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Suki's Kimono |
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| Author: |
Chieri Uegaki |
 Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
1553377524 |
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From School Library Journal
Grade 1-3-"To spunky little kids everywhere," the dedication states, and it is an apt sentiment. Young Suki indeed fits that description. On her first day of first grade, she chooses to wear her beloved Japanese kimono to school, despite the objections of her older sisters and the initial laughter of other children on the playground. Fortunately for Suki, for whom the kimono brings back fond memories of her grandmother's visit over the summer, her day ends in triumph, with her teacher and classmates won over by her impromptu dance performance. Overall, this is an appealing story of courage and independence. Delicate, playful watercolor-and-ink illustrations perfectly capture the child's neighborhood and the characters' facial expressions; scenes of a Japanese summer festival are a particular delight. The... |
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Magic Mustache |
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| Author: |
Gary Barwin |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0613260961 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships within 3-5 weeks. We cannot guarantee availability of special order titles because publishers may run out of stock. We will notify you in 3-4 weeks if we are unable to get this title for you. |
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-A nose who lives with his parents, two eyes, goes to the market to trade the family's prized pair of eyeglasses for some much-needed food.Instead, he makes a trade with an old ear for a magic mustache that grows a beard that reaches to the sky. The nose climbs the beard, just as Jack, from "Jack and the beard talk," did before him. After two successful journeys in which he steals a golden toothbrush and a magic straw, the nose narrowly escapes the hungry giant mouth with a magic harmonica in tow. All ends well as the various body parts tumble to the ground and form a face (not unlike Mr. Potato Head). Amazingly, the author pulls it all off quite nicely, making the events sound somehow perfectly logical. The text exudes a partly irreverent, partly earnest tone and incorporates lots of... |
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I Remember Miss Perry |
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| Author: |
Pat Brisson |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0803729812 |
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From School Library Journal
Grade 1-3–A poignant story about loss. Stevies teacher finds ways to make him feel at home during his first day at a new school. Her fondest wish, she says, is that they have lunch together, evoking for him the sense of speaking with a fairy-tale princess. The young narrator soon discovers that Miss Perry has a new fondest wish daily, such as for the class to become quiet so that she can read from James and the Giant Peach or for the students to plant tulips around the school flagpole. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes, and news arrives of a car crash that has taken her life. A counselor helps the children talk about their memories, which cushions their loss by bringing back the joy of Miss Perrys fondest wishes and the way that her eyes disappeared when she smiled. The delicate pen-and-ink, watercolor,... |
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Village of a Hundred Smiles |
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| Author: |
Barrie Baker |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0613274202 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships within 3-5 weeks. We cannot guarantee availability of special order titles because publishers may run out of stock. We will notify you in 3-4 weeks if we are unable to get this title for you. |
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Oma's Quilt |
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| Author: |
Paulette Bourgeois |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
1553376250 |
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From Publishers Weekly
The difficult transition from family home to retirement community is poignantly rendered in this cross-generational tale told from a child's viewpoint. Emily tours her grandmother's empty house one last time before taking the reluctant Oma to her new residence. Bourgeois (author of the Franklin series) creates an immediate nostalgic feeling with Emily's observations. (Oma's house "still smells like cabbage soup, warm yeasty dough, lemon polish and vinegar.") Though the subject is bittersweet, the author keeps the story moving in lighthearted fashion, as optimistic Emily offers her impression of Oma's new home: "There are flowers everywhere.... There is a library... and even bowling on Wednesdays!" A displaced Oma is full of complaints ("The bowling alley lanes are crooked and the rental shoes smell funny" and she... |
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The Trial of the Stone |
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| Author: |
Richardo Keens-Douglas |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0613503848 |
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| Availability: |
Ships within 2-3 days. |
From Publishers Weekly
In the tradition of parables like Demi's recent The Donkey and the Rock, this retelling demonstrates that wisdom often lies beneath seeming folly. Jorisch's (The Magic Mustache) light, airy paintings set the tale in an African rainforest, where young Matt decides to rest for the night before going on to his grandfather's village. Lush surroundings show hippos wallowing in a pond next to a cluster of straw huts. Matt hides his money under a rock for safekeeping, but when he awakens the next day, the coins have disappeared. The chief from the nearby town, after hearing Matt's story, demands that the stone be arrested and tried for robbery. "No one moved, thinking they must have heard wrong," writes Keens-Douglas (The Miss Meow Pageant) in a reportorial style. Jorisch records the action in limpid, exuberantly hued... |
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Jabberwocky (Visions in Poetry Series) |
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| Author: |
Lewis Carroll |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
1553370791 |
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From School Library Journal
Grade 5 Up–Jorisch interprets "Jabberwocky" as "a provocative commentary on contemporary media, politics, warfare, religion and gender roles." The stark, dreamlike world shown in his pencil, ink, watercolor, and Adobe Photoshop illustrations is a blend of realism and the bizarre; haute couture and frump; past and future. Huge flowerlike funnels rise from stems in the ground and from pots in a store window. Microphones, video cameras, and a photographer record the quest for the Jabberwock, the ensuing battle, and the kill. The story depicted involves an old soldier who sends his son–a tailor–off to kill the nebulous enemy so that the older man can die in peace; the poem ends with his funeral. Jorisch's visual interpretation of the poem is both provocative and personal, and it incorporates a... |
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Anancy and the Haunted House |
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| Author: |
Richardo Keens-Douglas |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0613511042 |
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From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 2-In this original tale, all of the little spiders admire Anancy, who is the biggest and the best. They invite him to join them for a party near the scary Haunted House inhabited by a dancing rooster with a fondness for spiders' legs. Anancy, true to form, swaggers through the door and promptly loses his nerve, his cool, and nearly his life. The little spiders come to his rescue, imprison the rooster in their silky strands, and free their friend. The author attempts to write in the style of cautionary "Anansi" stories but fails. The story line lacks cohesion, humor, and subtlety. The illustrations, rendered in watercolor and pencil, are unattractive and portray Anancy as a buffoon who needs makeup lessons. Skip this version.Susan Pine, New York Public LibraryCopyright 2002 Reed Business... |
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Anancy and the Haunted House |
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| Author: |
Richardo Keens-Douglas |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Library Binding |
| ISBN: |
155037737X |
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| Availability: |
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From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 2-In this original tale, all of the little spiders admire Anancy, who is the biggest and the best. They invite him to join them for a party near the scary Haunted House inhabited by a dancing rooster with a fondness for spiders' legs. Anancy, true to form, swaggers through the door and promptly loses his nerve, his cool, and nearly his life. The little spiders come to his rescue, imprison the rooster in their silky strands, and free their friend. The author attempts to write in the style of cautionary "Anansi" stories but fails. The story line lacks cohesion, humor, and subtlety. The illustrations, rendered in watercolor and pencil, are unattractive and portray Anancy as a buffoon who needs makeup lessons. Skip this version.Susan Pine, New York Public LibraryCopyright 2002 Reed Business... |
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The Village of a Hundred Smiles |
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| Author: |
Barrie Baker |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
1550375229 |
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| Availability: |
Ships within 2-3 days. |
From School Library Journal
Gr 3-5--Four stories chronicle the adventures of the people in a remote Asian village touched in different ways by outside technology or people. In one story, clever Little Orchid senses her grandfather's reluctance to leave the village to visit an old friend and figures out a way to help him; in another, the two celebrate Grandfather's birthday following a strange visit from a wealthy and demanding outsider. The text contains elements found in traditional folktales. Vivid watercolor, gouache, and pen-and-ink illustrations alternate between panoramic scenes of village life that vaguely resemble Asian art and close-ups of characters that underscore the action in the narrative. Neither text nor illustrations, however, are entirely specific to any Asian culture; instead, they seem more impressionistic. This... |
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As for the Princess |
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| Author: |
Stephane Jorisch |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
1550376942 |
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| Availability: |
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From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-This whimsical folktale recounts the fortunes of three brothers who find themselves the recipients of unusual legacies from their father. The eldest receives a sack with 100,000 gold pieces; the second, "a horn that could summon 100,000 soldiers in a jiffy"; and the youngest, Simon, receives an old leather belt. Before he realizes the import of his bequest, he has already been transported by it to the boudoir of a beautiful but wicked princess. The naive young man begins to stammer an explanation about the powers of his father's belt when the sly vixen snatches it from him and has him thrown out of the castle. This scenario is repeated with a few variations after Simon receives the loan of both of his brothers' legacies. Utterly dejected after the princess has taken... |
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As for the Princess |
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| Author: |
Stephane Jorisch |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Library Binding |
| ISBN: |
1550376950 |
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| Availability: |
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From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3--This whimsical folktale recounts the fortunes of three brothers who find themselves the recipients of unusual legacies from their father. The eldest receives a sack with 100,000 gold pieces; the second, "a horn that could summon 100,000 soldiers in a jiffy"; and the youngest, Simon, receives an old leather belt. Before he realizes the import of his bequest, he has already been transported by it to the boudoir of a beautiful but wicked princess. The naive young man begins to stammer an explanation about the powers of his father's belt when the sly vixen snatches it from him and has him thrown out of the castle. This scenario is repeated with a few variations after Simon receives the loan of both of his brothers' legacies. Utterly dejected after the princess has taken possession of the... |
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The Village of a Hundred Smiles |
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| Author: |
Barrie Baker |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
1550375350 |
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| Availability: |
Ships within 2-3 days. |
From School Library Journal
Gr 3-5--Four stories chronicle the adventures of the people in a remote Asian village touched in different ways by outside technology or people. In one story, clever Little Orchid senses her grandfather's reluctance to leave the village to visit an old friend and figures out a way to help him; in another, the two celebrate Grandfather's birthday following a strange visit from a wealthy and demanding outsider. The text contains elements found in traditional folktales. Vivid watercolor, gouache, and pen-and-ink illustrations alternate between panoramic scenes of village life that vaguely resemble Asian art and close-ups of characters that underscore the action in the narrative. Neither text nor illustrations, however, are entirely specific to any Asian culture; instead, they seem more impressionistic. This... |
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Emily Lee |
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| Author: |
Carole Tremblay |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
1404810773 |
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The Magic Mustache |
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| Author: |
Gary Barwin |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
1550376063 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships within 3-5 weeks. We cannot guarantee availability of special order titles because publishers may run out of stock. We will notify you in 3-4 weeks if we are unable to get this title for you. |
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-A nose who lives with his parents, two eyes, goes to the market to trade the family's prized pair of eyeglasses for some much-needed food.Instead, he makes a trade with an old ear for a magic mustache that grows a beard that reaches to the sky. The nose climbs the beard, just as Jack, from "Jack and the beard talk," did before him. After two successful journeys in which he steals a golden toothbrush and a magic straw, the nose narrowly escapes the hungry giant mouth with a magic harmonica in tow. All ends well as the various body parts tumble to the ground and form a face (not unlike Mr. Potato Head). Amazingly, the author pulls it all off quite nicely, making the events sound somehow perfectly logical. The text exudes a partly irreverent, partly earnest tone and incorporates lots of... |
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The Magic Mustache |
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| Author: |
Gary Barwin |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
1550376071 |
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| Availability: |
Ships within 2-3 days. |
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-A nose who lives with his parents, two eyes, goes to the market to trade the family's prized pair of eyeglasses for some much-needed food.Instead, he makes a trade with an old ear for a magic mustache that grows a beard that reaches to the sky. The nose climbs the beard, just as Jack, from "Jack and the beard talk," did before him. After two successful journeys in which he steals a golden toothbrush and a magic straw, the nose narrowly escapes the hungry giant mouth with a magic harmonica in tow. All ends well as the various body parts tumble to the ground and form a face (not unlike Mr. Potato Head). Amazingly, the author pulls it all off quite nicely, making the events sound somehow perfectly logical. The text exudes a partly irreverent, partly earnest tone and incorporates lots of... |
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Emily's Piano |
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| Author: |
Charlotte Gingras |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
1550379127 |
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| Availability: |
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From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6 Emily's beloved piano has been sold, her mother has sunk into depression, her married older sisters whisper when they come to visit, and her father has finally left to live with another woman. Emily says, Our family is leaking, cracking, and shaking all over…. So, remembering the piano as happiness in a box, she decides to track it down by visiting the rich neighborhood and asking door to door. When that proves fruitless, a piano tuner helps her locate the instrument and she meets an old nun who gives lessons. Emily brings her mother to it, and playing it cheers her up and provides a teaching job. While the child helps to alleviate an otherwise bleak situation, young readers may be brought low by the loveless household and her sisters' and her father's mean behavior. Older readers... |
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