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January
Book Reviews
by
Selene Vasquez
Warm
up those wintry nights with read-aloud stories sure to please
all ages.
PICTURE
BOOK: AGES 3 THRU 6
Molly
and the Magic Wishbone by Barbara McClintock. (Farrar, Straus,
Giroux, 32 pp., $16.00). Based loosely on a story by Charles Dickens
with traditional fairy tale charm, the books tells the story of
a family of endearing kittens frolic and bustle in a quaint Victorian
setting. Magical in scope this story of the importance of family
over material possessions is nearly purr-fect!
PICTURE
BOOK: AGES 6 THRU 8
Katie
and the Sunflowers by James Mayhew. (Orchard Books, 32 pp.,
$15.95). On a rainy day, a girl and her grandmother wander away
from their garden and into the museum. Drawn to Vincent Van Gogh’s
Sunflowers, the girl discovers she can actually reach in and touch!
An imaginative means of fostering fine-art appreciation for the
very young.
POETRY:
AGES 6 THRU 10
Dirty
Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices. Selected by Paul
B. Janeczko. Illustrated by Melissa Sweet. (HarperCollins, 32
pp., $15.95). Twenty-seven poems in the voices of a seashell,
a cat, a tree, etc. by such great poets as Karla Kuskin, Bobbi
Katz, and Douglas Florian. Playful illustrations compliment the
kid-friendly couplets, haiku and outright funny lines presenting
the world in a new light.
FICTION:
AGES 8 THRU 10
The
Orphan Singer by Emily Arnold. (Scholastic, unpaged, $16.95).
Poverty-stricken and abandoned at the ospedalo (a choral school
for orphans), little Catarina and her magnificent voice seem to
assure her future, if not for her vivacious pranks presenting
a danger to her own survival. Evocative watercolor and pastel
illustrations bring to life this18th-century Venice setting of
glorious architecture, strolling nobility and the harsh reality
of street urchins.
Selene
S. Vasquez is a media specialist at Orange Brook Elementary School
in Hollywood, Florida. She was a children’s librarian for the
New York Public Library.
Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001. Tel:
(212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919. Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of
the publisher. © 2001.
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