This simply-illustrated picture book would be a nice springboard for a discussion of welcoming refugees. Primarily written as a conversation between animals, each character’s dialogue is printed in the same color as their fur, eliminating the need for identifiers in the text. When a strange animal arrives, three local animals are curious about his big suitcase. As the locals ask questions about the suitcase they become suspicious about the answers. Their mistrust leads to a violation of privacy, but also an act of contrition which creates an opening for friendship. The simplicity of the book means it is not a deep dive on the topic of providing a welcome for strangers, but creates the space for an adult to move the conversation in that direction. Younger children would appreciate the simple nature of the book, but it could lead to richer conversations with older elementary students.
Our Subway Baby, by Peter Mercurio
A poignant story, based upon a true event, in the City of New York. This beautifully illustrated books begins with a man in the subway system underground in New York, spotting a bundle on the ground. As he approached, he realized that it was a baby! He reported to the authorities and immediately began caring for this babe until he was taken away to the local hospital. The man, named Danny, kept asking about him, and waiting for the foster system to locate his parents. As this did not happen, he was invited to apply for adoption! His partner at home, a man named Kevin, who had not thought of adopting or having a child, was open and enthusiastic to the idea of allowing love in where it had presented itself.
Both men went through the court system and earned the right to adopt this baby who was found on the subway! Their happiness was contagious and earned much respect and attention nationwide. They are still a family, to this day. Although the baby is now a student in college studying mathematics and computer science!
A contemporary book speaking truth to a contemporary topic: gay couple adoption. With the added twist of finding the baby on the subway! This is a beautifully written and illustrated book which teaches the underlying message of: “Love wins.”A must in your library.
Camino A Las Estrellas
This is the Spanish edition of Sylvia Acevedo’s Path To The Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist. Acevdo’s story is that of a young Latino girl growing up in Las Cruces, New Mexico who has ambitions to study math and science, but is constrained by cultural and societal norms. She also faces racial prejudice as a Latino student who transfers to an Anglo school. It is not until she wears her Brownie uniform to the Anglo school that Sylvia is accepted by the other students and joins the sisterhood of the Girl Scouts.
The Girl Scouts changed Sylvia’s life: she began to earn badges and learned to do many things that interested her. Selling Girl Scout cookies led her to start saving her own money and plan for college, knowing that her parents would be unable to assist her in this dream.
She tells of her experience growing up bilingual and poor, how she achieves her goal of graduating from college and graduate school and becomes a rocket scientist. Ultimately she serves as the CEO of the Girl Scouts of America.
This is a very inspiring story and libraries would be well served to carry both the Spanish and English editions.
In a Jar, by Deborah Marcero
The book, In a Jar is a sweet metaphor for protecting and sharing special memories. Llewellyn is a bit of a loner, collecting items in jars so he can peer inside and remember the wonderful things he had seen and done. One evening he meets Evelyn and shares one of his jars with her. This led to seasons of collecting together. When Evelyn moves away, she and Llewellyn share jars back and forth, maintaining their friendship by sharing their present.
The story will encourage children to collect, protect, save, share and reexamine what makes the everyday things around them special. Recommended.
The Ugly Five
By Julia Donaldson
Illustrated by Axel Sheffler
Julia Donaldson introduces us to five uniquely bizarre animals of the African Savanna. The five animals: Wildebeest, Warthog, Spotted Hyena, Lappet-Faced Vulture and Marabou Stork all believe that they are the ugliest of all the creatures that roam the Savanna. They chant a rhyming song as they move along meeting each other. At the end their off-springs prove that even though the might not be the most beautiful animal, they are loved and needed, A lesson everyone can heed.
At the end of the book the author and illustrator include two pages of drawings of other animals you might see on a safari. The illustrations are beautiful but don’t deter from the message.
A good read aloud to illustrate order of events.
Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History (Young Readers’ Edition) by Keith O’Brien
This young reader edition is adapted by the author, Keith O’Brien, from his adult book of the same title. In Fly Girls, O’Brien tells the widely unknown story of American female aviators in the 1920’s and 30′. Amelia Earhart’s amazing accomplishments and the mystery of her disappearance appears prominently in history books but how many know Ruth Nichols, Louise Thaden, Ruth Elder, and Florence Klingensmith? These young female aviators were held back by deep gender inequities during golden age of flying, and as O’Brien explains of their forgotten histories, “each of the women went missing in her own way.”
The stories of these five “fly girls” show how they came from very different backgrounds and experiences. Nichols was a New York debutante, Thaden sold coal in Wichita, Elder was hiding her divorce, Klingensmith was working on airplane engines, and Earhart was in Boston making life changing decisions.
Airplane racing was a very hot sport between WWI and WWII but was completely dominated by men. The five “fly girls” struggled to find opportunities to fly, begged sponsors, borrowed planes, took risks such as daredevil stunts on the wings of planes. O’Brien tells all of these stories, including numerous fiery crashes and the tragedies that occured in the cockpit and also on the ground.
Fly Girls is in the vein of Hidden Figures and The Girls of Atomic City, telling the story of how a group of women banded together to break the glass ceilings, struggling against entrenched prejudice, to fight for the right to do the job which had been seen as exclusively for men.
This Young Reader edition includes a glossary, source notes by chapter, an index, and primary source black and white photos.
Leif and the Fall
By Allison Sweet Grant and Adam Grant
Illustrated by Merrilee Liddiard
Leif and his friend, Laurel attempt many different ways to make his fall to the ground softer and easier. During his trials, all the other leaves taunt him but he perseveres. At last comes the time when an anxious Leif can not hold on anymore. Will his fall be disastrous?
The illustrations are simple but effective, giving each leaf a personality, This persistent tale lends to great discussion about never giving up, order of events, why and why not Leif’s inventions worked and the progression of the seasons. Great autumn read!
The Lady is a Spy: Virginia Hall, World War II Hero of the French Resistance by Don Mitchell
This biography is a younger reader version of the story of Virginia Hall, an American woman who fought discrimination over her gender and physical disability when she worked for the US State Department, left that job in Europe and to drive an ambulance for the French Army, then becomes a spy for the French Resistance during WWII, is captured several times, escapes, is awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, and later works for the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War.
Virginia Hall suffered discrimination not only because she was a woman working in intelligence in the 1930’s-60’s, but also because she wore a prosthetic leg after losing hers in a hunting accident as a teenager. Even with the assistance of President Roosevelt, she could not advance in government service here in the USA, so went to work for the State Department abroad. Fluent in multiple languages and having a brilliant mind, she still struggled with discrimination. With war breaking out in Europe, she joined the war effort in France where her disability was not considered a liability. From there she joined the British Intelligence Service as a spy, finding herself at the top of the Nazi’s most-wanted list. She was pursued by the Gestapo’s infamous Klaus Barbie, known as “the Butcher of Lyon” for the torture and killing of thousands in France by his forces. Hall later becoming the most highly decorated civilian woman of WW II, and is regarded as the greatest American spy of the era.
With such an exciting plotline of espionage and danger, courage, determination, and romance, one would expect this book to be a gripping read. Unfortunately, it is not. It reads like a mediocre Reader’s Digest edition of a greater work. In this case, the greater work being A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell. Students who are interested in espionage, WW II history, and equal rights for women and those with disabilities, should read Purnell’s book instead if they can brave the violence that is glossed over in The Lady is a Spy.
There’s Something about Sam, by Hannah Barnaby
The book opens with Max writing invitations to his birthday sleepover, and feeling unsure about inviting the new kid, Sam, but his mom insists. Max can’t put his finger one what it is about Sam, just that there seems to be something strange about him. Throughout the story they never do come right out and say what the something is — the reader has to put the clues together. We learn he has a really good sense of smell, he’s not sure he can come to the birthday party because there’s a full moon that night, he likes his burgers really rare, after they change into pajamas that night he develops fangs and claws and really hairy hands, and when the moonlight shines on him, he runs out into the night. Though it never comes right out and say he’s a werewolf, the point is that though the boys are initially scares of his nighttime transformations, when they join him in his backyard adventures they all have a really good time and end up really liking him just as he is, not despite his weirdness, but because of it.
Little Wise Wolf, by Gijs van Der Hammen
It’s rather got the feel of an olde world fable. Little Wise Wolf got his name because he loved to read so much that he came to know about many things and the other animals would come to him with their questions. But he doesn’t like being disturbed from his reading and complains about not having time for the other animals. When a messenger is sent to summon him to the bedside of the ill king, he doesn’t want to go, but is informed that one cannot refuse the king, so he sets off on a long journey. The trek is difficult, but he is helped along the way by the animals he did not have time for. After healing the king, he is offered a place within the castle where he can read all day undisturbed, but Little Wise Wolf realizes he must return to his friends, because he still has a lot to learn from them. From then on he is never too busy for those who come to visit him, and yet he still manages to read and learn in abundance. It’s got a lovely message, and while I can appreciate the way the illustrations contribute to the olde world feel of the story, I worry that the dark and drab colors will be a turn-off to many students and it may not circulate much.