Review of Fish Fry Friday, by Winsome Bingham and C. G. Esperanza

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Fish Fry Friday

written by Winsome Bingham
illustrated by C. G. Esperanza

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025. 44 pages.
Review written November 18, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Fish Fry Friday strikingly reminds me of the Caldecott Honor Book My Daddy Is a Cowboy, with pictures by the same illustrator. Both books feature a little girl rising before dawn to go on a special outing with a relative. Both have vibrant, bright, colorful pictures, many at nontraditional angles, showing happy, loving people interacting.

In this case, the girl is setting out with Granny to catch fish.

There are plenty of other people at the pier and they all greet Granny enthusiastically, telling the girl that her Granny is the fish magnet queen.

And then they start catching fish after fish. Granny declares each one her favorite and thanks God for the blessing.

After their bucket is full, they go home to prepare for the Friday night Fish Fry.

We clean fish,
scaling and skinning,
cutting and gutting.

And when that’s done, Granny slowly slides the knife from the top to the tail. “Beautiful fillets,” she says, shaking them. “My favorite.”

They coat the fish in batter, fry it, and even make hush puppies. Each part is Granny’s favorite. And it all builds to a big, happy family, in bright colorful clothes, sitting around the table, happily enjoying each other.

“Spending the day with you, baby,” Granny says,
“is my favorite, favorite, favorite part!”

“Well, my favorite, favorite, favorite part,” I say,
“is eating fried fish with you on Fridays.”

Reading this book with a kid may just end up being someone’s favorite. Few books exude so much joy.

binghamwrites.com

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Review of Cabin Head and Tree Head, by Scott Campbell

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Delightfully Silly, Starred Review 0

Cabin Head and Tree Head

by Scott Campbell

Tundra, 2025. 88 pages.
Review written November 21, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Normally, I’m the annoying person who points out holes in world-building or failures in internal logic. “That wouldn’t work,” is my frequent criticism.

Let’s be clear: There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the beginning graphic novel Cabin Head and Tree Head would not work and that this world is completely ridiculous. But because it is so over-the-top, it is utterly hilarious and dazzlingly brilliant.

The first chapter, “Hellos,” is perfect for letting us understand the concept. First, we meet the two main characters. (The lines below are in speech bubbles.)

Hello, Cabin Head!

Hello, Tree Head!

I see that your peeps are home and having a hot meal. That must be nice.

Haha, right you are! The smoke gives it away.

I notice things about my best friend.

I notice that you’ve got a small child in your tire swing there.

Haha, right you are! Just swinging away!

It is good to see that tire swing get so much action.

The two characters in question are Tree Head, a greenish creature with arms, legs, eyes and mouth – and a tree growing out of their head, and Cabin Head, an orangeish creature with arms, legs, eyes and mouth – and a small house on their head.

After this, Tree Head gets a case of the HELLOS, so he goes out and greets more creatures and we come to understand this world. He meets, among others, Mail Truck Head, Bench Head, Wishing Well Head, Fountain Head, Automobile Heads, Mossy Rock Head, Telephone Pole Head, Doghouse Head, Pool Head. Construction Head has too much noise to hear their Hellos, but Outhouse Head offers to bring greetings. And then they startle Volcano Head, so he erupts. But they save the day by using Catapult Head to fling Boulder Head, who plugs Volcano Head.

It’s all just so silly! And that’s only the first story!

Another story is about Cabin Head making pictures of his friends and posting them on Brick Wall Head. And then there’s one about digging for treasure. Cabin Head helpfully makes a map – without burying anything – so that Tree Head will do it the right way. Then in the story about hiding – we learn that the planet itself is on a creature’s head. The next chapter is about Tree Head getting a bad Leafcut. And then we’ve got a chapter about saying good-by. Neither one wants to turn away first.

There are bonus pages at the end from Pool Head – How to have a Pool Party, and Box of Crayons Head – Drawing Time. And on the last page, we get the promise, “Cabin Head and Tree Head shall return for more wonderful book times.” I’m so glad about that!

So how does this world work? What is the point of an automobile on top of a creature’s head? How do people get from one head to another? It’s best not to get bogged down by those questions and enjoy this delightfully silly humor.

Altogether, this book is perfect for a kid who’s ready to think about reading chapter books. As a graphic novel, there’s not an abundance of text, and the language is simple – but the humor makes it all rewarding to decode.

The good news is: It’s short enough to win the Geisel Award for beginning readers. I haven’t read as many of those as the committee has (nor do I have as much background in what makes a Geisel winner), but this one has my vote. And the bonus, of course, is that older kids will enjoy this book, too. And adults like me aren’t able to resist reading it aloud to my co-workers.

Hahahaha! As I close the book after writing this review, I notice that on the back, there’s even a Barcode Head.

scottc.com

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Review of Eucontamination, by Paul Hoard and Billie Hoard

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Eucontamination

Disgust Theology and the Christian Life

by Paul Hoard and Billie Hoard

Cascade Books, 2025. 221 pages.
Review written November 18, 2025, from my own copy ordered via Amazon.com
Starred Review

When I heard about this book, I preordered it eagerly because I’ve long followed Billie Hoard on Twitter. She’s a transgender Christian, and everything she posts is uplifting and encouraging.

Billie’s brother Paul is a psychology professor, and the book ends up being academic, philosophical, psychological, and a little hard to absorb. (Am I losing my ability to read academic stuff in my old age?) I will try to explain the main point of the book, and I am still trying to absorb these ideas in my life.

The first paragraph of the Introduction is provocative:

This is a book about disgust and contamination. And Jesus. We would dare to assert that few if any other texts on theology and the Way of Jesus spend as much time talking about poop as the one you are reading. However, if you are willing to move towards your disgust, we hope you just may find Jesus in the last place you expect, but the very place he said he would be.

It turns out that a big part of polarization – of dividing people into us and them – is about disgust.

We aren’t so much afraid of one another as disgusted – a much harder truth to face. We don’t resist the foreigner, orphan, and widow out of fear for our lives and well-being so much as out of a fear that they will contaminate us – change us into something we do not want to become. It’s a very human and very normal reaction but not one that Jesus seemed to follow. The Way of Jesus runs in the opposite direction of the exclusion that disgust instigates: it welcomes instead of rejecting, integrates instead of segregating, and loves instead of fearing. . . . We needed a term, a concept, to represent this anti-disgust way of engaging the other that Jesus modeled.

The term they landed on is eucontamination, contamination for good. The initial chapters explore the concepts of disgust and eucontamination, and then look at the life and teaching of Jesus from the framework of John 14:6.

How might each of these: way, truth, and life, be vectors of eucontamination – contaminants to or self-understanding and social realities that lure us back to Christ?

So that’s the main thread of the book. The “Way” is intentionally covered last of the three, so that thought will precede action. But the whole book is a powerful teaching against us-versus-them thinking and purity codes that look down on people. I love the teaching that God is not disgusted with us, and Jesus became a human because God was not disgusted.

A core vocation of the church is to stand in solidarity with the stigmatized and disgusting – remembering that it is not the people who are disgusting, but society who is disgusted. Like our Lord, we should be “reckoned with the lawless” (Luke 22:37) such that at every stage of the disgust cycle, the church is standing with the stigmatized and is leveraging any power, privilege, or influence it has on their behalf, fully knowing that this means casting our lot with a targeted and scapegoated community.

An overarching message of this book is that getting to know the “others” – the people in groups we feel alienated from – will indeed contaminate us – and that’s a good thing. It’s also about being open to listening and learning.

And they aren’t blind to boundaries.

By highlighting the beauty of eucontamination, we are not advocating the abandonment of boundaries. Recognizing the problems of disgust does not mean that threats no longer exist. Instead, we hope that recognition allows one to hold effective and humane boundaries. We are inviting you to resist the lure of dehumanization that comes from disgust, not asking you to ignore all boundaries. Dangers exist in the world. Not all people can be trusted. Power dynamics are real and must be taken into consideration. As you do though, notice how disgust may sometimes be used to make holding those boundaries easier. Jesus continually calls us back to see the image of God in everyone, even while holding them accountable.

So those are some of the beautiful and challenging ideas you’ll find in this book. Lots to think about as we attempt to follow the way of Jesus.

Added on the day I’m posting this: I’m currently reading a fourth book by Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest who works with gang members in Los Angeles, Cherished Belonging. Fr. Boyle models eucontamination. He sees the gang members he works with – indeed every human being – as unshakably good. That’s the opposite of disgust, and working with gang members has indeed contaminated him into a more loving and compassionate human.

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Review of When We Ride, by Rex Ogle, read by Ramón de Ocampo

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

When We Ride

by Rex Ogle
read by Ramón de Ocampo

Recorded Books, 2025. 3 hours, 28 minutes.
Review written July 11, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’ve come to know and love Rex Ogle’s writing from his award-winning memoirs about growing up in poverty and his recent Printz Honor book about being homeless as a teen after he came out as gay.

When We Ride is equally heartrending. This time a novel in verse. Fair warning: Like the others, it’s not exactly pleasant reading. But the novel is worse than the memoirs because now we have absolutely no guarantee the main character will get through it and come out okay. And here’s a heads’ up without being too spoilerish: The ending does not at all leave me feeling happy.

However, reading this short novel will build your empathy. I heard the author speak at ALA Annual Conference, and he said he wrote it in verse to give it lots of white space, since that’s the only kind of book his best friend from high school would ever read.

And the book is about two best friends in their senior year of high school. They live across the street from each other, and they’ve been friends since elementary school, so close they call each other Brother. Benny is the one telling the story. He’s working hard to go to college and get funds to pay for it. His mother is a drug addict who’s gotten clean, and she wants nothing more than for Benny to make a success of himself. And be nothing like her. She gave Benny her own car and rides the bus to her two jobs. And she works hard to provide for Benny, who also works at a diner in a job he hates, but works to help out his Mom.

Benny’s best friend Lawson, though, has taken another route to make ends meet. He’s dealing drugs. It starts as only weed, but things progress over the course of the year. Lawson doesn’t have a car, and most of the poems in this book begin with Lawson calling and saying, “I need a ride.”

Since Benny is Hispanic, it’s all too easy for him to imagine being pulled over by cops when Lawson is carrying drugs and Benny’s entire future being ruined. Lawson tells him if Benny doesn’t know he has drugs, there will be no problem. And as his brother, isn’t he supposed to be there when Lawson needs him? So Benny goes back and forth with guilt and anger and fear.

All the adults in Benny’s life tell him that Lawson is bad news and he needs to stop spending any time with him. But the reader (or listener) comes to understand how deep that tie of brotherhood runs and to see the great things about Lawson that keep Benny’s loyalty. But none of that makes Lawson’s path any safer.

This book is short, but hard-hitting. These characters will live in my head for a long time. It made me care about someone I would have otherwise dismissed – helping me understand more deeply my own belief that all people are made in the image of God. Yes, even drug dealers. When you know someone’s story, it’s so much easier to see their humanity.

rexogle.com

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Review of Making Light Bloom, written by Sandra Nickel, illustrated by Julie Paschkis

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Making Light Bloom

Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Lamps

written by Sandra Nickel
illustrated by Julie Paschkis

Peachtree, 2025. 32 pages.
Review written November 18, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is another picture book biography that tells us about something a woman did that men got the credit for. (Pass Go and Collect $200, by Tanya Lee Stone, about the woman who invented the Monopoly game comes to mind, but I think I have reviewed others.)

In this case, the woman is Clara Driscoll. She grew up in the country loving gardens and flowers and art. As an adult, she moved to New York City to do more with her art. She got a job at the company of the glassmaker Louis C. Tiffany.

She joined a team of artists who selected and cut glass to create pictures and shapes in windows.

Clara showed great talent, so she was put in charge of a workshop staffed only by women.

She hired both experienced artists and untrained immigrants. And as she and her new Tiffany girls worked, Clara inspired them all by reading poetry about nature.

They continued to make glass for windows until Clara had a moment of inspiration.

Though her work kept her busy, Clara missed the house on the hill and its gardens.

One day she had an idea of how to bring their bright beauty to the city. She sent her sisters a letter and asked for yellow butterflies and wild primroses.

Once they arrived, Clara sketched them. But not as a window, with light coming from behind. As a lamp, with light coming from within.

She worked with the Tiffany girls to cut the pieces and with the craftsmen to form the glass into a lampshade. It took so much time and effort to make, one of the managers told Clara not to make any more.

But then, Louis saw what Clara had created and said it was “the most interesting lamp in the place.” He asked her to make another to display at the World’s Fair in Paris.

When the lamp won a bronze medal at the World’s Fair, she was asked to make more lamps and windows filled with gardens and landscapes and flowers. And Clara was put in charge of lamp-making.

“Tiffany lamps” became wildly popular and very valuable. Because Tiffany’s name was on them, no one knew that they were Clara’s design – until a bundle of her letters to her sisters and mother was discovered after both she and Louis Tiffany had died.

The art in this wonderful book is done in a style that matches the lamps Clara created, with dark outlines around simple shapes, as if made of glass themselves.

SandraNickel.com
JuliePaschkis.com
PeachtreeBooks.com

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Review of The Davenports, by Krystal Marquis, read by Joniece Abbot-Pratt

Audiobooks, Historical, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Davenports

by Krystal Marquis
read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Listening Library, 2023. 12 hours, 2 minutes.
Review written April 29, 2023, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

The Davenports reminds me of a Jane Austen book – a wealthy family trying to get their kids married off – only this one is set in 1910, and the family are successful Black Americans in Chicago. The father of the Davenport clan was born enslaved, but after escaping, ended up making a fortune with a carriage company. And he’s happily giving his family a much better life – maybe sheltering them a little too much.

Now the two daughters and one son are at an age to be married – but nobody falls in love with the person their parents want and expect them to marry. And it’s quite fun watching it happen.

There are four viewpoint characters: Olivia Davenport is getting ready for her second season and really needs to find a husband this time around. When Jacob Lawrence shows up from England, everyone thinks she’s found one. But then she stumbles into meetings of activists when she’s doing charity work and learns the plight of her people in the South.

Olivia’s friend Ruby has been in love with Olivia’s brother, John Davenport, since they were kids. Her father is running for mayor of Chicago, and her parents want Ruby to go ahead and get him to propose. Maybe if she makes him jealous….

Younger sister Helen Davenport is never happier than working in the garage on the modern horseless carriages. Maybe she can help John convince their father to expand the business to automobiles. But instead, her parents hire an etiquette tutor to bring Helen into line.

The final viewpoint character is Amy-Rose, long time friend and maid to the Davenport girls. She’s been saving her money, and now she’s almost ready to start her own business and open a salon.

I thought I knew where this book was going, but all the romances run into snags toward the end of the book, and the author’s note hints at a sequel. So I’m looking forward to more time with the Davenport family in the future. The author’s note also tells us that the family was based on an actual family led by a formerly enslaved Black man who got rich in the carriage business. She wondered what life might have been like for his daughters. And her wondering gave us this delightful book.

krystalmarquis.com

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Review of The Polar Bear and the Ballerina, by Eric Velasquez

Fantasy, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

The Polar Bear and the Ballerina

by Eric Velasquez

Holiday House, 2025. 40 pages.
Review written November 12, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Wordless picture books are hit or miss with me, because it’s not always clear what’s actually happening. And they’re not easy to use in story time. But this one is a grand slam.

The book opens with a group from Harlem Children’s Ballet at the zoo, taking photos in front of the polar bear’s tank. They pose as the giant polar bear swims behind them. One girl has a long red scarf streaming out behind her.

After the other kids move on, the polar bear and red scarf girl have a moment through the glass. She lingers, but has to head to the performance. She doesn’t notice that she has left her red scarf trailing on the floor behind her.

The polar bear notices, though! In a double-page spread with extra panels, we see the bear climb over the fence lining his enclosure and go around to the entrance of the park to go in and get the scarf. He puts on the scarf and makes his way uptown.

There’s a sign on the ticket booth: SOLD OUT! NO POLAR BEARS ALLOWED!

But the girl hears his growl in response and comes running. She gets her scarf from him and brings him to a seat in the auditorium.

And then the girl dances, with a photo of the bear behind her. He is enraptured.

Afterward, he gets to take the scarf back home with him, and he dreams about his new friend.

And it’s all done so beautifully. The graceful lines of the dancers and the sheer size of the bear stand out. My favorite is the page of the bear stealthily getting out of his cage. Or no, wait – it’s probably the spread of the girl gracefully dancing.

There are facts about polar bears at the front and facts about the ballerina at the back. This picture book left me smiling.

ericvelasquez.com

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Review of The Lord’s Prayer, by Adam Hamilton

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Lord’s Prayer

The Meaning and Power of the Prayer Jesus Taught

by Adam Hamilton

Abingdon Press, 2025. 176 pages.
Review written October 27, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com.
Starred Review

My church decided to do a sermon series on this book and encouraged all the small groups to go through the book together. I think all of us in my group were surprised how much we got out of the book, even though we were already familiar with the Lord’s Prayer.

Adam Hamilton takes one phrase in each chapter, covering the whole prayer in six chapters. Something that hit me is noticing throughout the prayer that it talks about “Our” and “Thy” instead of “Mine” and “My.” He points out that so much of the prayer is about our own need to act – to hallow God’s name, to act in accordance with God’s kingdom of love, to help others receive their daily bread, to forgive.

The book gave us a lot to think and talk about. It has deepened my experience every time I pray the Lord’s Prayer.

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Review of The Book of Candles, by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Leanne Hatch

Children's Nonfiction Review, Poetry, Starred Review 0

The Book of Candles

Eight Poems for Hanukkah

written by Laurel Snyder
illustrated by Leanne Hatch

Clarion Books, 2025. 40 pages.
Review written October 13, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

As the title says, this is a book of eight poems for Hanukkah, one for each night of the festival, one for each candle. It’s in picture book form, so in the library, we’ve got it in the Holiday Picture Books section, where we think it will get plenty of checkouts. For Sonderbooks, I’m going to put it on the Children’s Nonfiction page in the Poetry section, because it actually gives good information about Hanukkah, besides the lovely poems.

A couple years ago, a Jewish friend challenged her non-Jewish friends on Facebook to purchase menorahs and light candles in solidarity, and I did so. Now with this book, I have learned more about the holiday. So I recommend it to both Jewish and non-Jewish families. Each poem is lovely, and each is accompanied by “A Thought” for that night.

I especially liked “A Thought for the Fifth Night”:

It’s tradition to avoid doing work while the candles burn, and this goes for everyone! So you can wait until after they fizzle out to do your homework, but you should make sure your parents take a break, too, before they wash the dinner dishes or check their email. The goal is to focus on the light and each other.

That’s far more challenging than spending half a minute to turn on the Christmas tree lights!

The poems and pictures themselves take us through a particular family celebrating Hanukkah together, ending with watching the candles fizzle out.

I also love the Author’s Note at the back:

Hanukkah is a funny sort of holiday. It isn’t like Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur, when we set aside our lives and disappear into the synagogue. Instead, at Hanukkah, we live our daily lives – go to school, play and laugh as usual, even quarrel (not too often, hopefully).

But then, each night, we set aside time to care, to notice, to light our candles.

Hanukkah doesn’t stop our busy world from spinning, but as we move through each day, we do so with an awareness that something is coming at sunset, something special. Something silly or joyful or peaceful.

And with this book, Laurel Snyder and Leanne Hatch have added a bit of beauty and thoughtfulness to lucky family’s Hanukkah celebrations.

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Review of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
read by Arina Li

Harlequin Audio, 2020. 6 hours, 53 minutes.
Review written November 11, 2025, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

I placed a hold on Before the Coffee Gets Cold after I read and loved What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, by Michiko Aoyama, and many blurbs about the book compared it to Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

And yes, it’s a good comparison. Both books are set in Tokyo and are international bestsellers translated from Japanese. Both tell stories of separate people whose lives are changed after they visit a particular place. Both have a touch of magic – this one a much stronger thread, enough that I’m going to call it science fiction. Of course I enjoyed What You Are Looking For Is in the Library more because the magical place is a library – but I enjoyed this book, too.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a time travel story. Normally, I’m not the audience for time travel stories. (Though because I only review books I like, my readers might not realize there are plenty of time travel stories I’ve decided not to review.) But I like the way the time travel in this book came with rules that did away with any nasty paradoxes or feelings of “that wouldn’t happen that way.” (Okay, there’s one exception to that, which I’ll list at the end. But it didn’t nag at me like in some books.)

The setting is a café where visitors can time travel. But the rules are many. Nothing they do in the past will change the present. They can only time travel in one particular seat. And they can’t leave that seat while they are time traveling. So of course they can only talk with people who are also in the café at the time they travel to. And perhaps most crucial – the time travel begins when a particular cup of coffee is poured – and they have to drink the entire cup – and finish before the coffee gets cold.

The rules make the story more fun. And no real explanation is given, despite what the first featured visitor wants. That’s simply the way the time travel works. By not trying to explain it and by making the rules somewhat inconvenient – it’s easier for the reader not to question how it works.

The book features four time travelers. First is a young woman who wants to revisit the conversation in the café when her boyfriend told her he was moving to America. Then comes a wife whose husband is inflicted with Alzheimer’s and has forgotten who she is. We’ve got a sister who wants to see her sister one last time, and a woman who wants to reassure herself that her daughter will be okay.

Along the way, we get to know the owner and workers in the café and its regular visitors, including the ghost of a woman who time traveled too long, and her coffee got cold.

Oh, and what’s the one little nagging question? When somebody goes back in time to a time when they know the person they want to talk to was in the café – where did their own past self go? (Maybe I missed the part where they made sure it was before or after they themselves were there, but I wasn’t super clear on how that part worked.) The story was done well enough, I didn’t really think about that until after the encounter, though.

It’s one of those charming feel-good books, and I just learned that so far there are four sequels, though unfortunately the library doesn’t own the audiobook versions. But I do like all that can be done within those simple time-traveling rules, and how much it can reflect on life, relationships, and interactions.

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