Chana Stiefel

First sentence: There once was a girl named Yaffa. She was a spirited girl who loved her home and her family. She was born in a shtetl, a small Jewish town that pulsed with love, laughter, and light. The name of her shtetl was Eishyshok (Ay-shi-shok). The family roots of the people in Eishyshok ran deep. For 900 years, their histories and spirits were woven into the fabric of the town.

Premise/plot: Nonfiction picture book and/or nonfiction picture book biography. I could see it being show more classified as either/both. The jacket copy says it is the biography of Yaffa Eliach the woman who created "the Tower of Faces" (aka The Tower of Life) at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. It is definitely the story of her life, her work, her life's work. But it is also so much more than that. It is the story of her community, and the story of the Holocaust as well.

My thoughts: I found this one FASCINATING. I really loved this nonfiction picture book. I loved learning the story behind The Tower of Faces. Though I'd not heard of this particular exhibit, I have heard of the Holocaust Memorial Museum. I would love to learn more about this exhibit and the others as well. I loved, loved, loved the photographs of this one.

I found it a powerfully compelling read. I'm not surprised a bit that it won the Sydney Taylor Book Award. (It was also a Robert F. Sibert Honor book). show less

Plenty of picture books take a feeling or emotion as their core subject, but this is the first one I've seen about awe. In Susan Gal's spectacular pencil/ink/watercolor/digital illustrations, people experience awe in all kinds of settings, for all kinds of reasons: fireworks at a sports game, the Northern Lights, seeing a butterfly or spiderweb on a hike; skyscrapers in a city, a marathon, a string quartet, a sky full of stars. Text - some rhyming - conveys as much as it can about this show more hard-to-pin down feeling that makes us say "whoaaaa," "ahhhh," and "wow." show less

If you have kids who love the gross, ghoulish, and disgusting, all in the name of science, this book is for them! I've got a pretty strong stomach and a few spreads made me shudder!

The idea of the book is to look at "real-life" monsters in the animal world and compare them to Dracula, zombies, and other supernatural creatures. Under the category of "the living dead" are included various bugs and parasites that take over their hosts and control their actions. Chapter 2 introduces creatures show more that feed on blood - lampreys, vampire bats, ticks, and more. For sea monsters we plunge deep into the ocean and meet poisonous and powerful undersea creatures, including a cone snail, giant squid, goblin shark, and more. For those who like to shudder at the thought of alien invaders, there's tapeworms, guinea worms, fungus, and other things we don't want to think about. The last chapter, "animal monster mash" has a wide range of creepy, gross, and unexpected animals from a porcupine with quills to cannibal crickets, a lizard that squirms out of its skin to escape predators to a caecilian mother that feeds its young with its own body.

Each chapter also includes a section on the mythical or popular culture monster - zombies, vampires, werewolves, etc. that inspired the research as well as profiling a "mad scientist" who researches some of the animals included. Back matter includes a glossary, index, further resources (I, personally, am not watching the videos) and credits.

The book is available in library and paperback bindings and is a slightly wider layout than some National Geographic titles - 10x9 inches. This gives plenty of space for lots of close-up, gory photographs! A great nonfiction pick for Halloween, grab this one off the shelf any time you have a kid proclaiming they like REALLY scary fare or that nothing grosses them out!

Verdict: Full of facts and photographs, this is a great addition to National Geographic's oevre and is sure to fly off your shelves (but hopefully not into your brain. Mwa ha ha ha).

ISBN: 9781426331497; Published August 2018 by National Geographic; Review copy provided by the publisher; Donated to the library show less

Avocado wants to be part of the grocery store's "Today Specials" but worries about not being good enough. After all, Avocado isn't a big dill like Pickle or even dressed up like Olive Oil and Vinegar. Will Avocado ever find what makes her special?

This was a funny book full of puns; older elementary school-aged children will probably get the most chuckles out of it because they'll understand the wordplay. The message underneath it all is very sweet and important -- Avocado learns to stop show more comparing herself to others and find what makes her unique, including all of her positive character traits.

You do, however, have to exercise some suspension of disbelief as these food items are basically all vying to make themselves more attractive ... so that they'll be bought and eaten. The book doesn't explicitly say this but astute readers will pick up on it right away.

The illustrations are full of bold colors and expressive anthropomorphized foods. This combination draws the eye in immediately and fits the tone of the book well. show less