LIS 721: Child at Heart

 Aru Shah and the End of Time- Roshani Chokshi Chokshi, Roshani. Aru Shah and the End of Time. Rick Riordan Presents, 2018. 355 pages. Tr $16.99 ISBN 9781368012355 Aru Shah and the End of Time is a fantastic example of a middle grade fantasy done exceptionally well. Aru lives in the Mueum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture with her mom. One day aru lights a lamp awakening "the sleeper" a powerful being who is prophesied to awaken the Lord of Destruction and bring about the end of time.  It's clear from the trajectory of Aru and this story that Chokshi is no stranger to the fantasy genre. Some could argue that the amount of Hindu Mythology could be alot for readers unfamiliar with the legends but I don't personally subscribe to this opinion. I actually like that we are, sort of, thrown into the deep end of the fantasy genre when it comes to the Hindu Mythology. I don't think it's any different that the way the Percy Jackson books introduce young readers to Greek...

 Moonwalking- Zetta Elliott & Lyn Miller-Lachman Elliott, Zetta. Moonwalking. Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2022. 224 pages. Tr $16.99 ISBN 9780374314378 Moonwalking is a novel in verse told through the perspective of two boys who, despite their outward differences, become friends over their love of art. This book tackles many themes such as mental illness, racial tension and prejudice, neurodivergence, and cultural identity.  I found both characters to be pretty well rounded in terms of how they are potrayed. J.J, a Polish American who has to move from long island to brooklyn after his father is blacklisted after the air traffick controller strike of 1981, is obsessed with music particularly The Clash. Though he is described and potrayed as atypical/neurodivergent, I appreciated that Elliott didn't go the stereotypical route of making the autistic kid obsessed with math or science. I feel that this is a more modern stereotype that has developed from the po...

 My Heart is on the Ground- Ann Rinaldi Rinaldi, Ann. My Heart is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl. Scholastic Inc., 1999. 206 pages. Tr $10.95 ISBN 0590149226 Picture me cracking my knuckles when I say, let's get into it.  My Heart on the Ground is a Historical fiction novel told through diary entries of a Sioux girl during the late 19th century and takes place in an Indian School. It is a novel in author Ann Rinaldi's Dear America series, that features diaries from the perspective of other young girls throughout American History.  However, Rinaldi has greatly missed the mark on this one. From her author's note and historical note that includes photographs from this era and of the Native people, it appears as though Rinaldi is aware of how awful these "Indian Schools" were. So, I don't quite understand why, knowing the horrific nature, she chose to depict the Carlisle Indian school as nothing more than a really strict boarding sc...

 1. Remember- Joy Harjo Harjo, Joy. Remember. Illustrated by Michael Goade. Random House Studio, 2023. 40 pages. Tr $18.99 ISBN 978059348485 Joy Harjo takes her famous poem "Remember" and, with the help of Michaela Goade, renders it into a children's picture book. The overall theme of this book is reflective of the philosophy of Cosmology which basically states that a human being in not an indvidual but rather one part of a larger being - the cosmos or the universe. This belief or ideology is throughout Harjo's poem but is really highlighted by the last lines few lines that read "You are the universe / the universe is you"  In less complicated terms this book and poem acts as a modicum to tell children that they matter and they are important just as everything in the universe is. So be kind to others, have reverance and respect for animals and the earth, for the sky and the ocean. Essentially, treat everything around you as you would treat yourself. And you ...

 1. Frizzy- Claribel A. Ortega Ortega, Claribel. Frizzy. Illustrated by Rose Bousamra. First Second, 2022. 224 pages. Tr $12.99 ISBN 9781250259639 Frizzy is an eye opening story that though contains some very heavy themes is ultimately a charming and light-hearted choice for a graphic novel. Marlene is a young girl struggling with her cultural identity, physical appearance, controlling her emotions, and even the grief for her departed father. Marlene loves her curly hair but her family and her culture fixate on outward appearance and especially over what it means to have good hair. As it turns out, this feeling about hair is really an internalized micro-agression due to generational trauma. But Marlene learns to break that cycle.  This graphic is more of a balance of dialogue and narration. We hear directly from Marlen's point of view through the graphic novel. The images act as an enchancment to the story and accomplishes portryaing emotions that would owtherwise have to be s...

 1. The Book Hog- Greg Pizzoli Pizzoli, Greg. The Book Hog. Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2019. 48 pages. Tr $16.99 ISBN 9781368036894 The Book Hog is a very charming, sweet, and visually pleasing children's book about a pig (or hog, if you will) who learns to read and finds a new love for all the books he used to hog and hoard. Pizzoli uses very simple and precise sentences to convey his story and accompanies them with characters, an art style, and color palette that is visually pleasing for the eye to look at.  Ultimately, Pizzoli's endearing picture book should be conisdered a level 2 , in terms of its transition level. Pizzoli's work maintains an equal balance between the words and the illustrations on a the page. The Book Hog contains lines per page within the 4-15 range. Additionally and comparitively speaking, The Book Hog has slightly more complex words than that of something that would be considered a level 1. However, Level 2 books typically have 5 words ...