Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Evergreen by Matthew Cordell (Feiwel & Friends, February 2023) features a highly loveable but timid and scared squirrel sent on a journey to take Granny Oak an acorn full of soup. With this “Little Red Riding Hood”-esque story and Matthew Cordell’s striking ink and watercolor illustrations, Evergreen becomes a truly delightful story to read as
The Girl Who Sang by Estelle Nadel, illustrated by Sammy Savos and Bethany Strout (Roaring Brook Press, January 2024) is a graphic memoir about a very young Jewish girl surviving World War II hiding in barn. I’m always amazed at what humankind can endure and how strong children can be during hard times. The Girl
Just One Flake by Travis Jonker (Abrams, October 2023) is a short and cute picture book featuring one kid who desperately wants to catch a snowflake on his tongue — just one! It’s finally snowing. But catching a snowflake on his tongue turns out to be more difficult than he expected. My daughter was so
The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (originally published 1923) features pirate action as well as a slightly multifaceted adversary in the pirate leader Tom Jordon, with much the same attitude I found in Treasure Island, but a passionless main character and a series of bloody battles gave the overall book a jolt of boring reality
In the true picture book Green City: How One City Survived a Tornado and Rebuilt for a Sustainable Future by Allan Drummond (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2016), the small town of Greensburg, Kansas that had been destroyed by a tornado was able to rebuild with environmentally friendly methods. In fact, all the buildings (schools, banks, residences)
Doug Swieteck, a fourteen-year-old transplant to the small town of Marysville, learns to cope with his life as he adjusts to new situations during the 1968-1969 school year in Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books, 2011). Even as he faces the struggles of moving to a new middle school, Doug must still
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007) is a powerful young adult novel that shares the pivotal 1967-1968 school year from the perspective of seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood. In The Wednesday Wars, his fellow students go to their religious schools (Catholic school or the Jewish synagogue) on Wednesday afternoons. As the lone
Meesha Makes Friends by Tom Percival (Bloomsbury, 2021) is a delightful picture book with a play on the word “makes” in the story. Meesha feels very shy, and does not always understand social clues of those around her. In order to not feel lonely, she makes things out of cardboard and other materials to be
Adam and His Kin by Ruth Beechick (published by Mott Media, 1990) is titled to be a book telling a narrative story of the early patriarchs of the Earth, beginning with Adam and going through Abraham. Unfortunately, it really feels like a paraphrase retelling with very little narrative. It seems unfair to say: there was
Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace (HarperCollins, 1940) is a sweet chapter book about five-year-old friends who are across-the-street neighbors. The girls are so inseparable that they are called by a single name: Betsy-Tacy. Betsy is a creative girl who tells stories and Tacy is a shy and quiet girl who nurtures Betsy’s imagination. In many
Because there was only one book named for the Newbery Award in 1923, I was curious to see what other books for children were published in 1922. Bannertail: The Story of a Gray Squirrel by Ernest Thompson Seton (Charles Scribner, 1922) was a delightful contrast to the early 1920s books I’ve read so far, with
Our Friend Hedgehog: The Story of Us by Lauren Castillo (Knopf, 2020) is a delightful early chapter book telling the story of a few friends (stuffed animals? real animals?) and their human told through words and pictures. With larger print and whole-page and half-page illustrations, the story is very accessible to young early readers. The
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