Each page of the book takes a number from 1-10 and talks about something in nature for that number. “Here is one moon in the night sky. See the hawk flying high with its two wings spread wide.” Some pages include good to know boxes with information about the nature item on that page. The book topic is geared towards a younger age, but the amount of text on the page would make the book a better read aloud.
Category Archives: Reviewer’s Library Type
Ojibwe
A nonfiction book from the series Native Americans gives us just a small overview of the Ojibwe. There are many text features used such as captions, text boxes, bold words, maps, timeline and a glossary. Each page has one to two paragraphs of information. At the end there is a few pages about their fight for their land.
Be A Maker
What can you make? This book has colorful illustrations and rhyming text. It encourages exploration and creating whatever you can think of with the objects around you. It ends with the girl building a playground for all of the neighbors to share.
Charlotte the Scientist Finds a Cure
Charlotte is back, but this time everyone in the forest is sick with a mysterious illness. Charlotte is determined to find out why everyone is sick, but when the doctors come they tell her she is too little. Charlotte decides not to give up and goes through a scientific process to come up with a cure.
Nighttime Symphony
A nighttime city storm creates a beautiful lullaby. The rhythmic text soothes the worried child in the story making the storm not as scary as he thinks it is. And finally it soothes the child to sleep.
The illustrations in this book are vibrant and flow beautifully with the text.
The Cholo Tree
Victor is a fourteen-year old Latino kid who cannot escape the societal stereotype that he must be in a gang. He even gets this from his own mother, who states “Do you know what a stereotype you are? You’re the existential Chicano” as he is released from the hospital. He’s wrapped in bandages, has a sling on his arm, and barely remembers being shot. He denies that he’s a cholo, which his mother accuses him of.
And it’s not just his mother who thinks he’s a gangbanger. He gets the same reaction from his sociology teacher who sent him to a teach-in on gang violence. Even other kids at school think he’s in a gang, and Victor wonders if it is because of the clothes he wears.
Victor thinks that most everyone is racist. “They see a brown kid, they see a banger.”
Fortunately, he has an art teacher who encourages him to apply to art schools. He has a girlfriend who is super smart and also encourages him. But in spite of their support, he struggles to overcome society’s expectations for him.
Chicano writer Daniel Chacon explores art, death, ethnicity and racism in The Cholo Tree.
All That I Can Fix
All That I Can Fix features a 15 year old protagonist, Ronney, who has a lot to worry about. Everyone in his small town knows who he is, the kid from a mixed-race family with whose dad who tried to kill himself, whose mom is addicted to prescription drugs, who has the brilliant, but traumatized little sister. Ronney has so much responsibility that he feels like a man in a boy’s body.
Things get worse when the owner of an exotic game farm on the outskirts of town decided one night to open up all the cages and release the lions, cheetahs, tiger, and then shoot himself. What results is chaos in town as news crews, gun control supporters and gun rights advocates descend upon the town while locals are either trying to hunt the animals or photograph them. Romney needs to comfort his frightened sister, deal with his best friend who wants to join the hunt, and try to rid himself of a lonely kid from school that drives him crazy.
I didn’t really enjoy the book because of the deaths of the animals, too many controversial topics competing for page space, and what I consider the unrealistic turn around of Ronney’s father towards the end of the book. That would be a wish of every family that has a member suffering from mental illness, but it seemed way too cliche.
Definitions of Indefinable Things
Definitions of Indefinable Things is a both heartbreaking and humorous novel about three teens, Reggie, Snake, and Carla. Reggie suffers from depression, and the realistic portrayal of how she lives with depression makes this a powerful story. Reggie protects herself from being hurt by keeping others away from her. But then she meets Snake. As she is drawn to him, the reader expects that this relationship will pull her out of depression and add stability to her life. But then we learn that Snake’s ex-girlfriend is seven months pregnant!
The book will cause you to worry about Reggie, and will also make you laugh. This is an very good book. Recommend.
Hiding
Hiding is the story of a lovesick teen-aged boy who goes for a walk one night, and sneaks into the basement of his ex-girlfriend’s house. He’s trapped overnight because of the security system. When the family leaves in the morning, the main arrives, and he spends the day avoiding the maid while investigating the house he never visited when he and the girl were dating. He finds the house to look perfect and unused, and suspects that the girl wasn’t ashamed of him, but rather of her cold, unwelcoming home. The story is told from inside the boy’s head, and the teenager style of talking may wear on the reader. Twists in the story line may keep readers engaged, but the main plot, gets lost in the multiple plot lines. It was hard to maintain focus, and I did not enjoy this book.
Growing Up on the Playground Nuestro patio de recreo
Growing Up on the Playground Nuestro patio de recreo was reviewed by the Spanish teacher at my high school. She notes that the title of this book is an example of how sentences do not need to be translated directly, word for word. In Spanish the title says, “Our playground” yet its meanings are still very similar to that of the English title. The kids in the story start out playing in a certain part of the playground and with every progressive grade they do something different until their last year of elementary school when they have to leave to allow other children to experience and grow up there, too. It is “our playground” because they grew up on it as school children. The main character, Ana, takes it a step further by becoming a teacher at that school when she returns an adult. As a teacher, she brings it full circle by introducing new kids each year to the playground, where on it, too they will grow up and make their own. It is a lovely story, written in both English and Spanish. She recommends it.