With “Love,” author Stacy McAnulty and illustrator Joanne Lew-Vriethoff present images that children will relate to all demonstrating that love has no boundaries, no color barriers, no species barriers, but is all-encompassing.
Month: February 2019
‘Hope’ by Matthew Cordell is a beautiful love letter from grandparents to their grandchild
“Hope” by Matthew Cordell follows his beautiful picture book, “Dream,” which is “a poem of love and the book is a poetic ode in words and pictures to the power of parental care.” “Hope” features lions instead of gorillas, and the voice is one of the grandparents sharing their hopes and dreams and wishes for their grandchild.
“You will meet so many. Many who are like you. Many who are not. Continue looking. Continue seeking. And for the future, there will always be hope.”
‘Watcher in the Wood: a Rockton Novel’ by Kelley Armstrong continues the mystery and excitement in the series
“Watcher in the Woods” by Kelley Armstrong continues her “Rockton” series set in the fictional “town” of Rockton, in the Northern Yukon in the middle of thousands of miles of wilderness. Mixed in with the wild, the tundra, the vicious animals, and the cold is the primitive town of Rockton, where fugitives from society live. Some are victims seeking to flee their abuser(s) while others are criminals seeking to escape justice.
‘The Vanishing Stair’ is the sequel to ‘Truly Devious’ by YA superstar Maureen Johnson
“Truly Devious” by Maureen Johnson is a brilliant combination of present murder mystery combined with historical murder mystery/kidnapping/disappearing heiress story. The main character, Stevie, is addicted to solving mysteries, preferably murder mysteries. She fancies herself a modern-day Sherlock Holmes.
‘Someday We Will Fly’ by Rachel DeWoskin is a complicated YA historical fiction about Jewish refugees in Shanghai
“Someday We Will Fly” by Rachel DeWoskin is a fascinating account of Jewish refugees during WWII who escaped to Shanghai, one of the few places they could go without a visa. Not only is the setting unusual for a Holocaust story, main character Lillia and her family defy Jewish stereotypes — her parents are circus performers.
‘Because’ by Mo Willems is a magical journey through the world of music and the arts
“Because” is a perfectly lovely picture book by the prolific children’s author Mo Willems. Though Willems is also an illustrator of note, he turned over that particular duty to Amber Ren for this piece, and the result of their combined talents is a testament to the beauty and power of teamwork as well as a superb rendering of the beauty and power of music — the power to inspire, to change lives, and to add wonder to our universe through our universal language.
‘The Oracle Year’ by Charles Soule: What If?
Like any good mystery — suspense novel, Charles Soule’s “The Oracle Year” is filled with thrills and chills, twists and surprises. But Soule’s work here takes us far beyond those classic characteristics. Its science-fiction elements raise, once again, the “big questions” that have fascinated and frustrated many of us virtually since the birth of our species. Is my destiny pre-decided or do I truly have free will? What would I do and how would I act if I could accurately predict the future? Are human beings fundamentally good or evil? How and why might we eventually cause our own extinction? Are there gods or is there a God or have beings from other worlds created and formed us?
