I love the illustrations in this book: they are bright and beautiful and full of feeling. And I love the idea/purpose guiding the book: it’s about being comfortable in your own skin and not body shaming ourselves. I just didn’t like the story as much as I wanted to: it came across as rather preachy and pedantic. It is about a young Bangladeshi-American girl who is excited and confident about starting school for the first time, but is questioning comments she hears her family members make about their weight. At school she hears a boy tease another girl about looking fat. That night at dinner she puts all the pieces together and declares herself on a diet, turning down her favorite dinner. Her family gathers around her and explain their own mistaken thinkings and her mother tells her that “beauty is how you make people feel and the kind things you do,” and then all is right with the world again. I just wish it had been more subtle with more story and less preaching. It’s an important message, but it was delivered in too heavily handed a manner.
Category Archives: Reviewer’s Library Type
Fuzzy, Inside and Out: A Story About Small Acts of Kindness and BIG HAIR by Zachariah Ohora
Fuzzy Haskins is a kind soul who is super fuzzy. He smiled at everyone he passed on the street. He helped others when he saw a need. But when the rain and humidity came smiles around him turned into frowns. He became too fuzzy! This is a lovely book about being kind to others. This is a great book that talks about the positive feelings one can have when they share and are kind to others.
Outer Banks: Lights Out
Outer Banks is a multi-season Netflix series that is pretty popular amongst teens. This original novel has the same setting and main characters, but the plot for this book is different. Told in multiple POVs, these two and a half days of John B and JJ’s spring break solidifies their hatred of the Kooks. Kooks are the tourists that flood their North Carolina coastal town. John B and JJ want to escape the Kooks and their dad-issues –John B’s dad has been missing for months and presumed dead while JJ’s is an alcoholic. The plan is for them to go fishing in the “Graveyard of the Atlantic”, a Bermuda Triangle of sorts. When the weather turns nasty, their night becomes dangerous. The diction is over-the-top in simplicity — it’s a fast read that fans of Outer Banks will probably enjoy but those without the background might be frustrated with the low quality. While this reader fully expected the story to end on a cliffhanger, which would seem appropriate, it ties up too easily, which does not match the drama in these teens’ lives. This is a recommendation that will be checked out again and again as long as the series continues but it is not one for the history books.
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodbye? by Jane Yolen, Mark Teague – Illustrator
As with all of the dinosaur books, this is a wonderfully illustrated tale that explains what dinosaurs DON’T do when they have to say goodbye. This images will make all smile and the message of talking to an adult about feelings when saying goodbye can help.
Calvin by JR and Vanessa Ford, Kayla Harren, Illustrator
This is a book that is relevant for our time. It is about a young person who realizes that in their heart and mind they are not a girl but a boy. When read it shows how a family and community can support someone when realizing this as well as explains what transgender means.
I Don’t Want to Read This Book
I Don’t Want to Read This Book by Max Greenfield starts off with the narrator declaring that they do not want to read this book. Books are full of words, sentences, and paragraphs. On each page, the narrator explains why they do not want to read the book. Even at the end of the book the narrator the narrator says the changes of reading the book again are infinitesimal.
Bisa’s Carnaval
Bisa’s Carnaval by Joana Pastro is a delightful picture book about Clara who is so excited to celebrate her favorite holiday, Carnaval, with her family. Her Bisa (great-grandma) helps Clara make her costume for the parade, but says she is too old to take part in the parade. Clara decides to take the parade to her Bisa.
The vibrancy of the illustrations and the different font sizes bring the feeling of excitement and joy of the Carnaval to the reader. The author and illustrator note’s at the end give personal perspective to Carnaval and the glossary at the end translates some of the Brazilian Portuguese words.
The Barking Ballad: A Bark-Along Meow-Along Book
The Barking Ballad by Julie Paschkis is an interactive picture book. The author has used a stanza from Oliver Goldsmith’s poem “An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog” to build her own poem. The book starts out with a cat that was left behind when someone moved away and she is wandering around alone and hungry. One day a dog is hit on the head by a falling rock and the cat takes care of the dog. Soon the cat and the dog are friends and are inseparable.
Throughout the book, the reader will find red dots which mean the readers should bark and yellow diamonds which mean the reader should meow. In a read-aloud, the reader would need to figure out a way to demonstrate when the audience should bark or meow. This book is geared towards pre-readers but there is some vocabulary that would need to be defined for them (bereft).
Earth’s Aquarium: Discover 15 Real-Life Water Worlds
By Alexander Kaufman; illustrated by Mariana Rodrigues
This oversized book is both beautiful and informative. This book begins with the important aspects of many watery worlds and defines each: salinity, density, light penetration, currents, pressure, waves, water acidity, and tides & oxygen concentration. 15 different water ecosystems are highlighted from all parts of the planet. Within each, 8-10 species are illustrated and discussed, as well as the importance of each unique type of watery ecosystem. Each ecosystem features a two-page spread of the ecosystem “in action” followed by 2 pages of information about specific species. While the reader may never see the fast-moving freshwater of the Amazon River in South America, they can certainly see similar ecosystems near their own homes. The illustrations are gorgeous and are worthy of time spent just swimming around the pages. This book would be a great addition to a science class involved in water quality testing or any school library where water issues are studied. This is a highly recommended picture book for older audiences since the text is geared toward older students!
What About Will
By ELLEN HOPKINS
While Trace used to have a close relationship with his older brother, Will, everything changes after Will suffers a serious brain injury in a football game. “The incident” has a permanent effect on Will’s personality. He now skips school, hangs out with the wrong crowd, steals money, and eventually becomes addicted to pain medication. Trace, already juggling his parent’s separation and pitching for his school baseball team, hides what he knows about Will from their father. When Will attempts suicide, Trace learns the hard way that the best way he can help his brother is to be open with his parents about the direction Will’s life is taking him. The author, Ellen Hopkins writes this story of family love in prose, the perfect format for the storyline.