Book Reviews
2022 Newbery and Pura Belpré Award winner: The Last Cuentista
Donna Barba Higuera’s Newbery Award and Pura Belpré Award winning novel nimbly mixes Spanish and English and draws from various storytelling genres to do what speculative fiction does best - imagine the latent possibilities in a given society, challenge readers to contemplate the promises and risks, and invite us to form new understandings about the world we live in now.
Past and Present Merge to Lift Us in Bryan Collier’s We Shall Overcome
Weaving past and present together through image and anthem, master illustrator Bryan Collier gifts us the inspiring message of the protest song “We Shall Overcome” in the form of a picturebook. Immersed in Collier’s deeply symbolic collages, readers accompany a young Black girl wearing a bright yellow dress as she leaves her home, goes to school, and gathers with friends to paint a mural near a street with bright yellow lettering that reads ‘Black Lives Matter.’ The illustrations fuse past events with the present narrative; historical figures and monuments are represented by Collier in black and white, while the present is represented in bright colors. This moving picturebook invites us all to reflect on the contributions of the freedom fighters who have come before us, and on all of our roles and responsibilities in sustaining the continuing journey toward freedom.
Delicious Family Memories: May Your Life be Deliciosa
Written by Michael GenhartIllustrated by Loris LoraPublished by Cameron + Company, 2021ISBN # 978-1951836221Grades PreK – 3 Book ReviewWhat kinds of food do you associate with family celebrations and holidays? In this visually appetizing Pura Belpré honor book, author Michael Genhart and illustrator Loris Lora welcome readers to a Mexican American family home inspired by […]
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Life’s Simple Problems Are Solved with the Help of Steadfast Friends in Amos McGee Misses the Bus: Teaching Ideas for this Much-Awaited Sequel
After over a decade, the much-awaited sequel to the Caldecott-winning A Sick Day for Amos McGee has arrived–and at just the right time. The return of fastidious zookeeper Amos and the beloved animals he cares for feels like coming home to an old friend.
Exploring Language, Leadership, Love, and More: Teaching Ideas for The Beatryce Prophecy
This hopeful story of language, leadership, and love has so much to offer readers as an independent read, a whole class read aloud, or a book club exploration. Our weary, virus-laden world needs the goodness and joy this book conjures. “What does, then, change the world?....Love, and also stories” (p. 247).
Presidential Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman’s Debut Picturebook Rings and Sings in the New Year
As we start a new year together, facing challenges that have carried over from last, Change Sings provides a source of optimism and beauty that we can share with students not just across multiple content areas, but across our world and for years to come.
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Promoting Peace with Poetry and Art
What is peace? The answer to this question is both individual and collective, and both simple and complex. In their inviting new picture book poem, Baptiste and Miranda Paul explore the concept of peace, moving readers from concrete to abstract. The rhyming text and warmly whimsical illustrations invite readers young and old to consider the roles they can play in creating peace and the benefits that all can enjoy.
Not One, But Two, Whimsical Picturebooks Where Things Mysteriously Fall From the Sky
This entry features two picturebooks by acclaimed picturebook creators who have crafted stories where things fall from the sky, events occur, and for some characters, lessons are learned.
An Ode to Dads and Daughters: Dad Bakes
Dad BakesWritten and Illustrated by Katie YamasakiPublished by Norton Young Readers, October 2021ISBN-13: 978-1324015413Grades PreK and Up Dad Bakes is for “[a]ll of the families impacted by incarceration who I’ve painted with through the years” writes muralist and book creator Katie Yamasaki. Illustrated in bright, saturated colors, this tender story begins with four muralistic […]
Exploring the Past and Imagining the Future with Once Upon a Time There Was and Will Be So Much More
Rare is the book that has the potential to prompt so much thinking in so few pages for such a wide audience. Originally published in Sweden in 2020, Johanna Schaible’s Once Upon a Time There Was and Will Be So Much More is a picture book for humans of all ages, from young children with an emerging concept of time to adults pondering their own life experiences in the past, present, and future.
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