Review

Paeff, Colleen. Great Stink, The: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London’s Poop Pollution Problem. Nancy Carpenter, Illus. Non-fiction. Simon & Schuster/ McElderry, 08/2021. [40]pp. $17.99. 978-1-5344-4929-9. OUTSTANDING. GRADES 1-4. London in the 1800s smelled terrible—and people [continue reading]

Roach, Mary. Packing for Mars for Kids. Non-fiction. Norton, 04/2022. 144pp. $16.95. 978-1-324-01937-4. OUTSTANDING. GRADES 4-7. What is the greatest challenge for a rocket scientist? It turns out it is the human body. In seven [continue reading]

Connor, Leslie. Anybody Here Seen Frenchie? Fiction. HarperCollins, 02/2022. 336pp. $21.00. 978-0-06-299936-8. OUTSTANDING. GRADES 4-8. Aurora talks a mile a minute and Frenchie never speaks, but the two neurodiverse sixth graders are best friends. When [continue reading]

Woods, Brenda. When Winter Robeson Came.  Fiction. Penguin /Paulsen, 01/2022. 160pp. $16.99. 978-1-5247-4158-7. OUTSTANDING. GRADES 4-8. In free verse, 12-year-old Eden describes the time her cousin Winter from Mississippi visited her family in Los Angeles [continue reading]

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. Bright Brown Baby: A Treasury. Brian Pinkney, Illus. Scholastic⁄ Orchard, 01/2022. [64]pp. $18.99. 978-0-545-87229-4. OUTSTANDING. GRADES TOD-PRE. Five poems celebrating African American babies make up this treasury divided into chapters. Along with [continue reading]

Sepetys, Ruta. I Must Betray You. Fiction. Philomel, 02/2022. 319pp. $18.99. 978-1-9848-3603-8. OUTSTANDING. GRADES 7-12. Things are beyond hard in Romania in 1989. Stuck behind the Iron Curtain, 17-year-old Cristian Florescu and his family must [continue reading]

Sandler, Martin W. Picturing a Nation: The Great Depression’s Finest Photographers Introduce America to Itself.  Non-fiction. Candlewick, 10/2021. 165pp. $24.99. 978-1-5362-1525-0. OUTSTANDING. GRADES 7-12. The Farm Security Administration started a project in 1935 where noted [continue reading]

Hannah-Jones, Nikole and Renée Watson. Born on the Water. Nikkolas Smith, Illus. Picture Book. The 1619 Project Series. Kokila, 11/2021. [48]pp. $18.99. 978-0-593-30735-9. OUTSTANDING. GRADES K-4. A young Black girl is assigned to create a [continue reading]