Reviews written by Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer

Roberta Forest is in 8th grade at a Catholic middle school in Philadelphia in 1973. She's bright, motivated, and a gifted writer who has a good friend in Bonnie, who shares her interest in records, junk food, and Soul Train. She is also keenly aware of the social unrest in...

This short picture book announces that "every dog has a tail!" and show us a variety of dogs romping outside and getting to know each through sniffing. The book is arranged so that the dogs appear to be in a long line; we see one dog's bottom, and when we...

Nour lives in Damascus, a city she loves and which lives up to the meaning of its name, which is often described as "fragrant". She and her cousin Amir love rambling around the city, and wish to have a secret club that would meet in the storeroom of Nour's father's...

This collection of over 25 poems is grouped into elements; fire, water, air, and earth. Each poem has an illustrations accompanying it. As the title indicates, the poems feature a lot of figurative language, which made me want to look into this; our seventh graders often have a poetry study...

For readers who are too young for Bolden's Speak Up, Speak Out! The Extraordinary Life of "Fighting Shirley Chisholm (2022) or as an excellent classroom read aloud, Chambers and Baker's Shirley Chisholm is a Verb introduces Chisholm and her career in politics through lively illustrations and innovative prose. ...

Jennifer Doudna was born in Hawaii in 1964 (a year before I was!) and was always interested in science. One of her favorite books was Watson's 1968 The Double Helix, which told about his and Crick's discovery of DNA, and she was especially interested in Rosalind Franklin's unheralded contributions to...

In this vividly illustrated picture book, we meet a dog who is not well cared for. Outside at all hours, the dog, the dog howls inconsolably, digs holes in the year, and is left to his own devices in an overgrown yard. When a girl appears on the other side...

This 1979 title is a Swedish classic that reminded me a bit of Shel Silverstein's 1964 The Giving Tree. A man lives alone and suffers from loneliness as well as abuse from the few people he does see. He desperately wants a friend, and even puts up signs advertising his...

Based on her own Poppy, Courtney pens a story of a little girl who travels a long distance with her mother to spend time with her grandfather in his cottage on the coast of Newfoundland. It's a remote location that must be accessed by boat, but she looks forward to...

Born in 1878 in Austria, Meitner faced a lot of obstacles in her quest to obtain an education. Always of a scientific bent, she had a supportive family that allowed her to study. She got a doctorate in physics and was lucky enough to be mentored by Max Planck....

Riley is in fifth grade and is having trouble making friends, now that the people she used to hang out with are gone. She is frequently in trouble in class for wearing her hat, talking loudly, or doodling instead of doing her work, and finds it somewhat difficult to connect...

This paper-over-board book is described on the publication data page as a "vade mecum", a phrase which I had to look up! Sure enough, it stays true to the Latin in the definition by Merriam-Webster describing it as "a book for ready reference : manual" and "Something regularly carried about...

This extremely large format (11.5"x 16") book has strikingly simple illustrations in bold colors, and a wealth of information about the beach environment. There is a big spread on the left hand side of the page giving an overview of the area where the children are underneath the few sentences...

Onyeka and her mother left Nigeria because of problems with Onyeka's father that are never discussed. While Onyeka has a good life, and a good friend in Cheyenne, who is also Nigerian, she feels that she doesn't fit in. She feels especially uncomfortable about her hair, which is exuberantly curly...

Maizy is in the middle of a school project with her best friend, Izzy. They are making a film called Shellfish Holmes, and hope to have it chosen to be screened at the town art film theater if it's good enough. They even manage to get a giant lobster costume...