Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Beverly Cleary’s Henry Huggins series nicely captures the creative Henry through his upper elementary years, especially focusing on his innovation, his creativity as a kid, and the antics of his adopted stray dog, Ribsy. Although the series is dated, having been written beginning in the 1950s, Henry’s adventures show universal frustrations and difficulties that any
reviewed by C, age 11 The graphic novel Allergic by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter (Graphix, March 2021) has the theme that change can be hard. The main character, Maggie, finds out that she is allergic to dogs and fur. Maggie later meets her best friend, Claire. This book takes place in modern
I read the first book in the Ava and Pip trilogy many years ago, when my kids were very young. Now that My daughter is 10 years old, I felt like it was time I revisit it, especially since there are two other books in the series that were not around when I reviewed the
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press, March 2000) is called Because of Winn-Dixie because it tells of the things that happened because Winn-Dixie, a dog, came into Opal’s life. The first thing was that Opal found Winn-Dixie. Opal was lonely. She just had moved to a new town, and she had no friends and now she
8 Class Pets + 1 Squirrel ÷ 1 Dog = CHAOS by Vivia Vande Velde (Holiday House, 2012) has a nearly impossible title to type up, but it is a truly fun early reader. In this book, a dog chases a squirrel into the school on a quiet night. The pets in the classrooms end up
Lost Cat by C. Roger Madder (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013) has gorgeous illustrations of a cat and the feet it encounters as it tries to find its owner after it’s lost during a move. I love how the pictures showed things from the cat’s perspective! Each of the different shoes he met gave him a
Socks (1973) is not a Beverly Cleary book I ever discovered as a child, but I love it! It’s a simple story told from the perspective of a cat named Socks, beginning with his first day of true consciousness: the day he would be sold by the boy and girl who had taken care of
Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin (Feiwel & Friends, October 2014) is chocked full of amazing characterization. Rose is a preteen struggling with OCD and difficulties fitting in because she is on the autism spectrum. But Rose is not stupid, and her quick wit and clever ways of dealing with her frustrating life One of
One delightful aspect of children’s picture books is that the impossibilities become possible. In If You Happen to Have a Dinosaur by Linda Bailey and illustrated by Colin Jack (Tundra Books, May 2014), the illustrator and author create a number of what-ifs out of the impossibility of actually having a dinosaur as a pet. It is
Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton (Candlewick, 2012) is a book I can’t quite bring myself to like, and yet my son loves it! Part of my dislike relates to the computer-rendered modern images: the bright orange and red illustrations remind me of computer drawings I attempted years ago and the typeface is also rather
Pilgrim Cat by Carole Antoinette Peacock and illustrated by Doris Ettinger (Albert Whitman 2004) is a historical fiction picture book written in prose. It does not read as well as Tattered Sails (reviewed here), but it does provide a different perspective on Thanksgiving. It tells a story of traveling on the Mayflower, settling in Plymouth, working,
Homer by Elisha Cooper (Greenwillow, 2012) celebrates the peace that comes from the familiar, from home, by focusing on a dog who stays on his porch all day. Other dogs want Homer to come race with them, the children invite him to race on the beach with them, but Homer stays where he is and watches.
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