Many books make their way into my hands, and I have a shelf on a bookcase in my bedroom where I put the books I am especially eager to read. Some of these books go on the shelf because they are by a favorite author or illustrator, others because I am interested the topic. The books selected for this column are ones from that special shelf. I’ll also admit this:I do sometimes judge a book by its cover, but I never read the jacket blurb.
Ages 4–8
Beatrix Potter & the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig. Deborah Hopkinson. Ill. Charlotte Voake. 2016. Schwartz & Wade/Random House.
The “unfortunate tale” Hopkinson relates occurs when Beatrix, who loves to draw pictures of animals, borrows a neighbor’s guinea pig, Queen Elizabeth, to serve as a model. All is going well with the portrait until Beatrix is called to dinner and leaves the guinea pig uncaged. Unfortunately, Queen Elizabeth dines on Beatrix’s art supplies and dies during the night. Hopkinson writes this fictionalized biography of Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) in the form of a picture letter to the reader in the fashion of Beatrix Potter’s writing of her early stories. Voake’s softly colored ink and watercolor paintings complement the text. Hopkinson adds a P.S. (Author’s Note) with information on Beatrix Potter’s life and writing and photographs.
The Bear and the Piano. David Litchfield. 2016. Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
After years of practicing on an upright piano he found in a forest clearing as a cub, a bear has become a musician. Other bears gather each evening to hear him play, and when the talented bear is discovered by a father and daughter, they take him to the city where he is soon playing grand pianos at sold-out concerts. In spite of the pleasure the bear has in performing and receiving standing ovations from audiences, he misses the forest. Returning home, he finds his friends have saved the piano and have been following his success. The bear sits down to play once more “for the most important audience of all.” Litchfield’s stunning mixed-media illustrations convey all the emotions of the bear as he follows his dream of making beautiful music while never forgetting his friends and forest home.
Bloom. Doreen Cronin. Ill. David Small. 2016. Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.
Unappreciated in a glass kingdom, Bloom, a helpful but messy fairy, leaves to live in the forest. Years later the glass kingdom is badly in need of Bloom’s magic to repair it to its former glory. The King and Queen seek out Bloom, and both royals are appalled when she suggests that a bucket of mud is the answer to the glass kingdom’s problems. It takes Genevieve, a small, quiet servant, to accept the possibility of a bucket of mud being the magical ingredient to save the kingdom. And so, starting with a bucket of mud, Bloom provides Genevieve, who thinks she is just ordinary, the means for doing something extraordinary—rebuilding the kingdom with bricks. Small’s expressive ink-and-watercolor illustrations add a magical touch to this modern fairy tale that offers a gentle lesson on girl-power: “There is no such thing as an ordinary girl.”
Whoops! Suzi Moore. Ill. Russell Ayto. 2016.Templar/Candlewick.
A cat, a dog, and a mouse—none of whom can make the sounds appropriate to their species—seek out the “old lady in the tumbledown house,” who can cast a spell to make them well. Consulting her big spell book she casts a spell. The cat says, “CLUCK!”; the dog says, “QUACK!”; and the mouse says, “COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!” The little old lady says, “WHOOPS!” It takes three more tries before she gets it right. The cat, dog, and mouse finally have proper voices, but what happens to the old lady is a giggle-inducing surprise. A rhythmic, repetitive text peppered with animals sounds and onomatopoeic flashes and crashes and rumblings as the magic spells are cast and stylized mixed-media illustrations set against brightly colored backgrounds make Whoops! a great read aloud.
Ages 9–11
The Door by the Staircase. Katherine Marsh. Ill. Kelly Murphy. 2016. Disney-Hyperion.
When 12-year-old orphaned Mary Hayes is adopted by a mysterious elderly woman, Madame Zolotaya, and taken to the small town of Iris, she is delighted to be free of the Buffalo Asylum for Young Ladies forever. In her new home, she has her own bedroom, is given new clothes, and is fed luscious, all-she-can-eat meals. Exploring Iris, Mary is intrigued by the curious shops of fortune tellers, spiritualists, a fire-eater, a tea-leaf reader, and magicians, and makes friends with Jacob, the son of an illusionist. When Mary learns that Madam Z is actually Baba Yaga, the powerful witch who eats children, she begins to plan her escape with the help of Jacob. Marsh’s well-crafted fantasy blends high adventure with magic, humor, and folklore coming to a suspenseful and surprising conclusion.
Tru & Nelle. G. Neri. 2016. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
One summer in the 1930s, Nelle, the local tomboy of Monroeville, AL, makes friends with Tru, a fancy-dressing 7-year-old boy from the big city of New Orleans who comes to live with his cousins in a house next door to Nelle. Their shared love of books, especially detective stories, fuels their adventurous play and lands them in danger as they set out to solve a real mystery that involves them in a scary close encounter with the Ku Klux Klan. As a tie-in to Tru and Nelle’s writing of stories in the novel, Neri adds six short stories about their adventures, written as he imagines the young children would have written them. The author’s note provides a context for his novel about the childhood friendship of the two famous authors, Truman Capote and Harper Lee.
Ages 12–14
Going Where It’s Dark. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. 2016. Delacorte/Random House.
Thirteen-year-old Buck Anderson has a lot of challenges in his young life. He is bullied by classmates because he stutters; his only friend, David, has moved away; and his uncle has made arrangement for him to do chores for a grumpy, reclusive neighbor. The one joy in Buck’s life is exploring underground caves around his Virginia hometown, something he and David had done together and he now does on his own in secret, knowing that he is breaking the cardinal rule of never exploring a cave alone. He is also keeping another secret: The neighbor, who is a retired Army speech therapist, is helping him learn to control his stuttering. As Buck acts on his plan to explore the possibility that a hole he has discovered might be the entrance to an unknown cave, his tormentors drop him into the off-limits “Pit” near town and his spelunking skills and courage are put to the ultimate test.
Ages 15+
We Are the Ants. Shaun David Hutchinson. 2016. Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster.
If the title of this book doesn’t grab your attention, the first sentence, “Life is bullshit,” will. By the end of the first chapter, the narrator has declared with assurance that you are mistaken if you believe that you matter in the universe. “But you don’t. Because we are the ants.” If you still aren’t hooked, you will be when you read that aliens have been abducting the narrator, Henry Denton, periodically since he was 13. Each time aboard their spaceship the aliens reveal a different way in which the world might end to Henry and show him a red button which will permit him to save the world if he pushes it. Back home Henry is dealing with a troubled life, including trying to understand why his boyfriend, Jesse, committed suicide and surviving the physical and mental abuse of classmates who call him Space Boy. Seemingly searching for a reason why the world deserves a future—why he should push the red button—he repeatedly asks individuals, “If you knew the world was going to end but you could prevent it, would you?” But does the answer even matter, if Henry can’t find a way of first saving himself?
Carolyn Angus is former director of the George G. Stone Center for Children's Books, Claremont Graduate University.
These reviews are submitted by members of the International Reading Association's Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group (CL/R SIG) and are published weekly on Literacy Daily.