Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout
To be honest, I have a lot of books that get misplaced. I put them in safe places and well, they are so safe even I can’t find them. But there is always a way to find them. And with Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout that way was the library and interlibrary loan. A powerful and beautifully done story of family and the horrors of war unfolds across the pages. As it is told via a blackbird, things at times become almost […]
Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen
Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen and illustrated by Violeta Encarnación was a WOW book. It was not necessarily the story itself (though that is pretty wild) it was the way it was formatted that really made it work for me. It is a fantastic circular story that shows how history can repeat. But not only that, the text is repeated. We start with a young girl who is behind a fence in the 1940s. How she gets there, the thoughts and feelings she […]
Elizabeth Warren's Big, Bold Plans by Laurie Ann Thompson
Elizabeth Warren is a politician who can be and has been very controversial over recent years. Elizabeth Warren’s Big, Bold Plans by Laurie Ann Thompson ends right before 2020 as it was published in the spring of that year, however, the main information is still relevant. Of course, I assume that if someone is doing a biography of a person, particularly a picture book, they are a fan of that person. Afterall, unless you just want to write a scathing exposé, why write anything? And […]
Hakim's Odyssey: Book 2: From Turkey to Greece by Fabien Toulme
CBR15Passport book set in and author from another country (from Syria, living in Turkey, trying to get to Greece and France)I was going to wait until I read volume three of Hakim’s Odyssey by French author Fabien Toulme (translation by Hannah Chute) before writing the review of Volume Two: From Turkey to Greece but was not sure when that would happen. And besides, Hakim’s Odyssey fills each book with enough so you do not have to know about three, you will just go to the […]
Hakim's Odyssey: Book 1: From Syria to Turkey by Fabien Toulmé
Hakim’s Odyssey: Book 1: From Syria to Turkey by Fabien Toulmé, and translated by Hannah Chute, is a straight forward and complicated read. This is not the usual refugee/displaced person story that we think we know. Usually, we are watching them on boats, trying to escape whatever the tragic events are in their homeland. This time, in the (as close as humanly possible) words of one refugee, the “before that” is told. From Syria to Turkey, Hakim’s story unfolds, and while no two stories are alike, […]
Nasreen’s Secrete School by Jeanette Winter
Jeanette Winter’s style comes alive in this 2009 picture book, Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan. The colors of the illustrations are rich, deep, and plentiful. I have always appreciated how things are fanciful and realistic at the same time. This story is based on the story of a girl of Afghanistan, who of course, has had her and her family names changed to protect everyone. This book has come back into our knowledge due to recent events in the country. Worries that […]
