Review of We Are Definitely Human, by X. Fang

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

We Are Definitely Human

by X. Fang

Tundra Books, 2024. 48 pages.
Review written August 29, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This book is every bit as good as you would suspect by seeing the front cover. A book I had to share with my co-workers, it’s so much fun.

When Mr. Li wakes up in the night because of a loud crash, he goes outside with his dog and a flashlight and sees three creatures who greet him with the words, “Hello. We are DEFINITELY human.”

After some stares in both directions, we get this exchange:

“Okay, if you say so,” Mr. Li finally replied. “But what are y’all doing here?”
“Our . . . car . . . broke down, and we need materials to fix it,” said the tall one.
“It’s past midnight! There are no stores open now,” Mr. Li replied.
Disappointed, the three strangers turned to walk back into the dark night.

As they slink off toward the next page, a page turn gives us a reversal:

But Mr. Li was a kind human,
and he did what kind humans do.
He offered to help.

They spend the night at his house (to the surprise of Mrs. Li in the morning), have breakfast (doing bizarre things with food), tell about themselves (in suspect ways), and then go with Mr. Li to the store, as promised.

The people in the store thought there was something unique about the three visitors.
“Hello. We are DEFINITELY human,” announced the short one.
“They’re from Europe,” Mr. Li added.

The people in the store were all kind humans,
and they did what kind humans do.
They offered to help the visitors fix their car.

Of course, the words in this story are fun, but the pictures of the strangers doing strange things make the book just perfect.

But I especially love the ending. Not to give it away, but my favorite line in the whole book is this one:

But wherever they went,
they would remember kind humans
and do what kind humans do —
offer help to those in need.

I can’t think of a better message to be found in such a delightfully silly picture book.

xfang.studio
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 Beto’s Berry Treasure, by Jenny Lacika, illustrated by Addy Rivera Sonda

Contemporary, Mathematical, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Beto’s Berry Treasure

by Jenny Lacika
illustrated by Addy Rivera Sonda

Storytelling Math (Charlesbridge), October 8, 2024. 32 pages.
Review written July 19, 2024, from my own copy given to me at ALA Annual Conference.
Starred Review

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Charlesbridge’s Storytelling Math series. In fact, I went up to their booth and gushed about them on the last day of this year’s ALA Annual Conference – and they gave me one of their copies of this newest entry in the series!

All the books have a cultural element, in this case two Mexican American kids who speak some Spanish. They also present in very simple terms an early math concept, with tips for parents to extend the ideas at the back. And it’s always found in a picture book story that will engage kids even if it weren’t teaching math concepts.

Beto’s Berry Treasure is about spatial relationships and making and following maps.

Beto wants his big sister Cora to play tea party with him, but she only wants to play pirate. So Beto decides to make a pirate map of hidden treasure – the treasure being berries for the tea party.

But Beto’s first tries don’t lead Cora to the treasure! How can he fix it?

And will there be any berries left by the time Cora finds the treasure?

This simple story is a fantastic conversation – and play – starter. And believe it or not, spatial relationships and being able to give step-by-step instructions (or a map) are early math concepts.

Another brilliant entry in the series.

jennylacika.com
astound.us/addy-rivera-sonda
charlesbridge.com/storytellingmath

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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 Big Bear and Little Bear Go Fishing, by Amy Hest, illustrated by Erin Stead

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Big Bear and Little Bear Go Fishing

by Amy Hest
illustrated by Erin Stead

Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2024. 40 pages.
Review written July 18, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Ahh. This picture book gives me a happy sense of peace.

It’s a quiet story of a grown-up bear and a young bear going fishing. The story is simple, the pictures are charming, and the nice repetition makes it delightful for beginning readers or young listeners.

Here’s how the book begins:

One day Big Bear says to Little Bear, I’m just in the mood for fishing.

Me too, says Little Bear. Just in the mood.

Big Bear and Little Bear pull on baggy blue pants for fishing. And boots. They stuff their feet into tal black boots. Their coats are yellow with pockets and hoods.

Now they are ready for fishing.

That all sounds good. But the first word on the next page is:

Almost.

Three times they think of something more they need — poles; nice, warm blueberry scones; and a book with stories.

When they are finally really, truly ready to go fishing, they make their way to their fishing boat, pulling the wagon with supplies, get into the boat, and row out into the lake.

I love the page once they get there:

Big Bear and Little Bear dip their poles in the lake.

Fishermen sit very still, whispers Big Bear.

Oh yes, Little Bear whispers back. Very still.

Sunshine sparkles up the lake.

Fishermen are patient, whispers Big Bear.

Oh yes, Little Bear whispers back. Patient.

And so they wait. And wait. And of course they need a break for nice, warm blueberry scones, as well as for reading from their big book of stories.

Okay, my repeating good lines simply doesn’t do the job without Erin Stead’s cozy illustrations. If you have a young child in your home, you need to check out this book and read it together yourselves! I guarantee, you’ll be charmed.

amyhest.com
erinstead.com

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Review of The Coquíes Still Sing, by Karina Nicole González, illustrations by Krystal Quiles

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

The Coquíes Still Sing

A Story of Home, Hope, and Rebuilding

story by Karina Nicole González
illustrations by Krystal Quiles

Roaring Brook Press, 2022. 40 pages.
Review written August 30, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

This bright and beautiful picture book tells the story of a girl named Elena and her family who live in Puerto Rico. As the book opens, the girl is enjoying the mango tree outside their house, heavy with sweet fruit.

At night the coquí frogs in the tree and in the garden sing, “Co-quí, co-quí,” and Elena and her Papi sing back, “Co-quí, co-quí. Oh, how I love thee.”

But that night, the radio talks about a storm. Hurricane Maria is coming. The family shelters safe together in a closet, but the roof gets blown off their house. When they come out again, the mango tree has no fruit or leaves, and the coquí frogs are silent.

But this is a book about resilience and recovery. The community works hard and comes together, plants a garden, and makes repairs.

And to finish the story, some months later, the mango tree sprouts new leaves, and the coquí frogs sing again.

Six pages of back matter give details about Puerto Rico and the impact of Hurricane María, as well as work that still needs to be done.

Overall, this is a book of hope, created with a deep love for Puerto Rico that shines through.

karinanikole.com
krystalquiles.com
mackids.com

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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of Up High, by Matt Hunt

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Up High

by Matt Hunt

Nosy Crow, 2024. First published in the United Kingdom in 2024. 40 pages.
Review written July 31, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

I love this simple, but bright and colorful picture book. It’s the story of a little boy going for a walk through the city to the park with his father, a big man with sleeve tattoos. When the city seems so crowded and busy, the boy asks to go “up high,” and his father let’s him ride on his shoulders.

Suddenly, I don’t feel so small any more.

There’s not a lot of text on each page, and it really gives us the kid’s perspective, from looking up at all the giant people standing around him to looking down from above the whole crowd. I love the spread where his dad stops to talk with a friend for a long time:

His hair feels tickly in my hands.
I pull it.

There are also pages of all the things the boy notices once he gets to the park.

It definitely brings to mind family walks when my own kids were small. And that happy trust on my kids’ faces when they went up high.

Just a happy and joyful slice of life.

matthuntillustration.com
nosycrow.us

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Review of How Old Is Mr. Tortoise? by Dev Petty, illustrated by Ruth Chan

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

How Old Is Mr. Tortoise?

by Dev Petty
illustrated by Ruth Chan

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2022. 36 pages.
Review written July 26, 2022, from my own copy, signed by the author at ALA Annual Conference
Starred Review

Here’s a silly picture book about an old tortoise who just wants to eat cake on his birthday. But his friends want to know how many candles to put on the cake before anyone gets a slice.

So then they try to figure out how old Mr. Tortoise is. There are some silly guesses. Some ideas based on what he remembers. And finally, he remembers that he moved into his fancy enclosure on his hundredth birthday and was given a new succulent each year as a gift after. When you also add in the ones he’s eaten, they can finally figure out how old he is.

But the cake won’t fit that many candles! Will Mr. Tortoise ever get to eat cake?

This book has a nice little bit of math to make me happy and to get kids thinking about numbers. But my favorite part of that is what I just discovered — under the paper cover, the book shows a great big cake (instead of the cover image) — and I counted and it has the right amount of candles. (Unfortunately, on the library version, the cover will get taped down and you won’t get to check.) Ha! Though I just counted the candles pictured on the endpapers (apparently leftover after the cake is mostly eaten) — and there are again exactly the right amount. Nice touch!

But even without the math, it’s a happy story of friends and a birthday and cake! What’s not to like?

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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.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of Home in a Lunchbox, by Cherry Mo

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Home in a Lunchbox

by Cherry Mo

Penguin Workshop, 2024. 40 pages.
Review written July 19, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

The more I look at this beautiful picture book, the more charmed I am.

It’s a story of a young girl moving with her family from Hong Kong to America, and it’s told mostly in pictures, with color showing emotion.

On the endpapers, we see a moving truck leaving behind the lights of Hong Kong and moving to a suburban street in America. On the title page, the sweet little girl’s mother gives her a loving good-by kiss, while good food is giving off smells on the table beside them. The girl is wearing a backpack and holding a lunchbox.

Right away at the bus stop, a friendly girl says Hello to our hero. She answers “Hel…lo!” When the girl asks, “What’s your name,” she consults writing on her hand, which gives her translations for the words Hello, Thank you, and I don’t know. So she answers, “Th…ank you…”

Riding the bus and getting school, the pictures show us how alone the little girl feels. She’s in color, but all around her the kids are drawn in gray. She’s given a worksheet and fills in “I don’t know” in all the blanks.

But when lunchtime comes and she opens her lunchbox, all is color and sparkles. There’s a full spread where we can see that her food gives her memories of happy times with family and friends back home.

As the week goes on, more mortifying times happen – especially when she asks for a “Toilet.” But in panels as days go by, she still gets color and sparkles and happiness when she opens her lunchbox.

And finally, it’s the lunchbox that helps her make friends. The original girl from the bus stop has been watching her. An exchange of food happens, they see her nametag on her lunch (Jun) and a new small group of friends comes together — now all full of color and happiness.

There’s a spread at the back explaining the food in Jun’s lunchbox, and the words she’s written on her hand, in English and Cantonese. It also explains that most people in Hong Kong learn the British way of asking for a restroom – asking for a “toilet.”

The back flap tells us the author based the book on her own experiences moving to the United States from Hong Kong when she was 10 years old. She’s communicated the whole thing so beautifully, in a picture book that transcends language.

cherrymo.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 The Seagull and the Sea Captain, by Sy Montgomery, illustrated by Amy Schimler-Safford

Contemporary, Picture Book Review 0

The Seagull and the Sea Captain

by Sy Montgomery
illustrated by Amy Schimler-Safford

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2022. 36 pages.
Review written June 8, 2022, from a library book

Science writer Sy Montgomery has taken a true story of a friendship between a herring gull and a sea captain and turned it into a sweet picture book.

The sea captain takes his family’s schooner out of Gloucester Harbor during the summer season. One day in 2013, a gull got some food from him, and he noticed that gull had a toe missing. The same gull has been visiting his boat ever since.

We’ve got details in the back and lots of interesting facts about gulls. Meanwhile, the picture book story imagines the perspectives of both the man and the gull. The story is quiet but lovely, telling of a connection between a man and a bird.

Here’s how the story part ends:

And now every summer, from May to October, Polly Five Toes joins the captain on his schooner almost every day. Often he even sits on the captain’s head! “That’s the best view,” explains the captain. Polly Five Toes enjoys the crackers, and also enjoys the view. But the best part, he agrees with the captain, is the journey together — because everything’s more fun with a friend.

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Review of Carrimebac: The Town that Walked, by David Barclay Moore, illustrated by John Holyfield

Fantasy, Folk Tales, Historical, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Carrimebac

The Town That Walked

by David Barclay Moore
illustrated by John Holyfield

Candlewick Press, 2022. 40 pages.
Review written May 25, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

The flap of this picture book calls it an “original folk tale,” and I’m not sure if technically one person can make up a folk tale, but that’s the feeling this book gives, whether or not you bog down on the technicality.

This is the story of how a town of African Americans outwitted the “Fearful Folks” (who wear white hoods and carry torches) back in 1876.

And it’s all about a 100-year-old lady, Rootilla Redgums, and her peculiar grandson.

Rootilla brought magic to the town.

She taught them to weave rugs that never wore down, to fire or bake ceramic jugs that never emptied of sarsaparilla, and to carve wooden walking sticks that somehow never got you lost in the woods.

But the Fearful Folks who lived around the town believed the Blacks who lived there practiced magic.

Rootilla always used to say that she wasn’t magic.
But the things she made were . . .

The first night the Fearful Folks decided to attack, Rootilla thwarted them, turning their torches into cornstalks. But they were planning to come back, and that next morning, on her 100th birthday, Rootilla passed away. She asked her ten-year-old grandson to carry her back to where she came from.

The way he answered that request makes a tale where the whole town escapes — and now there’s a lake in its place, named Carrimebac in memory of the folks who lived there before.

This magical and folksy tale is delightful fun. It’s always good to hear a story about humble people victorious over those who want to oppress them. The beautifully painted illustrations add to the warm feelings the book brings.

davidbarclaymoore.com
johnholyfield.com

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What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of Abdul’s Story, by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, illustrated by Tiffany Rose

Contemporary, Picture Book Review 0

Abdul’s Story

by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

illustrated by Tiffany Rose

Salaam Reads (Simon & Schuster), 2022. 36 pages.
Review written April 20, 2022, from a library book

I usually don’t choose to review picture books that were clearly written to tell a message, but this one came with a story that warmed my heart.

Abdul is a kid who loves to tell stories. But he has trouble trying to write them down. His letters don’t like to stay in straight lines, and sometimes they get turned around. He ends up erasing so much, his pages look like a big smudge. Plus, the stories he reads in books don’t sound much like the stories he tells. He decided his stories aren’t meant to be written down.

But then an author came to his school named Mr. Muhammad. He looked a lot like Abdul. And he read a story about a community that sounds a lot like Abdul’s.

But when Mr. Muhammad encouraged the children to write, Abdul erased so much, trying to make it look right, that he tore a hole in the paper with his eraser.

A moment of truth comes when Mr. Muhammad shows Abdul his own notebook — messy as can be, with nothing in straight lines.

Mr. Mohammed encourages Abdul to fill a messy page without erasing and then look for a story inside it. I like this description of the process:

Over the next few days, Abdul rewrote a less messy mess, then an even less messy mess. He smiled when he read his story to himself.

Abdul still has lots of doubt when it’s time to turn the story in, because he knows there are still mistakes.

But when the writer comes back, he likes Abdul’s story so much, he reads it to the class.

I love the way the book ends, as this is where it won my heart:

When they returned to their writing, Abdul whispered to Mr. Muhammad, “What about my mistakes?”

“Writers make mistakes. We’ll work on them.”

As they worked, Abdul thought:
Some people are writers, and I am one of them.

Yes, it’s a message book. But what a great message to give to 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.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.