Review of Killer Underwear Invasion! by Elise Gravel

Children's Nonfiction Review, Current Issues, Graphic Novel, History, Humorous, Starred Review 0

Killer Underwear Invasion!

How to Spot Fake News, Disinformation & Conspiracy Theories

by Elise Gravel

Chronicle Books, 2022. 104 pages.
Review written December 22, 2022, from a library book.
Starred Review

Killer Underwear Invasion! is a just-about-perfect graphic novel explanation for kids about fake news, how to watch for it, and why it’s harmful. The examples are silly, which makes the book a lot of fun, but they’re also presented in a way that reminds the reader of real-life examples.

After an explanation of what fake news and disinformation are, we get lots of reasons why people would make them up: To make money, to get famous, to spread beliefs, to gain power, and to get other people to share information on social media (which is generally to make money). There are funny examples with silly characters for each one.

Then we’re told that fake news can be very dangerous.

Let’s say Galbinus wants to try to convince you to take a remedy that doesn’t work — or might even harm you.

“You can cure every disease by drinking shampoo!*”

[Click here to buy shampoo!]

*Please don’t try this at home.

Of course, doctors and scientists will say. . .

“No, no, no! DO NOT drink shampoo! It’s dangerous! It doesn’t cure anything!”

So Galbinus might start writing articles attacking doctors.

“ALL DOCTORS ARE EVIL LIARS!”

“THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO FEEL BETTER!”

You get the idea! The next example is a big factory that dumps toxic chemicals in the ocean. They get a fake expert to write an article saying that pollution doesn’t exist.

Then we’ve got a politician who claims his opponent is bad because he pinches puppies. For all of these examples, it shows many people believing the fake news.

And then the chapter on conspiracy theories pulls all of these silly stories together. It shows some fake news going viral and then people putting stories together and believing that doctors and the political candidate have sent robot-scorpions into the sewers to pinch your puppies.

All this silliness aside, the book brings things around by looking at why people believe fake news, and how we can guard against it, with ten practical steps.

This does include a nice shout-out to librarians:

Okay, so can I really trust anyone?

Well, it can be difficult to decide who to trust. If you’re not sure if you can trust a source, ask a librarian.

Librarians are trained to help you find reliable information.

It all adds up to an informative, fun, and entertaining book about an important and timely subject. It was fun for me to read, even already knowing a lot about the topic.

elisegravel.com
chroniclekids.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 Girl Who Sang, by Estelle Nadel and Sammy Savos

Award Winners, Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Memoir, Starred Review 0

The Girl Who Sang

A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival

by Estelle Nadel
with Sammy Savos and Bethany Strout
art by Sammy Savos

Roaring Brook Press, 2024. 264 pages.
Review written February 18, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Sidney Taylor Gold Medal, Middle Grades
2025 Sibert Honor Book
2025 Best Children’s Graphic Novels Top Ten

The Girl Who Sang is a memoir about the Holocaust in graphic novel form. And yes, rather amazingly, the author makes it a story of hope and survival.

Enia was the youngest of five kids living on a farm in a village in Poland. But then the Germans came, and they had to go into hiding. Enia ended up hiding in different attics from when she was five to when she was ten. And she lost all but two of her brothers during the war.

But she makes this book about the good people who helped save their lives along the way, and about the joy of being free after the war and building a new life in America.

And through all of it, she has always loved to sing.

This book did tear my heart into pieces, and I sure didn’t think the little girl would survive in spots. But this tells the story from a child’s viewpoint, and can be a way to tell children about that dark time in history.

sammysavos.com
mackids.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 A Plate of Hope, by Erin Frankel, illustrated by Paola Escobar, read by Luis Carlos de la Lombana

Audiobooks, Award Winners, Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

A Plate of Hope

The Inspiring Story of Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen

by Erin Frankel
illustrated by Paola Escobar
read by Luis Carlos de la Lombana

Dreamscape Media, 2024. 15 minutes.
Random House Studio, 2024. 48 pages.
Review written January 31, 2025, from a library book and eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2025 Odyssey Winner, Children’s Audiobook
2024 Cybils Finalist, Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction

I don’t normally listen to 15-minute audiobooks. But I do make a point of trying to listen to all the Odyssey Award Winners and Honor books. The award is given for the best children’s and young adult audiobooks, and they are always outstanding. Even knowing that, I was impressed with this short but amazing audiobook.

The original book is a picture book biography of the life of Chef José Andrés, how he grew up in Spain loving to be part of making food and feeding people, went on to work in an innovative kitchen, and was taken with the promise of America. Of course, it especially looks at how he developed World Central Kitchen to step in with good food immediately after a disaster. He gets folks in quickly after a crisis making good, local food when folks have lost so much else.

And the audiobook has music playing in the background throughout the whole book with judicious use of sound effects, such as sizzling food and chirping birds. The narrator’s Spanish accent combined with the music gives the story a lilting and joyful feeling. Of course, I recommend checking out both the audiobook and the print book so you can enjoy the pictures as well.

erinfrankel.com

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Review of Go Forth and Tell, by Breanna J. McDaniel, illustrated by April Harrison

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Go Forth and Tell

The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller

written by Breanna J. McDaniel
illustrated by April Harrison

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2024. 40 pages.
Review written February 7, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book

A picture book biography of a ground-breaking children’s librarian who inspired many great Black authors? Yes, please!

I hadn’t heard of Augusta Baker before reading this book, but her story makes me proud to be a librarian.

The book begins with her as a child listening to her grandmother’s stories and goes on to using those tales in college to learn to be a storyteller, and getting a job as a children’s librarian at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library in Harlem, where she worked with children like future authors James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. She found stories to give Black children “heroes that rose up and looked, talked, and shined bright, just like them.”

She went on to become the first Black person to be the coordinator of children’s services in all New York Public Library branches. And she continued to tell stories and became the master Storyteller-in-Residence at the University of South Carolina, where they started a storytelling festival in her honor.

And all this wonderful story is told with vivid, bright and joyful illustrations of this dynamic woman inspiring others.

breannajmcdaniel.com
april-harrison.com
penguin.com/kids

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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 Life After Whale, by Lynn Brunelle, illustrations by Jason Chin

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

Life After Whale

The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall

by Lynn Brunelle
illustrations by Jason Chin

Neal Porter Books, 2024. 48 pages.
Review written February 7, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Robert F. Sibert Medal Winner
2025 Capitol Choices Selection

Life After Whale tells about blue whales, the largest creatures on earth. It starts by showing us how enormous they are, how with one gulp they swallow enough tiny krill to fill a school bus, and how they migrate each year. (Did you know that they have wax rings in their ear canals that are like rings of a tree?)

But after the whale dies, a whole new series of events happen. At first, the whale will float because of gases inside its body, and get bites taken from sharks and fish below and from seabirds above. But once those gases dissipate, over weeks the whale’s body will sink to the bottom of the ocean.

There on the ocean floor, the whale’s body will be the site of a whole new ecosystem, in four overlapping phases. The first phase is the mobile scavenger phase, where mobile creatures eat the whale’s flesh. The second phase is the enrichment opportunist phase, where bone-sucking worms pull nutrients out of the skeleton and other creatures feed on the surrounding sediment. Then comes the sulfophilic phase, where bacteria release hydrogen sulfide from the bones, and sulfur-loving organisms feed on that. And finally comes the reef phase, where organisms like anemones and sponges anchor themselves on the bones and feed on particles in the surrounding water.

And then in a great big circle, the nutrients from the whale’s bones that have mingled with the water get swept upward seasonally – and feed the krill in the upper layers of the ocean, and the krill in turn feed living whales.

All this is explained in meticulous detail with glorious illustrations from Jason Chen. It’s easy to see why this book won the Sibert Medal for the best children’s nonfiction book of the year. I had known nothing about all this, and the author makes it all fascinating – with back matter to explore further.

lynnbrunelle.com
HolidayHouse.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 Listening to Trees, by Holly Thompson, pictures by Toshiki Nakamura

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Listening to Trees

George Nakashima, Woodworker

words by Holly Thompson
pictures by Toshiki Nakamura

Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2024. 48 pages.
Review written January 29, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Listening to Trees is a picture book biography of American George Nakashima. He was of Japanese descent, and his family was imprisoned during World War II because of that, but the focus of this book is his approach to working with wood, bringing out the beauty of the trees themselves.

The story is told in haibun, and explanations at the back tell us that this is a combination of haiku and prose. So it’s more deliberate than the fact that there’s a haiku on each spread.

The book covers his learning years traveling around the world as an architect and then even learning more about Japanese furniture-making techniques from a carpenter in the prison camp. Then it shows how he developed a style that used the shape of the wood and the patterns in the grain to decide what to make, culminating in giant Peace Tables for each continent of the world.

Back matter gives a timeline of his life as well as an explanation of what goes into the process of woodworking, and finally a spread of beautiful photographs of his work. The pictures throughout the book make me want to run my hands along the wood. And that’s starting from a place of never having heard of this artist before.

hatbooks.com
HolidayHouse.com
artoftoshi.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 Kitchen Pantry Scientist Math for Kids, by Rebecca Rapoport and Allanna Chung

Children's Nonfiction Review, Mathematical, Starred Review 0

The Kitchen Pantry Scientist

Math for Kids

Fun Math Games and Activities Inspired by Awesome Mathematicians, Past and Present

by Rebecca Rapoport and Allanna Chung

Quarto Publishing, 2022. 128 pages.
Review written January 8, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review
2023 Mathical Book Prize Honor Book, Ages 8-10

Oh, this book is wonderful!

A lot of general books about math for kids have the same old stuff you’ve heard before, presented in a fairly random order.

This book is organized around twenty-two biographies of distinguished mathematicians, and then has a hands-on game or activity (some using templates found at the back of the book or on the accompanying website). The activities are very cool! I think I am going to print out the templates for the hexaflexagons. Some of the other activities include making a car with square wheels, a mancala game, a binary bracelet, and an alien city.

The activities are illustrated with clear photographs and have step-by-step instructions. The biographies take up one page, with a full-page illustration of the mathematician and symbols around them representing their work.

I loved that I hadn’t heard of a majority of the mathematicians presented, even though I’ve read a lot of books like this. I also loved that most were women and/or people of color. Because there are a lot of white men in math, and it was exciting to me to hear about others. And everyone chosen had done important work.

A really wonderful book about math that will make the reader want to explore and make and do.

dailyepsilon.com
Quarto.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 Yasmeen Lari, Green Architect, written by Marzieh Abbas, illustrated by Hoda Hadadi

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Yasmeen Lari, Green Architect

The True Story of Pakistan’s First Woman Architect

written by Marzieh Abbas
illustrated by Hoda Hadadi

Clarion Books (HarperCollins), 2024. 40 pages.
Review written January 13, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

I’ve gotten used to high-quality picture book biographies, so I tend to resist reviewing them unless that are something extra-special. This book features the life of Yasmeen Lari, who not only was Pakistan’s first female architect, she also is a pioneer in the use of sustainable and low-cost materials that withstand floods and earthquakes.

This picture book has wonderful art, using colorful collage techniques to show the structures Yasmeen created and studied. As a child, she lived through Partition and saw the creation of Pakistan as its own country. Her father was an architect, and she followed in his footsteps. But the book shows how, after her success as an architect, she became a force for conservation and restoration of historic buildings. And then after catastrophic floods and earthquakes, she looked at the way those historic buildings had lasted centuries and used the ideas to help rebuild.

Yasmeen designed and sketched.

For the earthquake-prone areas, she suggested bamboo crisscrossing lattice sandwiching mud-lime brick walls from ground to ceiling.

For the flood-prone areas, she proposed hexagonal structures of mud-lime brick walls to be positioned on bamboo stilts, eight feet high.

The book shows her making prototypes for durable, low cost, zero carbon, zero waste buildings.

Yasmeen had an idea – cocreation!

She would train the poverty-stricken villagers to build their own houses.

Then they would travel to other villages and train more villagers.

In this way, she was responsible for building over 40,000 disaster-resistant homes.

The back matter has photos of this remarkable woman, who is still living, and her work. I am happy to have learned about her, and am glad for this book so kids will learn about someone who excelled in her profession, and then used that excellence to make the world a better place for many more.

marziehabbas.com
hoda-hadadi.com
harpercollinschildrens.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 Whalesong, by Zachariah OHora

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

Whalesong

The True Story of the Musician Who Talked to Orcas

by Zachariah OHora

Tundra, 2024. 44 pages.
Review written December 30, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is a picture book version of the true story of how a scientist and a musician discovered that orcas would respond to music played to them.

The story begins in 1971, when the musician and his two kids moved to Vancouver Island in British Columbia and discovered they loved to go to the aquarium there. They noticed a scientist playing music to the orcas and got the idea of the musician, Paul Horn, playing his flute to them. When the orcas responded, everyone was amazed, and the family made a habit of going to the aquarium and playing to the orcas.

But while Paul Horn was away on a trip, one of the orcas died, and the remaining orca was listless and refusing to eat. When Paul came back and played happy music, over time, they were able to coax the bereaved orca to eat again.

It all makes a lovely picture book, with the kids’ participation making the story all the more fun. I’ve always been a fan of Zachariah Ohora’s illustrations, and I love the way they illuminate this true tale. He’s also got a gift for telling the story simply.

I also like that the scientist involved, Dr. Paul Spong, went on to found an organization that studies orcas in the wild and works to free all captive orcas. I learned that on the last page of the picture book text, with more details for adults in the back matter.

I love that kids who read this book will never question that orcas can communicate – and can even communicate with us.

fuzzy.town
penguinrandomhouse.ca

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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 Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities, by Stephanie Gibeault, illustrations by Jaclyn Sinquett

Children's Nonfiction Review, Mathematical, Science, Starred Review 0

Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees,

and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities

by Stephanie Gibeault
illustrations by Jaclyn Sinquett

MIT Kids Press, 2024. 88 pages.
Review written December 18, 2024, from my own copy, sent to me by the publisher.
Starred Review

Here’s a book that tells a fascinating story about what goes into mathematical thinking – because it’s telling how scientists figure out how much of it animals are capable of.

First, they look at guppies. Yes, fish! Can guppies, with their tiny brains, count? Well, it turns out that when faced with two alternatives, guppies can choose the larger shoal to swim near (the better to not be eaten by predators). While explaining the experiments the scientists did, we learn about relative numerosity judgment, object-tracking systems, approximate number systems, and the numerical size and numerical distance effects.

Next up are hyenas. Researchers recorded the whoops of different hyenas and simulated a group approaching with hyena whoops. The hyenas would change behavior if there were more or fewer hyenas in the simulated group than their own group. They were wary with more intruders and aggressive with fewer. Along the way, the reader learns about subitizing and all the different things that happen when a human counts.

Chapter 3 is about a highly intelligent African grey parrot named Alex and how he even learned to use numerals and do simple math, even when the question was given with numerals. The super-interesting story of how they designed experiments for Alex to show he really understood what he was doing also teach the reader about equivalence (swapping four objects for the numeral 4, for example) and ordinality.

Next was a chapter about chimpanzees, and, yes, they can do calculations. Some experiments they described involved hiding groups of oranges in different places – and the smart chimp could pick the number that matched the total number of oranges. Even more amazing, when they put numerals in place of the oranges, the chimp still picked the correct total the very first time they tried it. This chapter covers ways humans – and chimps – do addition (though we don’t know which one this chimp was using) – counting all and counting on.

The final chapter was about honeybees. The scientists used sugar-water treats to train bees to choose the smaller number when presented with pictures of shapes – and the bees could do it even when the card had zero objects. Along the way in this chapter, the author talks about the concept of zero and how it did take humans a long time to grasp it.

And for all of the chapters there’s added value of an interview with the scientists who did the experiment plus a page for each chapter of related experiments you can try with a friend. The introduction and sections threaded through all the chapters include the story of the horse Clever Hans and how scientists use precautions to be sure they aren’t tipping the animals off.

I thought this whole book was completely fascinating, and it’s written in an engaging way that should capture the attention of the 9- to 12-year-olds it’s designed for. Really interesting stuff! You’ll gain insight on the thought processes behind the way you – and animals – do math.

mitkidspress.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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