July 2009
Book Reviews
Adventures With Books
By Mary Quattlebaum
Travel near and far with recent titles.
babies/toddlers
What’s New at the Zoo?
by Suzanne Slade
illustrated by Joan Waites
Sylvan Dell, 2009, $8.95
Little ones enamored of animals can visit 11 favorite critters through this charming verse narrative by Suzanne Slade. This zoo proves both entertaining and educational. In addition to learning about pandas, kangaroos and zebras, children are introduced to basic math concepts – counting and addition – in a playful manner. Indeed, the book is designed to follow kids from the toddler through the early elementary years as the back matter offers counting games and animal facts more sophisticated than the simple information in the text. Watercolor illustrations and colorful borders by Maryland artist and Corcoran instructor Joan Waites enliven the double-page spreads. Kids will enjoy counting the animals, finding their accurately rendered and adorable babies and searching for the elusive red balloon hidden in every picture.
ages 3 – 7
Bubble Trouble
by Margaret Mahy
illustrated by Polly Dunbar
Clarion, 2009, $16
In this rollicking, rhyming tale by Margaret Mahy, a cheery baby “bibble-bobbles” in a giant bubble over the head of his concerned older sister, who gives chase. One by one a motley set of neighbors join her, including Greville Gribble in his nightshirt and Tybal, “pulling Sybil, with the Scrabble for a sled.” These wacky names give but a taste of the tongue-twisting delights in store as the bubbled baby bounces merrily along--until brought to earth most ingeniously by a “rascal and a rebel” and by the sister, who “saved her brother and the day.” Illustrator Polly Dunbar brings the oohing, ahhing, hand-wringing townspeople to life through expressive watercolors.
City I Love
by Lee Bennett Hopkins
illustrated by Marcellus Hall
Abrams, 2009, $16.95
Eighteen poems capture the energy of big cities, from the rush of subways to the thrust of “steel circus” skyscrapers. With grace and skill, acclaimed poet Lee Bennett Hopkins uses alliteration and occasional rhyme to capture the sounds as well as the sights of the urban environment. Especially evocative is the jazz-inspired title poem with its morning “swishes, swashes, sputters of sweepers” and night “lights competing with stars.” In the pictures, a globe-trotting pooch adds to the child-friendly tone of the whole. Young readers will have a good time looking for the dog, national flag and famous landmarks – Paris’s Eiffel Tower, D.C.’s Washington Monument and Cairo’s marketplace – in these vibrant watercolors by Marcellus Hall.
Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11
by Brian Floca
Atheneum, 2009, $17.99
I remember the excitement in the air on July 21, 1969. I remember being allowed to stay up late to watch Neil Armstrong take that first step on the moon. Author/illustrator Brian Floca re-creates that sense of drama for a new generation of kids as the rocket is readied – “3…2…1.” Floca’s free-verse account is both lyrical and accurate as he describes the astronauts “dressed for colder, stranger places” and their moon-based glimpse of our planet, “the good and lonely Earth, glowing in the sky.” His accompanying art shifts masterfully back and forth from the mysterious, star-riddled vantage point of the journeying astronauts to the viewpoint of an ordinary American family gazing at the night sky and watching the drama unfold on TV.
ages 8 – 12
Moon: Science, History, and Mystery
by Stewart Ross
Scholastic, 2009, $18.99
That white orb in the night sky has long fascinated humankind. Author Stewart Ross brings together lore and learning in this carefully researched volume, a beautiful 40th anniversary salute to man’s first walk on the moon. Period photos and illustrations dot double-page spreads focused on ancient mythology, early astronomy and 20th-century space exploration. The book’s design – short, lively paragraphs, sidebars, captions and brief moon facts – facilitates sampling rather than mandating a linear read. Spotlights on the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras (464 BCE), the Italian scientist Galileo (1564-1642) and the American Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins from 1969 emphasize the range of talent contributing to our understanding of the moon.
Lily B. on the Brink of Paris
by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
HarperCollins, 2006, $16.99
The City of Lights beckons, and Lily Blennerhassett is off to pen the Great Parisian Novel. She wants to wander “Far Removed from Regular People and Simple Tourists.” Unfortunately, her plan doesn’t jive with that of her imposing French teacher, Madame Chavotte, and fellow eighth-grade travelers, including two cheerful jocks, her ultra-organized best friend and a computer geek. Author Elizabeth Cody Kimmel skillfully blends humor with insight in this third novel in the series about an irrepressible Writer Extraordinaire. Lily’s over-the-top personality gives her voice verve and sparkle as she comments on “the magical Gothic world of Notre Dame” and Disneyland Paris, “the Land of the Wee and the Home of the Knave.” Lily had me laughing from her opening sentence: “Everything I know about Paris, I’ve learned from my Madeline books.”
ages 13 and up
The Devil’s Paintbox
by Victoria McKernan
Knopf, 2009, $16.99
Barely surviving on their Kansas family farm, orphans Aiden and Maddy Lynch decide to join a wagon train headed West. Though work in the Seattle lumber yards awaits, the journey there is full of danger, from attacking wolves to a bullying adult braggart to the dreaded smallpox, which brings death like a “devil child playing with a paintbox, just spattering it all over.” Washington author Victoria McKernan peoples this historical novel with richly drawn, unforgettable characters. We follow Doctor Carlos, who is haunted by the Civil War wounded he tried to aid, the friendly Indian, Tupic, who seeks the smallpox vaccination for his people, and Aiden, a brave and conflicted young man. McKernan eschews the more widely used but limiting first-person viewpoint in favor of third person – a wise choice as it allows for a broader perspective and details of setting that could become overly self-conscious if delivered by a first-person narrator.
Mary Quattlebaum is a mother and the author most recently of Sparks Fly High, a colonial American folktale, and Jackson Jones and the Curse of the Outlaw Rose, a humorous chapter book. You can contact her at maryquattlebaum.com, which has information on her 15 award-winning children’s books, school presentations and writing workshops.