Dallas' LIS 721 Blog

 The Journey of Little Charlie - Christopher Curtis Curtis, Christopher Paul. Journey of Little Charlie . Scholastic Press, 2018.      This was a heart-crushing story. It's about a boy named Charlie Bobo who is forced to go on a journey to Detroit and Canada to capture a family of escaped slaves. This book is more suited for older children. The depictions of human torture and especially the death of the father are pretty gruesome and younger children may find it very upsetting. There are a couple comedic moments that help lighten the mood. Those moments primarily have to deal with how nasty and unhygienic Captain Buck is. Those moments feel long but it's hard to not giggle at them. Another aspect that makes this book difficult to read is that the text is written in an older southern dialect. I listened to this book as an audiobook which made it easy to understand for myself but I could see my younger self getting frustrated if I was handed this. Lastly, the pacing of the plot w

 Babymouse: Queen of the World - Jennifer and Matt Holm Holm, Jennifer L., and Matthew Holm. Babymouse: Queen of the World . Random House, 2005.  Babymouse is an anthropomorphic mouse who wants to go to a sleepover hosted by the popular girl Felicia Furrypaws. She gets an invite but ditches her best friend, Wilson, and lets Felicia have her book report in exchange. She learns that it wasn't worth it in the end and heads to Wilson's house after all. This is the first book in a series of 20 total graphic novels and includes other Babymouse series such as the Big Adventures of Babymouse, Little Babymouse, and Babymouse: Tales from the Locker. I like the use of pink in the book! The entire color scheme was black, white, and pink. Pink was used as an accent color in cupcakes, the heart on her dress, or backgrounds in daydreams to name a few scenarios. The illustrations were cartoony and added to the humorous effects of the book! When Babymouse gets her invitation, she dances from le

 The Princess in Black - Shannon and Dean Hale Hale, Shannon, and Dean Hale. 2017. The Princess in Black . Illustrated by LeUyen Pham. Candlewick Press.      The Princess in Black is about Princess Magnolia who takes on the secret identity of The Princess in Black to fight monsters with her pony Blacky. They fight a blue monster who wants to eat Goat Boy's goats. Meanwhile, the duchess snoops around the castle to try to find Princess Magnolia's secret. This book meets the criteria for a transitional book. The typeface is relatively large with a lot of space between lines. There are 15 short, episodic chapters that are easy to summarize. There are color illustrations that show on alternate pages of the text and also in between lines. This book is close to being a level 3 book but what keeps it from that status is that it contains compound sentences and is split into short chapters. I almost wanted to rate it at a level 3 because it doesn't contain many words per line and usu

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre Weatherford, Carole Boston. Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre . Illustrated by Floyd Cooper, Carolrhoda Books, 2021.      This is a nonfiction picture book about the horrifying history of the Tulsa Race Massacre and the once-great Greenwood neighborhood. Weatherford decided to write about this story due to her own family's history of facing racial violence. Cooper's grandfather also talks about his time in Greenwood and gives Cooper a first-hand account of the massacre during his youth. The writing style gives the book a fairy tale feeling by repeating the phrase "Once Upon a Time" at the beginning of each page.  It's used to tell the story of Greenwood as the magical, once-in-a-lifetime place it was; where Black people could prosper, get amazing healthcare, and a great education. But once the horror starts, the phrase is only used one more time to tell about the devastating violence that the community faced. Because the phr

The Big Cheese John, Jory. The Big Cheese . Illustrated by Pete Oswald. New York, HarperCollins, 7 Nov. 2023. 34 Pages. $19.99, ISBN 978-0-063-32950-8 Cheese is one of the best to ever do it. They call him The Big Cheese for a reason. He’s the best at everything he does, and he has no problem with letting everybody know. From sports, to theater, to magic shows, everyone can count on The Big Cheese as being the best. One day, Wedge moves into the village. He has the complete opposite personality of Cheese; he’s shy, quiet, and humble.   However, one day the village holds the Cheese-Cathalon, a competition that Cheese has won for the last six years. In the first race, Cheese and Wedge are neck and neck when Wedge wins by just a hair. In fact, Wedge wins every competition. Cheese shows his visible frustration at every loss but at the end of the day, he learns a lesson in humility. After his defeat, he learns to be a supportive friend, to have hobbies just to have fun, and even how to lose

 Bravo! - Margarita Engle Engle, Margarita. Bravo!   Poems About Amazing Hispanics. Illustrated by Rafael Lopez,  Henry Holt and Company, 2017. This is a book that has poems about historically important Hispanic artists, botanists, librarians, and more! Each page has the name and years the person was alive, a poem that presents a short biography of each person, and an illustrated portrait of the subject. Each subject is organized by birth year, with earlier years appearing first. Engle wrote a letter at the beginning for the reader to understand that while these figures aren't the most famous, they are still worth being celebrated. The book is geared more towards Hispanic children but this book can still be read and enjoyed by any who reads it. The poems are free-verse and do not have a noticeable rhyme or meter.  Out of Wonder - Kwame Alexander, Chris Colderly, Marjory Wentworth Alexander, Kwame, et al. Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets . Illustrated by Ekua Holmes, Candlewic