Picture books for everyone

 

The Queen on Our Corner by Lucy Christopher

We see, sometimes, books about the unhoused. Mostly these books show us how such people are "just like us". We see people down on their luck, for whom this is a temporary situation. What Christopher has done here is presented us with a more stereotypical homeless person, someone who seems to struggle with some mental health issues and who doesn't fit into a "normal" lifestyle. Seeing the "queen" through the narrator's eyes we see a person worthy of dignity and respect as well as empathy. We are encouraged simply to see and care about people rather than making value judgement. While this messaging may not land with very young kids, it is an important one to share with older kids. 

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Non-fiction book review - Incubators

 

Incubators by Paige V. Polinsky

There are things that we never put a lot of thought into their development and I would certainly put incubators in that class. I imagine most of us don't think about them at all unless we know a child who is born premature. A graphic novel is a great way to share the history of an invention's development. We can visual each step along the way. While this particular book is perhaps overly narrated, the illustrations support the text well. 

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Book review - Operation Sisterhood

 

Title: Operation Sisterhood

Author: Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Genre: realistic fiction

Similar books: The Swag is in the Socks by Kelly J Baptiste

                      Take Back the Block by Chrystal D Giles

Rating:

 

 a solid read

Summary (provided by publisher): Bo and her mom always had their own rhythm. But ever since they moved to Harlem, Bo’s world has fallen out of sync. She and Mum are now living with Mum’s boyfriend Bill, his daughter Sunday, the twins, Lili and Lee, the twins' parents…along with a dog, two cats, a bearded dragon, a turtle, and chickens. All in one brownstone! With so many people squished together, Bo isn’t so sure there is room for her.

My opinion: We don't get a lot of non-traditional families in books. And I don't mean simple blended families. We get those all the time. We're talking about multiple parents living in a house together and sharing responsibilities. They all take care of the kids, take turns cooking, pay the bills, all that adult stuff. So not only do we have Bo trying to figure out being a part of a larger family, we have the whole family working at being a part of the community. All of these characters are trying to find the balance between staying true to themselves yet accepted by the people around them. The conflicts are believable and the characters complex. Well worth the time.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Casual pants

 I've had these pants for a couple of years now. 

 

They're quirky and comfortable. And too big. I used to be able to roll and tuck the waistband and sort of keep them up but then the elastic wore out. I could have turned them to rags but I feel like they've got another year in them yet. Since they're much too big, they're perfect for an upgrade.

First, I cut off the elastic. It was a pretty wide band but there was enough left along the top to stitch an new, straight waistband and still be modest. I played with a lot of ideas for a new closure method and decided on a tie. I made a little loop beside each back pocket and added ties along the front. The tie feeds through the loops and then ties at the front.

Book review - Stuntboy, in the Meantime

 

Title: Stuntboy, in the Meantime

Author: Jason Jeynolds

Genre: realistic fiction

Similar books: Pugnapped! by Marty Kelley

                      Superhero Harry by Rachel Ruiz

Rating:

 

a solid combination of fantasy and reality

Summary (provided by publisher): Portico Reeves’s superpower is making sure all the other superheroes—like his parents and two best friends—stay super. And safe. Super safe. And he does this all in secret. No one in his civilian life knows he’s actually…Stuntboy!
But his regular Portico identity is pretty cool, too. He lives in the biggest house on the block, maybe in the whole city, which basically makes it a castle. His mom calls where they live an apartment building. But a building with fifty doors just in the hallways is definitely a castle. And behind those fifty doors live a bunch of different people who Stuntboy saves all the time. In fact, he’s the only reason the cat, New Name Every Day, has nine lives.
All this is swell except for Portico’s other secret, his not-so-super secret. His parents are fighting all the time. They’re trying to hide it by repeatedly telling Portico to go check on a neighbor “in the meantime.” But Portico knows “meantime” means his parents are heading into the Mean Time which means they’re about to get into it, and well, Portico’s superhero responsibility is to save them, too—as soon as he figures out how.
Only, all these secrets give Portico the worry wiggles, the frets, which his mom calls anxiety. Plus, like all superheroes, Portico has an arch-nemesis who is determined to prove that there is nothing super about Portico at all.

My opinion: When well done, a combination of the imagined superhero and real life makes for a a solid read. And Jason Reynolds produces consistently solid writing. Portico is a convincing character, coping with anxiety, bullying, and his parents' fighting without an excessive degree of self-reflection. This makes it meaningful but still accessible for a young audience. The child characters are reasonably complex while the adult characters are kept minimal, since it is not their story.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Listen with me

 

The Swallows' Flight by Hilary McKay

There's a lot going on in this book, with four major characters, but it never becomes overwhelming. It helps that the individual sections are not overly complex or carrying a strong narrative. Each chapter is really more of a vignette or snapshot of life than a scene in an ongoing story. Add in secondary and tertiary characters with charm and individuality and we have a realistic story that can almost be described as gentle, even as it talks about war, death, and destruction. It is a story of characters rather than events.

Non-fiction book review - A Saint a Day

 

A Saint a Day by Meredith Hinds

Saints are a subject I know very little about, so I can't speak to the factual accuracy of these profiles. I can tell you that each story is short and easy to understand, just a couple of paragraphs that teach the reader a moral and religious message. This book would make a nice gift for a middle grader or could work well as a part of a religious home-school curriculum.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley