Elementary School

Review: Life-Size Farm by Teruyuki Komiya

| Tasha

life size farm

Life-Size Farm by Teruyuki Komiya

This fourth in the “Life-Size” book series takes on farm animals in glorious full-size photographs.  Just like the others in the series, there are panels that offer more detailed information, including the animals name, age, and scientific name.  There are details about physical characteristics that are explained further as well as a list of facts.  All of these are presented in bright colors and with a playful feel.  But it is the photographs in their large size and with the clarity and detail that they offer that will have children taking this book home and lingering over it.

Several of the pages unfold to show even larger images of animals.  The huge furry alpaca and the enormous cow will generate lots of interest.  What is most amazing here is that the size of all of the animals is surprising and fun.  Even better, the quality of the photographs is always high and offer lots of small details to pay attention to.

A great pick for library shelves, though the size is large enough to make them not fit on shelves easily!  This is an excellent addition to a popular nonfiction series for children.  Appropriate for ages 5-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Seven Footer Kids.

Review: The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech

| Tasha

great unexpected

The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech

When the boy falls out of the tree right at Naomi’s feet, she thinks it’s a dead body.  But instead it’s Finn, a boy who seems to have come from nowhere and be tied to no one.  Naomi too could seem adrift as an orphan, but after her father died a neighbor couple took her in and gave her a home.  Her best friend Lizzie is also an orphan and hoping to be adopted by her foster family.  Their story entwines with that of a wealthy woman in Ireland whose background is slowly exposed and the connections tightened.  This is a journey of a book, one that offers great eccentric characters, a town that has many secrets, and the amazement of unexpected ties to one another.

A new book by Creech is always something I look forward to and this is one of her best.  The intricate ties and reveals in the book make it a spectacular read and a book that unwinds like a curving road before you.  The writing is solid and lovely.  Creech takes the time to make each character special, even when just glimpsed for a single scene.  There is always something tantalizing about them and you know there are further depths there. 

Creech’s novel is all about hope and connections in life.  It is a book that uplifts and brings joy.  There is also some darkness here, death and life next to each other, survival and loss.  It is not an easy world that is portrayed here and things are not simple.  But there is beauty and hope and transcendence.

Highly recommended, this is a book that will delight Creech fans and create new ones.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from HarperCollins.

Review: Lester’s Dreadful Sweaters by K. G. Campbell

| Tasha

lesters dreadful sweaters

Lester’s Dreadful Sweaters by K. G. Campbell

When Cousin Clara’s cottage was eaten by a crocodile, she moved in with Lester and his family.  No one knows quite whether she is actually their relative, but she stayed with them anyway.  She brought her knitting along with her.  She just sat and knitted all the time, until one morning she announced that she had made Lester a sweater.  It was horrible, an ugly yellow with one arm far too long and purple pom-poms dotted all over it.  Lester was made to wear it to school where the others made fun of him, of course.  That sweater mysteriously shrunk in the laundry.  But the next morning, there was another sweater.  This one was pink with strange upside down pockets.  That one got caught in the mower.  Every time Lester did away with one awful sweater, another appeared to take its place, until one morning he awoke to a mountain of sweaters.  He did what anyone would do, and murdered them quietly with a scissors. But even then, there was one left intact.  There doesn’t seem to be anything Lester can do to end the parade of awful sweaters, but there just may be a solution in a most unlikely place!

This is a dynamite picture book that has a fabulous strangeness about it that works particularly well.  There is the oddness that Lester has already.  He keeps lists of dangerous things that start with the letter C and collects items for the Lost & Found he has.  He is particular about his socks being even and keeping his hair tidy.  He could be an unlikeable character, but those little oddities as set aside when the horrible sweaters start coming.  One immediately understands Lester’s desperation to get rid of the sweaters without confrontation and as the story unravels, it gets more and more fun to read.

Campbell’s art adds to the strangeness of the book.  She has strange objects set around the house: a pickaxe near the front door, a Viking helmet in the Lost & Found.  The pages are done in a matte finish that adds to the vintage feel, the Victorian feel of the book.  And yet, there is that unwavering sense of humor, that lifts everything to feel modern too.

For slightly older children than most picture books, this would make a great read aloud for elementary classrooms.  There is plenty of humor, moments of surprise, and a great ending that I refuse to even hint at.  Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Waterloo & Trafalgar by Olivier Tallec

| Tasha

waterloo and trafalgar

Waterloo & Trafalgar by Olivier Tallec

Released October 22, 2012.

In this wordless picture book, two men watch one another over neighboring walls, separated only by a thin line of grass dotted with flowers.   Both sides of the wall are very similar, both men have spyglasses, drinks and umbrellas.  Their days are filled with boredom and suspicion, broken only by the appearance of a snail who visits them both and moments where they bother one another with music and loud noises.  It isn’t until a bird arrives and lays an egg that hatches and runs away that the truth of the conflict is revealed.  Tallec has managed in no words at all to show the fallacy of conflict and the way to peace.

Tallec uses humor here to bridge any divide.  It is mostly physical humor that will have children laughing, successfully mocking the conflict without any words at all.  The snail is a particularly inspired piece of humor that is sure to surprise and please.  So much of this book is about the surprises that life brings with the ending of the book providing the biggest and best surprise of all.  There is a great playfulness that invites readers into this serious situation to a degree that without it would not have been possible.  The wordless nature of the book also makes it particularly suited to a subject of crossing barriers.  I can see using this with people who speak different languages, allowing a depth of discussion that would be unusual with other wordless books.

This book is outstanding.  It speaks to peace without any preaching, allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions.  It is a striking and vibrant example of what can be achieved with no words at all.  Appropriate for ages 6-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Enchanted Lion Books.

Review: Last Laughs by J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen

| Tasha

Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs by J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen, illustrated by Jeffrey Stewart Timmins

Perfect to pull out around Halloween time, this book features a series of very funny epitaphs for dead animals.  After the introductory poem to the pet cemetery, readers will discover short poems about specific animals.  There are farm animals like chickens and cows (the cow one happens to be one of my favorites) and more exotic fare like barracuda, iguana and eels.  All dead, for a variety of wild and domestic reasons to hilarious effect.  The poems are riddled with puns, something that I adore.  They are sure to be hits with children when shared aloud or read in person.

Timmins’ art has the same dark humor as the poems themselves.  Make sure you notice the sheep pooping into the river the dead horse just drank out of.  It’s exactly what children will find funny.

Dark and fiercely funny, these poems are not for the preschool set, but will be giggled at galore by elementary aged children.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Bully by Patricia Polacco

| Tasha

bully

Bully by Patricia Polacco

Lyla was very nervous about starting sixth grade at her new school, but she met Jamie on her first day and they immediately became friends.  Lyla found herself fascinated by the three popular girls in school, who completely ignored her.  She managed to get their attention when she got the top grade on an essay.  Lyla tried out for cheerleading and made the team.  Lyla even negotiated with her parents to get a laptop and Jamie helped her put together a Facebook page.  Suddenly the popular girls started to pay attention to her and Lyla found herself joining them for lunch, leaving Jamie behind.  But when a test is stolen and Lyla is accused of stealing it, she finds herself being bullied on Facebook and online.  The story ends with the real thief being caught, but there is still the question of how kids who are being bullied should respond.  What would you do?

Polacco grapples with many issues in this book.  There are the popular kids and the others, something that we have seen in books again and again.  But Polacco works to make this more than about mean girls by focusing on Lyla and her own reaction to bullying.  Lyla sits quietly and allows others to be picked on by the girls, unwilling to speak up.  While she does eventually disengage from the others, her own role in bullying is exposed too.  The theft of the test takes the level of bullying higher, moving it online and making it very personal.  Polacco manages to make the abuse believable but also devastating.

My one problem with the book is that the adults in the story are fairly ineffectual in stopping the bullying.  When Lyla’s brother is having real issues at his new school, their parents do not get involved.  Additionally, when the bullying against Lyla escalates, she does not turn to adults for help.  It’s an unfortunate omission.

As always Polacco’s art is a large part of the appeal of this book.  Her realistic illustrations use fine lines and bright colors to tell the story.  The emotions on her faces are particularly effective, showing exactly what they are thinking.  I also enjoyed the clothes worn by the bullies and the way that they wore similar outfits that held together as a group.

This is a great book to start bullying discussions.  It shows how bullying can come from nowhere and escalate quickly.  Appropriate for ages 8-11.

Reviewed from copy received from Putnam.

Review: Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

| Tasha

each kindness

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E. B. Lewis

During a snowy winter, a new girl came to class.  Maya wore ragged clothes and a broken shoe that wouldn’t keep her foot dry in winter snow.  The new girl was put next to Chloe, who refused to even look at her, moving far away in her seat and looking out the window.  Day after day, Chloe never smiled or looked back.  Maya kept trying, offering her new jacks she got for her birthday, but the girls all refused to play.  Maya ended up playing alone.  Then Maya was gone, her seat empty.  That day, the class learned about kindness, about the way it ripples like a pebble dropped into water.  The children were each given a small stone to drop in and tell the class about a kindness they had done.  Chloe couldn’t think of any, her mind filled with the way she had treated Maya.  As the days went by, Chloe hoped that Maya would return so that she could smile back.  But then they heard that Maya had moved away.  Chloe would not be able to return that smile.

Woodson does not pull back on her message here.  She speaks directly to the sort of bullying that groups of girls are best at, ignoring and dismissing.  Readers will immediately feel for Maya, who has done nothing at all to earn the scorn of the girls, except wear the wrong clothes.  But Woodson also makes sure that we feel for Chloe too, using her as the narrator for the story.  This works particularly well in the latter part of the book, where she is hopeful she will be able to right the wrong she has done. 

Lewis’ art is realistic and quite simply amazing.  He shows us through his images Maya’s side of the story, starting with her refusal to look at the class when introduced, her hopeful smile before Chloe turns away, and her isolation as the seasons change.  After Maya leaves, Chloe is shown as the isolated one, alone on a blank white page, solitary in nature. 

The power of this book is in the ending, where it does not wrap up happily with Maya returning and being embraced by the Chloe and her friends. Instead, it ends realistically with deep regrets and hope that Chloe will respond differently next time. This is a book sure to trigger discussions when shared with a class. I can see talking about bullying, kindness and differences.

Highly recommended, this is a powerful book that is worth sharing and discussing.  Appropriate for ages 6-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Penguin.

Review: A Strange Place to Call Home by Marilyn Singer

| Tasha

strange place to call home

A Strange Place to Call Home: the World’s Most Dangerous Habitats & the Animals That Call Them Home by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Ed Young

Through evocative poetry, this book explores habitats that you would never guess something could even survive in.  But they do!  There are creatures who live in places with no water, no warmth, little food.  And those are the creatures that star in this book, each of them celebrated in verse.  There are penguins, mountain goats, and camels, which may be the animals that came to mind.  But Singer looks deeper than that and introduces unlikely creatures to readers, including petroleum flies that hatch in oil, ice worms that live in glaciers, and blind cave fish from Texas and Mexico.  She takes these creatures, known and unknown, and gives us a glimpse of them and their habitat in a variety of poetry forms.  Each page is a discovery of a new animal and a new type of poetry.

Singer excels at creating poetry that is artistic and has depth and yet offers young readers an approach to verse that is welcoming.  She writes at their level yet doesn’t ever play down to them.  Since some of the haikus and other forms are quite brief, it’s nice that she offers paragraphs of information at the end of the book on each creature.  At the very end of the book, she also speaks to the variety of poetic forms she has employed in the book.

Young’s illustrations add another layer of beauty into the book.  Through his layered paper art, he creates a red forest of flamingo legs, a swirl of desert sands, foaming rivers, and an urban landscape among many others.  His work embraces the diverse habitats, recreating the harshness and the often subtle richness of these unknown worlds.

A great pick for poetry units or units on habitats, this book offers a perfect blend of verse, science and art.  Appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Review: Hit the Road, Jack by Robert Burleigh

| Tasha

hit the road jack

Hit the Road, Jack by Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Ross MacDonald

Opening this book, I was surprised that it was not based on the song at all.  Instead, this is a tribute to Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.  Jack in this picture book is a jackrabbit who longs to travel America.  So he leaves New York and rides his bicycle to Boston and then Buffalo.  Pennsylvania and Cleveland are next with Detroit too.  Jack spends some time in Chicago before heading back into the countryside and hopping a train.  A car carries him to the Great Plains and Mount Rushmore.  He sees the Rockies and the desert mesas before arriving at the Golden Gate.  Jack has reached his west coast destination, but the road still calls. 

Burleigh takes the picture book done in verse to another level here.  Never forced, always brimming with honesty and joy, this verse rhymes but does so in a sophisticated way.  It has all of the rhythm of the beat poets inside of it too, paying double homage to Kerouac both in subject and style.  Young readers will explore the United States in this book, but even better, they will get a feel for what makes America great. 

MacDonald’s illustrations have a playfulness and joy that matches the text well.  Done with a vintage feel, Jack has huge ears but is more human than rabbit most of the time.  Shown in his leather jacket and rolled-up jeans, Jack is the ideal companion on the road.

This is a special book where subject matter and form combine to create something all the more amazing.  It may be difficult to get this into the hands of the right kids, but it is worth the challenge for a book this good.  It will also make a great book to share with elementary classes studying the United States.  Appropriate for ages 6-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Abrams Books for Young Readers.