Children’s Nonfiction Review – Page 31

Mar 7, 2016

Review of W Is for Webster, by Tracey Fern and Boris Kulikov

W Is for Webster

Noah Webster and His American Dictionary

by Tracey Fern
pictures by Boris Kulikov

Margaret Ferguson Books (Farrar Straus Giroux), New York, 2015. 36 pages.

Here’s a picture book biography of Noah Webster, telling simply about his obsession with words and creation of the first American dictionary.

Creating the dictionary was a patriotic act for Noah.

By now, the Revolutionary War was winding down. It was clear that America would win its independence. Noah was a proud patriot who longed to do something that would help to hold his new, complicated nation together. Being a bit of a know-it-all, Noah thought he knew just what America needed: its own language – one different from the English spoken in Britain.

“A national language is a national tie,” Noah insisted to all who would listen, and to many who wouldn’t.

Webster first wrote a speller, then a small dictionary. He spent decades working on his big dictionary, including origins of words and quotations using them.

This book shows us how deep this desire went as he had to figure out how to support his family while always working on the dictionary. He eventually went to Europe to get the research done that he needed on word origins.

He finally completed his dictionary in 1825, with more than 70,000 entries.

As it happens, years ago I was given a facsimile edition of that first dictionary. This book prompted me to pull it out and look inside. Sure enough! It contains word origin information, and multiple definitions with examples of usage – many of those examples taken from the Bible.

By now, America had changed. Andrew Jackson was president, and he was both a common man and a bad speller. The nation was finally ready for Noah’s dictionary, full of common words simply spelled.

States issued congratulatory proclamations. Newspapers called him “America’s own Dr. Webster.” Congress adopted Noah’s dictionary as its standard reference book. And although Noah’s dictionary has been revised many times, it is still the standard in America today.

traceyfern.com
boriskulikov.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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Mar 2, 2016March 2, 2016

Review of This Bridge Will Not Be Gray, by Dave Eggers and Tucker Nichols

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

This Bridge Will Not Be Gray

story by Dave Eggers
art by Tucker Nichols

McSweeney’s, San Francisco, 2015. 104 pages.
Starred Review

This Bridge Will Not Be Gray is a picture book about the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s a long picture book, but otherwise fits picture book format. Every spread has a cut-paper pictorial background, and no spread has more than a few paragraphs of text, if that.

This isn’t the fancy, realistic-looking cut paper of Steve Jenkins. This is simple, with basic shapes. People are shown as heads of various colors (such as blue and green and red). But the simple style does work. Dave Eggers takes us through the design process of the Golden Gate bridge, beginning with the beautiful bay itself.

It is interesting to me that the reason the Golden Gate Bridge ended up reddish-orange in the first place was that was the color they painted onto steel when it was shipped to make it rust-proof.

They hadn’t actually decided what color to paint the bridge, but plans were to paint it gray.

When Irving Morrow was on the ferry one day, he watched this orange steel being assembled, and he had a thought. He thought that this color was beautiful.

And when Irving was asked what color he thought the bridge should be, he said, Why not leave it this color? And people said, What? And they said, Huh? And they said, Irving, you are nuts. No bridge had ever been orange. Who had ever heard of an orange bridge? No one had, because no bridge had ever been this color. This is true: no bridge in known human history had ever been orange.

And for a good portion of the human race, because something has not already been, that is a good reason to fear it coming to be.

But as the debate continued about the color of the bridge, an interesting thing happened. Other people noticed the same thing Irving had noticed: that this accidental orange somehow looked right.

That gives you an idea of the conversational style of the book. The simple graphics accompany it and add up to a lovely and informative story of how one of the most beautiful bridges in the world was built.

The Golden Gate Bridge, which is orange, is the best-known and best-loved bridge in the world.

It is best-known because it is bold and courageous and unusual and even strange. It is best-loved because it is bold and courageous and unusual and even strange. And it is all these things because Irving Morrow, and thousands of others said:

“This bridge will not be gray!”

It is especially fitting that the author, the illustrator, and the publisher live and work near the Golden Gate Bridge.

mcsweeneys.net

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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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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Feb 4, 2016

Review of The Inventor’s Secret, by Suzanne Slade

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Picture Book Review, Science 0

The Inventor’s Secret

What Thomas Edison Told Henry Ford

by Suzanne Slade
illustrated by Jennifer Black Reinhardt

Charlesbridge, 2015. 48 pages.

This is an introductory picture book about the work of two great inventors, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. The overarching message of the book applies to any aspiring inventor: It’s what Thomas Edison told Henry Ford the night they first met: “Keep at it!”

The Author states in a note at the end (along with plenty of interesting backmatter):

For nonfiction authors a new story often begins with a fascinating, little-known fact that sparks a magical “goose-bump” moment. When I learned Thomas Edison, one of the greatest inventors of all time, pounded his fist on the table and shouted, “Keep at it!” to Henry Ford, that was one of those moments for me.

She weaves their stories together, with this meeting the central event. She used patent records to establish a timeline, and we get a taste, especially for Henry Ford, how much of his success was based on multiple attempts.

This is an entertaining story with cheery (but informative) and cartoon-like illustrations. But it also presents an encouraging message for future inventions. Follow your dreams. And don’t worry if your first several efforts don’t achieve success.

Keep at it!

suzanneslade.com
jbreinhardt.com
charlesbridge.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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Jan 28, 2016

Review of Ira’s Shakespeare Dream, by Glenda Armand

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review 0

Ira’s Shakespeare Dream

by Glenda Armand
illustrations by Floyd Cooper

Lee & Low Books, New York. 40 pages.

I love picture book biographies about interesting people I’d never heard anything about. The subject of this one is Ira Aldridge, an African American born in 1807 who went on to have his name inscribed at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England – the only African American among the thirty-three actors to have received this recognition.

The book tells his story. He was born in 1807 in New York City and attended the African Free School. This was a time when the majority of African Americans were enslaved. He first discovered Shakespeare at the Park Theatre, but there he had to sit in the balcony. Then he discovered the African Grove, and African American theater.

At the African Grove and the Park, people took notice of the stagestruck young man. Actors often sent Ira on errands in exchange for tickets to plays. Some of the stagehands taught him set building and costume making. They all encouraged Ira to become an actor and cheered him on as he auditioned for a small role at the African Grove.

Eventually, Ira traveled to England to study acting rather than go to a ministry college, as his father wanted him to do.

As Ira gained success, he began to use his fame as a platform for preaching the evils of slavery and raised money for abolitionism.

Ira gained more and more fame and recognition and traveled all over Europe.

By the 1840s, Ira was one of the most celebrated Shakespearean actors in Europe. His most famous role was the lead character in Othello. The dark-skinned tragic hero was commonly played by a white actor wearing black makeup.

Ira did not need this makeup. And the emotions he expressed as Othello were as real as the color of his skin. Like Othello, Ira knew despair. He had seen it in the eyes of enslaved people. And like Othello, Ira knew sadness and regret. He had felt both when he received news of Pa’s death.

This book stands out to me because Ira’s is a truly amazing story. Here is someone who followed his dream despite tremendous obstacles and achieved great success. I’m delighted that more children will learn about this amazing person through this wonderful picture book.

glenda-armand.com
floydcooper.com
leeandlow.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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Jan 22, 2016January 22, 2016

Review of Finding Winnie, by Lindsay Mattick and Sophie Blackall

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

Finding Winnie

The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear

by Lindsay Mattick
illustrated by Sophie Blackall

Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2015. 52 pages.
Starred Review
2016 Caldecott Medal

I didn’t think I’d review a second book about the true story of the real bear after whom Winnie-the-Pooh was named. The first one I read was complete and most delightful.

But then I read Finding Winnie and fell in love. In the first place, it’s got Sophie Blackall’s wonderful illustrations, which won me over quickly. But as well, the story is told with the frame of a mother telling the story to her son – and that son happens to be Cole, the great-great-grandson of Harry Colebourn, who bought the bear Winnie in Winnipeg on the way to World War I.

Besides giving all the facts, there’s a lilt to the storytelling and interruptions along the way by Cole, which are reminiscent of Christopher Robin’s words at the start of Winnie-the-Pooh.

Here’s where Harry sees the bear cub at a train station:

Harry thought for a long time. Then he said to himself, “There is something special about that Bear.” He felt inside his pocket and said, “I shouldn’t.” He paced back and forth and said, “I can’t.” Then his heart made up his mind, and he walked up to the trapper and said, “I’ll give you twenty dollars for the bear.”

“Is twenty dollars a lot?” asked Cole.
“Back then?” I said. “Even more than a lot.”

The photograph album at the back is especially charming. I like the picture of Harry’s diary turned to the page for August 24, 1914, where it says, “Bought bear $20.”

Of course, after Harry’s story, we hear about Christopher Robin Milne and his friendship with Winnie. But then Cole brings it back to Harry, and his mother tells him that Harry had a son named Fred, and Fred had a daughter named Laureen, and Laureen had a daughter named Lindsay.

Framing it all as a story of a mother to her child is what sends it over the edge into wonderful.

And then I had a son.

When I saw you, I thought, “There is something special about that Boy.” So I named you after your great-great-grandfather: Captain Harry Colebourn.

I named you Cole.

“That’s me?” said Cole in a whisper.

“That’s you.”

“And that’s Winnie?”

“Yes,” I said. “That’s Winnie.”

“And it’s all true?”

“Sometimes the best stories are,” I said.

Sometimes they are.

lindsaymattick.com
sophieblackall.com
lb-kids.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/finding_winnie.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

What did you think of this book?

Dec 10, 2015

Review of 8: An Animal Alphabet, by Elisha Cooper

Children's Nonfiction Review, Good for the Very Young, Picture Book Review, Science, Starred Review 0

8

An Animal Alphabet

by Elisha Cooper

Orchard Books, New York, 2015. 36 pages.
Starred Review

Okay, this book is wonderful. For teaching about the alphabet, about counting (to eight!), about identifying multiple animals.

You get the concept of the concepts presented here right on the first page:

Find the one animal on each page that is pictured 8 times – 8 ants, 8 badgers, 8 chickens. Find all the other animals, too. Some may be familiar, such as a cat, and some not, such as a muskrat. (For help, see the “Did you know” section in the back.) But every animal is amazing and beautiful in its own way. Especially the hippopotamus. Let the exploring begin!

*Why the number 8? Because 8 is great. Because 8 is round and adorable. Because 8 is fun to count to (move over, 10). Because 8 is not too big, and not so small, but just right. Because 8 is my favorite number.

This is indeed a book for exploring. You can pretty quickly see on each page which animal is pictured 8 times, but it’s not a rubber stamp. The animal is pictured in 8 different poses, or perhaps even 8 different varieties of the animal. I grant you, the 8 ants aren’t terribly varied, but the 8 chickens include roosters as well as hens, the 8 goats include some kids, and the 8 moths and 8 newts come in many different colors.

As mentioned in the introduction, not all the animals are familiar. Some notable pages include:

Aardvark, abalone, albatross, alligator, alpaca, ant, anteater, antelope, armadillo

Camel, cat, caterpillar, chameleon, cheetah, chicken, chimpanzee, chipmunk, cicada, clam, cockroach, cow, coyote, crab

Panda, parrot, pelican, penguin, pheasant, pig, pigeon, platypus, porcupine, possum, puffin

Salmon, sandpiper, seagull, sea horse, seal, sea turtle, shark, sheep, skunk, sloth, slug, snail, squid, squirrel, starfish, swallow, swan, swordfish

The format of the book is the large and small letter in a corner of the page and the names of the animals at the bottom. The animals are all mixed up on the page, not necessarily to scale. These are paintings, not photos, but they’re lovely paintings, and you definitely get the idea. But the key in the back of the book will be needed.

So this is a good book for kids who like “Where’s Waldo” or any book of detailed pictures. I suspect it will take a few times through the book before parents know which animal matches every single name. And of course, one of the animals on each page shows up 8 times. So of course you will count them!

The key at the back has the heading “Did you know?” and each of the 184 animals in the book has a small picture and some facts about it. Here are some examples:

AARDVARK
Aardvarks are sometimes known as “ant bears.”

ARMADILLO
Armadillos spend almost eighteen hours a day napping.

BUTTERFLY
Butterflies taste with their feet.

DEER
Deer can see blue, yellow, and green, but not orange or red.

DUNG BEETLE
Dung beetles are able to tell which direction they are going from the position of the sun and the stars.

FERRET
A group of ferrets is called a “business.”

GIBBON
Gibbon couples start each day by hooting at each other.

GNAT
An evening swarm of male gnats is called a “ghost.”

LEMUR
Lemurs enjoy sunbathing.

OYSTER
A single oyster filters over forty gallons of water a day, cleaning water for other animal life.

RHINOCEROS
The skin of the rhinoceros is more than an inch thick.

VULTURE
Vultures poop and pee on their legs to keep themselves cool.

XERUS
Xeruses hold their tails over their heads to shade themselves from the sun.

YABBY
A yabby’s shell will match the color of the water it grew up in.

YAPOK
Yapoks have both webbed feet and stomach pouches.

Savvy parents probably won’t get started reading all 184 animal facts the first few times through the book. Pointing and naming and counting will keep you plenty busy.

This looks like a perfect book for my toddler-soon-to-be-preschooler nieces, or for anyone interested in exploring, naming, learning, and counting.

elishacooper.com
scholastic.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/8.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

What did you think of this book?

Oct 26, 2015

Review of How to Swallow a Pig, by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science 0

How to Swallow a Pig

Step-by-Step Advice from the Animal Kingdom

by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2015. 32 pages.

Here’s another amazing children’s science book by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. Again it’s illustrated with Steve Jenkins’ incredibly realistic cut-paper illustrations, which look so life-like.

This book encourages curiosity. There’s a lot of information on each page, with clear illustrations that draw the eye.

The gimmick for this book is the How-to format. The authors cover how animals do various unusual things, but told as a How-to book. Some of the steps won’t be easy for a kid to carry out!

For example, in Step 2 of “How to Build a Nest Like a Wasp,” “You’ll need to find a source of wood, such as an old log or unpainted fence. To make paper pulp, bite off a small piece of wood and chew it thoroughly, mixing it with your saliva.” And in Step 5 of the title piece, “How to Swallow a Pig Like a Python,” you’ll need to “unhinge your jaw (this takes practice). Starting with the head, begin to work the pig down your throat.”

Besides these, the other tasks the authors demonstrate and give step-by-step directions for include:
“How to Trap Fish Like a Humpback Whale”
“How to Sew Like a Tailorbird”
“How to Repel Insects Like a Capuchin”
“How to Woo a Ewe Like a Mountain Sheep”
“How to Crack a Nut Like a Crow”
“How to Build a Dam Like a Beaver”
“How to Disguise Yourself Like an Octopus”
“How to Hunt Like a Reddish Egret”
“How to Build a Nest Like a Wasp”
“How to Spin a Web Like a Spider”
“How to Decorate Like a Bowerbird”
“How to Warn of Danger Like a Vervet Monkey”
“How to Farm Like a Leaf-Cutter Ant”
“How to Catch a Meal Like a Crocodile”
“How to Defend Yourself Like an Armadillo”
“How to Catch an Insect Like an Ant Lion”
“How to Dance Like a Grebe”

All of these activities are given with fairly simple (but sometimes impossible for humans) numbered steps and eye-catching illustrations.

There are more details at the back about all the featured animals.

I think my favorite feature is “How to Crack a Nut Like a Crow,” because crows have clearly adapted their methods.

Crows are intelligent birds, and they have learned to crack nuts by carrying them into the air and dropping them on rocks or pavement. But, some nuts are too tough, and even this treatment won’t break them open. In some places, crows have found a solution.

It’s probably best not to try this technique until you learn how to fly.

1) Find a nut.
A walnut or other tough-shelled nut is a good choice.
2) Select your perch.
Find a spot near a traffic signal above a busy road.
3) Drop your nut.
Choose a place where the nut will get run over by a car or truck.
4) Wait for the light to change.
Don’t try to collect the pieces of your smashed snack until the light has changed and traffic has stopped.
5) Enjoy!
Now you can swoop down, eat your nut, and take off before the light changes again.

All the above is contained on one page, with an illustration for each step and a large picture in the middle. So it’s a nice nonthreatening mix of words and pictures.

Curious kids will get a kick out of imagining how it would be if they could carry out these directions.

stevejenkinsbooks.com
hmhco.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

What did you think of this book?

Oct 6, 2015

Review of Swan, by Laurel Snyder

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Swan

The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova

by Laurel Snyder
illustrated by Julie Morstad

Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2015. 48 pages.
Starred Review

This is an evocative, poetic, and beautiful picture book biography of the great ballerina, Anna Pavlova.

The actual text is short on details and long on atmosphere, but it gets the story across. A well-written, still mellifluous Author’s Note at the back fills things in.

Anna started out the daughter of a laundress. Here’s how Laurel Snyder puts it in her note:

It was a hard life, and Russia under the czars was generally a world where the poor stayed poor. Anna’s life should have been dismal.

But one night Anna’s mother told her, “You are going to enter fairyland,” as the two climbed into their sleigh and sped off to the Mariinsky Theatre. There, Anna heard Tchaikovsky’s music for the first time. She watched the dancers step out onto the stage, and her life was changed forever. Anna knew what she wanted to do with her life.

The main picture book text begins with this incident of Anna and her mother going through the snow to the ballet. Julie Morstad’s illustrations are perfect for this book, capturing the beauty of Anna’s grace as a little girl in a plain dress all the way through her triumphant performances as The Dying Swan.

Here’s the poetic way Laurel Snyder tells about the start of Anna’s career:

Until one night she takes the stage . . .

Anna becomes
a glimmer, a grace.
Everyone feels it,
and the lamps shine brighter.
The room holds its breath.

It shouldn’t be that she should be
this good.
Her legs too thin,
her feet all wrong –
and ooh, those toes!
She is only a girl –
so small – so frail –
but
see her face, her flutter?

Anna was born for this.

I didn’t know before reading this book that Anna Pavlova worked to bring ballet to everyone, where before it had been primarily an art form enjoyed by the rich. But ballet changed Anna’s life, and she wanted to bring its power to others and traveled around the world doing that.

laurelsnyder.com
juliemorstad.com
chroniclekids.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/swan.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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Sep 14, 2015

Review of I See a Pattern Here, by Bruce Goldstone

Children's Nonfiction Review, Mathematical, Starred Review 0

I See a Pattern Here

by Bruce Goldstone

Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2015. 32 pages.
Starred Review

I love Bruce Goldstone’s books about math concepts. They are bright and colorful and draw kids in – and explain the math concepts in simple language, with helpful, dramatic visuals.

This one is about patterns. He explains them using simple language and has a little box giving the mathematical vocabulary where it’s appropriate. As in his other books, he starts simply and builds.

The book covers repeating patterns, then translations (“slides”), rotations (“turns”), reflections (“flips”), symmetry (“equal sides”), scaling (“changing sizes”), and tessellations (“tile patterns”). The many, many varied pictures make the concepts so clear.

For example, he uses photos of quilt blocks, tiles in the Alhambra, kaleidoscope images, lace patterns, tire treads, animals, architecture, beads, stamped patterns, and a 2000-year-old Peruvian cloak.

This is a beautiful book that will get kids noticing the patterns around them and give them a new vocabulary for talking about those patterns.

brucegoldstone.com
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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

What did you think of this book?

Sep 8, 2015

Review of Stories of my Life, by Katherine Paterson

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Stories of my Life

by Katherine Paterson

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2014. 299 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a wonderful book from a beloved writer. Katherine Paterson, former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, has lived an amazing life. She was born in China to missionary parents, was evacuated multiple times because of war, went on to be a missionary herself to Japan, became an adoptive mother, and achieved great success as a writer. There are fascinating stories here, in the hands of someone who knows how to tell a story.

The stories are from her family and friends as well as her own life. They are remarkable and entertaining. I found one a day was a good pace for reading them, like having coffee with a friend and hearing a memorable, warm and human story.

At the front of the book, she answers some common questions like, “Where do you get your ideas?” I like this paragraph from her answer:

Some of my writer friends have so many ideas, they’ll never live long enough to turn them all into books. I look at them with a certain envy, for when I finish a book I say, “Well, that was a great career while it lasted,” because I am sure I’ll never have an idea worthy of another book. But by now I’ve written a lot of books, so I must have gotten those ideas from somewhere, and that somewhere is most often from my own life. Another lesson I’ve learned along the way is that there are no truly original ideas. There are no truly original plots. As the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes said three thousand or so years ago: “There is no new thing under the sun.” Except you. Except me. Every individual is new and unique, so we may be stuck with the same old plots, but because a new person is telling the story, bringing his or her singular life to bear on the story, it is fresh and new. So the only excuse I have for daring to write is that no one else in the world would be able to tell the stories that only I can tell. And an aside to those of you wishing to write — that is your excuse as well. The raw material for our unique stories is our unique lives and perspective on life.

This is a beautiful book from someone who’s living a beautiful life.

The book is written with simple enough language that kids can read it, but it will definitely make good reading for adults, too. In fact, I could see reading this book aloud as a family. They aren’t dramatic cliff-hanger stories, but they’re cozy, warm, and interesting stories, and a delight to read.

terabithia.com
penguin.com/teen

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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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

What did you think of this book?