Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Play Ball, Jackie! by Stephen Krensky and illustrated by Joe Morse (Millbrook Press, 2011) tells the story of Jackie Robinson’s open day of baseball as told from the perspective of a young Italian-American boy and his father. I’m not a fan of baseball, but there was something touching about this story even for someone unfamiliar with baseball
These Hands by Margaret H. Mason and Illustrated by Floyd Cooper (Houghton Mifflin, March 2011) tells two stories: one of a grandfather teaching his grandson how to do great things with his hands, like tie a shoe and shuffle cards. The other story the grandfather teaches his grandson is how those same hands were not allowed to
White Water by Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein and illustrated by Shadra Strickland (Candlewick, August 2011) is based on a true story from the childhood of one of the authors in the Jim Crow South. One afternoon, two boys, one white and one African-American, got off a bus and ran for the drinking fountain. As they
Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown and illustrated by John Parra (Tricycle Press, 2011) is based on the true story of a librarian in rural Colombia who delivers library books into the lives of children with the help of his two donkeys, Alfa and Beto. Told from the perspective of a little girl named Ana who
The Honeybee Man by Lela Nargi and illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker (Schwartz & Wade, 2011) is based on the true story of two beekeepers who live in Brooklyn, New York. With fantastic collage and oil painting illustrations, it tells the story of Fred, who checks on his bees every morning, and at the end of the summer
My four-year-old and I read The Beeman by Laurie Krebs and illustrated by Melissa Iwai (The National Geographic Society, 2002) many times this week. In some senses, this book is simpler than the other bee books we read. Rather than providing a story, it shows, through rhyming descriptions and illustrations, the tools the beekeeper needs to take
The Crossing by Donna Jo Napoli and illustrated by Jim Madsen (Atheneum Books, 2011) is a creative retelling of the Lewis and Clark journey, as told from the perspective of the infant Jean Baptiste strapped on the cradle board on Sacagawea’s back. Brilliantly illustrated pictures of the various North Western American landscapes and careful descriptions
In the middle grade historical novel in poetry May B. by Caroline Rose (to be published January 2012 by Swartz and Wade), young Mavis Betterley, called May, has been sent away from home for the first time, assigned to be a helper for one of her rural Kansas farm neighbors for six months. Despite her
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster and classically illustrated by Jules Feiffer (1961) is a book for the clever reader. The book is full of wonderful wordplay, cliché, word stereotypes, and logic puzzles for a young child (and the adult!) to chuckle over and enjoy. In the story, the young Milo is bored of school
One winter, the zoo animals have the “doldrums,” in ZooZical by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Marc Brown (Knopf, August 2011). The genius idea of the small hippo and young kangaroo is to dance and sing throughout the zoo. So of course the zoo animals put on a musical performance, titled “ZooZical.” My son (age 4) and
In the colorful picture book about animals singing, What Animals Really Like by Fiona Robinson (Abrams, October 2011). The beaver choir director wants to present his latest song about what animals like to do. To his surprise, though, the lions don’t like to prowl and the cows don’t like to moo: they have something else that they really
Hogwash! by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Jim McMullan (Little, Brown, June 2011) is a silly book about a farmer who wants to give the pigs a bath. With Karma Wilson’s signature rhyming style (as in Bear Snores On and The Cow Loves Cookies), she brings a silly farm to life with humor. To my son’s delight, by the end,
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