A Walk in the Woods: a Loving Collaboration

Lynn: In 2019 old friends, Nikki Grimes and Jerry Pinkney asked each other why they hadn’t done a book together? They embarked on the work for A Walk in the Woods (Holiday/Neal Porter, 2023) choosing the rare theme of an African American child interacting with nature. Sadly, Jerry died before finishing the artwork. The collaborative work had brought them both joy and it was an even harder blow for Grimes to learn of Jerry’s death on her birthday.

Fortunately for all of us, Jerry’s son Brian decided to finish the manuscript using his father’s watercolor techniques. The result is this sensitive, beautiful, and moving book.

After the death of his father, a grief-stricken boy finds an envelope from his father, revealing a map of the woods they had walked together and a red X marking a spot. At first, the boy’s heart aches, revisiting the places he and his father explored. But the farther he walks the more his grief is soothed. “Can you smile and cry and the same time?” he wonders and the answer of course is yes. Grimes’ verses capture the sights and sounds of the woods and the inner hurt of the grieving boy. Readers walk with the boy as nature does its healing work. Deeply evocative, beautifully written and illustrated, this book is a gem! It is a celebration of a creative life and a remarkable depiction of the healing power of nature and love. Wonderful back matter includes notes from Nikki Grimes and Brian Pinkney.

It was a special treat me to read this book at the American Library Association’s recent conference in Chicago and even more of a treat to have it signed by Nikki and Brian. The book means so much to adults who have read and loved the work of these three talented people. But more importantly, this book will speak to and move the children it is intended for. This is must purchase for every collection serving children.

The Hospital Book – Tears and Fears Explained

Lynn: Children do go to the hospital despite all we do to protect them. And that can be a truly scary experience! Lisa Brown’s new picture book, The Hospital Book (Holiday/Neal Porter, 2023) does an outstanding job of taking the mystery out of the experience. It is at once encouraging while also acknowledging the fears and reactions that are normal for a child in this situation. “I cried nine times when I went to the hospital,” says the little girl about her appendicitis attack and surgery. “The first time was when my stomach hurt.”

The story progresses step by step through the experience from the emergency room, to the testing, admissions, surgical prep, and recovery. Illustrations clearly show an IV needle being inserted, an X-Ray being done, and counting down from 10 during anesthesia being administered. These are all scary processes for any child and they are well explained. The text is straightforward and honest with explanations that are perfectly suited to a child’s understanding. As someone who has had multiple surgeries, I applaud this forthright and helpful book, having experienced these same fears and tears as an adult! This book helps take some of the mystery and scariness out of what is unavoidably a scary experience.

Lisa Brown’s busy appealing illustrations add to the interest as well as adding additional information. This is a must-purchase for libraries and a great choice for sharing with children healthy AND experiencing hospitalization. Half the fear of any experience like this is the unknown and Hospital Book takes a big step by taking away at least some of the tears.

The Joy of Curiosity – New Nature Picture Books

Lynn: One of the great traits of humanity is curiosity. It blossoms in childhood as we absorb and wonder about the world around us. Encouraging and nurturing that ability is a focus of two new and outstanding picture books that I am reviewing today.

How Birds Sleep (Astra/Mineeditionsus, 2023) by Sally Pedry and David Obuchowski.
How DO birds sleep? It’s a question I’ve often thought about myself as the night settles in and the world quiets. Obuchowski was also curious about this question, later stumbling on a book in a used book store that examined the science around the question. Like most things about birds, it varies from species to species. This is a fascinating exploration of a question that many children ask too and done in a lovely bed-time book style. Sarah Pedry’s illustrations are beautiful and soothing. Using familiar and unfamiliar birds labeled on each page, the book takes readers through the world of sleeping birds and their fascinating ways of sleeping. Some sleep in huddles, some hanging upside down and some even fly in their sleep.

Back matter includes much more information about the subject, how the book came to be and suggestions of how to help birds being affected by climate change.

The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish: What Magic Lies Beneath? (Candlewick, 2023) by Chloe Savage. This charming picture book celebrates the magic of following your curiosity.

Dr. Morley has always yearned to discover the truth about the fable of the Giant Arctic Jellyfish. Is it real or just a lovely sailor’s yarn? While this scientific journey is an imaginary tale, much about such a research effort is true. As Dr. Morley and her crew search the Arctic seas they encounter Narwhals, a pod of Belugas, freezing temperatures, monotony, frustration and even a Polar Bear. And, of course, there is something under the water all the time that trails the scientists.

Chloe Savage’s intricate whimsical illustrations reveal a cutaway view of the research vessel from top to bottom. The scientists and crew, clad in matching red and white sweaters, go about their tasks in labs, engine rooms, kitchens and bathrooms or out on ice flows and scuba diving into the icy seas. Each page is a delight, filled with small touches of humor that reward careful perusing. The book is one of those delightful gems that provides more each time it is read.

Elf Dog and Owl Head

Lynn: Forgive me for the radio silence! I’ve been traveling and then re-grouping from traveling but I have some fun books queued up to write about. I’m starting with a completely delightful book that is perfect for classroom and bedtime read-alouds. As an aside, I’ve been eager to see what creative work came out of the COVID shutdowns and the isolation experienced by the world. M.T. Anderson’s Elf Dog and Owl Head (Candlewick, 2023) for middle-grade readers is a wonderful reflection on how many younger readers experienced that event. A lot of kids are going to be nodding their heads in total agreement.

A sickness is keeping Clay and his family at home and they have gotten on each other’s last nerve! While rambling in the woods behind his house trying to play solo frisbee, Clay encounters a beautiful white dog with startling red ears. She is, of course, magical, and in adopting her, Clay discovers the unseen magical world and secret ways that she reveals to him. It is a glorious secret and one that changes Clay’s and his family’s lives as well as that of some very unusual woodland inhabitants.

This is a wryly witty romp through fairy tale tropes including a wily wyrm, sleeping misanthropic giants, cruel fey, and owl-headed people. The character portrayals are affectionate and spot-on, particularly 14-year-old DiRossi who is treasuring her new adolescent disdain for all things familiar, especially her family. Clay, who yearns for normal and his friends, is the main protagonist, learning how to truly be a friend to someone who is not yourself and how to look beyond the expected.

Black and white pencil sketch illustrations by Junyi Wu pepper the pages, adding to the enchantment.

Dancing in my Kitchen – a Re-issue of Need a House? Call Ms. Mouse!

Lynn: I have long been cheering for the work of the New York Review Children’s Collection, re-issuing classic children’s books that have gone out of print. But when I opened one of their latest deliveries, I was dancing around my kitchen! Yes! Inside was their publication of George Mendoza’s Need a House? Call Ms. Mouse (NYRB, 2023)! Originally published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1981 the book was one of my sons’ ALL TIME favorite books and we nearly wore out the pages reading it over and over. When my grandsons came along, of course, I hauled out the book for them and they were mesmerized. I am so delighted to see this book reach a new generation of readers!

Ms. Henrietta Mouse is world famous architect, designing the perfect house for each of her woodland clients. She know just what features each creature needs, building a house that is perfectly suited for each one’s unique needs. Doris Susan Smith’s exquisitely detailed illustrations are the true highlight of the book. After introducing Ms. Mouse, shown working in her awesome office and home, each bright 2-page spread features a Ms. Mouse-designed home of a particular creature. We see Squirrel’s space-ship style airy treehouse, Frog’s tri-level lily pad, lizard’s special beach house and many more. My boys of both generations would study each design carefully, critiquing the features and marveling at the ideas. Each time we read it we would chose a favorite design, dreaming of what living in such a house would be like! Each intricate cutaway design took time to pour over as there is so much to absorb! What was better, Rabbit’s root cellar at the top of his burrow, Owl’s eyrie at the peak of a tower, complete with telescope and library or maybe Bear’s cozy den with plenty of honey storage space?

Doris Smith’s bright and imaginative illustrations are just the same but Mendoza’s text has been updated a bit. I’m not sure it was necessary. After all Ms. Mouse was already setting an example as a brilliant professional female with a successful business of her own! The changes are slight happily and this is a gem of a book deserving a new audience of young architects, designers, nature lovers and all young readers who love masterful illustrations! Thank you New York Review for this treasure!

Dealing with Trauma – Erin Bow’s New MG Book about Life After the Tragedy

Lynn: Students and teachers across our country have seen active shooter drills become a regular event. All of us have reeled with the reality of school shootings in our nation and most of us cannot understand the senseless deaths of the innocents who have fallen to this epidemic. Why the issue of guns cannot be dealt with is a gaping wound. But here’s another important question to ponder. What happens AFTER the tragedy to the children who somehow survive it? Erin Bow addresses this tragically relevant question in her newest book, Simon (Sort of) Says (Disney/Hyperion, 2023).

Twelve-year-old Simon is the lone survivor of a horrific school shooting and after a year of therapy and home-schooling, is returning to school. But this school is in the town of Grin and Bear It, Nebraska where Simon and his family are making a fresh start. Simon wants to put the shooting behind him and he also wants to put the incessant media focus behind him with the looks, the whispers, and the sympathy. He just wants to fly under the radar and be a normal kid.

Grin and Bear It is the ideal place because it is a National Quiet Zone where internet, cell phones, TV, and all media are banned in order to not interfere with the Radio Telescope arrays and the astrophysicists listening for signals from space. It couldn’t be more perfect. He makes friends, acquires a service dog puppy to socialize and things are looking good. Simon is a bit concerned about his friend Agate’s intentions of providing an alien message to encourage the scientists whose funding may be in jeopardy and he suspects his teacher may know about his past from the sorrowful looks she gives him. Mostly life seems to be going as he hoped. But Simon should know from experience that life seldom does what you expect.

This is an extraordinary character-driven story with moments of hilarity and a cast of characters so richly developed that they feel like family. The humor is perfectly dialed in for tween readers and some of the action is rather manic—also perfect for the tastes of young readers. But the core of this story is a subject tragically timely and handled with masterful sensitivity and ringing with truth. What is it like to live with such terrifying trauma and what is it like to be the object of overwhelming pity? What does it feel like to be reminded every minute of the past by the reactions of strangers to your very presence? Through Bow’s skillful and sensitive prose, readers experience what Simon feels and the experience is shattering. I know I will never think about trauma and the reactions to trauma in the same way.

On a lighter note—I loved the portrayal of the adults in the story—particularly Simon’s parents who have also suffered trauma and are recovering in their own ways. Simon’s coffee-loving mortician mother and deacon/sackbut playing father are worthy of a book by themselves as are his friends, Agate and Kevin. The cover of this book picks up on the humor in the story but I think it misses the deeply empathetic focus of the book.

This is an early-in-the-year publication but I think it will reside firmly at the top of my best list this year. Brilliantly written and immensely entertaining as well as perception-changing, this incredible story deserves awards.

“A Double Dose of Hard” – a New Middle Grade Book About Figuring Out the Rules of Life

Lynn: Lawrence and his family have had a “double dose of hard” lately. In Chrystal D. Giles new book, Not an Easy Win (Random, 2023), Lawrence’s dad is in prison, he, his mom and sister have had to move three times since and now are staying with their unwelcoming grandmother. In his new school, where Lawrence is a rare boy of color, the bullies line up to beat him up and as the story opens he is expelled for fighting. His mother negotiates his finishing 7th grade in an online program and he has to spend the day working at the rec center, an after-school program for kids. There, Lawrence discovers a chess program, a group of friends, and an enemy who might have been a friend..

Giles puts readers squarely in the shoes of 12-year-old Lawrence, doing a masterful job of walking us through the painfully authentic emotions of this endearing tween struggling to understand his upside down world and find his way. Lawrence feels that somehow everything that has happened to his family is his fault while at the same time, he is sure he is being blamed unfairly for everything – a feeling that will connect with 6th graders everywhere. Fascinated by the game of chess, Lawrence develops not only the skills for the game but for managing his temper and dealing with the issues in his life. It is done with great finesse and Lawrence’s progress and set-backs feel true.

The entire cast of characters is vivid and fully rounded from his stressed cranky grandmother, to the kids at the rec center and even to his absent father. Lawrence and his hard-fought wins are as heart-warming as they are believable. I was rooting for him from page one and so will very reader! Check!

Scieszka’s Dada Nonsense to Send Off 2022

Lynn: I have a tendency toward morose reflection in the last week of a waning year. An antidote is needed and I found an outstanding one in Jon Scieszka’s The Real Dada Mother Goose: A Treasury of Nonsense (Candlewick, 2022). This delightful book is just what the reading doctor prescribed for diverting gloom and eliciting laughter.

Just to refresh: Dada is creating art through humor and absurdity. And what could be better to take us smiling into the New Year? Scieszka takes his start with the classic collection The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fisher Wright, published by Rand McNally in 1916. Trust me, it is just the platform for an incredible dive into what imagination and humor can do. Scieszka chose 6 well-known Mother Goose Rhymes. He begins each of 6 chapters with the original rhyme and then follows with Dada word play on the rhymes. Hey Diddle Diddle, for example, has the Dada treatment applied with a Haiku, a recipe, a Pop Quiz and a map. Hickory Dickory Dock appears in Egyptian Hieroglyphs, a Crossword puzzle and an “N + 7” code. Each new poem is a puzzle and each is a wonderfully clever.

Julia Rothman’s illustrations are done in mixed media. They are created in the style of the original Mother Goose book but, using Dada style, she includes whimsical touches including a yellow goose that appears throughout the book. The book design too is masterfully done making it appealing, easy to read and to appreciate the many details while also giving a nod to the reader’s sense of the absurd.

Also provided are Notes on all the forms, puzzles and codes used throughout the book. These are really fun to read and it is impossible not to want to instantly start creating your own versions. Included here too is a Mother Goose history and information about Blanche Fisher Wright.

This would be a fantastic book to use in a language arts classroom to read aloud, as a sponge activity with real value and as a writing prompt. I guarantee it will take you into the New Year smiling.

Matt Phelan Soars with The Sheep, the Rooster and the Duck

Lynn: Did you know that a sheep, a rooster, and a duck (with a little help from Ben Franklin) saved a young America from a potential French usurper? At least that is the tale according to Matt Phelan in his new illustrated chapter book, The Sheep, the Rooster and the Duck (Harper/Greenwillow, 2022). This charming alternate history is packed with humor, plenty of wonderful real historical tidbits, wacky secret societies, evil plots and brave daring-do. Add mesmerists, Marie Antoinette, 2 bright young French servants, spies and a balloonist mouse and you have quite an adventure.

To begin: Ben Franklin really was living in France in the 1780’s lobbying France for assistance. He really was inventing all sorts of things and a sheep, a rooster and a duck really were the first living pilots in the first hot air balloon flight in 1783. And there really were spies and secret societies all over the place. What more could you want?

So Matt Phelan and his ever-inventive imagination takes all these things and gifts readers with a story. Bernadette, an inventive Sheep, Jean-Luc a military tactician Duck and Pierre, a swashbuckling swordsman Rooster, are the foundation of a secret society trying to prevent Franklin’s notebook full of dangerous designs from being stolen, turned into weapons and endangering France and the world. They enlist the aid of Franklin’s young caretaker and servant Emile. Before you can say Mon Dieu, Franklin and his notebook fall into the hands of the Franz Mesmer and the dastardly Count Cagliostro who is scheming to become the King of America! Zounds!

This delightfully wacky story is peppered with Phelan’s charming black and white illustrations that add wonderfully to the book. And – take heart, although Emile’s quite life is changed forever, the world was saved – at least for a while.

A wonderful Author’s Note explains the where the origin of the story came from and provides many historical facts.This is a great choice for a classroom read aloud or to enjoy a chapter at a time at bedtime.

Madani’s Best Game – a Story of the Beautiful Game

Lynn: Madani's best game I hope this World Cup, despite its many issues, is bringing love of the Beautiful Game to more Americans and bringing a clearer understanding of how it is loved around the world. I know many American children now play soccer on recreational and school teams but the book I am writing about today is about how millions of kids really play the game and what it can mean. Madani’s Best Game (Eerdman’s, 2022) is by Spanish author Fran Pintadera and translated from Spanish.

A young narrator confides the story of his neighborhood team where the best player was the one who could kick the ball the hardest – until Madani arrived. Not only is Madani the best football player anyone has ever seen but he stands out because he plays barefoot. Madani can do everything with a ball: slide it, twirl it, pass it and SCORE! When Madani has the ball, the whole world stops to watch. The team knows Madani has been saving his money. He walks instead of taking the bus, he gives up his afternoon snacks and his tells the team that when he has enough he is going shopping downtown. With an important game coming up, the team hopes his going to buy a pair of cleats. With cleats, Madani would be unstoppable!

I will leave it for you to discover what Madani uses his saved money to buy but the result will melt every reader’s heart.Truly this is the story of a game often played barefoot, on dusty ground or city streets, sometimes with patched balls or balls made of anything available. But wonderfully, this is also a story of a game uniting people from all over, breaking barriers of immigration and poverty. And, it is also a story of love.

Raquel Catalina’s warm illustration are done in pencil, colored pencil and gouache and they beautifully bring the energy and spirit of the story to life. This is a terrific book to read aloud during this World Cup season, or any football season, and to use as a discussion starter.