Kid Lit Review of “Home” by Isabelle Simler

The author/illustrator begins by explaining she wanted to put herself in the place of animals that occupy homes so different from those of humans, yet fulfilling many of the same functions. She tells us:

“To explore these unique places, I’ve had 
to bend, and shrink, and squeeze, and 
let myself be transformed in weird and 
wonderful ways.”

She then takes us on a tour of 27 homes occupied by creatures ranging from tiny weaver ants to Sumatran orangutans.

Her words are translated from the French by Vineet Lal, who manages to reflect the sensibility and beautiful imagery of the original text. The poetry is free verse, meaning that it does not rhyme, but is still clearly an artistic rather than a narrative expression of ideas. For example, about the “silky apartment” of the comet moth, the author writes:

“My satin pouch
is pierced by the night,
and the tropical rains
pass through without flooding it.
This is a membrane-house
where I remain in seclusion
and from which I will emerge
metamorphosed.”

The showy cross orbweaver spider says “I live in the vertical plane…in [a] satin-smooth spiral . . .”

The tiny hummingbird explains it has a “doll’s teacup of a nest” while the common octopus begins:

“I’ve donned my ocean floor dress,
and under a ceiling decorated with shells
I unwind on my couch of fine sand . . . “

Many of the passages, like that about passerine birds, offer for reflective readers lessons in living together. Others explain how some animals manage solitary survival. Certainly there is much to discuss and learn about in addition to the pure aesthetic enjoyment of the words and illustrations.

(from the French edition)

At the end of the book, the author provides thumbnail portraits of the 27 animals featured in the book; a glossary; and recommended resources for more information. 

The digitally produced cross-hatched drawings demonstrate the author’s dedicated observation of a variety of creatures. These admirably include some under-appreciated species (such as the orbweaver spider) that often inspire fear or loathing rather than admiration for their beauty and contributions to the biosphere.

Evaluation: This science book, recommended for readers aged 5 and up, is rich with poetic verse and mesmerizing art. Children will want to return to it often to learn more about the creatures introduced by Simler. They can be encouraged to contemplate how their own living conditions compare, and what that suggests to them about the essentials for existence.

(from the French ediition)

Rating: 4/5

Published in the U.S. by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2024

Kid Lit Review of “This Book Will Make You an Artist” by Ruth Millington

This book draws upon the works of 25 of the world’s best-known artists, and for each one the author provides a little history, and a lot of explanation about how to employ their styles in creating a work of art.

The suggestions are so imaginative and fun to do – parents and teachers will appreciate all the activities that can be generated from this book to keep kids (and adults!) busy for hours. Learning about techniques such as pointillism, impasto, collage, and woodblock printing will also give readers a new appreciation for all kinds of art, and why the seminal works featured in the book have become so famous.

Bright, colorful gouache illustrations by Ellen Surrey are playful as well as informative, and manage to shout out support and enthusiasm to add to the encouraging message of the book.

Evaluation: The effusive praise for this book I have seen by other reviewers is well justified. It has so many positive aspects, with the best in my opinion being to show how anyone and everyone can actually be creative, even if you thought it was impossible!
My only quibble: it is definitely not just for kids, but for anyone who wants a little help with creative endeavors. It’s too bad it will undoubtedly be featured only in the “kids” section of bookstores and libraries.

Rating: 5/5

Published by Nosy Crow Press, 2024

Review of “The Getaway List” by Emma Lord

As this story begins, Riley Larson is just graduating high school. Her BFF Tom no longer lives in the area, but he can watch the ceremony being live-streamed, so she does their secret handshake on the stage. We understand right away that Tom is still the most important person in Riley’s life, even though their relationship is supposedly platonic. (We don’t buy that for even a minute.)

Riley is at loose ends after graduation – everyone else, it seems, knows what they want to do and will be off to college, but Riley only garnered a hat-full of rejections. She decides to take off for New York City for the weekend to see Tom in real life. They haven’t been together since Tom’s mom Vanessa moved them to Manhattan the summer after freshman year of high school. It was, according to Riley, “a bold attempt to ruin both of our lives.” Riley felt like she always was “the bravest version of herself” when she was with Tom. And anyway, they have items they need to cross of the “Getaway List” they made together but never were able to accomplish.

Once in New York, Riley has a wonderful time, makes some new friends – Mariella and Luca; renews some old ones – with Jesse, Eddie, and Dai; and experiences a freedom she hasn’t felt since Tom left. Much to the detriment of her relationship with her mother, she decides to stay the whole summer. Riley, Tom, and their new friends make their way through the Getaway List, and have a blast doing it.

In the background, there is drama with the fraught relationships between Riley and her mother, and Tom and his mother. The supporting characters have their own issues to work out, although they are not as seminal as those besetting the two main protagonists.

There is also, of course, the looming elephant in the room: the feelings between Riley and Tom that go beyond friendship.

The story arc may be quite predictable, but the journey is a pleasant one to take in this ultimately joyous YA romance novel.

Rating: 4/5

Published by Wednesday Books, 2024

Kid Lit Review of “How Do You Spell Unfair? MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee” by Carole Boston Weatherford

In a Foreword, Weatherford relates that spelling bees have not always been open to Blacks in segregated areas in the US. In 1908, a 14-year-old Black girl from Ohio led her team to victory in a nationwide spelling bee, and whites were angry. Thereafter, Blacks were barred from many local spelling bees, even in the North. She writes: “There would not be another Black finalist at a national spelling bee until 1936. This is her story.”

Weatherford uses a call and response technique in the style of a spelling bee to tell it. She begins with Macnolia’s love of words, and how “her idea of fun was reading the dictionary.”

In 1936, eighth grader MacNolia Cox was able to enter the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee and won. Her prize was 25 dollars and a trip to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. She also received two dictionaries to study. But there were race-related barriers ahead. When the train with MacNolia and her mother reached the Maryland state line, the two were forced to move to the Blacks-only car. In D.C., they had to stay with a Black doctor because the hotel for the spelling contestants was for whites only. At the spelling bee banquet, they weren’t even allowed on the elevator and had to take the stairs, and they were seated apart from the white families.

The next day MacNolia and the only other Black contestant, Elizabeth Kenney from New Jersey, had to enter the ballroom through a back door and sit separately from other spellers. But MacNolia, Weatherford writes, “remained calm and nailed word after word. Can you spell focus F-O-C-U-S.”

When MacNolia advanced to the final five, the judges, all white Southerners, “were becoming visibly uncomfortable,” as recorded by Mabel Norris, a reporter who wrote about the bee for The Akron Beacon Journal. They then gave her a word not on the official word list and one she hadn’t studied: “nemesis.” It was listed as a proper noun in MacNolia’s dictionary, as it referred to a Greek goddess – and therefore was not supposed to be part of the spelling bee. (Can you spell unfair U-N-F-A-I-R?)

MacNolia misspelled it, and the judges ruled her out. Still, she made history by becoming a finalist, and she did take home a 75 dollar prize. Weatherford writes:

“Even though she didn’t win the championship, MacNolia had proven that African American students are as smart as anyone and can compete and excel when given a level playing field. That was MacNolia’s triumph.”

Weatherford adds an Epilogue that fills in details about MacNolia’s life after the spelling bee. She could not afford to attend college and ended up working as a maid. She died in 1976 at age 53.

Weatherford also notes that “like segregated schools, local spelling bees were slow to integrate. But as other racial barriers fell, local spelling bees opened to African Americans.”

In 2021, the author observes, a 14-year-old became the first African American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. That same year, the UA Senate passed a resolution honoring MacNolia’s life, legacy, and achievements.

MacNolia Cox, 1936

A Select Bibliography concludes the book.

Award-winning illustrator Frank Morrison has collaborated often with Carole Boston Weatherford. His website points to the hip-hop cultural notes that can be seen through Morrison’s work, “which has been dubbed a mash-up of urban mannerism, graffiti and abstract contemporary, and reflects deeply on the lost of human stories from past eras.”  Morrison cites the importance of both Ernie Barnes and Annie Lee in his own work, influences you can see in his elongated figures and depiction of body language to convey emotion.

Evaluation: This story is both inspiring and infuriating, as are the stories of many who have been discriminated against.

Rating: 4/5

Published by Candlewick Press, 2023

Kid Lit Review of “The Tree and the River” by Aaron Becker

Aaron Becker is known for his work on films like “The Polar Express,” and you can see the influence of his cinematic background in his books. His newest is a time-lapse wordless story about the evolution of a civilization that arises and metamorphoses around an enduring tree alongside a river.

The imagined cityscapes are wondrous: intricately drawn, ranging from medieval to futuristic and steampunk. The lack of words in the book allow you to fill in the story with your imagination, but the breadth and depth of the illustrations do as well.

We see hope transmute into glory; occasional decay and destruction; and in the end, a return to hope.

In an interview, Becker noted that he was inspired by living in the city of Granada, which, he observed, was built first upon Roman ruins, and then Catholic castles and cathedrals. Layers of history were built into the very walls of the city. It gave him an awareness of the “experience of time” which he wanted to explore in his books. He said he felt that showing the accretion of time in a particular place works even better with just pictures rather than words. He wanted readers to think about how human history is so much larger than one’s own experience of it, and yet it is all connected.

Becker accomplishes this goal by combining the precision of ink with the soft and dreamy quality of muted watercolors to create a series of related but different architectural wonders and exotic landscapes. Each stage of civilization contributes to the next. The progression allows readers to see how both history and culture can be gleaned from the art and artifacts around us. A myriad of tiny details ensure that kids will pour over these pages for hours, seeing what endured in each mutation and what changed; filling in their own narrative; and maybe dreaming up their own alternative outcomes.

Discussion: Some of my favorite books are wordless. They allow children to supply the dialogue through their imaginations, forcing them to think about what is being depicted and what it might mean, allowing for endless creative interpretations. The pictures in this book are not as simple to analyze as, for example, the wordless books by Tommi dePaola (which are in fact meant for much younger children), so it asks readers to concentrate and ponder. Younger readers can still enjoy this book on a purely visual level at the very least, and those not as adept at reading words will discover just how much they can figure out by other means.

Evaluation: This is definitely a book for all ages to explore together.

Rating: 4/5

Published by Candlewick Press, 2023