A Fine Dessert has such a simple but absolutely perfect structure! It begins with four spreads showing a girl in 1710 working with an adult to acquire the ingredients, make, and eat a blackberry fool. Those four spreads are repeated four times, each set in a different century. The repetition invites–demands!–comparing and contrasting the experiences […]
This is a family history book, based on Meg Medina’s experience with her own aunt. It’s a snapshot of an immigrant experience–extended family living together, working menial jobs, trying to navigate a new culture, sometimes using a child as the guide to that new culture. It’s also a triumphant, feel-good story about dreams, family […]
A picture book about a Supreme Court case? Selina Alko does a great job making this 1966 case, which made interracial marriage legal, accessible to young readers. The book starts with the familiar playground chant, “First comes love, then comes marriage” and then shifts to the viewpoint of the children of Mildred Jeter and Richard […]
This inspiring book works at lots of different levels for lots of different readers. First, it’s a simple cumulative story for preschoolers, like “This is the house that Jack Built”: “This is the tree, a mangrove tree. These are the trees, mangrove trees, that were planted by the sea.” And so on, we hear the […]