Review of Women in Art, by Rachel Ignotofsky

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

Women in Art

50 Fearless Creatives Who Inspired the World

written and illustrated by Rachel Ignotofsky

Ten Speed Press, 2019. 128 pages.
Review written August 5, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

I’ve gotten a little tired of collective biographies that tell about a bunch of people and after awhile they all lump together. This one was different and distinctive. It probably helped that I had it checked out while the library was closed during the pandemic, because I found I only wanted to read about one artist per day, since there was so much information packed on each spread. I was in no hurry and didn’t have to worry about having to return the book before I was done.

The stylized illustrations are wonderful, featuring a page that highlights a portrait of the artist opposite the page with the text summary of her life and accomplishments. Both the portrait and the text, though, are surrounded with highlights from her life and images of her work.

There was a huge variety in the types of art these women made. The earliest woman featured combined poetry and painting in ancient China. The book includes more painters and sculptors, but also quilters, graphic designers, filmmakers, architects, fashion designers, photographers, and animators. I’d only heard of a small fraction of them before reading this book.

This wonderful book inspired me and reading it became a delight rather than some sort of educational chore. Here’s a paragraph from the conclusion:

Throughout history, female artists have pushed boundaries, created important works, and inspired the world. Many of these artists had to struggle against sexism, classism, racism, or other obstacles to get their work seen and taken seriously. Now we can include these women in their rightful place in art history and celebrate their contributions. Let us honor their legacy by continuing to create. Build what you see in your wildest dreams! Express yourself by creating something new! Share your ideas with the world! And go out there and make your own masterpiece!

RachelIgnotofskyDesign.com
tenspeed.com

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Review of Guts, by Raina Telgemeier

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Memoir, Starred Review 0

Guts

by Raina Telgemeier

Graphix (Scholastic), 2019. 218 pages.
Review written 9/19/19 from a library book
Starred Review

Raina Telgemeier does it again! Here’s another autobiographical graphic novel (really a graphic memoir) about when she was in fourth and fifth grade. After catching the stomach flu, she began having trouble with stomach aches when she was worried about anything, and then became excessively afraid of vomiting. The problem fed on itself.

That’s easy to summarize – but seeing it lived out in graphic novel form helps the reader understand and feel for her. There are also some problems with friends and enemies (of course) and small school and family issues. Raina sees a therapist, and I like the way she gets over feeling like that means there’s something wrong with her. She also gets some actually helpful ways to cope with her fears.

Kids are going to love this – the hold list is already long, with both boys and girls on the list. I heard that one child complained there was too much vomiting, so I think a child like Raina herself who doesn’t want to hear about vomit might have trouble with it. But for kids who like gross things, that will be an additional attraction.

scholastic.com/graphix
goRaina.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 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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Review of Queen of the Sea, by Dylan Meconis

Children's Fiction Review, Graphic Novel, Historical, Starred Review 0

Queen of the Sea

by Dylan Meconis

Walker Books (Candlewick), 2019. 394 pages.
Starred Review
Review written August 20, 2019, from a library book

Queen of the Sea is a beautifully drawn graphic novel about Margaret, a girl who grows up on an island off the coast of Albion, who doesn’t know who her parents were. The only other people on the island are nuns of the Elysian order, sworn to help sailors and their families.

When Margaret prays for a friend her age, a noble lady comes to the island with her son. They are in exile after their family defied the king. Margaret and this boy grow up together, become friends – for a time. But the next new resident of the island is the deposed queen of Albion, and Margaret gets drawn into political plottings. She’s only an orphan girl, but can her actions on a distant island affect the throne?

The story is not actually based on truth, though it seems so close to royal intrigue of Elizabethan times that I wondered if it was. I like the way the author uses a different style of art for tales told by the nuns. This is a gripping but also heart-warming story with beautiful art. And after last year being on the Newbery committee, I can’t help but think that here’s a graphic novel that will be a solid contender. The story itself is solid enough, and the illustrations definitely don’t detract. Because it’s a graphic novel, this can be read quickly, but it’s a tale with some weight.

Royal intrigue, mysterious origins, an isolated island setting, and rich historical details are all to be found in this lovely graphic novel.

walkerbooksus.com

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Review of Maximillian Fly, by Angie Sage

Children's Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

Maximillian Fly

by Angie Sage

Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins), 2019. 370 pages.
Starred Review
Review written October 15, 2019, from a library book

Here’s a dystopian children’s novel where the main character is a human who has the body of a giant cockroach.

I like the way Maximillian introduces himself:

I am Fly. Maximillian Fly. I am a good creature. I am not bad, as some will tell you.

But I see you do not believe me. You do not like my carapace and my broad, flat head, and I can tell that even my beautiful indigo iridescent wings do not persuade you of my goodness. I know that humans like you call me Roach – even though I am human too. Indeed I was once a squashy Wingless baby, just as you were. But I know very well that if I were small enough you would stamp on me without a moment’s thought. Ha! But luckily for me I am much bigger than you and, I have been told, rather terrifying. So we will have no more thoughts of the trampling and crushing of carapaces. They set my mandibles on edge.

As the story begins, Maximillian sees two children from the notorious SilverShip, “which every year takes a group of young ones away from Hope, never to return,” running away from three Enforcers. The smallest of the children has a hurt foot, and Maximillian does not think they will escape. So he decides to help – to prove he is a good creature.

But helping Kaitlin Drew and her brother Jonno starts a long chain of events that puts Maximillian in trouble, too. We learn about unpleasant aspects of the city of Hope, where they are “protected” by a giant electric orb from the “Contagion” on the “Outside.” Periodically, children get sent away on a SilverShip. They’re told it’s to a wonderful island paradise, on the Outside but safe from the Contagion. However, the children who leave never return.

Trying to save some children puts Maximillian on the wrong side of the Enforcers. Next thing he know, his home is being fumigated. On top of that, one of the children has something very important, which the Chief Guardian doesn’t want to lose.

Now, there are some major coincidences in this book, and some of the details of the world-building seemed like a stretch for me.

But who knew that I could ever come to care about a giant cockroach and fondly hope for his best interests? Even if that were the only fun thing about it (it’s not), this book would be worth the read.

A fast-moving story about a Good Creature trying to help.

angiesage.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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Review of Spark, by Sarah Beth Durst

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Spark

by Sarah Beth Durst

Clarion Books, 2019. 311 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a fun fantasy about a quiet girl who tends to get overlooked. She’s one of the lucky few children who gets an egg of a storm beast to bond with and she expects to hatch a rain beast or sun beast like her father or older brother.

Everyone is surprised when her egg hatches the flashiest beast of all – a lightning beast!

Her family is convinced some sort of mistake happened. Mina knows that bonding with Pixit is not a mistake, but she still doesn’t feel adequate as the guardian of a lightning beast.

This book, like so many others, is about a 12-year-old going to school to learn magic, but this setting with dragon-like storm beasts is innovative and interesting. And there’s more. The storm beasts control the weather in their country of Alorria. But when Mina has an accident and lands outside the border, she learns that their control of the weather may have repercussions. But what can a 12-year-old girl do about that? Especially one who isn’t even sure she’s cut out to be the guardian of a lightning beast.

This is not a story about a quiet girl learning to be loud. It is the story of a quiet girl learning that being herself has power.

sarahbethdurst.com

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Review of Marshmallow Clouds, by Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek, illustrated by Richard Jones

Children's Nonfiction Review, Poetry, Starred Review 0

Marshmallow Clouds

Two Poets at Play among Figures of Speech

by Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek
illustrated by Richard Jones

Candlewick Press, 2022. 72 pages.
Review written May 13, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

I don’t usually get too excited about poetry collections, but this one had me smiling at new ways of looking at things I’d never thought of before. I started wanting to read bits aloud to a coworker. Though I’d also have to show them the beautiful images accompanying the poems.

The poets are indeed playing with ideas. First, we meet a winter tree that looks like it’s clowning around on the top of a hill, up on one leg and juggling a pie. Then there’s a meteor shower like scratches a black cat playing with an enormous ball that glitters, a fireplace like a playpen for the fire, a book as a sandwich of words and ideas, and a harp like a great golden moth as a harpist smooths the veins in its wings. Or let me type out the whole poem “Thunderstorm”:

This one’s gotten up in the night
and, not wanting to wake us,
stumbles around, bumping the walls
of the long empty hallway leading away,
now and then lighting a match
and then, just as quickly, blowing it out.

I love the images in these poems. They’re creative and so imaginative. Here’s the first stanza of a poem called “July”:

One summer day I was boiled and salted
like a peanut. I was the meat
in a heat sandwich, the dog in a hot.
I was the crimson crayon
melting in a sunny car,
the color of firecrackers and flags
and Mars, where once water
cooled the red stones.

Here’s the first stanza of a poem called “Secret”:

It’s safe to tell a secret to the stars,
aliens all. They haven’t
a word of English,
which means they are reliable
in their silence.

That poem has more about stars and secrets and fire burning up the secrets and how good it is to let them go.

And I need to stop giving examples, because there are far too many good ones. At the back, poet Ted Kooser tells what they are trying to do with this book:

Each of us is born with a gift of imagination and, as if it were a favorite cat or dog, playing with your imagination can keep it healthy and happy. The poems in this book are about fooling around, about letting one’s imagination run free with whatever it comes upon. Our idea is to encourage you to run with your own imagination, to enjoy what you come up with.

The poems in this book, combined with the simple and meditative images, filled me with delight. They’re divided into sections for Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.

A lovely collection of poems that might surprise you — as it did me.

candlewick.com

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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 Boy Who Invented the Popsicle, by Anne Renaud and Milan Pavlovic

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Boy Who Invented the Popsicle

The Cool Science Behind Frank Epperson’s Famous Frozen Treat

by Anne Renaud and Milan Pavlovic

Kids Can Press, 2019. 40 pages.
Starred Review
Review written October 23, 2019, from a library book

This is a picture book biography of Frank Epperson, the inventor of the Popsicle, with a little bit more.

I’m always impressed when children’s nonfiction manages to surprise me. The big surprise in this book is that Frank Epperson invented the Popsicle before household freezers were common. And he first experimented with making them when he was eleven years old, living in San Francisco, during an unusual cold spell.

The book shows that he was an inventor at heart, making a two-handled handcar when he was a kid. He also experimented with making flavored soda water.

The book has experiments you can do at home to go with the text. One is making your own lemon-flavored soda water. (Hmm. Is using baking soda what gave soda its name? The book doesn’t say.)

His first frozen drink on a stick happened when he tried freezing one of these drinks. Later, as an adult, when he saw people eating chocolate-covered ice cream bars, he thought he’d experiment with making more of his frozen drinks on a stick.

But he needed to freeze them at a cooler temperature than water freezes because of the sugar and flavorings included – and an experiment helps the reader understand that. And he needed to freeze them quickly, because he didn’t want the flavorings and water to separate – another experiment helps the reader understand that.

He came out with his frozen treats – which he first called the Ep-sicle – in the early 1920s. This was long before homes were typically stocked with a refrigerator-freezer, so they were mostly sold in stores and at special events.

This book gives an interesting story of ingenuity, experimentation, and implementation. The experiments give it a little something beyond the typical picture book biography.

kidscanpress.com

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Review of State of Terror, by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny, read by Joan Allen

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Mystery 0

State of Terror

by Hillary Rodham Clinton
and Louise Penny
read by Joan Allen

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2021. 15 hours, 41 minutes on 13 CDs.
Review written May 27, 2022, from a library audiobook

Normally I would never check out a novel written by a celebrity, but the pairing with Louise Penny, a distinguished mystery writer, was enough to intrigue me. Surely a former Secretary of State can write very convincingly about plausible terrorist threats.

Actually, it’s a little too convincing. The story begins with a female secretary of state recently appointed by her political rival. The new president appointed Ellen Adams essentially to ruin her political power, and they don’t like each other very well. The narrator sounded a lot like Hillary Clinton, and the set-up got me wondering if Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had disliked each other as much as the two characters do.

But the characters are in a very different situation. The previous president was “Eric Dunn,” and they go on about what an incompetent buffoon he was. There’s another scene that includes the president of Russia, I guy named Ivanov, who is portrayed as pure evil. Mind you, the secretary of state gets the better of both of them! How much is that wish fulfillment fantasy and how much is it just rational commentary on what the world could be like after our last president?

I didn’t think the writing was stellar, and the plot had things about it that I can nitpick and also that I did see coming, but it certainly held my interest and kept me awake on my commute.

Shortly after the book starts, a large bomb goes off in Europe, followed by another. And then they get evidence there will be a third bomb, and it’s going to happen on the same bus in Frankfurt where Ellen Adams’ reporter son has been following a lead.

But that’s only the beginning. Who is responsible for the bombs? And what are their plans now?

It was probably a little self-indulgent of the author to make it the female secretary of state who figures out the answers and deals with tyrants and saves the day. I mean, why not write a book where the hero reminds everyone of you?

I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I reveal that some of the villains are right-wing idealists in the United States, even in positions of power. They’re willing to work with Al Qaida and bring terror to American soil if it will put a liberal president out of power and start things fresh, back to “real” America.

This was published in October 2021, and would have been written well before that. I thought it was interesting that even in this scenario, the authors didn’t think of having the right-wing talking about election fraud. And they talked about the danger that the Taliban would take over Afghanistan when they had to pull out troops based on the deal made by “Eric Dunn.”

So it was all rather disturbing. And probably a touch too realistic.

I don’t think there’s any danger that people who are politically conservative will want to read this book. If you pretty much agree with Hillary Clinton’s assessment of Donald Trump, I mean “Eric Dunn,” then this book emphasizes how many bad results could still come to pass from his presidency.

But try to listen to it as a realistic thriller of what could have happened, but is not happening in real life.

simonandschuster.com

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Boundaries Be Gone! Using Stories to Intersect and Connect – ALA Annual Conference Day Four

Conference Corner 0

On Monday, June 27, 2022, the fourth day of ALA Annual Conference, I stumbled a little late into a program called “Boundaries Be Gone! Using Stories to Intersect and Connect.” I missed the first speaker, Dr. Cora Dunkley, but have some great notes from those who followed:

The first speaker I got to listen to was Michaela Goade, the Caldecott-winning illustrator of We Are Water Protectors.

She is indigenous and grew up in Juneau and Sitka.

She wants kids to feel seen and powerful. Indigenous roots are a superpower.

She grew up with shame. Storytelling is so important, and the books she had weren’t written by indigenous people. But the native kid lit community is growing! There are more tribe-specific books. We’re all working together toward greater awareness.

These different communities have their own unique histories and traditions. They’re trying to communicate the breadth. There’s no one way to be indigenous.

She’s part of an organization making Native books for Native peoples. Working with authors from different indigenous communities. They use the author as the anchor. They focus on emotion and universal calls to action.

Unfortunately, We Are Water Protectors will always be relevant.

We need non-indigenous folks to see and love on these books.

The next speaker was author David Bowles.

There’s a liminal space in borders. He grew up in a transnational place. Borders can be porous but important. You see yourself as someone defined by the boundary. Inside of you is this liminal space, a convergence of heritages.

Growing up bilingual emphasizes linguistic duality.

He’s from a family of storytellers. His grandmother was a cuentista who refueled the stories.

His mother took him to the library every day in Kindergarten and he saw that the language in books was different. He knew he wanted to do something with story. He’s both a cuentista and a writer.

Even growing up on the border, the books had nothing about Mexican heritage. He felt a calling and needed to be a teacher first, paying a debt to the community.

The system kept people in their place. He needed to breach the boundary between teacher and student. He didn’t want to be above them talking down to them.

How do our boundaries intersect? Boundaries are important, but not impermeable.

He began a journey digging into his roots, de-centering the European part.

Cross over boundaries in yourself and reach out in solidarity to others.

A central thread in his work is rooted in the experience of living on the border. He wants these books to broadcast to others that these stories matter and are beautiful. There’s so much overlap in humanity.

Banning books tries to make permeable boundaries into concrete walls. If you control what kids are exposed to, it’s easier to try to make everyone the same.

After the speakers were questions and answers. My favorite comment from that was when Michaela Goade said that being the first (Indigenous Caldecott Winner) feels great but not great. The tricky part is that then you’re expected to be an ambassador.

I went to a couple more sessions, including the Stonewall Awards celebration, wrapping up a wonderful time at ALA Annual Conference, in person again.

Review of Bringing Back the Wolves, by Jude Isabella, illustrated by Kim Smith

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science 0

Bringing Back the Wolves

How a Predator Restored an Ecosystem

by Jude Isabella
illustrated by Kim Smith

Kids Can Press, 2020. 40 pages.
Review written August 22, 2020, from a library book

Bringing Back the Wolves is not flashy, but it’s simply presented nonfiction in a picture book format – and I learned a whole lot.

This book explains that all the wolves in Yellowstone National Park were gone by 1926. The government had offered a bounty on wolves and other predators in its quest to tame the west. But what nobody at the time realized was that would affect the entire ecosystem.

The book talks about the food web and food chains. But it shows that wolves affected the ecosystem far beyond ways you’d expect. Especially effective for me were spreads at the beginning and end of the book showing a valley in Yellowstone’s northern range in 1995 just before wolves were reintroduced, contrasted with a picture of that same valley twenty-five years later.

In between those spreads, it’s clearly laid out how much the wolves affected. First, it was the large herds of elk, which in 1995 were five times larger than in 1968. Fewer elk affected which plants and trees could survive and thrive. That affected animals in the middle of the food chain as well as bringing more birds and raptors to Yellowstone. Then, especially affecting the landscape, beavers came back, building dams and reviving the ecosystem on their part. Songbirds returning mean that the park even sounds different than it did in 1995. I’d no idea how much is affected, down to the insects in the soil.

Here’s how the author finishes this book, on the spread with the picture of the revitalized valley:

Twenty-five years after their reintroduction, about 500 wolves roam the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, staking their claim in the food web. Wolves have helped to balance the ecosystem just by being themselves, apex predators. But perhaps even more important, studying the wolves has exposed just how complex and interconnected the ecosystem is, revealing surprising links no one could have imagined.

kidscanpress.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 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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