The Little Yellow Leaf

Written and Illustrated by Carin Berger.

PreS-Grade 2

 

 

Berger’s latest picture book focuses on a single leaf that is just not ready to leave the branch of its great oak tree. While other leaves swirl down, this leaf keeps holding on as “apples grew musky, pumpkins heavy, and flocks of geese took wing.” Complementing her own concise, appealing text, Berger’s inventive collage-based illustrations range from a close-up of the leaf that reveals words and letters on it to an image of the sun that seems to have been formed from a mosaic of bricks. They give a sense of both close-up textures and the wider reach of the world. Eventually the season turns to blue-gray winter, and still the leaf holds on tight. It is not until the leaf spies a scarlet flash high up on an icy branch that it can contemplate the next step. Over the next three spreads—quirky, gorgeous landscapes that incorporate lined paper, graph paper, newspaper articles, and water bills—the two leaves soar through the skies, “off and away and away and away,” together.

—   Abby Nolan

 

 

Criteria  

Recent copyright date as appropriate to the subject: copyright 2008

 

 

Acceptable in literary style and technical quality: This book is on Booklists notable books list for 2009.

 

 

Appropriate for recommended levels: This book has been reviewed as appropriate for grades Pres- grade 2.

 

 

Free of bias and stereotype: This book is free of bias and stereotype.

 

 

Pertinent to the curriculum and the objectives of the instructional program: Good for sparking curiosity before natural science topics in the earlier grades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nolan, Abby. Retrieved June 24, 2009. Engberg, Gillian. Retrieved June 24, 2009. http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=2356380

 

 

 

 

Pale Male

Citizen Hawk of New York City by Janet Shulman

Grades 1-3

   

In the fall of 1991, a red-tailed hawk flew over Central Park. Unlike most of the migratory birds that only rest briefly in New York City’s urban oasis, this bird stayed to make a home. The hawk, named Pale Male by excited birdwatchers, chose a mate and built a nest on a high window ledge on one of the city’s most exclusive buildings. The well-heeled residents quickly tired of stepping over Pale Male’s garbage, and they removed the nest. Animal protection organizations and the bird’s thousands of fans protested, and Pale Male was allowed to return to the building, eventually producing 23 chicks. Schulman’s leisurely, engaging story, offers far more detail than Jeannette Winter’s The Tale of Pale Male (2007), and children may have questions about specific references, from Central Park sites to the Audubon Society. The stunning watercolor-and-pencil illustrations are both whimsical and elegant, and their beautiful contrasting views of the bird soaring above the wild park and the forest of skyscrapers will ignite children’s curiosity in both urban animals and the caring people who help protect them. An author’s note concludes. — Gillian Engberg

 

 

Criteria  

Recent copyright date as appropriate to the subject: copyright 2008

 

 

Acceptable in literary style and technical quality: This book is on Booklists notable books list for 2009.

 

 

Appropriate for recommended levels: This book has been reviewed as appropriate for grades 1-3.

Free of bias and stereotype: This book is free of bias and stereotype.

         

Engberg, Gillian. Retrieved June 24, 2009. http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=2356380

  

 

 

The Porcupine Year by Louise Erdrich

Grades 4-7

 

 

The struggle to survive provides the exciting action in this sequel to The Birchbark House (1999) and The Game of Silence (2005), which takes place in 1852. But the gripping story is also about  pain, joy, sacrifice, and surprise. Omakayas, now 12, feels the anguish of displacement as her family, driven from its beloved Madeline Island by white settlers, endures violent raids in the freezing winter and comes close to starvation in its search for a home. Erdrich shows Omakaya’s love for her mischievous little brother, as well as her barely controlled jealousy of her sister. Always there is her bond with tough elderly Old Tallow, who rescued Omakayas as a baby and has loved her ever since. The question now is whether Old Tallow will survive, and for the first time, Omakayas hears her mentor’s childhood story—including the shocking brutality she endured, which helped make her so strong and nurturing. As in the previous books, Erdrich weaves in Ojibwa culture and language, defining the terms in an appended glossary, and she includes her own black-and-white sketches, which express her affection for small daily things. Based on Erdrich’s own family history, this celebration of life will move readers with its mischief, its anger, and its sadness. What is left unspoken is as powerful as the story told.

—   Hazel Rochman

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Criteria 

—   Recent copyright date as appropriate to the subject: copyright 2008

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—   Acceptable in literary style and technical quality: This book is on Booklists notable books list for 2009.

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—   Appropriate for recommended levels: This book has been reviewed as appropriate for grades 4-7.

 

 

—   Free of bias and stereotype: This book is free of bias and stereotype.

  

 

Rochman, Hazel. Retrieved June 24, 2009. Engberg, Gillian. Retrieved June 24, 2009. http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=2356380

 

 

Savvy

Ingrid Law

Grades 5-7

 

 

Upon turning 13, each member of the Beaumont family develops a supernatural ability, or “savvy, ” which must then be tamed. Well aware of the problems savvys can bring (the family had to relocate when one child had difficulty controlling his storm-producing savvy), 12-year-old Mississippi (Mibs) awaits her birthday eagerly but with a bit of trepidation. Then Poppa is seriously injured in an accident far away, and Momma goes to his side, leaving Mibs and the rest of the family to cope with Mibs’ 13th birthday on their own. Initially believing that her savvy is the ability to restore life, Mibs sets her course for Poppa. Joined by her brothers and the local preacher’s kids, she sweet talks her way onto a traveling Bible salesman’s bus. On the journey, however, Mibs realizes her savvy isn’t what she thought, which opens the way for a number of lively adventures both geographic and emotional. Law’s storytelling is rollicking, her language imaginative, and her entire cast of whacky, yet believable characters delightful. Readers will want more from Law; her first book is both wholly engaging and lots of fun.

—   Francisca Goldsmith

 

 

Criteria 

Recent copyright date as appropriate to the subject: copyright 2008

 

 

Acceptable in literary style and technical quality: This book is on Booklists notable books list for 2009.

 

 

Appropriate for recommended levels: This book has been reviewed as appropriate for grades 5-7.

 

 

Free of bias and stereotype: This book is free of bias and stereotype.  

 

 

Goldsmith, Francisca. Retrieved June 24, 2009. Engberg, Gillian. Retrieved June 24, 2009. http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=2356380

 

 

 

 

Way Up and Over Everything

Alice Mcgill

Grades 2-5

 

 

This African American “flying” tale details the miraculous escape of five African slaves from Ol’ Man Deboreaux’s plantation. After a day of toil in the cotton fields, Jane, a 16-year-old slave, notices that the newly arrived Africans are nowhere to be found. When the vicious overseer and the plantation owner set out to find the fugitives, Jane bravely follows and witnesses the Africans taking to the air and soaring over the rolling countryside toward their home across the sea. Jane is warned not to repeat what she has seen, but repeat it she does, as this tale of transcendence and freedom is handed down from generation to generation, until it is finally related to readers by the story’s narrator, Jane’s great-great-granddaughter. Daly’s delicate and elongated figures, small in scale against the vast watercolor landscapes of the Georgia countryside, present a bird’s-eye view of the story and suggest the enormity of such an escape. McGill finishes with a note about the origins and variations of African American flying stories.

—   Kristen McKulski

 

 

Mckulski, Kristen. Retrieved June 24, 2009. Engberg, Gillian. Retrieved June 24, 2009. http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=2356380

 

 

 

 

Criteria  

Recent copyright date as appropriate to the subject: copyright 2008

 

 

Acceptable in literary style and technical quality: This book is on Booklists notable books list for 2009.

 

 

Appropriate for recommended levels: This book has been reviewed as appropriate for grades 2-5.

 

 

Free of bias and stereotype: This book is free of bias and stereotype.

 

 

Reflective of the pluralistic nature of a global society: This book deals with diverse cultures.