Review of The Sky Was My Blanket, by Uri Shulevitz

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Sky Was My Blanket

A Young Man’s Journey Across Wartime Europe

by Uri Shulevitz

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2025. 154 pages.
Review written April 29, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

The Sky Was My Blanket is the last book written by the brilliant Uri Shulevitz, completed months before his death in 2025. In it, he uses first person perspective to tell the incredible story of his uncle’s adventures during World War II as they were told to him.

His uncle Yehiel was born in Warsaw during World War I, so his first memories are of being hungry. I hadn’t really appreciated how little time passed between World War I and World War II (especially for people in Europe) until I read this book, because when this child who was born during World War I left home at fifteen and a half, he quickly got embroiled in war. However, he survived the experience, and the family he left behind did not.

Be aware that this book is written for kids using simple language and short chapters, but the topic is war, so it’s appropriate for upper elementary and middle school kids who can handle heavy topics. There’s nothing graphic, but Yehiel did plenty of fighting in trenches and on battlefields, and many of his friends and family died.

Yehiel originally left because he felt his father was oppressive and he wanted to see the world. He left without money or luggage or papers. At first he traveled across Europe from Jewish community to Jewish community and found work and strangers to help him. He was hoping to make his way to the Holy Land, but in Vienna, he took some wise advice and trained to become a leathersmith while also attending Hebrew school. He left Vienna in 1933 when Hitler came to power in Germany and Nazi swastikas started showing up in Austria.

Next, after a winding journey, he joined his brother in Paris, but after losing his job, joined a friend in Barcelona and learned to be a tailor. However, a year later, Franco attacked government troops and started the Spanish Civil War. Yehiel signed up to fight against him with other international soldiers.

And that’s how the rest of the story goes – he traveled from one country to another, sometimes fighting, sometimes resisting, sometimes just trying to survive. After the war, Uri and his father – Yehiel’s only surviving brother – visited him in Paris and heard his amazing story, told in this book.

I’ve read plenty of novels set during World War II, but the opportunity to hear personal true stories is quickly closing. I’m glad Uri Shulevitz wrote this one down for young readers.

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Review of Smash, Crash, Topple, Roll! by Catherine Thimmesh, illustrated by Shanda McCloskey

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

Smash, Crash, Topple, Roll!

The Inventive Rube Goldberg

A Life in Comics, Contraptions, and Six Simple Machines

by Catherine Thimmesh
illustrated by Shanda McCloskey

Chronicle Books, 2025. 54 pages.
Review written March 24, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is a picture book biography of Rube Goldberg, but it’s got so much more. You know Rube Goldberg? He was the cartoonist who diagrammed crazily complicated machines to do simple tasks. As a cartoonist, he never built the machines himself, but now on the internet, you can find hundreds of videos of people who actually built machines inspired by his cartoons.

This book tells his story – he went to college and studied engineering to please his father. He didn’t last long as an engineer, but looking at patent diagrams gave him the ideas for his famous cartoons.

But the book explains the six simple machines for the reader – the lever, the wheel & axle, the inclined plane, the wedge, the screw, and the pulley. We get explanations of how they work and tips for how they can be used in your own Rube Goldberg inventions.

Back matter tells you what to search for to see modern Rube Goldberg machines in action. The first one I searched, I couldn’t help but watch twice. And the main text of the book ends with steps for building your own, one of which is “Embrace Murphy’s Law.” I foresee kids having a whole lot of fun and creating amazing things, inspired by this book.

One note is that the print is very small throughout the book, and it begins with a Rube Goldberg-like diagram, which is a little tricky to follow and also has fine print. So this book is for upper elementary and middle school kids with good reading skills. Those who persist are sure to have their imagination sparked.

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chroniclekids.com

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Review of 107 Days, by Kamala Harris

Biography, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

107 Days

by Kamala Harris
read by the Author

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025. 9 hours, 58 minutes.
Review written January 27, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This audiobook made me wistful, nostalgic, and deeply sad for what might have been, but by the end filled me with hope and determination.

The content of the book is simple to describe: Kamala Harris tells about her 107 days running for president, from the day Joe Biden called to tell her he was dropping out to the night she got the news she had lost the election.

It renewed all my wishes that she had won. She cares about people and about trying to make government work for people. In her description of her days and her thoughts and emotions, she feels like a real person – a real person who is trying to do her best with what she has.

I think I relate to Kamala because she’s only a few months younger than me. (And Tim Walz only a few months older.) She’s also a likable person – down-to-earth and genuinely trying to use government power to defend those who need help and to bring fairness to our system.

I’ve seen criticism of this book that she didn’t take responsibility for the loss. But I think she did her best with the time she had. She does admit to some mistakes, and she points out mistakes by others (perhaps more than she should have, but it feels fair). This book shows how she gave it her best shot.

I still find myself wishing she’d had a little more investigation happen to irregularities in swing states’ voting machines, but she was determined to reinstate a peaceful transfer of power and not deepen the nation’s mistrust in voting results. And that was a powerful and hard thing she did. She said that only three other vice presidents have had to certify their own defeat – and Hubert Humphrey refused and had the president of the Senate do it in his place.

And she does hold out hope at the end. This was written before ICE moved so many troops into Minneapolis, so she focuses on the midterms and reminds us that the people still have power. May that be so. And may we as the people of these United States remember that we are the foundation of this government and make our voices known.

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Review of Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa, by Sara Andrea Fajardo, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa

by Sara Andrea Fajardo
illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal

Roaring Brook Press, 2025. 40 pages.
Review written January 23, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review
2026 Robert F. Sibert Medal Winner

I checked out this book because it was listed on Horn Book Magazine‘s Calling Caldecott blog as a possible contender for the Caldecott Medal (which will be announced on Monday, January 26). And wow! I’d be delighted if it shows up as an honoree (even if my personal favorite is still Cat Nap, by Brian Lies).

Edited on January 26 to add: Hooray! Today this book won the Robert F. Sibert Medal for most distinguished informational book for children! (I’m a little sad Cat Nap didn’t show up in the awards – but very happy about this one.)

This is a picture book biography, and the illustrations, done by a previous Caldecott honoree, are wonderful, making us feel like the featured Alberto Salas is a friendly uncle, foraging through a beautiful countryside.

But his story is also amazing. Alberto Salas was on a decades-long quest to find wild potatoes (papas) in the Andes mountains of Peru before they were gone. Since he was from the mountains himself and spoke both Spanish and Quecha, he could ask locals for help and was better than anyone else at finding specimens.

Alberto brings specimens to the International Potato Center genebank.

Scientists study each papa’s superpowers and create new varieties that can grow everywhere, from salty swamps to icy mountain peaks, maybe even one day on Mars.

But potatoes are under threat. Temperatures are rising, bringing insects and diseases that devour them.

Alberto’s goal is to find them all – and protect them – before they’re lost for good.

The main story is told simply, explaining the importance of these potatoes and Alberto’s skill. Then eight pages of back matter fill in details.

And have you guessed? “Paka Paka” is hide-and-seek. Alberto keeps a playful spirit and plays hide-and-seek with the native potatoes – and everyone wins.

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Review of Nobody’s Girl, by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Audiobooks, Biography, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Nobody’s Girl

A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice

by Virginia Roberts Giuffre
read by Thérèse Plummer and Gabra Zackman

Books on Tape, 2025. 13 hours, 40 minutes.
Review written January 5, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This one was tough to listen to. I decided I wanted to hear it for myself from Virginia’s perspective, and I think I was glad I did – despite gaining some mental images I don’t want to think about.

Knowing that Virginia ended up committing suicide made it all the harder to listen to. On top of that, the book began with her writing collaborator telling us that Virginia strongly indicated that she wanted her book published, but also that Virginia’s marriage was much rockier than she paints in this memoir. I so wanted this girl to get a happy ending! But she ended up living with lots of pain for unrelated reasons (broke her neck after having encephalitis!) – and that makes her story all the harder to hear.

But something Virginia was absolutely firm about – even in emails not long before her death – was she wanted to stand up to powerful people and stop them hurting more young girls. She wanted to help other survivors find their voices.

Her story was the one we’ve heard about – she was essentially a sex slave to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell from age 16 to age 19. And after she was starting to recover, she devoted her life to bringing the powerful to account. With the money she got from Prince Andrew’s settlement, she established a nonprofit, SOAR – Speak Out, Act, Reclaim, for survivors of sex trafficking to reclaim their stories.

Even though the first half or so of the book – while she was still being trafficked – was awful to listen to, I’m glad I heard her story from Virginia’s perspective. That way I won’t imagine that she had any choice in the things she did, even though she wasn’t in chains. I’ve got a new understanding of what “grooming” entails. Since Ghislaine Maxwell was there from the start, 16-year-old Virginia thought what they were asking must be okay. After all, this woman was there joining in. When she started to get up the courage to stop doing what they asked, they showed her a photo of her much-loved little brother at his school – making clear that if she disobeyed or told anyone, they’d do something terrible to him.

Almost more tragic than her time with Epstein was the sexual abuse she got from her father from as young as 8 years old – and that he gave her to one of his friends to do the same. And then she found others who preyed on her as a teenage runaway after time at an abusive camp for troubled teens. So when Epstein and Maxwell started abusing and trafficking her, she almost didn’t know what normal was.

And these were powerful, wealthy people. Virginia doesn’t name some of them – making it clear later in the book that she was afraid what would happen to her family if she did. But so many of the men were never brought to account. (Virginia speaks about the need to remove statutes of limitations for crimes of child sex trafficking, because it takes time for survivors to recover enough to deal with what happened to them.)

On top of that, Epstein was not only interested in sex – he was also interested in power. So the people he brought to his conferences and events weren’t necessarily involved with the sex trafficking. Though Virginia’s pretty clear that anyone who came to his house couldn’t help but notice the naked pictures and naked girls and have strong clues that something was going on.

So this isn’t a book to find out who is or is not guilty. She goes into detail about Prince Andrew, since she had a famous court case with him. She also makes it clear that Ghislaine Maxwell was very much Jeffrey Epstein’s collaborator and coordinator. And her presence was what enticed so many young girls into their clutches. But most of the others to whom she was trafficked aren’t named in the book for the protection of her family. And it’s not clear how many of the other public figures who are named committed sex crimes, and which were there simply because of Epstein’s front as a power broker.

It was finally when Maxwell and Epstein asked her to have Jeffrey Epstein’s baby that Virginia determined to find a way to escape. The thought of her unborn child being controlled by those two evil people was too much for her, even though she had never learned to value her own safety that much.

In the end, I’m glad I listened to the book. I’m proud of Virginia Guiffre for finding her voice and telling her story. I hope it will give hope to other victims of sex trafficking to know they are not alone and help them find their voices. I hope it will deepen the resolve of the nation to bring justice to people who prey on children. I hope it will make powerful people think twice about using and throwing away people they don’t think have power. And I hope it will silence anyone who thinks that a 16- or 17-year-old is anything but a victim when they are used sexually this way. I also hope that Ghislaine Maxwell will go back to a regular prison for her crimes. And that the Epstein files will finally be released to the public to bring the evil out into the light and more powerful people brought to account.

So, yes, I do recommend this book. But be warned that the topic is important but not at all pleasant.

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Review of André, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders, illustrated by Lamont O’Neal

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

André

André Leon Talley – A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale

written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders
illustrated by Lamont O’Neal

Henry Holt and Company, 2025. 52 pages.
Review written January 7, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

I’m not even a little bit interested in high fashion, but this picture book biography got me very interested in a Black boy who was, and who grew up to be editor of Vogue magazine.

André Leon Talley grew up in the Jim Crow south, finding escape from bullying by reading Vogue magazine. His growing up years weren’t easy:

At Hillside High School, where French was his favorite subject, six-foot-six André stood out. His voice, his mannerisms, and his smarts rubbed some bullies the wrong way. They beat him up because of how he looked and who he was.

But a little before the halfway point, we get a spread of André’s plane landing in Paris, and the rest of the book is about his progressive success as a fashion journalist in Paris, beginning as an assistant to Diana Vreeland, former editor of Vogue, and progressing to where he was the editor of Vogue himself and giving fashion advice to Michelle and Barack Obama in the White House.

The joyful pictures make this book special. In every spread, André stands tall above others, and we see his sense of style progress – from a teen dressed more meticulously than his peers to the flowing caftan style he proudly wore as an adult after a visit to Morocco.

I wasn’t too happy with the back matter – I would have liked a timeline to at least know when he was born and died, so I turned to Wikipedia. (1948 to 2022. I also found out his years as editor of Vogue were 1998 to 2013.) But I suppose it’s not a bad thing that this picture book biography made me want to find out more.

And this is another one I encourage you to check out for yourself. André described his own life as a fairy tale, and his joy in that journey shines through these pages.

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Review of The World Entire, by Elizabeth Brown, illustrated by Melissa Castrillón

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

The World Entire

A True Story of an Extraordinary World War II Rescue

by Elizabeth Brown
illustrated by Melissa Castrillón

Chronicle Books, 2025. 64 pages.
Review written November 17, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

The title of this book is taken from a quotation in the Talmud – “He who saves a single life, saves the world entire.” This book is a picture book biography of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, who saved the lives of approximately 10,000 refugees during World War II.

Aristides was a Portuguese diplomat who worked at a consulate in France. When refugees poured into Bordeaux fleeing the Nazis, he was ordered not to give any visas to enter Portugal. After talking with a rabbi and three days of soul-searching, Aristides instead began an assembly line granting visas to everyone.

After the Nazis came to Bordeaux, he went to Bayonne to help make more visas. He even helped refugees find a place to cross the border where those visas would be accepted.

And when he got back home to Portugal, he was arrested for defying orders.

This whole story is dramatized beautifully, with a long author’s note and timeline at the back, giving further details. This book celebrates a man who defied his own government to save people’s lives. He faced many consequences of his actions, but said, “I could not have acted otherwise, and I therefore accept all that has befallen me with love.”

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melissacastrillon.co.uk

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Review of The Woman in the Moon, by Richard Maurer

Biography, Mathematical, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

The Woman in the Moon

How Margaret Hamilton Helped Fly the First Astronauts to the Moon

by Richard Maurer

Roaring Brook Press, 2023. 254 pages.
Review written December 15, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

It’s always good to read about a female mathematician who excelled in her field. Margaret Hamilton studied math in the 1950s and learned computer programming while working with the meteorologist Edward Lorenz, who discovered the Butterfly Effect in meteorology. Margaret ran his computer simulations at MIT, and later moved to the lab that worked on the computer software that would go into space with the Apollo missions. Margaret, in fact, was the person who coined the term “software engineering” to reflect that writing the computer code was as much a feat of engineering as constructing the wiring – though in fact some of that code was wired into the physical computers.

This book takes us through Margaret’s life as she was consistently the only woman in her field. It goes into lots of interesting detail about the Apollo missions, all that they were up against, and how Margaret was responsible for making the software work. An abundance of relevant photos help keep the text moving, and the whole thing captures the sense of wonder that humans actually made it to the moon – with 1960s technology.

Historians believe a key reason that American astronauts got to the Moon first (Soviet space travelers never got there at all) was America’s lead in computer technology. There were computers at the launch center, computers at Mission Control, computers at the contractors, computers at the tracking stations, and of course the miniature AGC in the spacecraft. Among all these electronic brains, the only computer that never failed was the AGC. In thousands of hours of manned spaceflight, no software errors were known to have occurred. The achievement is unique in computer history. “Nobody can believe it to this day,” Margaret noted.

Margaret was the one in charge of the software for the AGC, the Apollo Guidance Computer, which was in the command modules in flight. This was a behind-the-scenes job, so it’s good to see this entire book about her, giving some much deserved recognition (besides the Presidential Medal of Freedom she got in 2016). Now kids and teens can learn about her accomplishments.

This book is geared to a middle school audience, but there’s nothing in it that would make high school students feel it’s too young for them, so I decided to post this review on my Teen Nonfiction page instead of my Children’s Nonfiction page, even though in the library we have it as a Juvenile Biography. It’s at a much higher level than the many picture book biographies I post on that page. aLearn about the woman who wrote the software that got humans to the moon.

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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.

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JuliePaschkis.com
PeachtreeBooks.com

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Review of The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice, by Amy Alznauer, illustrated by Anna Bron

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

The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice

How to Discover a Shape

by Amy Alznauer
illustrated by Anna Bron

Candlewick Press, 2025. 48 pages.
Review written October 3, 2025, from a book sent to me by the publisher.
Starred Review

Like another book I recently reviewed, Firefly Song, The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice is a picture book biography of a citizen scientist, a woman who made a notable discovery, even though she didn’t have formal training in that field. Marjorie Rice now has a special place in my heart, because in her case, the field was math.

The biography tells us how Marjorie Rice read an article in Scientific American by Martin Gardner and then got captivated with the idea of finding more five-sided convex shapes that tile a plane. And the stellar art by Anna Bron helps make it clear to the reader what this means.

We learn how she was inspired when a new tiling was discovered – to then search for new five-sided shapes of her own that would work. And she went on to find four of fifteen pentagon types that tile the plane. (Years later, other mathematicians found two more, and then another proved that there were no more.)

This amateur mathematician’s life is especially suited for a picture book biography because her work was so visual – and the artist did a great job of using pentagon tilings throughout the book. Back matter not only tells about the pentagon discoveries after Marjorie, they also give the reader great ideas for exploring shapes, tilings, and tessellations further.

I love that this is the story of a housewife with a curious and playful mind (if perhaps a somewhat obsessive one).

Oh look! I’m ready to post this review and looked up the author’s website. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and also teaches calculus and number theory. This makes me feel like she’s a kindred spirit with me, since I have Master’s degrees in Mathematics and in Library Science – not a typical combination. This explains her excellent picture book biographies of mathematicians. I’m going to keep watching for her books.

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candlewick.com

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