A walk in the woods
Jerry Pinkney, and Brian J. Pinkney
How does a child process the loss of a parent or loved one?
MADreads
Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
Oh the places you can go
Locus Magazine has published their recommended reading list for 2023 titles and wow is there so much goodness to discover. They suggest best novels in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, but also have best in young adult and first novels (so happy to see To Shape a Dragon's Breath, which I loved).
Newest history
If reading history books is up your alley, then check out Booklist's newest top 10 list It includes ancient history, life during the US Civil War, the war in Ukraine, American servicewomen in World War II, and much more. Are there any you would add to the list?
Sensory delight
Christine Mangan's first novel Tangerine had Patricia Highsmith vibes. Fair commentary. A description even more true I'd say in this, her sophomore effort in which author Frances "Frankie" Croy travels to Venice to lick her wounds and meets an engaging young woman who inserts herself into Frankie's life with dire results.
How do you tell a challenging story?
Dare Coulter
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?"
A poetic life
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.
Journeys of discovery
Hanna Cha
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.
A BIG winner
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.
2024 ALA Youth Media Awards Announced
The American Library Association (ALA) announced the top books, video and audio books for children and young adults, including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery and Printz awards at LibLearnX: The Library Learning Experience in Baltimore today.
A list of 2024 award winners follows:
Celebrating nature, honoring loss
Jerry and Brian Pinkney
An ode to fathers & sons, A Walk in the Woods by Nikki Grimes, Jerry Pinkney, and Brian Pinkney, wends through trees and wildlife to find a special gift. The boy in the story has recently lost his father. In his grief, he discovers a note – a map!
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