November 23rd, 2012
Author and illustrator Rebecca Bender has fashioned a delightful children’s picture book for kids ages 4 through 7. It is one thing for people to laugh with one another in unison and quite another thing to laugh at others. Seeing his friend humiliated and unhappy brings out Bird’s caring and creativity. Don’t Laugh at Giraffe […]
Posted in Don't Laugh at Giraffe
November 20th, 2012
The author uses clear prose and descriptive language to make the reader aware of the life that Kato lives. We hear the silence of the early morning, see the soldiers as they stand guard, feel the sloshing of the water on Kato’s bare, dusty toes, catch our breath with him as he hauls the water home […]
Posted in A Good Trade
November 13th, 2012
When Emily’s Grandad dies, she’s more concerned with her break up. When a mysterious guest shows up at her Grandad’s funeral, claiming to be an old friend of her Grandad’s Emily’s life gets suddenly more complicated. Her grandfather had a secret life and as it tears Emily’s family apart, Emily finds herself questioning everything she […]
Posted in Emily for Real
November 8th, 2012
This colourful picture book lives its message: one of the best antidotes for sadness is laughter. The illustrations by author/illustrator Rebecca Bender delight the reader even before the humorous and effective twist at the end of the story. A successful element in the interaction of text and image is that Bender bolds the important words—mainly […]
Posted in Don't Laugh at Giraffe
October 22nd, 2012
“Marsha Skrypuch has written two short books for young readers that tell the story of eight year old Son Thi Anh Tuyet, a Vietnamese orphan who was adopted by a family from Brantford, Ontario. Living in an orphanage in Saigon, in 1975, Tuyet had been crippled by polio when younger and was suffering from psychological […]
Posted in Last Airlift, One Step at a Time
September 25th, 2012
“You know how the female praying mantis bites the head off of the male? That was one of Casey’s favorite things. As a future entomologist, she adored insects. She even copied the head chomp with a little hand signal. The signal meant that someone was really getting on your nerves, and you’d really love to […]
Posted in True Blue
September 25th, 2012
“Still experiencing the hurt from a recent breakup, Emily also has to contend with her grandfather’s death and the ensuing family drama that occurs soon after his funeral. Helping her cope is a new friendship with Leo, who, though dismissive and aloof at first, allows her into his life. Plot elements abound. Leo has anger […]
Posted in Emily for Real
September 24th, 2012
“While the story is told from Tuyet’s viewpoint, it is a non-fiction account, written for an eight-12 age group and illustrated with black-and-white photographs of Tuyet and the Morrises, who became her family. Skrypuch, who has published a number of both picture books and juvenile novels, many on the theme of Ukrainian immigration, does a […]
Posted in One Step at a Time
September 20th, 2012
“To most North American children, being able to turn on a tap and have clean water come out is a given. The latest book from Alma Fullerton, with illustrations by Karen Patkau, should open children’s eyes to the fact that not everyone is so lucky. A Good Trade portrays a day in the life of […]
Posted in A Good Trade
September 10th, 2012
“Just as she so eloquently did in Last Airlift, Marsha Skrypuch gently takes the reader by the hand to observe the young girl’s new life from Tuyet’s viewpoint… Not the princess dreams and perfect endings of fairy tales, Tuyet’s story is all the more satisfying when her anxieties and confusions are resolved fittingly, just as […]
Posted in One Step at a Time
