Here it is! My standouts! My stalwarts! The books that I just can’t get out of my mind, that have been swimming around in my cranium all year. The great works of picture book nonfiction of 2019!
Review of the Day: Firefighters’ Handbook by Meghan McCarthy
November 6, 2019 by
If there is an art to rendering expository facts with a narrative feel, then Meghan McCarthy is this type of book’s Vincent Van Gogh. Never sacrificing beauty, never skimping on reality, she provides the perfect balance while also managing to come up with books that kids will really really enjoy reading. A treat to eye and ear and a blessing to parents of the firefighting obsessed nationwide. The best at what it aims to be.
Review of the Day: Monument Maker by Linda Booth Sweeney, ill. Shawn Fields
September 21, 2019 by
When a book is as funny, smart, beautiful, and interesting as Monument Maker, you have a chance to remember that old adage about judging a book by its cover.
Review of the Day: Magic Ramen by Andrea Wang, ill. Kana Urbanowicz
August 1, 2019 by
Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando looks like a simple tale about the man who invented instant ramen, but look closer and you’ll see that what the book truly is is a paean to the necessity of failure, the beauty of persistence, and the pleasure that comes after messing up 99 times only to get it right on the 100th.
Review of the Day: The Crayon Man by Natascha Biebow and Steven Salerno
May 10, 2019 by
The ideal use of great writing without cheating. Filled with facts and backmatter, it also makes the subject interesting to kids. It’s beautiful to look at and while I would have made some changes, it stands as a pretty darn good look at a man, a plan, a crayon. Crayola.
Review of the Day – Just Right: Searching for the Goldilocks Planet by Curtis Manley, ill. Jessica Lanan
March 27, 2019 by
We think about aliens all the time and what they might be like. Imagine actually finding other planets where they might live. That’s what Just Right does. It allows for the scope of possibility, even as its very message about the difficulty in finding planets like our own reinforces the fact that this place is pretty special.
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