Published by Greystone Kids

Summary:  “War spreads through the day like a whispered, swift disease.”  The opening pages of this book show spiders, snakes, and a large black bird traveling through a landscape until they land on a uniformed man, alone in a room, studying a large map and selecting a knight’s helmet before he throws a torch on a huge pile of books.  Planes and soldiers gather in armies before bombs are dropped on cities and tanks roll in.  The final pages show a destroyed city and large spiders moving in with the sentence, “War is silence.”  Originally published in Portugal. 64 pages; grades 4 and up.

Pros:  The watercolor illustrations done grays, blacks, and military drabs provide haunting images of the hatred and destruction of war.  Combined with spare but powerful text, this would be an effective way to begin a discussion of war at the upper elementary, middle school or even high school level.

Cons:  I will definitely not be putting this in the picture book section of my library.  It looks like a picture book, but I kept imagining some kindergartener bringing it home to be read as a bedtime story.

Published by Calkins Creek

Summary:  When Roberto Alvarerez returned to school from Christmas vacation on January 5, 1931, he was told he was no longer a student at the Lemon Grove Grammar School in Lemon Grove, California.  He and the other Mexican American children were supposed to go to the new Olive Street School.  Most of the kids headed home, as they had been instructed to do by their parents when rumors of the new school started to make their rounds in the neighborhood.  Families filed a lawsuit with Roberto’s name on it against the Lemon Grove School District.  On March 12, a judge ruled that there could be no separate school for Mexican children, and the students were allowed to return to Lemon Grove.  Includes a six-page author’s note with additional information and photos; and sources and source notes.  40 pages; grades 2-5.

Pros:  This straightforward picture book tells a story of standing up to school segregation that happened years before Brown vs. Board of Education.  While the story and folk art style illustrations could be understood and appreciated by a second-grader, there’s enough information in the author’s note to get a good start on a middle school project.

Cons:  90 years later, de facto school segregation is still prevalent all over the United States.