Clementine and the Spring Trip
For Clementine, spring is a really big deal. It’s the time for seeing her apple tree start to grow, for watching her friend Margaret go crazy with spring cleaning, and for going on the school trip to Plimoth Plantation. Clementine is ready for Ye Olden Times, but she isn’t so sure about surviving lunch there—the […]
My Brother's Book
The New York Times – Dwight Garner: This lovely if evanescent book—it deals with the great Sendakian themes of loss, danger and flight…contains some of Sendak's richest and most incantatory language…it's a book that rewards repeat readings. Its charms are simmering and reflective ones…Sendak's drawings in My Brother's Book have lost none of their surreal, […]
Pluto's Secret : an Icy World's Tale of Discovery
Children's Literature – Vicki Foote: Why is Pluto no longer called a planet? This book, published in association with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, explains in scientific but elementary terms how this change came about. Large illustrations help define the descriptions of the solar system and how astronomers, particularly one named Percival Lowell, […]
The Other Felix
Publishers Weekly Graff, adult author and Booklist Online editor, pens a moody story about a boy contending with adversaries in both his waking and dream lives. Fourth-grader Felix is plagued by nightmares that take place in a forest thick with monsters; days aren’t much better, with Felix the target of a bullying new student, Chase. […]
Otter and Odder
The Price of Freedom : How One Town Stood Up to Slavery
Publishers Weekly The Fradins (Zora:! The Life of Zora Neale Hurston) bring into focus an incident that solidified the reputation of Oberlin, Ohio, as a place that welcomed and aided runaway slaves in this detailed picture-book account. In the autumn of 1858, a large group of residents, now known as the Rescuers, defied the Fugitive […]