Month: November 2022

Mama and Mommy and Me in the Middle by Nina LaCour, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita

~ Janet Dawson ~ Leave a comment

Published by Candlewick

Summary:  A girl misses her mother, Mommy, when she goes on a week-long trip.  Her other mother, Mama, stays home with her and helps make things easier with special treats like a movie night and goodies at the local café.  A phone call and a snuggle with Mama help, but things aren’t really right until Saturday when Mommy finally returns to a welcome banner and a bouquet of flowers that the girl has picked herself.  It takes a few minutes to reconnect, but finally things feel right again: “Mama and Mommy and me in the middle.”  32 pages; ages 3-7.

Pros:  A great discussion starter about missing people; the girl has several classmates who are missing family members and pets.  The illustrations are beautiful–clearly this is a family who values fashion and style–and the representation of a biracial family with two moms makes a valuable addition to kids’ literature.

Cons:  Some additional resources would have made this even more valuable for a social emotional learning book.

Moonlight by Stephen Savage

~ Janet Dawson ~ Leave a comment

Published by Neal Porter Books

Summary:  “Something is on the move.”  Hiding, hopping, swirling, drifting, each page gives an action with blue, black, and white illustrations that show moonlight but not the moon.  The light ends up in a child’s bedroom, where she sits up and looks out the window to see the full moon.  32 pages; ages 3-7.

Pros:  I will definitely be sharing this book with my pre-K classes during the week they learn about what’s in the sky.  The lush nighttime illustrations and brief text filled with action words would make a great pairing with The Moon Is Going to Addy’s House by Ida Pearle.

Cons:  The cover and title page make it look like Moon Light, but it’s actually Moonlight.  Just in case you’re searching in Amazon or Titlewave.

A Journey Under the Sea by Craig Foster and Ross Frylinck

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Published by Clarion Books

Summary:  The narrator takes readers on a dive into the ocean at the tip of South Africa.  Underwater, they observe all kinds of animals including a seal, an octopus, a cuttlefish, and a couple of different sharks.  On the way back, they see tiny snail eggs and a whale, which likes to snack on the sea snails, an example of how ocean animals are all connected.  Includes a note from the authors and additional information about each photo in the book.  56 pages; grades K-5.

Pros:  A gorgeous picture book from the creators of The Octopus Teacher, now streaming on Netflix. Their joy and enthusiasm for diving and exploring the ocean really shines through in both the photos and the text.  From the eye-catching cover to the farewell from the dolphins, kids will be captivated by this journey.

Cons:  There’s just a little bit of information about each animal, so some additional resources would have been nice.

Song In the City by Daniel Bernstrom, illustrated by Jenin Mohammed

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Amistad Books for Young Readers

Summary:  Emmalene is blind, but as she walks with her grandmother to church, she hears the song of the city: the pitter-patter of water falling, the sizzle-sizzle of a hot dog cooking, the honky-honk of a car.  She keeps trying to get her grandmother to stop and listen, but Grandma Jean is in too much of a hurry.  At church, Grandma enjoys the music of the choir, but Emmalene gets frustrated that she can’t hear the other music that Emmalene hears.  Finally, she puts her hand over her grandmother’s eyes, so that Grandma is forced to use only her ears.  Finally. Grandma hears the song of the city, and with tears in her eyes, hugs her granddaughter, and they listen together.  40 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  A story that will encourage kids to listen mindfully to the sounds around them.  Emmalene is a happy and independent girl who finds her way through the city with a cane.  The illustrations are a riot of colors, and the ones that show Grandma listening without using her eyes (black with streaks of color) capture the moment perfectly.

Cons:  Grandma is annoyingly stubborn about listening to her wise granddaughter.

If You Were a Princess: True Stories of Brave Leaders from Around the World by Hillary Homzie, illustrated by Udayana Lugo

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Aladdin

Summary:  If you were a princess, what would you do?  These real-life princesses are smart and brave, standing up for human and animal rights, competing in sports, and earning advanced degrees in various arts and sciences.  Since ancient times, princesses have studied the stars, led others into battle, and made important discoveries and inventions.  You may not be a princess, but you can be inspired by royalty to stand up for yourself and others and to dazzle the world. Includes a paragraph of additional information about each princess and a list of works cited.  40 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  Cinderella, step aside to make way for these amazing real-life princesses from all over the world.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had requests for princess books, and I can’t wait to have this one on hand to teach kids some unexpected princess facts.

Cons:  Forced me to rethink my anti-royalist tendencies.

Digestion: The Musical by Adam Rex, illustrated by Laura Park

~ Janet Dawson ~ Leave a comment

Published by Chronicle Books

Summary:  Digestion: The Musical unfolds in three acts, featuring Your Body, L’il Candy, Gum, and the Baby Carrot Singers.  Starting from the moment the brain gets the signal to open the mouth and let in L’il Candy, the story continues down the esophagus and into the stomach, where Candy meets up with Gum (has he really been stuck there for years? “Nah, that’s a myth.”).  She’s consistently dismissed as junk food by the heart, lungs, gallbladder, and even the seemingly useless appendix.  But Candy persists and is eventually shown to have a nutritional core that can be used by the body.  The final number [two], “Let’s Get This Potty Started”, will leave audiences with a smile on their faces.  Includes a glossary and a literal appendix, which it turns out, is actually useful for storing good bacteria. 76 pages; grades 2-6.

Pros:  I laughed, I cried, I gasped aloud at this fascinating and hilarious mix of fiction and nonfiction that’s presented in both horizontal and vertical spreads.  You’ll probably want to supplement this with other material, but the basic facts are here and likely to stick in kids’ heads due to the high entertainment factor of the presentation.

Cons:  It’s tough to let yourself get too attached to a protagonist that you know is about to be pulverized by the digestive system.

Odder by Katherine Applegate, illustrated by Charles Santoso

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Feiwel and Friends

Summary:  Odder is a sea otter who loves to play in the ocean, frolicking with her friend Kairi off the coast of California.  She’s a lot more daring than Kairi, and one day her adventurousness leads them right into the path of a hungry shark.  Both are attacked, but Odder sustains the worst injuries, landing herself at an aquarium under the care of humans. It turns out she’s been there before, and the second part of the book goes back to her early days when she was separated from her mother, rehabilitated by the aquarium staff, and released back into the wild.  Her second time there ends differently, and both she and Kairi end up as permanent residents, becoming surrogate mothers to rescued pups.  Includes an author’s note about the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the real-life otters who were the inspiration for Odder and Kairi; also a bibliography and a list of additional resources.  288 pages; grades 3-7.  

Pros:  Katherine Applegate’s legion of fans will be pleased to see a new heartwarming animal book on the shelves.  The verse format makes for a quick read, with interesting additional information for budding marine biologists and cute illustrations.

Cons:  I wish there had been even more cute illustrations.

The First Notes: The Story of Do, Re, Mi by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton, illustrated by Chiara Fedele

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Summary:  It’s hard to imagine music without written notes, but that was the world Guido d’Arezzo lived in at the beginning of the eleventh century.  He loved the music of his monastery, but the monks had to laboriously practice long hours to master each piece.  One day, Guido realized that the songs were made up of just five tones.  He named them from the first two letters of each line of a favorite song: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la (ut became do and ti was added many years later).  The other monks were unimpressed, but Guido later found a more receptive audience at a cathedral where he led the choir, and eventually with Pope John XIX.  Do-re-mi spread, eventually leading to the famous song from The Sound of Music, an illustrated version of which is included at the end of the book.  Also includes a glossary and additional information about Guido d’Arezzo and the song “Do-Re-Mi”.  48 pages, ages 4-8.

Pros:  Aww, a book about do-re-mi by Julie Andrews and her daughter!  It’s a pretty fascinating and well-told tale about something that many of us take for granted.  The illustrations made me want to go live in a medieval Benedictine monastery, no easy feat.

Cons:  Look closely at the cover or you might think, as I did at first, that it’s Maria von Trapp, not Brother Guido, singing and dancing his way through the mountains.

A Life of Service: The Story of Senator Tammy Duckworth by Christina Soontornvat, illustrated by Dow Phumiruk

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Candlewick

Summary:  Tammy Duckworth’s father worked for the UN, and she grew up all over southeast Asia.  She knew she was American, though, and dreamed of a life of service to her country.  After graduating from college, she joined the Illinois Army National Guard as a unit commander.  Her three-year commitment was up when the US declared war on Iraq.  Although Tammy opposed the war, she didn’t want to leave her unit, so she got permission to extend her service and went to Iraq.  While flying a helicopter there, she was hit by a grenade and lost both of her legs.  Her military career was over, but she wanted to continue to serve, particularly her fellow veterans.  In 2012, she was elected to the House of Representatives, and in 2016, to the Senate.  She became the first Thai American woman and the first female amputee in Congress, as well as the first Senator to give birth while in office.  And I’m happy to report that just a few days ago she became the first Illinois woman to be reelected to the Senate.  Includes a timeline, a list of projects Senator Duckworth has worked on, and additional resources.  48 pages; grades 1-5.

Pros:  In her fourth book this year, Christina Soontornvat relates the story of fellow Thai American Tammy Duckworth’s inspiring life of service.  The appealing illustrations help tell the story, and the back matter makes this an excellent book for research.

Cons:  I wish I had read this just a day early to get it on the blog for Veteran’s Day.

A Book, Too, Can Be a Star: The Story of Madeleine L’Engle and the Making of A Wrinkle In Time by Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Jennifer Adams, illustrated by Adelina Lirius

~ Janet Dawson ~ Leave a comment

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Summary:  Madeleine L’Engle grew up with a writer father and musician mother who encouraged her sense of wonder.  There were often artists at their New York City home, where Madeleine wrote stories from a young age.  She was shy, though, and school was difficult until she used her powers of imagination to make friends.  After college, she worked in the theater, where she met her husband.  They moved to the country and had three children while Madeleine continued her writing, most of which was rejected by publishers.  On a cross-country camping trip, she found inspiration in the Painted Desert and began working on the manuscript that would eventually become A Wrinkle in Time.  As her fame grew, she received many letters from children and always answered, encouraging them to find ways to tell their own stories.  Includes several pages of back matter including a list of Madeleine’s books for young readers, further reading, and a timeline.  40 pages; grades 1-5.

Pros:  I loved the somewhat whimsical illustrations of this picture book biography co-written by one of Madeleine L’Engle’s grandchildren. It’s a great introduction to Madeleine’s life and would be a perfect lead-in to reading A Wrinkle in Time.  

Cons:  I wasn’t crazy about the timeline being on the back cover, although it is printed so it’s not covered by the back flap.