Elementary School

Review: Lulu and the Dog from the Sea by Hilary McKay

| Tasha

lulu and the dog from the sea

Lulu and the Dog from the Sea by Hilary McKay

Released on March 1, 2013.

This second book in the Lulu series continues the story of Lulu, a seven-year-old girl who loves all kinds of animals.  In this story, Lulu goes on vacation by the seaside with her parents, her dog,  and her cousin, Mellie, who is also seven.  At the seaside, they stay at a small cottage and Lulu quickly finds out about a stray dog who has been living off of garbage along the beach.  Lulu sets out to make friends with the dog, but no one else is enthusiastic.  Mellie just wants to build her kite, Lulu’s mother just wants to read the stack of books she brought along, and her dad wants to work on his running.  But Lulu knows that this stray is actually a very special dog, she just has to convince the rest of them.

McKay has a knack for creating characters and experiences that read as vibrantly true and honest.  In her books, there are lost kite bits, sand tracked into the house, trashed garbage cans, and too many shopping trips for forgotten items.  At the same time, there is also the love of a dog, a family that truly spends time with one another, and the success of plans coming together in the end, perhaps not exactly as planned.  As with her previous books, I have always wanted to live in a McKay novel in the midst of the loving mess.

I must also mention that this is an early reader series featuring a modern family of color.  Nothing is made of this fact in the stories.  It is just there, not a plot point, just a fact.  It’s handled with a matter-of-fact nature that I wish we saw more of in books for children.

A great addition to this growing series, the second Lulu book is sure to please fans of the first and bring new fans to the series too.  Appropriate for ages 6-8.

Reviewed from digital copy received from Albert Whitman & Company.

Review: I Haiku You by Betsy Snyder

| Tasha

i haiku you

I Haiku You by Betsy Snyder

This diminutive book is filled with equally small haiku poetry.  Each poem is a celebration of either love for someone else or a warm moment in time.  There are poems about warm soup, purple popsicles and lemonade.  Each one is a tiny look into a universal and noteworthy moment.  Turning from one page to the next, the book manages to avoid being overly sweet through its humor and the sense of joy that pervades it.  In other words, these are far more organic and natural poems than Hallmark ever manages to create.  Instead these are wonderful little gifts of haiku that are invitations to celebrate the small moments of life that we share with one another.

Snyder has created illustrations that are equally warm and special.  Done on cream paper, the illustrations have pops of purples, oranges, reds and yellows but still have a softness.  The result is a book that is cheery and warm.

A perfect Valentine’s Day gift, this book should also be useful as an introduction to the haiku format.  Or one could just curl up at bedtime and share some short and lovely poetry.  What better way to create beautiful dreams?  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Random House.

Review: A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

| Tasha

tangle of knots

A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

Cady has a Talent for baking cakes and making just the right one for a specific person.  Miss Mallory’s Talent is matching children with the perfect home, but she hasn’t been able to find the right fit for Cady for years.  Will has a Talent for hiding, passing through walls and disappearing along with his pet ferret.  Zach has a Talent for spitting, something just right for a troublemaker.  Marigold is desperately searching for her Talent, trying all sorts of things with no luck.  Then there is the mysterious man who has a Talent for knots who seems to appear whenever he is needed most.  There is even a man who steals Talents and keeps them in jars, as he frantically searches suitcases for a slip of paper he lost over 50 years ago.  The stories of all of these characters are just a tangle at first, but slowly the stories come together into one gorgeously designed knot of a tale.

Graff has created a world like ours but with more than a touch of magic infused into it.  While most of the characters have Talents, there are some who don’t have any.  There are others who only discover their talent late in life like Marigold.  But in this book it is not the magical bits that make it special, instead it is the intricate storytelling, the puzzle.  Readers who want a straightforward book should not look here.  This is a book that hints, it rambles, it invites you in for cake and adventure, then wanders a bit more.  But the wandering is rather the point, the cake is particularly important, and one wouldn’t want to miss a ramble.

Give this one to the dreamers, the wanderers, and those who want a hint of magic, sweetness and frosting with their stories.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from ARC received from Philomel.

Review: My Father’s Arms Are a Boat by Stein Erik Lunde

| Tasha

my fathers arms are a boat

My Father’s Arms Are a Boat by Stein Erik Lunde, illustrated by Oyvind Torseter, translated by Kari Dickson

Published on February 5, 2013.

There are some picture books that you read the first few lines and you realize you are somewhere new and unknown.  This is that sort of book.  It is the story of a young boy who is unable to fall asleep.  His father is there, sitting in the living room by the fire.  The boy returns to his father and climbs onto his lap.  His father talks about cutting down a big spruce together the next day.  The boy asks about the red birds that they left bread for.  He worries about the fox stealing their bread too. His grandmother told him that the red birds are dead people and then the book turns and is about the loss of his mother and grief.  It is handled with such care and delicacy and the young boy is surrounded with such obvious love that it is achingly exquisite.

This book is not really about what I captured in the paragraph above.  It is about sorrow and grief, the sort of sorrow that can only be fleetingly captured in a silent flight of birds or a lone fox in the snow.  It is about the loss of a mother, but also about the days following when grief is all you can bear and think of.  This book reads like a beautiful ache, a heartbeat of grief where life must go on.  The writing is expressive and poetic, just like the title.

Torseter’s illustrations are also unusual and amazing.  Done in folded paper and collage, they have a 3-dimensional quality to them that invites in shadows.  Most of the images are black, white and grey, though the red birds and the orange fox are pops of color.  Beautiful and delicate, the slumps of the shoulders of the characters tell of the sad truth before the words do.  The winter setting too is cold and a bit wild, reflecting the mood of the story.

Stunning in its writing and illustration, this is a picture book that is noteworthy and memorable.  Appropriate for ages 6-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Enchanted Lion Books.

Review: Gingersnap by Patricia Reilly Giff

| Tasha

gingersnap

Gingersnap by Patricia Reilly Giff

Jayna’s older brother Rob rescued her from foster care but now he is called to duty on a destroyer during World War II.  Both brother and sister love to cook: Jayna’s specialty is soup.  The two don’t have any other family in the world, so Rob leaves Jayna with their landlady who is always lecturing Jayna about manners.  Right before he leaves, Rob tells Jayna about a recipe book he found that may have belonged to their grandmother.  It contains an address for a bakery in Brooklyn.  When Rob is listed as missing in action, Jayna decides to travel to Brooklyn to discover if her grandmother still has a bakery there.  She takes her pet turtle with her and also a ghost who has been helping lead her in the right direction.  But what will she find when she gets to Brooklyn?

Giff has created a very pleasant mix of historical fiction and ghost story in this novel.  At the center is a young girl and her wish for a family, which propels the action in the story.  I appreciated that while the ending is satisfying it is not the perfect vision that young Jayna had been searching for.  Some may say though that it’s even better.  The ghost is not frightening at all, instead she borrows nail polish and even clothing.  She offers opinions on what is happening, most of which are helpful and get Jayna to make decisions more quickly.

It is the historical piece that is very special here.  I appreciated a young girl who could not just cook but excelled at it.  The food shortage is vital to the story as is the war itself.  Later in the book, readers also get to hear about the first World War and its impact.  This is a book about the homefront, made more dynamic by one untidy little ghost.

A treat for readers, this book should be embraced by teachers looking for fiction about World War II.  The setting is strong, the characters memorable and the food enticing. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Random House Children’s Books.

Review: Henry and the Cannons by Don Brown

| Tasha

henry and the cannons

Henry and the Cannons: An Extraordinary True Story of the American Revolution by Don Brown

The trend for great children’s historical biographies in picture book format continue this year.  This picture book tells the story of Henry Knox.   It is the winter of 1775 and the Americans need cannons to take back Boston from the British.  Knox takes the challenge of moving 59 cannons over 225 miles across Massachusetts in the dead of winter.  It took boats, oxen and plenty of determination and innovation to get those cannons across the state.  The journey and amazing achievement is told here in a way that will entice children to learn more stories about the American Revolution.

Brown’s writing is solid throughout the book.  He carefully sets the scene, clearly explaining how unbalanced the war was with Revolutionaries vs. the world’s best soldiers.  Add to that the power of cannons, and there was clearly no hope for victory.  After that the book turns more towards adventure and peril, making for a read that must be finished.  From the impossible mission to each and every mishap, readers will be rooting for Knox.

The illustrations serve to underline the stark winter and the heaviness of the cannons.  Men and oxen strain to move the 120,000 pounds of cannon.  Snow flies, the boats seem more like twigs next to the metal, and the crossing of an iced-over river brings drama and danger. 

Strong and noteworthy, this picture book nonfiction title has history and also plenty of action and adventure.  Appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.

Review: One Came Home by Amy Timberlake

| Tasha

one came home

One Came Home by Amy Timberlake

Georgie knows that she is the reason her sister Agatha left.  When an unidentifiable body is found with her sister’s hair color and the dress her mother sewed, everyone assumes it is Agatha.  But Georgie refuses to accept that.  She sets off to find out what happened to her sister.  In 1871 in rural Placid, Wisconsin, Georgie is forced to ask her sister’s old beau Billy to give her a horse.  She has a gun that she is an expert at using and a destination in mind, where the body was found.  It doesn’t work out the way Georgie expects since Billy insists on joining her for the trip and gives her a mule rather than a horse to ride.  The two set off arguing all the way, traveling through the debris from the largest passenger pigeon nesting in history, finding wild adventures along the way. 

Written in a lyrical voice, the prose in this book is noteworthy and lovely.  Timberlake has radiantly recreated both the society and setting of the late 1800s.  Happily, she spends less time on clothes and societal niceties and much more on spirit and gumption.  Early in the book you can see her words at work, drawing a picture of the two sisters using imagery from nature around them:

Feathers flew up with each breaking bottle. Pigeon feathers that spring were like fallen leaves in the autumn-they were everywhere, in everything. But there’s a difference between feathers and leaves. Feathers claw their way back into the sky, whereas leaves, after flying once, are content to rest on the earth. Agatha? She was a feather. She pushed higher, farther always. I suspected my constitution was more leaf than feather. I hoped I was wrong about that, though, because I wanted to be like Agatha.

Georgie is a tremendous protagonist.  She’s a natural with a rifle, looks forward to taking over the family store in their small town.  She’s not interested in boys and is far more concerned with her own future with her sister than with anything else.  She speaks with confidence and very boldly, never keeping her opinions to herself for long.  At the same time, she is also the voice of the novel, and through that she herself looks at the world in a poetic way.

Beautiful with a strong heroine, this book is a dazzling read for tweens.  Appropriate for ages 9-12. 

Reviewed from copy received from Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Review: Road Trip by Gary Paulsen and Jim Paulsen

| Tasha

road trip

Road Trip by Gary Paulsen and Jim Paulsen

This collaboration of father and son is about a road trip to rescue a border collie puppy.  Ben and his father have not been getting along lately.  His father just told Ben that he has quit his job and started to flip houses.  That means that Ben’s hockey camp that he had been promised may not happen this summer.  The road trip is a way for the two of them to spend time together along with their adult border collie, Atticus, and for his dad to avoid his ticked-off mother.  When Ben realizes what is happening, he invites along a friend that his dad doesn’t really approve of.  That friend will not be the last surprise passenger on the trip as they quickly trade their failing truck for a school bus.  Told in alternating chapters, Ben and Atticus explain the journey in their own unique points of view.

This is really a love story to dogs.  Atticus is a huge part of the story, his reactions to people foreshadow what sort of person they will turn out to be.  The use of his perspective is also cleverly done so that his actions are explained to the reader even though the other humans in the book may not fully understand them.  Happily, the various odd characters who join them on their journey are also well drawn and interesting.

The writing is clever and fresh in this slim volume of just over 100 pages.  It is a great pick for reluctant readers.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Random House Children’s Books.

Review: The Herd Boy by Niki Daly

| Tasha

herd boy

The Herd Boy by Niki Daly

Malusi looks after his grandfather’s sheep during the day, taking them grazing and also protecting them from predators.  Malusi has to be able to work in the heat of the sun, keep the sheep away from the ravine, and keep close watch for snakes and baboons.  His friend Lungisa is also a shepherd but he has his own dog, something Malusi wishes for.  He also dreams of becoming something more than a herd boy, maybe even president! 

Daly weaves in African details to create a setting and society in this picture book.  The details are small but vibrant such as the food, the animals out in the wild, the landscape, and language.  She uses a few words and phrases of throughout the book, just enough to add some African spices to the tale.  Using poetic language, she draws the strong character and large dreams of Malusi clearly.  He is a young hero with large responsibilities and a willingness to lead.

Daly’s art embraces the landscape of Africa with ravines and hills framing the page, eagles soaring in the sky, and distinctive plants in the foreground.  There are full color images but also sepia toned ones that show small touches of the story as well.  The large format of the full-color images make this book good for sharing with a group.

Thanks to the beauty and depth of Daly’s writing, this picture book trends a little older than many.  It will also lead to interesting discussions with slightly older children.  Appropriate for ages 6-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.