Eddy is the daughter of Charles Darwin. Her full name is Henrietta, but she prefers to go by Eddy. This book is about how she walks along the sand walk that her father walks, just to think. No one knows exactly what questions, Eddy and her father posed on these rocks, the author poses the question “are fairies real?”. The reader sees how Charles teaches his daughter to have an open mind and the way his daughter teaches her father that not everything is as it seems. Overall, this was a lovely book and unlike many nonfiction books, would be very easy to read at story time. 

 

This is a story about an Egyptian American girl who is going to an American school in the third grade for the first time. She becomes a little embarrassed by both her lunch and her language being something the kids don’t know. With the encouragement of the teacher, she uses her grandmother’s quilt to help show everybody that language is unique, beautiful, amazing, and helps make everybody friendlier. The class, then learns to make all their names in Arabic and the teacher makes a paper quilt to show the rest of the school. The idea is so fantastic that a neighboring classroom does the same thing, but in Japanese script to match a student in that class. This story is lovely. In the US, it is rare for most schools to teach separate languages from early ages. But this book reminds all that language is a beautiful thing and just because it doesn’t sound American doesn’t mean it isn’t, as most American words derive from other languages. 

 

This picture book is long but feels very short. In this book Hans Christian Andersen is riding in a stagecoach with a young Elsa. He’s talking with Elsa and entertaining her by telling her the story of his life, including all the magic he’s created on paper. The way this story is done, it’s both biography and a fairytale in its own right. Certain pages have one wanting to pull out old copies of Princess and the Pea, or The Snow Queen. This book is lovely and very well done. 

 

This book is inspired by the work of Jella Lepman.  Jella was a woman who thought after the war that Germany’s kids needed books as much as they needed food and shelter. They needed a way to feel safe and comfortable. This book is about two children who experience her book exhibit, and how that helped take their mind off their hunger and community destruction. This book was simply lovely, and the real-life efforts that are talked about in the back as well as how the organization still lives on today. This is a must have a book for every library collection. 

 

I almost like this book. I really liked it in the beginning until the stanza about praying, and the end, where everything is under god’s purview. That immediately means that this book cannot be used in story time for many librarians. It’s such a shame because it rhymes well. The pictures are great and everything about it works. Until religion is mentioned. 

 Did you read The Invention of Hugo Cabaret, or watch the movie Hugo and get fascinated by the automaton? This book is an in-depth look at one specific automaton called the Monk, now held at the Met. This automaton is over 500 years old and is still in working order. This book goes in depth about how it was made and runs, and who could possibly have been the builder. It does this by showing various automaton that have been found, as well as comparing it to historic art and history of people who would have collected such things. It mixes intrigue and imagination and makes one want to learn more and see more pictures of automaton that still exist. This book appears well researched. There are plenty of citations in the back and the chart in the appendix where they compare the various automaton was also helpful. Overall, this is a fascinating book that when somebody picks it up might wonder how these could’ve existed for over 500 years while AI seems to be the new big thing in our current society. 

 

This book is unique. It takes place over a year and a half in which a father is out of work. That is in the background of the entire story but the main little girl is not crying or yelling or worried. We see through the eyes of a child how they cope with a parent not finding work. This book focuses on the tree this girl has befriended and how she sees it change through the seasons and what she does to make everyone happy and relaxed. This book is more than just one thing. It’s a simple but contemplative story. It’s one of those stories that normalizes things like a parent out of work. It’s very well done and very heartwarming. 

 

This is one of those picture books that is both joyful and sad. In this book Ali tells his grandmother he wishes the fighting would stop and he could go home, but she lets him know that home is where the people you love are. Home is not a place. Home can be anywhere. We read about Ali immigrating from Kabul Afghanistan to Canada. And while that part of the story seems simple and brave, the adult reader knows it was hard and dangerous. The story is very well done and very contemplative. I’m glad it exists and I’m glad I read it. 

 

This story is about a family and their two trees. Brita is a little girl who is absolutely positive that the trees talk to each other. Not only do they talk to each other but they’re friends. Her dad tells her nicely when he doesn’t believe her. Her sister tells her not so nicely when she doesn’t believe her. But Brita still believes. And she sets out to prove that she’s correct. I really liked the intro to this book where the author gives a little bit of information about trees in real life and it just helps push this sweet story into something that will want to be read over and over again. The illustrations are unique mainly because they look like they were illustrated by a child. A good child but a child, so you feel that this is the story of a child for a child. 

 

Save the whales and save our oceans. That is the purpose of this simply wonderful book. In it our main character takes a boat out to sea. One day in a storm, the mean character is saved by a whale. And eventually our human character has to save the whale from the trash buildup in their system from all the pollution in the oceans. This story is super simple but effective. It gets to the message, the message is understandable, and the message is actionable. Overall, this is a fantastic book that kids will want to read over and over.