Month: April 2024

Here We Are

Sophie Rosen

Jeffers, Oliver. Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth. London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2017.
What do we need to remember living on this planet in space? Jeffers eloquently explains in this gently profound picture book written for his newborn son. The world is wonderfully complex.  And life passes quickly.  So be good to the people around you and take care of the earth.  Full-page illustrations in Jeffers’ uniquely whimsical style and a friendly yet formal font help create a picture book that will appeal to readers and listeners of all ages.

More books for Earth Day

The Blackbird Girls

Sophie Rosen , , , , , ,

Blankman, Anne. The Blackbird Girls. New York: Viking, 2020.
Valentina and Oksana live in the specially built city of Pripyat, home to workers at the Chernobyl nuclear plant. They are classmates but not friends. Valentina is Jewish and the target of bullying. Initially, it seems that Oksana has a better life but all is not as it appears on the surface. When the reactor at the plant explodes, the girls and their mothers are abruptly evacuated. The girls escape to far-away Leningrad to live with Valentina’s grandmother, where secrets are slowly revealed and the girls learn whom they can trust. A complex yet hopeful novel, told from alternating points of view and based on historical events of both 1986 and the 1940s, highly recommended for readers 11 years old and up. 

More historical fiction

More stories of World War 2 

More stories set in the Ukraine and Russia

More stories of mistreatment

 

Labors of Hercules Beal

Sophie Rosen , , , ,

Schmidt, Gary D. The Labors of Hercules Beal. New York: Clarion Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2023.
Hercules’s seventh grade teacher has assigned a ridiculous project: replicate in real life the twelve labours of the mythical Hercules. This could be a silly spoof of story. But the author is the award-winning Gary Schmidt, so you can be assured that while full of outrageous antics, this well-crafted novel is not light-weight entertainment. While completing his project, Hercules discovers that despite his parents’ death, he is not actually alone and unwanted in this world. Recommended without reservations for readers 11 to 14 years old. 

More stories of grief

More stories by Gary Schmidt

More stories set in Massachusetts

More stories for seventh graders

Town is by the Sea

Sophie Rosen ,

Schwartz, Joanne. Town is by the Sea. Toronto: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2017.
A young boy wakes in the morning to hear seagulls calling, a dog barking, and a car going along the road. Meanwhile, his father is working far underground. He plays outside in the sunshine with a friend and looks out at the sparkling sea. Meanwhile, his father is working far underground. He goes to the grocery store for his mother and to the graveyard to visit his grandfather. Meanwhile, his father… The sensory details in the rhythmic text and the silent information provided by Sydney Smith’s ink and water-colour illustrations together tell a quiet story of life in a coal mining town. Both the author and illustrator grew up in Nova Scotia. Together, they have created an incredible picture book for readers of any age. If you admire excellence in children’s books, don’t just borrow this book from a library. Buy it!

More historical fiction

More books by Canadians

More books about coal mining

More books by Sydney Smith