Children of the Tipi: Life in the Buffalo Days, edited by Michael Oren Fitzgerald will make a good read-aloud for pre- and early readers, and will be a quick, illuminating read for children in third and fourth grades. There is no through-narrative; the explanations of Native (mostly Plains Indians) cultures are told in the…
Probably Sentenced to Life at Seventeen—The Story of David Milgaard by Cynthia J. Faryon will appeal to middle school readers, though it certainly can be used as high-interest/easy reading in high school classes. I myself enjoyed the parallel scenes at the start of the book where the author presents the diabolical actions of the…
Me and Momma and Big John is an attractive and instructive picture book I found in the Austin Public Library while idly looking for titles to send (by way of retail delivery) to my new nephew. Speaking of infantile, I was fascinated with the thick, sturdy and smooth pages of the book, but in…
I have the feeling I am easily impressed by illustration in picture books, probably because I can’t draw a triangle, but this book has magnificent tones and colors, and dimensional shapes that make me keep feeling the page for texture. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is an autobiographical narrative about the Malawian childhood of William Kamkwamba,…
Normally I wouldn’t select a series book for review, I could not put this one down. It’s a Scholastic primer for kids, but it refreshed my memory and taught me things I hadn’t known about the great emancipator. For example, a slave could marry a freeman, but still remained a slave, and the children…
Little Millie is not exceptional. She is “too short to be tall, too quiet to be loud, too plain to be fancy.” People ignore her during show-and-tell, no one notices when she enters a room, and she always gets the smallest slice of birthday cake at a party. She is so unnoticeable that other kids…
Bonyo Bonyo, by Vanita Oelchlager, is a straightforward biography, told in the first person, with the voice echoing the oral tradition that once passed stories through generations. Bonyo was a Kenyan child from humble beginnings whose intrinsic determination and faith led him to embrace education as a vehicle for personal and, ultimately, professional growth.…
This memoir is not actually aimed at young adults, though the prose is accessible enough for a teen interested in adoption issues to get through it easily. Porte-Parker’s straightforward, mainly chronological story traces the journey of her adopted son, Dima, from his orphanage in Russia through his formative years in our western culture, with all…
Change the World Before Bedtime has a simple, upbeat premise about being stewards of the earth and of each other. As an activity book, there is no plot per se, but a series of suggestions for how to make others happy (the elderly, the less fortunate) and how to be environmentally healthy (recycle, buy locally).…
Peter DeWitt is the author of Dignity For All: Safeguarding LGBT Students (Corwin Press, 2012). Click here for my review. Cowhey (2012) writes, “When it comes to issues of family diversity, teacher self-censorship remains the status quo in many schools. Often this is based on the fear of raising potentially controversial topics.” Cowhey goes on…
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