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Her Right Foot By Dave Eggers , Art by Shawn Harris, 104 pages. PICTURE BOOK, NON FICTION Chronicle Books 2017 $19.99 1452162816  BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ESSENTIAL  AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH  The Statue of Liberty has been welcoming people in the harbor for over 125 years. But there's more to her than we think. Eggers describes the construction in Paris, the transportation and reassembly in New York, even why she is green. but then, he goes on to tell about the symbolism of her right foot - have you noticed, she's in stride! Where is she going?  Eggers writing style makes the reader feel smart! Full of "you probably know" and "you may have noticed" the text practically begs the reader to share the information they just learned (or already know but had forgotten). Harris's illustrations are the perfect companion to this amazing quick read about acceptance. I'll never see the statue of liberty the same way again. Includes a bibliography for further...

Odd One Out: Fiendishly Tricky Spot-the-difference Puzzles to Boggle your Brain . PICTURE BOOK. Penguin Workshop, 2018. $10. 97815247900882 BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL, MS - ADVISABLE AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH This book includes a variety of different visual searches - sometimes you are looking for matching illustrations, something you are looking for the smallest illustration, sometimes you are looking for the odd-ones-out, and so forth. Each search also contains a fun fact about the item you are searching for and through.  This book is deceptively hard. My kids kept picking it up with confidence because the illustrations are so cutesy, but were repeatedly surprised how hard they had to look at and study the pictures. This is the perfect book in small doses. I loved the simple addition of the facts included with each puzzle. Did you know that “when it drizzles on a sunny day in Hawaii, locals call it ‘pineapple juice?’”   Jen Wecker, HS English Teacher

If Polar Bears Disappeared  by Lily Williams  PICTURE BOOK, NON FICTION Roaring Brook Press, (Holtzbrinck), 2018. $18.00 9781250143198 BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL - OPTIONAL  AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE  The sea ice is melting because of climate change. Polar bears depend on the sea ice for hunting, traveling, and caring for their young. Less sea ice means less habitat for the plants and animal that live in the polar regions; climate change affects all of them, seals, whales, shrubs, caribou, even lemmings.  Williams text seems a little heavy handed - it has a disclaimer "The information in this book is a simplified description of a complex process", so be sure to read the author's note. Includes a bibliography, acknowledgements and additional sources.  Lisa Librarian

We Rise We Resist We Raise our Voices   edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson, forward by Ashley Bryan.  PICTURE BOOK. Crown Books for Young Readers, 2018. $19. 9780525580423 BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL, MS - OPTIONAL AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE This book is offered, per the forward, as a safe place to unpack what it means to be a young person of color. The introduction makes reference the 2016 elections and how it was confusing to young listeners to hear speeches about “taking our country back” and how this book can offer hope in that confusion. The book then contains over twenty short pieces by a variety of authors, each accompanied by a piece of art by different artists.  Some of the pieces are essays, some poetry, some lists and instructions, and some music.   I want to clarify that the buying advisory may shift if you have a large population of students of color - it will appeal to those readers and offer community. It is a book that is politically charg...

Raise the Flag: Terrific Flag Facts, Stories, and Trivia!  by Clive Gifford, illustrated by Tim Bradford.  PICTURE BOOK/NON-FICTION. QEB Publishing (The Quarto Group), 2018. $15. 9781682973387 BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL, MS - ADVISABLE AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE This book is divided up into bite size pieces of information on flags. No topic in this book takes more than a two page spread, making all the information short and concise. Some pages tackle the design of the flag, while others cover the history of certain symbols used on flags. There are pages on the history of flags and pages with geography and corresponding flags. The book contains some photography, but mostly illustrations.  This reads like a basic trivia or fact book, but with more depth, given it is all one topic - flags. My favorite pages were the pages on flags that look similar and why that is and what sets them apart. I never felt like I got a handle of the organization of the book since the maps and c...

Picturing America : Thomas Cole and the Birth of American Art  By Hudson Talbott   PICTURE BOOK, Biography, Penguin Random House, 2018. $18. 9780399548703 BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL,  MS - ADVISABLE  AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE   Thomas Cole loved to draw. He and his sister walked all over the hillsides in England drawing everything they could see. In 1818 his family moved to America, and Thomas learned to paint, making beautiful landscapes. No one painted like Thomas Cole.  This picture book biography is stunning. Talbot has incorporated Cole’s art, and seamlessly tells the story while introducing and explaining his works. So accessible to young readers, I’m showing this to my art teacher.  Lisa Librarian 

Persuading Miss Doover  by Robin Pulver , illustrated by Stephanie Roth Sisson, PICTURE BOOK Holiday House 2018 $18.00 978-0-8234-3426-8 BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL, MS - ADVISABLE  AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE Jack and Samir are in trouble again. Besides drawing a picture of the principal (which he found) they put a whoopee cushion on Miss Doover's chair. Now they don't get to sit together anymore. But wait! For writing workshop, Miss Doover has assigned a 4 sentence persuasive essay. Maybe the boys can revise their essay until it's perfect and persuade Miss Doover to reconsider the seat change. Pulver has created great characters - the boys are delightful and I just love Miss Doover, always correcting their grammar, using fun vocabulary words like frivolous, and guiding them to write the perfect paper. Full of great writing advice, I'm handing this to my Language Arts teacher. Also, a fun shared read, because it is told in dialogue bubbles.  Lisa Librarian

Holes in the Sky by Patricia Polacco  PICTURE BOOK, G. P. Putman's Sons ( Penguin Random House, 2018. $18.99. 978-1-5247-3948-5 BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL, MS - ESSENTIAL AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH  After Patricia's beloved grandmother passes away, her mother moves the family to San Francisco. Patricia misses Babushka terribly, and is always looking for the promised sign that she is watching over her from heaven. San Francisco is in the middle of a draught, so when a boy her age (Steven) shows up on her porch with fresh flowers, she's excited to help him make may baskets and meet all the neighbors selling them with him, but still no sign from heaven, Steven's  grandmother, Miss Eula, gets the neighborhood involved in a community project - maybe Patricia will find her Babushka's sign as she helps revitalize an old garden.  Patricia Polacco has the best stories! Remember Miss Eula from "Chicken Sunday?" Grieving is a sensitive subject, and Holes in the Sky has...

The People Awards by Lily Muray, illustrated by Ana Albero , 76 pages. PICTURE BOOK/NON-FICTION. Lincoln Children’s Books, 2018. $20. 9781786030641 BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL, MS - ESSENTIAL AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH This book is a collection of more than thirty mini biographies of men and women who have had a positive impact on the world. The people range from athletes to inventors to teachers and most are well known figures from history as well as contemporary conversations. Each person is represented on a two page spread and has a short biography, four or five illustrations of important moments from their life, what award they are being given, and why they are being given that award.  This book is effective because it is highly engaging aesthetically. The illustrations are cartoons, but realistic and done in muted colors. The part I predict will hook the most readers is the description of the award they are given and why. I was a little frustrated that the table on contents has ...

Living Through The Revolutionary War by Clara MacCarald . NONFICTION PICTURE BOOK. Rourke Educational Media, 2019. $25. 9781641564144.  BUYING ADVISORY: EL(K-3), EL - OPTIONAL AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE The history of the American Revolution is lightly covered in this elementary-level informational text. The author covers the bare basics of what led to the Revolution through the post-war establishment of government. Each page has got some text along with a lot of pictures, side bars and more. There is a glossary and a reading guide included. I realize this book is written for an elementary audience--I'd guess its aiming for 3rd/4th grade?--but sometimes the information included versus the information excluded surprised me. The pictures will appeal to kids, but it makes for a rather busy page that is sometimes hard to read in a straightforward and understandable way. I enjoy all the pictures (many of them primary sources), but the book could be stronger without such a busy feel and th...

The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle by Christina Uss , 307 pages. FICTION. Margaret Ferguson Books (Holiday House), 2018. $17 Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: PG; Violence: G BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL, MS — ESSENTIAL  AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH A young girl shows up on the doorstep of “The Mostly Silent Monastery” with a shirt that reads “bicycle”. Bicycle quickly becomes a part of the monastery and is raised primarily by Sister Wanda who is very concerned about Bicycle making friends. Sister Wanda plans to send Bicycle to a camp for making friends, but Bicycle has other ideas. Bicycle leaves camp to go ride her bike across the country to meet her favorite famous cyclist in person in California. Along the way she crosses paths with all sort of quirky and charming characters, including a Civil War ghost and a Kentucky Derby horse, and most of these characters become her friend and cheerleader. This might be my favorite book of the year. A true adventure story that left me...

Weird, True Facts: The Wild West by Brittany Canasi, 30 pages.  NON-FICTION Rourke Educational Media, 2019. $33  9781641564922   BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL, MS – OPTIONAL   AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE    This book gives an overview of what the term “Wild West” refers to including cowboys, outlaws, Native Americans, Western movies and life in remote areas.  Each page spread has pictures, multiple paragraphs and side bars with interesting facts.  Because so much information is presented it is more of a teaser of information that might peak a reader’s interest to find out more.  The pictures were the best part and are very appealing and at the end there are a few pages about myths and weird but true facts.    I guess my issue with this particular book is the cover has a UFO above two cowboys but the last page has a short paragraph explaining the UFO and that’s it.  Also, I didn’t think there were that many weird ...

Spring After Spring : How Rachel Carson Inspired the Environmental Movement by Stephanie Roth Sisson  PICTURE BOOK, NON FICTION Roaring Brook Press, 2018, $18. 9781626728196 BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3) -,  EL -,  MS - ESSENTIAL  AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH  Rachel Carson was always interested in animals. As a child she would rush outside in the spring to hear all the sounds of the birds, animals and insects - sounds that grew louder as spring turned into summer. Year after year she wrote, and wanted to be a writer - but college changed her focus to Biology. Her writing and her observations came together with the publication of Silent Spring which eventually lead to the Environmental Protection Agency and a change in how we feel about the environment and things like pesticides.  Sisson has illustrated her picture book like a graphic novel, with panels and word bubbles (for the sounds of nature.) Easily accessible to a 3rd grader and up, this important lesson on how...