Book Reviews

Mama Miti

| Tasha

Mama Miti by Donna Jo Napoli, illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Wangari grew up in a Kenya covered in trees.  When she moved and lived in the city, she still planted tress in her backyard.  They refreshed her spirit whenever she sat under them.  Poor women started coming to Wangari for advice and it was always the same, she advised them to plant trees.  Trees could feed them, give them fire wood, feed animals, provide medicine, keep out predators, and build new homes.  The trees returned to Kenya and so did the strength of the country.

Beautifully illustrated by Kadir Nelson, this version of Wangari’s story is delightful.  Napoli tells the true story with nod towards oral storytelling.  Her text reads aloud beautifully with a rhythm and cadence that really work well.  Her use of repetition is done with restraint, adding to the sense of heritage and lore.  Nelson’s illustrations are exquisite.  Done in oil paints and fabrics, they too are about heritage and a sense of place.  The faces of the people throughout the book have a strength and a presence that will have readers lingering over them. 

A lovely book about an inspiring figure who teaches us that each person can have an enormous impact upon their nation and the environment.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster.

Also reviewed by Homegrown Families, The Booknosher, Jump Into a Book, Books for Kids, Kiss the Book, Advice from a Caterpillar, and Brimful Curiosities.

A Place for Frogs

| Tasha

 

A Place for Frogs by Melissa Stewart, illustrated by Higgins Bond

This book is filled with fascinating information and facts about frogs.  It is less about the transformation from egg to tadpole to frog and more about individual species, specific habitats, and what we can do to help save frogs.  The book can be read two ways.  One way is less wordy and offers a chance to share the book with younger children.  The other way, incorporates the detailed information on frog species, which tells the story of how they live and what they need to survive.  Readers will be astonished to discover the different habitats that frogs live in and the wide variety of species. 

Stewart has a gift for offering scientific information in an inviting way for children.  She never talks down to them, but keeps the facts interesting and brief.  The focus on the environment makes this book a good one for green units or programs.  The information offered gives children a way to make a difference for these fascinating creatures.

Bond’s illustrations are almost photographic in detail, but better.  She is able to offer perspectives that would have been impossible to photograph.  Her use of long views of habitat combined with close-ups of animals makes the theme of the book even clearer.  These animals cannot survive without this place. 

Highly recommended, this book belongs in every public library.  Children will pick it up for love of the animal and in the process learn about their own impact on frogs.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Peachtree Publishers.

One Crazy Summer

| Tasha

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Eleven-year-old Delphine has looked after her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, ever since her mother left them soon after Fern’s birth seven years ago.  Now she and her sisters have traveled across the United States from Brooklyn to Oakland, California to see the mother they barely remember.  Once there, they discover a distant woman who won’t let them into her kitchen, feeds them only takeout, and insists that they are gone outside all day.  She sends the girls to a summer camp run by the Black Panthers where they are educated about revolution and black rights.  Set during in 1968, the girls see first hand the changing times.  Written with a depth of character, pitch-perfect dialogue, and a great deal of warmth, this book is an amazing work of children’s fiction.

Williams-Garcia has outdone herself with this novel.  Her portrayal of the girls, their mother and the Black Panthers is done even handedly and with appreciation for what was being done.  Cecile, the mother, is a complicated figure with a complex history and a fractured relationship with her children.  Williams-Garcia’s depiction of her is captivating in both good and bad ways.   This book reads as though it is about real people, with real personalities living during real times.  The characters grow convincingly throughout the story, with no one leaving behind their personality for sudden, simple change.  It is all deeper and more honest than that.

Highly recommended, I would expect this book to garner Newbery attention as well as Coretta Scott King Award interest.  This would work well in a classroom, since it is filled with moments worth discussing.  It would also make a fantastic summer read.  Appropriate for ages 9-13.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by The Goddess of YA Literature, Bib-Laura-graphy, A Patchwork of Books, Muddy Puddle Musings, Fuse #8, A Chair, A Fireplace & a Tea Cozy, and Young Books.

Mathilda and the Orange Balloon

| Tasha

Mathilda and the Orange Balloon by Randall de Seve, illustrated by Jen Corace.

Mathilda’s world is small, only a few things in it: gray skies, green grass, green barn, gray stones, and gray sheep.  It was all ok, until she saw the bright orange balloon float past.  Then all she wanted to be was an orange balloon herself.  First, she made herself as round as the balloon.  The hardest part is turning herself orange.  The other sheep offer up ideas of things that are orange: fierce tigers, the sun, autumn leaves.  Mathilda imagined herself orange and round as hard as she could and suddenly, there she was, a Mathilda-shaped orange balloon.  That was when the lives of all of the sheep changed.

A wonderful book about the power of dreams and imagination, this book is simple and delightful.  De Seve’s writing is straight-forward and plain, offering a wonderful contrast between it and the subject matter.  Corace’s illustrations use white space to great advantage, emphasizing the simplicity of Mathilda’s world until imagination enters it.  Her sheep have great personality, with winning facial expressions.

Bravo for such a creative little book that takes imagination into reality with no hesitation.  This will make any sheep story time less gray and more colorful!  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Harper Collins.

Also reviewed by Creative Literacy.

Meanwhile

| Tasha

Meanwhile by Jason Shiga

Combine a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book with a graphic novel and you have this book.  Open the book and you are immediately stopped and the format is explained.  Follow the tubes, they move in all directions, and you get the chance to make all sorts of choices.  The first choice you have is ice cream: chocolate or vanilla.  That small decision sets you off on an adventure that could involve a time machine, entropy or even immortality.  The choice is yours.  Chocolate or vanilla?

Shiga has taken the best of both formats and combined them into a stellar book.  Readers get to make decisions that have direct impact on the storyline, they get to try to figure out codes to reach new areas, and there is the joy of a book with thousands of potential stories inside it.  At the same time, it also has the appeal of a comic book.  It’s filled with humor as well as drama.  One never knows where the next turn in the tube or story will take you, making it virtually impossible to put down until you have tried story after story after story.

Highly recommended for all library graphic novel collections, this book will be adored be reluctant readers, embraced by comic lovers, and simply enjoyed by most.  Appropriate for ages 8-12.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by 100 Scope Notes, Books4YourKids, and Comic Book Resources.

Sit-In

| Tasha

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illlustrated by Brian Pinkney

Inspired by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. four young men sat at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960.  They placed their simple order of a doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side, and sat quietly, refusing to comply with the Whites Only rule.  The next day, more people joined them, sitting still for what was right.  The sit-ins got bigger and moved beyond lunch counters to buses, parks and libraries.  The students were jailed for loafing, but they didn’t resist.  All of these brave actions led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Pinkney has written this book with such verve and style that it reads like a King speech.  Throughout, she has woven the threads of the lunch counter, coffee and recipes, reminding readers again and again where it all started.  Her use of repetition and poetic style really make the book sing.  Brian Pinkney’s illustrations are done in watercolor and India ink.  They capture the time with an exuberant style that is filled with colors and the swirls of motion.  Though the people sit still, the illustrations are in motion, moving to the future with them.

Highly recommended, this book truly captures the wonder of this time, the courage it took to sit still, and the progress that was made.  This husband and wife team have created a powerful book about a vital time in our history.  Appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from copy received from Little Brown and Company.

Also reviewed by Muddy Puddle Musings and Wild Geese Guides.

Where Is Catkin?

| Tasha

Where Is Catkin? by Janet Lord, illustrated by Julie Paschkis

Catkin heads out to hunt in the garden.  He sees and hears different animals in the garden but he can’t catch them.  There is a cricket, a frog, a mouse, a snake, and a bird.  After Catkin pounces them they disappear from view.  But sharp-eyed readers will be able to spy them hiding.  Finally, Catkin climbs a tree to catch a bird, but goes too high.  Now it is Amy’s job to find Catkin in the garden and rescue him!

The first thing you will notice about this book is its amazing illustrations.  Done in an almost Slavic motif, they are rich, deep colored and stylized.  As Catkin pounces an animal it appears in the yellow and red border, adding another layer to this book.  Lord’s text is brief and invites young readers to participate in the seeking and finding of the animals.  Readers will enjoy spotting not only the animals in the text, but also insects and other animals. 

A richly illustrated seek-and-find book that is perfect for the youngest listeners.  I would suggest using this with only a very small group, because the pleasure of the book is to look closely at the illustrations and talk about them. Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Peachtree Publishers.

Also reviewed by Beth Fish Reads, 7 Imp, and We Love Children’s Books.

Boom Boom Go Away!

| Tasha

Boom Boom Go Away! by Laura Geringer, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline

Vintage toys combine with noise and mayhem to create a fabulous bedtime read!

When a small boy is asked to go to bed, he responds by starting up his toys one by one in response.  The little gnome is at the heart of it all as he bangs the drum with a “Go away, boom boom.  Go away!”  An elf dings on a gong, a prince screeches on his bassoon, a knight plays his bells, more and more toys join in, creating a great rhythm and song as they do.  But in the end, the noise is not enough to keep the little boy awake and they all wind down with a “Go away! Hush, hush… boom boom. Go away.”

Reading this book is great fun.  Geringer has created just the right mix of noises and sounds to make reading this book aloud a treat.  The rhythm makes it easier, the sounds are different enough to be interesting, and her framing of the story is done with a gentle touch.  Ibatoulline’s illustrations are beautifully done in a soft yet bright palette that really reinforces the vintage feel of the toys.  The writing, the fonts and the illustrations all work together to create a charmer of a book.

Highly recommended for pajama story times or a bedtime read, this book may become one of those books that is asked for again and again.  If you are going to use this with a group, consider handing out instruments or assigning noises to kids.  They are sure to love adding to the rhythm.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from book received from Atheneum Publishers (Simon & Schuster)

Also reviewed by The Excelsior File and Young Books.

Drizzle

| Tasha

Drizzle by Kathleen Van Cleve

Polly Peabody knows that her family’s rhubarb farm is something special, even something magical!  They grow Giant Rhubarb that is helping close the hole in the ozone and chocolate rhubarb that tastes like a sweet but is a vegetable.  They have a lake that you can’t drown in no matter how long you hold your breath, a castle to live in, and gems sprout from the ground.  And every Monday at 1:00 pm exactly, it rains.  But then one Monday it doesn’t.  And other things start to go wrong on the farm.  The rhubarb begins to wilt even though it is being watered by hand.  The umbrella ride fails when people are riding it.  A strange fog is starting to cover some of the farm.  It is up to Polly to find out what is causing the damage and save their farm.  To do that she will have to face her fears, uncover family secrets and trust in the magic of the farm.

This enticing tale is a pleasure to read.  Van Cleve has created the farm of childhood dreams filled with dessert that is healthful, carnival rides, friendly bugs, animated plants, and much more.  She writes with a light friendly tone that never gets bogged down in elaborate descriptions or overwriting, which is a fear with books of this sort.  Instead, she allows the magic to shine and the imagination to soar.

Polly is a great protagonist who is painfully shy, bullied at school, and yet one of the most fascinating people you could meet.  As she learns that she is much braver and more skilled than she ever dreamed, Polly begins to let others into her world and make friends.  Yet it is not that simple, and her struggles with self-reliance, family secrets, and friendships make for great coming-of-age story material.

A large part of the book’s appeal is the tension between the magical and the mundane.  Polly has to face school and all of its pitfalls as well as the desperate situation of her home and family farm.  While magic is involved, it actually makes Polly’s personal life outside of the farm more difficult.  The tension of classmates, news reporters, and magic make this book very special.

Highly recommended, this book is perfection for fans of Savvy by Ingrid Law.  It would make a wonderful classroom read and will be happily devoured by children who enjoy a lot of chocolate with their rhubarb.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Dial.

Check out Kathleen Van Cleve’s website.