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Book reviews for children by library staff and guest contributors
Maybe you've heard of the Caldecott medal for illustration, one of the highest honors in children's literature, awarded annually by the American Library Association? But did you know that it is named after 19th-century illustrator, Randolph Caldecott?
Last weekend was the celebration of the Lunar New Year and it is now the Year of the Dragon. How cool is that? For those of you who celebrated and those who want to learn a bit more, here are a couple new favorites of mine.
It's fun to see trends in what books are being published, and recently I've noticed a bunch of new and forthcoming children's books about and inspired by bookish people! Authors, illustrators, editors, and especially librarians.
Bookish people:
Good Books for Bad Children by Beth Kephart, illustrated by Chloe Bristol - A picture book biography of legendary children's book editor, Ursula Nordstrom.
A new book about an extraordinary word-maker, There Was a Party for Langston: King o’ Letters by Jason Reynolds, brings history to life with poetic language and colorful stamped illustrations. Inspired by a photo of poets Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka dancing (boogying!) at a party in honor of Langston Hughes, this book captures the creativity of Hughes and his impact on other artists and writers. This legendary party was “A fancy-foot, get-down, all-out bash” and SO GLORIOUS! Because everyone felt the power of Langston’s words.
¿Alguna vez te has perdido tanto en un libro que ni te das cuenta de lo que está pasando a tu alrededor?
How does a child process the loss of a parent or loved one?
An American Story, illustrated by Dare Coulter and written by Kwame Alexander, is the winner of the 2024 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for outstanding illustrations by an African American artist.
In the author's note, Alexander shares that he wrote this book after realizing that his daughter's teacher had a fear of teaching kids about slavery- she had never been taught how.
This American story opens with the question, "How do you tell a story that starts in Africa and ends in horror?"
Beaming with lightness and brightness, Marla Frazee’s In Every Life shows the great expanse of human experience. With sparse and lyrical text, the book reads like a poem or song. The illustrations show a wide array of people in soft vignettes, along with wordless double-paged spreads. Quietly spectacular scenes show hikers voyaging up a mountain, an adult and child looking out at an expanse of shoreline, and a trio of kids enjoying a windy and flowery hilltop.
This book gave me goosebumps. Setting off on a quest through two different forests, to discover two different, but equally enchanting truths about dragons, a little boy’s adventures come lavishly to life with edge to edge full color ink illustrations. This book is an exploration of Eastern and Western Dragon mythologies, both true and meaningful celebrations of the child’s mixed cultural identities. It is hard to pick a favorite line, a favorite description or depiction in these pages.
Big, illustrated and written by Vashti Harrison, is the winner of the 2024 Randolph Caldecott Medal for most distinguished American picture book for children, a 2024 Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor Book and a 2024 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Honor Book.
