MORE 'REVIEWS-2014' POSTS
Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems Selected by Paul B. Janeczko Illustrated by Melissa Sweet Candlewick Press $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-4842-8 Ages 4-8 On shelves now Is reviewing works of poetry essentially a ridiculous thing to attempt? I’m not trying to be facetious or anything, I honestly want to know. It took me a […]
The Night Gardener By Jonathan Auxier Illustrated by Patrick Arrasmith Amulet Books (an imprint of Abrams) $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-4197-1144-2 Ages 10 and up On shelves May 20th For whatever reason, 2014 is a dark year in children’s middle grade fiction. I speak from experience. Fantasy in particular has been steeped in a kind of thoughtful […]
Sparky! By Jenny Offill Illustrated by Chris Appelhans Schwartz & Wade (an imprint of Random House) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-87023-1 Ages 4-8 On shelves March 11th The sloth is not a noble animal. Few people spend time contemplating their heroic qualities and distinguished countenances. Had I an Oxford English Dictionary on hand I’d be mighty interested […]
The Griffin and the Dinosaur: How Adrienne Mayor Discovered a Fascinating Link Between Myth and Science By Marc Aronson with Adrienne Mayor Illustrated by Chris Muller National Geographic $18.99 ISBN: 978-1-4263-1108-6 Ages 9-12 On shelves April 8th. I remember back in 2007 when the American Museum of Natural History in NYC premiered a show called […]
Nightingale’s Nest By Nikki Loftin Razorbill (an imprint of Penguin) $16.99 ISNB: 978-1-59514-546-8 Ages 10-14 On shelves now. Magical realism in children’s novels is a rarity. It’s not unheard of, but when children’s authors want fantasy, they write fantasy. When they want reality, they write reality. A potentially uncomfortable mix of the two is harder […]
Anna Carries Water By Olive Senior Illustrated by Laura James Tradewind Books $18.95 ISBN: 978-1-896580-60-9 Ages 3-7 On shelves now. I was recently engaged in a high-energy search at my library to locate as swiftly and surely as possible a listing of any and all children’s books set in the Caribbean. We were eventually able […]
I Kill the Mockingbird By Paul Acampora Roaring Brook Press (an imprint of Macmillan) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-59643-742-5 Ages 10 and up On shelves May 20th It’s probably fair to say that there is no American classic written with an adult audience in mind that is quite as beloved of children’s book authors as To Kill […]
Three Bears in a Boat By David Soman Dial (a division of Penguin Young Readers Group) $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-8037-3993-2 Ages 3-7 On shelves May 20th I always suspected there was more to David Soman than met the eye. That’s the problem with success. Folks just dismiss you out of hand. If the man’s name is […]
Hi, Koo! A Year of Seasons By Jon J. Muth Scholastic $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-545-16668-3 Ages 4-8 On shelves February 25th I have a colleague who is mighty careful when regarding haiku. She’s Japanese-American herself, and one thing she simply cannot stand is when someone takes a set of words, slaps them into five/seven/five syllable lines, […]
The Riverman By Aaron Starmer Farrar Straus & Giroux (an imprint of Macmillan) $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-374-36309-3 Ages 11 and up On shelves March 18th When a book has worked its way into your cranium and is making a home for itself within the darker recesses of your very soul, the natural inclination is to talk […]