Number Fifteen

Bebé Goes Shopping by Susan Middleton Elya; Illustrated by Steven Salerno. (Harcourt; 40 pages; ISBN: 015205426X; Ages: 2-5.)

Told in rhyming text, this bouncy, bilingual tale was a huge hit with our pre-schoolers. Bebé and Mamá visit the "market, a really big store—the supermercado—with groceries galore." The bright, colorful cartons and cans prove too much of a temptation to Bebé, who begins helping himself to the delicioso delights. Mamá finally distracts Bebé with a box full of circus animal cookies.

Salerno's illustrations, executed in gouache, watercolors, inks, and colored pencils, are bold and buoyant and fairly jump off the page. A glossary of the Spanish words used is included. An excellent choice for story time.

Lucky Days with Mr. and Mrs. Green by Keith Baker. (Harcourt; 72 pages; ISBN: 0152165002; Ages: 6-9.)

We'll admit a bias right up front: We love Mr. and Mrs. Green here at the Oasis—and so do our students. The fun-loving alligators are, well, just so appealing. This new-in-paperback addition to the series includes three short adventures. In the first, Mr. Green, detective extraordinaire, finds Mrs. Green's beloved, missing pearls. In the second story, Mr. Green ends up winning a gumball-guessing contest, thanks to a lot of math and a little luck. Finally, Mr. Green enters a talent show and chokes when his big moment arrives. Thankfully, Mrs. Green saves the day with a clever solution to Mr. Green's stage fright.

We highly recommend this entire series. An excellent choice for early chapter-book readers.

All Aboard the Dinotrain by Deb Lund; Illustrated by Howard Fine. (Harcourt; 40 pages; ISBN: 0152052372; Ages: 4-8.)

In this sequel to Dinosailors, the Dino crew is back, this time as dinotrainers. Just when the traveling turns fun, they realize the quickly approaching train trestle is out and "their joy turns into dinofear." The crew ends up dinorocketing into a lake. They seesaw their way back home aboard a handcar. "We'll never take another train," they agree, "[b]ut how about a dinoplane?"

Fine's gouache and watercolor illustrations are big and bold and "just right" for the rhyming text. A fun read aloud.

Mammoths on the Move by Lisa Wheeler; Illustrated by Kurt Cyrus. (Harcourt; 32 pages; ISBN: 015204700X; Ages: 4-8.)

In this fresh approach to prehistoric mammoths, readers follow along as the giant beasts trek south for food. With "majestic glaciers at their backs," they face "carnivores both fierce and wild," storms, blinding snow, and hunger. By winter's end, they have reached their destination.

The rhyming text and illustrations—done in scratchboard and watercolor—combine to paint a vivid introduction to these fascinating animals. Works well as a read aloud.

Once Around the Sun by Bobbi Katz; Illustrated by LeUyen Pham. (Harcourt; 40 pages; ISBN: 0152163972; Ages: 5-10.)

April is
when the earth
parades in a green so brand-new
you can almost hear it playing a tune . . .

In these twelve poems, Katz makes us see again the uniqueness and beauty that each month of the year has to offer. She also has a knack for knowing what is going on inside children's heads. June, for example, "is when the gentlest rustle / of a leaf outside the window / can drown out your teacher's voice / and / every word on the spelling test spells: / S-U-M-M-E-R  V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

LeUyen Pham was the perfect choice to illustrate this marvelous selection. She has managed to capture the "heart" of each poem in her jewel-toned, joyful, double-paged vignettes.

We took this book into a first-grade and a fifth-grade classroom. In both it quickly became a class favorite. Highly recommended. District-wide purchase encouraged.

The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems  by Mary Ann Hoberman; Illustrated by Betty Fraser. (Harcourt; 68 pages; ISBN: 0152055711; Ages: 5-10.)

Dress up, foxes, balloons, opposites, eggs, ocelots, hellos and goodbyes. All of these ordinary things become wonderful wordplay in the hands of Hoberman. Readers will find the surprising and serious, playful and poignant in this delightful volume.

We took this title into a reading class that was working on fluency and professed to dislike poetry in any form. After reading "Permutations" which begins:

A flea flew by a bee. The bee
To flee the flea flew by a fly.
The fly flew high to flee the bee
Who flew to flee the flea who flew
To flee the fly who now flew by . . .

the students were hooked. When asked why they liked the book, their response was, "It's fun and funny." Who could ask for more?

José! Born to Dance by Susanna Reich; Illustrated by Raúl Colón. (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster; 32 pages; ISBN: 0689865767; Ages: 4-8.)

In 1908 a baby boy was born in Culiacán, Mexico, kicking like a roped steer. . . His name was José Limón.

After moving with his family to California, José eventually ends up in New York where he dreams of being a great artist. When he compares his drawings with the art he sees in museums, he becomes discouraged and puts away his work. "He wanted to give a gift to the world, but he didn't know what it could be."

When José is invited to a dance concert he is awed by the dancer's performance. "I do not want to remain on this earth unless I can learn to do what this man is doing!" José remarks. He takes dance classes, and, six weeks later, gives his first stage performance. From that moment, "He became what he was born to be."

José Born to Dance is a dynamic, beautifully written biography of one of the world's premier modern dancers and choreographers. Colón's illustrations, rendered in colored pencil and watercolor and awash with glowing earth tones, are a perfect match for the text. Highly recommended. District-wide purchase encouraged.

The Flag With Fifty-Six Stars: A Gift from the Survivors of Mauthausen by Susan Goldman Rubin; Illustrated by Bill Fransworth. (Holiday House; 40 pages; ISBN: 0823416534; Ages: 8-12.)

During the dark days of the Holocaust, the Nazis built their last concentration camp: Mauthausen.

It was here, in Austria, that the Nazis sent thousands of men, women, and children to become slave labor. The notorious Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, oversaw the camp. The conditions were horrendous and hunger ever present.

The Allied forces invaded Austria in April, 1945. "Now that freedom seemed close at hand, [the] prisoners felt inspired to make something that symbolized their faith in the future. With what little strength they had, they began a secret project." That project was the creation of an American flag. With sheets from the SS laundry and bits of material from the ragged clothes they wore, they pieced together their surprise as they waited for the Americans to come.

As the Allies moved closer, Himmler began to worry about his future. He devised a plan to gather the prisoners together, along with the townspeople, put them in the mountain tunnels that had been dug, seal the entrance, and blow everyone up. Fortunately, his plan was never executed thanks to Louis Haeflinger, a Swiss member of the International Red Cross, who heard about the plan. Haefliger set out to find Allied troops and bring them back to the camp to rescue the prisoners.

When the Americans finally arrived, the prisoners were overcome with emotion. Simon Wiesenthal, a prisoner there, remembers, "'Those who could move at all staggered or crawled out of the shacks.' Thousands of starving men and women joyfully greeted the Americans. 'Freedom!' they shouted . . ."  The prisoners eventually presented their handmade American flag to the American Commander Richard R. Seibel.

Susan Goldman Rubin has done an extraordinary job in the telling of this poignant, powerful story. Bill Farnsworth's illustrations—done in muted tones—are realistic and haunting and a perfect match for the text. An inclusive bibliography is appended. Highly recommended. District-wide purchase encouraged.

The Cat With the Yellow Star: Coming of Age in Terezin by Susan Goldman Rubin with Ela Weissberger. (Holiday House; 40 pages; ISBN: 0823418316; Ages: 9-12.)

This is the story of Ela Stein, who, in 1942 at age eleven, was sent to Terezin, a Jewish ghetto and transit camp run by the Hitler's SS troops. Overcrowded rooms, hunger, and typhoid plagued the prisoners.

Amazingly, in 1943, some of the children, including Ela, staged a performance of the opera Bundibár under the guidance of adults who had once been conductors, stage designers, and musicians before their imprisonment. Ela was chosen to play the cat, a pivotal role. She recalls: "In spite of choking heat, hunger, and constant fear of transports, they loved rehearsing. 'Everybody knew everybody's role,' said Ela. 'When we were singing, we forgot all our troubles . . . . It was possible to have hope.'"

Rubin does an outstanding job of telling Ela's story. The book is filled with details about daily life in the camp, as well as Ela's life after her release. Black-and-white and color photographs combine with the deftly written text to create a vivid picture of Ela's three-and-a-half years in Terezin. The Cat With the Yellow Star is a testament to the human spirit's ability to rise above horrific conditions and circumstances. Source notes as well as an extensive list of resources is appended. Highly recommended. District-wide purchase encouraged.

Note: An Educator's Guide for this book is available from the publisher. Click on "Free Materials."

My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary by Nadja Halilbegovich. (Kids Can Press; 120 pages; ISBN: 1553377974; Ages: 9 and up.)

June 1, 1992

It is unusually quiet this morning. For a moment it feels like peacetime, although I am not sure I remember how it feels to live in peace. School has been canceled for ages and I haven't seen any of my friends. Spring flowers have bloomed and I haven't seen them. But now air-raid sirens shatter this brief silence. I pack my book bag with some crackers, playing cards and my favorite teddy bear and head to the basement.

Nadja Halilbegovich was twelve years old and living in Sarajevo with her family when war erupted in her country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For the next three years she recorded in her diary details of her daily life trying to survive the siege of Sarajevo. Everything she had once taken for granted—food, electricity, water—was suddenly in limited supply. Simply venturing out-of-doors was a risk—as Nadja soon found out. On October 18, 1992, she begged her mother to go outside for some sun. "Outside I just stood still," she writes, "mesmerized by the beauty of the world. Suddenly there was an explosion. Smoke and dust were everywhere." Nadja was wounded when shrapnel struck her legs.

In August of 1995, Nadja received permission to go to America through the efforts of two humanitarian organizations. Accompanied by her mother, Nadja escaped the city through an underground tunnel and make her way to Croatia. From there, she flew to the United States. Her mother returned home to Sarajevo to rejoin Nadja's father and brother.

My Childhood Under Fire is a moving, compelling book. At its heart, it chronicles the triumph of hope over hate. Highly recommended. District-wide purchase encouraged.