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Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
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.
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:
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!
A biography of Thomas Beckett is not exactly something I'd pick up every day. This was actually a jumping off point from an article I was reading that pushed me into a deeper dive. I'm glad for the push as John Guy's detailed account of the martyr is both history and page-turning suspense.
In Sophia N. Lee’s remarkable picture book, Holding On, we meet a delightful granddaughter and her beloved Lola (the Tagalog word for grandmother). Lola loves to tell her granddaughter “If you want to hold on, you gotta sing your songs”, and Lola’s house is full of music and memories. Along with photos, special objects, favorite foods, and stories, Lola’s songs are how she remembers and shares her life and loved ones.
Generations ago an empire was destroyed by war. The technological/magical remnants of that society are now either in the hands of the Twilight Order or hard sought by the criminal and/or rebellious elements of the society. A sister and brother find themselves on opposite sides of that power dynamic in this complex and fascinating fantasy novel.
Change and goodbyes are hard! As Sam and his mom prepare to move from their apartment to Grandpa's trailer away from the city, they say goodbye to friends and their cherished Sunday laundromat time together with one last visit. But with a little imagination and some one-of-a-kind luck, Sam discovers that his most heartfelt wish doesn't need a magic machine to come true.
A famous subject. A thrilling heist. Mystery and intrigue, energetic illustrations, and a fast-paced engaging narrative that you can devour in an afternoon. What more could you want?
