Roni Schotter

Grade 1-4-Schotter blends magical realism with a tongue-tingling narrative to create an ode to the power and purpose of language. Selig is passionate about words-their sounds (tintinnabulating!), their taste (tantalizing!), and the way they moved his heart. An avid word-hoarder, he delights in discovering new terms, recording them on paper scraps, and stowing them in pockets. Unable to comprehend their son's strange predilection, his practical-minded parents worry about his future, and his show more classmates cruelly add oddball to his collection. After dreaming about a Yiddish Genie who advises him to embrace his passion and seek his life's poipose, Selig embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Feeling weighted down by his vocabulary slips, he climbs a tree and carefully attaches them to the branches. Fantastically and fittingly, several of them blow into the hands of a poet who is struggling for the right adjectives to finish his verse. Selig realizes that his mission is to bestow his word wealth upon others. He tosses out luscious to accentuate a baker's wares, halts an argument with harmony, and invigorates an elderly man with spry. He grows up to find personal fulfillment and even true love. The author shares her own affection for language through the descriptive, lyrical text, italicizing particularly delectable but possibly unfamiliar terms and defining them in a two-page glossary. Potter's folk-art paintings echo the story's whimsy and set the action in an idyllic-looking, early-20th-century past. An inspiring choice for young wordsmiths and anyone who cherishes the variety and vitality of language. show less

Eva sits on the front stoop of her New York walk-up, a notebook perched on her lap and a cinnamon danish to fortify her at her side. Her teacher has instructed her to “write what you know”. That’s Eva’s problem: what she knows is that nothing ever happens on 90th Street. As she sits, though, neighbouring merchants, cooks, and artistic tenants emerge from buildings and shops. Seeing that she is writing, they offer her advice. The out-of-work actor, Mr. Sims, tells her: “All the show more world’s a stage” and each has his role; she needs to be attentive to the actors on the stage before her. Alexis Leora, a sad-faced dancer, who likes to do her warm-ups on the stoop stairs and sidewalk, suggests that she stretch her imagination. But it’s kind Mrs. Martinez, who offers her a bowl of her homemade soup, that really gets the ball rolling. “Spice it up!” she tells Eva. “Add a little action!” So Eva does—first to real life, then to her story.

To amuse a little boy being pushed in a stroller, Eva tosses pieces of her cinnamon bun to the pigeons. Mayhem ensues. The little boy drops his red ball, which rolls into the street, causing a cyclist to fall, and a traffic jam. The result? All the people who live, work, and walk on the sidewalks of 90th street get talking. There are a few little problems to be solved. Is the cyclist okay? What about the little boy’s ball—can it be retrieved? And what to do about the cat who has leaped from his human’s arms?

In the end, of course, the problems are solved, and Eva has it all down on paper for posterity. Who said nothing ever happens on 90th Street?!

Schotter’s lively picture book with its angular off-kilter illustrations is a kind of kids’ guide to making it happen in writing and in life. The book appears on many lists of recommended books for language arts. I understand why: it is fast-paced; it has colourful, distinctive characters; the vocabulary is rich and sophisticated; and, finally, it gives some good advice to young writers.

It’s not exactly my type of picture book, as it feels just a bit too contrived and educational. Nevertheless, I can see that it would have its uses, and it is well done for the sort of book it is.

Rating: 3.5 show less

I liked the book “Mama, I’ll Give You the World” by Roni Schotter. I thought that the writing was consistently engaging throughout the story and that Schotter did an excellent job of building suspense leading up to the surprise party Luisa threw for her mother. I also thought the style of the illustrations enhanced the story. For example, on some pages, the writing was broken into chunks that covered the page and with each block of writing, there was a small picture beside it that show more depicted the events happening in the story. In my opinion, this page layout could be especially beneficial to young readers as they are reading about the sequence in which Louisa prepared for the party. The main reason I liked this book is because it broadens readers’ perspectives on family structures and the financial implications that single parents often face when saving money for their child’s college education. The main message of this book is for to be grateful for those who take care of you and to do all that you can to show your appreciation towards them. show less

I found this excruciatingly corny, even though I too delight in words. It did have a nice twist when the boy who felt overloaded with his collection of words spilled a few in the direction of a poet searching for words. - Marla S.