Chris Raschka To Speak at San Francisco Main Library: Two-time Caldecott Award winner Chris Raschka will give the 19th annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture at the San Francisco Main Library on Wednesday, April 8, 2015, at 6pm. This free event will be held at SFPL’s Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St., San Francisco. Raschka has written and illustrated several picture books, including A Ball for Daisy (2012) and The Hello, Goodbye Window (2006). http://sfpl.org/releases/2015/03/06/award-winning-illustrator-chris-raschka-to-deliver-annual-effie-lee-morris-lecture/ .
Review of the Week: Schatz, Kate. Rad American Women A-Z: Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries Who Shaped Our History…and Our Future. Non-fiction. Miriam Stahl Klein, Illus. City Lights, 2015. 64p. $14.95. 978-0-8728-6683-6. OUTSTANDING. GRADES 3-7. 
In her first book for children, Bay Area author Schatz introduces readers to 25 women, both well- and lesser known, who made an impact on the world. Each two-page spread features a stylized b&w illustration on a brightly colored background, and on the facing page are four or five paragraphs that discuss each woman’s life and contribution to society. While the A-Z format is not unique, Schatz makes it work well by having the difficult-to-fill “X” spot represent “the women whose names we don’t know”—women whose names have been lost to history, and those who have not yet made their mark on the world. The tone is conversational, the vocabulary is accessible for the intended audience, and Schatz includes both an extensive additional reading list and an A-Z list of ways the reader can be rad. This
book should be a first purchase for most library collections.
Melissa Morwood, Palo Alto Public Library