Book Review
Look Up
Beneath a canopy of trees in a wide, green land, a man’s attention is pulled to the sky. Wonderment directs his days—until self-consciousness prompts him to fade in with the crowd, looking down and getting lost in routines. Time...
Book Review
The Very Fine Clock
“Heart speaks to heart” in this picture book, a work of melancholy, humor, and unmatchable charm from two celebrated artists. Its whimsical tale concerns a respected professor, John, and his most reliable friend, Ticky, a Swiss clock...
Book Review
Weiwei's Winter Solstice
Weiwei is used to celebrating the longest night of the year amid blooming flowers and buzzing birds. This year, though, in her family’s new home, the land is blanketed with snow. Still, there are peeks of the familiar: in plum blossoms...
Book Review
The Boy, the Troll, and the Chalk
Dimensional illustrations with a glowing, illuminated quality bring extra sparkle to this sweet fable about the powers of patience and acceptance in defeating loneliness. Most parkgoers avoid the central cave; a scary, unfriendly troll...
Book Review
People Are Weird
An inquisitive child muses over people’s quirks and distinguishing behaviors, noting potential contradictions in the mix. They consider what “power” entails following a librarian’s maybe unfulfilled dictum about voracious...
Book Review
A Pond, a Poet, and Three Pests
Gorgeous minimalist watercolor illustrations with calligraphy-line accents complement this cheeky fable about haikuist Matsuo Bashō’s inspiring evening by a pond. When he sits on the bank to rest and think, a school of carp are...
Book Review
A Single Dreadlock
A celebration of diversity, individuality, and self-acceptance, this warm picture book follows a boy’s move from Jamaica to Newfoundland, where his glorious dreads most definitely stand out. Flourishing Jamaican landscapes are...
Book Review
A Place for People Like Us
A young woman is molded by a charismatic friend and a new lover in the fraught coming-of-age novel "A Place for People Like Us". Hannah is determined to succeed at her prestigious business school despite her lack of money and...
