Reviews
Kirkus Reviews - The Nutcracker's Night Before Christmas
A Christmas Eve performance of The Nutcracker ballet runs amok with multiple mishaps but is saved in the nick of time by the arrival on set of Santa Claus and his elves. The familiar rhyme and rhythm of “The Night Before Christmas” serves as the structure for this clever… View →
Kirkus Reviews - Leopold the Lion
Keeping a lion as a pet is never easy. Jack and Ella find a lion in their backyard, a lion that can perform backflips and somersaults on the trampoline! They, of course, want to keep him. Sneaking him by their parents is simple (they are busy, and the role reversal portrayed in their… View →
Kirkus Reviews - The Little Kids' Table
The little-kids’ table is where the fun is. Duh! Grown-ups can keep their fancy-schmancy dishes and the icky green stuff they put on them. At this celebration of the family meal divided into adult and kid tables, much of the charm resides in Riehle’s unselfconscious… View →
Booklist - Promise
The town of Promise is a tight-knit one, but 11-year-old Kaden has always been on the outside, with only a half-tame raven for a friend. He and his strict grandmother live simply just outside the town limits and keep to themselves, barely acknowledging their old family shame: Kaden’s… View →
Booklist - Papa's Backpack
A young bear wishes it could travel along in its father’s backpack when Papa has to “go away for awhile.” The cub understands that Papa is a soldier and that he leaves in order to protect the cub. Maintaining a child’s perspective, the little bear expresses its sadness, imagines what the View →
School Library Journal - Papa's Backpack
Papa’s Backpack begins with a thoughtful dedication to military families but becomes a much more universal allegory for separation by employing the simple symbolism of a child riding piggyback. Carroll’s use of spare and emotional language and earthy illustrations that play on contrasts… View →
School Library Journal - Tallulah: Mermaid of the Great Lakes
A group of young mermaids is given instruction on searching for a personal gemstone to enhance their tail colors and deign magical powers that allow them to assist mariners and create “enchanting melodies.” Platinum haired Tallulah (her name is Native American for “leaping water”) lacks… View →
Booklist - Stagestruck: Curtain Up!
Never underestimate the power of a Broadway-obsessed tween. Readers familiar with the drama kid phenomenon—encompassing camps, voice lessons, dance classes, predawn drives to auditions, and trips to New York City to see the Great White Way—will not be surprised at the energy and… View →
School Library Journal - T is for Time
This title offers an overview of concepts related to time, listed in alphabetical order: “A is for Almanac,” “D is for Daylight Saving,” “E is for Einstein,” “G is for Greenwich Mean Time,” and “K is for Kukulcan Pyramid.” Accompanied by sweet, painterly illustrations that hark back to… View →
Kirkus Reviews Starred - Papa's Backpack
Papa has gone for a soldier, and in poetic language, a bear cub imagines going along. Drifting into rhyme and out again the young narrator explains the situation thus, with an artfully placed page turn in the middle: “My Papa is a soldier, and sometimes soldiers go… / away for a… View →