years.
Yours in Books by Julie Falatko, illustrated by Gabriel Alborozo (9781951836207)
Owl is looking for peace and quiet to be able to read his books. So he reaches out to a local bookshop to get titles that might help. After getting the store’s catalog, he asks for titles like “How to Soundproof Your Forest Dwelling” and “The Can-Do Guide to Moving to a Remote Tropical Island.” However, the store doesn’t have those titles, instead sending other books, ones that are helping as the youngsters of the forest begin to listen to Owl read stories aloud, bake treats together, and make crafts. Happily, the books selected by the cheery squirrel are just what Owl actually needs.
Told entirely in the letters being exchanged, the emerging relationship between Owl and Squirrel is a joy. At first businesslike, the accurate assessment by Squirrel of the book that Owl truly needs leads to exchanges of jokes and invitations to tea parties and visiting the bookshop. The entire book is about accepting a changing neighborhood complete with young and eager visitors who may also be exactly what Owl needs in his life.
The simple illustrations evoke the warm and lovely life in the woods. From the book-filled shop to the often spattered Owl looking surprised that some things are actually working out well. Readers will want to join in on their tea party and also head out to visit the bookshop and have Squirrel pick a tome just for them.
Full of friendship, letters, books and baking. What a treat! Appropriate for ages 3-5.
Bright Brown Baby by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney (9780545872294)
Spending happy time together with a baby is made simple with this new offering from the prolific and marvelous Pinkneys. Starting each chapter with a quotation from a major Black figure sets the tone for this treasury, ensuring that each story celebrates being a Black baby. Some of the stories focus on counting, others play peek-a-boo, and they all speak to self esteem and love.
The text is simple enough for the youngest of children, each page looking more like a board book. That makes sense when you know that each of the chapters in the treasury are going to be released in board book format as well with one of them out already. Still, there is a beauty in seeing them all together in one book, because the movement from one chapter to the next works well and keeps the lap time going.
The illustrations are bright and full of warmth. They are filled with families and little ones of different genders and sizes all hugging, playing and spending time with one another.
Lots of love for brown and Black babies and families. Appropriate for ages 1-3.
Room for Everyone by Naaz Khan, illustrated by Mercè López (9781534431393)
Musa and Dada take the daladala to the shore, but the bus stops for a lot of others along the way. How many people can they fit inside? First there is one old man and his bicycle. Next a herder with two little goats. Then vendors with their three baskets of fruit. And on it goes counting upwards until it gets to ten swimmers with snorkels and fins. Somehow everyone fits into the daladala and everyone gets to the beach successfully. Though it takes a lot of wiggling and giggling along the trip.
This picture book offers a glimpse of life in East Africa, filled with kindness and care for one another as people squeeze together to make sure there is room for everyone. The counting structure of the book works well, but it is the boy’s response to each person and his doubt that they will fit that adds to the humor of the book. The rhyming is well done, adding to the pace of the book and the building pressure inside the daladala.
The illustrations are full of bright, hot colors that make heat of the day apparent to the reader. There is a playfulness to the illustrations with lots of stacking, moving, shifting and wiggling to make room as each new stop is made.
Funny and full of community kindness, this is a great trip to the beach. Appropriate for ages 2-4.
Waking Brain Cells 