Book Reviews

The Society of Distinguished Lemmings by Julie Colombet

| Tasha

The Society of Distinguished Lemmings by Julie Colombet

The Society of Distinguished Lemmings by Julie Colombet (9781682631560)

The lemming society had a lot of rules to follow in order to belong. In their warren of tunnels, there was no wild behavior, no growling, no rolling and no mud. Lemmings also had to walk on their hind legs and use utensils to eat. But Bertie got tired of all of the rules, the fine dining, the musical performances and the noise, so he headed up to the surface. When he got outside, he met a bear! After trying to get the bear to act like a lemming, Bertie tried the things the bear wanted to do. With the bear’s help, Bertie started to realize that he actually enjoyed things like rolling in the flowers, climbing trees and jumping in puddles. When Bertie is gone too long, all of the other lemmings come outside too. They try to change the bear and make him eligible to join the lemming society, but he doesn’t conform well to their rules. Eventually, they dismiss him to make their new plans and are off on a vacation as a group. When they are gone, Bertie realizes that they are headed for their doom! Perhaps a big bear could save them all?

The fussy and particular Society of Distinguished Lemmings is depicted here with plenty of peculiarities, a list of their rules, and other odd things that they insist upon. The fussiness and high expectations add up to a very stifling but also funny lemming existence. The introduction of Bertie and his quest for a new friend and a new way of life is refreshing. A bear is just the right creature to be a little bit dirty and very active. The contrast between lemmings and the bear could not be clearer or done with more merriment.

The illustrations are cleverly done with plenty of details about the lemming society revealed through the images themselves. There are lots of little asides in the illustrations through speech bubbles that add to the whimsical nature of the rule-following lemmings. 

A funny look at breaking the rules, making new friends and finding oneself. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from ARC provided by Peachtree Publishing. 

Salma the Syrian Chef by Danny Ramadan

| Tasha

Salma the Syrian Chef by Danny Ramadan

Salma the Syrian Chef by Danny Ramadan, illustrated by Anna Bron (9781773213750)

Salma and her mother moved to Vancouver from Syria together. Salma’s father is still in Syria and planning to join them soon. Mama seems worried and tired all the time now, not smiling the way she did in the refugee camp with her friends. Salma tries many things to get her mother to smile or even laugh, but nothing seems to work. She heads to the Welcome Center and her teacher has her think about the last time she saw her mother happy. Salma realizes that it may be Syrian food that her mother is missing, since the last time she smiled she had been carrying a bowl of foul shami. So Salma decides that she will make her mother foul shami to bring back her happiness. Salma must figure out how to take the recipe in Arabic and get others to understand what she needs. She realizes that she can draw the various vegetables and ingredients and show them to the people at the supermarket. With her ingredients, now she must do the cooking, but not without plenty of help from others at the Welcome Center who are missing delicacies from their own lands too.

So often picture books depict the end of a family’s story as leaving the refugee camp. It is a pleasure to see a picture book grapple with how it feels to have come to a new country as a refugee and having your family still separated. The clear connection of food and culture is beautifully depicted here. Salma’s enthusiasm for her solution to her mother’s sadness and worry is moving, giving her something to focus on and actually do to help. The difficulty of the recipe and its many steps serves as a great challenge for Salma, and one that will bring her community together to help.

The illustrations have borders and geometric shapes that echo the tiles of Syria and Damascus. The color palettes change as the emotions on the page change, with blues showing the worry and concern and merry yellows flooding the pages with community and hope.

A marvelous look at food, family and community. Appropriate for ages 3-6.

Reviewed from ARC provided by Annick Press.

Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen! by Sarah Kapit

| Tasha

Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen by Sarah Kapit

Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen! by Sarah Kapit (9780525554189)

Vivy first learned about the knuckleball pitch from VJ Capello, a major-league pitcher. Now she can throw it consistently and has caught the eye of a local coach for a youth baseball league. Vivy desperately wants to play, but she has a mother who is worried that Vivy is the only girl on the team and that her autism may be an issue. Vivy reaches out via letters to VJ again, seeking his advice. He doesn’t answer her, but she keeps on writing until suddenly he replies! The two begin to correspond together about pitching, baseball, and Vivy’s life in general. When an accident happens on the mound, Vivy may be permanently benched, especially if her mother gets her way.

Kapit is active in the neurodiversity movement and writes from a place of experience about Vivy’s struggles with autism. This debut novel has a sense of confidence with strong writing and a great main character. The entire book is written in letters between VJ and Vivy. A particularly strong part of the book is when their relationship has become strained and then they stop communicating. It’s tense and sorrowful, and very skillfully done.

The character of Vivy is particularly strong. Her struggles with autism show how it impacts her life but doesn’t prevent her from doing things. The overprotective mother figure is also well done, not seen as an enemy but as simply a person trying to keep Vivy safe. The family dynamics, dynamics on the baseball team and Vivy’s relationship via letter with VJ are all beautifully done with lots of empathy but also expectations.

A great book that hits a home run! Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from library copy.

Hello, World! by Ethan Long

| Tasha

Hello, World by Ethan Long

Hello, World! by Ethan Long (9781250191755)

The first in the new Happy County series, this picture book invites plenty of exploration by readers. The bright colored and vibrant pages are filled with details for children to explore. The text in the book invites readers to look for specific things, but it’s also great fun to just explore this world on your own too. Some pages are filled with noises, others with a quest for a great spot to nap, still others with restaurants with signs to match. Turning the page may reveal an up-close look at a specific character or a wider view of the entire community.

Inspired by Richard Scarry, this updated version is brighter and funnier. It also offers a wider variety of activities to engage in. The text is funny, filled with puns, and has a merry tone that invites readers to really have fun. The illustrations are colorful and filled with marvelous details yet still have a simpler feel to them.

A great book for a trip, this one will keep children happily busy for some time. Worth exploring together too! Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy provided by Henry Holt & Co.

Don’t Feed the Coos! by Jonathan Stutzman

| Tasha

Don't Feed the Coos by Jonathan Stutzman

Don’t Feed the Coos! by Jonathan Stutzman, illustrated by Heather Fox (9781250303189)

The team behind Llama Destroys the World return with a book that’s for the birds. The book cleverly begins with the tone of Give a Mouse a Cookie but quickly turns it into a cautionary tale about feeding “coos” or pigeons. If you do feed one coo, more will come. You may try to escape, but they will follow you all the way home. No matter what you do, they will still stay with you. And because you have fed the coos, they will make coo poos. Everywhere. You will try everything to get rid of them and nothing will work. So you will accept your fate and make them part of the family. Until one day, you return with them to the park…

There is something so just right about the style of Stutzman’s writing. His tongue-in-cheek is clear but he also clearly cares about writing a superb picture book for children at the same time. That balance is not an easy one to create and sustain. Here, he pays homage to a favorite picture book style, yet also plays with it enough to break it just enough to make it fresh and interesting again.

Fox’s illustrations are bold and graphic. They use white space strategically, playing up the humor of an existence filled with pigeons and how that will change everything. The coos are adorable, until the pooing starts.

A clever and funny delight. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy provided by Henry Holt & Co.

My Best Friend by Julie Fogliano

| Tasha

My Best Friend by Julie Fogliano

My Best Friend by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki (9781534427228)

A little girl talks about her new friend, who just might also be her best friend too. The two of them play together at the park, quacking like ducks, running around, and even siting quietly. Her friend knows how to turn leaves into skeleton hands and fix flowers that have been stepped on, kind of. The two draw together, and the little girl realizes they might just be best friends. They hide together during hide and seek, trying to muffle their giggles. When the little girl pretends to be a pickle, her friend laughed and laughed. They may like different kinds of ice cream, but they can still be best friends. Perhaps tomorrow they can learn each other’s names!

Fogliano perfectly captures the wonder of meeting a kindred spirit as a child and spending an entire day together laughing and playing. Her writing shows all of their shared activities and how they help the two girls bond closely together, despite just having met. Silly things like pretending to be a pickle serve to prove they have the same sense of humor, so that taste in ice cream flavors can be ignored. The ending of the book is clever and sets just the right moment, showing deep understanding of children.

Tamaki’s illustrations are marvelous. She shows the two girls playing and laughing together. They are done in a modern limited color palette of pinks, greens and browns that show the girls in fine-lined detail with very expressive faces. It’s like getting to play along with them yourself.

A warm look at first friendships. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy provided by Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Magnificent Homespun Brown by Samara Cole Doyon

| Tasha

Magnificent Homespun Brown by Samara Cole Doyon

Magnificent Homespun Brown by Samara Cole Doyon, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita (9780884487975)

Celebrate the magic of the color brown in this book filled with poetic words and enticing illustrations. Deep secret brown is the color of the river currents and also the little girl’s eyes. It is the color of her eyelashes which are the same brown as the shadows of the hemlock trees in the woods where they hike. Amber brown is the color of honey and the color of her hair. Radiant brown is the color of the sand at the beach and the color of her skin. Brown is the color of caramel and cocoa, the color of warm family moments on icy cold days and the color of fall leaves and laughter. 

Doyon’s poetry is approachable and accessible for young readers who will see themselves not only reflected on the pages but celebrated for all of their colors. Doyon’s poem is not simple, she insists on looking deeply at the colors and moments that connect us all, the laughter and the love in our families, and the beauty of African-American skin. She has created a picture book that delights in turning what society sees as a negative into a joyous positive party.

The illustrations are pure delight, as you can see from the cover. They take warm autumnal colors, which of course include brown, and create a book that glows in the reader’s hands. Skin color is celebrated, as is diversity in the African-American community. There is pure joy in the illustrations that matches the positivity of the text.

A positive look at African-American families, skin colors and experiences. Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Kent State by Deborah Wiles

| Tasha

Kent State by Deborah Wiles

Kent State by Deborah Wiles (9781338356281)

Two-time National Book Award finalist Wiles takes a deep look at the Kent State shooting in 1970. Using oral histories and articles from the incident, Wiles writes a searing book that looks at the various viewpoints at play in 1970 in Kent, Ohio and the nation. Beginning a few days before the shooting, Wiles sets the stage and captures the tensions between the town, the college, and the National Guard. As the tragedy looms, the horror of the moment grows. Still, when the shooting happens in the book, though one knows what is about to occur, it is written with so much empathy that it is almost like learning about it for the first time.

Brace yourself for this one. Wiles doesn’t pull any punches here. She allows all of the voices to speak, almost a chorus of the times, speaking about the draft, the Vietnam War, the incredible pressures on college students, the attitudes of the town, and the expectations for the National Guard. Her writing is a dramatic mixture of poetic verse, social justice, historical quotes, and passion.

It is great to see Wiles also entwine the voices of Black students into her story. So often forgotten or assumed to be included, they speak with a clarion voice here, insisting on being heard. Even more importantly, their perspective draws a clear line between what happened in history and the shootings of Black Americans happening today.

Incredible writing and strong historical research make this much more than regular historical fiction. Appropriate for ages 13-18.

Reviewed from ARC provided by Scholastic.

Whoo-Ku Haiku by Maria Gianferrari

| Tasha

Whoo-Ku Haiku by Maria Gianferrari

Whoo-Ku Haiku by Maria Gianferrari, illustrated by Jonathan Voss (9780399548420)

The story of a great horned owl family is told in dramatic fashion using only haiku poems in this picture book. A pair of great horned owls find a squirrel’s nest and claim it as their home. The mother bird lays three eggs in the nest, losing one when the crows attack her. Now there are two eggs left to guard and keep warm. Soon two owlets emerge from their eggs, eating the prey that Mama and Papa bring to them. The woods has lots of dangers like hunting hawks and foxes waiting for an owlet to fall. Mama is there to protect them though, until it is time for them to take wing and find a home of their own.

Through her series of haiku poems, Gianferrari creates moments that build on one another into a full story of the first months of egg laying and owlets growing up. Focusing on the strength and power of the most commons owls in North America, along with their exceptional parenting skills, the book also reveals the dangers they face despite their size.

Voss’ illustrations are a gorgeous match to the beauty of the poetry. Illustrated in sepia ink and watercolor, with digital color added, these illustrations captures the various moments with skill and drama. The quiet moments are just as powerful as the action ones, filled with dappled forest light and the incredible creatures.

A marvelous book of nature poetry for children. Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by G. P. Putnam’s Sons.