BLOG review by Kelly Hocking

Book:  Lookin’ for Bird in the Big City

By:  Robert Burleigh illustrated by:  Marek Los

Did you ever hear a book make music?  If not, you have simply got to check out Lookin’ for Bird in the Big City by Robert Burleigh.  You cannot help but hear the smooth sound of jazz when you read the words in this book.  Growing up in New Orleans, everywhere I went, there was the sound of jazz music playing in the streets.  In the most surprising places, there would be a group or a lone musician just playing his tunes just for my pleasure.  It makes a city live and breathe and feel like home forever.  Imagine my surprise when I opened this book just to find that every page was filled with that feeling.  It’s been right here in Barrow’s library!

It’s the story of my favorite jazz musician.  His name is Miles Davis.  I have lots of his CDs in my classroom.  You see, jazz music sharpens your mind; that’s what I believe.  Besides, it’s beautiful and uplifting.  Miles Davis played a special kind of jazz called BeBop.  There’s a lot of freedom for the musician in BeBop jazz.  In the book, Miles says, “I let my horn be me.”  His favorite musician was Charlie “Bird” Parker.  Lots of people just called him “Bird.”  Young Miles went looking for Bird in New York City, and this story tells, or rather sings, his adventures.  The paintings in the book are just as musical as the text.  You’ll feel the music as you read and soak up the art.  You can even feel what New York City was like, cool and breezy, sometimes dark but hopeful.

Since Athens is home to so many musicians, this is a great book that’s in our library.  After you read this book, you’ll want to check out Charlie Parker and Miles Davis’ music.  Let me know if you like it, and if you like this book as much as I do, you’ll want to find a copy of Charlie Parker Played BeBop by Chris Raschka.  It’s another book you can just hear and feel in your bones.  There’s nothing I like better than when I can feel a book in my bones….BeBop.

Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth

What would you think if a giant panda moved into your neighborhood? Not only that, he’s a talking panda who is fun to talk to and play with, AND he tells wonderful stories that teach you lessons about life. Well that’s exactly what happened to three kids, two brothers and their sister, one day when they find a giant panda named Stillwater sitting in their backyard holding a large red umbrella.

Each of the kids, Addy, Michael and Karl, visit Stillwater on their own and while they are playing they each hear stories that help them deal with an issue about life. Addy hears the story about giving gifts to a robber, while Michael’s story is about a farmer who knows that luck is something we cannot judge or predict. The youngest child, Karl, hears a story that helps him learn not to carry hard feelings because they become a burden that is too heavy to carry.

One of the things that make this such a great book to read is the beautiful watercolor illustrations that the author, Jon J. Muth has made. The illustrations are simple, but made me feel like I was right in the book with Addy, Michael, and Karl. He does a really cool thing by changing to black and white ink drawings to tell the Zen stories and then switches back to watercolor illustrations when the kids are in the story. It’s a nice effect. I am always jealous when I read books with beautiful illustrations and I hope that someday I can make pictures as nice as these!

Pick up this book in the Media Center soon. You’ll really love it…and learn some lessons about life that will help you forever.

~Reviewed by Mrs. Molly Efland, Instructional Coach

When I was little, I remember going to the fairgrounds to watch the circus being setup.  It was always exciting when the circus came to town.  Imagine if that circus came to your town by steam ship.

In Circus Ship, a circus boss and his 15 circus animals are in route to Boston.  In a Titanic-like moment, the circus boss goes against the captain’s wish to drop anchor and wait for a thick fog to clear and orders the ship to continue to Boston.  This decision leads to a wreck that sends the circus animals on a big swim to the nearest town.  In the town, the animals get mixed reviews from the citizens.  Will the animals survive in their new home?  Will the circus boss find them and put them back to work?  Read this delightful book by Chris Van Dusen to find out.

Chris Van Dusen is one of those illustrators that is easily recognized in his work.  His glowing pages seem three dimenesional with his vibrant color choices.  Each character is full of personality and the illustrations tell as much story as the book.  Van Dusen is the illustrator of several books such as the Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo.  If you love those illustrations, you are sure to love Circus Ship.  Van Dusen proves that he is also a wonderful author in his rhyming text filled with rich vocabulary.  In an author’s note at the end, the reader can learn where the idea for this story originated.  That idea might  even lead one to begin an exploration of other circus ships and shipwrecks. 
I liked how this book showed another side of circuses.  I always wonder about how well the animals are taken care of and this book raises that issue underneath the story.  With some discussion, this book might lead the reader to other questions about the care of performing animals. 

This book has many possibilities beyond just they story.  What will you discover in Circus Ship?  Check it out today.

It took me a long time to work up the courage to read Chris Grabenstein’s The Crossroads.  I read the first few pages and got scared out of my wits.  From the beginning, this book is filled with evil trees and ghost from beyond the grave.  But once I got used to having ghosts as some of the main characters, I discovered that there’s really a great mystery to solve here.

Zack Jennings really wants to like his new stepmother.  She seems nice enough, but Zack keeps wondering when she’s going to yell at him the way his mother used to before she died.  When Zack’s family moves to a small town in Connecticut, he begins to realize that life might become really different for him after all.  He gets a dog, starts to make a few friends… and a tree keeps trying to kill him.  Fortunately for Zack, the pieces of the puzzle start to come together with the help of some local ghosts.

If you enjoy a good mystery, check this book out!  In the beginning, you might think that all these characters are just random people, but pay attention!  You never know who will have the key to unlocking the mystery…

Reviewed by Ms. Meghan Beshara

In Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O’Connor, the reader is introduced to a cast of characters who don’t seem to have anything in common.  There’s Aggie, whose husband has just died, forcing her to sell the Sleepy Time Motel when she can no longer take care it.  There’s Willow, whose parents don’t love each other anymore and who doesn’t quite know what to do with herself now that her mother is gone.  There’s Loretta, whose other mother just “crossed over to the other side” and left her a box full of mysteries.  And then there’s Kirby, who is driving into the Great Smoky Mountains with his mother because he has attend a special school for boys.  Kirby knows the real reason he’s going is because everyone hates him.

Eventually, everyone ends up at the Sleepy Time Motel and that’s when things really get interesting.  While all the characters are different ages, they all learn something from one another as they gather around an emptied out old pool.  The book is organized into chapters told from the point of view of a different character every time.  Reading this book made me feel good all the way down to my toes.

Reviewed by Ms. Meghan Beshara

Testing The Ice:  A True Story About Jackie Robinson

By:  Sharon Robinson

Illustrated by:  Kadir Nelson

Jackie Robinson made history by breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball.  He is a national hero whose bravery helped pave the way for equal rights to African-Americans.  One would think he could do anything, but Jackie held a secret from the world.  He could not swim.

The story is authored by Robinson’s daughter, Sharon.  She shares her memory of moving out of New York City to the countryside in Connecticut.  She meets many new friends and enjoys her life there.  The illustrations really bring the story to life. The perspective brings a feeling as if I’m right there at that moment in time!  Kadir Nelson did a great job telling the story through his drawings.

The book goes into how Jackie entered Major League Baseball by telling the story to Sharon and her new friends.  It is such an incredible story of courage.  I can’t even begin to imagine all that he had to deal with in a time when segregation existed.

No one knew Jackie Robinson could not swim.  While all the kids played in the lake by their house, Jackie always stayed close to shore.  When winter arrives, all the kids want to ice skate on the frozen lake.  Jackie sets out to ‘test the ice’ and in this moment, Sharon realizes he can’t swim.  She realizes his bravery and correlates his actions on the ice to his courage to be the first African-American in Major League Baseball.  It is a beautiful, interwoven story for all brave hearts to hear.  It helps the reader realize how one must step into unfamiliar territory and move past one’s fears to achieve great things!  I highly recommend this book.

Reviewed by Shelley Olin

Pete’s a Pizza

By:  William Steig

Oh boy!  What I remember most about being a kid is my Dad rolling me up in a blanket so tight and carrying me to the oven (it was a sofa) to bake me!  I loved it.  I did everything I could to make my Dad warn, “Am I going to have to turn you into a burrito again?”  “Yes, yes, I’d giggle” and run away just slow enough to make sure he’d catch me.  You can just imagine my surprise when I found a book with a Dad that turns his son, Pete, into a pizza!

Pete’s a Pizza, by William Steig, is the story of a boy who is down and out because his baseball game got rained out.  His father, like mine, decides to cheer him up by rolling him out, spreading sauce on him, adding pepperoni, and my favorite part, seeing if pizzas are ticklish!  (They are.)  He finally brings him to the oven (it’s a sofa,) but Pete runs away just as the sun comes out.

I love Pete’s a Pizza, not only because it reminds me of my Dad, but because it’s funny.  I love how the title sounds like “Pizza, Pizza,” but it’s really that Pete IS a pizza.  I like that it teaches a bit about the use of parentheses.  (They’re the little smiley marks around sentences.)  The sentences in parentheses are like little secrets to clue us into things, like the fact that Pete’s father wasn’t really going to put him in an oven.  (It was a sofa.)  See what I mean?  Gee, who knew learning about punctuation could be so much fun?  Read Pete’s a Pizza, and see for yourself.  At least, you can get a few ideas about how to make your little brother or sister into a pizza!

Review by Kelly Hocking (Miss Kelly)