Dallas' LIS 721 Blog

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

The Juniper Tree, and Other Tales from Grimm - Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. The Juniper Tree, and Other Tales from Grimm . Translated by Lore Segal, New York, Farrar, Straus And Giroux, 1976. This is a collection of Grimm fairy tales. There are approximately 13 stories in the volume, each with an illustration.  It's about 168 pages long. This book is genuinely difficult to read! It is filled with words that are out of date (I wasn't sure what a sexton was until I looked it up) and I couldn't find myself finishing a story without some effort. One of the most difficult parts of the story was that a new piece of dialogue didn't start a new line. Because of this, it was hard to keep up with who was speaking. The writing style of the book suggests that it is for an adult storyteller to tell to children. There are illustrations throughout the book at a rate of one per story. Each of the illustrations is beautifully and creatively drawn by Maurice S

Going Down Home With Daddy - Kelly Sterling Lyons Lyons, Kelly Starling . Going down Home with Daddy . Daniel Minter, Illustrator. Peachtree, 2019.     This book is about a family traveling to their grandma's house to have a family reunion. Lil Alan is nervous because he doesn't have anything to share like the rest of the family. The illustrations reflect the mood and setting of the story. Minter uses a combination of oranges and blues to set the scene using blue for night time and orange for the day light. Blue is also used to show shading and indoor places while orange is used primarily for the outside as well. The colors also cleverly show the mood as Alans nervousness shows through with the use of blue but also scenes of excitement are bright and orange. While Lil Alan's cousins are happy and excited to show what they are going to share with the family they are surrounded by a bright orange, Lil Alan himself is highlighted by blue. This is also highlighted within the ch

 An Alphabet Book Hair Love ABCs - Cherry, Matthew A. Cherry, Matthew A. Hair Love ABCs . Penguin, 29 Aug. 2023. This is a book about Black hairstyles! It intermixes terms for black hair with other imaginative phrases. The illustrations help visualize the word being presented. For example, the phrase "Rubber Band" is visualized by showing a dotted line from the girl's hair to a bottle to the dad's eye and the image shows the rubber band in the air. A Number Book Counting With Din Sum - Benard, Lacey Cheng, Lulu, and Lacey Benard. Counting with Dim Sum . Bitty Bao, LLC, 15 Oct. 2022. This is a counting book that incorporates counting in English and Chinese! Readers will learn about Chinese cuisine and each page has illustrations that correlate with the number being shown. A Concept Book My Feelings - Turner, Jeffrey Turner, Jeffrey. My Feelings . Sunbird Books, 1 Aug. 2024. This is a book about emotions. It f