Book Reviews

Review: Train by Elisha Cooper

| Tasha

train

Train by Elisha Cooper

Join the trains as they cross the United States in this fast-moving picture book.  Start on the platform with the conductors and passengers.  Then the doors whoosh shut and “All aboard” and we are off.  First the train is near the city, then it’s quickly out into the countryside.  The Commuter Train stops at the next station.  Then the story switches to a Passenger Train with an enormous engine and readers get to see inside the engineer’s cab with all of the levers.  The train crosses the countryside and then the book turns to a Freight Train that goes so slowly.  It is passed by an Overnight Train that curves up into the Rocky Mountains.  People head to their cabins to sleep and wake for breakfast in the dining car.  Their train is then passed by a High-Speed Train that blurs and finally glides into the station.  Your journey has ended, unless you read it again.

Perfect for young train lovers, they will learn about the different types of trains and terrain along this railroad clacking journey.  They also get tantalizing glimpses into the trains and their cars.  There are long images of rows of seats filled with people and curving rails ahead of the engine.  Young readers will also enjoy seeing how you sleep on a train and where you eat.  Cooper reaches beyond these details though and really captures the rhythm of train travel and the way they are so huge yet so dwarfed by the landscape.

Cooper’s illustrations are done in his signature loose style.  This works particularly well with landscapes and crowded train yards.  Children used to seeing exacting details on machinery will quickly get used to this less precise art style.  Instead of details, Cooper manages to capture atmosphere and feel in his illustrations.  This lets his trains race across the landscape showing the feel of that movement and speed.

Another magnificent picture book from Cooper, get this into the hands of young train fans or families heading on a train trip.  All aboard!   Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Orchard Books.

Review: Moonday by Adam Rex

| Tasha

moonday

Moonday by Adam Rex

This luminous picture book answers the question about what would happen if the moon lowered itself into your backyard.  The boy in the story finds the moon so slow in his yard that he can not just touch it, but climb around on it and into its craters.  The rest of the world though, stayed dark as night.  The children had to go to school in the darkness and everyone was tired.  Back home, they tried to hide the moon under tablecloths and blankets.  But then the tide entered their yard and the dogs gathered to howl at the moon too.  So the family took the moon for a drive and it followed their car until they went to the top of a big hill and it got caught in the tops of the trees.  They asked it to stay there, and there it hung, once more high in the air.

This is a treat of a picture book.  It doesn’t just ask the question about what would happen if the moon dropped into your yard, but it also finds a solution that is satisfying and beautiful.  I loved that the story is bookended by the drive in the car where the moon followed them home and then another drive where they returned it to the sky.  The entire book has a sense of wonder about it, but also a great foundation of practicality and humor. 

Rex’s art glows on the page.  The moon is bright and round, filling every page it appears on with a white, wintry glow.  The other pages show the darkness which makes the moon all that much brighter when it appears.  The moon covered with tablecloths and blankets is not dimmer at all, just lightly patterned. 

Magical and beautiful, this book is dreamlike and special.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: When Lions Roar by Robie H. Harris

| Tasha

when lions roar

When Lions Roar by Robie H. Harris, illustrated by Chris Raschka

The author of It’s Perfectly Normal joins forces with a Caldecott Medalist to create this picture book.  It is the story of a young boy who is overwhelmed by a visit to the zoo with all of the animal noises.  He also gets scared of a thunder storm, sirens and mommy and daddy shouting.  When it all becomes too frightening, the boy sits down, shuts his eyes and tells the scary to go away.  And it does.  Then he can hear the quiet again and he stands back up and opens his eyes.  He is off to run in the sunshine, look at nature and hear the softer sounds around him.

This is a simple picture book with lines that don’t rhyme but a rhythm that ties them all together into almost verse.  Harris captures the feeling of a child overwhelmed by noise but also by negative things happening.  I appreciate that the child solves the issue on his own by becoming introspective and mindful and not by having a tantrum.  It is a book about centering oneself and calming down even in a loud environment.  The return to being able to hear the softer things and enjoy your surroundings again is particularly effective.

Rashka’s art is his signature style with loose sweeps of paint in bright colors.  His images are swirls of movement that work very well with the subject matter.  From the noises in the air to the quieter moments, the boy’s entire body language changes as he gives in to the overwhelming feelings first and then recovers from them.

A strong book, this is one that will encourage children to center themselves and be in charge of their own reactions to overstimulation.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Orchard Books.

Review: See What a Seal Can Do by Chris Butterworth

| Tasha

see what a seal can do

See What a Seal Can Do by Chris Butterworth, illustrated by Kate Nelms

This nonfiction picture book follows a gray seal through its day.  The seal starts off on shore where it is flumping along the sand, seeming slow and sleepy.  Then it enters the water and what seemed awkward on land makes it able to swim with incredible grace.  As the seal swims, readers learn about their different anatomy, including their ears, whiskers, fins and blubber.  At the bottom of the ocean, the seal eats fish and then eats more on its way up to the air again.  Returning to the beach, the seal is ready for another nap. 

Butterworth truly celebrates this animal in her book.  She writes with a mix of prose and poetry, making sure that readers understand how fascinating seals are.  Throughout, she uses metaphors to make sure that children relate to the animal.  Blubber is compared to a warm blanket.  The seaweed at the bottom is a forest.  The seal swims like a rocket in the water. 

There are many science picture books that use the format of larger text for the basic story and then smaller text for more details.  Perhaps best about this book is that Butterworth uses both sections of the book to share scientific information, too often the science is left mostly to the smaller text and younger readers miss out on the fascinating facts.

The artwork by Nelms is simply exquisite.  Just like the seal, the book really comes alive in its underwater scenes. Nelms manages to offer lots of small details to look at, but also to capture the wavering light and softness of water.  There are illustrations throughout that have a beautiful depth to them, inviting us to hidden places under the water.

A beauty of a science book, this celebration of seals gets my enthusiastic seal of approval.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Review: Bully by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

| Tasha

bully

Bully by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Seeger has created a very different style of book from her recent Green and First the Egg.  Here there is a bull who doesn’t know how to make friends.  He’s been bullied by the other bulls and when asked to play by some other animals responds in the same way.  He puffs himself up and calls them all names until one little goat stands up to him and calls him a bully.  Then he realizes the way that he’s been acting.  He returns to his regular size, no longer puffed up and cruel, and apologizes to them.  Luckily, they are still willing to play with him.

Still done in her ultra-simple style, this book has only a few words.  Most of the bullying is conveyed by the artwork and the bull’s posture and size.  He becomes so dominant on the page while he is bullying others that it is impossible to see anything but him.  The illustrations are done in flat color and thick lines with handmade paper as the background. 

Really capturing the feel when you are being bullied, this book also shows that if you are bullying others, you can self-correct and still be friends.  The simple style and direct message make this more appropriate for very young children ages 2-4.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Locomotive by Brian Floca

| Tasha

locomotive

Locomotive by Brian Floca

This book thoroughly celebrates the days of steam trains when rails were just starting to bridge the nation.  It begins with the building of the railroad, coming from east and west and meeting in the middle.  Filled with the sounds of building and the sounds of trains, this book fairly sings with the noises of the railroad.  Your trip starts on a quiet platform waiting for a train.  Once aboard, readers learn about the way steam powers the engine and the jobs of different people aboard.  Readers ride aboard the train, visit the bathroom which is basically a hole in the floor, and sleep along the way.  On the way west, you can see the landscape change, cross fragile bridges and enter black tunnels.  This entire book is a stirring testament to steam engines and the people who worked them.

Floca offers so many details here.  One might think that would slow the book down, but it is really all about those details and the entire experience of travel by steam train.  He keeps the interest level high by being very selective of the facts he shares.  It makes the reading fascinating and even young train buffs should learn a thing or two. 

Floca’s illustrations are beautiful.  He lingers over details in his images as well as in the text.  Readers get to see mechanisms close up, feel the speed of the train as it moves forward, and see the light reflecting off of the tight tunnel walls.  He creates an experience here that speaks to the time period clearly with his choice of fonts and the design of the entire book.  His illustrations are sometimes front and center, other times serving more as diagrams of interesting facts. 

Gorgeous illustrations, fascinating facts and a clear love of the subject make this a riveting read whether you are a train buff or not.  Appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

| Tasha

fangirl

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Cath knows exactly what she is.  She’s a fan of Simon Snow, a magical series of books that rival Harry Potter in popularity.  She’s a twin.  She’s a college freshman.  And she does not want to go out and meet people or party.  She’s much happier in her dorm room writing fan fiction about Simon Snow and his arch nemesis Baz, where she has reworked them as a steamy gay couple.  Cath’s twin also attends the same college, but Wren does not want to be seen much together and is completely into the college party scene.  So Cath spends much of her time alone or with her prickly new roommate, eating protein bars and peanut butter because the dining hall freaks her out.  Soon Cath will be asked to choose between writing fiction and writing Simon Snow fan fiction.  She will need to figure out how to let her Dad live his own life even though he is fragile.  But most of all, she needs to figure out how to live life on her own terms and have it be a life worth living.

Rowell does it again with this second book for teens.  Her writing voice is uniquely hers, so that her books could only be written by her.  She has a wonderful sense of humor that runs through her books, often popping up in the most serious of moments like humor often does in real life.  This book is complicated, about more than one expects from the title.  While it is about fan fiction, it’s also about so much more, including being a young writer, the writing process, siblings, broken families, and even first love.

Her characters are deep and worth spending time with.  Cath is remarkable both in her own issues that she carries with her but also in the way that she survives and flourishes.  Her early days at college echo many of my own fears, though I never succumbed to eating protein bars to survive.  Many high school students will see their own thoughts reflected here too.  It’s universal and makes Cath immediately relatable and lovable.  And I must comment again about how well Rowell writes romance and sex scenes.  Sex is part of life in her novels, something to be applauded, where no young women are made to feel slutty because they are sexually active.  It is beautifully handled.

I can’t wait to see where Rowell takes us next.  She is an author who belongs on lists alongside John Green and Gayle Forman.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff

| Tasha

picture me gone

Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff

Mila is spending her Easter break traveling from London to the United States with her father.  They plan to visit one of his oldest friends, Matthew, and his family.  But days before they are to set off, they hear that Matthew has gone missing and his wife has no idea where he might be but urges them to come anyway.  Mila has long known that she has exceptional perception skills: she can tell when someone is pregnant before they even know, can read emotions quickly and can easily gather clues from a room.  So when they arrive, she quickly realizes several things about Matthew and his family.  As she gets closer to solving the mystery, it all gets more complicated and soon Mila has to even question whether her father is being honest with her. 

Rosoff writes so beautifully.  She takes time here in the book to create a family dynamic in Mila’s father and mother that is strong and buoyant.  She also carefully builds the background of Mila’s life, so that readers will understand what a different situation Mila finds herself in.  A theme of translation runs through the entire novel.  Mila’s father is a translator of books, Mila has to translate to American English, Mila can understand the language of objects and read nuances into them, and there is also the language of pain and loss that permeates the book.  It is a theme that unites this book from one of a road trip into a quest.

Mila is a very intriguing character.  She is both wildly perceptive and then also unaware at times.  All of the characters in the book are fully developed and well drawn.  Her parents are real people with their own pasts and foibles.  I particularly enjoyed the almost brittle portrayal of Matthew’s abandoned wife who seems very one dimensional at first, but then at the end shows more of herself in a subtle way.

A virtuoso book that is rather quiet, very thoughtful and filled with insights just like Mila herself.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Henry’s Hand by Ross MacDonald

| Tasha

henrys hand

Henry’s Hand by Ross MacDonald

Get ready for a perfect non-Halloween Halloween book!  Henry is a monster who often loses bits and pieces of himself.  So every morning he goes through a little rhyme to make sure that all of his pieces are there.  Henry’s right hand was his favorite body part.  They played games together and traveled everywhere together.  Then Henry got lazy and started using his right hand to do all of the chores that he didn’t want to do himself.  Hand got more and more upset until finally, he just left.  Hand was off to the big city on his own and Henry was left behind, knowing that it was all his fault.  But how do you apologize to someone who has already left?  And how do you know they are OK and not hurt?  Henry had to figure out not only how to live without his right hand, but how to get him back.

MacDonald has written a wonderfully original book that is unafraid of being wildly wacky.  Behind that wild premise though is a book with plenty of heart.  It is a story of real friendship, the loss of a best friend, and finding a way back to reunite.  MacDonald has a nice feel for pacing and drama, peppering his book with plenty of action. 

This is a book set in a world that has a vintage feel about it, the city is filled with early century vehicles and technology.   Henry himself is an homage to the monsters of that time, yet he is also completely friendly and nonthreatening. 

Add this to your Halloween reads, monster story times, and units on body parts and friendship.  It is sure to come in handy!  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Abrams Books for Young Readers.