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Little Blue Truck
by Alice Schertle
Published 2008 by Harcourt Children's Books
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780152056612
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Jacket Notes:
Filled with truck sounds and animal noises, this tale about a little blue truck that finds his way out of a jam is a rollicking homage to the power of friendship and the rewards of helping others. Full color.
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 04/28/2008
All the animals happily greet Little Blue Truck as it amiably trundles over hill and dale: "Toad said, 'Croak!'/ and winked an eye/ when Little Blue Truck/ went rolling by." No wonder, then, that the obnoxious Dump Truck gets a cold shoulder when it goes too fast ("I haven't got time to pass the day/ with every duck along the way!") and gets stuck in the rural muck. But when the selfless Little Blue Truck gets mired while trying to help, all the animals rally 'round and teach Dump Truck about neighborliness (the particularly buff Toad implicitly offers a subsidiary lesson on the value of working out). Schertle's (All You Need for a Beach) rhyming stanzas are succinct, and she gives readers plenty of opportunities to chime in with animal and vehicle noises; colored, standout fonts highlight these sounds for extra effect. McElmurry's (Mad About Plaid) gouaches recall the heyday of Golden Books in their combination of vividness, naïveté and sweetness, and her rich palette achieves verisimilitude that is no less satisfying for being nostalgic. Ages 3-7. (May)
07/01/2008 REVIEW: School Library Journal
PreS-Folksy rhyming stanzas introduce readers to Blue, the eponymous pickup truck, and the barnyard critters he greets as he navigates the country roads near his farmhouse. The first half of the book is an enchanting, toddler-entrancing symphony of animal noises and beeps. The cheerful text mimics the bouncing of the truck, and the warm folk-art illustrations call to mind the paintings of Grandma Moses. Then it begins to rain, and a mean, self-important dump truck enters the story. When the Dump gets mired in the mud and honks for help, he gets no response: "nobody heard/(or nobody cared)." Then Blue drives into the puddle to assist, but also gets stuck. When Blue cries for help, the animals rush to the rescue. From this, the dump truck learns that "a lot depends/on a helping hand/from a few good friends." While the message might be a little heavy-handed, this is still a fun, rollicking story that should find a place in most collections.-Rachael Vilmar, Eastern Shore Regional Library, Salisbury, MD
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Peeled
by Joan Bauer
Published 2008 by G. P. Putnam's Sons
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780399234750
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Jacket Notes:
High school newspaper reporter Hildy Biddle isn't content to just cover school issues. She's drawn to the town's big story--the haunted old Ludlow house. Hildy's efforts to find out who is really haunting the place isn't making her popular, and she starts wondering if she's cut out to be a journalist, after all.
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 04/28/2008
Bauer's (Hope Was Here) fans will appreciate this diverting novel's shout-out to the author's debut, Squashed, from which she also harvests a few themes. In an upstate New York hamlet known for its apples, aspiring teen journalist Hildy Biddle treasures her staff position on the high school paper, aptly named The Core. She does whatever it takes to find the facts for a story, hoping she is honoring the memory of her late father, a respected local reporter. But when the opportunistic publisher of the town paper whips the citizens into a frenzy with sensational stories of ghosts and eerie happenings, Hildy and her friends are determined to expose the truth-which involves a disreputable development company. With sharp pacing and an intriguing premise, Bauer renders a fully realized portrait of a small town dependent on an ever-fragile agricultural economy and threatened by modern encroachment. As always, she stocks her work with strong, sage women, the elements for a budding romance and plenty of funny moments. But it's Hildy readers will remember longest, a smart girl who realistically blends the spunkiness, brains and good humor that is Bauer's stock-in-trade. Ages 12-up. (May)
04/01/2008 REVIEW: School Library Journal
Gr 6-9-Hildy Biddle, high school reporter for The Core, has her hands full following the story of a ghost haunting the old Ludlow place. Life in her sleepy apple-valley town is upset like the proverbial apple cart when a dead body turns up in the Ludlow orchard and enigmatic warnings are scrawled on the door-"YOU DIDN'T THINK IT WAS SAFE, DID YOU?" Rumors fly and fear mounts as Pen Piedmont, editor of the town newspaper, The Bee, prints ever more sensational stories about the eerie goings-on. Hildy, her fellow intrepid high school reporters, and their seasoned newshound adviser are determined to uncover the truth. When they ask the right questions of the wrong people, the principal caves in to threats of litigation from Piedmont and shuts The Core down. Unlikely help comes from café owner and Polish immigrant Minska, whose experience with an underground press inspires them to start an independent news sheet, The Peel, and reveal the true villain. Peeled is vintage Bauer, a warm and funny story full of likable, offbeat characters led by a strongly voiced, independently minded female protagonist on her way to genuine, well-earned maturity. Bauer seasons Hildy's story with the high school homecoming dance, a budding romance, strong friend and family ties, and a host of quirky characters, then serves it up in quick-paced prose juicy with apple metaphors. A-peeling all around!-Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS
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The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
by Jeanne Birdsall
Published 2008 by Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780375840906
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Jacket Notes:
THE PENDERWICK SISTERS are home on Gardam Street and ready for an adventure! But the adventure they get isn't quite what they had in mind. Mr. Penderwick's sister has decided it's time for him to start dating--and the girls know that can only mean one thing: disaster. Enter the Save-Daddy Plan--a plot so brilliant, so bold, so funny, that only the Penderwick girls could have come up with it. It's high jinks, big laughs, and loads of family warmth as the Penderwicks triumphantly return.
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 04/28/2008
This sequel to Birdsall's National Book Award winner, The Penderwicks, has even more charm than the original. The prologue hits the only maudlin note, flashing back to Mrs. Penderwick on her deathbed as she instructs her husband's sister, Claire, to make sure he finds love again after sufficient mourning. The Penderwick sisters-Rosalind, Jane, Skye and Batty-learn of this valediction four years later when Aunt Claire begins arranging blind dates. An emergency MOPS (Meeting of Penderwick Sisters) hatches the Save Daddy plan, in which the girls orchestrate dates so dreadful their father will see widowed life is best. Neighbors on Gardam Street include football-playing brothers Nick and Tommy (the latter plays Tracy to Rosalind's Hepburn), and two newcomers: a widowed professor and her toddler baby. Middle sisters Jane and Skye, who share a room but nothing else, steal the show by swapping homework assignments with hilariously catastrophic results. It's sheer pleasure to spend time with these exquisitely drawn characters, girls so real that readers will feel the wind through their hair as they power down the soccer field. Ages 8-12. (Apr.)
03/01/2008 REVIEW: School Library Journal
Gr 4-8-The Penderwick sisters are back. Their Aunt Claire has come for a visit, bringing with her a letter from their late mother that encourages their father to date, and an immediate crisis ensues, as the girls assume that this is the first step on the treacherous road to having a stepmother. After frantic consultation, they implement the "Save Daddy" plan, designed to set him up with perfectly dreadful women so that he will not want to date again. Numerous subplots add to the domestic drama. Skye struggles with her temper on the soccer field. Rosalind and neighbor Tommy experience a frustrated romance. Skye and Jane switch homework assignments, leading to a school performance of Jane's Aztec drama, with everyone thinking that it was penned by Skye. While the solution to the dating dilemma can be seen from the beginning, the sisters are so caught up in their drama that they can't see who's right next door. Laugh-out-loud moments abound and the humor comes naturally from the characters and situations. Especially funny is the scene in which the youngest Penderwick hides in the car hoping to spy on one of her father's dates. Like much of the book itself, this scene resolves itself in a tender moment between father and daughter. This is a book to cherish and to hold close like a warm, cuddly blanket that you draw around yourself to keep out the cold.-Tim Wadham, Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, AZ
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Smash! Crash!
by Jon Scieszka
Published 2008 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781416941330
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Jacket Notes:
Rev your engines for the launch of the highest-octane series around--Jon Scieszka's Trucktown for preschool/kindergartners--with more shapes, sizes, and formats than anyone could shake a bumper at.
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 11/26/2007
Little gearheads will rally to this demolition derby, carried out by a gregarious all-motorized cast. Jack Truck, a red flatbed with chrome exhaust stacks, and best friend Dump Truck Dan, a blue guy with a yellow cab and mud flaps, adore the smash and crash of work in progress. To stir up noisy trouble, "Jack and Dan charge Cement Mixer Melvin," who mixes sand and water for his job. "No. I can't get messy," Melvin tells them, but with a "smash-crash!" mischievous Jack and Dan leave him covered in gray glop. The friends help Monster Truck Max stack orange-and-white oil drums, and they assist baby-pink Gabriella Garbage Truck (who has a teddy bear tied to her front bumper) in building a pirate fort from an old boat. Scieszka (Math Curse) revs readers up with gear-grinding noise and rowdy antics that echo Pixar's animated Cars. Celebrated illustrators Shannon, Long and Gordon embed mechanical shapes in their punchy display type, and they contribute panoramic vistas of Jack and Dan's playgrounds: freshly dug foundations, vast junkyards and dusty lots with buildings slated for destruction. In a nod to Scieszka's "Guys Read" initiative, most of the machines are male, but the burliest of all is Wrecking Crane Rosie, so tall she requires a vertical gatefold. Heads and taillights above legions of other truck titles, this smash-crash series opener is bound to be a hit. Ages 3-7. (Jan.)
01/01/2008 REVIEW: School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 1-Scieszka teamed up with Shannon, Long, and Gordon to create a vibrant locale inhabited by personified vehicles. In this rollicking escapade, best pals Jack Truck and Dump Truck Dan are in the mood for smashing and crashing. They search for other friends to join in, including Cement Mixer Melvin, Monster Truck Max, and Grater Kat, but they are all too busy working. Although they interrupt their friends' tasks, Jack and Dan's smashing and crashing ultimately helps each truck get the job done. Throughout the story, the comrades continually flee from a menacing shadow. It turns out to be Wrecking Crane Rosie, who demands that they follow her; Jack and Dan are surprised to discover she needs their help to smash and crash a building. Told in brief catchy language, the story zooms along with plenty of pizzazz and action. Children will want to jump in and repeat the "Smash! Crash!" refrain. The winning full-color digital artwork adds plenty of personality to the characters and perfectly suits the text. A foldout page illustrates Rosie's imposing height, and endpapers introduce the cast. Entertaining as a group read-aloud or one-on-one selection, this book is sure to be a hit with truck lovers. Be on the lookout for more "Trucktown" adventures.-Lynn K. Vanca, Akron-Summit County Public Library, Richfield, OH
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NASCAR in the Driver's Seat
by Mark Stewart
Published 2008 by Lerner Publications
Library Binding, English. ISBN: 9780822587378
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Jacket Notes:
Most NASCAR races are decided by mere seconds. So every calculation a driver makes can win or lose the race. This book explores the skills and strategies required, the forces exerted on a car and its driver during a race, and the physics of race strategies.
04/01/2008 REVIEW: School Library Journal
Gr 4-6-NASCAR bait on a science hook is at the heart of this series. Interesting racing information is linked primarily to physics and math, giving readers problems to solve and experiments to do, all neatly nestled into a bright framework of photos and readable texts on color-photo-splashed pages. While most readers will be NASCAR aficionados, they may never have considered how much is spent on tires for a race, how drivers judge draft distances, or how much weight a pit-crew gas man schleps in the course of a 500-mile race. They also may not have thought much about the physical conditioning of pit-crew members until trying the push-up experiment, or the tire-changing time test. Each title contains a glossary (different), a list of further readings/Web site/video game (identical), and an index. These titles provide some energetic spoonfuls of STP to make the science go down without a click or a clack in those finely tuned engines.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
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Who Was First?: Discovering the Americas
by Russell Freedman
Published 2007 by Clarion Books
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780618663910
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Jacket Notes:
Many generations of American schoolchildren were taught that Columbus discovered America, and a holiday reminds us every October. But historical investigation in recent years has shown us otherwise. There is evidence that adventurers, explorers, traders, and nomads from various parts of the globe set foot on American soil long before 1492. And expeditions that landed in the Americas reported people already living there--indicating that America had been "discovered" before. Russell Freedman brings his legendary skills as researcher and storyteller to this fresh and intriguing look at the American past. Colorful legends and first-person accounts are woven into the riveting narrative, which also illuminates the way historians and mapmakers have gathered, evaluated, and recorded information throughout the ages.
11/01/2007 REVIEW: School Library Journal
Gr 5-9-With characteristic polish, documentation, and readability, Freedman examines the evidence for determining who first discovered the Americas. Despite traditional historical emphasis on European discoveries, "tens of millions" of Native Americans were living here when these renowned explorers arrived. The author devotes separate chapters to Columbus's New World voyages, Chinese treasure-ship expeditions under Admiral Zheng He, and the "New World" wanderings of Leif Eriksson and the Vikings. But, with well-established Native American civilizations already in America, the bigger question is where they came from and when. Theories of Stone Age migration, DNA links to other cultures, and the location of carbon-dated artifacts provide clues but no definitive proof about the mysterious origins of the first Americans. This focused, investigative presentation will enhance collections that typically feature individual explorer biographies or descriptions of specific ancient Native American civilizations. Freedman conveys the allure of history and research through anecdotes, archaeological evidence, maps and illustrations, different points of view, and unanswered questions. His "Chapter Notes" and annotated "Selected Bibliography" are informative models of style and technique for young researchers. Students will discover fascinating information as well as a fine example of the research process in this thought-provoking work.-Gerry Larson, Durham School of the Arts, NC
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Diaz
Published 2007 by Riverhead Hardcover
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781594489587
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Jacket Notes:
Rendering with warmth the endless human capacity to persevere, this is the long-awaited--and thrillingly satisfying--first novel from the unmistakable voice behind the short story collection "Drown."
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/18/2007
SignatureReviewed by Matthew SharpeA reader might at first be surprised by how many chapters of a book entitledThe Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are devoted not to its sci fi-and-fantasy-gobbling nerd-hero but to his sister, his mother and his grandfather. However, Junot Diaz's dark and exuberant first novel makes a compelling case for the multiperspectival view of a life, wherein an individual cannot be known or understood in isolation from the history of his family and his nation.Oscar being a first-generation Dominican-American, the nation in question is really two nations. And Dominicans in this novel being explicitly of mixed Taíno, African and Spanish descent, the very ideas of nationhood and nationality are thoughtfully, subtly complicated. The various nationalities and generations are subtended by the recurring motif offuk , "the Curse and Doom of the New World," whose "midwife and... victim" was a historical personage Diaz will only call the Admiral, in deference to the belief that uttering his name brings bad luck (hint: he arrived in the New World in 1492 and his initials are CC). By the prologue's end, it's clear that this story of one poor guy's cursed life will also be the story of how 500 years of historical and familial bad luck shape the destiny of its fat, sad, smart, lovable and short-lived protagonist.The book's pervasive sense of doom is offset by a rich and playful prose that embodies its theme of multiple nations, cultures and languages, often shifting in a single sentence from English to Spanish, from Victorian formality to "Negropolitan" vernacular, from Homeric epithet to dirty bilingual insult. Even the presumed reader shape-shifts in the estimation of its in-your-face narrator, who addresses us variously as "folks," "you folks," "conspiracy-minded-fools," "Negro," "Nigger" and "plataneros." So while Diaz assumes in his reader the same considerable degree of multicultural erudition he himself possesses-offering no gloss on his many un-italicized Spanish words and expressions (thus beautifully dramatizing how linguistic borders, like national ones, are porous), or on his plethora of genre and canonical literary allusions-he does helpfully footnote aspects of Dominican history, especially those concerning the bloody 30-year reign of President Rafael Leónidas Trujillo.The later Oscar chapters lack the linguistic brio of the others, and there are exposition-clogged passages that read like summaries of a longer narrative, but mostly this fierce, funny, tragic book is just what a reader would have hoped for in a novel by Junot Diaz.Matthew Sharpe is the author of the novels Jamestown and The Sleeping Father. He teaches at Wesleyan University.
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A Hummingbird in My House: The Story of Squeak
by Arnette Heidecamp
Published 1991 by Crown Publishers
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780517577295
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Jacket Notes:
Anyone who has fallen under the spell of the hummingbird will treasure this lovable true story of a young ruby-throated hummingbird who becomes part of someone's household and life. 57 full-color photographs; 10 black-and-white drawings.
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Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
by Tim Weiner
Published 2007 by Doubleday Books
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780385514453
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Jacket Notes:
Covering the Central Intelligence Agencys less-than-stellar reputation over its 60-year existence, this work by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans.
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/04/2007
Is the Central Intelligence Agency a bulwark of freedom against dangerous foes, or a malevolent conspiracy to spread American imperialism? A little of both, according to this absorbing study, but, the author concludes, it is mainly a reservoir of incompetence and delusions that serves no one's interests well. Pulitzer Prize-winningNew York Times correspondent Weiner musters extensive archival research and interviews with top-ranking insiders, including former CIA chiefs Richard Helms and Stansfield Turner, to present the agency's saga as an exercise in trying to change the world without bothering to understand it. Hypnotized by covert action and pressured by presidents, the CIA, he claims, wasted its resources fomenting coups, assassinations and insurgencies, rigging foreign elections and bribing political leaders, while its rare successes inspired fiascoes like the Bay of Pigs and the Iran-Contra affair. Meanwhile, Weiner contends, its proper function of gathering accurate intelligence languished. With its operations easily penetrated by enemy spies, the CIA was blind to events in adversarial countries like Russia, Cuba and Iraq and tragically wrong about the crucial developments under its purview, from the Iranian revolution and the fall of communism to the absence of Iraqi WMDs. Many of the misadventures Weiner covers, at times sketchily, are familiar, but his comprehensive survey brings out the persistent problems that plague the agency. The result is a credible and damning indictment of American intelligence policy.(Aug. 7)
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Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father
by John Matteson
Published 2007 by W. W. Norton & Company
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780393059649
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Jacket Notes:
Matteson looks at the personal life behind the beloved author of "Little Women" in this story that highlights the tense yet loving bond between Louisa May Alcott and her father, Bronson, and that relationships impact on her life and work.
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/11/2007
They were both born on November 29 (he in 1799 and she in 1832), but willful, passionate Louisa May Alcott couldn't have been more different from her serene, unworldly father, Bronson, whom fellow transcendentalists such as Emerson and Thoreau revered for his wide-ranging philosophical pursuits and occasionally ridiculed for his lack of common sense. Bronson's failed educational and utopian ventures placed a great burden on his wife, Abba, while elder daughters Louisa and Anna worked as teachers and paid companions to support the family. Yet Louisa honored her father's steadfast principles, avers Matteson, a professor of English at John Jay College, who views both father and daughter with a sympathy that doesn't quite conceal the book's slightly specious premise. Bronson was far closer to Anna and younger sister Lizzie; Louisa's fiery nature sometimes dismayed him. She only gained his full approval when mistreatment with a mercury-based medicine during the Civil War made her a near-invalid for the rest of her life. This is really a biography of the whole Alcott family, though it narrows to a dual portrait after the wild success ofLittle Women in 1868 gave Louisa the independence she longed for and Bronson enjoyed more modest acclaim for his bookTablets and lecture tours out West. 26 illus.(Aug.)
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The Invention of Hugo Cabret
by Brian Selznick
Published 2007 by Scholastic Press
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780439813785
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Jacket Notes:
Orphan, clock keeper, thief: Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. Combining elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film, Caldecott Honor artist Selznick breaks open the novel form to create an entirely new reading experience in this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery. Illustrations.
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 01/01/2007
Here is a true masterpiece-an artful blending of narrative, illustration and cinematic technique, for a story as tantalizing as it is touching.Twelve-year-old orphan Hugo lives in the walls of a Paris train station at the turn of the 20th century, where he tends to the clocks and filches what he needs to survive. Hugo's recently deceased father, a clockmaker, worked in a museum where he discovered an automaton: a human-like figure seated at a desk, pen in hand, as if ready to deliver a message. After his father showed Hugo the robot, the boy became just as obsessed with getting the automaton to function as his father had been, and the man gave his son one of the notebooks he used to record the automaton's inner workings. The plot grows as intricate as the robot's gears and mechanisms: Hugo's father dies in a fire at the museum; Hugo winds up living in the train station, which brings him together with a mysterious toymaker who runs a booth there, and the boy reclaims the automaton, to which the toymaker also has a connection.To Selznick's credit, the coincidences all feel carefully orchestrated; epiphany after epiphany occurs before the book comes to its sumptuous, glorious end. Selznick hints at the toymaker's hidden identity (inspired by an actual historical figure in the film industry, Georges Méliès) through impressive use of meticulous charcoal drawings that grow or shrink against black backdrops, in pages-long sequences. They display the same item in increasingly tight focus or pan across scenes the way a camera might. The plot ultimately has much to do with the history of the movies, and Selznick's genius lies in his expert use of such a visual style to spotlight the role of this highly visual media. A standout achievement. Ages 9-12.(Mar.)
03/01/2007 REVIEW: School Library Journal
Gr 4-9- With characteristic intelligence, exquisite images, and a breathtaking design, Selznick shatters conventions related to the art of bookmaking in this magical mystery set in 1930s Paris. He employs wordless sequential pictures and distinct pages of text to let the cinematic story unfold, and the artwork, rendered in pencil and bordered in black, contains elements of a flip book, a graphic novel, and film. It opens with a small square depicting a full moon centered on a black spread. As readers flip the pages, the image grows and the moon recedes. A boy on the run slips through a grate to take refuge inside the walls of a train station-home for this orphaned, apprentice clock keeper. As Hugo seeks to accomplish his mission, his life intersects with a cantankerous toyshop owner and a feisty girl who won't be ignored. Each character possesses secrets and something of great value to the other. With deft foreshadowing, sensitively wrought characters, and heart-pounding suspense, the author engineers the elements of his complex plot: speeding trains, clocks, footsteps, dreams, and movies-especially those by Georges Méliès, the French pioneer of science-fiction cinema. Movie stills are cleverly interspersed. Selznick's art ranges from evocative, shadowy spreads of Parisian streets to penetrating character close-ups. Leaving much to ponder about loss, time, family, and the creative impulse, the book closes with a waning moon, a diminishing square, and informative credits. This is a masterful narrative that readers can literally manipulate.-Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library
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Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village
by Laura Amy Schlitz
Published 2007 by Candlewick Press (MA)
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780763615789
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Jacket Notes:
Step back to an English village in 1255, where life plays out in dramatic vignettes illuminating 22 unforgettable characters. Inspired by an illuminated poem from 13th-century Germany, this witty, historically accurate, and utterly human collection forms an exquisite bridge to the people and places of medieval England. Full color.
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/27/2007
Schlitz (The Hero Schliemann ) wrote these 22 brief monologues to be performed by students at the school where she is a librarian; here, bolstered by lively asides and unobtrusive notes, and illuminated by Byrd's (Leonardo, Beautiful Dreamer) stunningly atmospheric watercolors, they bring to life a prototypical English village in 1255. Adopting both prose and verse, the speakers, all young, range from the half-wit to the lord's daughter, who explains her privileged status as the will of God. The doctor's son shows off his skills ("Ordinary sores/ Will heal with comfrey, or the white of an egg,/ An eel skin takes the cramping from a leg"); a runaway villein (whose life belongs to the lord of his manor) hopes for freedom after a year and a day in the village, if only he can calculate the passage of time; an eel-catcher describes her rough infancy: her "starving poor [father] took me up to drown in a bucket of water." (He relents at the sight of her "wee fingers" grasping at the sides of the bucket.) Byrd, basing his work on a 13th-century German manuscript, supplies the first page of each speaker's text with a tone-on-tone patterned border overset with a square miniature. Larger watercolors, some with more intricate borders, accompany explanatory text for added verve. The artist does not channel a medieval style; rather, he mutes his palette and angles some lines to hint at the period, but his use of cross-hatching and his mostly realistic renderings specifically welcome a contemporary readership. Ages 10-up.
08/01/2007 REVIEW: School Library Journal
Gr 4-8- Schlitz helps students step directly into the shoes-and lives-of medieval children in this outstanding collection of interrelated monologues. Designed for performance and excellent for use in interdisciplinary history classrooms, the book offers students an incredibly approachable format for learning about the Middle Ages that makes the period both realistic and relevant. The text, varying from dramatic to poetic, depending on the point of view, is accompanied by historical notes that shed light on societal roles, religion, and town life. Byrd's illustrations evoke the era and give dramatists ideas for appropriate costuming and props. Browsers interested in medieval life will gravitate toward this title, while history buffs will be thrilled by the chance to make history come alive through their own voices.-Alana Abbott, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, CT
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