Top 100 Blogs
Bones by Steve Jenkins
Really all any book needs is Steve Jenkins’ name on the front and his great illustrations inside. Just those two things and you know it’s going to be great. In this book, Jenkins turns his attention to bones and skeletons. The size and shape of bones are explored as are skeletons of the human body and of various animals. Information is given about bones and the illustrations of the bones are laid out on very colorful pages that highlight the bones but offer some vibrancy as well. This book of bones should be in every school and public library.
Jenkin’s text here offers just enough detail to be informative but also never too much too be weighty. It offers the same bright, freshness as the illustrations themselves. His illustrations are studies in restraint as he works his paper magic using a very limited boney palette of colors. The design of the book makes it rather like an archeological discovery, since you never know what bones you will find when you turn the page. Several of the pages fold out to offer large scale illustrations, including a full human skeleton. Along the way, readers are asked questions and get to think about the body, the bones and how they function.
A virtuoso book, pull this one out for Halloween and get some sweet science mixed in with the candy. It is appropriate for ages 7-10.
Reviewed from library copy.
Yucky Worms by Vivian French, illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg
A young boy was in his grandmother’s garden when she found a worm. He is disgusted by it, but his grandmother insists that he should be friends with worms. She then returned the worm to the ground to demonstrate which end of the worm was which. The book goes on to discuss in the grandmother’s voice different aspects of worms, what they eat, how they survive the winter, what worm castings are, and how they help the plants in the garden. The illustrations are light-hearted but can quickly become scientific when called for. This is a great blend of picture book and nonfiction facts presented in a winning way.
French’s use of a grandmother narrator works well here, framing the nonfiction in a story that makes it very approachable. It also allows the narrator to explain misconceptions that the young boy has about worms, like the widely held belief that worms can be cut in two and still survive. Not true! Ahlberg’s illustrations offer asides by the worms themselves, a mole carrying a grocery list, and wonderful views of below the ground.
A great book to share with children who want to know more about these wiggly creatures in the garden, this book reads like a picture book and offers facts for children who are looking for them. Readers of the book will quickly learn that worms are far from yucky. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
More Life-Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya
A gorgeous combination of life-sized animal photographs and interesting facts on each creature. Readers will be wowed by the enormous lion that folds out to its full size that is cleverly combined with a lion cub so that the growth can be understood. The bottomless black of the eyes of a seal will draw readers in. The amazing color of an orangutan’s coat will have small hands rubbing the photograph. The final photo of the glory of a hippopotamus and its coarse hairs and moist skin finishes the collection on a high note. This book will be shared between children and appeals to a wide range of ages. Make sure you have the first book Life-Size Zoo at hand too.
The photographs here are the heart of the book. It is a pleasure to see photos with such clarity printed in this large a format. The detail of skin, fur, eyes and mouths is astonishing and invites readers to lean in and really see the animals close up. The facts with each animal apply both to the specific specimen in the photograph and to the animal in general. The section about the close up offer small details that children will enjoy looking for in the photos.
Guaranteed to get appreciative exclamations from young readers who will turn to the photos again and again. Appropriate for ages 4-8.
Reviewed from book received from Seven Footer Press.
Under a Red Sky by Haya Leah Molnar
A memoir of childhood under Communism, this book offers a real window into that world. Growing up in postwar Bucharest, Romania, Eva lives with her extended family in one house. This includes her grandparents, her parents, two uncles and one aunt. Eva is surprised at age 8 to discover that her family is Jewish, though readers will know it from the start. All of her relatives are unique and interesting. Her father, a filmmaker, survived the Nazi concentration camps. Her mother is a former ballerina who teachers dance to children. Her Aunt Puica spends most of her time in her bedroom reading romance novels while her husband, Uncle Max is running into trouble at work for joking too much about the Communists. Uncle Natan is a bachelor who still lives at home. Her grandmother is prickly and her grandfather is doting. The mix of all of these strong characters forms the background of Eva’s life. They quarrel, fight, make up, love, and joke. It is a family of very human people who are trapped behind the iron curtain, living lives so similar to our own and yet so very different and frightening.
Molnar has set just the right tone with this book. Its universal qualities of family and childhood are played out against the repressiveness of Romanian Communism, yet it is not grim. Moments of humor and humanity shine against the darkness, incandescent against the horrors of Communism. As the book moves on, Eva begins to understand the dangers of her life, creating a tension that makes for intense reading.
Molnar’s depiction of her relatives is told with great relish and delight. They are the sort of family members who shape who you are, and readers can see them shaping Eva as we watch. Each person has their own distinct style and reactions, they are vividly depicted and as the pressures of Communism grow around them, become more and more themselves. The characters are what make this book a pleasure to read, their colorful lives more than enough relief from what could have been a very grim tale.
Highly recommended, this book offers a memoir that reads like good historical fiction. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Reviewed from copy received from Farrar Straus Giroux.
Also reviewed by Killin’ Time Reading.
How Does a Seed Grow? by Sue Kim, photographs by Tilde
A visually interesting book all about seeds, sprouts and the harvest. Each page is dedicated to one kind of seed complete with photographs of the seeds. That then unfolds to show a large photograph of the seedling in a cutaway format that shows below the ground to the roots and up above the ground for the leaves. Readers then unfold the page one more time to see a photograph of a child holding the fruit or vegetable. The text is very simple and rhyming. The illustrations are the heart of this book. It is a book guaranteed to fascinate children not only with the unfolding pages but with the details of the seeds and seedlings.
The book covers tomatoes, blueberries, bell peppers, peas and oranges. The brief rhymes do give a sense of the needs of plants from loose dirt to warmth to water and sunshine. Readers will enjoy looking at the differences in the shapes and sizes of the seeds and the different ways that the seeds grow. The children pictured with the fruits and vegetables are multicultural. One quibble is that some of the pictures are a little blurred, which is noticeable when compared with the crispness of the other images.
This book will work well in a classroom setting or in a story time focused on spring and plants. The foldout pages will not survive circulation at a library for long unless they are reinforced with tape. Appropriate for ages 2-5.
Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster.
Seeds of Change by Jen Cullerton Johnson, illustrated by Sonia Lynn Sadler
We have already seen two incredible picture books about Wangari, so I was hesitant to pick this one up. I should never have hesitated. This book adds to Wangari’s story by telling the story of her youth growing up in the bounty of Kenya. Her mother teaches her about each tree and what it offers. Though it was unusual for girls in Kenya to be educated, Wangari’s parents saw how bright she was and sent her to school. After she graduated from elementary school, Wangari went to the city to continue her education, eventually heading to the United States to study biology. Throughout her travels, she thought often of Kenya and her home. Kenya had changed with the land being harvested for timber by big foreign companies. Wangari returned to Kenya and taught women and children to plant trees, giving the people a way to feed themselves and turning the barren land green again. In 2004, Wangari won the Nobel Peace Prize, the first African woman or environmentalist to receive it.
Johnson has taken the time to really reveal where Wangari came from and what created the seeds of environmentalism within her. Other picture books pick up where Wangari is seeing the damage done in Kenya, but this addition of her childhood and education make for a more complete understanding of her. Sadler’s illustrations use thick white lines which remind me of batik or stained glass. The images show interesting design choices that are often dreamlike.
I would recommend pairing this with both Mama Miti by Donna Jo Napoli and Planting the Trees of Kenya by Claire A. Nivola. The three together offer a strong environmental message combined with a complete view of the woman behind the movement.
Highly recommended, this book tells the powerful story of Wangari and her legacy in Kenya. It shows readers that one person can definitely make a difference. Appropriate for ages 5-8.
Reviewed from copy received from Lee & Low.
Also reviewed by:
A Book about Color: A Clear and Simple Guide for Young Artists by Mark Gonyea
This book approaches color as a street with houses. The houses for the primary colors are bigger than those for the secondary colors, setting them apart. The book then goes on to talk about the meaning of colors and how one color can mean different things. Warm and cool colors are discussed along with the way they appear in a picture. Complementary colors are explained by lining the houses up on opposite sides of the street, the houses next to each other are analogous colors. The book finishes with saturation of colors, and white and black. Visually interesting and using a great analogy for learning about colors, this book is a treat.
Gonyea has created a book that really demonstrates aspects of color. His use of a street and house analogy works very well, keeping the primary houses large throughout the book, using the same street design to show complementary and analogous colors. His use of strong graphical images and clean design make this a book that children and adults will enjoy using. It goes well beyond a book for toddlers about color, making it a welcome choice for young artists.
Recommended for art rooms and library collections, this book is best in the hands of artists or those learning about art. A strong nonfiction book appropriate for ages 5-9.
Reviewed from copy received from Henry Holt.
How to Clean a Hippopotamus by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
A fascinating tour through symbiotic relationships in the animal kingdom, this book uses comic book frames and short text bubbles to become incredibly appealing to reluctant readers. Filled with Jenkins’ paperwork illustrations that offer clarity beyond that of photographs, this book is a visual treat. It is also filled with interesting facts, and is sure to surprise even the most informed reader with several of the relationships inside. Journey through symbiotic relationships where one animal cleans another one to others where enemies become friends and supporters for a time. Get this one into the hands of children who love animals and struggle with books, they are sure to feel right at home here.
Jenkins’ art is done with such confidence and cleverness. His use of fuzzy papers to get the feel of fur, of color to get the feel of skin, and of pattern to get the texture right really take him beyond most other paper artists in children’s books today. The fact that he manages to capture what an animal actually looks like is amazing. Animals have a light in their eyes, a focus and in this book a relationship with each other, all captured with paper.
The facts here are done with just the right amount of text and a playful, interested tone. The book invites readers in and marvels alongside them. The design here is wonderfully done, breaking what could have been paragraphs of text to wade through into windows of color filled with bite-sized bits of text that get readers wanting more.
Highly recommended, every library needs this book on their shelves. Guaranteed to go home over and over again. Appropriate for ages 5-9.
Check out another review at A Patchwork of Books.
Dinosaur Mountain: Digging into the Jurassic Age by Deborah Kogan Ray
Ray returns with another great picture book biography. This time she turns her talents to the story of Earl Douglass and the “Bone Wars” of the turn of the century where paleontologists competed to find the big dinosaur skeletons. Though the biggest finds had been made in Colorado and Wyoming, Douglass followed his instincts and headed to northeastern Utah. The book chronicles his discoveries as he worked the site through prose as well as excerpts from his personal letters. It also tells of the problems with protecting the area and funding that Douglass faced later in his career and that culminated in Woodrow Wilson creating the Dinosaur National Monument.
Ray’s writing is an invitation to learn more. Filled with interesting and enticing facts, she tells the story of the person as well as the accomplishments. Children will love the details about how a dig site works and the excitement of the big finds. They will also learn about the importance of doing what you love and following your gut instinct.
Ray’s art adds much to story, from detailed explanations of Jurassic strata and paleontology tools to her larger paintings that tell the story of discovery. Her large vistas bring the setting clearly to life too. The book ends with a listing of the dinosaurs found at the site, a map of the Monument, more information on Douglass and his benefactor Andrew Carnegie, a glossary, and a bibliography.
Highly recommended, this book will be enjoyed by children who enjoy dinosaurs and history. Ideal for reading before visiting the Dinosaur National Monument, this book can also be used to inspire children to make their own discoveries about the world around them. Appropriate for ages 7-10.
A Place for Frogs by Melissa Stewart, illustrated by Higgins Bond
This book is filled with fascinating information and facts about frogs. It is less about the transformation from egg to tadpole to frog and more about individual species, specific habitats, and what we can do to help save frogs. The book can be read two ways. One way is less wordy and offers a chance to share the book with younger children. The other way, incorporates the detailed information on frog species, which tells the story of how they live and what they need to survive. Readers will be astonished to discover the different habitats that frogs live in and the wide variety of species.
Stewart has a gift for offering scientific information in an inviting way for children. She never talks down to them, but keeps the facts interesting and brief. The focus on the environment makes this book a good one for green units or programs. The information offered gives children a way to make a difference for these fascinating creatures.
Bond’s illustrations are almost photographic in detail, but better. She is able to offer perspectives that would have been impossible to photograph. Her use of long views of habitat combined with close-ups of animals makes the theme of the book even clearer. These animals cannot survive without this place.
Highly recommended, this book belongs in every public library. Children will pick it up for love of the animal and in the process learn about their own impact on frogs. Appropriate for ages 5-8.
Reviewed from copy received from Peachtree Publishers.
