Isol

Leilah is always losing things, and her mother is always chastising her for it. Leilah insists that her things are falling through to "the other side," but her mother disregards her grandma's stories as nonsense. The art, though, supports Leilah's theory: her world is the top side of an embroidered shawl, and the other side is wild an unusual, full of knots and tangles. First, Leilah finds all the holes and sews them up tight with blue thread, but then a strange fog comes over their world, show more so she cuts her thread and opens the holes again. The fog dissipates, and Leilah dreams of the other side, where, in an epilogue, two creatures prepare for the summer solstice - one of them wearing Leilah's lost keys as a decoration.

Unique, unusual, beautiful. Isol Misenta is Argentinean; the shawl is Palestinian. show less

Petit is a boy who is sometimes such a good child and at other times not so good. He is so nice to his grandfather but he shoots rocks at pigeons. He is good at taking care of his toys but not good at sharing them. Petit is confused with how he can be such a good boy but do such bad things. I would not share this book for an academic activity but I would share it with a young class to help them practice social skills. Sometimes children do not understand what is socially appropriate or not show more socially appropriate and I think with the right guidance during a read aloud students could learn this from this book. show less

With a humorous ending, this simple read was also one that challenges readers, especially parents to be aware of how they look at children, but also children's behaviors. I think the basic illustrations weren't super engaging, however still a good read.

This cute and quirky exploration of Baby Life as if described to a complete outsider is a winner. The strange overlapping line-drawing style serves to give the story just the right amount of chaos, while the warm accompanying text and soothing color palette is comfortingly sturdy. Cute gift for new parents!