Unstoppable: How Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team Defeated Army by Art Coulson, illustrated by Nick Hardcastle

~ Janet Dawson ~ Leave a comment

Published by Capstone

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Summary:  The big game against Army is the climax of this book, but there’s a long story to be told before that.  Jim Thorpe, like so many other Indian children, was sent to boarding school, where he was forced to have his hair cut, wear school-issued clothing, and stop speaking his native language.  After running away from a school in Kansas, his father sent him to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. He excelled at all sports there, becoming a football and track star and winning a couple of gold medals at the 1912 Olympics.  Later that year, Thorpe and the Carlisle team traveled to West Point to play against a team that included Dwight Eisenhower and three other future generals. The symbolism of the future Army soldiers versus the Indians was not lost on anyone as the Carlisle team played a new kind of football created by coach Pop Warner and won the game 27-6.  Includes additional information on Jim Thorpe, other members of the Carlisle team, Pop Warner, and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, as well as a glossary and a list of additional information sources. 40 pages; grades 3-6.

Pros:  So many people (including me) know Jim Thorpe mainly as the guy who lost his Olympic medals for playing semi-professional baseball, but there is so much more to his story.  This is a good introduction to Thorpe, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Pop Warner, and the early days of football.

Cons:  Due to the picture book format, a lot of the more interesting (and in some cases, horrifying) details are omitted.  For a more comprehensive picture, read Steve Sheinkin’s Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team.

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The Cat Who Ate Christmas by Lil Chase, illustrated by Thomas Docherty

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Running Press Kids

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Summary:  When Lily, Rose, Alex, and their parents go downstairs on Christmas morning, they discover that their cat, Jingles, has torn all the wrappings off their presents and is hiding on top of the tree.  Dad tries to get her, but Jingles leaps off, bringing the whole tree down with her.  The family rallies, enjoys their gifts, and goes off to pick up Grandma, leaving the holiday turkey sitting on the counter.  Jingles can’t resist, and when the family returns, their dinner is in ruins.  Jingles goes into hiding, and is still missing on December 26th.  Wanting to lure her back home, the family goes shopping, where they run into Grandma.  The reader will have to look carefully at the illustrations to see where Jingles has been hiding, but he finally reappears, and there’s a happy ending for everyone.  96 pages; grades 1-4.

Pros:  A fun holiday tale that would make a good quick read-aloud or independent reading book for a chapter book beginner.

Cons:  Not sure I would have been quite as forgiving of Jingles as this family is.

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Ski Soldier: A World War II Biography by Louise Borden

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Published by Calkins Creek

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Summary:  Growing up in Sharon, Massachusetts, Pete Siebert taught himself to ski on an old pair of wooden skis he found in his parents’ barn.  As he got older, his parents took him and his sister to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where he became a proficient racer and vowed to one day open his own ski resort.  After graduating high school, he enlisted in the army, the 10th Mountain Division of soldiers on skis. After training in the Colorado Rockies, the division was shipped overseas to Italy, where they took part in a daring nighttime attack on Germans in the Apennines Mountains.  Pete was wounded so severely doctors weren’t sure he would walk again, but he was determined to ski. He persevered and recovered enough to make the 1950 U.S. men’s ski team. And in 1962, his boyhood dream came true when he opened the Vail Ski Resort in Colorado. Includes additional information about Pete Seibert and the 10th Mountain Division, as well as a list of sources.  176 pages; grades 4-8.

Pros:  Told in verse, with plenty of photos, this story will appeal to skiers and World War II buffs.  It’s a quick read, but the story is engaging, and readers will learn a lot about Pete and an unusual chapter in military history.

Cons:  The cover makes the book look kind of old.

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Have You Heard About Lady Bird? Poems About Our First Ladies by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter

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Published by Disney-Hyperion

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Summary:  As she did for the Presidents in Rutherford B., Who Was He?, Marilyn Singer has written a poem for every First Lady from Martha Washington (“‘Lady Presidentess,’ dear wife of our first leader,/did not bemoan, she set the tone,/for all who would succeed her”) to Melania Trump (“She learned languages, changed her name,/married into fortune, embraced new fame”).  Each is accompanied by a picture of the First Lady in some scene from her term. Includes a page on “Being the First Lady”, several pages of thumbnail portraits and brief profiles of each woman, and a list of sources for additional information. 56 pages; grades 2-5.

Pros:  These easily accessible poems are a fun way to introduce kids to the wide variety of women who have served as First Lady, and the way the job has changed over time.

Cons:  Some of the poems about the less well-known First Ladies may be a little confusing to kids without any background knowledge.

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Lu by Jason Reynolds

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Atheneum

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Summary:  In the final book of the Track series, we hear from Lu, the team co-captain.  Lu’s parents’ announcement that he will soon have a little sister is his catalyst for some serious soul-searching.  Born with albinism, he’s sometimes been the victim of teasing about his white skin and the thick glasses he used to wear before he got contacts.  But track has given him confidence, and he’s usually the first to cross the finish line. A new event, hurdles, is giving him some challenges, but he’s determined to overcome them.  Lu learns some unpleasant truths about his father, a former drug dealer who now works for a rehab center, and his coach. The two men grew up together, almost like brothers, but a tragedy pulled them apart, and Lu is determined to bring about a reconciliation before his sister is born.  Each chapter is entitled “A New Name for…” (“A New Name for Little Brother: Little Sister”), and the final chapter: “A New Name for the Defenders: Family” shows all the ways this amazing group of kids have grown and come together over the season (and the series). 224 pages; grades 5-8.

Pros:  I don’t usually review sequels, let alone an entire series, but I have loved these books so much that I had to read them all.  Lu was every bit as good as the rest; Ghost will always be my favorite, but this one is not far behind.

Cons:  I will miss the Defenders.

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She Made a Monster: How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lynn Fulton, illustrated by Felicita Sala

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Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers

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Summary:  On a dark and stormy night two hundred years ago, young Mary sat in her room trying to think of a story.  Downstairs, she could hear her friends Lord Byron and Percy Shelley (soon to be her husband) talking about their own stories.  The group had decided to have a contest to see who could write the best ghost story in a week, and the deadline was approaching.  Finally, Mary went to bed, but in her dreams, she saw a huge creature lying on a table, with a terrified young student shrinking away from him.  Mary knew the young man had brought this being to life. Jolted awake, heart pounding, she realized she finally had an idea for her story. Includes an author’s note about Mary Shelley’s story, Frankenstein, with additional information about Mary and her mother Mary Wollstonecraft, who is referenced in the book.  40 pages; grades 2-5.

Pros:  The writing and illustrations create a deliciously creepy feeling as readers learn about the history behind Mary’s famous book.  This would be an excellent supplement to anyone reading Frankenstein.

Cons:  This is a somewhat fictionalized account (the author’s note tells the parts she took some liberties with) and not really a biography, since it only covers a single episode in Mary Shelley’s life.

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Potato Pants by Laurie Keller

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Published by Henry Holt and Co.

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Summary:  One day only…Lance Vance’s Fancy Pants Store is selling Potato Pants!  Potato is so excited he’s doing the Robot (okay, the Po-bot) before rushing down to the store to get a pair.  But when he gets there, he sees Eggplant inside, wearing his new Eggplant Pants! Yesterday Eggplant went rushing past Potato, pushing him right into a nearby trash can.  Potato is sure Eggplant will mash him again if he goes into the store, so he stands outside, watching all the other happy potatoes happily emerging in their apeeling new pants. Finally, he gets up the nerve to go inside, only to find that the pants have sold out, and when they’re gone…they’re gone.  A couple surprising twists bring about a reconciliation between the two vegetables, both of whom emerge well clad, at least from the waist down. 40 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  This wildly goofy, high energy veggie tale will have kids doubled over with laughter.  There’s a little bit of a lesson in forgiveness and friendship at the end, but mostly it’s just a lot of fun.

Cons:   After getting to know this cute and friendly Potato, mashed potatoes may be off the table for me at Thanksgiving.

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Picturing America: Thomas Cole and the Birth of American Art by Hudson Talbott

~ Janet Dawson ~ 2 Comments

Published by Nancy Paulsen Books

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Summary:  Thomas Cole loved nature and drawing from the time he was a little boy growing up in the English countryside.  When the Industrial Revolution hit, his family fell on hard times and decide to emigrate to America. The family settled first in Ohio, then Pennsylvania, but it wasn’t until they moved to New York that Thomas’s luck began to change.  A merchant named Thomas Bruen admired Cole’s landscape paintings and financed a trip up the Hudson.  Cole’s paintings of the wilderness there brought him fame and fortune, enough to support him on a three-year visit to Europe. He was particularly fascinated by the ruins in Rome, and painted a series of landscapes depicting a society moving from wilderness to civilization and back again.  He returned to the U.S., where he married and settled in the Catskills, living and working there until his death at the age of 47. His style, known as the Hudson River school of art, was the first American art movement, and influenced many other American artists for generations. 32 pages; grades 1-5.

Pros:  This straightforward biography is illuminated with many of Cole’s paintings, showcasing an important early American artist.

Cons:  A timeline would have been useful, since only one date is given in the text (1818, the year the Coles came to the U.S.).

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The Nebula Secret (Explorer Academy) by Trudi Trueit

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by National Geographic Under the Stars

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Summary:  Cole is excited to have been accepted into the elite Explorer Academy, not only because he wants to be an explorer, but because his mother worked there before dying in a mysterious accident when Cole was five years old.  The night before he leaves his home in Hawaii, a man tries to drown him while he’s surfing. On his trip to Washington, D.C. and during his first weeks at the Academy, Cole feels like he’s being followed, and he receives clandestine messages that he should leave.  When a hacker disrupts an important simulation that Cole’s team is participating in, he’s accused of the sabotage and expelled from school. Heartbroken, he and his aunt (a member of the Academy’s faculty) set out to prove his innocence. Their investigation reveals not only the real culprit, but important clues about his mother’s death and the people who want Cole out of the school–or worse.  Readers can look forward to the exciting sequel coming out in March 2019. Includes “The Truth Behind the Fiction” section that tells about real-life explorers and some of the technology they use. 208 pages; grades 3-7.

Pros:  An exciting page-turner with plenty of color illustrations that will appeal to both reluctant and avid readers.  This is the first book in a new imprint from National Geographic called Under the Stars that creates fictional stories based on real-life National Geographic explorers.

Cons:  There’s definitely some need for suspension of disbelief.  Also (spoiler alert): the librarian turns out to be the bad guy.

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Zola’s Elephant by Randall de Seve, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by HMH Books for Young Readers

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Summary:  The narrator has a new neighbor, a girl named Zola.  Their mothers have already met and decided the two kids should be friends.  The narrator is sure Zola already has a friend–an elephant–because she saw a big box being moved into the house.  She imagines Zola eating toast with her elephant, playing in the bathtub with him, and enjoying a game of hide-and-seek together. After each page showing what she’s imagining, the illustrations show what’s actually going on at Zola’s house: she’s eating toast alone, washing dishes, then kicking her heels against the wall, bored and lonely.  Finally, the narrator gets up the courage to knock on Zola’s door. Together they watch the couch getting unpacked from the big box, then sit on it together as a new friendship is born. 40 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  The author and illustrator show kids how to overcome their fears and reach out to new friends.  Caldecott honoree Pamela Zagarenski’s colorful and imaginative paintings give readers plenty to savor.

Cons:  The narrator’s clown-like costume is a little creepy.

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