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librarybonanza
Age: K-2nd grade
What ever could be in that enormous lost and found box at school? When Justin looses his hat, he must face his fears by going to talk to the old janitor in order to find his hat. A well-written semi-mystery to read aloud about the ominous lost and found box at school.
What ever could be in that enormous lost and found box at school? When Justin looses his hat, he must face his fears by going to talk to the old janitor in order to find his hat. A well-written semi-mystery to read aloud about the ominous lost and found box at school.
Animals: Cats
Music: Singing, street performance
A full, satisfying story that takes place over a long period of time which is great for exposing children to stories that have plots that exist past the here and now.
Music: Singing, street performance
A full, satisfying story that takes place over a long period of time which is great for exposing children to stories that have plots that exist past the here and now.
Animals: Guinea Pig
I love that Valentino is a real picture and everything else is art. Bravo to the photoshopper that detailed each fine hair.
I love that Valentino is a real picture and everything else is art. Bravo to the photoshopper that detailed each fine hair.
Age: 4th-6th grade
Time: summer 1968
Plot: 11-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters travel to Oakland, CA to visit their mother (Cecile) for the first time since she abandoned them seven years ago. Upon receiving a cold and careless greeting, the sisters are taken to Cecile's house where they are banished from the kitchen and forced to eat take-out food every night on the floor. Although Delphine feels somewhat affronted by Cecile's hostile attitude, Delphine brushes Cecile off as crazy in order to avoid emotions that may cause her more trouble. Warned to stay out of the house as long as possible, the sisters go for free breakfast and classes at a camp hosted by the Black Panthers. Delphine finds out that the Black Panthers aren't as radical as the news makes them out to be and she learns that their pride is very similar to the lessons her father taught her growing up.
Very unique handling of a revolutionary group that shouldn't get parents in a huff about aggrandizing militant revolutionary groups. Brief mentions of anti-establishment and anti-police. Excellent perspective of self-appreciation in a world where black girls are taught to appreciate white people. Also helps provide an understanding behind the way a person's personality forms.
Time: summer 1968
Plot: 11-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters travel to Oakland, CA to visit their mother (Cecile) for the first time since she abandoned them seven years ago. Upon receiving a cold and careless greeting, the sisters are taken to Cecile's house where they are banished from the kitchen and forced to eat take-out food every night on the floor. Although Delphine feels somewhat affronted by Cecile's hostile attitude, Delphine brushes Cecile off as crazy in order to avoid emotions that may cause her more trouble. Warned to stay out of the house as long as possible, the sisters go for free breakfast and classes at a camp hosted by the Black Panthers. Delphine finds out that the Black Panthers aren't as radical as the news makes them out to be and she learns that their pride is very similar to the lessons her father taught her growing up.
Very unique handling of a revolutionary group that shouldn't get parents in a huff about aggrandizing militant revolutionary groups. Brief mentions of anti-establishment and anti-police. Excellent perspective of self-appreciation in a world where black girls are taught to appreciate white people. Also helps provide an understanding behind the way a person's personality forms.
Religion: Judaism
Tough Issue: Death
I appreciate that the illustrator chose to draw oxygen tubes on the grandpa, providing a realistic portrayal.
Tough Issue: Death
I appreciate that the illustrator chose to draw oxygen tubes on the grandpa, providing a realistic portrayal.
Age: Preschool-1st grade
When someone leaves the chicken coop open and the chicks run-a-muck, it's up to Peg and Cat to use their math skills to help solve their poultry predicament. I love that the story is set atop graph paper, and that algebraic equations scatter the sky, and there's a cute song about counting chicks, and I love the tone of the story, but the final solution for wrangling up the chicks is accidental, requiring no math. Pretty anticlimactic for the general purpose of the story.
A side note, math is used as supplemental fun. It is not the strict purpose or plot of the story.
When someone leaves the chicken coop open and the chicks run-a-muck, it's up to Peg and Cat to use their math skills to help solve their poultry predicament. I love that the story is set atop graph paper, and that algebraic equations scatter the sky, and there's a cute song about counting chicks, and I love the tone of the story, but the final solution for wrangling up the chicks is accidental, requiring no math. Pretty anticlimactic for the general purpose of the story.
A side note, math is used as supplemental fun. It is not the strict purpose or plot of the story.
Age: Preschool+
A perfect perspective on friendship for socially-distant kids that choose to be alone but may benefit from one special friend that shares in their uniqueness. From the beginning, we don't feel sorry for Oliver because he is content alone. When he wants a friend to communicate with, we are happy that he finds one, just as different as he is. I appreciated that it was Oliver's choice to find a person friend, not society or grown-ups.
The book's beauty lies in the short length (so it doesn't seem preachy) and the simple transition from being alone to having a special friend.
A perfect perspective on friendship for socially-distant kids that choose to be alone but may benefit from one special friend that shares in their uniqueness. From the beginning, we don't feel sorry for Oliver because he is content alone. When he wants a friend to communicate with, we are happy that he finds one, just as different as he is. I appreciated that it was Oliver's choice to find a person friend, not society or grown-ups.
The book's beauty lies in the short length (so it doesn't seem preachy) and the simple transition from being alone to having a special friend.
Age: Preschool+
Awash in the glory of storytelling, Mr. Zinger helps a little boy make up a story from scratch. This book can be just as inspirational for the child listener as the adult reader!
Awash in the glory of storytelling, Mr. Zinger helps a little boy make up a story from scratch. This book can be just as inspirational for the child listener as the adult reader!
Age: Preschool+
Family: Younger brother, older sister
Food: Trying to make a kid eat what he doesn't want to eat
I felt like this was a lot stronger than "A Few Blocks" mainly because the imagination and the real world blended more cohesively, with each one distinct and recognizeable. You can see the imagination laying on top of reality. For example, an outline of a ferocious dinosaur is set atop a cat walking down the hallway; the outlines of spaceships and aliens are set atop kitchen countertops, curtains, and a table. As the imagination slips away, we can see the unreal world slowly disappear, e.g. as Ferdie's dinosaur tail slowly fades away.
A perfect celebration of imagination, creativity, and eating "unlikeable" food.
Family: Younger brother, older sister
Food: Trying to make a kid eat what he doesn't want to eat
I felt like this was a lot stronger than "A Few Blocks" mainly because the imagination and the real world blended more cohesively, with each one distinct and recognizeable. You can see the imagination laying on top of reality. For example, an outline of a ferocious dinosaur is set atop a cat walking down the hallway; the outlines of spaceships and aliens are set atop kitchen countertops, curtains, and a table. As the imagination slips away, we can see the unreal world slowly disappear, e.g. as Ferdie's dinosaur tail slowly fades away.
A perfect celebration of imagination, creativity, and eating "unlikeable" food.
Age: High school+
Back cover: "In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska's ice. Thus was Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.
But on its final test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.
Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastates and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue's widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenage boy to support, but she she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history."
The main characters were the biggest let down. Briar Wilkes' character doesn't have one unique quality about it. Her character is formed by the plot and she doesn't stick out in any way or offer any emotional characteristics. When she enters her devastated city, there is no real emotional response. There's one line at the very end of the book where she wishes that someone would come in and exterminate all the zombies because they were people once--and that's about it. No nostalgia. No reflection. Nothing. Zeke Wilkes is a believable teenage boy with his reckless behavior, egotism, and aptness to make mistakes. Although it's annoying, it's believable and I liked it. However, I got ultra-peeved at the end when he's gleefully skipping around his house in search of answers after just having witnessed people dying and almost dying himself. He didn't exactly mature through the experience, did he? Another reviewer pointed out that the two main characters' biggest flaws was their complete lack of control over their situations. They were being pushed and pulled by different people from this building to this passage to this road.
Priest had a way of losing me in her action scenes, where I couldn't imagine it happening in my mind's eye.
Amidst these large qualms, I'm a bit indifferent about the book. It was okay. The plot was interesting, unique, and moved along nicely. I liked the brown font. 's about it, I guess.
Back cover: "In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska's ice. Thus was Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.
But on its final test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.
Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastates and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue's widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenage boy to support, but she she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history."
The main characters were the biggest let down. Briar Wilkes' character doesn't have one unique quality about it. Her character is formed by the plot and she doesn't stick out in any way or offer any emotional characteristics. When she enters her devastated city, there is no real emotional response. There's one line at the very end of the book where she wishes that someone would come in and exterminate all the zombies because they were people once--and that's about it. No nostalgia. No reflection. Nothing. Zeke Wilkes is a believable teenage boy with his reckless behavior, egotism, and aptness to make mistakes. Although it's annoying, it's believable and I liked it. However, I got ultra-peeved at the end when he's gleefully skipping around his house in search of answers after just having witnessed people dying and almost dying himself. He didn't exactly mature through the experience, did he? Another reviewer pointed out that the two main characters' biggest flaws was their complete lack of control over their situations. They were being pushed and pulled by different people from this building to this passage to this road.
Priest had a way of losing me in her action scenes, where I couldn't imagine it happening in my mind's eye.
Amidst these large qualms, I'm a bit indifferent about the book. It was okay. The plot was interesting, unique, and moved along nicely. I liked the brown font. 's about it, I guess.