Perfect Square

Title:  Perfect Square Author:  Michael Hall Illustrator:  Michael Hall Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2011 ISBN: 9780061915130 Audience:  Written for ages 4-8 years Summary:  Start with a square of bright red paper that is perfectly happy. On Monday it is cut into pieces and riddled with dots, so the square adapts the shapes into a babbling fountain.  [...]

Home

Title:  Home Author:  Jeannie Baker Illustrator:  Jeannie Baker Publisher:  Greenwillow Books, 2004 ISBN:  978-0066239354 Audience:  Ages 4 – 10 Summary:  This wordless picture book chronicles the view outside Tracy’s window from the day she is brought home as a baby to the day she brings her own child home. From the inside of the window [...]

Letting Swift River Go

Name of book:  Letting Swift River Go Author:  Jane Yolen Publisher:  Little Brown ISBN: 978-0316968607 Audience:  Ages 4-8 Summary:  Sally Jane tells the story of the demise of her beloved town along the Swift River in Massachusetts. The town will be flooded along with the rest of the valley to form the Quabbin reservoir that [...]

Someday

Name of Book:   Someday Author: Jackie Koller Publisher: iUniverse ISBN: 978-1440186752 Audience:  Ages 12+ Summary:  It is 1939. Celie is 14 years old has lots to worry about. She is about to lose her home, which has been in her family since the 1700′s, to the flooding of Swift River. The river is being flooded [...]

John Calvin

Name of Book: John Calvin Author: Simonetta Carr Illustrator: Emmanuele Taglietti Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books ISBN: 9781601780553 Audience: Ages: 7-10 Summary: This is a biography of the reformer, John Calvin, that provides the reader with the basics of Calvin’s life and teaching in a very readable and interesting way. The author does not spend a [...]

The Keeping Quilt

Name of Book: The Keeping Quilt Author: Patricia Polacco Illustrator: Patricia Polacco Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks ISBN: 9780689844478 Audience: 4-8, though this book would be useful for adults in a congregation that is facing significant internal changes. Summary: Patricia, the author, tells the story of six generations of her own family since her Great Grandmother immigrated [...]

Tuck Everlasting

Title: Tuck Everlasting Author:   Natalie Babbitt Publisher:  Scholastic, Inc ISBN:  9-780590-988865 Audience: Written for ages 9 -12, but this review suggests the book’s applicability to both young and mature audiences. Summary:   The story starts with a young girl, Winnie, fed up with her family and wanting to run away.  She meets another family, the [...]

Our Children Can Soar

Name of Book:  Our Children Can Soar Author:  Michelle Cook Illustrator:  Cozbi Cabrera, R. Gregroy Christie; Bryan Collier; Pat Cummings; Leo and Diane Dillon; AG Ford; E.B. Lewis; Frank Morrison; James Ransome; Charlotte Riley Webb; Shadra Strickland; Eric Velasquez Publisher: Bloomsbury Audience: 3-8 years old Summary: This book highlights some key figures in the African [...]

Harvesting Hope

Name of Book:  Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez Author:  Kathleen Krull Illustrator:  Yuyi Morales Publisher: Harcourt Audience: 10+ Summary: At the age of 10,  Cesar’s family had to migrate to California in search of farm work after being displaced from their ranch in Arizona due to a severe drought which resulted in their [...]

First the Egg

Name of Book: First the Egg Author: Laura Vaccaro Seeger Illustrator: Laura Vaccaro Seeger Publisher: Roaring Brook Press Audience: Preschool through elementary Summary: Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s First the Egg tells the story of how things grow and change. There is also an element in the story that suggests to young children that something is not [...]