Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Me, Too! by Annika Dunklee and illustrated by Lori Joy Smith (Kids Can Press, April 2015) is a book about friendship. Annie feels left out when a new girl moves in, because her best friend Lillemore has become friends with someone else!
I loved the simple format of this book. It is a pretty straight-forward book: jealousy at the most basic. But of course Annie learns that because Lillemore and Lilianne have a lot in common, that means that she, Annie, also has some things in common too!
Kid Presidents by David Stabler and illustrated by Doogie Horner (Quirk Books, October 2014) is a delightful picture book with stories of the presidents as kids. But it is not a typical presidential childhood book. Rather than following the presidents in chronological order, Mr Stabler has focused on the presidents’s childhood hobbies, trouble-making, and childhood jobs. The actual categories are “After-School Activities,” “Fantastic Journeys,” and “It’s Not Easy Growing Up.”Continue Reading
The Red Bicycle by Jude Isabella and illustrated by Simone Shin (Kids Can Press, March 2015) tells the story of a red bicyle, from the day Leo earns the money to buy it until the day it is taken apart and shipped to Africa, where it changes the life of a poor child. Big Red (as the bike is affectionately is called) has many more “lives” in Burkina Faso, including become an ambulance dragging injured people to a distant hospital. Continue Reading
Sometimes we take the most obvious things for granted. Like rocks, for instance. A Rock Can Be by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrated by Violeta Dabija (Millbrook Press, March 2015) shows all the ways that rocks are an important part of our world. Continue Reading