Review of The Girl’s Guide to Homelessness, by Brianna Karp

Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

The Girl’s Guide to Homelessness

A Memoir

by Brianna Karp

Harlequin, 2011. 344 pages.
Starred Review

Wow. This book will grab you and keep you turning pages. And I hope it will adjust your opinion of homeless people.

If you’ve ever thought that the homeless are lazy or somehow deserve their fate, consider the words of Brianna Karp:

“I had never thought about how those homeless people ended up there. I had never once thought to ask, ‘Why would a lazy person choose that life?’ It seems like a really hard, scary, uncertain life. It seems like the last kind of life a lazy jackass would choose.”

This book tells how one person ended up there. Yes, she had a difficult upbringing. She did have a job, much of the time, and even a trailer to live in. But she definitely doesn’t fit the stereotypical picture of a homeless person. Reading her story definitely made me think.

I was hoping the book would end with Brianna happily married and living in a house, never to be homeless again. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t. But the story of her journey is compelling and moving. She knows how to tell her story so that you feel for her, but don’t pity her. She does show how to be homeless with dignity and self-respect. I truly hope that this book will have incredible sales. Did I mention the story is a page-turner?

As a public librarian, I deal with homeless people every day. I’m sure there are many I don’t know are homeless, but I know that the library is a great place for homeless people, since our services are open to all and everyone is equal there. This book increases my respect for them, and that’s a good thing. And did I mention it’s a great story?

Most of the book is Brianna’s story, but I like this section where she talks to the reader about attitudes toward homeless people:

“The most irritating thing, I found, is when people question ‘luxury’ items like phones, laptops or vehicles. ‘I just saw a homeless person with a cell phone! Guess he’s not really homeless.’ ‘Wait a second, how do you blog if you’re homeless?’ ‘Why don’t you sell your phone and laptop and car and buy food or rent an apartment?’. . .

“I can understand potentially taking issue with government money being misspent — if a homeless individual is receiving housing funds for a very specific, designated purpose from an assistance program, and spending them elsewhere. But personal income? It’s yours, you’ve earned it, and if you want to use it to buy a cell phone or a laptop or a book or a necklace or even a goddamn pack of cigarettes because you feel that any of the above will improve the quality of your life or just plain make you feel a little happier or more humanized for a short while, then good for you. I will never be the one to demand to know how much it cost you or look at you askance and mutter about how you wouldn’t be homeless if only you didn’t buy A, B or C. It’s basic respect, and I don’t think that basic respect and the right to privacy end when you lose your home. . . .

“Sustainability is the key to any lifestyle. Sure, I could sell my phone and my laptop for the price of a few hamburgers. But, then, the hamburgers would soon be gone, and so would my phone and laptop. I would have absolutely no phone, so an employer could contact me. And without a laptop, I would only be able to search and apply for work online during the hours that the public library was open.”

This book will entertain you, but it will also make you examine your own attitudes.

girlsguidetohomelessness.com
harlequin.com
@tGGtH

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. 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.

Review of Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Ordinary Magic

by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

Bloomsbury, New York, 2012. 276 pages.
Starred Review

Abby Hale lives in a world where it’s normal to have magic. She’s the youngest of five children, and her two older sisters and two older brothers all came out as having very high levels of magic at their Judging.

But Abby? She’s twelve years old and ready for her Judging. And it turns out she has no magic at all. She’s completely ordinary, called an Ord by “normal” people.

Ords are considered barely human. However, they do have one skill in this magical world — magic doesn’t affect them, so they can walk right through charms and protective spells. Because of this, Adventurers like to have an Ord along to make treasure accessible. And they’re willing to do whatever it takes to get one.

Fortunately, Abby’s family would never sell her, ordinary or not. In fact, her sister works at a school established for Ords in the capital city, a school that’s supposed to keep them safe.

But staying safe isn’t easy in a world accustomed to thinking of Ords as having no rights.

This book was a lot of fun, especially all the ways it was exactly the opposite of Harry Potter. Instead of learning she’s a Wizard in a world of Muggles, Abby finds out she’s an Ord in a world of Magic Users — normal people.

I love the way the author conveys what’s normal in that world. For example, Abby’s complaining about the “realistic” fiction she has to read in class:

All the authors we read are boring. All the stories we read are about people hating each other and being miserable. And there aren’t even any carpet chases or magic fights or somebody turning somebody else into a toad. There are no dragons. How realistic can you be without dragons?

In another place, parts of their house have been unmagicked, so that Abby can get around in it.

I knew it was a pain for my family at first — to have to use little knobs to turn on the water in the bathroom instead of just poofing the perfect pressure and temperature, and having doors open to just one room instead of whatever room it was you wanted — but nobody said anything.

At school, they’re trained in self-defense, because there are so many people out there who would like to capture them and use them, or, in the case of red caps, eat them. I laughed at this section, where the teacher is explaining why they have to learn more languages than normal people do in their schools:

Here language was required every single year. We were going to learn a different language each year, and in order to graduate to the next grade we’d have to be what Mr. O’Hara called “functionally fluent.”

“Why? So we’re ready to be bought and sold?” Peter muttered under his breath.

“In case you’re bought and sold,” Mr. O’Hara answered so everyone could hear. “I think you’ll find escape much easier if you know the local language.” And then he spent the rest of the class introducing us to Astrin and teaching us the tourist basics, like hello, good-bye, please, thank you, and help, I’m being kidnapped!

In general, this book is a whole lot of fun. It beautifully shows you Abby’s affection for her loving, quirky family. It’s a little weaker in showing her friendships at school. That’s the point where it begins to pale in comparison to Harry Potter. There are also two places where the author destroys the suspense by telling you right up front that Abby gets out of it:

What happened next was my fault. I just want to say that straight out. I know Olivia blamed Peter, and Alexa blamed, you know, the actual people responsible, but I should have known better.

Once she’s said that, at the beginning of the chapter, you just can’t think that she’s going to be away from Olivia and Alexa (her sisters) for very long at all. If they’re arguing about who’s at fault, we know she gets out of the situation before too long.

In another place, we read, “King Steve told me later that they modeled the alarm system on the cries of real-life banshee.” That takes the teeth out of a sentence on the very next page which includes the phrase, “if I got out of this and saw King Steve again…”.

I also wasn’t completely satisfied with where it ended. In the Harry Potter books, I always scoffed that these adventures took precisely one school year. In this book, though there is a climax, the adventure doesn’t feel complete. We have some very important loose threads left hanging. The book ends at the end of the school year, but it feels like a random place to end.

However, these were minor details in a delightful debut novel. This book is full of good-natured teasing between a family who loves each other. It pokes fun at conventions of fantasy stories by turning them on their heads. And along the way, it creates a credible imaginary world and fleshes it out with details. As well as looking closely at how it feels to be on the wrong side of prejudice. I definitely want to read the next book just as soon as it comes out. I want to find out what happens to the loose ends left hanging, and, especially, I want to spend more time with Abby Hale and her family.

www.bloomsburykids.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. 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.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Girl of Fire and Thorns, by Rae Carson

Award Winners, Fantasy, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 4

The Girl of Fire and Thorns

by Rae Carson

Greenwillow Books, 2011. 423 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Morris Award Finalist

This is an impressive debut fantasy novel. The author builds a complex, realistic world, and stands a few fantasy conventions on their heads.

For example, where usually you have the heroine not wanting an arranged marriage because the intended is old and ugly, here’s how this book opens:

“Prayer candles flicker in my bedroom. The Scriptura Sancta lies discarded, pages crumpled, on my bed. Bruises mark my knees from kneeling on the tiles, and the Godstone in my navel throbs. I have been praying — no, begging — that King Alejandro de Vega, my future husband, will be ugly and old and fat.

“Today is the day of my wedding. It is also my sixteenth birthday.”

Elisa is the Chosen One. The whole world knows because of the Godstone in her navel. And her god communicates with her through the Godstone. There are prophecies about her.

One thing I like about this is that no one agrees on what the prophecies actually mean. That seems completely realistic, after all. If there were a prophecy, isn’t it likely that whole factions would have different beliefs about what that prophecy means, about what the Chosen One can do for them?

Elisa’s an unlikely heroine, too. She loves to eat, and is overweight and lazy, at least until circumstances force her to change. This book involves war, state politics, danger, adventure, romance, and even religion.

The biggest thing I didn’t like about this book involved my personal prejudice against present tense novels. Most of the time, the story was able to overcome that so I didn’t notice, but not all the time.

Still, Rae Carson built a fascinating world with this book, and the story is clearly not finished. I will definitely want to read this book again when the sequel comes out and spend more time with these characters.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/girl_of_fire_and_thorns.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. 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.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Mighty Miss Malone, by Christopher Paul Curtis

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 1

The Mighty Miss Malone

by Christopher Paul Curtis

Wendy Lamb Books, 2012. 307 pages.
Starred Review

The Mighty Miss Malone is a companion book to Christopher Paul Curtis’ Newbery Medal-winning book, Bud, Not Buddy. I read Bud, Not Buddy so long ago, I didn’t really remember it, so I can confidently say that did not in any way reduce my enjoyment of The Mighty Miss Malone. Bud makes a very short appearance in this book, but mostly this one is just set in the same time period of the Great Depression. This book is all about Deza Malone.

Deza Malone is the smartest person in her class, and she knows it. She wants to be a writer, so of course she uses her dictionary and thesaurus a lot — too much, according to her teacher.

In the first chapter, Deza shows us an essay she wrote about her family. About herself, she says:

“My most annoying trait is that some of the time I might talk a little too much, I can be very verbose. I exaggerate but that is because I come from a family of great storytellers which is not the same as great liars.”

Deza’s excited about getting extra teaching from her beloved teacher. But then her father loses his job and her family loses their home. Her father goes on the road to find work, and they in turn try to find him.

Along the way, we see Deza, her brother Jimmie with the voice of an angel, and her parents interacting with lots of laughs and lots of love.

Deza’s family has a motto: “We are a family on a journey to a place called wonderful.” I’m glad I got to go along for the ride.

ChristopherPaulCurtis.com
randomhouse.com/kids

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. 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.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Bear Has a Story to Tell, by Philip C. and Erin E. Stead

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Bear Has a Story to Tell

written by Philip C. Stead
illustrated by Erin E. Stead

A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2012. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a gorgeous new offering by the creators of the Caldecott winner A Sick Day for Amos McGee. I like this one even better. The story is similar, but I like that the characters are all animals, and so don’t include an adult at all, just a big furry bear who looks completely huggable.

This is a great getting-ready-for-winter tale and a great friendship tale. It’s gentle and quiet, with a nice ending that circles back to the beginning.

The book begins:

It was almost winter and Bear was getting sleepy.
But first, Bear had a story to tell.

Bear asks all his friends if they’d like to hear a story. He asks Mouse, Duck, Frog, and looks for Mole. But Mouse has seeds to gather, Duck has to fly south, Frog has to find a warm place to sleep, and Mole is already asleep. Erin E. Stead so beautifully shows us a sleepy, sleepy bear walking through falling leaves and patiently helping out his friends. After a two-page spread of falling snow, we see Bear asleep in his den, and then waking up in the springtime.

In the spring, first Bear greets his friends and thinks of them. But the story is no longer on the tip of his tongue. Good thing he has his friends to help.

This is a book every parent of a young child should check out or purchase simply to enjoy the quiet but gorgeous artwork, perfectly paired with a story that kids will understand. And it’s fun to have a story about hibernation that doesn’t end with going to sleep. But it’s also a book about Story. I love the way Bear gives up the story he originally wanted to tell and, with his friends’ help, realizes that story is all around.

mackids.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. 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.

Review of Liar’s Moon, by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Fantasy, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Liar’s Moon

by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic, 2011. 356 pages.
Starred Review

This book is a sequel to Star Crossed, and I liked Elizabeth Bunce’s first book, A Curse Dark as Gold so much, I bought my own copy of StarCrossed and Liar’s Moon. I did get a chance to reread StarCrossed before I took up Liar’s Moon.

I did enjoy Liar’s Moon, and there’s absolutely no question in my mind that I will snap up the next book. Some details are left very badly hanging, so it’s clear this is intended as at least a trilogy.

This is not your typical second-book-of-a-trilogy, though. After narrowly escaping from her home in the city of Gerse in the first book, Digger is back, trying to survive in the underbelly of the city. Right from the start, she’s captured and thrown into prison — in a cell with Durrell Decath, whom we met at the very start of StarCrossed, but then didn’t see much of.

It turns out that Digger’s in prison just to talk with Durrell. He says he’s been falsely accused of murder. But if he didn’t murder his elderly wife, who did?

If you’re expecting a book very similar to StarCrossed (like I was), then you’re going to be disappointed. But if you take it for what it is — a murder mystery set in a fantastical world, with our heroine scouring the underworld for clues — then there’s lots to enjoy here.

In all her books, Elizabeth Bunce is skilled at making another world seem completely down-to-earth and real.

Now, there’s a huge plot development at the very end, so I think I need to reserve judgment on this trilogy until it finishes up and the story is complete. So far, I enjoyed the first book more, but I definitely liked this one enough to want to reread it when the third book comes out. I definitely want to see more of Digger’s friends, fighting in the war, and find out how that battle turns out. I don’t really understand Digger’s relationship with her brother, and that will probably become more clear with time, too.

But meanwhile I highly recommend this series. The first book gave you conflicting loyalties and magic and secrets. This one gives you a murder mystery set in an alien world. Who knows what will be next?

elizabethcbunce.com
thisisteen.com/liarsmoon
scholastic.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. 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.

There’s a lot we could discuss about the ending, so please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Spy Princess, by Sherwood Smith

Adventure, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

The Spy Princess

by Sherwood Smith

Viking, 2012. 386 pages.
Starred Review

Sherwood Smith does politics really well. I know, that sounds boring, but in Sherwood Smith’s hands, it’s not boring, not at all. She takes a medieval world with a kingdom and adds an unhappy populace, but applies realistic, not simplistic solutions. Then she puts her characters in the thick of unrest and change and has them try to figure out what is right and what is best. Oh, and she mixes in some magic along the way.

Sherwood Smith also does romance wonderfully well. Hold on — there’s no romance at all in this book. This one’s about kids embroiled in a kingdom at war, trying to figure out a way to make a difference. I only miss the romance because I know how well she writes it, but this book is firmly for middle grade readers and has all the adventure they could wish for with no mushy stuff.

When Princess Lilah Selenna hears peasant children yelling insults at her family’s carriage, she wants to find out what’s going on. She decides to sneak out and disguise herself as a village boy. When she does, she makes her first friends — but they are planning Revolution.

By another author, this book might be simply about carrying out the revolution. But Sherwood Smith delves a little deeper. Yes, there’s Revolution, but once the peasants are incited to violence, can the leaders get them to stop? Who will govern now and what new laws will be needed? And can they even hold their gains? For Lilah, what part can kids play in bringing about Slam Justice?

Lilah’s uncle the king has banned mages from his kingdom, but she does find some in a hidden valley. So there’s magic and spying and secret passages and vigilante justice and plenty of adventure, with some deep thinking about justice and leadership.

So this was revolution. I remembered how impatient I’d been for it to happen — just so I wouldn’t have to curl my hair. But in my idea of revolution, people gathered to make stirring speeches about how we could better our lives, followed by cheers and exciting trumpet blasts as . . . things somehow changed. Not this horror.

sherwoodsmith.net
penguin.com/youngreaders

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a I purchased via Amazon.com.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. 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.

Review of Beauty and the Werewolf, by Mercedes Lackey

Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Beauty and the Werewolf

by Mercedes Lackey

Luna, 2011. 329 pages.
Starred Review

I’ve read all of Mercedes Lackey’s Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each one. They aren’t fairy tale retellings. In some ways they’re fairy tale improvements. They tell us stories of people in fairy tale situations and show us those people figuring out how to come up with a happy ending, despite what the Tradition might want to push them toward.

That’s how magic works in the Five Hundred Kingdoms. The Tradition builds up around people in fairy tale situations and uses its power to point them into storybook lives. But that often doesn’t turn out nicely for the people involved. The books about these people are clever and funny and anyone who’s ever enjoyed fairy tales will find great satisfaction out of seeing how the characters foil tradition.

Beauty and the Werewolf starts out as a Red Riding Hood variant. Bella is taking some gifts to Granny, the local herb witch. In this story, the woodsman is the villain, not a man Bella likes at all. But when she’s attacked in the night by a lone wolf, the next day she is taken to his manor. It turns out that he’s a werewolf who was supposed to be secluded during the full moon. Now Bella must wait in his palace to see if she will transform into a wolf as well. And, of course, now she’s playing out Beauty and the Beast.

One thing I like about these books is how she picks and chooses elements, and sometimes leaves out the unpleasant ones. Bella’s stepsisters are sweet, if flighty. She gets to see her father through a magic mirror, and it does provide comfort. We even find out the story behind the invisible servants eventually. Bella’s the one who immediately thinks to have them wear armbands so she can tell where they are. (Well, duh! Mercedes Lackey brings practical thinking to these fairy tales!)

Bella’s smart, independent, and enterprising. We’re not surprised when she doesn’t wait quietly to find out if she’s going to turn into a beast herself. She’s not one to let the Tradition push her around. Once again, this is thoroughly enjoyable reading.

Harlequin.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. 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.

Review of Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Akata Witch

by Nnedi Okorafor

Viking, 2011. 349 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a fantasy tale of a young person discovering she has magic that is nothing like any other book I’ve read. Because this young lady, Sunny, lives in Nigeria.

Our main character explains herself:

My name is Sunny Nwazue and I confuse people.

I have two older brothers, like my parents, my brothers were both born here in Nigeria. Then my family moved to America, where I was born in the city of New York. When I was nine, we returned to Nigeria, near the town of Aba. My parents felt it would be a better place to raise my brothers and me, at least that’s what my mom says. We’re Igbo — that’s an ethnic group from Nigeria — so I’m American and Igbo, I guess.

You see why I confuse people? I’m Nigerian by blood, American by birth, and Nigerian again because I live here. I have West African features, like my mother, but while the rest of my family is dark brown, I’ve got light yellow hair, skin the color of “sour milk” (or so stupid people like to tell me), and hazel eyes that look like God ran out of the right color. I’m albino.

Then Sunny learns that she is a Leopard Person, a person with mystical abilities. She is a Free Agent, someone whose parents are not Leopard People, but are Lambs. And she runs across two other children from Leopard families who have also recently discovered their abilities.

If this sounds like Harry Potter’s world, the basic set-up is similar, with Leopard People instead of Wizards, Lambs instead of Muggles, and Free Agents instead of Muggle-born. Sunny and her friends must learn to use the magic and also to combat a powerful and evil Leopard Person who is carrying out ritual killings. But that’s where the similarity ends. The magic used is African magic and very different from the magic in Harry Potter’s world.

Though this book is complete and has a satisfying climax, it’s very much a beginning. Sunny finds things out about this new magical world she’s part of, and she has many questions about what it means for her life. This book provides a detailed and evocative set-up as well as being a gripping story by itself. I will snatch up any further adventures of Sunny and her friends as soon as they come out.

nnedi.com
penguin.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a book I got at ALA Annual Conference and had signed by the author.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. 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.

Review of How Many Jelly Beans? by Andrea Menotti, illustrated by Yancey Labat

Children's Nonfiction Review, Mathematical, Starred Review 1

How Many Jelly Beans?

A Giant Book of Giant Numbers

by Andrea Menotti
illustrated by Yancey Labat

Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2012. 26 pages.
Starred Review

Hooray! A book that really shows how completely huge the number one million is!

The story is simple. Emma and Aiden (with thoughts expressed by their dog) are asked how many jelly beans they’d like. Emma starts with ten, and we see a close-up of her hand with ten jelly beans.

Aiden, however, wants twenty, and the picture shows that, with ten in each hand.

Emma’s response seems quite realistic for a kid. “He can have twenty? I’ll have TWENTY-FIVE!” The responses escalate: fifty, seventy-five, one hundred. All of those amounts are shown on a tabletop. Since the tabletop in the pictures is the same every time, just with greater or fewer jelly beans distributed across them, this doesn’t really show the quantities viscerally. However, that will change by book’s end.

I like it when they get to details. Emma tells Aiden he can’t eat five hundred jelly beans, and he tells her that in a year he could eat a thousand jelly beans.

On the next big double-page spread, we see jelly beans distributed on pages of a calendar. Emma says, “Wait a second. That’s only two or three jelly beans a day.”

She comes to the logical conclusion: “I could eat FIVE THOUSAND jelly beans in a year.” Now the view pans out to Emma happily jumping on a bed covered with five thousand jelly beans. (Never mind that they would scatter all over the place if she really tried that.)

They go on. Ten thousand jelly beans. A hundred thousand jelly beans. Now the children are shown as quite small, with a hundred thousand tiny jelly beans spread out around them. I like it when Aiden tells us how he’d distribute the flavors if he had a hundred thousand jelly beans. Only one would be lemon.

But the truly marvelous part of this book, the tour de force, is the foldout section showing ONE MILLION jelly beans. In fact, when you first pull it out, the kids are saying, “Wow! A million jelly beans is a lot!” But then they say, “This is only HALF a million jelly beans! Look up there!” When you unfold the page further, then, at last, you see a million tiny jelly beans.

So here, at last, is a book that allows you to see one million things at one glance. The only way to truly give you the feel of this book was to take a picture:

Here’s the book closed, already an extra-large format:

And here’s the book opened up, showing a million jelly beans. I can hardly hold it up:

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that this book is not going to hold up well to library usage. It was not easy even for me to hold up the book with the page open without tearing the pages. And if you tear the page along the folds, it’s not going to be at all easy to mend.

But you know what? I don’t care! I love that someone did this, that Andrea Menotti and Yancey Labat made a book that truly shows kids just how enormous a million really is. And maybe, just maybe, a million jelly beans would be too many.

chroniclekids.com

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