Tomo Takes Flight by Trevor Lai - NO

Lai, Trevor Tomo Takes Flight.  PICTURE BOOK.  Imprint (Macmillan), 2017.  $18. 

When his father leaves the island on a trip, Tomo builds a machine to do his work and heads off to complete another mission in his Adventure Journal.  This time he and his friend Maya help a  rare bird.

ILai illustrations are bright and inviting, even if they feel very cartoon computer animated.  The story, however, requires big leaps of logic to make sense, and at the end it has Tomo lying to his father, which I can’t encourage.

NOT RECOMMENDED.  Cindy, Library Teacher

Singing in the Rain with Tim Hopgood - OPTIONAL

Singing in the Rain, illustrated by Tim Hopgood.  PICTURE BOOK.  Henry Holt (Macmillan), 2017.  $18. 978-1250127709

Hopgood’s illustrations are as joyful as the original movie and are an apt accompaniment to the lyrics.  The problem I have is that as spoken word, the lyrics do not work.  You have to sing the song as you are reading the book – otherwise the experience falls flat.  So if you are a singing librarian, you will have lots of fun with this.  Teach the song to your kids and enjoy the ride.

Pre-K, EL (K-3) – OPTIONAL.  Cindy, Library Teacher

Snow Scene by Richard Jackson - OPTIONAL

Jackson, Richard Snow Scene, illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.   PICTURE BOOK.  Roaring Brook (Macmillan). 2017 $18.  9781626726802

Seeger’s beautiful winter scenes really steal the show here.  I get the rhyming scheme, but sometimes the word needed for the rhyme is forced.  Nd when the author resorts to saying “this” three times – I feel like he was told he only had this many pages and he’d better not go over.

Pre-K – OPTIONAL.  Cindy, Library Teacher

Alice Paul and the Fight for Women's Rights by Deborah Kops - ADVISABLE

Kops, Deborah Alice Paul and the Fight for Women's Rights, 208 pages. NON-FICTION. Calkins Creek (Highlights), 2017. $17.95. 

Alice Paul was one of the great leaders of the Women's Rights movement in America. A Quaker by birth, Paul became interested in the suffragette movement while studying in Great Britain, and eventually returned home to America to become fully involved in the work here. Even after American women gained the right to vote, Paul continued to mobilize for equal rights for the remainder of her life.

This is a great nonfiction biography of an American hero many have never heard of or at least know little about. In addition to detailing Paul's life, Kops does a wonderful job of telling the story of the Women's movement in the 20th century--its highs and its lows--without getting too caught up in the dramatic. This is a solid choice for secondary school libraries to have on hand for student research.

MS, HS--ADVISABLE. Reviewer: TC

How It Ends by Catherine Lo - PUBLIC

Lo, Catherine How It Ends, 289 pgs. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. $17.99. Language: R  (100+ swears, 46 ‘f’); Mature Content: R (drinking, bullying, sex, pregnancy, abortion); Violence: PG 

Jessie is not excited about starting school tomorrow.  Last year ended horribly and Jessie can’t imagine this year will be much better.  Her plan is to keep her head down and just survive the next 3 years and then she is off to college.  Annie just moved in and also isn’t excited about starting school.  Things were great back home, she had lots of friends and she loved her house,  but when her Dad remarried, her stepmom wanted a different place from where Annie’s mom lived.  Jessie and Annie meet on the first day of school and Jessie is surprised, but happy, that Annie wants to be friends, but Annie is friendly with lots of people including those that have made her life so hard.  Jessie begins to wonder how long Annie will want to be friends and will she be able to handle it if she doesn’t. 

This was much more serious than a book about friendship.  While I’m not always a fan of alternating chapters between the characters, at times, it was helpful to see how Jessie and Annie viewed the same situation so differently whether through the lens of Jessie’s anxiety or Annie’s struggle with her stepmom.  There were moments that I appreciated, but this wasn’t a favorite of mine, and overall, the serious turn the story takes (see ratings), in combination with the language, moves it out of a school setting.

PUBLIC ONLY. Reviewer: RB