Search results matching tags 'authors and illustrators' and 'reviews'

"Where has Tillie laid her egg?"

bookchick@evpl — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:26:00 GMT

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 story and look for the eggs Tillie has laid in some pretty strange places.

Photographs of the hens and the Golson farm taken by Ben Fink use a beautiful soft light and props that take you back to a simpler time before electricity and all it's distractions.

But wait! We do have electricity and Terry Golson has set up a webcam in the chicken coop!

www.hencam.com

Read bios about each of the hens and watch them inside and out as they go through their day from their first feeding in the morning until they roost for the night.

There is also a beautiful lop-eared rabbit named Candy who has a hutch in the chicken yard. She's pretty quick but sometimes you can catch her running for a bite of apple.

I hope you enjoy this book and webcam as much as I did.

Do You have a Famous Relative?

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:34:00 GMT

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 League Baseball, and he's even included a painting of Branch Rickey! Pretty realistic, too, although I think his eyebrows were even more bushy. And Nelson points out that Branch Rickey would not have been able to make his integrating hire if it were not for a new baseball commissioner being elected in 1944, A. B. "Happy" Chandler. Chandler was quoted as saying " If a colored boy can make it on Okinawa and Guadalcanal . . .[i.e., serving in world War II] he can make it in baseball." My family had never heard of Happy Chandler, but I sure heard about Branch Rickey.

The reviewers are saying great things about this book, and not because of my relative. Nelson's artwork shows individual portraits of star players as if they are on the baseball field. HIs pictures make you want to just keep looking at them. Looks to me like a good candidate for this year's Caldecott Award. I think this is the first book where he has also done the writing, and if so he's been keeping a great talent well hidden. It's written from the point of view of a Negro League player relating the experiences of everybody, what good players they were, how much they enjoyed it, what hard times they had, the indignities thrust upon them by segregation.

This book is located in children's nonfiction, but it's for older children, and adults would appreciate it as well. Even if you're not related to Branch Rickey.

Honey Cake

mrsweasley@evpl — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:39:00 GMT

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 sweet year would be a year without Nazis."

For three and a half years, the Germans have occupied Denmark, and now word comes that the Nazis plan to round up Denmark's Jews. Even with the help of friends, can David's family find a way to leave the country before they are sent to a concentration camp? Secret messages, breathless escapes and courageous resistance will keep you turning the pages of this history-based story. Author Joan Betty Stuchner includes Mama's Honey Cake recipe to help you taste the sweetness of hope for freedom that David's family shared.