Reviews
Willie McLean and the Civil War Surrender
“These beginning readers offer basic historical overviews in story format. Both books have clear, unencumbered texts complemented by serviceable period art in color and an author’s note. These books offer perfunctory descriptions and interpretations for readers just… View →
The Star-Spangled Banner
“Both books have clear, unencumbered texts complemented by serviceable period art in color and an author’s note. These books offer perfunctory descriptions and interpretations for readers just becoming interested in history or embarking on a museum visit.”… View →
Hush Harbor: Praying in Secret
“Banks’s highly stylized paintings are wonderfully expressive and amplify the deep emotion of the situation. Her palette of yellows and browns shows people who are swathed in moonlight yet avoids the dimness that night scenes sometimes have. An extensive author’s note View →
Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride
2—In 1892, Ari is selected to engineer the first train between Jaffa and Jerusalem. Filled with pride, he boasts to his friends and neglects to say goodbye to them before he sets off. As the train stops to collect the neces-sary items to celebrate the Jewish New Year—apples, honey, round View →
Always an Olivia: A Remarkable Family History
To explain why each generation of their family has an Olivia, an African American woman tells her great-granddaughter about their Jewish family’s journey across the globe to escape reli-gious persecution. Soft paintings add subtle intensity to this story highlighting the importance View →
Illustrated by Shawn Costello.seder with some help from farmers, a traveling man, and memories of previous celebra-tions. The invented dialogue is stilted, but the subject is intriguing and the heavily illustrated chapter book format makes it accessible to a young audience. An… View →
Twist, Tumble, Triumph: The Story of Champion Gymnast Ágnes Keleti
“The story of Hungarian Jewish Olympian Agnes Keleti (b. 1921) inspires in Bodin Cohen and Olitzky’s chronicle of how the gymnast persisted throughout WWII. The story opens with Keleti, the Hungarian national champion, being told that a new law… View →
Ani's Light
“Singh and Prabhat combine forces for an unflinchingly honest yet soothing book about a child and his mother’s illness . . . . [I]ncludes an author’s note that stresses the importance of honesty in the face of difficult situations, from illness to divorce to death. . . . A hopeful, View →
Counting on Naamah: A Mathematical Tale on Noah's Ark
“. . . [A]dds a note of female empowerment . . . . The author and illustrator lean heavily and humorously into anachronisms, with Noah performing a comedy routine holding a microphone, images of modern blueprints, and pencils held by Naamah’s helpful goose… View →
Something Happened in Our Park: Standing Together after Gun Violence
“This simply stated story and the note to readers—chock-full of helpful prompts—could be useful to caregivers looking to help children through trauma. . . . [T]he authors clear up misconceptions by citing the disproportionate circumstances that lead to increases in community… View →
Jackson and Bud's Bumpy Ride: America's First Cross-Country Automobile Trip
“In his cartoon pictures Hargis depicts all three of his goggle-wearing travelers having the time of their lives, determinedly riding their increasingly mud-spattered horseless carriage through mountains, deserts and storms. The author sticks closely to the historical record in… View →
“Through one-sentence descriptions and full-color, uncluttered photographs, readers are taken on a journey of discovery in the natural world. Rau begins with a star in the sky and then moves to objects that children might be able to examine more closely to find that shape,… View →
Potatoes at Turtle Rock
“The authors, a mother-daughter team who wrote Tashlich at Turtle Rock have joined with the illustrator of that book to offer one family’s unusual, but creative, observance of Hanukkah. It is the sixth night of the holiday, snowing and cold. Mom, dad, children Lincoln and… View →