#prek-6

Written by Cressida Cowell

Genre: Fantasy

Target Age Group: Grades 3-7

Summary

In an age where Wizards and Warriors are at odds, the son of the Wizard King and the daughter of the Warrior Queen go on an adventure through the dark woods. This book is the first in a series.

Justification

This book won the Odyssey Award, which is presented to “the producer of the best audiobook for children and/or young adults” in 2018 (YALSA, n.d.).

Evaluation

For this review, I will be evaluating format, language, and character.

I listened to this title as an audiobook, narrated by David Tennant. Tennant has a Scottish accent, which contributed to the fantastical feel of the story, particularly because the book opens by saying it takes place on one of the British isles, though in a different time period. Listening to fantasy stories instead of reading them alleviates readers of the difficulties of knowing how to pronounce fantasy names and places when they are not written in standard English. Tennant’s voice is dynamic and dramatic, adding to the tone of the story, which is complemented by sound effects. The author is known for her sketch illustrations in her books in addition to her writing, and these illustrations cannot be experienced in the audiobook version of the book. However, I found the narration delightful and engaging, and I cannot overstate how enchanting Tennant’s accent and voice acting skills are. Many reviewers suggested listening to the audiobook and reading the print book at the same time.

The language in the book is creative beyond just imaginary names and places. There are numerous phrases that are used in place of swear words, but which are subtle enough that young readers might not be able to fill in the blanks with the words that might be used by adults in the real world. The protagonists are also young, which makes the language they use relatable to young readers even when the terminology they use is made up to fit the fantasy world. The existence of things like iron saucepans give the story some context in history, even if the history is only running parallel to real life.

The character exposition is concise and descriptive, providing snapshots of the characters in just one or two sentences whenever a new one is introduced. The Warrior princess has a short paragraph explaining to the reader that she is a rebel who is not as strong as her mother, which tells the reader that her character has layers and depth without revealing all of her secrets immediately. Similarly, her bodyguard is introduced as fearful and contradictory to her, acting as a balance for her sometimes reckless behavior. More characteristics unfold as the story goes on, and none of it feels bulky despite the descriptions pausing the narration, because they are short and to-the-point.

References

Cowell, C. (2017). The Wizards of Once (D. Tennant, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Hachette Audio. https://open.spotify.com/show/0Cv80w0ydS60q4qSANwY96?si=80681447176d472e

Written and illustrated by Meghan McCarthy

Genre: Informational

Target Age Group: Grades 1-4

Summary

This book tells the history of movies and filmmakers, starting with photography and ending with the modern major motion picture.

Justification

This book was on the Texas Topaz nonfiction reading list, which recommends nonfiction titles “intended for recreational learning” and not to support a curriculum (TLA, 2025). This list is comprised of books for all ages.

Evaluation

For this review, I will be evaluating style, pacing, and point of view.

All the characters in the book are illustrated with comically large, round eyes, which I thought was funny because the book is about movies, and we watch movies with our eyes. Even in illustrations of famous movie stills like Star Wars, where the characters aren’t human, they are shown with cartoonish eyes. The illustrative style is not acknowledged in the narration, which is informational and not telling a story. The cover shows an illustrated version of a famous photo of the MGM lion being filmed roaring, which still appears at the start of MGM movies, and the lion and photographers share these eyes. The emphasis on eyes is a strong visual metaphor for how movies are traditionally enjoyed.

The author starts by discussing photography, then the development of cameras to a technology that could take multiple photos quickly, and then how these sequential photos were used to make early motion pictures, followed by projectors and movie theaters. She also touches on hand-drawn animation and how movies went from being under a minute long and silent to being the types of movies readers are familiar with today. The pacing is steady, hitting all the major advancements in film technology and explaining them in ways young readers will find easier to understand. The book does not make any large jumps between time periods, but also makes sure the reader can see how each new advancement is relevant to the way movies are made today by comparing scenes from old movies to remakes of those scenes in newer films.

The author uses first, second, and third person when moving through the timeline of filmmaking. Using first and second person allows the author to speak directly to the reader to engage them and to ask questions directly to them, encouraging them to think about how the information applies to their lived experiences. Most of the information is presented in third person, speaking about historical figures and inventions. Then, the reader is given a way of applying that information or questioning it, giving them ways to connect with the text beyond just as an informational source.

References

McCarthy, M. (2022). Action! How Movies Began. Simon & Schuster.

Written by Maria Gianferrari and illustrated by Patrice Barton

Genre: Disability or difference

Target Age Group: PreK-3

Summary

Zara’s dog Moose loves saying hello and hates saying goodbye. After Moose follows Zara to school several times and gets taken home, Zara gets an idea to let Moose go to school so she doesn’t have to say goodbye all the time.

Justification

This book was on the Cooperative Children's Book Center list in the physical disability/condition category. It is a good example of disability representation for children, with examples of accommodations for both physical and emotional disabilities or conditions.

Evaluation

For this review, I will be evaluating characterization, line in art, and dialogue.

Zara is a child in a wheelchair, and the narration acknowledges her disability, but the story does not revolve around the fact. The illustrations also show accommodations being made for her, like her parents’ car having a ramp to make it easy for her to get to and from school. This casual way of showing a character who is not defined by her disability is important to young readers who may have disabilities or differences of their own. Even at the end of the story when Moose is trained to be a therapy dog, the focus is on how Moose can help all the children in Zara’s classroom and not just Zara.

The book is illustrated in a style that does not use clear borders to outline designs, which makes the pictures feel like they flow from one page to the next. The bold lines in the illustrations are used instead to show motion, usually the motions of Moose running or her tail wagging. This use of lines emphasizes the movements that are shown, and makes the book feel resolved in the end when, after pages of Moose being told to stay home and say goodbye, she is allowed to go to school as a certified therapy dog, happily wagging her tail.

The first thing Zara says in the book is hello to Moose, and the last dialogue in the book is Zara’s class saying hello to Moose. Between these two pieces of dialogue are a number of times where Zara has to say hello or goodbye to Moose, as well as the times she tells her teachers that Moose will be quiet if Zara reads to her. This dialogue carries the thesis of the story, which is that Moose does not enjoy saying goodbye. It also helps the reader see that Zara understands what Moose likes, and this is confirmed by the way Zara finds a solution to Moose having to say goodbye.

References

Written by Jason Reynolds and illustrated by Jerome & Jarrett Pumphrey

Genre: Caldecott Medal Winner

Target Age Group: Grades K-3

Summary

This book follows the career of Langston Hughes, a prolific writer, and the writers he inspired with his words. The story takes place at a party held in his honor at the library in Harlem, NY.

Justification

This book won the Caldecott Honor in 2024. The medal is awarded to illustrators of “the most distinguished American picture book for children” every year (ALSC, 2008).

Evaluation

For this review, I will be evaluating style, theme, and setting.

The illustrative style in this book incorporates words into the design, emphasizing the passion Langston Hughes had for writing, and showing the reader how those words inspired other writers. On one page, words like Promise and Heart are included in an acrostic poem that is not part of the linear narration, but the illustrations, and the word formed in the acrostic poem is shown on the next page as a visual for how Hughes’s words inspired new words from Maya Angelou, who read Hughes’s writing when she was young. The art is especially brilliant in the way none of the pictures can be taken out of context, because they all flow from one to the next in the way the illustrated words help weave the story together.

The theme of this book revolves around writing, which is evident in both the narration and the illustrations. The author incorporated Hughes’s own words in the narrative, bringing his poetry into a more accessible space for young readers. The theme is supported thoroughly not only by welcoming other Black authors onto the pages and exemplifying their work, but by using metaphor and onomatopoeia to give the words a physical shape off the page, like making the word “mother” feel like “real warm arms wrapped around you” or showing how the city lights up when Hughes writes about it.

The main event of the book takes place in a library in Harlem. Hughes did most of his writing in Harlem, and he wrote about his neighborhood and the city, among other things. Choosing to set the story in this place was an additional homage to Hughes, as was the real-life party the story was based on. The author notes at the end that the idea for the book came from a photograph of Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka, two more Black poets, dancing at a party, which the author later learned was a party in celebration of the life and accomplishments of Langston Hughes. Choosing to set the narration at this specific party also helps the author show readers that Hughes was not only a brilliant writer, but one who continues to be appreciated for his work, by readers and writers alike.

References

ALSC. (2008). Randolph Caldecott Medal. https://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecott

Written by Jyoti Rajan Gopal and illustrated by Svabhu Kohli

Genre: LGBTQ+

Target Age Group: Grades K-5

Summary

This book tells the story of Queen Harish, a dancer drag performer from Rajasthan, India. The story spans his childhood where he learned his love of music, to adulthood where he found his fame performing on stage and being embraced by audiences for his art.

Justification

This book was on the Cooperative Children's Book Center list in the LGBTQ+ nonfiction category. It also received a Stonewall Honor for exemplary LGBTQ+ literature. The author spoke to Harish in India before writing this book, and it speaks about the experiences of a drag performer in India, both positives and negatives, using language children will understand.

Evaluation

For this review, I will be evaluating design, language, and setting.

The book is illustrated with bright colors and jewel tones, which align with the imagery of northern India where Queen Harish is from. The colors are vivid throughout the book, but they start with the oranges and browns of the desert, and then transform into pages filled with lots of colors. This parallels Harish’s discovery of his love of dance and music, and the colors get brighter as his passion and talents grow. There are pages where the background is dark, especially when the book talks about Harish’s more emotional trials, but then the dark colors give way to colorful stages and spotlights as Harish finds acceptance.

The book is very precise with its use of pronouns. Because Queen Harish is a drag persona, she uses she/her pronouns on stage when performing and he/him pronouns out of drag. The book smoothly switches between pronouns, and sometimes does so within a single sentence, allowing readers to follow the language and understand that the author is still describing the same person. This casual use of multiple pronouns can expose children to the fluidity of identities that they may see as fixed, and can lead to the understanding that other people can have different experiences and still be just as human.

The book takes place in Rajasthan, India, which was under British rule for almost 100 years until 1947. Before this, queerness was more accepted in both Hindu and Muslim communities. People belonging to a “third gender” called Hijra were not only accepted in India, but embraced as auspicious beings, seen as blessings at big events like weddings and baby showers (Hussein, 2023). Hijra were villainized under British colonization, as were homosexuality and other displays of queerness. Even decades after Indian independence, the effects of queerphobia have remained in Indian sodomy laws until very recently, when the strictest sodomy law was struck down in 2018. With all this context, in addition to the story taking place in a world post-Stonewall, the setting where Harish finds acceptance is fraught with tension and a lack of understanding in most communities. The way he overcomes other people’s criticism is inspiring, and stronger knowing the history that led to where Harish lived.

References

Gopal, J. R. (2023). Desert Queen (S. Kohli, Illus.). Levine Querido.

Written by Robin Gow

Genre: Novel in verse

Target Age Group: Grades 5-8

Summary

Noah, a trans boy in 6th grade, starts writing letters to Mothman to process his grief over losing his best friend in a car accident. Told in verse, the story follows Noah as he navigates school, new friendships, and the woods, to prove he has something to believe in.

Justification

This book won a Lambda Literary Award in 2024 in the category of LGBTQ+ for middle grade readers. I originally picked it up in 2023 from a local bookstore because I was drawn to the colorful cover and the concept of a child writing letters to a mythical creature, but I had not read it before this summer.

Evaluation

For this review, I will be evaluating structure, point of view, and format.

The novel is written in verse and divided by journal entries that double as poems. This structure allows for the narration to flow more freely, as Noah’s thoughts are not being limited by grammatical correctness. Each poem is a journal entry, carrying the openness and vulnerability of private thoughts, but the journals are being addressed to Mothman and signed off by Noah as if they are letters. Because the structure is more concise than a novel in prose, the structure makes the book easier to read because it can be read more quickly, so the more than 300 pages feels less insurmountable.

The majority of the book is written in Noah’s point of view, in first person journal entries and sketches, until near the end when the book shifts to Hanna’s point of view, also in first person. This shift felt incredibly jarring, because it happens during a tense moment in the story when Noah is missing in the woods and his friends don’t know if he is okay. Hanna’s letters are addressed to Noah, voicing her concerns in this way because “you always write letters to say what you can’t say aloud” and saying she intends to give the letters to him when he’s found. The story stays in Hanna’s perspective for a while longer, forcing the reader to wonder if Noah is okay, or possibly whether he is still alive. When Noah returns to the narrator position, the letters switch perspective between him and Hanna until the perspective switches fully back to Noah’s at the end, which allows for a sense of resolution through the structure, finding a return to the way the book started but knowing everything it took to get there.

I read this book in print format. The verse structure would not have been as impactful if I’d read it as an audiobook, and if the ebook was accessed on a reader that had one default font, the text would also have been less easy to understand because the font changes between Noah’s journal entries, narrative poems, and Hanna’s letters. Additionally, the pages have decorated edges to look like frayed pages from a journal, making the book feel almost like reading the journal that was being written to Mothman and left in the woods for him to read.

References

Written and illustrated by Marcelo Verdad

Genre or category: Pura Belpré Youth Illustrator Award Winner

Target Age Group: Grades preK-3

Summary

Miguel lives with his abuelito and sells dream catchers that he weaves, collecting coins every day to reach his dream. He learns how to appreciate where he is while still working toward his dream.

Justification

This book won the Pura Belpré Youth Illustrator Award in 2025. This award celebrates “the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children” (ALSC, 2025).

Evaluation

For this review, I will be evaluating tone, color, and composition.

Miguel weaves and sells dream catchers while his grandfather sells cold coconuts to people in Oaxaca, and he collects coins every day to achieve his dream of flying on an airplane with his abuelito to be with his parents. The underlying story is one of a child who lives apart from his parents and wants to see them again, but it is portrayed in a hopeful way for young children to understand and connect to. The tone is light and speaks of dreams, some whimsical and some realistic, and the lightness helps children stay interested in the story. The same story could be told in a very dark and depressing way, where the emphasis is on the feeling of a child missing his parents rather than appreciating where he is and working toward his dreams every day.

The illustrations in the book get increasingly colorful throughout. The story starts in shades of brown and gray when Miguel is at home, and then as he sees more people and learns about their dreams, the illustrations get increasingly colorful. The colors mirror the ways Miguel’s world expands, reaching a peak at the sunset when the pages are covered in color. The only set of pages that deviates from this pattern is when Abuelito is explaining how some people dream of the people they miss, and the colors return to gray. As Miguel returns home, the imagery returns to shades of brown and gray but they are bolder colors, except for a bright and colorful photo of Miguel and his parents in his room. The colors of Miguel’s room in the dark evoke a feeling of resolution, because they are bolder than at the beginning of the book, showing that Miguel has learned to appreciate where he is.

The art for the book was “created using acrylic paint, paper, and digital collage” (Verdad, 2024). The illustrations evoke the feeling of paper dolls, with how the characters move and how they dress portrayed using simple shapes and lines instead of having complex bodies and clothing. Having the characters look like this makes the book feel playful; as the characters on the page dream of castles and loved ones, I as a reader felt inspired to be creative in achieving my own dreams of filling the world with color.

References

ALSC. (2025). Pura Belpré Award. https://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpre

Written by Breanna J. McDaniel, illustrated by April Harrison

Genre or category: Corretta Scott King Honor

Target Age Group: Grades K-3

Summary:

Augusta Baker grew up listening to stories, and she carried her love of stories into her life as an adult to compile books from African American writers to make sure everyone’s voices were being heard.

Justification:

This book won a Corretta Scott King Honor in 2025 in the illustration category. These awards are given to African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults. These books must “demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values” (CSKBART, 2012).

Evaluation:

For this review, I will be evaluating illustrative medium, theme, and characterization.

The illustrations in this book are made in a collage medium, which complements the storytelling present throughout Augusta’s life. The pictures are colorful and diverse in media used, united in composition by the collage element. Many of the illustrations use words clipped from print sources, adding to the effect of painting Augusta as a source of words and stories. The narration speaks on Augusta’s passion for collecting and telling stories, and the way the illustrations appear to be pieced together contributes to the feeling of bringing different elements together in one place, like a library full of books. I was blown away by this creative choice, because the ways the art style complemented the storytelling was immediately clear even before reading about Augusta's life.

The theme of the book revolves around storytelling. In describing Augusta as a master storyteller instead of just a librarian, the author expands the scope of Augusta’s influence to include all the work she did in her life outside of being a librarian. The book goes over her life and history, and the theme of storytelling is present from when she was listening to her grandmother tell stories all the way through to her as an adult teaching university students the importance of telling stories. Another review by a librarian noted that the importance of telling stories was emphasized because part of Augusta’s mission was to tell stories of people whose stories were not being told otherwise, especially in the age when racial integration was highly controversial (Bird, 2024).

Augusta is characterized consistently as a lover of stories, and as the book follows her accomplishments in life, her characterization is reinforced. She goes from listening to stories, and then telling them, and then collecting them in both personal and professional ways, eventually becoming the first Black children’s librarian in New York City. Her characterization in the book continues beyond her death, speaking of her legacy as a storyteller and the ways she has affected people’s lives to this day.

References

Bird, B. (2024). Review of the day: Go Forth and Tell by Breanna J. McDaniel, ill. April Harrison. https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/08/18/review-of-the-day-go-forth-and-tell-by-breanna-j-mcdaniel-ill-april-harrison/

CSKBART. (2012). The History of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards. https://www.ala.org/cskbart/about