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Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
This picture book about the life cycle of a sunflower is beautiful in its simplicity. Each spread has just a few words - starting with "a seed falls" - accompanied by vibrant illustrations that take the reader from seed to flower and back to seed. A surprise fold out page halfway through mimics the height of a sunflower, and the back matter includes more details about the different parts of a sunflower seed and its plant, as well as what the seed needs to sprout.
I'll say up front that this Mary Balogh isn't going to work for everyone. It's a slow-build, slow-burn romance between a pair of guarded, reserved adults who come to their HEA in small, careful steps. Doesn't sound like a barn burner does it? But for this reader it was a nearly perfect read that let me settle in and savor each moment.
This books delivers exactly what it promises - a history of the color blue from lapis lazuli stones used by ancient Egyptians, to blue dye pressed from a snail's foot in Mexico, to crushed and dried indigo plants in West Africa and finally a Nobel Prize winning chemical clue created in 1905. Along the way we learn more nuance about the color's complicated history - how blue was used and viewed, the value assigned to it, and the meaning given to it by people all over the world, even today in the language that we use.
This adorable picture book series is about feeling like you are one thing when you may look like another. Kitty is sweet and little and fluffy and pink and feels like a unicorn. Nobody else thinks Kitty looks like a unicorn and this makes Kitty very sad. Until she meets a unicorn who thinks they look like a kitty! And so begins a friendship of mutual respect, understanding, and support about recognizing each other for who they are and seeing each other for what they want to be.
Also in this series:
In an era where thinking about the future is an increasingly depressing task, A Psalm for the Wild-Built was just the story I needed. This novella by modern-day sci-fi superstar Becky Chambers presents a wonderfully optimistic view of a future where humanity has learned to live in harmony with nature.
Told through the perspective of various family members Calling for a Blanket Dance follows the life of Ever Geimausaddle. Cherokee, Kiowa, and Mexican, Ever negotiates the many identities and perspectives in his family. From his father’s brutal beating at the hands of police to the quilts his grandmother hand sews to show her love, Ever learns to navigate a legacy of cultural trauma as he struggles to raise a family of his own. Oskar highlights native voices in this thoughtful and moving debut novel.
Elena lives in Utuado, Puerto Rico with her Abuela, her Papi, and her younger brother Benito in the shade of a mango tree where she picks fruit for a snack and listens to the coquí frogs each night:
CO-QUÍ, CO-QUÍ, CO-QUÍ
As far as Violet was concerned,
only one person in her class raced like the wind.
Only one had a leaping laugh.
Only one made Violet's heart skip.
“All of us do things we wish we hadn’t done,” reads the first line of The Best of Iggy. Especially when we are 9 years old. Some things really aren’t so bad… we just wish we hadn’t gotten caught. Some things aren’t so bad… buuuuut we probably shouldn’t have taken things quite so far. But some things. Some things we just really really wish we hadn’t done. Iggy does all of these things, with all the hilarity you might expect. (This is a snort-laugh out loud while reading in public sort of book - be warned!) But also with the humility and remorse that comes after.
From the Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael López, creators of The Day You Begin, comes a new story about using your imagination to soar. Stuck inside on a rainy day, two siblings are told by their grandmother to use their minds, to "close your eyes and take a deep breath, and believe in a thing." No longer stuck in their apartment, they soar over the city, each season escaping from their boredom, their arguments, and their loneliness, just as their ancestors who also flew with their beautiful and brilliant minds.
