Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library

Sitting Down To Eat

Author Bill Harley calls this a "zipper" song. He defines a zipper song as one where each verse is the same except for one word being changed. He gives as an example Pete Seeger's If I Had a Hammer . In Sitting Down to Eat , the singer relates...

Published Fri, Jun 06 2009 1:23 pm by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: reviews, picture books, book review, bill harley

"Where has Tillie laid her egg?"

Tillie Lay an Egg by Terry Golson is a delightful book about a hen who likes to do things a little differently than the other hens. Wait her turn to lay an egg? Bah! Tillie has more important things to discover. You can discover them too as you read this...

Published Mon, Jan 01 2009 9:26 am by bookchick@evpl

Filed under: reviews, Tillie Lays an Egg, Terry Golson, Ben Fink, authors and illustrators

Do You have a Famous Relative?

Every family has a relative who is their claim to fame. Mine is Branch Rickey, the man who hired Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in major league baseball. Now Kadir Nelson has written and illustrated We Are The Ship; The Story of Negro...

Published Mon, Dec 12 2008 1:34 pm by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: reviews, Caldecott, American History, Branch Rickey, Kadir Nelson, Negro League Baseball, authors and illustrators

Stolen children??!!

Fourteen-year-old Amy had just completed a babysitting course, but as Peg Kehret wrote in the first paragraph of Stolen Children , "it did not cover what to do if two thugs with a gun showed up. She had to figure that out by herself." As you...

Published Wed, Nov 11 2008 7:20 pm by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: fiction, reviews, point of view, Peg Kehret, kidnapping

Did Fleming Rescue Churchill? Research, Anyone?

James Cross Giblin has written about fifth-grader Jason and how he proceeded with his assignment, a three-page report on Sir Alexander Fleming. Trouble was, Jason didn't think Fleming was all that exciting, even if he did discover penicillin. His...

Published Sat, Nov 11 2008 9:57 am by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: reviews, school stories, research, James Cross Giblin

Honey Cake

Every year, David's mother bakes a honey cake for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year celebration. Eating honey cake symbolizes the hope that the new year will be sweet. David's sister Rachel expresses the opinion of all Denmark in 1943: "A...

Published Fri, Nov 11 2008 3:39 pm by mrsweasley@evpl

Filed under: fiction, reviews, history, wartime escape, Nazis, World War II, Germany, Jews, Denmark, cake, Joan Betty Stuchner, Rosh Hashanah, authors and illustrators

More Pilgrims?

With Thanksgiving on the way, it's a good time to consider the definition of a Pilgrim. Molly's Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen does just that. When Molly explains to her mother what her teacher told her about why the Pilgrims came to America, Molly's...

Published Wed, Nov 11 2008 2:57 pm by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: fiction, reviews, school stories, Thanksgiving

How Long Could YOU Keep From Talking?

Dave was normally a pretty noisy 5th-grader. In fact, maybe he was a loudmouth. But after reading about Gandhi, and how for many years he spent one day a week not talking at all, Dave thought it was worth finding out what it would be like to keep silent...

Published Thu, Nov 11 2008 5:12 pm by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: fiction, reviews, Andrew Clements, school stories, kids, books

Think Honda Is Only a Car? Think Again!

I love my Honda Civic -- but I was surprised to learn that Honda is the last name of Soichiro Honda, born in Japan in 1906. Honda: The boy Who Dreamed of Cars is a picture book biography that begins with his early life and shows the long road to his eventual...

Published Wed, Oct 10 2008 6:45 pm by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: reviews, picture books, vehicles, Honda

Ghost's Hour, Spook's Hour

How does a kid feel when the electricity goes out in the middle of the night and he can't find anyone but his dog? That's what happens to the boy in Ghost's Hour, Spook's Hour by Eve Bunting. Donald Carrick's pictures are very realistic...

Published Mon, Oct 10 2008 5:16 pm by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: reviews, picture books, kids, Halloween, spooky stories, dogs

What Can Kids Do About the Economy?

Sheila Bair, FDIC chairwoman, has written a picture book for children on responsible money managing. Rock, Brock, and the Savings Shock relates the story of twins whose grandfather gives them one dollar a week for ten weeks. Gramps promises to match each...

Published Thu, Oct 10 2008 5:53 pm by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: reviews, picture books, grandparents, Sheila Bair, National Public Radio, Rock Brock and the Savings Shock

Have You Ever Felt Swindled?

Griffin did. He's a sixth-grader whose father has put so much of the family money into his invention, the SmartPick fruit picker, that his parents have put their house up for sale. Then Griffin finds a Babe Ruth baseball card. Is it worth a lot of...

Published Tue, Oct 10 2008 8:44 am by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: reviews, Swindle, gordon korman

Everything Is Connected, Even Wolves

Who knew wolves were so important to a place? For nearly 70 years there had been no wolves in Yellowstone National Park. Then in 1995, ten adult wolves were brought to the park from Canada. The Wolves Are Back by Jean Craighead George tells how their...

Published Mon, Sep 09 2008 1:08 pm by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: reviews, animals, wolves, ecology

The Bus for Us

"Is this the bus for us, Gus?" That's the question Tess asks on every other page of this book, while they wait to go to school. Big brother Gus answers with varying degrees of patience. Meanwhile more kids keep lining up to ride too, and...

Published Mon, Aug 08 2008 4:31 pm by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: reviews, easy readers, picture books, school stories

Invention of Hugo Cabret

This is the Caldecott Award winner with the most pages ever. The detailed pictures are fascinating. Brian Selznick's inventive artwork carries the bulk of the story line.

Published Fri, Jul 07 2008 3:08 pm by UndergroundLibrarian@evpl

Filed under: fiction, reviews, Caldecott

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