Well, it’s title is in sparkly letters and it’s about unicorns, so you already know it’s going to be a hit with young readers. But I like it for the way it celebrates imagination. I like the way the text and illustrations play against each other, adding to the reader’s understanding. The text describes the setting as a magic forest; the illustrations show a backyard scene on the edge of some woods. When the text describes castles and magic wands, the illustrations show a tree house and a stick. The story tells of our young heroine stumbling upon a group of tiny magic horses who are learning to fly (and who look suspiciously like bunny rabbits), and discovering one who is sad because it can’t fly. After doing everything she can think of to cheer it up and help it, she decides to make him an ice cream cone, but she’s in such a hurry to take it to him that she’s running, she trips, and the cone lands on the “horse’s” head, which he turns out to like very much and is suddenly inspired to fly. So it’s essentially this author’s version of the unicorns’ origin story.

It’s a poem celebrating self-affirmation, recognizing and honoring all the things that make us each fabulous. I’m sorry to be redundant, but I can’t think of a better word: this book is unabashedly celebratory. It doesn’t just celebrate the big things, like wanting to be an astronaut, but all the little things, too, like making a great paper airplane and telling someone “bless you” when they sneeze. The illustrations are oil paintings that are vibrant and full of personality and offset the text beautifully, adding to the mood created by the text.

A young girl worried about her fishman father on those nights each month with no moon. Finding the crying girl, the sun took one of his golden rays and shattered it into a million glowing pieces for her to place in the sky to light her father’s way. She worked tirelessly to carefully place each star, slowly creating the constellations. A curious monkey snatched her bag of stars, still full after months of work and in the tug-a-war the stars were strewn across the sky creating the Milky Way.

How the Stars Came To Be is a solid new folktale. The book’s illustrations, however, are what really make the book shine. The author’s Indian roots can be seen in the almost henna-like illustrations. Recommended.

Starting with a description of one of Ronaldo’s most famous goals, this biography is sure to be a hit with young soccer players. The book highlights Ronaldo’s career progress from his professional debut in 2002 at age 17 to his move in 2018 to his current team, Juventus. Ronaldo’s commercial sponsorships are mentioned briefly, but some of his charitable contributions are described in more detail. Very little is said about his personal life. This book is definitely targeted at the soccer lover.

Born into slavery, John and Millicent listened to their parents’ stories of their people flying to freedom. Even after their parents, Samuel and Maggie were sold away, those seeds of freedom survived in their minds and hearts. When the overseer injures a majestic bird as if flies over the plantation, John and Millicent risk their safety at night to retrieve and tend it. The bird slowly recovers, but refuses to leave. Secret word reaches their ears that in a week, John would be sold to a faraway farm. Following the flight of the bird, John and Millicent run through the storm to freedom.

Freedom Bird is Jerdine Nolen’s second book in a multigenerational narrative of an African American family. Big Jabe and Thunder Rose, the first and third books respectively have the storytelling characteristics of a Tall Tale. In Freedom Bird, Jerdine Nolen’s powerful storytelling voice can be heard in the story’s language and cadence without the hyperbole found in Big Jabe and Thunder Rose.

An important story told in a powerful voice that belongs in every library.

The illustrations are beautiful, as are the life-lessons conveyed. The book opens by reminding readers that, “School is not the only place to find a teacher.” The author then goes on to share a variety of life lessons learned from her careful observations of the animal kingdom. Gorillas taught her to respect others, Lions and tigers and sharks taught her not to be afraid, a tarantula taught her to love little lives, etc. It’s a gem!

The illustrations are bright and cheerful (and I like that the garden setting is showed as an urban rooftop garden). The text is simple (one sentence per page), and rhyming. For a garden enthusiast family, it might make a good bedtime story, but the audience really is targeting very young kids, and I’m not sure how many of them are going to care about anthropomorphized veggies calling it a day. It does use a good variety of verbs, so could be useful that way.

The publisher’s recommendation says this is a K-3 book, but I think it’s really one of those picture books better suited to older students, so I said I would recommend it for grades 2-5. Though listed as a picture book, rather than as non-fiction, it is the true story of the first woman to ride a motorcycle around the world alone, in 1973. Though never named within the body of the story (simply referred to as “she” or “the girl”), the author’s note in the back tells us that it was Anne-France Dautheville who set out from Paris, carrying only essentials. She loaded her motorcycle onto a plane to fly to Canada, drove from coast to coast across Canada and into Alaska before flying again to Tokyo, and then Bombay. The story describes her route, driving through India and Afghanistan and Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, and Germany, but mostly it describes her experiences of camping and meeting people and experiencing new places and foods. It’s more about setting the mood of adventure and exploration and independence and connecting with the world than a chronology of specific events. It really makes one want to take to the open road and go exploring.

Not every child lives in a place where they tap their own maple syrup from the trees, but every child has experience WAITING. And every child knows how time seems to go so slowly when you’re waiting. This book does a good job of conveying that, as well as a child’s attempts to see if he can speed things along: when dad says it won’t be time until the weather gets warmer, Ethan tries to convince himself that a sunny day means he can leave off his hat and scarf and mittens, only to discover that sunny doesn’t necessarily mean warm. When dad says it won’t be until the nights get shorter, Ethan realizes he can’t control that either. His final means of measuring time comes when he discovers a loose tooth, and dad predicts it will come out about the time the sap starts running, and it does!

Well-known author Lois Lowry (The Giver, Number the Stars) presents her reflections on World War II in verse.  Born in Honolulu four years before the bombing at Pearl Harbor, she opens with the image of herself playing on the beach with the attack of the USS Arizona on the horizon behind her.  With research to back her poems, she presents grim facts of the loss aboard the USS Arizona, for example, the fact that there were thirty-seven sets of brothers aboard. Part 2 moves on to the bombing in Japan, “another horizon,” where the Lowry family lived, with mention of people and artifacts found after the bombing.  Black and white drawings by Kenard Pak contribute to the artful depiction of the lens from Lois Lowry’s childhood.

While the suggested call number for this book is 940.54, the World War II section, this book is not hard research material. While facts learned are interesting, the verse style lends itself more to the emotions associated with World War II. Perhaps a better spot for it would be on the poetry shelf.