LIS 721: Child at Heart

 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 ...

 1. It's So Amazing: A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Babies, and Families- Robie H. Harris Harris, Robie. It's So Amazing: A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Babies, and Families. Illustrated by Michael Emberley. Candlewick Press, 2002. 81 pages. Tr $11.99, ISBN 0763613215 It's So Amazing is an informational children's book for ages 7- 10 about topics such as sex, the human body, pregnancy and love. Harris and illustrator Michael Emberley accomplish an informative book about topics that are important for growing children to learn though not always an easy task to explain. With their use of comic art style and diagrams mixed with factual text they create an information book that would prove useful for any parent who wishes for their child to learn the scientific truth about bodies and where babies come from. Harris and Emberley do implement the element of anthropomorphism to relay the information of this text.  A bird and a bee speak back and forth to progress the story. There are also...