MORE '2011-REVIEWS' POSTS
Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans By Kadir Nelson Balzer and Bray (an imprint of Harper Collins) $19.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-173074-0 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Humans tend to be a highly visual species. When folks tell you not to judge a book by its cover, that’s an optimistic sentiment rather than […]
A Monster Calls By Patrick Ness Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd Illustrated by Jim Kay Candlewick Press $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-5559-4 Ages 11 and up On shelves now I don’t mind metaphors as much as I might. I think that generally I’m supposed to hate them when they show up in children’s literature. I […]
Little Chicken’s Big Day By Katie Davis and Jerry Davis Margaret K. McElderry Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-4424-1401-3 Ages 4-8 On shelves now. Are there any picture book catchphrases that have entered the cultural lexicon? I’m serious in asking this, but I’m a poor judge of what everyone knows. When […]
Nursery Rhyme Comics Edited by Chris Duffy Introduction by Leonard S. Marcus $18.99 ISBN: 978-1-59643-600-8 Ages 9-12 On shelves October 11, 2011 Nursery rhymes. What’s up with that? (I feel like a stand up comedian when I put it that way). They’re ubiquitous but nonsensical. Culturally relevant but often of unknown origins. Children’s literary scholar […]
Icefall By Matthew J. Kirby Scholastic $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-545-27424-1 Ages 9-14 On shelves now. There’s a certain breed of middle grade fiction novel for kids that defies easy categorization. Call them fantasies without fantasy. These strange little novels pop up from time to time encouraging readers to believe that they are reading about something fantastical […]
The Meaning of Life and Other Stuff By Jimmy Gownley Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $19.99 ISBN: 978-1-4169-8613-3 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. Sometimes it feels to me that when it comes to realistic stories about learning and growing the comic strip world for kids used to have some serious advantages over the […]
Ghetto Cowboy By G. Neri Illustrated by Jesse Joshua Watson Candlewick Press $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-4922-7 Ages 10 and up. On shelves now. Fun Fact: Parents these days speak in code. As a New York children’s librarian I had to learn this the hard way. Let’s say they want a folktale about a girl outwitting a […]
A Dog is a Dog By Stephen Shaskan Chronicle Books $14.99 ISBN: 978-0-8118-7896-8 Ages 4-8 On shelves October 12th Beware the children’s librarian entrenched in the same old, same old. One of the risks of the profession is that when children’s librarians grow jaded, they start to rely upon the same five to eight books […]
Review of the Day: The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont by Victoria Griffith
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The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont By Victoria Griffith Illustrated by Eva Montanari Abrams Books for Young Readers $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-4197-0011-8 Ages 6-10 On shelves now The American publishing industry is good at a lot of things. They produce some pretty delightful fare for children on a variety of different topics. If you want […]
Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading By Tommy Greenwald Illustrated by J.P. Coovert Roaring Brook (Macmillan) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-59643-691-6 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. The unreliable narrator. It’s a staple of adult literature, and a relative newcomer to the world of children’s lit. Even books for teens are more likely to sport these first […]