Elementary School

Tropical Rainforests: Beautiful Nonfiction

| Tasha

9780061142536

Tropical Rainforests by Seymour Simon

Veteran children’s nonfiction author, Seymour Simon, returns with this Smithsonian Institution book on rainforests. With full color images featuring interesting wildlife and grand expanses of forest, the book is an enticing introduction to tropical rainforests for children.  The importance of rainforests for the entire planet is woven into the particulars about the animals and plants that can be found there.  Making up just 2% of the earth’s surface, these forests are home to millions of insects, plants and animals.  Simon reveals their uniqueness and beauty as he writes with passion about their importance. 

Though he is writing nonfiction, Simon writes with an almost poetic voice.  He has a graceful sense of wonder in his prose, never allowing the rainforest to be reduced to a list of creatures that inhabit it.  Instead, Simon waters the book with plenty of facts, offers a sunshine of lovely little moments (like the way that you can hear the army ants hiss because there are so many of them) and brings out the beauty with the lush photography.  This is a science book for real science lovers, where the science is the loveliness of the world around us with so many details that make it amazing.

Unlike most science books, this one reads aloud very well.  Though you will find yourself stopping regularly to discuss an interesting point or take a closer look at an image.  A book that is sure to warm up wintry days, this is a scientific vacation to the rainforest.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.

Reviewed from copy received from HarperCollins.

Also reviewed by A Patchwork of Books

A Tale Dark and Grimm: And Very Funny Too

| Tasha

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A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

I was very hesitant to start this book, because I love the original tales so very much.  I still have my faux-leather copy of the Grimm’s tales that I read when I was little.  In this debut novel, Hansel and Gretel serve as the uniting characters in a series of stories inspired by the Grimm tales.  Written with a narrator who interrupts, gleefully warns of upcoming bloodbaths, thrillingly cautions to get small children out of the room, and generally makes the book tantalizing, readers will find themselves unable to stop turning pages just to see what in the world the excitement is all about next.  And excitement there is, with stories that involve cutting off fingers, chopping off heads, battling dragons, and turning into a wolf creature.  Hansel and Gretel do a lot more than find a house made of candy here, though that story is part of this book too.  Get ready for a wild read that is sure to surprise and delight.

OK, so I tend to not like books with narrators who insert their opinions or foreshadow upcoming scenes.  It bugs me that the author had to resort to that rather than skillfully telling the story.  But here, that narrator actually adds a lot to the book.  The narrator tells readers that it’s OK to be thrilled with being frightened.   The narrator teases the reader with endings, merrily romping through the book and adding to the mayhem and fun.  This is a narrator who has become a character himself. 

Gidwitz has taken liberties with the stories.  While some bear close resemblance to a Grimm tale, others are very different.  Delightfully, without a book of Grimm at hand, the stories all work side-by-side, a testament to the skill of the author. 

Best of all, this is a book for older elementary children that needs to be read aloud.  It needs to be shared, laughed aloud at, gasped together at, and delighted in with someone else.  So grab a kid, cuddle up and get ready for a great wild read.  Appropriate for ages 8-12, or whenever you think a child is ready for such grisly and grand fare.

Reviewed from copy received from Dutton.

Lucy and the Green Man: Gentle Green Magic

| Tasha

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Lucy and the Green Man by Linda Newbery (first published as Lob in the UK)

Lucy loves spending time with her grandfather in his garden where he tells her stories of a mysterious helper who lives in his garden named Lob.  Lob is a Green Man who is rarely seen but his presence is felt in the energy in the air, the thriving garden, and the little jobs that are mysteriously finished.  Her grandfather tells her that only special people can see Lob, and Lucy works hard to try to see him.  Eventually she catches moving leaves, then bright green eyes, but little more because Lob is so shy.  Lob has been working in that garden for years, but when a sad event happens to her grandfather and to the garden and his home, Lob must find a new place to live.  Lucy, mourning her grandfather, hopes that Lob will come to her home in London and live in the park nearby.  After months of waiting, she wonders if Lob was really real after all.  Meanwhile, Lob has been struggling to find a place to live and work where he is understood.

Newbery has written a novel for young people that has a lovely old-fashioned feel to it.  After the changes at the garden and cottage, the story has alternating chapters of Lob and Lucy.  Readers will never question that in this book, Lob is most definitely real.  The adventures that Lob has in getting to a garden where he can work and be appreciated really carry the book forward.  Additionally, the wonder of gardens and growing things is a special element here that weaves throughout the book.  It is a joy to read a modern book for children that has its roots so firmly in the soil.

In the Lob chapters, Newbery has created verse that speaks in Lob’s voice directly.  They are wonderful poems, with an ancient quality and a firm tie to nature.  Set aside in a larger font, they are moments of stillness in the book that one looks forward to as a reader.  Newbery’s prose is equally evocative.  Take for example this passage when Lucy heads out into the dark evening on Page 41:

The gap between indoors and out, tameness and wildness, lightness and dark, stretched wide and wider in the flittery dusk.  Lucy didn’t want to go in, not yet.  Stars were pricking the sky, tree branches stretching out to muffle them.

In this book, one visits the wonder of nature again and again.  A beautiful book to share in the spring of the year with a class that will stretch imaginations and will have everyone looking for friendly green eyes in the bushes.  Appropriate for ages 8-11.

Reviewed from copy received from Random House.

Rise of the Darklings: Victorian Faerie Delight

| Tasha

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Rise of the Darklings (The Invisible Order Book #1) by Paul Crilley

At twelve years old, Emily Snow has been looking after her younger brother since her parents disappeared.  She tries to earn enough money to feed them both by selling watercress on the streets of Victorian London.  One cold morning on her way to the watercress vendor, Emily encounters several strange small people having a battle.  After the battle, two men approach her to ask her what she witnessed.  Emily refuses to tell them, but that is not the last she will hear from them or from the piskies she saw battling.  In fact, Emily has just entered the confusing and amazing world of the sidhe where both sides want her to help them and no one is telling the truth.  Joined by Jack, a thief from the streets, Emily tries to figure out who she can trust and what her role is in the future of both humans and fey.

This book is a pleasure to read.  Crilley has nicely balanced the world of the fey with the real world of London.  Filled with details about the city, this book’s setting is well drawn and delightfully mixed with the magic and wonder of the sidhe world.  Crilley also offers a feisty heroine who will delight young readers not only with her intelligence but her own guile as she deals with the faeries and The Invisible Order of humans too.  The book reads effortlessly, beginning quickly with the pages whipping by as the adventure heats up.   Children looking for a good read should look no further.  Teachers as well should look to this as a great classroom read with enough action to keep even the most doubtful listener rapt. 

A delight of a novel, this is one of the top faery books I have read for younger readers.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Egmont.

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Mary’s Penny: A Feminist Folk Tale

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Mary’s Penny by Tanya Landman, illustrated by Richard Holland

A feminist retelling of a classic folk tale, this book combines a stylish modern feel with the classic feel and tone of a folk tale.  A farmer needs to decide which of his children he will leave his farm to.  Will it be the brawny Franz or the beefy Hans?  He doesn’t even consider his daughter Mary because she is a girl, though Mary does have something her brothers lack: brains.  The farmer gives each of his sons a single penny.  Their challenge is to purchase something with their one penny that will fill the entire house.  Franz heads to the market and purchases lots and lots of straw, but he cannot manage to fill the entire house.  Hans heads to the market and purchases lots and lots of feathers.  Though he fills the house further than his brother, he too fails.  Now the farmer is in despair until Mary asks to try.  And you will just have to read the book to find out how Mary spends her penny and fills the entire house.

Landman’s text here sets just the right tone.  She plays with the repetition and rhythm of the traditional folk tale, yet injects a modern sensibility about the role of women in society.  Thanks to the traditional features of the book, it is a pleasure to read aloud.  Holland too plays with the traditional and modern.  In his case, he uses sleek modern lines and modern illustration techniques yet still manages to have something vintage in them.  The illustrations have lots of white space and textures and patterns that make them very interesting and unique.  They also have a flatness that hearkens back to traditional folk art. 

A skillful combining of the traditional and the modern, this book should not languish on your folk tale shelves.  Get it into the hands of parents and teachers.  It would also make a great choice when librarians visit elementary classrooms, because its modern edge will draw slightly older children into the story.  Appropriate for ages 4-8.

Reviewed from library copy.

Bink & Gollie: By Golly What a Charmer!

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Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo an Alison McGhee, illustrated by Tony Fucile

Bink and Gollie are two girls who are friends but could not be more different.  They live together yet apart, Bink in a cottage below the tree where Gollie’s ultra-modern tree house perches.  The two of them use their roller skates to get around town, but beyond that they agree on very little.  Everything from striped colorful socks to goldfish friends to imaginary mountain treks come between them.  In the end though, their friendship remains strong, bolstered by pancakes shared together.  The book is broken into three chapters each a vignette that is funny, charming and delightful. The book is written for beginning readers who will discover two amazing girls that they will long to share a stack of pancakes with too.

The authors have created two characters who are very different yet read as real people with their own quirks and interests.  Bink is younger, wilder and delightfully mussed.  Gollie is steady, level headed and yet has her own moments of imagination.  The authors did not feel constrained by the vocabulary of most beginning readers, instead they introduce young readers to longer words, taking time to put them in context and even define them.  This is a book that will have new readers stretching at just the right pace.

Fucile’s illustrations help bring the differences and friendship of the girls to life.  From the firecracker hair of Bink to the lean lines of Golllie.  The sleek nature of Gollie’s tree house to Bink’s small homey cottage.  Each detail is perfect to underline their differences and their connection to one another.

I look forward to seeing the next Bink & Gollie book.  I can’t wait to see where this friendship heads next.  Appropriate for ages 6-8.

Reviewed from library copy.

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Fatty Legs

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Fatty Legs: a True Story by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, illustrations by Liz Amini-Holmes

This is the story of an Inuit girl and her experiences in a residential school.  Margaret Pokiak decides at age 8 that she must learn to read.  And the only way that she will be able to learn to read is to attend the residential school that is many miles away from her home village in the arctic.  Her father and older sister, who have both attended the school, try to convince her to stay at home and learn the native way instead, but she insists.  At the school, she encounters the Raven, a nun who immediately takes a dislike to Margaret and her strong will and courage.  She begins to intimidate Margaret, putting her in red stockings unlike the rest of the girls and meting out harsher punishments to her.  But through it all, Margaret remains strong.  A sympathetic nun sticks up for her and eventually Margaret finds her way back to her family.

The book softens the story to a level that children will be able to handle, focusing more on the emotional and mental hardship than physical abuse.  The humiliation of Margaret by the Raven will resonate with children as will the harsh conditions and poor food.  Married to these in the book is the loss of culture and language, which is as horrible as the treatment. 

Margaret is an amazing girl with her self-possession, her courage and her faithfulness to herself and her culture.  She is brave beyond belief as she enters a foreign culture and comes away having shown them what being human is all about.  The book is simply written, allowing the story to carry through.  The illustrations are strong, depicting the harsher times at the school.  Historical photographs are worked into the book, tying it firmly to history and the true story it is based on.

This book is definitely worth having in a public library.  It offers a clear view of residential schools nicely paired with a young girl’s naive desire for education.  Large font, plenty of interspersed images, and a short length will have reluctant readers interested as well.  Appropriate for ages 8-11.

Reviewed from copy received from Annick Press.

The Memory Bank

| Tasha

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The Memory Bank by Carolyn Coman, illustrated by Rob Shepperson

Hope Scroggins lives with her little sister, Honey, and her neglectful and uncaring parents.  Perfectly horrible people!  One day when they are out in the car, Honey laughs out loud and doesn’t stop.  So her parents leave her behind on the side of the road.  The only thing that Hope can do is watch out of the back window.  Her parents order her to forget her sister, but she can’t.  Instead Hope starts to sleep more and more, retreating to a dream world.  Readers don’t have to fret about Honey.  Her part of the story is shown in wordless pictures, showing her being rescued from the side of the road almost immediately by a truckload of children.  Hope receives the first letter she ever had which summons her to The Memory Bank.  She is picked up and taken there where she discovers a place where memories and dreams are stored like treasures.  She has not been making enough new memories and has been creating too many dreams, so her account is imbalanced, but they had never expected her to be a child!  As Hope spends time at the Memory Bank with its band of interesting characters, she starts to remember more and more about Honey.  Perhaps even enough to find Honey again!

Coman has created a book in the vein of Roald Dahl where the adults tend to be either horrible humans or wonderful adoring people.  This is a new book that reads like a classic.  It has a timelessness about it as well as a winning combination of fantasy and reality.  Coman’s world building at the Memory Bank is wonderful, each new area revealing itself to the love-starved Hope like its own treasure. 

I have an Advanced Reader Copy of this book, so I don’t have all of the finished illustrations.  The ones that are finished have a grace to them.  Done in black and white, they too hearken back to classic children’s books.  Shepperson manages to tell all of Honey’s story with his illustrations, making sure that readers know that not only is Honey safe, but her life is pretty sweet too.

This book cries out to be shared aloud with Dahl fans and others who are looking for a book with a little zest, plenty of creativity and lots of dreams and memories.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic.

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Binky to the Rescue: A Second Silly Adventure

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Binky to the Rescue by Ashley Spires

This sequel to Binky the Space Cat continues Binky’s adventures as a cat who believes he lives in outer space.  The graphic novel format is an ideal way to showcase the wry humor of the story.  In this latest adventure, Binky is busily battling his enemies, the insects that he considers aliens.  But when he pushes too hard on a window screen, he falls out the window and into the backyard, or outer space!  Luckily, Binky thinks quickly and finds a oxygen source (the garden hose) and ties himself down securely to keep from floating off (on a garden gnome.)  He takes notes on alien activity and as he is doing that notices that his co-pilot Ted has also fallen into outer space.  But before he can rescue Ted, he is attacked by wasps and then taken inside by his human.  Now Binky must launch a brave rescue of Ted by re-entering the vastness of outer space.

Spires’ illustrations are very funny, showing the truth of Binky’s situation clearly to the reader.  Much of the humor is physical and vaudevillian, playing out in the illustrations themselves.  The use of graphic novel format will make this series one that children, especially reluctant readers, will pick up and enjoy.  Even better, Spires is not afraid of using some fart humor every now and then.  Perfect for the target age.

The text is just as funny as the illustrations, taking a wonderful tone that will immediately have readers connecting it with science fiction films.  Nicely, the narration plays entirely into Binky’s fantasy, so readers themselves have to get the joke of the books.  And they definitely will.

A great sequel to the first book, this book should be added to elementary school graphic novel collections and children’s collections in public libraries.  Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Kids Can Press.

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