In the Blink of an Eye... It's Reading Log 5- Juvenile Corner

Hello all, 

I want to thank you for coming here and visiting the posts for one of my first classes in graduate school... Sadly, my first semester is drawing near and this is my last reading log.

This reading log focuses on chapter books! Some new and some old; some non-fiction and one is fiction. 

Like before, they are listed in alphabetical order. I hope you enjoy!

It All Comes Down to This by Karen English
Published by: 
Category: Juvenile Fiction, Historical Fiction
Major Awards Won: Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2017, Kirkus Prize Finalist, Kirkus Starred Review, Booklist Top 10 Books of 2018, Historical Fiction for Youth, Horn Book Fanfare List 2017
Age Range: 10-12 years
Pages and Spreads: 368 pages, 0 spreads

Taking place during 1965 in California, It All Comes Down to This tells the reader about 13 year old Sophie during the summer before 9th grade.  There is a lot going on that summer,  Sophie sees for herself just how cruel the world can be at times.  English paints the picture of what it was like getting grew as an African-American during that time.  How unfair it was, to be prejudiced against based on the color of your skin.  How people make awful and baseless assumptions.  the riots that were happening at the time in LA- not far from where Sophie and her sister, Lily live.  At the beginning of the book, the reader sees that Sophie is somewhat naive but at the end of the story, the reader knows that Sophie has grown up.  If you're looking at the age range for this story in terms of Sophie and Lily being older and the growing that Sophie goes through, then I think that it's appropriate.  I would say that it's realistic because Sophie ends up learning a lot from Mrs. Baylor and she's witnesses what goes on between her mother and father (how her father is in an extramarital affair) and how Nathan is arrested, even though he's done nothing wrong. 


Malala: My Story of Standing Up for Girls' Rights by Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McMormick
Published by: Little, Brown and Company in 2018
Category: Juvenile Autobiography, Juvenile Non-Fiction
Major Awards Won: The Amelia Bloomer Book List Awards in 2019
Age Range: 7-10 years
Pages and Spreads: 166 pages, 0 spreads

At the age of 15, Malala Yousafzai was a victim of gun violence by the Taliban on a bus ride from school.  In 2008, Malala's entire world started to change with Fazlullah entering and taking over Pakistan.  Backed by the Talbian, Fazlullah decided that having access to an education was not acceptable for girls.  Refusing to accept this notion (and speaking out against the Taliban and Fazlullah), Malala stood up for education for girls, women and boys.  As an individual wise beyond her years, Malala is strong and inspirational.  She allow what happened to define her and continues to advocate for what's right.  Malala: My Story of Standing Up for Girls' Rights is the abridged version of I am Malala.  This book is a chapter book but it's only 166 pages and while there not spreads of illustrations, there are standalone illustrations.  The book also features a glossary at the back and it some chapters highlight specific terms for the give more information on a person mentioned or an organization, a religious holiday, etc.  The age range provided by the publisher is appropriate for this book. 

World War II on the Home Front: An Interactive History Adventure by Martin Gitlin 
Published by: Capstone Press in 2012
Category: Juvenile Non-fiction, World War II
Age Range: 8-11 years
Pages and Spreads: 112 pages, 0 spreads

On December 7, 1941; the world was forever changed when Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan.  For the next 4 years, the United States, England and the Soviet Union would be fighting a war against Germany.  World War II on the Home Front is an interactive adventure book.  As the reader, you're able to pick 1 of three different characters: a housewife, an African American war veteran or a 12 year old boy.  Each character teaches the reader about the different things that they had encountered during this time.  The reader is able to choose a proactive direction for the character or a passive direction.  At the end of the book, there is the outcome of what happened with the war.  While the book lacks spreads, there are several photographs of different people at the time and picture of propaganda and newspaper articles.  The age range on this book is appropriate as it was recommended by the publisher.  

- Jillian

Poetry, Folktales and Picture books... Oh my! - Juvenile Corner

Hi everyone, 

This is reading log 4, which marks less than 6 weeks left of my first semester in grad school! Can you believe it? Because I know that I can't!
This reading log is going to focus on poetry.  Which is something that you probably guessed from the title of this post. 

The books will be listed below in alphabetical order, just like before.  (If you're curious about my other reading logs, you can click on the tab labeled "Juvenile Corner".  This will take you directly them)

Armadilly Chili written by Helen Ketteman and illustrated by Will Terry
Published by 
Category: Children's (illustrated) picture book, Folktale
Major Awards Won:
Age Range: 7-9
Pages and Spreads: 40 pages, 6 spreads

Armadilly Chili is a fun, refreshed take on folktale The Little Red Hen.  Miss. Billie is an armadillo who's a craving a bowl of beetle chili!  Miss. Billie goes around town and asks her friends if they are able to help her.  Much to her dismay, none of her friends are able to help her... That is until they smell the chili that Miss. Billie is making!  I found this story to have excellent illustrations.  The colors were bold and bright and they helped to tell the story.  Armadilly Chili is the a book that would be excellent one for a storytime.  I think that this book would be appropriate for children as young as 5 or 6.  I liked the story teaches the importance of friendship and sharing.  At the end of the story, Miss. Billie and her friends end up enjoying the armadilly chili!  Her friends even bring gifts as a token of their appreciation for allowing them to share her food with them.  It was a cute little story with a good moral at the end. 

A Coat for the Moon and Other Jewish Tales selected and retold by Howard Schwatrz and Barbara Rush; illustrated by Michael Iofin
Published by The Jewish Publication Society in 1999


Category: Children's (illustrated) picture book, Folktale, Anthology
Major Awards Won: 
Age Range: 9-12
Pages and Spreads: 94 pages, 0 spreads

Taking folktales from different counties within the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe, A Coat for the Moon and Other Jewish Tales combines different tales with the same theme into one collection.  The stories within this book, while are from different countries, they do feature some of the same characters. King Solomon is in several stories.  Each story features one illustration which is at the beginning of that said story. The illustrations are done with ink and are in black and white.  The stories are wordier, so I feel that if a child was reading them alone, they would need to be a little older or have a more advanced reading ability if they're younger than 9.  That being said, I think that this book would an excellent read for a parent or a caregiver to read to a younger child.  



Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart; selected by Mary Anne Hoberman, illustrated by Michael Emberly
Published by Little, Brown & Co. in 2012
Category: Children's Poetry, Anthology (Thematic)
Major Awards Won: Poetry Foundation Children's Poet Laureate 2008-2010
Age Range: 5-6 years
Pages and Spreads: 144 pages, 42 spreads

Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart is an anthology comprised of poems by lesser known authors and more famous authors.  The anthology is broken down into 11 selections covering various topics and themes.  The pages do have illustrations on them, some of the pages have more than one poem on them with an illustration.  The illustrations featured in the book were done in watercolor, pencils and pastels.  I felt like the age range on this book could include those who were aged 4 as well.  I think that this book would be great at bedtime or even a storytime. 




Poetry for Young People: Maya Angelou, edited by Edwin Graves Wilson, Ph.D., illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue
Published by Sterling Publishing, Co. in 2007
Category: Children's Poetry, Anthology
Age Range: 8 and up
Pages and Spreads: 48 pages, 2 spreads

Featuring only poems authored by Maya Angelou, Poetry for Young People: Maya Angelou features 25 of her poems.  I really enjoyed this anthology.  The poems featured carry impact and are beautifully written and the focus on various topics.  The illustrations that are done in acrylic or in oil paint.  The illustrations help to enhance the poems.  Each poem featured in this anthology has a little expert about it and some of the poems have definitions at the bottom.  I felt like this age range on this book suits it well.  I think that it would be a good book for any independent reader.  




                                    Stone Soup: An Old Tale written and illustrated by Marcia Brown
Published by Aladdin Paperbacks, 1997 (second edition)
Category: Children's (illustrated) picture book, Folktale
Major Awards Won: 1948 Caldecott Honor Book
Age Range: 5-8
Pages and Spreads: 48 pages, 15 spreads

Stone Soup: An Old Tale was originally published in 1947, with a second publishing in 1997, is based on a folktale from France.  In Stone Soup, three soldiers find a small town where they hope that they are able to have a meal and find a place to rest their heads.  As the villagers see them coming down the road, they start to hide all of their food.  When asked by the soldiers if there was any food to spare or any beds to sleep in, they were told "no".  Using some creative thinking, the soldiers told the village that they wanted to make some stone soup.  The villagers were intrigued and willing to help with the various items and ingredients that were needed.  At the end of the story, the soldiers not only had their meal but they fed the rest of the people in the town (and they got a place to sleep!).

Happy reading!
- Jillian

Easy Readers- Juvenile Corner

Hiya everybody, 

This reading log for the juvenile corner will be focusing on Easy Readers.  An easy reader is a book that supplements the reading skills a child is taught in school.  Which is why these books usually are leveled by numbers or letters.  Depending on the publisher of the easy reader series, there are different levels within that series.  Across the different publishers, easy readers are not made to be universal!

You will find 6 easy readers reviewed down below from varying publishers of varying levels.  The easy reader books will be listed in alphabetical order just like they have been in the other reading logs posted here.  On the reviews, I included the guided reading level (in addition to the age range), I felt that the reading level was helpful to include since these are easy readers.  There was only one book that I read that did not have any major awards attached to it and that was the non-fiction book.  It was very difficult to find a children's non-fiction boo that won an award.


Hi Fly Guy!
Written and Illustrated by Tedd Arnold
Published by Scholastic, 2005 
Category: Easy Reader, Boy oriented
Major Awards Won: Theodor Seuess Geisel Honor Book in 2006
Age Range: 4-8; Guided Reading Level I
Pages and Spreads: 32 pages, 3 spreads

With it's humor and wit, Hi Fly Guy! tells the story of how a boy named Buzz, adopts a fly as his pet.  It has 3 chapters, white backgrounds and large typeface.  The story is simple and the words are high frequency sigh words.  The sentences were also short.  What I liked about the story was that it was funny.  Something else that I liked about the story was in terms of the text and the illustrations.  Arnold incorporated the illustrations as action words into the text.  The illustrations had a cartoon-ish vibe to that and they were done with softer colors.  I felt that the age range from Scholastic was off a little bit.  I didn't feel that this book would have been good for age 4.  I felt like that was a little too young.  I said that this book was boy-oriented because of Buzz.




I am Helen Keller (Ordinary People Change the World)
Written by Brad Meltzer and Illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos
Published by Dial Books for Young Readers, 2015
Category: Children's Biography, Non-fiction
New York Bestseller Series
Age Range: Grades 1-2; Guided Reading Level O
Pages and Spreads: 40 pages, 8 spreads





If anyone has watched Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum on PBS, then you may or may not know that the show was based on the biography series Ordinary People Change the World by Brad Meltzer?  I am Helen Keller is a book from Meltzer's Ordinary People Change the World series.  Telling the story of Helen Keller, Meltzer tells Keller's story as if Keller was a young child.  The book is a biography for children, focusing on the main points of Keller's life but in light of that fact, I found this book to be very wordy.  There was a lot of text on the pages, thus resulting in a lot of words. I was looking at the book less within the publisher's age range and more within the reading level and the information that it contained.  With help, I feel that a child would be able understand the material- I just think that unless the child was a strong reader, they might need to have an adult read it to them.  There were many lines and the typeface was not bold, nor was it large.  A feature that I thought was unique to the book was that it included the alphabet in Braille.  By adding the alphabet in Braille, it added a way for the reader to interact more with the story.  At the end of the book, there were real photos of Helen Keller and it included her timeline.  






I See a Cat
Written and Illustrated by Paul Meisel
Published by Balzer + Bray, 2016
Category: Easy Reader, Limited Vocabulary Book
Major Awards Won: Theodor Seuess Geisel Honor Book in 2018, Kirkus Review Starred Review
Age Range: 4-8; Guided Reading Level A
Pages and Spreads: 32 pages, 9 spreads

I See a Cat by Paul Meisel is a very much a limited vocabulary easy reader.  It matches it's guided reading level and it matches the age range provided by the publisher.  The story focuses on a dog and what the dog sees when it looks out the window and it told in sentences that are, for the most part, made up of 3 words.  The dog sees a cat, a bird and a squirrel.  Then the dog sees a boy when he comes home from school.  The illustrations were cute and very colorful, you could that were helping to tell the story.  There wasn't any white space on the pages.  The text was written in white or black, depending on the color of the background and it was a larger but it wasn't bold.  I didn't care for this book so much.  I felt like the story just ended abruptly and the information in the book itself was purely to tell the reader what the dog was seeing on each page; some pages didn't have text.   


Mr. Putter & Tabby Turn the Page
Written by Cynthia Rylant and Illustrated by Arthur Howard
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014
Category: Easy Reader
Major Awards Won: Theodor Seuess Geisel Honor Book in 2015
Age Range: 6-9; Guided Reading Level J
Pages and Spreads: 40 pages, 6 spreads

With it's 5 chapter, Mr. Putter & Tabby Turn the Page is a easy reader that's set up like a chapter book.  The background of the pages are white for the most part (there are times that there are color washed behind the text).  The text is black and large but there isn't a bold typeface.  The pages do not exceed having 6 lines of text on them, when the sentences are longer.  The illustrations are colorful and they do help to tell the story.  The words that are used, are easy to read and to understand.  I do agree with the age range on this book.  I felt that story had length that would make it appropriate for a child older than 6 and I thought that the story was structured well.  I like the chapters, because they offered the ability to take a break.


Oops Pounce Quick Run!
Written and Illustrated by Mike Twohy
Published by Balzer + Bray, 2016
Category: Children's Picture Books, Alphabet book, Easy Reader, Limited Vocabulary
Major Awards Won: Theodor Seuess Geisel Honor Book in 2017
Age Range: 5-7; Guided Reading Level F
Pages and Spreads: 32 pages, 2 spreads

Oops Pounce Quick Run! is a picture book that tells a story using the alphabet, that also falls under the category of being an easy reader.  Twohy's book is a fun take on using the alphabet in a such a way that tells a story.  Each page has one word starting that letter in the alphabet, so it read from A-Z.  Twohy's illustrations help to tell the story.  The background on all the pages is white and the typeface is bold and large.  The illustrations are simple and anything in the background of the illustrations are done in black and white with bold lines.  The dog and the mouse are colored and the capital letter on each word is colored as well.  I can see why this book was a 2107 Theodor Seuess Geisel Honor Book!  I liked how creative it was.  I agree with the age range given by the publisher- I feel like it matches with the story. I just thought that it might be a little too immature for someone who's age 7.


Penny and Her Marble
Written and Illustrated by Kevin Henkes
Published by Greenwillow Books, 2013
Category: Easy Reader, Girl oriented
Major Awards Won: Theodor Seuess Geisel Honor Book in 2014
Age Range: 4-8; Guided Reading Level J
Pages and Spreads: 48 pages, 0 spreads

I found that Penny and Her Marble was a chapter book easy reader.  The book told that story over the course of 4 chapters and it was a longer book at 48 pages.  I used this book as a girl oriented book because of Penny.  Penny and Her Marble told the story of young mouse, Penny and the marble she found on the front lawn of Mrs. Goodwin.  There is small pictures that help to tell the story but there story lacks any spreads.  The background of the pages is white and at most, there were 9 lines to a page.  I think that Henkes is a wonderful artist, so I really enjoyed all of the illustrations in the story (including the little mice in the basket!).  They were colorful and they did a nice job of supplementing the story.  The grade range on this book is very very wide.  According to Scholastic, it's pre-k to k, grades 1-2.  I actually don't agree with this!  When I was reading it, I felt like the story was more identifiable to an older child, because of how it talks about finding an item and claiming it as your own without asking.  There is a sense of guilt that's presented in this story that I don't think a small child would be able to understand.  To me, this story is more appropriate for a child in grades 1-2. 

Until next time... Happy reading!
- Jillian

More Picture Books- Juvenile Corner

Happy Sunday everyone!

I hope those of you who read my first post about picture books so much, you were hoping that I'd do a second one.  If you fall into that category, than you're in luck!  
This picture book post focuses on picture books that are wordless, published originally in another country- before being published in the United States and a book that's all about the ABCs.

Like the post before, the books are listed in alphabetical order.  I hope you all enjoy!

                                  The Boring Book

Written and Illustrated by Shinsuke Yoshitake
Published by Chronicle Books in 2019; Hakusensha in 2017 (Japan)
Category: Children's Picture Books, International
Major Awards Won: New York Times Best Illustrated Book, Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
Age Range: 6-8
Pages and Spreads: 40 pages, 4 spreads

The Boring Book was published in 2017 in Japan.  What has to happen in order for something to be considered boring? What is the fine thin between boring and fun?  The Boring Book poses those questions with answers in only a way a child could imagine.  The child in the book does a great job of working through what boredom could be and how it works because let's be honest, who hasn't been bored before.  Adults and children alike!  I liked how the colors used in the illustrations were very bold but simple- the primary colors were used and there was a lot of gray.  I feel like this book would make an excellent book for a circle time.  I think that it would a great way to engage children and to get them talking about boredom and how to have fun when it seems almost impossible.  


Flora and the Flamingo 
Written and Illustrated by Molly Idle
 Published by Chronicle Books, 2013

Category: Children's Picture Books, Wordless
Major Awards Won: 2014 Caldecott Honor Book
Age Range: 3-6
Pages and Spreads: 32 pages, 10 spreads

Flora and the Flamingo was bother written and illustrated by Molly Idle.  Idle uses colored pencils to illustrate her story about a young girl and her encounter with a flamingo. This book is wordless but it also has flaps!  I found that the flaps added an extra dimension to the story.  They allowed for the more actions to occur on the same pages.  The drawings were done with what looks like colored pencils- they were on bright white pages.  Without words and a bright white background definitely makes the drawings stand out and take center stage.  It was very easy to feel the emotion that Flora and the flamingo were experiencing throughout the story.   I felt like this book would be best for the one on one interaction between adult and child.  I just don't know how flap books would work in terms of a story time. 


Jerome By Heart
Written by Thomas Scotto and Illustrated by Oliver Tallec; translated by Claudia Zoe Bedrick and Karin Snelson
Published by Enchanted Lion Books in 2018; Actes Sud in 2009 (France)
Category: Children's Picture Books, International
Major Awards Won: Batchelder Honor Book of 2019 and Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of 2018
Age Range: 4-8
Pages and Spreads: 32 pages, 4 spreads


Originally published in French in 2009, Jerome by Heart follows the story of two young boys, Raphael and Jerome.  Raphael is telling the story, which encompasses his feelings for Jerome.  It's a sweet story and it shows how deep friendships and connections can go.  I know that the book was recognized by GLBTRT group as 2019 Rainbow Book Selection.  I don't know if I would say that Jerome and Raphael were in love like that, their connection ran deep, yes.  The characters in the book, I feel, are too young to know what love is on that level.  I think that this book is a great for the theme of friendship.  I felt that the age range was appropriate.


Wolf in the Snow
Written and Illustrated by Matthew Cordell
Published by 
Category: Children's Picture Books, Wordless Book
Major Awards Won: 2018 Caledcott Award Winner
Age Range: 2-6
Pages and Spreads: 48 pages, 12 spreads


Without words, Wolf in the Snow tells the story of a little girl who's on her home from school during a blizzard.  At the same time, the reader sees that there is a pack of wolves who are traveling in the blizzard, where the wolf pup falls behind.  The girl and the wolf cross paths and she carries the pup through the blizzard until she finds their family to reunite the pup.  There is a moment of despair when the girl curls up in the snow- defeated by the blizzard.  The ending brings a sense of peace to the story, the wolves help the girl reunite with her family.  The illustrations are outlined with a heavy hand in ink, which makes them standout against the watercolor like colors.  Even though the book was wordless, the animal sounds are written out. I agree with the age range from the publishers. 



Z is for Moose 
Written by Kelly Bingham and Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinksy
Published by Greenwillow Books in 2012
Category: Children's Picture Books, ABC
Major Awards Won: Kirkus Starred Review, School Library Journal Starred Review, Booklist Starred Review, Publisher's Weekly Starred Review, Horn Book Starred Review
Age Range: 4-8
Pages and Spreads: 32 pages, 2 spreads


I think this book would make an excellent one for a story hour.  The interaction between the moose and the zebra were just too funny.  Bingham presents the ABC in a fun way, letters A, B, and C are explained perfectly; A is for apple, B is for ball, C is for cat and D is for Moose. But wait a second, that doesn't sound right!  From letter D to Z, Moose makes appearance and voices his concerns about how Zebra is directing this shoot.  The illustrations were cute and fun.  Between the illustrations and the dialogue between the moose and the zebra, the reader didn't need to focus on the alphabet.  It was easy to guess what the letters would have been for, even when they weren't focusing on that.  The age range from the publishers is accurate.  

- Jillian

Picture Books - Juvenile Corner

Hi everyone!

The reason why I've been MIA is because I'm in grad school!  One of the courses that I'm taking is for children's literacy and reading.  From now until May, I'll be posting reviews of juvenile literature.  I'm going to group everything under the tag "Juvenile Corner". 

This post will be focusing on 5 picture books.  The books read are listed in alphabetical order.


Alma and How She Got Her Name 
Written and Illustrated by Juana Martinez- Neal
Published by Penguin Random House
Category: Children's Picture Books
Major Awards Won: 2019 Caldecott Honor Book, 2019 Erza Jack Keats New Writer/ Illustrator Award Honor Book.
Age Range: 4-8
Pages and Spreads: 32 pages and 7 spreads

Alma and How She Got Her Name is about a little girl named Alma, who feels that her full name Alma Sophia Esperenza Jose Pura Candela is just too long!  Alma approaches her father and tells him that her name is too long (beginning), her father sits down with Alma and tells her about each person of who she's named after and why (middle). At the end of the story, the reader learns that her first name, Alma, is her own name- a blank slate to make an amazing legacy for herself! The illustrations were completed by Martinez-Neal. They were done in colored pencils and graphites, so they have a very soft and blurred look to them. Something that I noticed immediately was how each name was a different style of text associated with it.  This picture book is good for the publisher's recommended age range of 4-8.  This book would be wonderful to explain the importance of family and genealogy. 



Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut
Written by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James
Published by Agate Publishing
Category: Children's Picture Book
Major Awards Won: 2018 Caldecott Honor Book, 2018 Newbery Honor Book, 2018 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book, Erza Jack Keats New Writer Award and Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor Book. 
Age Range: 3-8 recommended 
Pages: 32 pages and 10 spreads


Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut was very cool.  The way that the words were told with rhyme and rhythm, were like a rap and that I found to be unique.  It definitely worked with the story.  I've yet to have read a children's book like this before. The story looks a young boy who is about to get his hair cut and how the idea that getting of getting a haircut is transformative (beginning).   The middle of the story explains all of the things that possible with a haircut.  Leading up to the end where the young boy has his new "fresh cut" and he's ready to leave the shop.  The illustrations were amazing!  As the reader, you recognize that the illustrations were painted in acrylic from the brush strokes.  James captured the essence of photographs through paint which is truly amazing.  That being said, I don't feel that this book is great for young readers.  While the rhyme and the flow of the words is impeccable, it's not something that younger ones can identify with.  Little ones won't understand what be able to understand a lot of it.  This book would be best for children 8 or older.  The theme of the book is self confidence; this would be great for a child who needs that boost of just that. 



Hello Lighthouse
Written and illustrated by Sophia Blackall
Published by Little, Brown in 2018
Category: Children's Picture Book
Major Awards Won: 2019 Caldecott Medal
Age Range: 4-8 recommended 
Pages: 48 pages and 19 spreads

Blackall not only wrote Hello Lighthouse but she also did the illustrations for the book as well.  The reader will notice that the illustrations are soft but that they are very detailed. It looks like Blackall did the illustrations using different mediums: pencils, watercolors just to name a few.  I felt that Blackall tackles the tough issue of change within this story.  The reader sees that the lighthouse keeper moves into the lighthouse on his own, but by the end, he learns that he will soon have to leave the lighthouse.  The reader can sense the sorrow that the lighthouse keeper feels. The book is beautifully illustrated, I think that there is an appeal to the older readers on the recommended age range, the ones who are closer to 6-8. 

Last Stop on Market Street
Written by Matt de la Pena, illustrated by Christian Robinson
Published by Penguin Random House in 2015
Category: Children's Picture Book
Major Awards Won: 2016 Newbery Medal Winner, 2016 Caldecott Honor Book, 2016 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book,  and the New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of 2015 (plus 25 other nods-including picks and awards!)
Age Range: 3-5 recommended 
Pages: 32 pages and 12 spreads


Last Stop on Market Street was written by Matt de la Pena and illustrated by Christian Robinson.  The way that the book was written and illustrated works well with a younger crowd.  The pictures are big, simple and colorful in their format and they're easily identified by young eyes.  The sentences are short and simple yet they allow a young reader to imagine them.  I think that this book has a lot of appeal to a young reader, because of how it is easy to follow and the pictures are very intriguing to little ones.  At the beginning of the story, the little boy and his nana are leaving church and they're heading to the other side of town by walking and the bus.  The middle of the story includes all of the other people that they met on their way to the other side of town and how there is beauty in everything.  At the end of the story, we see that the little boy and his nana reach a soup kitchen, where they help serve food to those less fortunate. I feel that the morale of this book is fantastic and something that should be taught at a young age.  This book would be excellent for a story time!

Waiting
Written and Illustrated by Kevin Henkes
Published by HarperCollins Publishers
Category: Children's Picture Book
Major Awards Won: 2016 Caldecott Honor Book and 2016 Theodore Seuss Geisel Award.

Age Range: 4-8 recommended
Pages: 32 pages and 3 spreads


Waiting was written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes.  Set in, what the reader would assume to be a child's bedroom, five little toys sit on a windowsill, watching out the window - waiting.  The illustrations are done in what one would assume to be colored pencil but they're outlined in a bold thick black ink.  The toys used to tell the story are items that little ones know and the story itself is simple. At the beginning of the book, the five little toys are introduced as is what they like best when they look out the window.  The middle of the story has the toys waiting and there is an introduction to a new toy, who tragically doesn't make it.  At the end of the book, there is another toy that was introduced who ends up bringing more toys to the window still!  I found that since the words were so simple, the illustrations were brought forward to be more of the main focus. This book would be great for story time but for toddlers (ages 18 months -3 years).  The title of the book and the nesting doll being added at the end of story, make me think that this book would be good story to share with a child who's going to be an older sibling.

- Jillian