Reviews
Ultraviolet
“Part psychological thriller and part paranormal mystery, Alison’s compelling story will draw readers in as it challenges them to question their perceptions of reality.” —The Horn Book Guide View →
The Knife and the Butterfly
“Based on a true incident, this work of fiction is gritty, sad, and not for the faint-hearted.” —VOYA View →
Marco's Cinco de Mayo
“Sidebars with additional information expand on the holiday. Illustrated with vibrant digital artwork, the text avoids stereotypes.” —Booklist View →
"Miss Pell Would Never Misspell" and Other Painless Tricks for Memorizing How to Spell and Use Wily Words
“Cleary uses mnemonics, rhymes, visualization, and other tricks to try to cement in readers’ memories the spelling of difficult words. It’s a good idea, but the examples are generally too convoluted (even for mnemonic devices) to be useful. Goggle-eyed characters… View →
Not a Buzz to Be Found: Insects in Winter
“Glaser details the winter survival techniques of a dozen different insects. Short, rhythmic lines explain each insect’s adaptations (field cricket: ‘Safely hidden, you’d wait and wait’). Evocative paintings move from colorful fall to icy winter and finally… View →
“The beguiling pair introduced in Snake and Lizard now share a burrow and are business partners, too. They bicker constantly; still, the outcomes are fair, reasonable, and often capped with a delightfully ironic twist. Their unobtrusively philosophical debates are nifty… View →
The Queen Who Saved Her People
“This book is an imaginative take on the tried and true Purim story. King Ahashuerus is looking for a queen. His loyal followers find Esther, a young and beautiful Jewish girl, who the king selects to be his wife. She lives with her cousin Mordechai, who persuades her to hide her… View →
Lights Out Shabbat
“Our young narrator tells of an unusual snowstorm in Georgia on a Friday night. He is spending the Jewish Sabbath at his grandparents’ when, after they light the Shabbat candles, the lights go out. They eat the delicious Shabbat dinner, ‘But the lights do not come… View →
The Shabbat Princess
“If your reading group includes pink-loving girls who are perennially clothed in princess dresses, this book will be an immediate winner. From its rose-colored cover to its costume box full of gowns, this book will instantly appeal to fans of Aurora, Belle, and Cinderella while… View →
The Little Black Dress and Zoot Suits: Depression and Wartime Fashions from the 1930s to the 1950s
“Well-researched texts…archival photos and entertaining sidebars contribute to a lively read.” —The Horn Book Guide View →
Ticks: Dangerous Hitchhikers
“Markle’s clear and detailed narratives, along with instructive close-up photographs of the exterior and interior anatomies of the title arachnids, will fascinate readers.” —The Horn Book Guide View →
The Lonely Beast
“‘There is only one Beast in each country… and they don’t even know one another.’ A lonely Beast sets off to find someone like him. In a series of humorous episodes, he hitches a ride on a whale, beautifies a park, becomes a media darling, etc. This original story View →
Warduff and the Corncob Caper
“The story’s crisp writing and humorous digital art (an image of the animals in a tower formations illustrates ‘they seemed a little tense’) carry the day.” —The Horn Book Guide View →
I'm Sure I Saw a Dinosaur
“Willis’s rhymes are airtight, and Reynolds’s cloudy illustrations set an appropriately foggy cold-weather scene.” —The Horn Book Guide View →
When I Woke Up I Was a Hippopotamus
“Satisfying silliness.” —The Horn Book Guide View →
Izzy the Whiz and Passover McClean
“Izzy the Whiz and Passover McClean (Kar-Ben, $7.95) is written for slightly older children, ages 3–8, but also has an infectious energy and sense of fun. Written in rhyme, it celebrates the ingenuity of Izzy, an amateur inventor, who creates a machine to clean the house… View →
Izzy the Whiz and Passover McClean
“Forget the candle and the feather—here is a charming book for children that tackles the topic of chametz cleaning through a feat of magical engineering. It’s a funny, rhymed tale of a whiz kid, named Izzy, who wants to give his harried mother a break from Passover cleaning. He… View →
A Leaf Can Be . . .
“Dabija, a Moldovan illustrator, saturates her pictures with lush color. Of course, there is lots of green but also dusty orange, misty lavender and deep mustard, in what is as much an exploration of the variation of color as it is of nature’s changeability. . . . Grown-up… View →
“Award-winning author Anna Levine and artist Ksenia Topazas, paired for the second time, bring ancient Jewish history alive in an adventure tale story featuring Jodie, a spunky Israeli girl who dreams of being an archeologist like her father. Jodie invites her visiting American… View →
Izzy the Whiz and Passover McClean
“In this delightful rhyming tale, Izzy invents a cleaning machine to help his mother in the ritual house cleaning before the start of Passover. Mom takes a rest and leaves Izzy in charge. Think Dr. Seuss meets robot vacuum cleaner: ‘Izzy pressed the red button, McClean… View →
Friend Me!: 600 Years of Social Networking in America
“What this book does best is place current modes of social media and their impact in a historical context and encourage readers to think about social networking in a whole new way.” —Kirkus Reviews View →