Book Review: Welcome to Monsterville by Laura Shovan & Michael Rothenberg

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The book Welcome to Monsterville starts with a poem called Invitation. It reads, in part:

Hello, children!

Please don’t hide.

The gate is open.

Come inside.

We’re glad you’re here

in Monsterville.

Our tour today

is creature-filled.

Indeed, this collection of sixteen illustrated poems for children is creature-filled and wholly delightful. Born out of grief and a desire to create something uplifting, the author Laura Shovan, and the illustrator, Michael Rothenberg, worked together to create quirky characters that often reflect difficult emotions or situations children navigate.

For example, the poem When I Cry opens with the line, “There is a monster in me called Sadness.” And Green Cave starts with, “Sometimes I get so mad, the feelings can’t stay inside.”

Pairing these poems about serious emotions with colorful, wacky illustrations of monsters seem like a great way to open up conversation about intense feelings and how to deal with them. I can see readers finding new meaning in these poems over multiple readings as situations come up in their lives that make them relevant.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Rare Birds by Jeff Miller

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Rare Birds by Jeff Miller tells the story of eleven-year-old Graham, whose mom is on a waiting list at a Florida medical center for a heart transplant. Graham is staying with an old high school friend of his parents, Dom, and Dom’s son Nick, who does his best to make Graham’s life difficult.

Graham is a veteran of hospital waiting rooms, and it’s there he meets Lou, who has family medical issues of her own. The two become fast friends, and together they decide to enter a contest for young birders to find the rare snail kite that lives in the nearby swamp.

During their adventures, they learn a lot about boating, birding, and the nature of the swamp. They will test their courage and determination while they also discover the value of friendship and the importance of living life to its fullest.

Rare Birds is about hope and self-discovery, and being understood and loved for who you are. As Graham gets to know Nick and Lou, he finds that initial impressions of a person are not the whole story. He also faces his own fears about being on his own if something happens to his mom. It’s a thought-provoking tale, and I highly recommend it for readers aged 9 to 12.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Captain Skidmark Dances With Destiny by Jennifer A. Irwin

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Thirteen-year-old Will knows that no matter how bad the bullies treat him he will keep quiet when they trip him in the hall or steal his lunch or shove him into a locker. He’s small and knows he can’t fight back. Also, as the school principal’s son, he knows that getting the bullies in trouble with his dad will probably just make them madder.

When his older cousin Alex comes to stay with his family, Will initially hopes he may find an ally. But as a popular hockey star, Alex has no time for his pipsqueak relative. When Will happens to enroll in a ballroom dance class and finds he’s good at it, he’s conflicted. Should he continue and risk more bullying because dancing isn’t “manly,” or should he go all out for something that makes him feel good about himself?

Captain Skidmark Dances With Destiny by Jennifer A. Irwin is a humorous and thoughtful coming of age story. Will wants to please people, especially his dad, who used to be a pro hockey player. He feels his dad is disappointed in his own lack of athletic ability. So he hides his interest in dance until he’s forced to admit he’s taking lessons.

Will forms a bond his cousin when he discovers that Alex isn’t happy playing his role, either. They encourage each other to push back against their parents’ expectations. But following through is harder than they anticipate.

Throughout his trials, Will maintains his sense of humor about himself and his increasingly difficult situation even as he tries to find a solution. In the end, readers will cheer for Will and Alex as they forge a path that will lead them to be true to themselves.

Captain Skidmark is funny and thoughtful and I recommend it for readers aged 10 to 13.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: All About Nothing by Elizabeth & Elizabeth Goss

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It’s easy to think that nothing is a thing that doesn’t exist. But in their picture book, All About Nothing, Elizabeth Rusch & Elizabeth Goss set about to get children and their parents thinking about the emptiness, gaps, pauses, and more, that fill our lives.

Nothing, they say is the space around everything, including words, which makes it easier to read. Nothing gets your attention, when you notice something is missing, like a tooth. Nothing, they propose, even makes music, because even songs need some silence.

The simple story is illustrated beautifully, helping to show that the lack of something makes up a large part of our lives. It’s an interesting concept that should be fun for parents and children to explore as they think of even more examples of nothing in their lives. Also, there’s a fun craft project at the back of the book that involves cutting paper to show how negative space creates art. All About Nothing offers an interesting read on what most of us give little thought to. I highly recommend it.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Good Different by Meg Eden Kuyatt

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Pebblecreek Academy is the kind of place where Selah feels comfortable, a place she describes as like “a pair of favorite shoes” that feel special and important. She’s attended school there every year until seventh grade, and she loves being around her friends.

One of the things Selah likes best about Pebblecreek is that she knows the rules of what to wear and how to act and how to get along with everyone. But in seventh grade that starts to change. Life is sometimes overwhelming for Selah. Too much noise and too much stimulation make her want to roar like the dragon she feels like on the inside.

Selah mostly keeps her feelings and actions tightly controlled until she gets home and can relax. But one day too much stimulation in the classroom pushes her to explode, and she hits one of her friends. Suddenly everything she thinks she knows about her school and her friends is in question.

Meg Eden Kuyatt’s novel in verse, Good Different, is a great coming-of-age story about a neurodivergent girl who knows she’s different, but who worries that means people won’t like her. Little by little she learns about who she is and what she needs to succeed in the classroom and at home. She also learns to trust her friends to like her even when they see beneath the facade she has worn for so long.

Kuyatt’s verse unfolds gently, revealing the struggles Selah faces as well as her strengths. In an author’s note at the end, she candidly discusses her own path to understand the way she was different, and that she was diagnosed with autism during college. She talks about how getting a diagnosis is especially difficult for females, who are often good at blending in with their peers. The author has also included a list of tools and resources for people who seek more information.

Good Different is beautifully written and important not only for people who are neurodivergent, but also for their friends, families, schoolmates, teachers, and anyone else who sees them regularly. I highly recommend it.

The author provided me with a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Penguin of Ilha Grande by Shannon Earle

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When Seu Joao rescued an oil-slicked penguin on the beach by his home in Brazil, he never expected it to turn into a long-term relationship. He cleaned the penguin he named Dindim and nursed him back to health. But when Seu tried to release him back to the ocean, Dindim returned. Nothing could make him stay away from the little cottage next to the beach or the man who saved him.

Shannon Earle’s picture book, The Penguin of Ilha Grande: From Animal Rescue to Extraordinary Friendship, tells this true story of an unexpected encounter that turns into something more. Dindim eventually molted and swam away, but he came back months later and continued to do so for years.

It’s a sweet tale that includes information at the back of the book about the actual event, Magellanic Penguins in general, conservation efforts and more. The Penguin of Ilha is also beautifully illustrated by Renato Alarcao, whose subtle colors infuse Seu, Dindim, the beach, and the ocean with a gentle aura.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Whose Egg Is That? by Darrin Lunde

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Every time I unexpectedly come upon an egg in a nest, I get a thrill thinking about the tiny life growing inside. Darrin Lunde’s picture book, Whose Egg Is That? captures that wonder while helping children learn about the way different creatures lay different colored and shaped eggs that help them survive until they hatch.

Parents can start building that sense of wonder even by reading the inside flap of the cover. “Eggs come in all shapes and sizes. They can tell you a lot about an animal. Look at the hints about each animal. Then look at the animal’s egg. Can you guess which animal laid each egg?”

Gorgeous illustrations by Kelsey Oseid show the delicate blue of robin’s egg, and the speckles on a killdeer’s egg that hides it among a group of pebbles. Children learn about fossilized dinosaur eggs and those of leatherback sea turtles.

At the end, a couple of pages of “Eggcellent Egg Facts” reveal tidbits like the fact that a hummingbird egg is smaller than a dime and that white terns don’t build nests. Instead they balance their eggs on a tree branch.

Whose Egg Is That? will provoke lots of parent-child discussions about all kinds of egg-laying creatures. Put this one on your bookshelf to read again and again.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: H Is For Haiku by Sydell Rosenberg

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It’s not often I am contacted on behalf of an author who has passed away, but when Sydell Rosenberg’s daughter got in touch with me about this delightful book of haiku poems, H Is For Haiku, I knew I had to say yes to a review. Here’s what Amy Losak had to say about her mom and the book:

“Syd was a charter member of the Haiku Society of America in 1968. She wrote and published her work over a literary career spanning roughly three decades. I’m a member today.

H IS FOR HAIKU, a picture book, was published in 2018 by Penny Candy Books and was honored by the National Council for Teachers of English in 2019.”

Amy went on to say, “I think of my mother every time I take the time to notice the often overlooked “small moments” in our daily lives. That’s what haiku poetry is all about – it’s poetic “mindfulness.”

I agree, and I particularly like this sweet gem of a book that celebrates small moments in childhood, in nature, and in life in general. If you’re not familiar with haiku, its structure often follows a form of 17 syllables in a pattern of 5, 7, 5 syllables over three lines. The words usually do not rhyme.

I’ll share a couple of my favorites from H Is For Haiku:

Plunging downhill/petals falling in her hair/girl on a bike.

Even in the air/with a berry in its mouth/blue jay caw-cawing.

Illustrations by Sawsan Chalabi are bright and colorful, and there’s a lot of white space on each page, making the images stand out. Losak has written an introduction with information about her mother and the poetry form.

H Is For Haiku is one of those books to keep on the shelves for reading over and over, each time finding something new to appreciate in the words and the illustrations. I highly recommend it.

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