Thom Barthelmess

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2022 CaldeNotts

I first played with the idea of the "CaldeNott," applying the Caldecott criteria to ineligible picture books, some ten years ago when I was on the faculty at what is now the School of Information Studies at Dominican University. I find there is real value in the exercise: one understands the...

Review of Hello

Helloby Fiona Woodcock; illus. by the authorPreschool    Greenwillow    40 pp.5/19    978-0-06-264456-6    $17.99In Look (rev. 7/18), Woodcock strung together a series of words with double os, more or less one per page, to tell a story of a brother and sister visiting the zoo. In this companion, double ls get the...

Review of Where the Heart Is

Where the Heart Isby Jo KnowlesIntermediate, Middle School    Candlewick    294 pp.    g4/19    978-1-5362-0003-4    $16.99On Rachel’s thirteenth birthday, new neighbors move in, affluent dilettante “farmers” who engage her, at minimum wage, to look after their animals while they’re away during the week. She comes to love the menagerie, even Lucy, the...

Review of Checked audiobook

Checkedby Cynthia Kadohata; read by John KroftIntermediate, Middle School     Recorded Books    Rev. 5/187 CDs     7.75 hrs.     978-1-5019-8278-1 $20.99Conor MacRae’s life is consumed with elite hockey. Nothing can overtake his obsession — not his growing concerns about his elderly neighbor Mr. Reynolds, not the strained...

2019 CaldeNotts

I love following along here at Calling Caldecott, reading posts and comments from extraordinarily astute and observant picture book evaluators and measuring the books in question according to their insights, whether or not they line up with mine. Indeed, perhaps the most gratifying function of a blog like this, for...

Review of Me and My Fear

Me and My Fearby Francesca Sanna; illus. by the authorPrimary    Nobrow/Flying Eye    32 pp.9/18    978-1-911171-53-9    $17.95This follow-up to The Journey (rev. 3/17), about a refugee family fleeing a war-torn homeland, focuses on the young daughter’s apprehension as she adjusts to life in a new country and a new school. In...

Review of The Patchwork Bike

The Patchwork Bikeby Maxine Beneba Clarke; illus. by Van Thanh RuddPrimary    Candlewick    40 pp.9/18    978-1-5362-0031-7    $15.99A child in an unnamed “village where we live inside our mud-for-walls home” describes the diversions of daily life: “whooping and shrieking and laughing” on the sand hill, exploring the desert, and playing atop an...

Review of Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams

Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williamsby Lesa Cline-Ransome; illus. by James E. RansomePrimary, Intermediate    Wiseman/Simon    48 pp.7/18    978-1-4814-7684-3    $17.99e-book ed.  978-1-4814-7685-0    $10.99Wife-and-husband team Cline-Ransome and Ransome celebrate tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, focusing on their formative childhoods and the way their preparation and talent fundamentally changed...

Review of They Say Blue

They Say Blueby Jillian Tamaki; illus. by the authorPrimary    Abrams    40 pp.3/18    978-1-4197-2851-8    $17.99A girl considers the wondrousness of the world around her, prompted by the colors she encounters throughout her day. While at the beach, she gazes across the water (“They say the sea is blue…But when I hold...
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