Category: Uncategorized
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I finally got around to taking a look at some of the Caldecott finalists for this year. I truly enjoyed the lively Interrupting Chicken, but Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave has really captured me. Laban Carrick Hill’s spare prose captures the mysterious character of Dave, his art, and his circumstances. A slave in South Carolina…
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It is the summer of 1959 and Bobby and his brother Ricky are on a road trip with their mother and grandmother driving from Cleveland, Ohio down to Florida. The reason for the trip is to drive grandma back home, but on their way they are touring Civil War battlefields. Much farther south, an African American boy…
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This is an incredible book. Kehret has the reader hooked within the first few pages. I actually got queasy reading about how polio took over her 12 year old body. Little Peg is moved from hospital to hospital as the symptoms from polio overtake her. The reader watches as her fever eventually subsides, she is taken out…
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A wonderful, modern twist on Hansel and Gretel. Sol and Connie have moved with their father and stepmother to a new town. The neighbor next door, Ms. Holaderry, seems a bit funny, especially when Sol realizes that her dog has been gnawing on a human femur! After a few visits to their local public library (!!), the…
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During this entire book, I was awaiting for two things: 1) for Sam to die and 2) for the protagonist Tim to pick a side in the Revolutionary War. But Sam doesn’t eat it until page 208! And Tim never makes up his mind whether he wants to be a Tory or a Rebel. The first half…
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There’s a new boy in Frannie’s class. He’s different. For one thing, he’s white, which is a big deal on this side of town. The other noticeable difference is that he has long hair down to his shoulders. The kids in the class dub him Jesus Boy. Frannie is interested in the new boy, but…
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Jerome Foxworthy is a black high school student growing up in the sixties in Wilmington, North Carolina. Jerome is smart, athletic and lucky enough to have a strong family. Basketball is Jerome’s passion and every evening he spends out on a basketball court on the edge of town practicing his moves. When Jerome…
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It’s the summer of ’61 and Louis May has a lot of new things in his life. His parents have recently divorced and he and his dad have moved in with his stepmom and stepbrother in White Plains, New York. It’s an uncomfortable arrangement and Louis constantly feels that he’s getting overlooked. Baseball is the…
chrisholliman 