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(3)
K-3
When Georgia notices weird things happening in her house at the end of October, she looks for logical explanations for the phenomena. The dog stole food from the fridge; the cat knocked over a vase; Georgia's sibling made off with her art supplies. It all makes sense, except for the well-hidden ghosts at the scene of each mishap. Georgia insists that there's no such thing as ghosts, but the stylish, detailed illustrations in a muted palette tell a different story. The house's comfortably cluttered interior offers the right setting for the "kooky" goings-on. The rhyming text plays it straight, letting the art provide the tricks and treats.
(2)
K-3
This sensitive follow-up to The Journey describes the young daughter's apprehension as she adjusts to life in a new country and school. Her fear is astutely abstracted as a puffy, white, somewhat amorphous character, whose size fluctuates according to circumstances. The final pages depict a classroom full of children and their fears--who appear small, soft, and smiling, suggesting their presence is something to be understood and embraced, not overcome.
Reviewer: Thom Barthelmess
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
November, 2018
(1)
K-3
In a piercing first-person account, a child tells of a harrowing journey with a sibling and their mother. Sanna's stylized illustrations are both captivating and unsettling; specifics of the setting are never established (details suggest an Islamic-world origin and a Nordic destination), and that intentional lack of specificity adds disquiet. Still, the story is not without hope. An author's note invites real-world connections.
Reviewer: Thom Barthelmess
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
March, 2017
40 pp.
| Flying Eye
| April, 2014
|
TradeISBN 978-1-909263-25-3$17.95 Reissue (1960, Knopf)
(2)
PS
A boy details, in disarmingly breathless and specific text, the animals he loves: "little ones, big ones; plain ones, strange ones." Ipcar's original lithographic plates were lost; this new edition is the product of restorers who "have painstakingly...re-mastered each brush stroke." The book retains its 1960s look, and today's animal lovers will also be enchanted.