Dallas' LIS 721 Blog

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky Mbalia, Kwame. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky . Los Angeles, CA, Disney-Hyperion, 2020.      This book is about a boy named Tristan Strong who can change the world around him through the stories he tells. After the death of his best friend, Tristan goes to spend time with his family in Alabama but soon gets sent to a magical realm where African American folktales come to life. Admittedly, I had to stop this one about halfway through. I thought Gum Baby was too annoying and it ruined the book for me. I do appreciate how Mbalia incorporates folktales from Black culture, however. Seeing figures like John Henry and Br'er Rabbit and Tristan being a descendant from Anansi was pretty interesting to read. While the author uses characters from folktales, the author creates Alke, the world Tristan gets sent to at his grandparents' farm.  The Book of Boy    Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. The Book of Boy . Illustrated by Ian Schoenherr, New Y

 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