You can hand today’s book to a kid learning to read, absolutely. Just be warned that their read may be punctuated with interjections of a highly voluble nature. In other words, this is laugh-out-loud funny.
Review of the Day: See the Cat by David LaRochelle, ill. Mike Wohnoutka
July 16, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Newbery/Caldecott 2021: Summer Prediction Edition
July 15, 2020 by 3 Comments
If you’re anything like me, 2020 hasn’t been a great year for reading. That’s okay. This isn’t a great list for predicting (but it’s fun). See what may or may not win big in 2021!
Review of the Day: Rescuing the Declaration of Independence by Anna Crowley Redding, ill. Edwin Fotheringham
July 9, 2020 by Leave a Comment
The true story of the man responsible for keeping key American documents out of the hands of the invading British in 1812. A book about the rescue of ideas put to paper.
Review of the Day: Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte
July 1, 2020 by 5 Comments
May casual cruelties fall by the wayside in the presence of such books as this ione. May our children find it and love it and read it repeatedly. And may we see more such books from Ann Clare LeZotte and authors like her, that put work and care into the very folds of their stories.
Review of the Day: When You Look Up by Decur
June 17, 2020 by Leave a Comment
A picture book and a graphic novel and an early chapter book and a bedtime story all rolled into one impossible-to-define package. I’m not even kidding when I say that When You Look Up by Decur gives you a deep and abiding faith in 21st century storytelling. Now if only I could figure out where to shelve it…
Review of the Day: Just Like Me by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
June 11, 2020 by
We may have spent the better part of Poetry Month sheltering in place, but that doesn’t mean poetry went to sleep. Instead, books like this one have just been biding their time. Go out. Find it. Discover it. And discover why a book this good deserves some keen adjectives in its arsenal.
Review of the Day: Wink by Rob Harrell
May 28, 2020 by
They say, write what you know. And if what you know is how to lie on a steel table, your head screwed into place, a laser pointed at your face, that might be a good place to start. We live in dark times. How dark are they? SO dark that a book about a kid with a potentially deadly eye cancer is the bit of lighthearted levity we all need and crave.
Review of the Day: Nerp! by Sarah Lynne Reul
May 21, 2020 by
You know those parents that get roped into reading to their kids’ preschool/Kindergarten/church group and walk aimlessly through libraries and bookstores in a hazy daze of barely contained fear? This book is for them. Guaranteed laughs, short content, and the kind of book I could see a kid demanding over and over again. Worth buying? “Yerp!”
Review of the Day : We Are Power by Todd Hasak-Lowy
May 13, 2020 by
You don’t need to be a president or a military leader to change the world. Anyone can do it but it takes faith and numbers. It takes smarts and skills and morals. And what it really takes is a knowledge of history. Of what works and what doesn’t. It takes this book. Now hand it to someone who needs it.
Review of the Day: Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
May 7, 2020 by
Not every 12-year-old is going to be ready for the abuse and pain addressed in Bradley’s latest. But for those kids that want a book can be honest with them about the world, written at their age-level, with funny parts and a happy ending where things get better, this is that book. It ain’t easy but it’s there for you.
Review of the Day: Desert Girl, Monsoon Boy by Tara Dairman, ill. Archana Sreenivasan
April 30, 2020 by
I honestly think there’s a value in teaching kids the fact that the more you learn, the more you will realize just how much you do not know. That there’s always room for more knowledge. And Desert Girl, Monsoon Boy is a gorgeously wrought, simply written, smart story that does the work of engaging and informing kids alongside their ill-informed parents.
Spring Prediction Edition: Newbery / Caldecott 2021
April 23, 2020 by
This year’s first round of predictions varies somewhat from those of the past because I am releasing the list in April rather than March. Turns out, pandemics are not good for forecasting. I’ve only just now gotten my head in order enough to try and offer a paltry take on what may or may not have a chance come January.
Review of the Day: All of a Sudden and Forever by Chris Barton and Nicole Xu
April 19, 2020 by
If we are talking about events that change us all and that we must collectively heal from (whether literally or figuratively) then this book might be precisely what we need. Because this isn’t just a book about something that happened a quarter of a century ago. It’s a book that is meant to help you learn how to heal and recover and hope in the face of the horrendous. Give it a go.
Review of the Day: Shirley & Jamila Save Their Summer by Gillian Goerz
April 14, 2020 by
Firmly rooted in reality, the book tips its hat low to Sherlock Holmes but maintains an originality entirely of its own. Surely kids won’t be asking for more of the same? They most certainly will. And don’t call me Shirley.
Review of the Day: Ways to Make Sunshine by Renée Watson
April 2, 2020 by
Sharp and smart. Kind and caustic. Occasionally acidic, but in a nice way, today’s review is of the kind of book that wakes up dreamy readers and forces the darned kids to think a little. Precisely what we would have all been waiting for, had we but known to want it.
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