Review: Long Way Down

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'll be honest: I have loved every single thing Jason Reynolds has ever written. I even think he has the best author bio on his books. I adore him, and his mission, and then he has amazing writing skills on top of that. It's incredible.

This is a novel in verse, and it's the story of Will, whose brother Shawn was just murdered. He knows the rules: 1. Don't cry. 2. Don't snitch 3. Revenge. So he takes his brother's gun and goes into the elevator, convinced he knows who shot Shawn. Over the course of the minute-long elevator ride, ghosts visit him, talking about how they died. Can they have any influence over how he thinks, or will the Rules override all?

Just so good.

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It's Multicultural Children's Book Day!

Happy Multicultural Children's Book Day!

I was lucky enough to receive a book to review. I received Brandon Makes Jiǎo Zi (餃子)  by Eugenia Chu from the author. In this story, Brandon loves making jiao zi, especially with his grandmother. She comes for a visit, and they work together to make the delicious dumplings. Brandon makes a silly dumpling at the end, and his whole family laughs. It's great to see an inter-generational story, especially one about a grandmother and grandson working on something together. This picture book is the first I've read that includes Mandarin Chinese, so it was fun to see the characters and the words together, and to practice sounding the words out. I also love that Chu includes audio on her website to further help with the pronunciation.  The illustrations were not as strong as the text. I found them to be a bit too simple, even if they are better than something I could do!


Thank you so much Ms. Chu for sending me your book! If you would like more information about Brandon or Ms. Chu, you can visit her website or one of her social media pages.

http://eugeniachu.com

https://www.facebook.com/eugeniachuauthor/

https://twitter.com/chuauthor

https://www.instagram.com/eugeniachu8245/

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/18) is in its 5^th year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in home and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents and educators. 

Current Sponsors:  MCBD 2018 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board.

2018 MCBD Medallion Sponsors

HONORARY: Children’s Book Council, Junior Library Guild

PLATINUM:Scholastic Book Clubs

GOLD:Audrey Press, Candlewick Press, Loving Lion Books, Second Story Press, Star Bright Books, Worldwide Buddies

SILVER:Capstone Publishing, Author Charlotte Riggle, Child’s Play USA, KidLit TV, Pack-n-Go Girls, Plum Street Press

BRONZE: Barefoot Books, Carole P. Roman, Charlesbridge Publishing, Dr. Crystal Bowe, Gokul! World, Green Kids Club, Gwen Jackson, Jacqueline Woodson, Juan J. Guerra, Language Lizard, Lee & Low Books, RhymeTime Storybooks, Sanya Whittaker Gragg, TimTimTom Books, WaterBrook & Multnomah, Wisdom Tales Press

2018 Author Sponsors

Honorary Author Sponsors: Author/Illustrator Aram Kim and Author/Illustrator Juana Medina

Author Janet Balletta, Author Susan Bernardo,  Author Carmen Bernier-Grand, Author Tasheba Berry-McLaren and Space2Launch, Bollywood Groove Books, Author Anne Broyles,  Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Eugenia Chu, Author Lesa Cline-Ransome, Author Medeia Cohan and Shade 7 Publishing, Desi Babies, Author Dani Dixon and Tumble Creek Press, Author Judy Dodge Cummings, Author D.G. Driver, Author Nicole Fenner and Sister Girl Publishing, Debbi Michiko Florence, Author Josh Funk, Author Maria Gianferrari, Author Daphnie Glenn, Globe Smart Kids, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Author Quentin Holmes, Author Esther Iverem, Jennifer Joseph: Alphabet Oddities, Author Kizzie Jones, Author Faith L Justice , Author P.J. LaRue and MysticPrincesses.com, Author Karen Leggett Abouraya, Author Sylvia Liu, Author Sherri Maret, Author Melissa Martin Ph.D., Author Lesli Mitchell, Pinky Mukhi and We Are One, Author Miranda Paul, Author Carlotta Penn, Real Dads Read, Greg Ransom, Author Sandra L. Richards, RealMVPKids Author Andrea Scott, Alva Sachs and Three Wishes Publishing, Shelly Bean the Sports Queen,  Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Gayle H. Swift Author Elsa Takaoka, Author Christine Taylor-Butler, Nicholette Thomas and  MFL Publishing  Author Andrea Y. Wang, Author Jane Whittingham  Author Natasha Yim

We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE.

TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Scholastic Book Clubs: MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual Twitter Party will be held 1/27/18 at 9:00pm.

Join the conversation and win one of 12-5 book bundles and one Grand Prize Book Bundle (12 books) that will be given away at the party! http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/twitter-party-great-conversations-fun-prizes-chance-readyourworld-1-27-18/

Free Multicultural Books for Teachers: http://bit.ly/1kGZrta

Free Empathy Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians and Educators: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/teacher-classroom-empathy-kit/

Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.

Review: Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Deb Heiligman wrote another winner, folks. (And I know I'm not alone in saying this, as the Horn Book has recognized this book already as being worthy of an award.) This paired very well with my viewing of "Loving Vincent," the oil-painted animation film that came out this year. It was interesting to see the two different perspectives on the life and death of Vincent Van Gogh, and his brother Theo. Heiligman has written a work that feels like a painting. It changes as time goes by, it's flexible about it's format, and it's written in gallery stages. At first, I wasn't sure what to think about this, and it grew on me. Noticing formatting of a book isn't something I normally spend a lot of time on, but this was worth examining. Highly recommended.

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Review: Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building

Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was more fun than I expected to read in storytime. The kids liked the illustrations on the left side, the adults the photographs on the right.

For children's librarians--it's a good book to pair with a Lego/block building event.

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Review: The Someday Birds

The Someday Birds by Sally J. Pla
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is really good. Charlie lives with his grandmother, older sister, and twin younger brothers. Their father is in the hospital, having suffered a brain injury while in Afghanistan. Charlie has a particular way of viewing the world, which is unique to him. He displays traits of OCD and autism, but neither is explicitly named. Events happen which require him to go on a road trip with his siblings and a woman they sort of know from the hospital. While on the trip, Charlie will be testing on how much he can handle. He will also attempt to find all the birds on the "Someday" list that he and his dad have created.

Charlie feels so real. You feel for this kid, who sees the world a specific way, knows it's different, but sticks to his own guns for the most part. He's struggling with a lot, but he makes his way through it. He doesn't always make the best choices, but he makes the choices that make sense for him. I really enjoyed it.

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Review: Dreams of Gods & Monsters

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the most beautifully written series I have ever read. Love, love, love it. I love all the ships. I don't really have great words for my feelings about it, just that it is wonderful and that I stayed up late reading it.

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Review: Still Life

Still Life by Louise Penny
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Believe the hype. This was excellent.

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