Reviews
Booklist - Hardscrabble
Belle is a young eastern Colorado pioneer enthralled by her new home. Her older sister Carrie is not quite as happy—she loved their old home in green, heavily-settled Iowa. The life of dry earth farmers in the early 1900s was exceedingly tough, and the family of nine struggles. When… View →
Kirkus Review - Write on Irving Berlin
A Jewish immigrant’s passage from pogroms in Russia to “God Bless America”—written 100 years ago to celebrate his beloved adopted home. Irving Berlin, born in 1888, was just a child when his family and so many others fled terror directed at Jews in czarist Russia for… View →
Booklist - The Princess and the Cafe on the Moat
Stories about princesses abound, but one such as this, which understands a child’s need to be helpful, is fresh, and will appeal to children and their parents alike. Markarian creates a princess heroine whose interests extend beyond ceremony and fancy clothes. While looking for something View →
Booklist - A Horse Named Jack
Jack, a bored horse living on a farm, has learned how to open the gate to his stall. Looking for entertainment, he sets himself free, kicking off a counting adventure. From 1 soft click of the lock, nature and farm elements such as 3 roosters, 5 kittens, 7 spiders, and 9 apples shape… View →
Kirkus Reviews - A Horse Named Jack
A friendly horse ventures beyond the farmyard. Jack, a big, dapple-gray draft horse, loves it when the neighborhood kids come visit him on the farm. One day the kids don’t show up, and Jack gets bored fast. “So Jack performs his favorite trick— / He lifts his latch with one… View →
Booklist - Good Night, Forest
Despite the title, a cheerful rhyming text opens with morning in the forest, as couplets introduce flora, fauna, and other natural elements: “Good morning, bird. / Sing your song. / Good morning, stream. / Hum along.” Bucci’s multimedia illustrations, composed of dense brushstrokes of… View →
School Library Journal - Hardscrabble
Hardscrabble Gr 4-6– In the early 1900s, the Martins move to Colorado, where Father plans to earn free land by farming government acreage for five years. Twelve-year-old Belle and her family endure a series of harrowing events: baby Sage survives an encounter with a… View →
Booklist - Mela and the Elephant
Mela is a bold and adventurous girl who thinks nothing of setting off to explore the riverbank on her own. When her brother asks if he can accompany her, she refuses because he has nothing to offer in… Thus, her journey along the river becomes a cautionary tale. Mela’s boat View →
Booklist - W is for Welcome
Organized as an abecedary, this book celebrates immigration by painting a picture of the variety of paths taken by people who have settled America over the centuries. Letters of the alphabet are matched with concepts such as freedom, liberty, and heroes, which are accompanied by brief… View →
Kirkus Reviews – Good Night, Forest
Another riff on Goodnight Moon, this one is set in a forest. The opening rhyme sets the scene. “Good morning, forest. / Rise and shine! / Good morning, maple, / Oak and pine.” The text welcomes, in turn, an assemblage of forest flora, fauna, and landscape elements to a new… View →