Month: January 2016

Bird by Beatriz Martin Vidal

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Simply Read Books

 

Summary:  A series of pictures show a flock of birds starting at 10:05.  As the hour moves on, the pictures zoom in, until a single bird is pictured at 11:00.  Starting at 11:00, the bird is shown on one page, and a girl on the facing page.  The girl is clearly getting ready to attempt a flight of her own, dressed in a white flight suit, adjusting her goggles, wings strapped to her back.  As the time moves close to 12:00, the bird appears fatigued and his feathers start to fall out.  By noon, he has transformed into a boy.  He gently alights on one end of a seesaw; the girl waits on the other end.  As soon as he lands, she is off.  The final page shows her metamorphosis into a bird, and the last picture is the same flock that appeared in the first one.  Ages 8 and up.

Pros:  A wordless picture book full of wonder.  Who are the children?  Why do they turn into birds?  What do the times signify?  Children will have to call on their imaginations to guess what is happening in the pictures.

Cons:  No easy answers.

Five Books I Never Got Around to Reading in 2015

~ Janet Dawson ~ Leave a comment

Happy new year!  In answer to a couple questions I had yesterday, yes, I plan to continue a daily review of books in 2016.  Unfortunately, I’m not on the publishers’ lists for advanced reading copies (yet!), so I have to wait until books are released to read them.  I’ll continue with 2015 reviews for the next 2-4 weeks, then move into 2016.

You might think that reviewing a book every day, I’d have gotten to all the books I wanted to read in 2015.  Not so.  With the end in sight, there are a few I’m pretty sure I’m not going to get to before I switch over to 2016.  But I’d like you to know about them in case you want to read them.  Here they are, with descriptions based on what I’ve read and heard:

My Diary from the Edge of the World by Jodi Lynn Anderson.  Published by Aladdin.

Gracie lives in a parallel world, recognizable as Maine, but co-inhabited by Sasquatches and dragons.  Led by her absent-minded scientist father, who is sure of the existence of the Extraordinary World (i.e., our own world), the family goes off on a cross-country adventure, seeking a safer haven.

 

The Astounding Broccoli Boy by Frank Cottrell Bryce.  Published by Walden Pond Press.

The story of two boys–formerly a bully and his favorite victim–who are hospitalized together when they both turn green.  Certain they have new superpowers, the two of them sneak out of the hospital each night to seek adventure.

Rules for Stealing Stars by Corey Ann Haydu.  Published by Katherine Tegen Books.

Silly and her three older sisters seek refuge from their alcoholic mother when they discover the closets in their house lead to alternate worlds.  At first the closets seem to be a refuge, but soon a darker side appears.  When one of the sisters gets trapped in another world, the other three must figure out a way to rescue her and to learn to survive in their real world.  (Okay, this sounds REALLY good.  Why didn’t I ever read it?).

Firefly Hollow by Allison McGhee.  Illustrated by Christopher Denise.  Published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

The story of a friendship between a cricket, a firefly, and a boy, and how they work together, mentored by a wise old vole, to make their dreams come true.

The Marvels by Brian Selznick.  Published by Scholastic Press.

As he did in Wonderstruck, Brian Selznick has created two stories, one told in text and the other, in the middle of the book, related with pictures.  One story tells of the Marvel family from 1766 to 1900; the other begins one hundred years later.  Kids who love Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck won’t want to miss The Marvels.