YOU NEVER HEARD OF WILLIE MAYS?! by Jonah Winter and Terry Widener Some say that Willie Mays was best baseball player that ever lived! Willie hit 660 home runs. His lifetime batting average was .302. Babe Ruth was the only…
Category: Environment
Two Books, one author who develops themes of tolerance and survival
Penny Dreadful (Yearling) by Laurel Snyder. $7.99- paperback The Longest Night:A Passover Story (Schwartz and Wade) by Laurel Snyder. $17.99 A lonely and bookish little girl whose parents lose their wealth after she wishes that she…
Being God by B.A. Binns
Happy Valentine’s Day from The Pirate Tree to you! Today I’m reviewing Being God by B.A. Binns, an unlikely choice for Valentine’s Day but a good one nonetheless. 17-year-old Malik Kaplan has a knack for making all the wrong…
Think Big
Think Big (Bloomsbury, 2012), written by Liz Garton Scanlon and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton, champions art and creativity. Selected as a Scholastic Book Club book, the picture book follows a diverse set of students as they knit, draw, bake,…
Bill Traylor, a self-taught artist who captured memory
It Jes’ Happened (Lee & Low Publishers), written by Don Tate, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, $19.95. Bright Illustrations by award-winning R. Gregory Christie capture Traylor’s life and work to blend with the text and provide readers with a…
THE HERD BOY and IBBY’s list of Best International Books
THE HERD BOY We all have impossible dreams. For some, dreams are more impossible than for others. For some, they make those dreams come true. The Herd Boy dreams about being President of his African country. Such foolishness! In…
Respecting the Q: Review of Ask the Passengers, by A.S. King
What’s a questioning girl to do when the world demands answers, and then doesn’t like the ones you have to give? For seventeen-year-old Astrid Jones, the questions feel huge and the answers too scary to face head on. Who…
Bonyo Bonyo
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…
Freedom’s Hero: Frederick Douglass
FREDERICK DOUGLASS for KIDS, His Life and Times with 21 Activities by Nancy I. Sanders This biography tells the surprising tale of one of America’s true heroes. Clear and interesting prose is peppered with enough details to intrigue a child…
A biography of Yoko Ono offers inspiration
Yoko Ono: Collector of Skies (Amulet Books), by Nell Beram and Carolyn Boriss-Krimsky, $24.95. We can learn how others live from reading biography. We discover how many turn to talent and art to survive lonely childhoods or empty lives.…