Genre: Children's Fantasy
Subject: A boy runs away from home to a strange island to rescue an imprisoned dragon
This is one of the earliest stories I can remember reading from my childhood. I owned a copy once, although it was lost a long time ago. The story is fantastic and exciting, and shows extreme cleverness on the part of the main character, Elmer. Each chapter is its own little adventure with its own miniature climax and resolution. At the same time, each adventure leads to Elmer's ultimate goal and they only serve to make his success that much greater. The illustrations, done by Ruth Chrisman Gannett, are absolutely amazing, and they do a great job of helping to place the reader in the story. My three year old son loves this story, as do I, so I have to recommend this story to anybody that enjoys a good adventure. While it may not have application within a group reading, it would be good to have on hand for individual reading.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Subject: A young Jewish boy and his family hide in France during WWII
This is a powerful look at the lengths that Jewish families took during World War II to stay safe while still upholding their religious traditions. The story shows how Jacques and his family hide out in a small town in France from Hitler's army and how they secretly hold a Seder with other Jewish families hiding out in the same area. The illustrations, done by Emily Arnold McCully do a good job of capturing the fear and the secretive nature of what is taking place in the story. This would definitely be a good book to look into while studying the Holocaust because it shows that the affect of Hitler's terror stretched way beyond just Germany. It would help children understand the way his terrible acts affected all of history.
Genre: Historical Fiction (Sports)
Subject: The story of a boy and his encounter with baseball legend Hank Aaron
In my experience, little kids love stories about professional athletes. There is no greater athlete for children to model themselves after than Hank Aaron. His story is one of integrity and hard work. Leonetti does a great job of combining the story of a young boy and the history of one of baseball's finest players. There is a good amount of story without being overwhelming, and what is there is very engaging. The illustrations by David Kim are well focused and capture the emotions of the scenes very well. This would be a good book to have around for kids to read by themselves, or it could be used when studying sports or African-American history.
Genre: Traditional Fairy Tale (Retelling)
Subject: A retelling of the Cinderella story made modern
In a world of fairy tales told and retold, this book stands out near the top. Levine does a great job of taking the Cinderella story, paring it down to the bare bones, and then fleshing it out again with new characters and experiences. The notion of what a princess should be is challenged by Ella as the main character. The story follows traditional lines in an untraditional way, and does so very successfully. Because this story has also been turned into a motion picture, I have to say, read the book and leave the movie on the shelf. The movie completely misses the point of what the book is about. This would be a good read for older children or young adults looking at how the traditional stories can be remade well.
Genre: Children's Poetry
Subject: A series of poems about life within a Hispanic family
These poems go against the typical format of poetry for children. I find this to be both good and bad. There is no fixed rhyme, and so the poems have a feeling of storytelling instead of poetry. It does, however, introduce different styles to children which will broaden their understanding of the genre. My major criticism with this book is that most of the poems have bilingual references in them that may confuse younger readers, or readers with no Spanish background. While those raised in or around Hispanic society may understand what is being said, those with less exposure may not grasp the meaning in a lot of these poems. Perhaps this book would be a good read for older students who can take it upon themselves to discover the meaning behind the bilingual references.
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction
Subject: A look into the life of a young Taiwanese-American girl
For me, this book was absolutely charming. It's told from the perspective of Grace (also known as Pacy), a young girl struggling to understand who she is withing a Taiwanese-American family and a much less understanding American society. Readers get to experience things for the first time just as Grace experiences them, and because of that, we are able to grow in our understanding as well. The story is overall lighthearted with a few more serious incidents to balance it out. There are occasional illustrations done by Lin that emphasize the quality of this book. This would be a good read for just about anybody, from young childhood and up, who is trying to better understand life in a multicultural society.
Genre: Historical fiction
Subject: A young girl homesteading in rural Montana
This book tells the story of Hattie, a girl who inherits a 320 acre claim in Montana from her estranged uncle. She takes it upon herself to "prove up" the claim and moves out to Montana to learn the ways of homesteading and farming. The book is well written and holds a lot of different emotions. The characters are all genuine and believable, and the story flows along at a leisurely pace. Descriptions from the cover of the book describe some of the research that went into making this an accurate depiction of the lifestyle at the time. While this book wouldn't necessarily be a good fit for most young children, I feel it would work well from middle school levels and up.
