February 5, 2012
 This picture book, "Itamar Makes Friends: A Children's Story of Jewish Brotherhood" by Josh Hasten and Illustrated by S. Kim Glassman, is innocuous enough, but I wish it had attempted more. The
protagonist, Itamar, is an eight-year-old Israeli, who lives in the
country. When he goes to visit his cousins in the city, he has an
unpleasant encounter with some city boys, who refuse to return his
soccer ball. After Itamar falls and hurts his knee, one of the city
boys, Eitan, remembers a time when he hurt himself playing soccer and
tries to correct the situation by helping Itamar and apologizing. Itamar
then invites the group to visit him in the country. They come, all have a
great time, and "Jewish brotherhood" is restored. I was mostly
bothered by the facile solution to the bullying stage of the story.
While one would like to believe that children would apologize and make
everything okay, I found it to be just too pat an answer. But for young
children, this story could be a way to illustrate how to empathize and
apologize to another after being unkind. I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher through LibraryThing.
Posted by Lydia Schultz.
August 12, 2011
I'm going to start with a disclaimer: Rosemary Well's On the Blue Comet
is exactly the kind of book I loved as a child. It reminds of some of
my favorites by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, which had an enchanting blend of
realism and whimsy. But I also think that much about the
book would be hard for modern children to understand.
Our protagonist, Oscar Ogilvie Junior, is obsessed by the world of
Lionel trains. Set at the beginnings of the Great Depre... Continue reading...
Posted by Lydia Schultz.
August 7, 2011
Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors
by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Beckie Prange is quite engaging and
difficult to categorize. Or, perhaps, this book is engaging BECAUSE it
is hard to categorize. Whatever it is, I like it.
Sidman's poems laud the thriving world of "survivors" that populate
the world. Ranging from the microscopic bacteria and diatoms to the
larger sharks, from plants and animals as well as humans, these poems
and ... Continue reading...
Posted by Lydia Schultz.
August 2, 2011
Ken Robbins has done something with this book that I often despair of
finding -- he has created an entertaining, truly informative,
well-written non-fiction book for kids in middle grades. I found this
book to have information I didn't know, which is an added plus. "For Good Measure" looks at one of those topics that people of all
ages often obsess about -- how do we measure what we see or experience
and why do we do it the ways we do. (If you don't think we obsess about
it, just try t... Continue reading...
Posted by Lydia Schultz.
July 30, 2011
 Okay, I am SOOOO an English major. On my first couple of attempts to
read this book, I (literally) whined and complained to anyone and
everyone within ear shot. The book is too hard to follow, it is boring,
it doesn’t make sense, etc. So I handed it to my more
mathematically-inclined family members who looked at me like I was crazy
and implied I was too lazy to figure out how it works.
So, with some grumpiness, I picked it up the next day. And, much to my dismay, they were right. ... Continue reading...
Posted by Lydia Schultz.
July 27, 2011
The novel A Million Shades of Gray by
Cynthia Kadohata is a thoughtful and compelling book, but I think it
would work better with middle-school or high school students. The book
tells the story of Y’Tin, a boy who achieves his dream of becoming an
elephant handler. The story is set in Vietnam, mostly in 1975, after
the US troops have left.
Some of the subject matter of this novel would captivate and charm students in the age range of 4th and... Continue reading...
Posted by Lydia Schultz.
July 26, 2011
Robert B. Haas artfully and clearly explains how
and why he uses aerial photography to capture his subjects in the wild.
Hass introduces some of the basic terminology of photography, and he
makes clear just how dependent he is on the skills of the pilots he
works with.
The photographs in this book are stunning. Haas explains how he
takes the photos and how often he is dependent on luck to get the best
image. The sidebar explanations about th... Continue reading...
Posted by Lydia Schultz.
July 22, 2011
 In Cosmic, Frank Cottrell Boyce presents us with a charming and
believable narrator – Liam, the twelve-year-old boy who looks like an
adult man. Liam’s narrative begins in the middle, with him telling us
how he got into the mess/adventure that he is in. His story is told
with verve and energy, and just the right mix-in of self-deprecating
humor.
For you see, as the novel opens, Liam is in space, on a rocket near
the moon, with four other children. Unfortunately for Liam, he is t... Continue reading...
Posted by Lydia Schultz.
July 20, 2011
True (. . . sort of)
by Katherine Hannigan is both fun and serious. It is also an example of why I have learned to trust my
instincts – some of my favorite books are the ones I happen to stumble
upon. This book falls squarely into that category.
The main character is Delly Pattison, a short, sassy spitfire of a
girl who can’t seem to stay out of trouble. Delly has enough of a
reputation in her family, at school, and in her town that she is... Continue reading...
Posted by Lydia Schultz.
July 20, 2011
Owen Jester seems like a typical elementary school boy. In Barbara O'Connor's The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester,
Owen feels stranded on the wrong side of town, away from his friends.
His family has moved in with his grandfather both to help out his
grandfather, who is recovering from a stroke, and to help themselves
out, since Owen's father has lost his job. Viola, the nearby neighbor
girl, is no substitute for Owen's friends--she suffers fr... Continue reading...
Posted by Lydia Schultz.
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About Me
| Lydia Schultz |
| St. Paul, Minnesota |
I am a school librarian and former college English teacher. I hope to review many of the books I read, both in the context of my research about children's books as well as in my pursuit of recreational reading. I want to share what I read--so what else is new?
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Please feel free to contact me. I welcome hearing feedback and advice. If you would like to comment on a particular post, click on the title of the post and a comment box will appear after the post when the page reloads. Thanks!
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