The Shawnee people are keeping their culture alive. The Shawnee originally lived in the Ohio Valley and today their reservations are in Oklahoma.

Sonneborn writes about the Shawnee’s contact with early Europeans. Sonneborn continues with their life today with their traditions seen especially during Pow Wows. The Shawnee are in a fight to keep their language alive. They have developed a language app and a website. This fight began during the days when native children where taken away to boarding schools.

The book ends with a glossary, index, and the child safe website – www.factsurfer.com where the official Shawnee websites are linked.

Submitted by Mary Pong

Fourth grader, Sparrow, has a way of getting carried away that leads to problems. I kept thinking about a very young Maria Van Trapp from the SOUND OF MUSIC in How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria when reading this book. Like Maria, Sparrow does not go looking for trouble, she is just exuberant and ‘problems’ happens. Sparrow’s parents are trying their best using “Positive Parenting” skills and key phrases without getting too upset, but Sparrow finds this frustrating because often she is only looking for answers to life’s immediate situations.

Sparrow and her parents have just moved into a duplex style house. Their elderly neighbor Mrs. LaRose enjoys caring for Sparrow for the short hour while both of Sparrow’s parents are at work. Mrs. LaRose and Sparrow are outside watching a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. “Unfortunately, when Sparrow got excited, things tended to go wrong.” (4)The two of them were doing a dance of the butterflies in the backyard, when they crashed into each other. Mrs. LaRose falls to the ground breaking her hip. The story begins with the sound of sirens as the ambulance arrives for Mrs. LaRose. Mrs. LaRose’s only immediate concern is for her seven cats. Sparrow promises to take care of the cats. AND the domino effect has begun. How will Sparrow care for the seven cats when the first day of school is tomorrow? What will the consequences be when Sparrow tells her new classmates the seven cats are hers? Who will watch Sparrow after school until her parent gets home now that Mrs. LaRose is in the hospital? How will Sparrow be able to keep Mrs. LaRose’s daughter from taking the cats to the animal shelter?

Life’s situations have a way of working out. Sparrow’s situations are realistically normal and readers will be able to see this, and perhaps even be able to identify with them.

The chapters range from five to eight pages in length with twenty-five pencil illustrations sprinkled throughout the story. The illustration of Sparrow and her mother in a loving embrace on page 170 will warm your heart in this heartfelt moment of connection between mother and daughter.

Submitted by Mary Pong

“When Granny died, there was a hole in our family. Remembering her helped us fill it.” So begins this loving story of how a young boy uses the cane once used by his Granny to keep her close to him.

Ashley Barron’s layered cut paper images show how the young boy uses his imagination and the cane to create a tent, a butterfly net, a beach umbrella, a fishing rod, a stick horse, a flagpole, a knight’s sword, a flying broomstick, a sea monster, and a rocket ship all with Granny looking on. “When Granny died, she left me a world of adventures…”

Submitted by Mary Pong