Peace, by artist Wendy Anderson Halperin is a visual and poetic meditation on the subject of peace. The book is dedicated to our senses, and that dedication sets the tone for the book – peace is real, and it can be sensed with our whole bodies and expressed with our words, actions, and thoughts. There is a very short text which can be read aloud, along with quotes from famous peacemakers spread throughout, and panels of illustrations depicting scenes of peace.
Halperin chooses quotes from people like Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein, Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, and Anne Frank. I like that many of the quotes focused on the small ways we can work toward peace: “When people talk, listen completely” (Ernest Hemingway); and “Friendship is the only cure for hatred, the only guarantee of peace” (Buddha). The many illustrations, too, while wide in scope (they depict children and nature around the world), also depict small scenes of peace. Some of the images contrast to illustrate the concept. For example, one scene shows a grandmother washing dishes while her granddaughter lounges on the couch. A few pages later, we see the same grandmother washing the dishes with her granddaughter at her side helping her. Another scene depicts an elderly man boarding a bus as everyone continues to read their paper. Later on in the book, we see that a child has risen from his seat and offered it to the man. We also see children reading in tree houses, planting vegetables, sharing meals with their families, and quietly observing a heron.
The book is one to read and look at over and over again. It may spark discussions about kindness, friendship, stewardship of the earth, and about standing against all those things that destroy peace – like anger, apathy, ignorance, and jealousy. I can see this making a soothing bedtime book for all ages, and while it would be difficult to read the book aloud to a classroom (too many small details), it would make a good book for small groups to read and discuss in the classroom.
Posted by: Parry
“It was snowing. It was always snowing at Christmas.”
It’s the season for spooky books, and for kids who want a scare, ONLY a spooky book will do. Some children, though, want their creepy books to be creepy with a difference–not just cheap scares and cliffhangers, but something atmospheric that draws a reader fully into the world of the book. Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz is perfect for those readers. Schlitz takes us into the Gothic, foggy 150-years-ago world of Lizzie Rose and Parsifal, two children who work for Grisini, a not-at-all-nice puppeteer. When Grisini is hired to perform for the birthday party of rich Clara, a girl who seems to have everything (except siblings, all of whom have died), Lizzie Rose and Parsifal think their fortunes are looking up. Unfortunately, first Clara, and then Grisini disappear, and their lives take a turn for the desperate.
With Halloween fast approaching it is time to crank up the creepiness with a good ghost story. Mary Downing Hahn has been sending chills up the spines of young readers for decades, and she does not disappoint with All the Lovely Bad Ones.
Joy Wells loves Spooking. It is a dark and spooky town built on a hill and her parents bought a house there because they could get a great big house for the price of a little boxy house in the neighboring bright and modern Darlington. Joy inherited a book when the oldest resident of Spooking died and became fascinated with the author, E. A. Peugeot, and his frightening tales about the Bog Fiend. Joy believes that the bog fiend lives in the bog next to Spooking and is horrified that the good citizens of Darlington want to drain the bog and build a water park. While investigating the bog, Joy meets Madame Portia, the only bog resident.
Hard times have come to the Florida forest where Calpurnia lives with her mother, father, and her dog named Buggy-horse. There are no fish to catch, so the people are weak with hunger and unable to work. Calpurnia can feel the hard times, but she isn’t worried. She is a loved child who feels a kinship with the world, and this helps her to feel safe and brave. Determined to help end the hard times, she follows her nose to a secret river deep in the forest, abundant with catfish. On her return home, laden with fish, Calpurnia encounters several dangerous (and obviously hungry) animals; because she knows there is enough to go around, she shares her catch and stays free from harm. When she returns home with the fish, her parents are overjoyed. Her father is able to sell the fish, the people in the forest are strengthened and able to go out and find work, and the hard times turn to soft times.
Katie is having a gray day. So, inspired by a painting filled with colorful birds, she attempts to brighten up – first, she puts on her green hat, then her yellow tights, her blue shoes…and ultimately she paints her entire self in brightly colored patterns! This creates some fizzy magic which transforms Katie into a colorful bird herself, and allows her to enter the painting and spend the day hanging out with the birds before returning home for her bath.
Poor Nini! She is confronted with a chaos of shoes and boots and hats and books and coat and suitcases. This can only mean one thing: her people are going away without her!
It is very difficult to write a review of a book you love. For books you merely like it is easy to list all the good points and wrap up the review with a pithy phrase. For a book you love, you find yourself jumping up and down and saying “It’s great!!!” and shoving copies of it at people. This does not work when you are writing an online review.
When Flory’s wings are crushed in an accident, she is separated from the rest of the night fairies and stranded in the garden of a human (“a giantess”). She is still young and only as tall as an acorn, and now she must learn to survive on her own. She defends herself, makes clothes out of cherry blossom petals, finds an ally in the greedy but lovable squirrel, and embarks on a dangerous journey to save a hummingbird. It’s ultimately a story about making a home for yourself in your own little corner of the world, even if you were born a night fairy and didn’t really plan on living in a bird house with a squirrel for your best friend.
