From the witty title, to the delightful endpapers, The Pocket Chaotic is a charming story about becoming independent and growing up.
Category: Bookshelf
Browse through our most recent reviews. For an A-Z history of our reviews, click here.
REVIEW: Round
Ward explains round through the use of objects and things found in nature. The story is simple to follow, clear and concise and told in a way that young children can easily relate to and internalize.
REVIEW: Stompin’ at the Savoy
Stompin’ at the Savoy gives an abbreviated biography of the big-time, but short-in-stature jazz drummer and bandleader Chick Webb, focusing on a real-life battle of the bands between Chick and Benny Goodman.
REVIEW: Crow & Snow
I was not ready for the emotional wallop that this picture book packed. In easy, almost sneaky language, the book tells the story of lifelong friends that span a “lifetime” and grow a deep, loving bond, that survives many breaks and ebbs.
REVIEW: Story Boat
Where is home? Where is here? When you are a child, home is usually where your things are. This is particularly true for kids, being the scavenging hoarders they are. And here? Home is here and here is where you are. So what happens to your sense of home, when you have to leave everything you know behind to travel to distant lands?
REVIEW: PRETTY FUNNY FOR A GIRL
For a book about an aspiring comedian, Pretty Funny for a Girl is pretty heartbreaking. And that may just be the point. Haylah Swinton has
REVIEW: Cannonball
In this book from New Zealand, a young Māori boy dreams of making a big splash. Literally. All he wants to do is be able to cannonball into the water. Everyone around him seems to be able to do it, and if you could cannonball, you were someone around these parts.
Review: The Not-So-Scary Dog
Written in verse (a welcome relief from the constant narrative prose of current picture books) the book has many charms. The rhymes are, for the most part, tight and advance the story well. Kids like rhyming books.
REVIEW: Two Drops of Brown In a Cloud of White
On a snowy day a young girl and her mom trudge through the snow to get home after school. It’s clear that the little girl is not only more comfortable with snow than her mother, but that she actually delights in it. The mom, meanwhile, is reminiscing and missing her clearly tropical home country.