Review of Joyful Song, by Lesléa Newman, illustrated by Susan Gal

Award Winners, Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Joyful Song

A Naming Story

by Lesléa Newman
illustrated by Susan Gal

Levine Querido, 2024. 40 pages.
Review written February 4, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Sidney Taylor Silver Medal, Picture Books

I checked out this picture book after it was honored with a Sidney Taylor Silver Medal by the Association of Jewish Libraries – and what a beautiful book it is!

The story is told from the perspective of a kid named Zachary. His family is walking through their vibrant, colorful neighborhood to the synagogue for his baby sister’s first Shabbat, when they will announce her name to the world. Zachary gets to push her baby carriage.

Along the way, their neighbors Miss Fukumi, Mr. Baraka, and Mrs. Santiago greet them and ask the baby’s name. Before Zachary can speak, first Mama gives a nickname, then Mommy gives a nickname, and the third time, Zachary knows to tell Mrs. Santiago they call her Snuggle Bunny. All three neighbors are invited to come with them to the naming ceremony.

In the synagogue, the family comes up front, and they announce the name and why they chose it. It’s all followed by a meal, and walking home, with the three neighbors saying good-by, each in their own way, and talking about the lovely baby with a lovely name.

For Jewish families, it must be a delight to see your traditions reflected in this gorgeous picture book. (I can’t stress enough how wonderful the art is!) For non-Jewish families, you’ve got a lovely cross-cultural window. And every family who reads this book will find the perfect lead-in to talking about how you chose the names for your children.

galgirlstudio.com
levinequerido.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 Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone, by Tae Keller

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone

by Tae Keller
read by Shannon Tyo and Carolyn Kang

Listening Library, 2022. 7 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written January 7, 2023, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone is told from the perspective of Mallory, a middle school girl who worries about fitting in. Her best friend, Reagan, is the queen bee of the school. But when her neighbor, Jennifer Chan, goes missing, Mallory is terribly afraid it has something to do with “the Incident.”

When Jennifer moved into their neighborhood last summer, Mallory knew she was different. And Jennifer’s honesty about how she believes in aliens and is researching how to find them doesn’t help.

But then when Jennifer comes to school and seems to think she can get away without following the normal rules of popularity, Mallory doesn’t know what to think. Reagan feels she needs to be taught a lesson.

The timelines of the story go back and forth. Mallory thinks Jennifer was surely searching for aliens. Maybe if she can find some allies to follow in her footsteps, they can find Jennifer. But is that simply a way to avoid thinking about The Incident? What if that’s the real reason Jennifer left?

This book explores friendship and peer pressure and bullying and trying to figure out how to make amends. And it asks the question: Who do you want to be? Oh, and it also talks about aliens and how they might make themselves known to us.

I was especially moved by the author’s note at the back, read in the audiobook by Tae Keller, where she talks about how she was horribly bullied in middle school and her process in trying to channel that for this book. She did an amazing job of turning that awful experience into art that heals.

taekeller.com

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Review of The Wrong Way Home, by Kate O’Shaughnessy

Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

The Wrong Way Home

by Kate O’Shaughnessy
read by Caitlin Kinnunen

Listening Library, 2024. 9 hours.
Review written March 27, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2025 Newbery Honor Book

My hold on the audio version of this Newbery Honor book finally came in, and Wow! This one packs an emotional punch as well as letting you spend time with delightful people.

For six years, twelve-year-old Fern, once known as Frankie, has lived at the Ranch, an off-the-grid sustainable community in upstate New York, led by kind and wise Dr. Ben. Before they came to the Ranch, Fern had her mother had several different homes, but now they have stability and purpose, away from the harmful influences outside the community. When Dr. Ben tells Fern she’s ready to go on her Rite – a challenging scenario that will mark her as an adult and a true member of the community – she’s full of pride and scornful that her mother would want to hold her back.

But soon after that, Fern’s mother tricks her into going outside the community, saying it’s a trip for Dr. Ben, when really they’re moving across the country to a coastal town in California. Her mother has landed a job housekeeping in a small hotel while they live in a hotel room. It turns out that her Mom has a history there – and a godmother who wants nothing more than to look out for them. Fern only wants to go back home.

Things are rough for Fern in school – she knows about sustainable practices and the harms of man-made chemicals, but she doesn’t even know who George Washington is. But she makes a friend when a girl named Eddy needs a partner for her science project. Eddy wants to prove that the local legend, the Spirit of the Sea, is a hoax. Fern is happy to help and makes more ties in the community – all while trying to earn money to hire a private investigator to find Dr. Ben’s address and ask him to talk her Mom into taking them back home.

The author skillfully shows us how Fern little by little gains a new perspective on Dr. Ben and all the control he held over their community, all while she finds more and more to appreciate in California. But can she remember that when Dr. Ben shows up to take her back?

I like that the reader doesn’t hear the word “cult” until Fern does. We’ve only been hearing Fern’s rosy perspective on things “back home,” and kids may gradually realize, along with Fern, that something’s off.

The Newbery committee did a fine job choosing this book! I only wish I’d gotten it read sooner so I could have recommended it at my February awards round-up to other librarians. It’s a book I’ll remember for a long time to come.

kloshaugnessy.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 Is For Bee, by Ellen Heck

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

A Is for Bee

An Alphabet Book in Translation

by Ellen Heck

Levine Querido, 2022. 36 pages.
Review written December 13, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

This book is creative and fascinating — though you’ll want to show it to older kids, who already know their English alphabet well, so they don’t get confused.

The introduction is simple:

We speak to each other in many languages, and in some of them…

Then it goes right into an Alphabet book. The order is A to Z, and many of the animals you’re used to see in alphabet books appear, but now they show up in different places.

On the first page, we’ve got:

A is for BEE

Anu in Igbo
Arl in Turkish
Aamoo in Ojibwe
Abelha in Portuguese

There’s extended back matter, explaining the difficulties of translation and the Romanization of different alphabets. 69 languages are represented in this book, which they note is a small fraction of the more than 6,500 spoken across the world.

They’ve got a QR code you can scan to get to this page: levinequerido.com/AIsforBee and hear the words spoken aloud. I had a lot of fun exploring there.

This isn’t really a book for learning other languages, but it’s a beautiful book for delighting in the variety of human expression and for children to get an idea of the many amazing ways people speak.

The book goes from A is for Bee to Z is for Elephant, with delightful variety in between.

levinequerido.com/AIsforBee

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Review of Popcorn, by Rob Harrell

Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Popcorn

by Rob Harrell

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2024. 270 pages.
Review written February 27, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Schneider Family Award Winner, Middle Grades

Popcorn is about a kid named Andrew who has OCD and Anxiety – who has a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. And it’s so awful it’s funny – but the story is told with compassion, so we are feeling it along with Andrew – and both Andrew and the reader come through it all encouraged.

It’s School Picture Day. Andrew’s wearing his favorite shirt (a new one, which isn’t easy for his Mom to afford), and his Mom even thinks to have him pack an extra one. Mom is starting her first day on a new job, and a friend of the family is staying with Andrew’s grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s.

And as soon as he gets to school, things happen to mess up Andrew’s appearance. A ripped shirt. A black eye. The things are only loosely Andrew’s fault – I mean, he could have let the bully copy off his paper, but we’re definitely feeling for him. Then we think he’s safe because the shirt gets mended, but no, Andrew is never safe! The things that happen to mess up his appearance only get worse.

And in the middle of the day, he learns that his grandma has gone missing, and they weren’t able to reach his Mom by phone. This is not a good thing to hear for someone who has anxiety. Andrew has a gauge like a popcorn kernel – the heat builds up until he knows he’s going to pop.

Andrew’s had two panic attacks in the past, but one of his greatest fears is having one at school. And that fear itself for sure doesn’t help.

The whole thing adds up to a story told with humor and compassion about a kid watching what he thought was the worst possible thing actually happen – and he gets through it, and friends and teachers help him through.

The story of how that all happens is a fun ride indeed.

robharrell.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 Little Like Magic, by Sarah Kurpiel

Award Winners, Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

A Little Like Magic

by Sarah Kurpiel

Rocky Pond Books (Penguin Random House), 2024. 44 pages.
Review written February 28, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Schneider Family Award Winner, Younger Children

Here’s a gorgeous picture book that features a kid in a wheelchair.

The child and their mother (probably a little girl, but the gender is never specified) are headed to an ice festival to watch the sculptors work, but they don’t want to go.

I don’t like heavy coats
or itchy hats
or boots that don’t let me bend my ankles.
I don’t like cold wind
or icy roads.
Most of all, I don’t like going places that I’ve never been before.

Still, they go, bringing a special toy horse in their pocket. They watch the sculptors work, using chainsaws, drills, chisels, picks, torches and steaming irons.

They watch until they are too cold, then have hot chocolate together. The child isn’t convinced it’s worth it to make sculptures that are going to melt anyway.

And to their dismay, the little horse is no longer in their pocket when they get home.

But then the next day they go back after dark. Now the sculptures are finished, and they’re magical and wondrous.

The cold and crowd melt away. There is only light and ice and stars and Mom and me.

And, yes, they find their toy horse – along with a special surprise. That’s the best part of all.

In the end, they realize that even though the sculptures melted, they never really went away because they’ll always remember their magic.

This is one of those quiet, lovely, wonderful books that you love more each time you read it.

sarahkurpiel.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 My Daddy Is a Cowboy, words by Stephanie Seales, pictures by C. G. Esperanza

Award Winners, Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

My Daddy Is a Cowboy

words by Stephanie Seales
pictures by C. G. Esperanza

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2024. 40 pages.
Review written February 11, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Caldecott Honor Book
2025 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner

This is a story of together time for a girl and her Daddy.

The book starts when he wakes her up before the sun. They get ready and ride a motorcycle to the “ranch” in the city – a regular house, with a backyard that has “stalls and stalls of horses.”

They get their horses ready – Daddy’s mare Power, and the girl’s pony Clover, and she feeds them the apple slices she brought.

And then they ride around the city neighborhood together. Daddy took her early so they wouldn’t have to worry about cars and trucks and things. Everyone who sees them smiles.

Later, Daddy will ride around the city with the other cowboys, and the girl will ride at the ranch with the other kids, but this is precious “just us” time, when she gets to be a cowboy like her Daddy.

It’s a good story about something I never guessed could happen in a big city – but what pushes it over to exceptional are the bright, vibrant, joyful, colorful illustrations.

Daddy says riding helped him feel stronger, safer, and happier.

I know what Daddy means because I feel that way when I ride.
Tall. High as the clouds.
Strong as a horse’s back.

stephanieseales.com
cgesperanza.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 Dispatches from Parts Unknown, by Bryan Bliss, read by Joy Nash

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Dispatches from Parts Unknown

by Bryan Bliss
read by Joy Nash

Greenwillow Books, 2024. 7 hours, 19 minutes.
Review written February 10, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
Odyssey Award Honor Audiobook, Young Adult

I don’t think I can adequately express how much I loved this sweet audiobook. Because my favorite thing about it sounds hokey – and it simply wasn’t.

It’s been three years since Julianna’s father died, and she’s still grieving him all the time. She’s given up explaining to therapists about the voice of the old retired professional wrestler she hears in her head all the time. And that! That is the awesome thing about this book. The narrator reads the running commentary from The Masked Man with a gravelly voice that is always easy to distinguish from Julie’s thoughts and carries lots of humor about the situations she finds herself in – like what he really thinks of the yoga instructor her Mom is dating.

The Masked Man encourages Julie to hang out in the Mall of America after school at the Orange Julius where her best friend Max works. She gets an extra orange julius for The Masked Man. Max’s parents are long-time friends of Julie’s parents, so he knows what she’s been going through. And he’s also a wrestling fan, so he understands how she misses watching wrestling with her dad.

So Julie’s carrying on, outwardly getting by okay, when her favorite teacher twists her arm into being on the prom committee – and she makes a new friend, Bri. And typical high school things ensue, with the hilarity of two skater boys trying to switch the prom theme from “Enchanted Gardens” to “Top Gun Prom.” And Max and Bri get interested in each other, and her mother’s boyfriend shows his cracks. And the Legend is making a grand wrestling comeback in the Mall of America on Prom Night!

And – it’s all just SO sweet, tender, and so much fun. I don’t feel like that description adequately expresses how much. I think it did help me understand how my own adult child has gotten interested in Japanese wrestling, because Julie’s doing an extended essay on the stories of wrestling and what they mean to believers and how it helps them deal with reality. As well as the sheer joy of a shared fandom.

I do recommend listening to this book because the commentary in the voice of The Masked Man is just plain charming. (I continue to be convinced that Odyssey Honor Audiobooks are always good.)

bryanbliss.com

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Review of One Perfect Couple, by Ruth Ware, read by Imogen Church

Contemporary, Fiction Review, Mystery, Starred Review, Suspense 0

One Perfect Couple

by Ruth Ware
read by Imogen Church

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024. 14 hours, 25 minutes.
Review written January 31, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Okay! With this book I’ve read all of Ruth Ware’s existing work – and this one felt like something new and had me hanging on every word.

Yes, this one is a thriller like all the others, and it’s going to end with the female main character in great danger. There’s always some question about who she can trust and where the danger lies, though in this case, that came to be obvious before the dangerous confrontation – it was more a question of would she survive the confrontation. (Though I will put it in “Mystery” along with the others.)

The book sets up with Lila, a research virologist, fretting over data that doesn’t give the results she wanted. And then her actor boyfriend Nico gets a big opportunity and wants her to come with him on a new reality TV show called “One Perfect Couple.” Five couples are going to be taken to a tropical island and given tasks to achieve. People will get eliminated after each task, and the producers will be encouraging some remixing of the couples.

Lila isn’t thrilled about the whole thing. But Nico is very much hoping it will be his big break as an actor. Their plan is that Lila will get knocked out early, and if Nico’s encouraged to spend time with other women, he assures her it will purely reflect his acting abilities – only for the camera.

But during all this set-up, the book begins each chapter with a radio distress call of someone from the island in the future, not too far ahead. They’re stranded, their water is running out, and people are dead and injured – so we’re fully warned that things are going to go terribly wrong.

And they do go terribly wrong. The island hosts a resort in construction and not yet open to the public. Their first night – after one person is eliminated – an enormous storm takes out power and the desalination plant. The boat where the staff of the show were staying had left to take the eliminated contestant back to the mainland – and it doesn’t return.

The storm kills a couple people, and then the group has to figure out how to survive until a boat comes – but that turns out to be much longer than they hope. So they need to ration food and medicine – and let’s just say there are power struggles and more people start dying.

And my goodness it had me avidly listening! Perhaps it’s not the most pleasant story to spend my time with, but I did like the characters and there were even some interesting insights into toxic relationships. But mostly, it was a thrilling story that got me wondering what I would do in that situation – and tremendously glad I’ll never get in that situation.

[It’s probably just me, but does anyone else wonder why someone on a tropical island wouldn’t try to make their own small desalination scheme by trying to evaporate sea water and catch the condensation? I understand you probably wouldn’t get a lot, but every little bit would help, and it seems easier than scaling coconut trees. Why didn’t they even try? That was my only niggling question – but I also had it when reading a different book about drought in California, so it was a persistent thought.]

ruthware.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 Chooch Helped, by Andrea L. Rogers, illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz

Award Winners, Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Chooch Helped

by Andrea L. Rogers
illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz

Levine Querido, 2024. 48 pages.
Review written February 5, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Randolph Caldecott Medal Winner

Chooch Helped wasn’t on my radar except to order library copies – until it won the Caldecott Medal. The Caldecott Medal is given to the artist for the illustrations, but it’s an award for the picture book, so the story is always wonderful, too. It’s not hard to see why this book was chosen this year.

The story is about a big sister and her baby brother. Here’s how it begins:

This is the baby.
We call him Chooch.

The word for boy or son in Cherokee is atsutsa (ah-choo-ja)

However, the plot thickens on the next page, when we read:

Chooch isn’t really a baby, anymore.
We just celebrated his second birthday.

Still, whenever Chooch makes a mess, everyone says,
“He’s just usdi (oos-dee). Let him help.”

It seems to me, Usdi Chooch
just gets away with everything.

From there, each spread shows Chooch “helping” another member of the family. Each family member’s name is given in Cherokee, and most of the time, we can see that Chooch’s help is distinctly unhelpful. At the back of the book, the author tells how the different tasks they are doing are part of Cherokee culture.

Finally, when Chooch messes up the clay pot Sissy is making, she yells at him. So he cries, and her parents yell at her, “Shouting is no help!”

But when Sissy goes to her room and cries, Chooch helps her feel better. He really does help! And the parents apologize before the end, too. And there are lessons about how when she was usdi, her help was a lot like Chooch’s. And it all ends with Sissy helping Chooch to make his own pinch pot.

The two spreads of back matter (not too common in a picture book) reveal the Cherokee traditions woven throughout the story and art of this beautiful book, as well as instructions for making a pinch pot, and more on the Cherokee words used.

So this book ends up being a beautiful tribute to Cherokee culture – but also a classic story of a “helpful” younger sibling that any big sibling in the world will be able to relate to. Truly a distinguished picture book. (And wow! I see from the back flap that this is the illustrator’s debut picture book. You go! Awesome!)

treeoflifestudio.net
andrealrogers.com

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