Review of The Tree of Life, written by Elisa Boxer, illustrated by Alianna Rozentsveig

The Tree of Life

How a Holocaust Sapling Inspired the World

written by Elisa Boxer
illustrated by Alianna Rozentsveig

Rocky Pond Books, 2024. 36 pages.
Review written March 20, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Here’s a nonfiction picture book about the Holocaust that manages to focus on the inspiring rather than the terrible.

The story is told simply, with more detail in the author’s note in the back. From the start, the focus of the pictures is on the tree. Here’s how the book begins:

In a season of sadness, hope came to the children as a tiny tree, tucked inside a boot.

It was winter, World War Two, and the boot belonged to a prisoner in a ghetto called Terezin.

There were children in the ghetto too. The prisoner saw they were scared and separated from their families.

He also saw a woman secretly teaching the children to read, write, and celebrate Jewish holidays.
Tu BiShvat was coming — The New Year of the Trees.
The teacher, Irma Lauscher, risked her life when she asked the prisoner to sneak in a sapling.
the prisoner risked his life when he said yes.

They planted the tree, and the children of the community gave drops from their water rations to keep it watered. Even when there were fewer and fewer children to care for it.

Even though the children who left were taken to a place that was even worse, that tree kept growing and kept hope alive. By the end of the war, the tree was taller than the children.

That tree, planted during the war in Terezin, grew to be sixty feet tall and stood as a symbol of hope across the generations. The teacher who planted it sent seeds from the tree all over the world.

We learn that the tree finally died in 2007 after a flood destroyed its roots. But the book ends with schoolchildren in New York City in 2021 planting a sapling born from the original tree, standing as one of over 600 trees throughout the world, grown from the original maple.

Like all picture books, this is one you’ll appreciate more by looking at it yourself, and that won’t take long. A sensitive and lovely story of hope rooted in the history of a terrible time.

ElisaBoxer.com
AliannaRozentsveig.com
penguin.com/kids

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Review of On the Trapline, by David A. Robertson and Julie Flett

On the Trapline

by David A. Robertson
illustrated by Julie Flett

Tundra Books, 2021. 40 pages.
Review written June 30, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

Here’s how this picture book, On the Trapline, begins:

I’m on my way up north because Moshom, my grandpa, is taking me to his trapline. I’ve never been there before, and Moshom says he hasn’t been since he was a kid like me. When I look out the window, all I can see are trees and water. The lakes look like blue clouds in a green sky.

“What’s a trapline?” I ask.

“Traplines are where people hunt animals and live off the land,” he says.

When we touch down in the community, Moshom’s old friend is waiting for us.

“Tansi,” he says to Moshom.

“Tansi,” Moshom says to him. Moshom speaks Swampy Cree when he’s around friends.

“Hi,” I say. That’s what tansi means in English.

The story continues from there, with Moshom showing his granddaughter where he lived growing up. They begin with the community where they landed, which is where Moshom’s family lived after they left the trapline. He tells what it was like to attend school there, when they were not allowed to speak Cree, but snuck into the bush to do so.

To get to the trapline, they have to take a boat across a river to a beautiful shore. Moshom tells what it was like living there, too.

Each spread is gentle and beautiful. The pictures have soft, muted tones. The text is simple and lovely. I enjoy lines such as, “The river is wide, but Moshom’s smile is even wider.”

Each spread ends with a word or two in Cree that relates to that page, such as:

K?w?w means “he goes home.”
Natinamak?win means “sharing.”
Ekosani means “thank you.”

This is the story of an elder sharing his story with a new generation, and it’s done with dignity, love, and great respect. I had to read this one a second time and sit with it for a moment before I could go on to other picture books.

penguinrandomhouse.ca

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Review of Call Down the Hawk, by Maggie Stiefvater

Call Down the Hawk

by Maggie Stiefvater
read by Will Patton

Scholastic Audiobooks, 2019. 13 hours, 47 minutes, on 12 compact discs.
Review written December 14, 2020, from a library audiobook

Call Down the Hawk is billed as the first book in The Dreamer Trilogy, but I think readers will appreciate it more who have read the four books in The Raven Cycle, beginning with The Raven Boys. That series starts out being about Blue and Gansey, but is almost taken over by Ronan Lynch and his brothers. This new trilogy is about Ronan.

So if you already know the background, it won’t take as much getting up to speed. Ronan is a Dreamer – when he dreams at night, he brings back objects from his dreams. They don’t have to be possible objects – they don’t have to actually exist in reality. If he can dream it, he can wake up to find it real. One problem with this is that if Ronan goes too long without dreaming, he starts weeping a black fluid which will eventually kill him.

In this book, we meet some other Dreamers, notably a girl named Hennessy. Every time she dreams, she brings back a copy of herself, and another flower tattoo appears on her neck. The girls live together and specialize in forging art. They can easily pose as Hennessy herself. But they all know that when Hennessy runs out of room for flower tattoos, she’s going to die.

We also meet some Moderators and Visionaries. Visionaries dream what’s going to happen in the future. And all the Visionaries are saying that the world will be destroyed – because of something a Dreamer is going to bring into reality. The obvious solution? Kill all Dreamers. We follow along with one Moderator and the teen Visionary she monitors in order for him to lead her to more Dreamers.

There’s a lot more that’s going on in this book, and it quickly draws you in with the strangeness and the fascinatingly mind-bending scenarios. Things do not resolve by the end, though some of the threads do come together.

The reader of this book has a gravelly voice I didn’t find attractive, but the more I listened, the more I felt thought an unusual voice fits this particularly unusual book.

As with The Raven Cycle, there are many unpleasant things that happen in this book, but they are so unusual and so mind-bending, that I’m going to have to read on and find out what happens next as soon as I get the chance.

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Review of All Because You Matter, by Tami Charles, illustrated by Bryan Collier

All Because You Matter

by Tami Charles
illustrated by Bryan Collier

Orchard Books (Scholastic), 2020. 36 pages.
Review written 10/20/2020 from a library book
Starred Review

This picture book is a message book, but it’s written in a way that transcends the message, with poetry and lovely paintings/collages telling children that they matter.

The specific child shown in the illustrations is a black boy, and this book will work best for black boys, but that sure seems fair. And you can use this book to remember the value inherent in all young people – while enjoying the poetry and the stunning illustrations.

It’s a book for reading to your own beloved child. Here’s how it begins:

They say that matter
is all things
that make up the universe:
energy,
stars,
space . . .

If that’s the case,
then you, dear child, matter.

Long before you took
your place in this world,
you were dreamed of,
like a knapsack
full of wishes,
carried on the backs
of your ancestors
as they created
empires,
pyramids,
legacies.

The book talks about when you get older and get to school and start wondering if you matter. This part is as dark as it gets:

Or the time when your Pop Pop
turns on the news,
and you see people everywhere
take a breath,
take a stand,
take a knee.

And you hear Pop Pop’s
whispered prayers,
as another name is called:
Trayvon,
Tamir,
Philando,
and you wonder
if they,
or you,
will ever matter.

But did you know
that you do?

Did you know that
you were born from
queens,
chiefs,
legends?

Did you know that
you are the earth?
That strength, power, and
beauty lie within you?

And that takes the book to the finish with more affirmations and celebrations that you and your family always mattered and always will.

Again, all of this is accompanied by lavishly beautiful illustrations. There are author’s and illustrator’s notes making it personal.

I read another picture book with a similar message shortly before reading this one. I chose not to review that earlier book, because it had a good message, but the book wasn’t much more than the message. This book has reached a level of art in both the illustrations and the poetry. And it tells a particular story that can be universally applied. But it is particular to those who most need to hear it in today’s times. And that’s a lovely breath of fresh air.

scholastic.com

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Review of Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged! by Jody Nyasha Warner and Richard Rudnicki

Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged!

by Jody Nyasha Warner
pictures by Richard Rudnicki

Groundwood Books (Anansi Press), 2020. First published in 2010.
Review written November 9, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

We’ve all heard of Rosa Parks. This picture book tells the story of Viola Desmond, an African Canadian who protested the segregation of a movie theater in Toronto in 1946.

The story is presented simply in a way that’s easy to understand. There’s a little bit of drama added to the story as they start off by telling us she’s brave and then tell about her car breaking down on the way home. It was going to take hours to fix, so she decided to see a movie.

At first, she was told politely to move. But they ended up bringing in the police.

But I told you Viola was brave, didn’t I?

She wouldn’t budge one inch because she knew this seating rule wasn’t fair to black folks. It was just plain wrong.

So the manager and the policeman dragged her out of the theater in a real rough way.

Viola didn’t even win her court case. The court refused to face it as a segregation issue and accused her of not paying the right price for the ticket.

Still, Viola’s bravery made a big difference.

She inspired all kinds of people to fight against segregation, and by the late 1950s it was made against the law.

So come on and join me in saying thank you to Viola Desmond, a real hero, who sat down for her rights.

The book has bright, colorful pictures, making attractive to young children a story about making the world more fair.

groundwoodbooks.com

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Review of The Fish of Small Wishes, written by Elana K. Arnold, illustrated by Magdalena Mora

The Fish of Small Wishes

written by Elana K. Arnold
illustrated by Magdalena Mora

Roaring Brook Press, 2024. 36 pages.
Review written March 25, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This lovely picture book tells a modern version of an old fairy tale that’s child-centered and satisfying.

As the book opens, Kiki Karpovich notices that all the other kids in her neighborhood are playing together, and she’s pretending not to mind. Then she sees a large goldfish floundering on the sidewalk. The fish moves its dry lips, asking for help, so Kiki springs into action.

She picks up the fish, rushes up the stairs into her home, puts the fish in the bathtub, and fills the tub with water.

Then the fish thanks her! With quiet watery, bubbly words.

The fish says he can grant her a wish to thank her, but when she wishes for lots of friends, he sadly reveals that he is a fish of small wishes. Her wish is too big, and she’ll have to think of something smaller.

Kiki thinks of two more wishes, always with the same answer. By that time, the fish is outgrowing the tub. Kiki gets to work trying to dig a pond for the fish in the courtyard. When the task is too big, she has the courage – for the fish’s sake – to ask for help. The whole neighborhood comes together to make a new fishpond.

And Kiki’s wishes are granted!

It’s just lovely the way Kiki’s helpful kindness is it’s own reward. Lots to talk about here, a satisfying story arc, and bright, colorful pictures all make this picture book a great big win. It’s targeted to young elementary kids, but the language is simple enough for preschoolers to enjoy it just as much.

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Review of All the Days Past, All the Days To Come, by Mildred D. Taylor

All the Days Past, All the Days to Come

by Mildred D. Taylor

Viking, 2020. 483 pages.
Review written November 12, 2020, from a library book

All the Days Past, All the Days to Come continues the story of Cassie Logan and her family that Mildred Taylor wrote about in her previous books, including the Newbery winner Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. It’s been awhile since I read that one, and that’s the only one of her books I’d read, but she gives enough information so I didn’t feel lost.

This book covers Cassie’s start into adulthood. In fact, I think the only real reason this book is in the YA section is because the earlier books were for kids and teens, and this is the same family. The book has a Prologue in March 1944, and then covers 1945 through 1963. Many members of the family, including Cassie, move to Toledo, Ohio. From there, she spends some years in Los Angeles (I enjoyed that I knew the area that part described much better.) and also in Boston. Throughout the book, they go back to Mississippi where their family has land.

And everywhere they go, throughout the book, they encounter discrimination and segregation. Relentlessly and repeatedly, even in the north. By writing this as a sweeping family story over years, I felt the pain of that more than when it’s simply described to me. They never were able to escape it. The fifties and sixties brought some particular fights, with some victories but also some losses.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and was pulled into the story. At the same time, it was depressing and discouraging. Regarding the incidences of racial discrimination, I think that discouragement shows that the book pulled me into the story. However, I was also disappointed that the author didn’t give Cassie a happier life! She had some terrible losses that seemingly happened at random. And the book doesn’t really come to a place of resolution at the end, simply stopping at a place where their struggle continues.

They’d been fighting voter suppression and do end with an Epilogue about going to the inauguration of Barack Obama. For me as a reader knowing who got elected eight years later, that’s not quite as triumphant as I would wish.

This is a powerful story, and it does stir the reader up about injustices based on skin color. So it’s probably appropriate if it feels a little depressing. I’m also sure that readers who have read the earlier books will be excited to find out how Cassie’s adult life starts out.

penguinrandomhouse.com

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Review of ¡Ay, Mija! by Christine Suggs

¡Ay, Mija!

My Bilingual Summer in Mexico

by Christine Suggs

Little, Brown and Company, 2023. 328 pages.
Review written April 27, 2023, from a library book

¡Ay, Mija! Is one of those wonderful creations – a graphic novel memoir looking back on what it was like to be a teen figuring things out.

In this book, Christine Suggs tells about traveling on their own to visit their mother’s family in Mexico. Their Spanish wasn’t very good at the start, but they loved these people, and that love was returned. We see them carrying out more interactions as the visit goes on.

They also, naturally enough, have questions about their identity. They see things in their Mexican family that they’ve inherited, like a love of pan dulce. But their father is a pale white American, and their skin is lighter than any of their relatives in Mexico. And their Spanish isn’t very good, so they don’t always understand what their relatives are saying.

I love their drawing style, simple and loose. I could mostly keep track of who was who, and I enjoyed the little character they used to express their own thoughts and feelings in dialog.

I have never taken a Spanish class, though when I was in grad school I lived in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood of Los Angeles, and part of the time reading this book felt like that. I started to let the Spanish words rush over me. Though I think that accurately reflects how the author felt.

I do think this book would be perfect for someone who’s studied Spanish a little bit and would help them progress. There are a few English translations given, but mostly what’s on the page progresses as Christine progresses – and I was left a little behind by that. Though in a graphic novel, the pictures convey enough of the story, I didn’t feel lost. So I do think this strategy worked for this book, even though for me personally I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I would have if I felt like I understood more of the words used.

But even with my lack of Spanish slowing me down, I still thought this was a lovely story of making family connections and a teen making their way outside their comfort zone.

christinesuggs.com

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Review of Encyclopedia of Strangely Named Animals, Volume One, by Fredrik Colting & Melissa Medina, illustrated by Vlad Stankovic

Encyclopedia of Strangely Named Animals

Volume One

by Fredrik Colting & Melissa Medina
illustrated by Vlad Stankovic

Moppet Books, 2020. 52 pages.
Review written November 14, 2020, from a library book

This book is too much fun not to write a review. This “Encyclopedia” is for young readers. It lists twenty-eight strangely named animals. Each animal gets at least a page, sometimes two, with a large picture and a short and simple paragraph about the animal. It’s straightforward – but so much fun to browse.

Here’s an example, without the impressive pictures:

Sarcastic Fringehead

The Sarcastic Fringehead is a small fish with a very big mouth that makes its home in empty shells off the coast of California. When two Sarcastic Fringeheads get into a territorial argument over a shell, they settle it by pressing their huge mouths against each other. And just like sarcastic people, whoever has the biggest mouth is the one who wins the argument.

Other strangely named animals listed here include the Chicken Turtle, Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla, Sparklemuffin (a kind of Australian spider), Pleasing Fungus Beetle, White-Bellied Go-Away Bird, Pink Fairy Armadillo, Boops Boops, Tasseled Wobbegong, and Striped Pajama Squid. This book is a delight for curious people of all ages.

moppetbookspublishing.com

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2024 Walter Awards Celebration

On March 13, 2024, I got to attend the Walter Dean Myers Awards Celebration at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC. The Walter Awards are presented by the organization We Need Diverse Books, begun ten years ago by Ellen Oh and other like-minded people.

Ellen Oh started us off, honoring ten years of the Walter Awards. The theme this year is: “There Is Work to Be Done.” I didn’t get the quote down exactly, but I believe she said that last year in children’s and young adult publishing, 45% of newly published books were diverse in some way. So yes! We have made great strides in having more diverse books available in our diverse country. But we all know that book banners are pushing back, and there is still work to be done.

Elizabeth Acevedo was the moderator this year. She’s a former Walter Award recipient herself, and she did a beautiful job moderating the discussion and giving out the awards.

But I was there to see Ari Tison and Hannah V. Sawyerr!

Why? Because they are two of “our” Finalists for the 2024 Morris Award, and I read their books two and three times and helped select them as Finalists. And love, love, love their books. Ari Tison, author of Saints of the Household, is pictured above. She was the winner of the 2024 Walter Award for Young Adult Literature, and as such she got to give a speech.

Highlights from Ari’s speech:

Of course, she first talked about how much she appreciates this honor and said that previous award winners were her mentor texts.

Life is sacred in a world with so much ugly. Her book is about art, family, monsters, brotherhood, and intertribal relationships. (I love this list, because I made a similar one on a sticky note when I was planning how to talk about this book with the Morris committee.) This book made her braver.

“Through books, we are woven together.”

“We write so young people can hold the world more fully.”

We see ourselves and the mosaic of life in books.

There are only five Bri Bri people (an indigenous group from Costa Rica) in the entire U.S. right now.

Diversity is reality. We (humanity) contain multitudes.

Keep going, so that the world of books looks like the world.

Next up was Jacqueline Woodson, who won the Children’s Literature Walter Award for her book Remember Us. First, Elizabeth Acevedo acknowledged that Jacqueline is the GOAT.

In Jacqueline’s speech, she spoke about her neighbor in Brooklyn, Walter Dean Myers’ granddaughter, Kazay. (I’m probably spelling that incorrectly.) She sees a future. She’s grinning, proud and grateful.

After that came a wonderful panel discussion moderated by Elizabeth Acevedo. The two winners were joined by the Honor Book Authors, Hannah V. Sawyerr (young adult) for All the Fighting Parts, and Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow (children’s) as one of the four co-authors of Grounded.

The panel discussion was wonderful. I’ll repeat what I got written down in my notes.

The first question was in keeping with ten years of the Walter Awards, and was “Where were you ten years ago?”

Jamilah: She was the mom of a 4-year-old and a baby, and she was falling in love with picture books. But she wanted to see Black Muslim children. She started writing in 2015.

Jacqueline: She’d just won the National Book Award with Brown Girl Dreaming. It was time for change. She had a five-year-old. And people were taking a hard look at young people’s literature.

Hannah: She was a Senior in high school. She was annoyingly passionate, and always writing in the margins when in class. She was obsessed with open mics and really loved words and poetry.

Ari: She was also a Senior in high school and also annoying. [I got to thinking that 10 years from high school to award-winning debut novel is fantastic for both women.] Her reaction to difficulties was being an overachiever, after a scholarship to college. She bought herself a two-month novel-writing workshop. She had tenacity and annoyingness.

Next question: What do you hope this book shows readers and what did it show you?

Jacqueline: Her character loves basketball and gets bullied. We have so much more than what the world sees in us. It made her grateful for the past. This is a journey, a movement.

Ari: It’s important to have hope in books for young people. She learned about PTSD – wanted to show you can get past trauma. She showed opportunities for healing: Art, friendships, community.

Hannah: Her book is a Me, Too, novel. She’d experienced shame and self-blame. Her book is about believing: It was not your fault. She hopes that message gets to readers.

Jamilah: It’s an important book for their community, a fun book in a space (an airport) that’s often fraught for Muslims.

Elizabeth: Sometimes the way we define success is different than the world. How do you define success?

Ari: We all come from storytellers. Her people haven’t had their stories told. In Bri Bri, Story = History = Wind = Knowledge. It helps her get grounded. Everything is a gift. She’s here because of something beyond the physical.

Hannah: Her writing is selfish – to figure things out and address honestly. Writing is taking risks. Success is wrapped up in integrity. (But later she did say that her book is not Autobiography. It’s “Auto-fiction.” Her character is not herself.)

Jamilah: Success is feeling like her work is opening spaces for other authors. When others take inspiration from her writing, that feels very successful.

Jacqueline: Success is doing what she loves, and making that choice to do it, even though her family told her not to. (Because Black people don’t make a living writing books.) Mentors began the journey and many are no longer here. Folks of color don’t live as long as white folks. Still being here and doing the work is success. She loves her people and she loves writing.

Elizabeth (to Hannah): Part of the journey is passing it on. [Then Jacqueline made her tell the story of, as a teen, prompted by her middle school teacher Phil Bildner, writing a letter to Angela Johnson about the book Heaven. She didn’t get an answer — until the book The First Part Last came out, dedicated to her. It was the first time she saw her name in print.] Healing is also part of fighting back. How do you make space for the many definitions of it?

Hannah: Her journey in the court system was eight years long. She came forward about abuse her senior year of high school. For a long time she didn’t think she was a fighter, and felt very small. Her biggest accomplishment was finishing the first draft. Many times, she was tempted to drop out. She got the contract on her book before she got the verdict in court. You get so fed up with the process. She survived that event, but it doesn’t define her. She’s so much more than that and is carrying on. (And the secondary character, who didn’t take the abuser to court, was fighting, too.)

Elizabeth (to Jamilah): How did the story come together with four authors?

Jamilah: Lots of credit to Aisha Saeed – it was her original idea. She wanted representation of different Muslim voices. There’s lots of diversity within their diversity. They each took from their own communities. They wrote Grounded during the pandemic to help feel grounded. They met every couple weeks on Zoom, wanting to escape.

Elizabeth (To Ari): Some of the Bri Bri stories you used in your book had never been put into English before. How did you work them into your narrative?

Ari: There were three levels of colonization in Costa Rica. She also learned Spanish when there in their territory. For Native people, story is a big way they survived. She cited a study that if Native teens know their creation stories, they are less likely to self-harm. She was looking for ways to make the story bigger than hers alone. Her ancestors’ stories are there, too. Folklore gives us insight into our own lives, and it was important to include those, too.

Elizabeth (to Jacqueline): Why that neighborhood and background?

Jacqueline: Bushwick started out as Irish and German. When Black folks moved in, the landlords started setting fires to get insurance money. Now, it’s an artist-hipster neighborhood. Folks talk about “discovering” Bushwick, which erases the history that went before. There were no trees when she grew up there. Now destruction is still happening, but now it’s through unhousing people by building expensive housing. We don’t have to recreate the wheel for social justice.

Okay, after that the teens attending got to ask question. They had brought in students from local high schools, and it made my heart happy to see how excited they were about the books and to talk with the authors. After all our discussing the books on the Morris committee, I loved seeing that teens love the books, too.

After that was a signing. I was anxious by this time. I’d been told I could go to the Awards ceremony, but I should get back for our department staff meeting at 1:30.

But I had to meet Ari and tell her how much I loved the book! It made her smile to see the Morris Finalist sticker on the front of mine!

I got in Hannah’s line next, but finally had to give up. Both Ari and Hannah were spending time talking with each person (mostly teens) who got a signature — and that was beautiful to see, so I couldn’t begrudge them.

So I took a picture of the happy crowd before I left. Then I was late back (and Constitution Avenue was blocked off, so I had to take a detour past the just-beginning cherry blossoms of the Tidal Basin) — but the meeting had been cancelled! I wish I’d checked email before I left that morning – and stayed in Hannah’s line!

But the whole thing was a fabulous celebration of diversity in young people’s literature. May this legacy continue!