Picture Book - The Cat Man of Aleppo by Irene Latham and Karim Shamsi-Basha

2020 Caldecott Honor Award

Illustrated by Yuko Shimizu

2020 G. P. Putman's Sons

HC $17.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:   4.25 - 627 ratings

My rating:  5
Endpapers:  Aleppo skyline, with lots of sky and white dove-like birds

1^st line/s:  "Alaa loves his city of Aleppo.  He loves its narrow alleys and covered bazaars selling pistachios, jasmine soap, and green za'atar.  He loves the boiled corn and dried figs offered on the street.  Most of all, he loves the people of Aleppo.  The are gentle, polite, and loving - like him."

My comments:  Fantastic story and rich illustrations come together beautifully to tell a true, meaningful, heartwarming story.  After civil war bombings and crumbling buildings encourage many of Aleppo's citizens to flee, leaving their cats behind to fend for themselves, Alaa begins feeding, rescuing, and ultimately creating a shelter for these helpless animals.  There is currently a way that people all over the world can donate to keep this shelter ongoing.

Goodreads:  The courageous and true story of Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel, who in the midst of the Syrian Civil War offered safe haven to Aleppo's abandoned cats.

          Aleppo's city center no longer echoes with the rich, exciting sounds of copper-pot pounding and traditional sword sharpening. His neighborhood is empty--except for the many cats left behind.
          Alaa loves Aleppo, but when war comes his neighbors flee to safety, leaving their many pets behind. Alaa decides to stay--he can make a difference by driving an ambulance, carrying the sick and wounded to safety. One day he hears hungry cats calling out to him on his way home. They are lonely and scared, just like him. He feeds and pets them to let them know they are loved. The next day more cats come, and then even more! There are too many for Alaa to take care of on his own. Alaa has a big heart, but he will need help from others if he wants to keep all of his new friends safe

PICTURE BOOK - Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena

Illustrated by Christian Robinson

2015 G. P. Putnam's Sons

HC $16.99 (Amazon 10.54)

32pgs.

Goodreads rating:4.18

My rating: 4.5

Endpapers Bright yellow with cream drawings of items from the story

2016 Newbery Medal
2016 Caldecott Honor
2016 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor

My comments:  Yes, a wonderful story - full of kindness, positivity, and making a difference in the world.  Lots of good stuff for all - including 4th graders (admittedly my current focus).  However, I'm not happy with it receiving the Newbery Award this year.  Am I old fashioned?  A purist?  I really like that kids' chapter books/novels have such a prestigious award just for them, and awarding it to a picture book (which, I know, has happened before) bother me a bit.  Oh well, it doesn't take away from the wonderfulness of the book, just an itch that bothers me....

Goodreads: Every Sunday after church, CJ and his grandma ride the bus across town. But today, CJ wonders why they don't own a car like his friend Colby. Why doesn’t he have an iPod like the boys on the bus? How come they always have to get off in the dirty part of town? Each question is met with an encouraging answer from grandma, who helps him see the beauty—and fun—in their routine and the world around them.
           This energetic ride through a bustling city highlights the wonderful perspective only grandparent and grandchild can share, and comes to life through Matt de la Pena’s vibrant text and Christian Robinson’s radiant illustrations.

Peppe the Lamplighter - Elisa Bartone

Illustrated by Ted Lewin
Loithrop Lee & Shepard, 1993
For: gr. 1-4
My rating: Story: 2.5/ Illustrations: 4
Endpapers: Bright Yellow
Caldecott Honor

Ted Lewin's beautiful, full-page illustrations take on a dark tone in this story. Peppe lives with his seven sisters and sickly father in the tenements of New York's Little Italy. Peppe hunts everywhre to find a job to help support his family, and finally procures one lighting the lamps around his neighborhood with a flame on the end of a long pole.

However, his father is ashamed of him - he says this is not why he brought his son to America -- he wants much more for him. His father's silence and attitude eventually rub off on Peppe, who gets more and more depressed - until he doesn't light the lamps one night. And because of that, his little sister doesn't arrive home. (She is afraid of the dark and huddles under an unlit lamp.)

Distressed, the father begs Peppe to go out and light the lamps. He finds his sister and brings her home to a now-loving and accepting father.

Okay, the illustrations are gorgeous. But the story throws me off a bit - this father! What a jerk. He doesn't deserve so many caring, hard-working kids! I bet if I read this aloud to my students they'd decide that for themselves, too. Grrrrrr.

Moses - Carole Boston Weatherford

When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, 2006
$15.99
48 pages
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: bright yellow-orange
Forward and Author's Note
2007 Caldecott Honor Award
2007 Coretta Scott King WINNER

Kadir Nelson is a master at creating mood in his illustrations., I can smell the air. I can hear the crickets. I can feel her intense sadness.

I know well the story of Harriet Tubman and her many trips between the south and the north guiding slaves to freedom. I know of her bravery and perseverance. I did not know about her deep spirituality and belief in God, although I guess I'm not surprised. This book is the story of her first journey - a lone journey - and the talks she might have had with God. The same kind of conversation that the original Moses might have had with God. Those words - God's answers to her questions, his guiding advice, are written in a larger, paler font and twist and turn in and around the pictures. Quite beautiful. But we're talking Kadir Nelson here....

I like the way this shows the relationship Harriet Tubman felt with God. It doesn't matter whether or not you're a believer - it tells of HER beliefs. And it's apparently those beliefs, that relationship, that pushed her and gave her the bravery to succeed.

1820-1913. I've been to her grave. I have a photo somewhere. I'll look for it.

All the World - Liz Garton Scanlon

Illustrated by Marla Frazee
Beach Lane Books, 2009
$17.99
40 pgs.
Rating: 5
Endpapers: light lime
2010 Caldecott Honor Book!

"Rock, Stone, pebble, sand
Body, shoulder arm, hand,
A moat to dig,
A shell to keep
All the world is wide and deep."

Simple and lovely, this gentle picture book shows a couple of families....from the beach in summer, to a farmer's market, climbing trees and in downpours, eating out and settling cozily in -- family members from young to old. Wonderful illustrations, some full page, some like little vignettes, tell so much. Hunt and look closely. There's so much to see!

"All the world is you and me
Everything you hear, smell, see
Hope and peace and love and trust
All the world is all of us."

See also: Twenty by Jenny Review.

The Red Book - Barbara Lehman

Wordless
Houghton Mifflin, 2004
36 pgs, ages 5-8
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: Red

The story is told by examining illustrations inside boxes, sometimes one box on a page, sometimes four. The illustrations are simple but not simplistic - there's plenty to see, examine, and admire.
         In the city it is snowing and a boy is on his way to school. He finds a red book in a snowbank. At school he opens it and is taken to a desert island where he sees another boy find a similar red book poking out of the sand. This boy opens it to find --- the boy in the city! They can see each other!
          After school the boy buys a huge bunch of helium balloons. They pull him up...up...up into the air and he drops the red book. The boy on the deserted island sees all of this transpiring on the pages of the red book that HE has, and is quite sad. Sad until - as we see in the pages of HIS book - his balloons floating onto the island!
          Our story ends with another boy in the city in the sonw, this time riding a bike. He finds the fallen book, sticking it under his arm and heading off along the sidewalk.
          Magical. Fun.

Goodreads: This book is about a book. A magical red book without any words. When you turn the pages you’ll experience a new kind of adventure through the power of story.Winning a Caldecott Honor for its illustrations of rare detail and surprise, The Red Book crosses oceans and continents to deliver one girl into a new world of possibility, where a friend she’s never met is waiting. And as with the best of books, at the conclusion of the story, the journey is not over.

A River of Words - Jen Bryant

The Story of William Carlos Williams
Illustrator: Melissa Sweet
For: kids & poetry lovers
Rating: 5
2008
endpapers:light lime green with other greens in blocks, 5 poems on front, 4 poems on back

From the time he was a young boy, William Carlos Williams loved to be outdoors, taking things slowly, looking at the world. He loved the gentle sounds and natural rhythm of nature...and this same feeling carried over to the times when his teacher read poetry aloud. At a young age he began writing poetry. He filled journals, he wrote all the time. But he knew that writing poetry would not support a family, so he went into medicine, becoming a doctor. A good one. For forty years. But his good friends - writers (Ezra Pound, Hilda Doolittle), and artists (Charles Demuth) kept his creative juices flowing. He kept writing. And writing.

This books includes timelines (1883-1963), all sorts of interesting added information from the author and the illustrator, a list of books for further reading, and a short selection (9) of poems.

The illustrations are interesting and different, usng an altered book technique that delights my own creative juices. The way this book is illustrated really gives you a chance to think beyond the words. I think it's very effective. I love it.

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

The Great Figure

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.

Henry's Freedom Box - Ellen Levine

A True Story from the Underground Railroad
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Published: 2007
Read 1/31/09 B&N
Rating: 5
2008 Caldecott Honor Book
Endpapers: Medium brown

What a story! What detailed, heart-tugging illustrations! It begins, "Henry Brown wasn't sure how old he was. Henry was a slave. And slaves weren't allowed to know their birthdays. That sure says a lot. The illustration is of a young, barefoot boy sitting on a barrell and just staring....

Henry is sold away from his family. He works in a tobacco factory for years, meets a young woman named Nancy, they are given permission to wed. They have three kids. But one day, Nancy and the kids are sold and he loses them forever. He decides to try to become a free man. With the help of a white doctor who thought slavery was wrong, he mailed himself in a crate to Philadelphia - and freedom. It worked.

I think as much as we hear about families being torn apart, about the indignity that black slaves went through, that a story like this for kids that tells (and shows) the truth is still very much needed to make a hard-to-understand concept more real.

And oh, the illustrations. Kadir Nelson's illustrations for All God's Critters were really different than those he did for this, but just as amazing and wonderful. I have a new hero! Crosshatched pencil lines are covered with layers of watercolor and oil paints. The back flap says he also illustrated Ellington Was Not a Street (Ntozake Shange) and Just the Two of Us (Will Smith). You'll see both of those reviewed here soon, what do you want to bet?

A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever - Marla Frazee

For: Kids-Not TOO young
Published: 2008
Rating: 5/5
Read: Sept. 13, 2008
Endpapers: Photographs of the two boys at camp all week
2009 Caldecott Honor ! ! !

Friends James and Eamon spend a week of their summer vacation with Eamon's very cool (in my opinion) grandparents, Bill and Pam. Each day Bill drives them to a nature day camp. Throughout the week they play, create, pretend, build, learn, enjoy the grandparents, and listen to Bill's yearning to go to Antarctica. There's a great ending to the story, too. The boys have seemingly been ignorning Bill's hints about Antarctica, but as a surprise for him, on the last night they build a recreation of Antarctica for him to enjoy.

The best illustration in the book - the boys, laying across sleeping bags on huge air mattresses, completely surrounded by stuffed animals and toys. I'd love to have this on my wall. It just makes you grin. But the cover...well...I think it looks too comic-booky and a book IS judged by its cover. I think I wish it were different.

Written in UPPER case text-lettering by the author. All is based on the author's family and a true week - at least that's what I'm led to think.....

Great book.

A Child's Calendar - John Updike

POETRY
Illustrator: Trina Schart Hyman
For: Kids
Pub: 1965, 1999
Rating: 5/5
Reread for the umpteenth time: Aug. 23, 2008

Twelve poems, one for each month, written by Pulitzer Prize winner John Updike.
Alliteration.
Imagery.
Personification and Metaphors and Similes..
A veritable feast of words.
AND awesome illustrations by one of my favorite illustrators, Trina Schart Hyman. YeeHa!

AUGUST

The sprinkler twirls.
The summer wanes.
The pavement wears
Popsicle stains.

The playground grass
Is worn to dust.
The weary swings
Creak, creak with rust.

The trees are bored
With being green.
Some people leave
The local scene

And go to seaside
Bungalows
And take off nearly
All their clothes.
John Updike

Don't ya just love it?

How I Learned Geography - Uri Shulevitz

For: Kids (just not TOO young)
Pub: 2008
Rating: 3/5
Read: Aug. 25, 2008
2009 Caldecott Honor


"When war devastated the land, buildings crumbled to dust. Everything we had was lost, and we fled empty-handed."

Accompanying illustrations by the author depict a very young boy with his parents. Shulevtitz states in his ending AUTHOR'S NOTE that he is four when they flee Poland, living in what is now Kazakhstan In the Soviet Union for six years. The story tells how they lived, in total poverty, in one room with another couple who were strangers. One day his father returns, not with the small amount of bread he has gone to the marketplace to obtain, but with a large rolled-up world map written in Russian. This map takes him for the next few years, via his imagination, to snowy mountains, burning deserts, wondrous temples, and cities of tall buildings. He dreams of being transported to exotic places, and this is how he survives.

The illustrations are pretty cool, beautifully drawn and colored. There's a little too much negative white space on each page for my liking, but the double-page illustrations of the bazaar and of his flying dream above the waterway make up for that, they're really great.

Okay. He was a little guy with a great imagination. But.....how did he know about all these exotic places? How did he know about stone carvings and papayas and mangoes and the shade of palm trees? It sure doesn't sound like they could afford books. It doesn't say that his father told him stories. I guess I want a little more information. The writing is simple, yes, but a little too sparse for me.

This book has gotten quite a few starred reviews, so it may end up getting awards. Yeah, I liked it, but there are others written this year that I like better.