Michelle Meadows

This is another story of a strong female role model--a prima ballerina named Janet Collins. It is a story of never giving up and of working towards a dream.

It's a book told in rhyme which I feel make it quite easy for younger readers to enjoy. Because it is about ballet, I see it being a book that children gravitate to based on the cover. But what I love is how it is a story where you can have those harder conversations. I mean, it is sad but true that part of our history is racial show more segregation. I have never experienced it (and I hope and pray I never will), but many people have. These are people like Janet Collins--so skilled at what they do yet are not given a chance because of their skin.

Yet it only takes one person to change the cycle. We see it in this book. And we can see it today too. What if we are that one person? show less

This picture book biography of James Baldwin is masterfully done, without ever getting too shallow or too weighty for the age of the intended readers. The illustrations are artistically rendered, and the conceit of a few poetic lines at the beginning of each division of the story ("Home is brick brown,/ Harlem, uptown,/ trains rumbling by...") adds to the lovely lushness and immersive nature of the telling. Highly recommend.

A little mouse experiences the wonders and terrors of life in the wider world (AKA, the human house in which his family's mouse-hole resides) in this rhyming picture-book romp. When he gets lost, a kindly older mouse shows him the way, only for our murine hero to be trapped by a cat. Will he ever get home...?

The text here stumbles in a few places, but overall it has an entertaining, bouncy rhythm, while the artwork is quite expressive. I liked the two-page spread in which the illustrations show more zoom in on the horrified mouse, who is just realizing he doesn't know where he is. All that said, I thought the conclusion of the story was a little off - it wasn't clear to me if the chase scene (and perhaps the entire adventure?) was a dream, or if the mouse escaped, and his parents found him cowering - and I deducted a star accordingly. show less

Two stuffed puppies take to the skies to rescue some of their toy playmates in this sweet picture-book from author Michelle Meadows and illustrator Dan Andreasen. Navigating their way around the features of their home - the adult people are mountains, steam from a tea-kettle is fog - they eventually succeed in retrieving their compatriots, and all the toys are back where they should be, when their children walk in...

Pairing a simple but entertaining tale told in rhyme - "Start the engine, / show more buckle up. / Down the runway... / Pilot Pups! / Rolling faster, / lift up high. / Soaring, roaring - / to the sky" - with cute illustrations, Pilot Pups would make a good bedtime selection for younger children. Although not a particularly earth-shattering picture-book, it is a fun, lighthearted look at that perpetual childhood question - what do our toys get up to, when we are not paying attention to them? show less