Poignant, true to the time period and that particular region's ideologies and echelons. Page turner.
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I gasped when I first opened this book and began to read, then I started it over and read it again. Sadness, joy, hope and love seeped out of the images and prose. Simply breathtaking.
Klassen and Barnett have cooked up another gorgeous literary and visual offering. Light, whimsical illustrations tell the upside-down story of an unlucky mouse who meets a truly strange duck in the tummy of an unscrupulous wolf. Inside the wolf, the duck has fluffed up some ambience, set the table and cooked a fine meal, using the scarce resources also consumed by the wolf. As their cooperation nurtures a sense of home, soon the charming duo find themselves quite suited for the comfort, shelter and safety of the wolf's stomach. The wolf consequentially suffers great, immobilizing heartburn, which sets the stage for the appearance of the fabled hunter. Somewhere among the homesteading mouse and duck, the wolf’s tummy ache and the terrified hunter, there just might be a Coleridgean moral. No matter, readers will love each of the animals, and the flight of the hunter too.
Muddy, the biographical picture book by Michael Mahin and Evan Turk, is brilliant, with a folk art style that begins dark, while splotches of bright color, splashes and thick line juxtapositions break through, reflecting the formation of blues itself. The firm yet honest prose only moderately accounts the early hardships and experiences of Muddy Waters, and how he was determined, despite a Jim Crow Mississippi, to sing out the sorrows of his people and become his own man.
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Even more of Margaret Wise Brown and Loren Long to love. Their new collaboration is a tribute among tributes to one of the best good night books ever, Goodnight Moon. Beautiful, warm, lively illustrations seem familiar despite a new storyline, yielding a picture book full of good feelings for old and new readers alike.
Colorful, yet simple illustrations aside the beautiful lyrics to Imagine make this new picture book perfect as a read aloud or as a gift for a teacher or kid.
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Grandad's unwittingly done it again, that is, lost nearly everything you will spend hours and delightful hours trying to find. Unlike any seek and find book you have ever seen. Warm, fuzzy, and yet, complex scenery and a funny, yet brief storyline, will be loads of fun for you and the kids.
Bad decisions are prone to haunt, especially when you buy and brandish your exceptionally creepy glowing-green monster underwear. Reynolds and Brown have once again delivered a chilling bedtime or storytime lesson. Fun for all ages.
If we knew what the children in Appalachia, in the world, were going through, we couldn't even begin to help. Parents are children too in some worlds, still resonating from the blows of their own island effect familial dysfunction. Heartwrenching yet beautifully worded prose through a child's musings and point of view bring the reader right into the heart of the matter, abuse, early pregnancy, hopelessness and illiteracy. As usual, these all go hand in hand. This stunning debut novel by Leah Weiss brings the works of Dorothy Allison and Harper Lee to heart and mind.
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Beautiful as it is complex, a narrative about the perils and privileges in the publishing industry, about the mutability of truth through time and the reading public's willingness to accept the semblance of truth, The Night Ocean is a must read for literati. As fiction, the story is a mystery and thriller, the characters as deep as all ink and as wide as all parchment. The underlying message, about the hidden proclivities and lifestyles of authors, how hiding and deception affect sales and more importantly the life of the author, and most notably societal trends and mores, is well illustrated through thoughtful, though meandering prose.
I have seen many illustrated books about the various works of Langston Hughes. I wish he were alive to see this work. Beautiful, poignant illustrations.
Unicorns are the new pink, or so Thelma seems to think. Funny, rhythmic story aside purely charming silliness.
Form requires a lots of dots, lines, strokes, shadows, imagination and time. What looks like an error might actually be the beginning of something wonderful. Step by step, Corinna Luyken masterfully illustrates in her debut picture book, the magic and power of imagination over the facts and facets of ink.
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Pizzoli has bravely tackled archeology and exploration in his new picture book. Action packed and fact filled, sometimes a little scary with the arrows and snakes and all, this book is not for the squeamish or for infants or toddlers. Everybody else, though, beginning readers, middle graders and adults, will find The Quest for Z the most exciting, informative picture book of the year.
Strap on your reflux capacitor and stock up your bookshelves, because tacos have been outlawed across the land and the dragons' time machine is a little wonky. Rubin and Salmieri have offered up more tasty silliness than one kid alone could ever stomach.
Put on your sleuthing gear and dive inside this deliciously funny mystery. You might have to plug your nose too! Great fun to read aloud, and for bedtime viewing as well.
Beautifully written, palpable, myth-driven fiction.
Set against drab cityscape abstractions, the warmth of this story is surprising. Two boys, upon discovering a tree which will soon be swallowed up by a giant condominium, decide to make a difference by relocating the tree to a hillside. Lovely and compassionate despite its simplicity, The Last Tree is an object lesson for all.
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As the sun sets on an African village and the people slow down from all the day's activities, parents begin to hasten the children toward bedtime. Just like any other place on earth, a child saunters and sidewinds her way toward sleep, bidding an empirical catalogue of "good nights". Finally, in her bed with a book in hand, she tells the Good Night Moon, "good night." Rachel Isadora's tender illustrations and prose, as always, are a tribute to some of childhood's most memorable and universal human moments.
One of my absolute favorites. So happy to see this printing.
