MORE 'REVIEWS' POSTS
(CONTINUED FROM PART ONE) Notes on the Cover: Wow. If this is the new cover for the book, I’m torn. I’d only seen the cover slapped on the ARCs until now and I was going to have this rip-roaring view of what was beautiful but wrong with it. Then I see that Amazon.com is displaying […]
Tall Tales by Karen Day. Wendy Lamb Books (Random House imprint). $15.99. "Tall Tales" isn’t flashy. It doesn’t leap off of the bookshelf and start screaming about how necessary it is for you to buy buy buy. There are no sparkles, flashy lights, or marauding dragons in evidence. It’s slow. Soft. A book manages to […]
Little Red Riding Hood by Jerry Pinkney. Little Brown and Company. October 1, 2007. $16.99. You can appreciate a person’s craft and talent without ever really appreciating their style. I mean, no one is ever going to say that Jerry Pinkney isn’t one of the most talented artists working in the field of picture books […]
(CONTINUED FROM PART ONE) As one of those artists that model their characters on real people, Little Red and her mother were indeed based on a woman and her daughter than Mr. Pinkney knew. The fact that this is a biracial family is just a nice plus, really. Ask me to come up with fairy […]
Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion by Loree Griffin Burns. Houghton Mifflin. $18.00. I realize that I seem to be doing two Houghton Mifflin titles in a row on this blog. Sorry about that. Usually I like to shake things up a little. Mix up my publishers. No more free rides, […]
(Continued from Part One) Because seriously, this is fascinating information. I mean, did you know that two thousand to ten thousand 60,000 pound containers just happen to fall overboard from cargo ships EVERY YEAR??? Or that there’s a mysterious floating patch of garbage that takes a week to cross by boat? I was, admittedly, more […]
Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins. Houghton Mifflin. $16.00. It must be very frustrating to work in the field of cut-paper picture books these days. I imagine your average collage artist will spend countless hours trying to get an illustration or scene just right in their book. At long last they will sigh, wipe the […]
Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages. Tachyon Publications. $14.95. I don’t normally do this. It’s out of my realm of expertise, really. Covering new territory. Breaking new ground. What I mean to say is that “Portable Childhoods,” by Ellen Klages is not a children’s book. It is written by a woman who has penned a Scott […]
Robot Dreams By Sara Varon First Second (a Roaring Brook imprint) $16.95 208 pages ISBN:978-1-59643-108-9 The wordless graphic novel for children. Adults, quite frankly, haven’t a clue how to deal with them. But for those kids intimidated by words, new to the English language, or just fond of visual storytelling, these new forms of literature […]
Elijah of Buxton By Christopher Paul Curtis Scholastic Books $16.99 For ages 10 and up. Before I begin I’d just like to make the note that this is a review from the Advanced Reader Copy of this book. My copy does not have the final text that will appear in the Author’s Note (a fact […]