Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
The reader learns about the inner workings of a piano as well as watches a child’s successful piano recital in the sweet picture book My Piano by Jen Fier Jasinski, illustrated by Rita Bagdi (Gnome Road Publishing, September 2023). With a natural rhyme, the book begins with a progressive “This is the house that Jack built”
Adam and His Tuba by Ziga X Gombac, illustrated by Maja Kastelic (translated by Olivia Hallewell, NorthSouth Books, February 2023) is a sweet story about the youngest child of the Von Trapeze family, which, as you may surmise, is a talented circus family. But Adam cannot do the highwire, be part of a human pyramid,
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
What am I looking for when I read the Iliad this month? I’ve been wondering that, especially now that I have four translations before me. As I mentioned when I wrote about Aesop’s writers last week, a translation can make a big difference in how a story is portrayed. I’m not against a literal translation,
When I heard the concept of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz (monologues given by medieval children), I thought it would be horribly boring. Monologues? I thought. What is fun about monologues? I thought children would be bored by these “Voices from a Medieval Village.” To my delight, I found Good Masters! Sweet
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