April Halprin Wayland

Autumn is Izzy's favorite time of year. A time of changes, of apples and honey, and the sound of the Shofar. As Rosh Hashanah draws near, Izzy joins his family in making "I'm sorry" lists, preparing for Taschlich, in which the previous year's transgressions are symbolically cast away. But this year, he has a very difficult apology to make...

April Halprin Wayland's New Year at the Pier, which emphasizes the importance of both repentance and forgiveness in the Jewish New Year tradition, is an show more engaging and believable tale of family, friendship, and community. Izzy makes for an appealing young hero, as fallible as any other young boy, but also sincerely interested in doing right. Stéphane Jorisch's sprightly illustrations add to the sense of fun and celebration. All in all, a very pleasing holiday tale that should appeal to young readers of all religious persuasions. show less

April Halprin Wayland, whose New Year at the Pier offered a delightful look at the Rosh Hashanah tradition of Tashlich, returns to the Jewish holidays in this newest picture-book offering, following a family of four as they prepare for and celebrate Passover. Shopping in the market, taking home a kitten in need of a home, making charoset as a family - every activity they engage in is followed by the refrain "Dayenu" ("it would have been enough"), referring to the Passover song which show more celebrates all the blessings of this important time of the Jewish year, and emphasizes the importance of gratitude for those blessings.

Like her earlier title, I enjoyed More Than Enough quite a bit, finding in it a lovely celebration of Jewish traditions at Passover, as they are enacted by one modern city family. There is less of a story here than in New Year at the Pier - the text is shorter, with one sentence per page, followed by the refrain - but there is also more of a feeling of this being a song - a song of joy. The watercolor illustrations by Katie Kath are appealing - naturally, I found the kitten adorable! - and perfectly depict the sense of family fun and togetherness found in the text. All in all, a sweet little book, one I would recommend to anyone looking for Passover picture-books for younger children. show less

Girl Coming In For A Landing was different from most other novels in verse that I’ve read. While all of the poems did work together to tell one story, I felt as if each poem worked better on its own than as one big flowing story. It just felt disjointed to me.

The story was told from first person point-of-view, therefore we never even learned the name of our main character. While there was a small cast of side characters they were not a main focus of the story nor were they memorable enough show more for me to even remember their names. The first person point-of-view did not work to the benefit of the reader. Most of the time whenever the main character would say “we did this” or “we did that” you had no clue which person she was talking about. I was always thinking to myself you did that with who?? WHO ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!

My favorite thing about the book was all of the illustrations, which were done by Elaine Clayton. Each page was like a work of art, tying in with each poem and really helping to bring the words to life. For me, this really added to the overall reading experience.

I feel like this book focused more on the poetic side of things, than telling a complete story. My favorite poem from the book was the passage entitled “TAKING VIOLIN.”

“I open my case
tighten my bow
pluck a string to tune.
I love to listen to it chirp across the echoing room.

My friends are in class
reading about
a famous English King.
But I am training this wooden bird upon my arm to sing.”

Overall, I just wasn’t able to connect with this story. It ended and I was just like huh? It all felt so pointless. Like what did I even just read about for the last hour? show less

This is a collection of poems of different types. Most of them are free verse, but there is also a sonnet and concrete poetry. All of the poems in the collection are told from the point of view of a teenage girl, probably one in seventh grade. She is in her second year at her current school, but the problems that the speaker voices are a bit too immature for high school. The poems are organized into three sections, "Autumn", "Winter", and "Fall". Taken together, the poetry does a wonderful show more job of examining the trials of the adolescent girl and conveying the emotional perspective of the speaker. I was especially taken by the poems about the speaker's father, as a father of a daughter. The idolization she imparts on him was profound. I would highly suggest this book to teenage girls, although boys would likely find it a difficult read. The book could also be excerpted for use as model poems in a poetry unit. show less