Apparently, mushrooms are incredibly loud. Monty, a marmot who loves peace and quiet, isn’t thrilled when a gust of wind blows spores near the entrance to his home, bringing a rowdy group of noisy mushrooms to his neighborhood. In this charming story by I Don’t Want to Be a Frog author Dev Petty, Monty must figure out how to cope with his unexpected new neighbors.
Packed with silly mushroom antics and even a catchy mushroom song, this book is sure to have kids giggling. The dialogue-rich text includes a few challenging words like irritable and fretful, but overall, it remains accessible for young readers. Jared Chapman’s vibrant and playful illustrations add to the fun. This will be a popular one with elementary-aged students, even without a clear moral.
This is a lovely picture about about relationships; the relationship between an old man and old woman, between the old man and a bird, between an old man and his grandson, and between a grieving family and a community. Music the tie that binds all these relationships together.
An old man plays the piano as his wife paints and hums. The piano music drifts down into the valley and attracts a bird. When the bird adds his song, the old man exclaims, “bravo, little bird!” The old man’s grandson and the bird’s babies join the songs. When the old man dies, the bird, the grandson, and the wife no longer feel like music. A cardinal from the valley below comes to see why the music has stopped. With the encouragement of the little bird, the cardinal brings the music from the valley up to the old woman and the boy, reigniting their music.
With its rich, descriptive text and lovely pictures, Bravo, Little Bird! is highly recommended for all collections.
For the first several decades of the space race, women and minorities were not allowed to train to become astronauts, partially because of the severe restrictions on education that were part of the prerequisites, and partially just because of bias and prejudice. By the 1980’s, women were finally brought into NASA to train to become astronauts. Sally Ride, Judy Resnick, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Renna Seddon were the first women selected to prove that women had as much intelligence, grit, and rights as men to travel off planet. This book shares their story as they dreamed as children, braved the eventual application process, and finally trained for their turn to fly. Readers get to see this renaissance period of NASA’s growth and change, ending with the tragedy to the Challenger in 1986 and its aftermath. Color photographs are included in the center of the book, putting faces to the names. Also included are a timeline from 1943 to 1987 highlighting the lives of the 6 women and their connections to the space program, mini bios of them, and source information for the book. I appreciated the look at NASA from beyond the first group of primarily white men that has been so frequently written about with this female-centered chunk of history. A nice addition to a library’s collective biography collection and to a more diverse space collection.
As stated in the author’s note, this book is based upon a real fire tragedy that devastated one small California town in 2018 – this book is set in a fictional town, but based upon the authors feelings having experienced that devastation.
Main character, Caprice (Capri), feels like the peacekeeper of her family. Her brother is recently home from rehabilitation for an alcohol addiction – although he’s the one trying to build back his trust with family and find new friendships – Capri is the one who often feels responsible for his happiness and wellbeing even if that means disregarding her own.
New to town, environmentally conscious, River, is Capri’s most recent love interest – but he’s also now also a friend of her brother’s, meaning they are constantly battling for time with him. Just when things are looking up for Capri and Winter’s relationship – wildfire begins to rip through their small town. Now they, along with the whole community have to make some really tough decisions about what to save, who to go back for, and when to get out.
This is a strong example of what happens when we are faced with extreme moments of life and death – we learn quickly who we can run to for safety.
The book moves quickly and has complex characters that most will be able to relate to.
Documentary filmmaker, James Robinson tells his story of growing up with misaligned eyes and his quest to have people understand him and his condition. He starts the book trying to help readers understand what he sees and the struggles that caused growing up in sports and school. He guides the reader through his life of attempted fixes, solutions, and many frustrations. Documentary filmmaking became a way to visually share with audiences (& potential future employers) how to get past the awkward moments of staring at someone whose eyes don’t track the way we’re used to them doing. He coined the term “whale eyes” because we generally have a positive response to the giants of the deep who see like he does out of one side separately from the other. His 12 minute film can be found at whaleeyes.org/watch. I loved the way Robinson gently guides the reader to see like he sees. To reframe the way we look at people who view the world in a different way from the majority. The book is full of simple illustrations. Pairs of pages occasionally turn to be read in a flip book manner. Chapters are short. It was an informative and very readable book. Because of the success of Robinson’s film, many other folks connected with his ideas – those with strabismus (misaligned eyes), prosopagnosia (face blindness), stuttering, and more. People who shared his struggles to communicate all wanted his help with films about their conditions so they could be better understood. Because of that, I think many readers will be able to connect with his book. And the format is perfect for middle grade readers who can sometimes still need concrete examples to understand concepts. A lovely, readable memoir.
Written by April Pulley Sayre and illustrated Steve Jenkins
The life of a brown bear from month to month is detailed in text and illustrations in this informative picture book. In April, the bear awakens and wonders what to eat, because she is famished after a long hibernation. Each month, new foods are available from cow parsnips and dandelions to ants and trout. Finally, in November, the bear goes into her den to hibernate. Midwinter brings a surprise – two cubs. And, the seasons continue. The end of the book includes numerous facts about bears and an author’s note.
Beautiful collage illustrations pair with short, repetitive sentences to present solid information about the diet, life and habitat of a bear in fictional form. Kids will be enthralled with the variety of her diet and her determination, even when she doesn’t get the meal. You can almost feel her fur in the illustrations and hear the crunch as she munches the cones and moths. Buy this book for your nonfiction collection. The kids will love it! Highly recommended.
Written by Audrey Perrott and illustrated by Druscilla Santiago
House was hanging out and minding his own business when a strong gust of wind came in and literally ripped his hat (roof) off. This was terrible! He felt exposed and scared. The oak tree was the first to offer help by stretching its leafed branches over house. But, another strong gust of wind blew it back. The squirrels and birds helped by adding twigs, leaves and tufts. But, ugh – more wind. Neighbors came in next and secured a large brown tarp over the house. While it wasn’t pretty, it did the job during a rainstorm and House was thankful. Finally, some roofers come in and added a nice, sturdy and colorful roof, which made the House happy. In the end, another wind came up and the House bravely said ” Don’t even think about it!”
Illustrations are bright and clean. The story is told from the House’s perspective with accompanying illustrations conveying its feelings through its windows (eyes) and door (mouth). Neighbors that come help are diverse and the weather (rain and wind) blanket the pages with their soggy power.
This rather humorous take on the effects of a natural disaster is just right. The story is a sweet reminder that community comes together after a catastrophe and things will get better! Recommended.
Written by Kyle Lukoff and illustrated by Julie Kwon
Jack has to write an apology letter to Zoe, because he knocked down her block castle. Over several rewrites, Jack works through his feelings, sharing with his teacher along the way as she guides him through the process. He finally arrives at the right words to use and Zoe accepts his apology. The story ends with Jack’s new letter to Zoe, saying how much fun he had playing with her in her new castle along with hopeful plans for tomorrow.
This book is a treasure! It methodically moves along with a young character as he opens up about why he did what he did and shows a growing empathy for the girl he hurt by destroying her block castle. Told through his repeated attempts at writing an apology to his classmate, Jack becomes a better friend and his feelings are acknowledged as well. Illustrations provide additional “oomph” to Jack’s feelings as he writes and his frustration and eventual calm are shown in the use of color and expressions. Characters are diverse. In the end, it was a deeper story and a satisfying conclusion for all concerned. Highly recommended.
Written by Barrington Irving and Chana Stifle; illustrated by Shamar Knight-Justice
Barrington Irving is the first Black man and (at the time) the youngest person to complete a solo flight around the world. His life and inspirational flight are detailed in this picture book biography. Barrington, born in Jamaica and living in Florida, played football in school as a way to move past the “badgering” of his classmates. One day, his life changed when he met a Black pilot at his parents’ bookstore. The pilot, Captain Gary Robinson, asked “Have you ever thought of becoming a pilot?” This changed Barrington’s life. Captain Robinson gifted him his first lesson and after that Barrington worked hard, studied hard and practiced, earning his pilot’s license. Captain Robinson challenged him to help others like he had helped Barrington and he created an after school STEM program. He didn’t stop there, though. He wanted to inspire kids even more. So, he decided to fly solo around the world. It was hard to get the plane, plan the trip and find the funding to do it all. But, he persevered and succeeded, culminating in a record-setting flight of 26,800 miles in 97 days.
In addition to the story of his life and flight, this book shares more details such as a two page spread of the a cockpit with labels, a map of his flight path with stops, a timeline, facts, bibliography and some great quotes from Barrington. Given the extras, this book is a great fit for a variety of ages and reading levels. Illustrations are crisp and fit the text nicely.
Add this to your biography section and it will fly off the shelf! Highly recommended.
Written by Maria Le and illustrated by Clarice Elliott
Kids play games all over the world and this book shares a variety of those games. Games are separated into chapters that highlight ball games, board games and playground games. Three or four games are described in each chapter and include their place of origin and a sentence or two about the game. Accompanying illustrations serve to enhance the short paragraphs on each page/two page spread. Unfamiliar words are italicized and a glossary is at the front. A fun addition is at the back where readers are instructed to create their own board game.
Characters are diverse in the illustrations and there is a nice mix of cultures/countries included in the chapters. Interestingly, football is used instead of the Americanized soccer to denote that game. It makes sense, since football is the more universally accepted name. But, it might confuse some young readers. Purchase this book for your younger readers as a nice introduction to other cultures and games. They might even want to learn some of the games as well! Recommended.
