While this book feels different than Jacqueline Woodson’s other picture books, I love the prose with which she writes. This story is about friendship, community and summer. Every kid can relate to the excitement of getting out of school for summer and all the plans they have. Set in Brooklyn, the vibrant illustrations, by Leo Espinosa, add to the energy of the words with smiles, movement and color.

Students run down the steps of their school building into the Brooklyn streets to begin their summer vacation. They play in fire hydrants, let their curls go natural, play street games like hopscotch and jump rope, told stories that had each person enthralled to the last moment, and joined together to lift each other up and bring everyone along for the ride…that is, until. the grownups call everyone home.

This is a relatable story for kids about the joy of summer – it would be a great addition to any library, but especially in urban schools where their experiences may be similar to those in the book.

This is a fantastic book about kids bringing lunch to school that are traditional to their home culture. Each kid who is highlighted is subjected to another student saying their lunch doesn’t look good or doesn’t smell good – and ultimately they decide to switch to a boring sandwich instead. After a few days of only sandwiches, the traditional home lunches start to come back, and smiles start to return on the faces of kids.

I love the illustrations, by Jing Li, of the food, the home kitchens, and the shopping markets. What a great window into some lives!

Words are powerful and this book is a great example of that. It uses real life experiences of four professional chefs who used to bring traditional home lunches to school and who were each in turn told it looked “ewww.”

A must have for any school library! My fourth graders give it a double thumbs up!

By Lauren Wolk

This story, My Own Lightning by Lauren Wolk, the sequel to a dashing book will pull you straight into the world it tells of and changes the way you perceive your own. Following the events of Wolf Hollow, My Own Lightning brings about summer to the story once more; with a tremendous storm to come with it. The story following the storm tells of growing up and finding ways to cope with change or to be the change. The figurative language and fantastical imagery leave your mind spinning with beautiful pictures created by the brilliant words in My Own Lightning A brilliant historical fiction gives you not only an intriguing image of the past but deep and wonderful characters to pull you into the words with them. If the intriguing image of the past is created by this historical fiction, the thorough figurative language will strike even the most reluctant readers as simply beautiful!

Reviewed by a WMS student

In this book written by Margriet Ruurs and illustrated by Wenjia Tang, you travel around the world to see how and where kids live. The book begins with a quick introduction to maps, going over a Compass Rose, Legend, and Scale Bar. After this, each page introduces a friend, their real neighborhood, describes their community, and gives you a word or two in their language.

This is a great book to introduce maps to your class. It has beautiful illustrations incorporating the maps with animals and the friends who live there.

I can see this book being used for social studies, introducing mapmaking, and when talking about community – it is a beautiful addition to your library.