Mr. Alex's Bookshelf

Review: The Mighty Silent E

November 11, 2020 Anjali Sanghvi

Little e is a cute little letter who knows he is a hero; after all, he comes from a long line of distinguished Es.

Now if only he can prove it. He has his cape at home and dreams of being a hero, but at school no one pays him any attention. Probably because he doesn’t have much to say.

Written in a breezy, conversational style, the book is a quick read, for all its depth. Felix is engaging, appealing, and faces the most appalling adult dilemmas with grit and grace. His plight will be great fodder for discussion in the classroom or around the dinner table.

REVIEW: Violet Shrink

November 6, 2020 Emma Gillette

Violet Shrink, by Christine Baldacchino, and illustrated by Carmen Mok, is really a parents’ how-to manual masquerading as a children’s picture book, but not to worry, kids will appreciate it too.

REVIEW:The Homesick Club

November 4, 2020 Emma Gillette

Mónica and Hannah have a new teacher, Miss Shelby, and they have more in common with her than they think. Mónica is from Bolivia, and misses her grandmother, and the hummingbirds they fed together in the backyard. Hanna is from Israel, and misses the way the wind whooshes through the desert, and the tortoise that lived in the sand dunes outside her house. Together, Mónica and Hannah form the Homesick Club

OFF THE SHELF REVIEW: Space Maps (Your Tour of the Universe)

November 3, 2020 Alexander Fernández

This gorgeous book draws on the latest discoveries of modern astronomy to take children to the farthest reaches of the universe through a mixture of circular maps and flat maps of the Solar System and the galaxies beyond.

Review: William Still and His Freedom Stories

November 2, 2020 Anjali Sanghvi

William was a remarkable man born to parents who had escaped slavery. His parents made a gut wrenching decision to leave behind two boys in order to escape, a fact that haunted their freedom. William was the youngest of 17 children, two lost in the south. He grew up hearing the stories of his parents’ life in slavery and it propelled him to work towards the goal of abolition.

Review: There Must Be More Than That!

October 30, 2020 Anjali Sanghvi

This book is a fantastic leap into the mind of a young child burdened with her older sibling’s doom-and-gloom predictions for the future. Upset, they go to grandma who assuages their fears and shows them that beyond all the predictions of bad things lies the possibilities of good things.

Review: Bedtime for Sweet Creatures

October 28, 2020 Anjali Sanghvi

Another book in the bedtime-for-little-kids genre! Another good book I should add. A very patient and imaginative mother (why is it always a mom?) [Editor’s Note: Because books about fathers are rarely published.] goads her fiercely independent daughter to bed. The scene is familiar to anyone who has tried to coax an unwilling child of their own to bed.

Review: I Do Not Like Stories

October 26, 2020 Alexander Fernández

In delicate drawings and without providing a single word, Sookocheff manages to give the book an interesting central figure; unfortunately, it’s not the central figure the book set out to have. This is a case where the supporting cat, steals the show.

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