Review of Chance, by Uri Shulevitz

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

Chance

Escape from the Holocaust

by Uri Shulevitz

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2020. 330 pages.
Review written March 22, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

When Uri Shulevitz was four years old, bombs fell on Warsaw, where he lived with his parents. But Uri’s father was in Bialystok, where he had found work. A chance encounter led to him not returning to Nazi-occupied Poland, but instead writing to his wife to come with Uri to Bialystok. They were Jewish, and all their family who stayed in Warsaw were killed during the war.

This book tells about Uri’s life as a very young refugee. A series of apparently chance encounters led them deeper into the Soviet Union. A clerk would not grant them Soviet citizenship because of Uri’s name. Uri was actually named after the father of Bezalel, the first artist of the Bible. But the clerk thought he was named after a Zionist poet and they were anti-Soviet reactionaries.

Not having Soviet citizenship meant they had to move farther from the border. Since Uri is an artist, the book is full of illustrations and has large print, and we’re given a clear view of what it’s like to be a refugee when you’re too young to really comprehend what’s going on. They spent much of the war in Settlement Yura in the far north, and much of the war in Turkestan, far east of the border, and much of the war, wherever they were, hungry.

Although the book is long, with the large print and the abundant illustrations, it makes for quick reading. Since he was a child when the events took place, he has no trouble speaking on a child’s level and talking about things children are interested in.

He was eleven by the time the war was over and they got out of the Soviet Union. So this is also the story of growing up and the seeds that were planted that led to him becoming an artist.

urishulevitz.com
mackids.com

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Review of What Happened to You? by James Catchpole, illustrated by Karen George

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

What Happened to You?

by James Catchpole
illustrated by Karen George

Little, Brown and Company, 2023. 36 pages.
Review written January 30, 2024, from a library book
Starred Review
2024 Schneider Family Award Honor Book, Young Children

This sweet and simple picture book shows a kid named Joe with one leg happily playing pirates on a playground.

When a bunch of kids he doesn’t know come over, they ask Joe what happened to him. He’s tired of answering that question, so he asks, “What do you think?”

The kids offer several responses, always wrong, and some far-fetched. I like the page where a kid asks, “But where’s your leg?” and Joe says, “Here,” pointing to his leg.

“But where’s your other leg?”
“What other leg?”

After some time and particularly ridiculous questions, even the kids and definitely the reader can sense Joe’s frustration. But then the first kid breaks the tension by joining in Joe’s pirate game, spotting a crocodile.

All the kids play happily together, and by the end, the kids no longer need to know what happened.

There are notes to the adult at the back with tips for explaining disability to your kids. This book is a fantastic start! Lots of room for discussion about how it would feel to be asked the same question all the time and what’s important in friendship.

Yes, this is a book with a message, but it’s a truly delightful story at the same time. And features a sweet kid you can’t help but like.

thecatchpoles.net
karengeorge.net
LBYR.com

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Review of The Wisdom of Trees, by Lita Judge

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

The Wisdom of Trees

How Trees Work Together to Form a Natural Kingdom

by Lita Judge

Roaring Brook Press, 2021. 48 pages.
Review written March 23, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

The Wisdom of Trees brings to a child’s level information about how trees communicate and help one another, which I learned in the book for adults, The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben. It’s listed as a resource in the back.

On each spread this book has a poem in the voice of trees, a painting from an actual forest, and a sidebar explaining the concept expressed in the poem. An Author’s Note at the back explains the location for each painting.

These poems cover concepts like trees telling each other about insects or predators and responding with chemicals to drive them away, trees communicating via fungi, trees resting in the winter, and trees nurturing young saplings.

This recent discovery that trees communicate and nurture one another is one that will delight children, as it did me when I learned about it.

Here’s an example poem about the way the roots of elder trees live on.

We Are the Ghosts

My limbs and needles are gone,
and the warm body of a newborn deer
comes to rest within the ghost of my great trunk
that once touched the sky.
But underneath the soft litter
of fallen needles and dark soil, I still live,
surrounded by my kingdom
with their willingness to give.

A lovely book that will reward repeated rereadings.

litajudge.net
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 Flight for Freedom, by Kristen Fulton, illustrated by Torben Kuhlmann

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

Flight for Freedom

The Wetzel Family’s Daring Escape from East Germany

by Kristen Fulton
illustrated by Torben Kuhlmann

Chronicle Books, 2020. 52 pages.
Review written September 11, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

This picture book tells the true story of two families who escaped from East Germany in a homemade balloon.

They tell the story from the point of view of six-year-old Peter Wetzel, whose parents planned the escape with another family. They welded together a basket, purchased nylon fabric a little bit at a time and sewed it together, and little by little purchased fuel for an engine to heat the air. They designed the balloon based on a picture in a newspaper that a friend had sent to them.

They were discovered soon after lift-off, and the balloon didn’t go as high as they had hoped, but soon ripped in spots and they ran out of fuel. The balloon crashed in a field, and it turned out they had made it – landing in West Germany.

The back matter gives more details and the text explains the situation in a simple way that kids can understand. It turns out that these two families made three escape attempts, and it was the final one that worked. I wish the author had told the story of all three, because it added some urgency that they needed to escape with the third balloon or they would have been caught by the Stasi. But she chose to tell a simple version that still included the danger of capture.

When I lived in Germany, I worked in the library with a lady whose family had gotten a tip when she was 13 years old and escaped into West Germany shortly before the wall went up. It’s hard to imagine leaving everything you know. It’s also hard to imagine constructing a balloon large enough to hold eight people in secret and without schematics. This inherently dramatic story pulls the reader in and makes you interested in all the details in the back matter. The family who escaped still lives in Germany, and the author got to interview them to write this book.

chroniclekids.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

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 Night War, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

The Night War

by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Dial Books for Young Readers, on shelves April 2024. 288 pages.
Review written 2/4/24 from an Advance Readers’ Copy.
Starred Review

A new book from Kimberly Brubaker Bradley! This was one of the first books I read after I finished my Mathical Book Prize committee reading.

This book is set in France during World War II. The Nazis are in Paris, and Miri’s family and entire neighborhood are being rounded up. But her neighbor, Madame Rosenbaum, entrusts Miri with her baby, little Nora, and helps Miri escape. Couriers get her to a convent school in Chenonceaux, by the river that bordered the section of France not occupied by the Nazis.

The castle in town has stories of Catherine de Medici and Diane Poitiers, the women who established the gardens. The castle itself has a ballroom that is a bridge over the river with no other way to free France for miles around. After one of the nuns gets injured, Miri, who now goes by Marie, goes at night to the castle and helps people cross the river. She wants to go herself but she won’t leave without Nora, who has been given to a childless Christian family.

And while this is going on, Marie interacts with the other girls at the school, and she gets to explore the castle. A strange and imperious lady from the castle takes an interest in her and wants her to do the work of the old gardener, who died. As payment, she can bring food from the kitchen garden to the school.

I have always wanted to see the castles of the Loire Valley, so I especially enjoyed this book’s setting. (And a note at the end tells us which parts are true and which parts invented.) Miri is forced to have courage in a terrible situation, and she comes through with flying colors.

kimberlybrubakerbradleycom.wordpress.com
penguin.com/kids

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Review of Theologizin’ Bigger, by Trey Ferguson

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Theologizin’ Bigger

Homilies on Living Freely and Loving Wholly

by Trey Ferguson

Lake Drive Books, 2024. 197 pages.
Review written March 5, 2024, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

This book made my heart happy.

I’ve been following Pastor Trey on Twitter (@PastorTrey05) for some time now. He tweets about theology that I’d already found liberating, such as why the theory of Penal Substitutionary Atonement gives a harmful and unworthy view of God — along with joyful alternatives.

He starts off in the first chapter talking about how God is bigger than we can fathom. So sticking with what we know can be limiting. Here’s how Pastor Trey puts it:

But what if these constructs of knowing God are capable of preventing us from experiencing God? What if these things that we don’t know are invitations of the Almighty to catch glimpses beyond the blurry fragments and snapshots that we have compiled in this library we now recognize as the Bible? What if this limited, finite collection of writings is not even supposed to contain the fullness of the word of God? What might that demand of the thoughts we think about the Divine?

And then I love the title of the second chapter: “The Bible Ain’t No Car Manual.” Here’s the paragraph under that title:

The Bible is not a car manual. You not gon’ be able to search in the back for just any topic and find the chapter and verse to answer every question under the sun. Doing theology requires critical thinking skills.

So, yes, in his book Pastor Trey shows us how to do theology and learn about the living, dynamic love of God. The idea of theologizin’ bigger is to think big thoughts about our great big loving God.

The book takes us lots of places, including talking about the White Man’s Religion and the ways we use religion for harm. But the overall message is overwhelmingly positive, encouraging us to think big and think loving in our relationships with God and other people.

I love the last chapter, “The Rehumanization Project,” where he talks about using our God-given imaginations:

To be made in the image of God is to possess the power of imagination.

Imagination is an essential part of our humanity. It is our imagination that built cities and civilizations. Our imagination brought us countless genres of music. People have imagined timeless creations into reality through the culinary, visual, and dramatic arts. Literature born of our God-given imaginations has endured for millennia, across time, space, language, and culture. Imagination brought us the Flintstones and Super Soakers. It brought us more sports than we care to name. Nothing worthwhile came without someone first imagining it.

And that ties into our salvation like this:

Salvation is an act of reclamation and restoration. When Jesus saves us, he helps us reclaim the bits of humanity we’ve lost. Jesus gives us the ability to imagine good things and the power to realize them here and now. Community without exploitation. A sense of wealth that doesn’t demand scarcity. A love that doesn’t bleed us dry, but makes us whole. If only we imagine them, we can experience all these things. That’s what we were made to do. That’s what it means to be human.

If Jesus has the power to save, then we have the power to imagine again. We have the ability to theologize bigger. That is the image of God in us.

Reading a chapter a day of this book gave me a nice shot of inspiration and joy. I hope Pastor Trey will write many more books in the future.

Pastor Trey guarantees on his website that if you open up his book, you’ll find something worth talking about. That promise was fulfilled for this reader.

pastortrey05.com
lakedrivebooks.com

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Review of Some Dinosaurs Are Small, by Charlotte Voake

Animal Characters, Good for the Very Young, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Some Dinosaurs Are Small

by Charlotte Voake

Candlewick Press, 2020. 28 pages.
Review written September 3, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

Here’s a picture book that would be perfect for Toddler Storytime (if I ever get to do those again!). It’s short and sweet, with not a lot of words on a page. It has pictures of dinosaurs and a fun kicker at the end.

The book begins with a happy little dinosaur in a jungle with a basket.

Some dinosaurs are small.

They have tiny flat teeth for munching through fruit and leaves.

On that second spread, we see parts of big dinosaurs behind the trees. Sure enough, what comes next is:

Some dinosaurs are BIG.

The little dinosaur is clearly in danger from the big dinosaurs. They steal the food from his fruit basket and are still hungry.

But the punchline, drawn out over several spreads, is:

Some dinosaurs . . .

are simply . . .

E N O R M O U S !

And the little dinosaur caps it off with the words, “Hello, Mommy!”

A kid may be small, but this is a fun reminder that they’ve got grown-ups looking out for them. And it’s got dinosaurs!

candlewick.com

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Review of The Isles of the Gods, by Amie Kaufman

Adventure, Audiobooks, Award Winners, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Isles of the Gods

by Amie Kaufman
read by Nikki Patel, Homer Todiwala, Donnabella Mortel, Vidish Athavale, and Steve West

Listening Library, 2023. 12 hours, 49 minutes.
Review written February 14, 2024, from a library eaudiobook
2023 CYBILS Award Finalist, Young Adult Speculative Fiction
Starred Review

I listened to this book because it was a Cybils Award Finalist (even though I’m not on the panel this year), and I was mesmerized. In the first place, the production is very well done, with one of my favorite narrators, Steve West, reading a large portion. The book has five viewpoint characters, with a narrator for each one. This enhanced the experience and made it easier to realize when a different character was telling the story.

Our main character, though, is Selly. She’s a merchant’s daughter and has grown up on ships. Now, she’s gotten the disappointing news that her father isn’t coming back for her after a year apart. So she plans to sneak aboard the last boat heading north before winter. She plans to get her things off her assigned ship and go in the night. But before she can get off the ship, her captain tells her the whole ship is leaving quietly in the night. The prince, whom everyone thought was leading a procession of ships to various allies, is actually traveling undercover on their ship.

Every twenty-five years, the royal family of Alinor must make a sacrifice at the isle of their goddess, the Sentinel. Well, Prince Leander has been putting it off, and now he’s a year late — and war is brewing. He’s a powerful magician, but for this one important task, he’s been a slacker.

And it turns out there are people and powers who want to stop Leander so that Alinor’s goddess will not have power, and their own god can awaken and they can start a war.

Two of the five narrators are among the group trying to stop Leander. Let’s just say that the voyage does not go smoothly. There is plenty of danger, plenty of tension, and high stakes.

Because of the high body count in the other Amie Kaufman book I’ve read, Illuminae, I was not surprised that there’s also plenty of death in this book. Don’t get too attached to any character, because all lives are in danger and those who want to stop Prince Leander are ruthless.

I must admit, at the start I rolled my eyes a little, thinking it highly unlikely that our two main characters, Selly and Prince Leander, could fall in love with such dramatically different backgrounds. I wasn’t rolling my eyes at all by the end. Amie Kaufman pulls off a tender slow-burn romance based in character, and it’s exquisitely done.

Now, I’m not completely sure I wanted to know all the motivations of the people working to thwart Prince Leander, and maybe five different viewpoint characters wasn’t entirely necessary. But the other characters had short segments so I was never impatient to get back to the main story, and it did add depth to my understanding of the politics of the two countries and how much was at stake.

Though this book stops at a good place, there are some big loose ends that are not tied up, so I will be waiting impatiently for July’s release of the next book, The Heart of the World. It is already on a list to order for the library.

amiekaufman.com

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Review of This Is Not That Kind of Book, by Christopher Healy, illustrated by Ben Mantle

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

This Is Not That Kind of Book

written by Christopher Healy
illustrated by Ben Mantle

Random House, 2019. 36 pages.
Review written September 3, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

Here’s a fun picture book that plays with a meta-narrative and gets kids thinking about genre and storytelling.

The book starts with “A is for apple.” But Little Red Riding Hood, who’s portrayed with dark skin, interrupts. She says, “Hey! This is not an alphabet book! Sorry, this is a fairy tale. Come see.” And she leads us to the next page.

All through the book, the Apple-with-a-face only says one thing: “I’m an apple!” On Red Riding Hood’s page, she invites it into her basket.

They see a shape in the shadows. Little Red Riding Hood tells the Letter A, “It’s going to be a wolf. I’m very familiar with this type of story.”

However, when we turn the page – it’s a giant robot!

And new characters show up with every page turn, with their own opinions about what kind of book this is – and isn’t. My favorite is probably the banana named Captain Knock-Knock from a joke book.

Finally, Little Red Riding Hood explores outside the book and learns from the back cover:

This is a book about a group of characters who have nothing in common, but who work together to figure out what kind of book they’re in.

And the odd assortment of characters end up making friends. And it’s all very silly and delightful and gets kids thinking about they types of books they read.

Because of the meta-narrative, this edges toward early elementary kids more than preschoolers. But it will get any child thinking about stories and about how books work, which builds their early literacy skills.

christopherhealy.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 The Mona Lisa Vanishes, by Nicholas Day

Award Winners, Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

The Mona Lisa Vanishes

A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity

by Nicholas Day
with art by Brett Helquist

Random House Studio, 2023. 276 pages.
Review written February 22, 2024, from a library book
Starred Review
2024 Robert F. Sibert Medal Winner
2023 CYBILS Award Middle Grade Nonfiction Winner

It’s easy to understand the awards this book won. Nicholas Day takes facts and gives us an entertaining and suspenseful story with a conversational tone.

Picture the Mona Lisa. I’m guessing you can easily bring her image to mind. This book tells the story of how she became so famous — by getting stolen in 1911.

Along the way he gives us the story of the life of Leonardo da Vinci and the story of Lisa Gherardini and how unlikely it was that he would ever paint her portrait. It also tells us about the thief who pulled off the heist, the detectives who utterly failed at finding him, and the stories and publicity that grew up around the theft — right before World War I started, so it wasn’t eclipsed in the press.

He weaves all this together skillfully, mixing chapters about Leonardo during the Renaissance with chapters about Paris in the early twentieth century, never leaving us hanging, but always leaving us wanting more.

You also learn about the background of both settings, with information given as it’s needed, never letting the story go slack.

Here’s an example about the newspapers of the day:

The Mona Lisa heist ran on the front page of Parisian newspapers every day for over a month. With each story, the painting grew more significant, the loss more tragic. It was no longer just another painting, or even just another great painting. It was a transcendent painting.

Over the next month, it was transformed into a painting that was beloved by all, that spoke to everyone, that moved everyone. In fact, it became less a painting and more an object of worship. It was a myth, a mystery, almost a living being.

“What audacious criminal,” asked the magazine L’Illustration, “what mystifier, what manic collector, what insane lover, has committed this abduction?”…

It was the perfect story at the perfect time. Why? Because all of a sudden, people could read.

For centuries, literacy had been a specialized skill. That was changing fast. More people were going to school; more jobs required reading. The result was a surge in literacy.

The side effect was the golden age of newspapers.

In 1870, over one million newspapers were sold every day in Paris. By the time the Mona Lisa was stolen, that number was up to almost six million — in a city of less than three million. The price of a daily paper was half what it once was. Mass media had arrived.

Read this book for a rip-roaring story (with wonderful illustrations by Brett Helquist), and you will end up learning all kinds of things about Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance, the Louvre, early criminal science, and even fake news.

bretthelquist.com
rhcbooks.com

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