An unexpected perk of being a school librarian has been the opportunity to work with amazing women in the library throughout my career. Since today is Galentine’s Day, the holiday made up by Parks and Recreations’ Leslie Knope to celebrate the amazing women in her life, I thought I’d celebrate a few in mine. When […]
Lynn: Art museums are magical places! These two picture books from 2018 take that idea and use it to spin imaginative tales. The first is Raúl Colón’s delightful Imagine (2018). In this wordless story, a young boy leaves a drab area of his city to visit the Museum of Modern Art. As he carefully observes three […]
Lynn: Don’t get me wrong, I love having maps on my phone and a GPS in my car. Using these tools, we’ve managed to easily locate rental apartments in the twisting, narrow streets of many a small village instead of wandering around lost! There is a downside to electronic dependence, however. I clearly remember our […]
Lynn: I’m not usually one to gush nostalgically, but Emily Jenkins and Paul O. Zelinsky have me doing just that. Their new picture book, All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah (2018), is a joyous celebration of both the holiday and one of my all time favorite series. As a child, I adored Sydney Taylor’s original All-of-a-Kind Family books […]
Lynn: “Oh, hi, tiny thing. Welcome to Sleepy Burrows Wombat Sanctuary.” And so Welcome, Wombat (2018) begins: Chance, a two-year-old wombat, greets a tiny “pinkie” whose mother was just tragically killed by a car. Author Kama Einhorn proceeds to introduce readers to the sanctuary; its inspiring wildlife rehabilitators, Donna and Phil; and to the amazing wombat species as a […]
Cindy: Monopoly has an interesting history and Tanya Lee Stone has produced a thought-provoking picture book about it: Pass Go and Collect $200: The Real Story of How Monopoly Was Invented (2018). Originally called The Landlord’s Game, it was created by Lizzie Magie, who was looking for a way to demonstrate the unfair relationship between landlords and tenants […]
Lynn: Married only a year, runners Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes were badly injured in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Both lost limbs and, in the dark days that followed, Jessica endured many surgeries as doctors fought to save her remaining foot and leg. Then a black lab service dog, Rescue, came into their lives. […]
Lynn and Cindy: Yum! There’s nothing like the wonderful flavors of summer food fresh from the garden or the farmer’s market. We have three new picture books celebrating this seasonal bounty and the fun of markets and gardens. Bon appetit! Summer Supper, by Rubin Pfeffer This joyful farm-to-table story follows the process of creating […]
Lynn: Girls don’t play baseball. It’s impossible to know how often girls yearning to play the national sport have heard that phrase. Well, girls do play baseball, and they have played as far back as the 1890s. Here are two wonderful new books, set in the 1950s, that take on this very subject. In the middle-grade […]
Lynn: Not too many kids (or adult reviewers) can resist the allure of books about elephants. In fact, we have two outstanding books on that large subject. The first is a nonfiction “fact” book, How to Be an Elephant: Growing Up in the African Wild (2017), by Katherine Roy. This is no dry, ordinary, facts-about-animals […]
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