ALA Annual Conference – Day 2

Saturday, June 28, was the second day of the American Library Annual Conference 2025 in Philadelphia.

The hardest part of attending ALA is making choices about which sessions to attend. I started out Saturday with a session called “Dyslexic-Positive Libraries: 8 Practical Ways to Decrease Discrimination and Increase Equitable Access to Information.”

Extra interesting was a librarian I met while waiting for the program to start from Kenosha Public Library. She said their library has Dyslexia Kits in their Library of Things. That might be something our library could add. She also said they’ve started a program of twice a year having developmental screenings after story times. They’ve found many children who can use services by doing this, and the parents and caregivers appreciate the convenience.

At the program, I was hoping for information about the current buzzword, “Decodable” books – but it was more about making your library friendly for dyslexic patrons – and a reminder that if learning to read was easy and fun for you (and according to the on-the-spot survey, that was true of 45% of the librarians in the room) – then you’re coming from a place of privilege. Only 5-10% of the general population finds learning to read easy and fun.

So they talked about making your library welcoming and friendly for people with dyslexia. They talked about the progression of learning to read and reminded us that sometimes a child’s negativity about reading is a sign they need your allyship.

Some ideas included making a Celebrate Dyslexia display and mixing Hi-Lo books with others in displays to avoid book shame. Mainly it was about working with patrons coming into the library and not making assumptions about people’s reading abilities.

Next I went to the main auditorium to hear George Takei speak. He has a new graphic novel coming out, It Rhymes with Takei – about coming out as gay in his late sixties.

As a child, his family was imprisoned, and his parents were subjected to outrage. The government took their money and froze their bank account. He learned that being different incurred consequences – and his earliest acting job was acting straight.

He didn’t want to be a sissy, and he hid this difference. As a teen, his heartthrob was the actor Cap Hunter. When the world found out that Cap Hunter was gay, he lost his career. George internalized that lesson.

George attributes many conversations with his father to his thoughts about democracy. Democracy is dependent on people who understand that there’s a responsibility that citizens have. Democracy’s weakness is also in the people. Citizens have to be actively engaged to keep government working. Being engaged means being part of the community to make it better.

He served 11 years on the Metrorail board in Los Angeles, in the group that got the money for it.

Talking about his career as an actor, Asian Americans had been presented as unattractive stereotypes. But he got cast in positive roles. Gene Roddenberry wanted to make a statement about the world, presenting IDIC – Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.

George talked with Gene about the Gay Liberation Movement. Gene had thought about taking Star Trek that direction, but after the backlash for the first inter-racial kiss on TV, he was afraid promoting Gay Liberation would make them go off the air.

Democracy is dependent on an informed public.

This line got a roar of response: “We have a Klingon in the White House.”

We’re all in a vitally important but dangerous position. Timing and urgency are important in dealing with issues. We the people will ultimately prevail.

Now we’re in a turbulence that democracies go through before becoming better.

After lunch, I made a tough choice and instead of going back to the main auditorium to hear Carla Hayden and Kwame Alexander, I attended a session called “The State of RA Today.” (RA is librarian-speak for Readers’ Advisory, recommending titles.)

I did download the notes from that, and it was mainly a reminder to diversify your suggestions and check up on yourself how well you’re doing that. Our job is to promote books they won’t find on their own. (They don’t need to know about James Patterson books.)

Oh! I remember why I don’t have notes from that session – my pen ran out of ink, and I didn’t have a spare. Annoying – but I have since downloaded the handouts from the ALA website.

Some things I like from those notes: RA is an autonomy-enabling service – empowering people to choose books they will enjoy and that will challenge them. If readers don’t know about the choices out there, they don’t have the power to choose them.

After this session, I got to the exhibits to catch Meg Medina signing her new book! (Meg Medina was the winner we chose when I was on the 2019 Newbery committee. As soon as Meg saw me, she gave me a big hug, and that for sure made my day.

Next up, and more sobering, I went to a session about current censorship cases, “Censorship in the Courts: Current Litigation throughout the United States.”

Mostly, librarians and libraries have been winning in the courts. But states are still trying to pass laws to curtail free speech. Those states and jurisdictions end up spending lots of money trying to defend their book bans in court. Book banning is expensive!

The session was sponsored by the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom and the Freedom to Read Foundation, as well as a group called Lawyers for Libraries & Law for Librarians. It’s good to know there are resources for defending libraries and librarians if our jurisdiction’s freedom to read freely is challenged.

I finished my full day back at the main stage, listening to Angeline Boulley talk about her new book, Sisters in the Wind. (And I got an Advance Reader Copy signed afterward!)

She promised that we will learn more about Jamie! It’s about a character who doesn’t know she’s Native making her way back home.

The chaos of fire relates to teens whose lives are in upheaval.

This speaks to adoption and the foster care system so many Native children and teens have to go through. The Indian and Child Welfare Act works when it’s properly followed – but so often it isn’t.

Stories are how we really learn. She conveys factual information via story. Hoping for more positive stories than negative.

Humor is a survival care. We didn’t just inherit generational trauma – also laughter and love.

Hers is a community-based way of storytelling, bringing other characters forward. Never underestimate the power that one caring adult can have.

She recommends the website American Indians in Children’s Literature. And the books Lies My Teacher Told Me, Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask, and An Indigenous History of the United States.

She got the idea for her first book at 18, and at 44 started writing. Got it published at 55. She decided she could live with writing a bad manuscript better than the regret of never having done it. Every book, she challenges herself.

Review of A Woman of No Importance, by Sonia Purnell

A Woman of No Importance

The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

by Sonia Purnell
read by Juliet Stevenson

Books on Tape, 2019. 13 hours, 54 minutes.
Review written July 8, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I wish I remembered what prompted me to put this amazing nonfiction audiobook on hold, because it was a great tip. I don’t do a great job of reading big thick nonfiction tomes, but as an audiobook, it kept my interest all the way.

The author researched one of the most important spies of World War II, Virginia Hall. Yes, she was American, from Baltimore – but most of the time she did her spying for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) before the United States even entered the war.

Not only did Virginia Hall face obstacles and being underestimated and dismissed because she was a woman – she was also disabled, an amputee with a wooden leg. Those things kept her from getting to go far in the U.S. diplomatic corps, so when World War II started, she found work with the SOE.

She was in “free” France under the Vichy government for most of the war, building more and more networks in the Resistance, sending more and more information to the Allies, and helping the cause more and more. She was the sort who wouldn’t let them send her back to safety, even when it became apparent the Germans were figuring out who was causing them so much trouble.

All along the way, she faced frustrations because her assessments and requests weren’t given the weight due her experience – because she was a woman. But still, her expertise and skills made her incredibly effective and helpful for the Allied cause.

The story is riveting – especially the bulk of it where she is working in war-time France. It’s truly amazing how much she accomplished right under the noses of her enemies. This book helped me understand that her many years of service and the wide variety of ways she helped the Allied cause.

soniapurnell.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Deep Dark, by Molly Knox Ostertag

The Deep Dark

by Molly Knox Ostertag

Graphix (Scholastic), 2024. 478 pages.
Review written February 18, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Printz Honor Book

This graphic novel is the story of Magdalena, a teen graduating from high school and living in a desert town in California. Mags has secrets, and she doesn’t let anyone get close. Her main secret is behind the trapdoor to the basement, but she keeps it closed when anyone is around. She takes care of her Abuela, works at the fast food place, and sometimes hooks up with a girl who’s cheating on her boyfriend. That suits Mags fine, since this girl doesn’t ask questions or ask for a commitment.

And then Nessa comes back. Nessa lived in town when they were kids, and Mags was the first person she told that she was a girl. Now she’s fully transitioned, and beautiful – and she has some memories about the basement in Mags’ house that she wants to clear up.

So Mags is pulled to Nessa – but that goes against everything she’s ever been told to do or even feels like she deserves.

There are plenty of metaphors to this powerful paranormal story. Funny how it’s so easy to see that a character is deserving of love, isn’t it? You’ll feel honored to travel this journey of self-acceptance with Mags.

mollyostertag.com
scholastic.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/deep_dark.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Mr. Pei’s Perfect Shapes, written by Julie Leung, illustrated by Yifan Wu

Mr. Pei’s Perfect Shapes

The Story of Architect I. M. Pei

written by Julie Leung
illustrated by Yifan Wu

Quill Tree Books, 2024. 40 pages.
Review written February 19, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is a picture book biography of I. M. Pei, the international architect. It shows him as a boy, Ioeh Ming Pei, before he officially changed his name to his initials. He spent his summers and Suzhou and admired the rock gardens, with rocks sculpted to be further formed by the water.

The book talks about his career as an architect and how he wanted to make beautiful shapes that would last generations. His first big project was the Kennedy Presidential Library. He went on to do striking work in many countries – including the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris and the modern wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C.

What I love most about this biography is the many pictures showing his work. The art is bright and colorful, and I didn’t realize until I looked at it how familiar so many of I. M. Pei’s buildings would be. Now I know something about their creator.

jleungbooks.com
yifanwuart.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Sonderbooks25 – 2003 Sonderbooks Stand-outs

I did it! I revised my 2003 Sonderbooks Stand-outs to a phone-friendly format!

I’m celebrating my 25th year of writing Sonderbooks with #Sonderbooks25.

My original plan was to reread *one* book from each year’s Sonderbooks Stand-outs, revise the early years’ Stand-outs pages to the new, phone-friendly format, and blog about all the other books in this series.

Well, my plans are changing. First, I can’t resist reading *all* the reviews I posted each year. In the early years, they were “issues” of Sonderbooks – and 2003 went from Sonderbooks #45 to Sonderbooks #69. (You can find all the back issues on the Back Issues page.) And I’m rereading my Project 52 posts. 2003 was the year I was 38 and 39. We still lived in Germany, still thought I had a happy marriage, my kids were 15 and 9, and we took a family vacation to Scotland. I still worked half-time at Sembach Base Library.

Another thing that’s slowing me down is it turns out I made a *lot* of books Stand-outs. (I read and reviewed even more – I was only working half-time.) And it takes a very long time to revise the webpages because I pretty much have to do it from scratch. This will get easier after I finish 2005, when I can do more simple copying and pasting.

So – I did reread and review Beyond the Limit, by Joan Spicci, as part of this project, but I also found some other old Stand-outs available on eaudio and listened to them. And I’m finding I want to reread everything! It won’t happen – but I read some wonderful books back then.

So instead of blogging about all the books I didn’t reread – I’m trying to post on social media most days about those old Stand-outs. That way I can think about them one at a time and present them to people one at a time. But meanwhile, do check out my new webpage for the 2003 Sonderbooks Stand-outs!

I do love that Fairfax County Public Library still owns a copy of almost all the picture books I named as Stand-outs in 2003. I maintain this is not because our picture book collection is too old but because those picture books were and are truly wonderful.

I’m having lots of fun celebrating #Sonderbooks25. I hope some of the fun will spread to readers!

The Printz Awards – Day 1 ALA Annual Conference 2025

The first day of ALA Annual Conference is also the night the Printz Awards are given. What I like about the Printz Awards is that *all* the authors give speeches, not just the winners, unlike the Newbery. They also consider the art, not just the text, unlike the Newbery. So attending the awards is a way to start off Annual Conference with inspirational speeches, happy to be a librarian. I’ll give notes from their speeches below.

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the Printz Awards, so Laurie Halse Anderson, who won an Honor that first year with Speak, delivered a keynote address.

We serve a vision of how the world ought to be. Not only do we write for teens, but we have a responsibility to them.

If you’re not pissing off haters, you need to try harder.

The Printz is part of a recognition of adolescence itself. Adults often try really hard not to remember being a teenager. Adolescence is so powerful. Teenagers might be the original woke people, the opposite of anesthetized.

Young people always lead change. 25 years ago the Printz honored books that are still freaking people out today.

The first Honor recipient to speak was Safia Elhillo for Bright Red Fruit.

Despite the best efforts of our enemies, libraries will continue to thrive.

There is nothing meager about being a poet.

Today is Day 804 of the war in Sudan, “the forgotten war.” Her family used her grandfather’s bookshelves to stop bullets after the windows were shattered.

Books give hope of stopping bullets.

The next Honoree was Andrew Joseph White for Compound Fracture.

This book reached teen readers at the right time. About people fighting for good in a place written off.

It’s about family history and queer history, based on his own family.

Queer people are here and we exist. It’s also a scary time to be queer.

Then we heard from Molly Knox Ostertag, author of the Honor book The Deep Dark.

She doesn’t write queer characters because she’s looking for representation. These are people you love.

Transition is a declaration of hope. The roles are not fixed.

Good books show you the world is bigger than yourself.

An expansion of freedom, a celebration of choice. There’s no one else I’d want to be fighting the good fight with.

Next, Rex Ogle received an Honor for The Road Home.

He began by talking about ice – frozen water. Ice is human ingenuity at its core.

When you’re homeless, you’re invisible to the people around you. 2.8 million kids are homeless right now, and 40% of them are LGBTQ.

Life is painful. We make a difference, but it comes at a cost.

He is still working so hard just to be seen, and this award shows that librarians see him.

He used to wish on dandelions that he’d be a writer. His pain got him here. Times are dark, but where there’s conflict, there’s growth.

Abuela gave him a drink with ice after he’d gone a summer without it.

Don’t focus on the hurt. Focus on the beauty of ice. You survived today.

Now it was time for the winners to speak, the author and illustrator of Brownstone. Mar Julia spoke first.

This is an important book today. Get involved in your community! Especially right now. Know your neighbors. Check on someone you haven’t seen in a while.

Community is difficult at times, but it’s deeply rewarding.

Then Samuel Teer spoke, also for Brownstone.

He began with a story – about an adorable Latino boy growing up in the Midwest. He was too much and didn’t have friends until he got into comics, then made two friends. His bus driver gave him a coverless comic preview because her husband worked for DC Comics. That was when he realized that comics could be a job and he decided to make comic books. That’s his origin story.

But things were tough after that. He worked on Brownstone for a year – figured it was his last shot. He kept asking, Is this worth it? (Comics are always worth it.)

Making comics is what he always wanted to do, and Brownstone gave him a second chance at that.

And the Printz means Brownstone is actually getting read. And he gets to work! And make comics! He gets to make little Sammy’s dreams become reality.

Review of A Bright Heart, by Kate Chenli

A Bright Heart

by Kate Chenli

Union Square & Co., October 17, 2023. 331 pages.
Review written May 29, 2023, from an advance reader copy sent by the publisher.
Starred Review

As this book opens, Mingshin is being tortured and killed by her betrothed, Prince Ren, the man she funded and strategized with so he would become king. He tells her that he will marry her cousin, the one he always loved anyway, and no king would marry a commoner like her.

But as she lies dying, she begs heaven for a second chance – and something happens. She wakes up two years earlier, before she met Ren, soon after they moved to the capital city and the king announced that there would be a competition among his sons as to who would succeed him.

Now Mingshin knows that Prince Ren, as well as her uncle and cousin, cannot be trusted. Can she save her mother from her terrible death in the other timeline as well as their loyal servants and protectors? Can she keep the fortune they inherited from her father? And more importantly, can she keep the cruel Ren from winning the throne and stay alive?

But after being so horribly betrayed, when Prince Jieh shows an interest in Mingshin, she is afraid to trust him, either. After all, no royal would truly be interested in a commoner, would he? And when things start happening differently in this timeline, she’s not sure what course to take.

There’s magic involved in this story, and how it works is a bit murky at times, but we find out along with Mingshin, so that didn’t bother me too much. I like her cleverness and her determination to set things right.

Although this book comes to a resolution, there are many ongoing details, so I will look forward to the continuation of this story. A strong debut novel, with promise of more to come.

katechenli.com
unionsquareandco.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Antidote, by Karen Russell

The Antidote

by Karen Russell
read by Elena Rey, Sophie Amoss, Mark Bramhall, Shayna Small, Jon Orsini, Natasha Soudek, Karen Russell, and James Riding In

Books on Tape, 2025. 16 hours, 56 minutes.
Review written June 22, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

The Antidote is a historical novel of the Dust Bowl, woven throughout with magical realism. When I began the book, I wasn’t sure I liked it, and the pace is literary and more slow-moving than the young adult and children’s books I often read. But by the last several hours – well, let’s just say that I stayed up until 3 am and finished a jigsaw puzzle to also finish this book. (Would I have stayed up to finish the jigsaw puzzle anyway? Maybe. But wanting to finish this audiobook meant I didn’t even try to resist.)

The “Antidote” of the title is a person. She’s a prairie witch, and that’s the name she uses for customers. She’s a vault for things you want to forget, memories that trouble you or that you want to stop thinking about for a time. The Antidote goes into a trance and the customer talks into her ear trumpet and the memories get transferred to her to carry. The customer doesn’t remember what they confided, and the Antidote never heard it, but they can come back at any time, read their deposit slip backwards, and this time the transfer will go the other way, giving the memories back to the customer.

But the book opens on Black Sunday, the day an enormous dust storm went through Nebraska. On the same day, the Antidote went bankrupt. She can feel in her body that all the deposits were lost. What will she do when the customers fleeing the dry prairie want their deposits back?

There are other characters we follow. Harp Oletsky is a farmer whose wheat crop was miraculously spared. Even the scarecrow survived intact! He starts seeing lights coming from the land.

Harp’s niece, Asphodel, is living with him after her mother was found dead in a ditch. She tries to escape her nightmares about her mother’s body by playing basketball. But the folks supporting their team one by one are leaving Nebraska. And Asphodel wants to make some money by working for the Antidote.

Then there’s a government photographer. She’s a Black lady traveling alone. She tries to follow the instructions for the pictures the government wants to support the New Deal – but then her camera reveals images that she didn’t see when she took the pictures.

And through all of this, we learn about life on the prairie and the hard things that happen there – things people are willing to pay to forget. For example, the Polish settlers don’t want to face that they were offered free homesteads in order to secure land that belonged to the Pawnee people. And in fact, the Pawnee people are being treated exactly the way the Polish people were treated in Europe.

It also turns out that the no-good sheriff has been forcing the Antidote to receive deposits in order to hide evidence. And that comes to a head when the Lucky Rabbit’s Foot Killer – who supposedly killed Asphodel’s mother – has a botched execution on Black Sunday when the electric chair malfunctions. The election is coming up, and the sheriff intends to win on his record, never mind what is really the truth behind the murders.

And it’s all wound together in a way that winds itself into your heart. I have to admit it got me thinking uncomfortable thoughts about my homesteading ancestors in a way I never faced before. The motto of the prairie in this book is “Better you than me.” And the book shows up the problems with that motto – and how deeply it’s embedded in the heart of America. Powerful stuff, and an engrossing read (once you get started).

karenrussellauthor.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Day 1 – ALA Annual Conference 2025 in Philadelphia

The American Library Association Annual Conference this year was in Philadelphia, not too far away, so my library system paid for some of us to attend.

I drove up the day before. It took longer than Google maps said it would, so I didn’t have time to register, but there was plenty of time on Friday. My hotel was right near Independence Hall, so first I visited Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. I hadn’t visited either one since 1991, when my family lived across the river in Burlington County, New Jersey.

Then I walked to the Convention Center (about a mile) and got registered. There was one session happening for a general library audience without needing a ticket or invitation – but the room was packed by the time I got there, so I made my way a little early to the Bloomsbury Tea at the Marriott.

At the tea, I was delighted to find Kim, who’d been the chair of the Morris Award Committee I was on last year. Sandy, our administrative assistant, was also there, but she was seated at a different table. It makes me happy to see Library Friends at conferences and that I’ve made many such friends over the years.

Besides elegant food and tea, three stellar authors spoke at the tea. First up was Debbie Levy, author of A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools.

She said that the story of that trial was an irresistible story because of how badly adults will behave when they want to keep teens in the dark.

She found that the characters involved were full of nuance, all trying to do what is right from their perspective. But the world is rarely black and white.

They used the same techniques as book banners use today, telling false narratives about those who were presenting Darwin’s work.

It was about the rejection of facts because they make people uncomfortable.

It has reverberations today. Those who are misinformed mean well. You *can* reach people with words.

Next up was Kate Messner, whose new book is The Trouble with Heroes.

The book is about an angry middle school student grieving his father. And the day it came out, her own father went into the ICU.

Parts of the book are sad, and parts are funny, because grief is like that.

Written for readers who aren’t sure they’re readers. In verse to have that comforting white space.

When her Dad died, she leaned on the words.

Sometimes people seem like sort of a mess, when really they’re doing their best. Books are lifelines.

Then came Renée Watson, whose new book is All the Blues in the Sky.

We all bring our stories with us – our joys and our sorrows.

She’s not writing books to escape, but books to help cope. Her books are the hug a child needs.

Her character wants to be a pilot and is dealing with loss. The sky has layers.

Grief is like hunger – we eat today, but we’ll still have hunger we need to satisfy. That’s the story of living – living with wounds and living to be healed.

Our young people are experiencing sadness. I hope we do right by them and give them books that help them feel it all.

After they spoke, attendees had a chance to have all three authors sign our copies of their books we’d been given. And after hearing the speeches, I’m super eager to read them!

After the Bloomsbury Tea, I went back to the hotel to get my wheeled bag. (I have a doctor’s note. 14 years ago, I had a vertebral artery dissection that caused a stroke, and it’s not good for me to carry heavy things. My neck was hurting by the end of the day – so I’m glad I decided to go with wheels.)

I was back in time for the opening session with Governor Whitmer. I honestly didn’t realize her interviewer was Emma McNamara from Capitol Choices – a local group of librarians I’m part of – until I saw the pictures later! (I was sitting way in back.)

Honestly, Governor Whitmer’s talk was on the fluffy side. She said that she read To Kill a Mockingbird many times as a kid and it helped her find her passion in life for public service.

Her book – which now has a YA edition with resources added – is about how she got through hard things. She was assaulted in college, and that gave her a mission to give survivors tools and encouragement – though it took her 25 years to find her voice.

Be curious, not judgmental. Learn one another’s stories.

She keeps a gratitude journal, even on the hardest days. Violence is the antithesis of what democracy is supposed to be. Humor is a good way to deal with a bully – take their weapon and make it your shield.

After the Opening Session, I spent time in the exhibits – first making sure to get a signed Advance Reader Copy of Sara Pennypacker’s new book, The Lions’ Run. Other than that, I showed a lot of restraint! Now that advance reader copies get mailed to my office, it’s easier to resist free books.

After the exhibits, I headed to the Philadelphia Free Library for the Printz Awards. That will get a post of its own, but here’s a picture of my goodies from the first day. Again, I feel I showed great restraint!

Review of Dance Fast, by A. R. Cribbins

Dance Fast

by AR Cribbins

Little, Brown and Company, 2024. 36 pages.
Review written June 9, 2025, from a library book.

This picture book has a lovely message about perfectionist that will speak to kids and adults alike.

A little girl named Bizzy tells the story. She wants to dance at this year’s ceremony and wants her own regalia. But her mother’s old dance dress is too big, so she plans to make her own regalia with her mom and grandma. She wants it to be perfect.

Bizzy has sewn pillows before. She’s confident in her skills. But then things go wrong, and she’s convinced her dress is ruined.

After some more trials and tribulations, her grandma shows her own dance regalia and explains:

Grandma says it’s the Pomo way to leave one little flaw in everything you make.

“And then we dance fast so no one sees where that part is!”

The book ends with Bizzy happily dancing, in a beautiful dress complete with flaws.

I love a book that speaks to children in a natural way about beauty in mistakes.

arcribbins.com
LBYR.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/dance_fast.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?