AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books – 2021 Longlists

November 11, 2020November 10, 2020 | Tasha

The AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books is awarded for “outstanding science writing and illustration for children and young adults.” It encourages the writing and publishing of high-quality science books for all ages. Below are the longlists for middle grades and picture books. The young adult list tends to be adult nonfiction titles, you can find that here. All of these lists are great collection development tools for librarians. Here are the longlisted titles:

2021 Longlist for Children’s Science Picture Book Award

The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity: A Tale of the Genius Ramanujan by Amy Alznauer. Illustrated by Daniel Miyares

Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist by Linda Skeers. Illustrated by Marta Alvarez Miguens

Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera by Candace Fleming. Illustrated by Eric Rohmann

If You Take Away the Otter by Susannah Buhrman-Deever. Illustrated by Matthew Trueman

Mario and the Hole in the Sky: How a Chemist Saved Our Planet by Elizabeth Rusch. Illustrated by Teresa Martínez

Our World Is Relative by Julia Sooy. Illustrated by Molly Walsh

Packs: Strength in Numbers by Hannah Salyer

Winged Wonders: Solving the Monarch Migration Mystery by Meeg Pincus. Illustrated by Yas Imamura

2021 Longlist for Middle Grades Science Book Award

The Book of Big Science Ideas: From Atoms to AI and from Gravity to Genes…How Science Shapes Our World by Freya Hardy. Illustrated by Sara Mulvanny

Can You Hear the Trees Talking?: Discovering the Hidden Life of the Forest by Peter Wohlleben

Condor Comeback by Sy Montgomery. Photographs by Tianne Strombeck

Eclipse Chaser: Science in the Moon’s Shadow by Ilima Loomis. Photographs by Amanda Cowan

Eels by Rachel Poliquin. Illustrated by Nicholas John Frith

Growing Up Gorilla: How a Zoo Baby Brought Her Family Together by Clare Hodgson Meeker

Save the Crash-test Dummies by Jennifer Swanson. Illustrated by TeMika Grooms

Under Pressure: The Science of Stress by Tanya Lloyd Kyi. Illustrated by Marie-Ève Tremblay

Trowbridge Road by Marcella Pixley

November 11, 2020October 13, 2020 | Tasha

Trowbridge Road by Marcella Pixley (9781536207507)

June Bug lives with her mother in the house on Trowbridge Road that everyone thinks is haunted. Her father died of AIDS, leaving June Bug with her mother who is scared of germs and obsessed with being clean. That means that she never leaves the house and food can be scarce. June Bug’s uncle brings her food once a week, limited because her mother won’t allow him to come more often, so she is often hungry as the supplies run out. Then Ziggy arrives to live with his grandmother down the road. June Bug watches them from a nearby tree, dreaming of being friends and sharing the food that his grandmother prepares for him throughout the day. Ziggy too has experienced his own troubles, immediately getting the attention of the local bullies. As June Bug and Ziggy meet and become friends, their troubles mount, but they have one another as a safe place to share and heal, because at times home is not that place at all.

Set in the mid-80’s, this novel for middle graders is written with such beauty. Pixley creates a neighborhood that is lovingly shown as a mix of safety, imaginative play and also reveals the harshness of reality too. From the foundations of a fallen house where magic blossoms to the shelter of a large tree that can be scrambled up and down, this is a neighborhood seen through the eyes of two creative children who create their own reality together to care for one another.

The two protagonists are children who have experience abuse of various kinds and find kindred spirits in one another. They have both been hungry, both been physically hurt, and both lived with emotional abuse. They are both survivors, using their imagination and the neighborhood itself as places to escape to together. The power of love soars through this book, in extended families who offer care and shelter, in neighbors who reach out and take action. It’s a book about being able to ask for help and the positive change that can come when aid arrives.

Wrenching, powerful and filled with hope, this book is exceptional. Appropriate for ages 11-14.

Reviewed from copy provided by Candlewick.

The Boy and the Gorilla by Jackie Azúa Kramer

November 10, 2020September 28, 2020 | Tasha

*Cover image for The Boy and the Gorilla*

The Boy and the Gorilla by Jackie Azúa Kramer, illustrated by Cindy Derby (9780763698324)

In a sad, gray world, a huge gorilla appears. He joins a boy out in his mother’s garden. The two talk about the death of his mother, about how you know when someone is dead. The two spend time together, coloring, flying kites on the beach. The beach was one of his mother’s favorite places. The boy misses his mother’s pancakes and her reading books at bedtime. Sometimes he just wants to be alone. Other times, he wants to climb high into trees to see if he can reach his mother. The gorilla stays at his side throughout, while baking Mom’s special cookies, picking daisies in her garden and playing baseball. Eventually, the boy reached out to his father about how much he misses his mother. After holding father and son close, the gorilla moved off, heading elsewhere.

Kramer tells a gentle and sorrowful story here, where sadness and loss is embodied in a huge, purple and black gorilla. That gorilla shows such tenderness and such attention to the boy, keeping silent when needed, dashing up trees together, sitting and lingering with one another. The gorilla becomes more than loss, he becomes care and healing without pressure or timetable. The book reads in a series of linked scenes, the process not linear but complex with motion forward and back. It is not until the boy connects more with his father that progress is made, a new team formed.

The art by Derby is instrumental here. Her huge and furry gorilla appears out of the gray, his black and purple dark against the fog of loss. Color tones are used very effectively through her watercolors in the book, moving from the initial grays to more blues, eventually having touches of red and yellow, sunshine nearby. Towards the end of the book, the pages are aglow with light and hope.

A lovely and touching look at loss. Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Candlewick.

This Is Your Time by Ruby Bridges

November 10, 2020November 2, 2020 | Tasha

This Is Your Time by Ruby Bridges (9780593378526)

At age six, Ruby Bridges was the first Black child to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. She had to be escorted to school by federal marshals, leading to iconic photographs of her small size and the screaming, threatening crowds. In this book for children, Bridges tells the story of her harrowing time attending school, how she was taught in a classroom all by herself with a teacher who made her feel safe and loved, and how it felt to be that little girl. Filled with historical photographs, the book shows and explains the battle for desegregation across the country and also the modern fights for equity, inclusion and antiracism.

This is one of those books that gives chills. It is a profoundly moving read as Bridges shares photos that demonstrate the intensity of the battle, the danger she was in, and the bravery that it took her and her family to take such a public stand for change. As Bridges moves into talking about modern youth and their battles, she maintains the same tone, challenging all of us to join us in the fight for civil rights and social justice.

The photographs and the iconic Norman Rockwell picture add a deep resonance to this book, taking Bridges’ beautifully written words and elevating them. The photo selection is done for the most impact, at times mixing modern and historical photographs together to show how little has changed but also how important the fight is.

One of the most important books of the year, this brings history and future together in one cry for justice. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Random House Children’s Books.

Butterflies Belong Here by Deborah Hopkinson

November 9, 2020October 8, 2020 | Tasha

Butterflies Belong Here by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Meilo So (9781452176802)

A Latina little girl has moved to the United States, discovering that she acts like a caterpillar and hides in the back of the class since she can’t speak English. In the summer, she looks for monarch butterflies, but can’t find any even in the community garden. In fall, she finishes her book about monarch butterflies. Able to read better now, she learns that the monarchs need milkweed to survive. Encouraged by her school librarian and inspired by the monarch’s migration, she forms a plan that she presents to her class. It’s hard to stand in front of the class and speak in English, but she really wants to plant a migration station for the monarch butterflies. Soon they are all working together, led by her, to create the station. She feels herself evolving now, into a citizen activist who stands at the front of the crowd.

The parallels between the narrator’s experience and that of the monarch butterfly offers a great framework for this picture book. Those connections are not overplayed, rather they form the reason that this little girl finds solace in studying butterflies. Interspersed throughout the book are excerpts from the nonfiction book on butterflies that she is reading. It’s a clever way to offer information in a separate and clear way.

The illustrations show a girl finding her way in a new country and a new city. The transformation in her body language as she becomes more confident and finds her voice is profound in the illustrations. By the end, she glows on the page alongside her garden.

An inspiring look at how to help butterflies but also how to find your voice. Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from copy provided by Chronicle Books.

Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

November 9, 2020October 8, 2020 | Tasha

*Cover image for Everything Sad Is Untrue*

Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri (9781646140008)

Khosrou answers his teacher’s writing prompts with stories of his extended Persian family. He and his older sister and mother immigrated to Oklahoma, often living in a motel while staying away from his mother’s abusive new husband, who she marries and divorces multiple times. The other kids in his class don’t believe his stories. They are full of blood and poop, told by a boy who doesn’t speak or think like them who is unpopular and hairy and whose lunch smells bad. Khosrou’s stories though reveal where he came from, a home with birds in the walls and a family of huge wealth. They show how his mother and sister found Christianity, putting their lives at risk in Iran and the resulting loss of his father, his nation and their status. The story moves between life in Oklahoma, full of bullies and violence to the amazing setting of Iran filled with the smell of jasmine, epic grandparents, and color.

Closely tied to Scheherazade’s story telling in One Thousand and One Nights, this novel is remarkable. Nayeri beautifully uses that framework of a series of stories that lead one to the next, hinting at future tales and never stopping as they move forward. He incorporates stories at so many levels, from poop humor that is a welcome relief (pun intended) to stories of his family in Iran to stories of immense bravery to stories of abuse and fear. It’s a world of stories that shows the tangled lives of immigrants, from what they have lost to what they discover as well.

Nayeri tells his own personal story here. It’s tie to his own childhood is clear, giving the stories an honesty that shines through even when the story is fantastic and wild. The book is like a woven Persian tapestry, though I don’t see the single fault that Nayeri has woven into it. It’s complete and marvelous, a rug of jewels that can still be walked on by us all.

A journey of a book that deeply shows the experience of an Iranian immigrant. Appropriate for ages 12-15.

Reviewed from library copy.

Hamish Takes the Train by Daisy Hirst

November 6, 2020November 2, 2020 | Tasha

Hamish Takes the Train by Daisy Hirst (9781536216592)

Hamish the bear and Noreen the goose love to watch trains together. Hamish longs to take a train to the city, but Noreen isn’t interested. So Hamish set off, following the train tracks on foot. When he got to the station though, he found he needed a ticket, so he just kept on walking. As night fell, he came to a railroad yard and discovered a caboose all lit up inside. There he found Christov who was sick with the flu and too ill to go to work in the morning and run a big crane. So Hamish offered to help. He borrowed Christov’s hat and jacket and headed into the city on the train. When he got to the building site though, he didn’t have any boots, luckily he was able to find some nearby. Then it was time to run the huge crane. Hamish worked hard, running the crane from the cozy cabin. He did it for the five days that Christov was sick and was offered a job himself by the end. But Hamish was missing Noreen and took a train home, to share his adventures with her, and maybe have some new ones together.

Hirst tells a charming tale of Hamish, a bear with a taste for adventure and trying new things. He is also a very helpful and thoughtful character, helping out where he can and finding unique solutions to problems he encounters along the way. I was most impressed that Hamish was a success as he tried to help. It became a celebration of trying new things, learning and succeeding rather than what is often seen in children’s books like Curious George where helping becomes failing in a funny way.

The art is simple and friendly, capturing both the expanse of the countryside and the bustle of the city streets. Some of the pages are fully colored while others use white space and smaller images that move the story ahead. Throughout there is a sense of happy positivity.

A glorious adventure full of trains and cranes. Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Candlewick Press.

News to Wake Your Brain Cells – Nov. 6

November 6, 2020November 5, 2020 | Tasha

When Children’s Books Go Accidentally NSFW – The Graham Norton Show

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

A complete list of the best children’s books of 2020 – Moms

Indigenous Peoples Booklist – CBC

Kids’ graphic novels that turn the superhero genre on its head – The New York Times

Winner announced for inaugural youth book prize for social justice – CBC

LIBRARIES

Missed the SLJ Summit? You can access the full program on demand. – SLJ

Vandalization at major libraries aims at voter intimidation – Book Riot

YA LIT

10 new YA books to get lost in this November – PopSugar

Goodreads Choice Awards

November 5, 2020November 2, 2020 | Tasha

The opening round of voting for the Goodreads Choice Awards is now open and runs through November 8th. There is then a semifinal round and a final round before the winners are announced on December 8th. I enjoy these lists because they contain books that are popular but often don’t make the traditional “librarian” review sources. There are teen titles scattered in other categories like debut novel and graphic novels that you shouldn’t miss! Here are the nominees in the specifically youth categories:

YOUNG ADULT FICTION