I am reading: WHAT HAPPENS ON WEDNESDAYS

I ordered this book today, and I can’t wait for it to come in.  I first read this book as an intern at an elementary library.  I brought it home to read to my toddler, and he loved it.  Very soon we will have our own copy to read over and over (and over and over) again.

This book takes the reader through a young girl’s Wednesday routine, waking before dawn to have special time with Mommy, breakfast at the local bagel shop with Dad.  Through this child’s eyes, we see the beauty in the small details of the day, the significance of a strawberry in the early morning kitchen, a soft, quiet nap with mother, the anticipation of a father arriving home.

My son is not the only one who loves this book.  It makes me want to slow down and enjoy the small things in each day, wake up earlier, plan special routines for the two of us. It is a welcome reminder that memories are made from the smallest everyday details, not always the big trips to theme parks or the huge presents on Christmas morning.  I hope to cultivate a simple existence for my family, full of precious things, small and meaningful to us only.

Every child should have such memories.  I am off to the library this afternoon to check out Emily Jenkins other books.  Enjoy!

Sonya Sones

Opportunities, unplanned and undeserved, present themselves to me occasionally.  Like a couple of weeks ago when a wonderful mentor allowed me to eavesdrop while Sonya Sones spoke to local middle school students and conducted a writer’s workshop.  I also got to have lunch with them (five of us at an Italian restaurant having an intimate lunch!).

Sonya entered twirling,  wearing a bright colored skirt, leggings and pink high-tops.  Her presentation was as fun to watch as her books are to read.    The kids loved her; she was genuine, and offered the only true thing one can, herself.  She was patient and funny while she helped teens find the poetry within.  As I mentioned to my generous friend, one can discover a great deal about a person by watching them interact with children.

I am so grateful I got to meet her and listen to her speak.  I did not say much; I tend to back off when there are lots of talkative people around, but I enjoyed listening (I have discovered I learn more when I keep my mouth shut).

Sonya has published four verse novels (so far).

They are all fun, quick reads and would make an excellent addition to a genre study on verse novels, offering students an excellent model of poetic technique.  My three teens read them all over one weekend and loved them.  Both boys and girls enjoy them, and I know quite a few adults who appreciate the opportunity to return to the drama and humor of the teen years.

I encourage you to check them out.  Be aware that they are written for teens, so younger children may find the subject matter uncomfortable.

Also check out Sonya’s great website, where she offers lots of information about her background, her books and ideas.   http://www.sonyasones.com/

If you are looking for an author to visit your school, she is worth the $$$. She is one of those great writers, who are not only talented and funny, but also able to share their craft, teaching difficult concepts to a difficult age group.

–kidlitlibrarian

Review of LOOKING FOR ALASKA

Green, John. 2005. Looking for Alaska. New York: Speak.  ISBN: 9780142402511

Looking for Alaska is the story of a teenage misfit who flees his boring, loner life in Florida to attend boarding school in Alabama in search of the “Great Perhaps.”

Miles is an ordinary boy with an extraordinary obsession for last words.  He reads biographies of presidents and famous authors, completely unfamiliar and uninterested in their works, but utterly fascinated by their parting words.  He is wiry and thin, inexperienced with girls and virtually friendless when he arrives at Culver Creek.  He quickly falls in with a crowd of similarly quirky characters (“regular boarders”) who hate the rich kids (“weekday warriors”) and consistently play pranks to get back at them.

Everybody has a “talent,” Chip (the Colonel) can memorize things, Miles (Pudge) knows last words and Alaska, the “hottest girl in all of human history,” (and possibly the quirkiest) supplies cigarettes and alcohol.

This group values loyalty above all else, and they enable each other’s addictions and obsessions.  Miles falls in love with Alaska immediately but keeps his distance as a friend, in spite of her constant flirting, out of respect for her relationship with her boyfriend.  Miles begins to notice Alaska’s constant mood swings and hidden darkness, but he is still drawn to her.  The narrative splits with a tragedy and forces the group into maturity.

The book is divided into two sections: Before and After, and subdivided into chapters by day (one-hundred-thirty-six days before).  Told in first person narrative, the reader is given access to Miles’ thoughts and interactions. Through snapshots, thoughtshots and dialogue, Green reveals the fascinating (if a little unreal) characters of this novel.
The adult reader will revisit the rebellious and carefree days of youth and come of age again with the main character.  The teen reader is offered the opportunity to experience rebellious mistakes without the real world consequences.

Full of drama, sex and cigarettes, this is a book teens will love to share and parents will love to censor.

A warning:
This book has scenes that involve sex, cigarettes and alcohol. That does not mean you shouldn’t read it; make your own decision.   I personally had a problem with the way young girls are portrayed in the story (supplemental devices, sexy, idealized, mother / moody characters).

Review Excerpts

Kirkus Review: “Girls will cry and boys will find love, lust, loss and longing in Alaska’s vanilla-and-cigarettes scent.”

The ALAN Review: “The book is filled with scenes that are both laugh-out-loud funny and bury-one’s-head-and-cry tragic.”

Horn Book Review: “These intelligent characters talk smart, yet don’t always behave that way, and are thus complex and realistically portrayed teenagers.”

Connections

The author’s website offers a blog, bio, humor, famous last words, anagrams, witty writing and an appealing design: http://www.sparksflyup.com/

Other books by John Green: An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns

Review of THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY

Patron, Susan. 2006. The higher power of lucky. Ill by: Matt Phelan. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 1416901949.

Searching for her own twelve steps, Lucky spends a great deal of time listening in on adult recovery meetings (alcoholics anonymous, smokers anonymous, gamblers anonymous, overeaters anonymous).  She relishes the “hitting rock bottom” stories, and wonders how she will find her “higher power,” hoping that when she does, she will be able to make sense of her own messed up life.

Lucky’s father abandoned her after her mother’s death, and she is currently living with her Guardian, Brigitte, in Hard Pan, California (population 43). The impermanence of Guardianship creates a great deal of anxiety for Lucky.  As a ward, Lucky must “stay alert, carry a well-equipped survival kit at all times, and watch out for danger signs.”  What Lucky wants more than anything is a mother, but Lucky is sure that she will end up in the orphanage if / when Brigitte flies back to the home she loves in France.

Told in third-person limited, this story offers the reader access to Lucky’s secret thoughts and actions.  Because of this access, the reader is able to see Lucky’s adolescent angst, insecurity, and the beginnings of identity. The narrative is revealed through short, vignette like chapters, each complete in its own way while adding significance to the novel as a whole.

Other significant characters in this book are Lincoln, the presidential friend of Lucky, Miles, the annoying five-year-old and Brigitte, the beautiful but impermanent guardian.  The setting of the novel is also like a character in this book, the dry desert, the big sky, the sandstorms, all help to create the unpredictable mood.

The black and white illustrations are placed sparingly throughout the text, like a comforting surprise to the reader, offering a cheery glimpse of the quirky town and its characters.  Reminiscent of Ramona Quimby, Phelan offers simple yet compelling drawings that add character to this novel.

It may take the reader a while to connect with the story, but dedication pays off.  The book rewards the persistent reader with a satisfying ending.

Personal note:

While I see the literary quality in this book, as a whole, it did not appeal to me.  I felt it was too much like another Newbery winner: Because of Winn Dixie. (only this book has less developed characters).  It took a lot of time for me to get interested in the story and by that time it was almost over.  Lucky did not seem real to me, and I felt little emotion toward her. In addition I felt annoyed by what seemed to be “trying too hard” on the part of the writer (for example trying too hard to be quirky: Hard Pan’s Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Center).

Review Excerpts:

Starred Kirkus Review: “A small gem.”

Booklist Review: “Patron’s plotting is as tight as her characters are endearing.”

Children’s Literature Review: “Many readers will identify with Lucky’s inchoate feeling that “sometimes [she] wanted to change everything, all the bad things that had happened, and some times she wanted everything to stay the same forever.”

Connections:
Illustrator website: http://www.mattphelan.com/

NY Times article about the controversy over the word “scrotum” on the book: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/books/18newb.html

Author interview with Susan Patron: http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2007/12/author-interview-susan-patron-on-higher.html

Review of THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES: BOOK 1: THE FIELD GUIDE

DiTerlizzi, Tony and Holly Black. 2003. The Spiderwick Chronicles: Book 1: The Field Guide. New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 1413110592

This is the first book in a series of five books about the Grace children and their experiences with magical creatures.

In this story Mrs. Grace moves the family from their urban apartment into her aunt’s abandoned house, the Spiderwick estate, because of  her separation and divorce from their father.

Jared, one of the twin boys and the main character in this story, immediately begins to notice strange noises.   While investigating the noise, Jared, Mallory and Simon find a hidden nest inside the walls of the kitchen.  Mallory and Simon destroy the nest, and Jared explores further to find a hidden room.

Strange things begin to happen to Mallory and Simon after they destroy the nest.  Jared is blamed for everything, and the only one who truly believes him is his twin brother, Simon.  When Jared investigates the attic, he finds a forbidden book, The Field Guide, which he uses to discover what strange creature is lurking within the walls of the house.

Framed as a true story told to the authors by the Grace Children themselves, this book is full of charm and detail.  Book 1 is a compact story that creates the context for the rest of the series. The text is accompanied by detailed black and white drawings (and one full color).  The authors include a detailed map of the estate, a table of contents, a list of full page illustrations, a note from the authors, and a letter from the Grace children, plenty of enchanting details that help the reader suspend belief.  The black and white drawings add to the mystical mood of the story, and the expressive sketches of the children help to create their characters.

This short novel has just the right amount of suspense, tension and whimsy to keep its readers coming back for the rest of the series.

Review Excerpts

Review from The Lorgnette: “This book will delight readers who are fans of all things with fairies and magic.”

Review from The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books: “With its reader-friendly concept and sophisticated packaging, the Spiderwick Chronicles will be a hit…”

Starred Kirkus Review: “Cleverly marketed as too dangerous to read, handsomely designed, and extravagantly illustrated this packs quite a punch.”

Connections

Visit the wonderful Spiderwick website: http://www.spiderwick.com/

Tony DiTerlizzi’s webpage: http://www.diterlizzi.com/

Holly Black’s website: http://www.blackholly.com/

Review of NUMBER THE STARS

Lowry, Lois. 1989. Number the stars. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN: 9780395510605

There is much to be ashamed of in our collective history: dark periods of violence, persecution and downright evil.  These moments can be difficult to read about, shaking naïve beliefs in the prevalence of good and bringing up complex questions about human nature.

When studying the holocaust, we are faced with truths about widespread hatred, torture and murder.  We learn about the outright evil of men like Hitler and the inadvertent evil of the bystander.  If we study history to learn from it,  what lessons lurk in the abundance of documented holocaust history?

Lois Lowry found inspiration for this story in the Danish uprising and rescue of Jews during the German occupation of Denmark.

Number the Stars is not just a story of friendship; it is not just a story of persecution and resistance; it is also the story of everyday, ordinary people who did what needed to be done to protect their friends and neighbors.

This story focuses on the lives of two girls, Ellen Rosen and Annemarie Johansen.  These two friends become temporary sisters when the Johansen’s agree to hide Ellen from the Nazis.  Ellen’s parents are taken into hiding by the resistance when the local rabbi informs the Jewish people that they are in immediate danger.  Mrs. Johansen takes the two girls (along with Annemarie’s little sister, Kirsti) to the coast to stay with Uncle Henrik.  The girls cling to their friendship, finding everyday pleasures (cream in oatmeal, playing outside, watching the outline of Sweden from the seashore) in spite of danger.  Annemarie becomes aware of secretive messages, conversations in code and strange events.  She is frightened and thinks that she is not very brave, but over the course of events, she discovers that one can be fearful and brave at the same time.

Lowry’s narrative is fast paced, short and easy to read.  She dives right into the action, offering only plot moving prose.  The reader does not get bogged down with excessive description or character detail.  Lowry uses thoughtshots, rich dialogue and page-turning action to reveal character.  A story whittled down to its bare best, Lowry allows the action to drive the narrative.

In the afterword, Lowry offers insight into her inspiration; a letter from a young boy in the resistance, written to his family on the eve of his execution: “you must not dream your lives back to the times before the war, but the dream for you all, young and old, must be to create an ideal of human decency, and not a narrow minded and prejudiced one.”

This novel emphasizes the ideal of human decency, and it rings with hope and heroism, a must read for children and adults.

Review Excerpts

Bookhive review: “This is a moving story of friendship and bravery.”
Horn Book Review: “The whole work is seamless, compelling, and memorable — impossible to put down; difficult to forget.”

School Library Journal Review: Readers are taken to the very heart of Annemarie’s experience, and, through her eyes, come to understand the true meaning of bravery.con

Connections

Supplemental research site: The Rescue of the Jews of Denmark exhibit at the National Holocaust Museum: http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/danish/

Lois Lowry’s website, an informative and fun site that offers lots of information (biography, inspiration, FAQs, books, interviews etc.): http://www.loislowry.com/index.html

Lois Lowry’s blog (updates and musings): http://loislowry.typepad.com/lowry_updates/

Review of THE GREEN GLASS SEA

Klages, Ellen. 2006. The green glass sea.  New York: Viking.  ISBN: 0670061344.

Separating politics from science, Klages offers an insider’s view of the secret Los Alamos community of WWII – a classified commune of respected scholars, professors, Nobel laureates and their families.

Written in third person limited, the narrative takes the reader into the experience of two adolescent girls.

Organized chronologically into three sections, the story begins in 1943 with Dewey Kerrigan, a ten-year-old traveling alone from St. Louis to New Mexico to join her father. Dewey’s mother abandoned her at the age of two; her father has been called away from home to work (in secret) for the war, and her Nana has just had a stroke.  Dewey must board a train alone and travel to an unknown city in New Mexico to live with her father.

Klages reveals Dewey’s characters through tiny details (the way she arranges her suitcase, her dependence on a stuffed duck named Einstein, her interest in The Boy Mechanic, the disciplined way she plans her day, waking early to work on her radio, the physical description of her concentration face, her comfort in numbers, rules and routines).  The reader grows to appreciate the complexity of Dewey’s existence, admiring her courage and independence and empathizing with her vulnerability and loneliness.

Klages describes life on the Hill (Los Alamos) as comfortable, isolated and idyllic.  These top scientists and mathematicians (including Dewey’s father) are working together on a secret project that will end the war.  They are given steak dinners, plain but sufficient housing and all the tools necessary for their task.  Dewey is in heaven, picking the best scientific minds to satisfy her every curiosity.

Dewey’s comfortable life ends abruptly when her dad is called away to Washington, and she is forced to stay with the Gordon family and face Suze Gordon (age 11) everyday.  Suze is the opposite of Dewey in nearly every way.  She is artistic, gets bored with science talk, and wants desperately to fit in with the “girlie-girls” in her community.  Suze shuns “screwy-Dewey” to gain the favor of the popular girls.

Dewey is ignored by everyone except Mrs. Gordon (Suze’s mother and a top female scientist working on the project).  Mrs. Gordon encourages and mentors Dewey in her pursuits, hoping Dewey and Suze will find a friend in each other.

The story begins strong with Dewey’s character but loses momentum through the process of switching back and forth between characters.  The novel seems to stall in the middle, leaving the reader bored by repetitive action (how many times do the character’s need to go get a coke?).

Overall it is a worthwhile and informative read.  There are many engaging moments in this tale of friendship, curiosity and pain. Klages weaves her history lesson without didactism.  The elephant in the room (so to speak) is the atomic bomb.  Klages barely touches on Hiroshima, incorporating the reader’s prior knowledge into her tale, allowing the reader to infer the harrowing conclusion.

The reader will relish the insider’s perspective into a top-secret, government-run, civilian community. The child-like point of view gives the story a sense of idealism and patriotism while the unspoken context lends weight and complexity to this controversial history.

A story with some promising moments, full of secrets, childhood fancy and global significance.

Review Excerpts

Horn Book Review: “History and story are drawn together with confidence in this intense but accessible page-turner.”

Kirkus Review: “Unusual and thoughtful, but ultimately unsuccessful.”

Library Media Connection Review: “This well-paced story gives us an insight to a different part of the war and how it affected the people that were involved in the Manhattan Project.”

Booklist Review: “The novel occasionally gets mired down in detail, but the characters are exceptionally well drawn, and the compelling, unusual setting makes a great tie-in for history classes.”

Connections

An obvious choice for history and science class, this book paired with non-fiction accounts and possibly another historical fiction novel (like Hiroshima by Laurence Yep), would make a great opener to a difficult discussion of the balance of science and technology, weapons production and use and concerns about non-violence and peace.

Ellen Klages released a sequel to The Green Glass Sea in October of this year:  White Sands, Red Menace.  The book picks up with Dewey and Suze after the end of the Manhattan project and the beginning of the space race.

Visit Ellen Klages website for biographical information and to find out more about her stories.  http://www.ellenklages.com

A supplementary research site: http://library.lanl.gov/infores/history/

Review of KIRA-KIRA

Kadohata, Cynthia. 2004. Kira–Kira. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks. ISBN: 0689856407.

“Kira-kira means ‘glittering’ in Japanese.” In this novel it represents an enduring connection between two sisters.

Set in the Deep South in the 1950s, this novel offers sympathetic characters, a universal theme, and an absorbing story.  It also happens to be historical fiction.

The book follows Katie, the narrator, from the Iowa cornfields to the chicken plants of Georgia.  Katie and her family are Japanese-Americans living during the racially charged decades after WWII.  After their Oriental foods grocery fails, the family moves to Georgia to find work in the chicken plants and hatcheries.

The Takeshimas are a hardworking family that dreams of owning their own home.  Mr. Takeshima works two jobs to provide for his family, and Mrs. Takeshima works long hours of over-time so they can put a little away each month for their home.  Even the sisters, Katie and Lynn, sacrifice their weekly treats for the families dream.

After Lynn falls seriously ill, the family decides to take out a loan to buy a small home, hoping to bolster her health and spirit with a dream come true.

The reader grows with Katie, from a naïve, self-centered preschooler, to a sacrificing, complex teen.  We live her coming of age vicariously, experiencing the fear and loneliness of starting school as “other,” the pain of growing apart from her sister, the heaviness of carrying more responsibility than others her age, her sadness, joy, confusion, maturity and wisdom.

Through engagement with the main character, the reader will not only enjoy a great story and learn a worthwhile lesson, but also understand, in a way only fiction can reveal, what it was like for a young Japanese girl during an unforgiving, dark time in our nation’s history.

Kadohata includes details from her own childhood (her family’s move to Georgia for a job in the hatchery), combining personal experience, historical accuracy, beauty and universality in an award winning narrative.  She offers 244 pages of an engaging story written in a simple style that matches the young narrator’s voice. Sitting down to read the first chapter, the reader will resurface hours later, realizing she has finished the entire book, and, as it happens with good literature, discover that she is in some way changed because of it. This is a must-read for children and adults.

A glittering novel; “deep but see through at the same time.”

Review Excerpts

Library Media Connection Review: “Heartbreaking and gripping, this is a powerful multicultural novel.”

ALAN Review: “This novel has the ability to inspire the reader to remember what it is to live with the heart of a child.”

Horn Book Review: “captures both the specific experience of being Japanese American in the 1950s and the wider experience of coping with illness and loss.”

Kirkus Review: “Kadohata’s Katie sparkles.”

Connections

Its short sentences, simple text and first-person narrative make this a great read-aloud book. The story offers numerous opportunities to model the habits of proficient readers: connections (text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world), predictions, determining importance, inferences etc.

This magnificent narrative would be a great introduction to a social studies unit about the treatment of Japanese-Americans after the war.  It also offers an opportunity to discuss labor laws, immigration, racism in general, civil-rights, health-care, the meat packing industry.

Kadohata offers a guide for reading groups at the back of the book.  The pre-reading activity, discussion questions and research activities make great classroom supplements.

Visit Cynthia Kadohata’s website for information about her background, fun pictures of her life, and introductions to her other books. http://www.kira-kira.us/index.html

A supplementary research site, Japanese American National Museum: http://www.janm.org/

Review of THE BOY ON FAIRFIELD STREET

Krull, Katherine. 2004. The boy on Fairfield Street: how Ted Geisel grew up to become Dr. Seuss. Ill by Steven Johnson and Lou Francher. New York: Random House. ISBN: 0375822984.

In true Seuss spirit, The Boy on Fairfield Street celebrates the imagination, rebellion and magic of childhood. Krull tells the story of the coming of age of Ted Geisel, a boy who “excelled at fooling around.”  From his lonely childhood days of “feasting on books” all the way to his first apartment in New York, Krull presents an engaging narrative.

Like Seuss himself, Katherine Krull tells a story that is “respectful toward children, and not always respectful toward authority.”  She uses a narrative frame, beginning with “Once upon a time,” and ending with “his future looked bright.”

Without sacrificing her reputation for accuracy Krull offers an absorbing tale that is not sentimental or biased.  She presents Geisel’s shame along with his triumph.
The text is offered in manageable vignettes, connecting image after image of Geisel’s life paired with a full-page original illustration and a tiny re-print of a Dr. Seuss illustration She also offers a four-page addendum, adding details about Geisel’s life after Fairfield Street.

Johnson and Fancher’s illustrations are like warm, vintage snapshots; the muted colors and blurred details help to create this vintage feel.  Each illustration is juxtaposed with one of Dr. Seuss’s illustrations, connecting Geisel’s life to his art.

Krull cuts this life story down to the relatable and universal (growing up on Fairfield street). Through reading about the struggles of a lonely, day-dreaming boy who finds his calling through his foolishness, the reader validates her own quirks, connecting childhood struggles, using the whole of the story to make sense of her own journey.

The magic in this story is not just the fanciful imagination of Dr. Seuss; it is also the validation of childhood foolishness, the importance of knowing when to break the rules and learning to listen to the wisdom of a whisper: “That is a very good flying cow.”

Review Excerpts

Review from Children’s Literature: “a perfect reminder […] of how powerfully early experiences can shape our lives as adults and to kids that a favorite author was once a child himself.”

Review from Kirkus: “it’s the lively writing that puts the hat on the cat.”

Review from Booklist: “Krull’s pithy text is extended by full-page paintings that glow with the memory of yesteryear and capture the mix of humor and poignancy that comes with trying to fit in.”

Connections

This book would make a great addition to a Dr. Seuss author study, providing interesting connections between his work and his life.

This website offers games, story creators, biographical information and other fun activities: http://www.seussville.com/

Kathleen Krull’s website offers biographical information, teacher guides and  book reviews: http://www.kathleenkrull.com/

I.N.K – Nonfiction writers blog (including Katleen Krull): http://inkrethink.blogspot.com/

Review of WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A TAIL LIKE THIS?

Jenkins, Steve, and Robin Page. 2003. What do you do with a tail like this? Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN: 9780618997138

Why do animals have tails?
Young children wonder about these things.  They ask lots of questions, peppering the back of their parent’s heads with a constant stream of curious spitballs: who, what, when, where, and why (especially why).

Building on this curiosity (and taking some pressure off of exasperated parents) Jenkins and Page offer the young reader a book that not only echoes their questions, but also allows them to interact and discover the answer before it is revealed.

Inspired by their youngest son’s love of riddles, this husband and wife team created a simple yet satisfying book of scientific inquiry.

The book is organized into sets of questions and answers.  One page poses a question: “What do you do with a tail like this,” and the next reveals answers: “If you’re a lizard, you break off your tail to get away.”  The question page offers extreme close ups of animal parts (five tails on one page for example), inviting the reader to guess the animals before turning the page.  The answer page is filled with smaller pictures of the entire animals and explanations of how that body part is used.

Each question and answer set covers five different animals (30 animals total).  The book offers further reader support with additional short entries collected at the back of the book (organized by body part).  The book flows well read all at once or taken in episodes: read about noses one day and feet the next.

Jenkins has developed a considerable reputation and is known for his accuracy.  An artist with a scientific mind, he respects children’s questions.  In this book he uses simple language to present straightforward questions and answers.   The interaction between text and reader becomes the focus, not complicated explanations or vocabulary.

The pleasing cover design invites the reader inside. A deep royal blue background contrasts with a rich green lizard tail, and the circular placement of text and tail are balanced and satisfying to the eye.  Jenkins cut-paper collage illustrations are surprisingly detailed, supporting the scientific accuracy of the work.  They add depth, color, texture and expression to these fascinating animals: the skunk is fuzzy, the scorpion crunchy, the monkey hairy, the horned lizard pokey, and the bush baby’s frightened look is as if it was captured by a photographer.  These engaging illustrations pull the reader into the text. Jenkins skill with size, placement and white space draw the reader’s eye and hold it, making this a book to savor, offering hours of continuous entertainment.

Overall the combination of engaging illustrations, simple language, and curious riddles, make this a fun read for inquiring minds of all ages.

Review Excerpts
Starred review from Booklist: “This is a striking, thoughtfully created book with intriguing facts made more memorable through dynamic art.”

Starred Kirkus Review: “this array of wide eyes and open mouths will definitely have viewers responding with wide eyes and open mouths of their own.”

Library Media Connection Review: “The book is a feast for the eyes, and most interesting to share with children.”

Review from BookHive: “This is an amazing book that all ages will love.”

Connections

The art in this book is so accurate and unique.  It would be perfect for a combined art / science unit, studying photographs and science books and then creating artistic representations with different mediums.

The author’s website offers a great deal of useful information including explanations of the inspirations for each book and a wonderful video about how he researches and creates his art. http://www.stevejenkinsbooks.com/