childrens

“Bea Wolf” by Zach Weinersmith and Boulet

January 18, 2025 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: gift from a friend

An epic in graphic novel form, aimed at kids but with an adult level of detail and complexity. Divided into sections called fitts, full of sonorous alliteration, the book first introduces a few characters, then sets the background, then describes the conflict between the joyful kids in their treehouse hall and terrible Mr. Grindle who can cast the curse of adulthood with a single touch.

The art along with the story is dark and dramatic. The group of kids is drawn as a wonderful multi-cultural mix, and both boys and girls have agency and can be the king. Young children will love the story’s heaps of freely available candy and soda and games, safe from parental rules. It would be a fun book to read aloud.

Recommended to enjoy with kids!

Available at bookshop.org.

“Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry” by Rosalie K. Fry

January 27, 2024 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: Sanguinity

10-year-old Fiona McConville doesn’t thrive in the city, so she’s sent back to her beloved islands to live with her grandparents. Imbued with the fierce magic of the sea, this book shows what can happen when children and adults are attuned to the sea and to each other. The events in the story are not always gentle, but the storytelling is gentle and everything comes right in the end.

The pen and ink illustrations are also delightful. Highly recommended! Originally published in 1957.

Available at bookshop.org.

“The Day You Begin” by Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael López

December 30, 2023 by Sonia Connolly 1 Comment

Spanish title: El Día En Que Descubres Quién Eres! (The Day You Discover Who You Are!)

Recommended to me by: the Little Free Library down the street

What a gorgeous, loving picture book. “There will be times when you walk into a room, and no one there is quite like you.” Full of colorful flowers and multi-cultural children, the illustrations contrast their inner liveliness with their feelings of disconnection at school.

On the cover, a brown-skinned girl with tightly curled hair emerges through a partly opened door that is marked like a ruler. Later, a Korean girl protects her “too strange” lunch from the other children’s stares at a cafeteria table that is also a ruler. A boy excluded from playground games leans against a tree drawn with ruler markings. When two of the children make friends, they swing from a tree drawn with bark.

Highly recommended for children who might not quite fit in, and for adults who remember that experience. It made me cry, both times I read through it, and I’m taking it right back to the Little Free Library for someone else to find.

Available at bookshop.org.

“The Boxcar Children” by Gertrude Chandler Warner

August 12, 2023 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: Finding it in a Little Free Library

I look in all the little free libraries I pass, but I’m only drawn to take books home if I recognize them. I don’t remember if I read this series as a child, but I certainly recognized it.

I started reading with some trepidation, but despite being written in the 1920s, this book has largely escaped being visited by the Suck Fairy. The children seem to be in the most danger while running away at the beginning of the book, but then settle into creating a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar in the woods. The oldest boy walks into town and finds work helping a kindly family. The older girl and younger girl and boy have adventures like damming a small nearby creek without mishaps. There are some divisions of work by gender roles, but both the boys and the girls are confident, capable, and active.

The book avoids being overtly racist or homophobic by not having any Black or LGBTQ characters, which makes sense in the small town context. Of course a family of four Black kids running away would have had a much harder time and less help from the adults they encounter.

Recommended for kids, or adults taking a walk down memory lane. I enjoyed sitting on the back step and reading it, and then returned it to the Little Free Library where I found it so someone else can enjoy it.

Available at bookshop.org.

“Tales From Moominvalley” by Tove Jansson

September 27, 2022 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

I found the old familiar paperback edition of this book, the one illustrated with a bored Moominpapa having tea, in a Little Free Library and took it home with me.

The stories are silly and fantastical, and also contain serious themes. Authenticity. Friendship. Attachment to things. Attachment to people. Fear and dread, and surprising resolutions that lighten them, sparks of life and light and love.

The endearing line drawings are also by Tove Jansson.

I read and enjoyed it, and then took it back to the Little Free Library where I found it, for someone else to enjoy.

Available at bookshop.org.

“The Magic Fish” by Trung Le Nguyen

December 5, 2021 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: Soph

What a lovely, powerful graphic novel. Tien is growing up in the US with Vietnamese immigrant parents. He speaks mostly English, and they speak mostly Vietnamese. It’s a close, loving family and they read fairy tales together when they have time. The graphic novel interweaves slant-wise takes on three familiar fairy tales with Tien’s adventures in high school and as he struggles to communicate important truths about himself to his parents.

The art is gorgeous. Fairy tale dresses are especially elaborate, and the end of the book contains notes on the time periods the dresses are drawn from. The one thing I found confusing is that something about the proportions of the characters made them look younger to me. Tien looked like a much younger child, and his mom looked like his teen older sister, even though the story communicates that Tien is in high school and his mom is in her 30s.

The love in the book makes me cry, along with the difficult times around immigration and grief, conveyed with kindness. Highly recommended!

Content notes: brief homophobia, not endorsed by the author, and fairy tale violence.

Available at bookshop.org.