MORE 'REVIEWS' POSTS
Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller by Sarah Miller Atheneum (Simon and Schuster imprint) $16.99 Ages 10 and up Authors that try to tackle any aspect of Helen Keller’s life in a children’s literary format are simultaneously blessed and cursed. On the one hand, talk about God’s gift to authors. The emotional ups and downs of […]
(CONTINUED FROM PART ONE) I did have some questions here and there. As I’ve said, you get the feeling that Miller was a stickler for historical accuracy. So much so that there is no cleaning up of the real Annie’s references to the "little negro boy" who worked in the house. So it was interesting […]
The Professor’s Daughter by Joann Sfar. Illustrated by Emmanuel Guibert. First Second (an imprint of Roaring Brook Press). $16.95. Ages 11 and up. The romantic implications behind classic horror monsters are usually explored only when horror remains the primary focus and romance a secondary characteristic. There are exceptions to this rule, but they tend to […]
(CONTINUED FROM PART ONE) I’d not seen Guibert’s art before, but after reading this book I feel I should seek him out. For example, I enjoyed how the colors in this book shift at the most interesting moments. At first, everything is all brown sepia. As if we’re watching a photograph from the time period […]
I received my degree in library and information science in a small midwestern college going by the name of St. Catherine. Librarianship was one of those occupations I fought against. I was the kid who made a cataloging system for the family videotapes. Who tried to work out a pre-computer list of searchable terms for […]
Though the primary focus of this particular blog is to look at the books that come out in the current year, I acknowledge that with every passing season, great titles fall through the cracks. They’re forgotten, forlorn, and all but gone once they go out-of-print. Poor babies. So it was that Colleen Mondor had an […]
Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf. Clarion Books (a Houghton Mifflin imprint). $16.00. On shelves now. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it. The arrival of a noteworthy work of historical fiction for kids tends to work one of two ways. Either the marketing machine behind the book hits bookstores and libraries full-force, cramming said […]
(CONTINUED FROM PART ONE) Distinguishing between "nice" and "good" proves to be difficult for most adults I know. Imagine how much harder it would be for a child who misses her mother and has a loving enemy there to give her whatever she wants. If for no other reason, Wolf allows her book to explore […]
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban. Harcourt, Inc. $16.00. On shelves September 1st. Humor is just so hard in children’s books. You either crash too hard on the adult side of the equation (see: The Manny Files) or you end up going too far the other direction and end up ridiculously scatological (see: […]
(CONTINUED FROM PART ONE) If the book has a problem it probably concerns the lack of dramatic tension. For example, one day Wheeler’s mildly pissed about something and yet the next time Zoe sees him she says, "I thought you might not come back here ever." It’s a rather extreme sentence considering the two of […]