Robin Smith

Children's & YAPicture Book

Touring China with Adèle and Simon

Review by Robin Smith

Adèle and Simon hit the road again! They previously explored America and Paris, but they are now headed to China to visit their photographer uncle, Sidney. This is the China of more than a century ago, allowing today’s children a trip of their own.

First stop is Hong Kong, where Sidney takes the two youngsters on a shopping spree. Simon gets a hat, a jacket, a knapsack, a flute and many other items while Adèle opts for one large gift: a camera so she can record her journey just like her uncle. Readers familiar with this series knows what is to come: Adèle will write postcards home to “Dear Mama” and Simon will lose an object at each stop. At the Shanghai silk farm, he loses the yellow scarf. Careful readers will pore over each detailed, colorful pen-and-ink illustration to find the missing object. Older eyes will undoubtedly have to search longer and harder than young eyes, but no matter the age of the searcher, it’s great fun to finally locate the missing item. (This time the scarf is in the mouth of a dog.) On each page, the search is made more challenging by the artist’s color choices; the missing yellow scarf is exactly the color that most of the people are wearing in this spread. Searching for the red abacus on the following scene means discerning it from the many sticks of candied apples that are the same red. Thankfully, McClintock provides a dandy picture of the items in Adèle’s early letter to Mama, and readers can flip back and forth to help remember what the objects look like. When Adèle develops her photos after the trip, she sees a record of each missing item.

McClintock also includes tiny thumbprint pictures with fascinating factual information of each spread in the backmatter, further adding to the fun for older readers and adults. Many children learn Chinese at school these days, and it’s easy to see teachers using this picture book in class, even with much older students. The historical information, maps and thumbnail guide to this enormous country will certainly fascinate any child with an interest in China. While comparisons to Where’s Waldo? are inevitable, Adelé and Simon’s journeys are much more interesting, encouraging readers of all ages time to slow down and read the detailed pictures. Repeated visits will reveal more and more details—eye candy at its very best! 

Adèle and Simon hit the road again! They previously explored America and Paris, but they are now headed to China to visit their photographer uncle, Sidney. This is the China of more than a century ago, allowing today’s children a trip of their own.

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

An Alabama summer

Review by Robin Smith

Almost-13-year-old Delphine, middle sister Vonetta and baby sister Fern Gaither are back in the final installment of the award-winning series by Rita Williams-Garcia. This time they’re spending the summer of 1969 in Alabama with their grandmother (Big Ma), great-grandmother (Ma Charles) and great-aunt (Miss Trotter).

Delphine is losing her grip on her sisters, and poor Big Ma can hardly keep her citified granddaughters in line. She blames their fresh behavior on their Black Panther mother and women’s libber stepmother. “One don’t eat chicken or ham. One don’t forgive. The other don’t iron. Just git, Delphine. Take your sisters and git.” But there is no place to git to. They head across the creek to visit Miss Trotter, who has plenty of family stories to tell. Half-sisters Big Ma and Miss Trotter do not speak to each other, except through the stories told to the younger generation.

It’s impossible to ignore the parallels between the Gaither sisters’ growing rift and the chasm between the elderly half-sisters. Delphine grows increasingly worried about her family, just wishing they could all get along under one roof. When danger comes to the family, she gets her wish—in a way.

The harrowing ending will have readers on the edges of their seats until the book’s satisfying resolution. Delphine might not be able to control her sisters, but she is a true sister: She’s there when needed.

 

Robin Smith is a second-grade teacher at the Ensworth School in Nashville, Tennessee. She also reviews for Kirkus and The Horn Book Magazine and has served on multiple award committees.

This article was originally published in the May 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Almost-13-year-old Delphine, middle sister Vonetta and baby sister Fern Gaither are back in the final installment of the award-winning series by Rita Williams-Garcia. This time they’re spending the summer of 1969 in Alabama with their grandmother (Big Ma), great-grandmother (Ma Charles) and great-aunt (Miss Trotter).
YA FictionYA

A community seeks answers

Review by Robin Smith

BookPage Teen Top Pick, November 2014

Kekla Magoon’s books just keep getting better. The first time I read her work, I was serving on the Coretta Scott King Awards committee, and we honored Magoon with the Steptoe New Talent Award for The Rock and the River. So it’s with special pride that I look forward to each of her subsequent releases.

A review of How It Went Down could read like a cliché: “ripped from the headlines . . . as fresh as the morning paper . . . as gripping as any story on the nightly news.” But this book is not cliché at all. Written shortly after the death of Trayvon Martin and published shortly after the killing of Michael Brown and the response in Ferguson, Missouri, it’s a hard book to read without flashing back to headlines.

It’s the story of one young man, Tariq Johnson, who is shot while walking down the street at 5:30 p.m. by a white man who drives away in a borrowed car. Though Tariq carried no weapon, the shooter claims self-defense and is released after questioning. What might have been a linear story is made much more interesting as many of the survivors—grief-stricken, angry family members, gang friends and neighbors—reveal their own tales. Each person has an attachment to Tariq, and each tries to figure out the truth.

The reader gets caught in the same maze as everyone else: Who was Tariq? What happened on that afternoon? These hundreds of vignettes, with their varying narrators and conflicting perspectives, could leave the reader confused, but Magoon keeps a firm hand on her story. We may never find the answers we’re looking for, but after reading this book, we will look at the headlines with a much more critical eye.

This is not only a book to read in one gulp; it’s a book that asks you to slow down and read it over and over again. It’s an important, compelling story that everyone should read, especially high school students trying to make sense of our supposed post-racial world.

 

This article was originally published in the November 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Kekla Magoon’s books just keep getting better. The first time I read her work, I was serving on the Coretta Scott King Awards committee, and we honored Magoon with the Steptoe New Talent Award for The Rock and the River. So it’s with special pride that I look forward to each of her subsequent releases.
Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Holding on to home

Review by Robin Smith

Eight-year-old Aref loves nature, making lists, his family, his grandfather Sidi and his home in Muscat, Oman. When his parents decide to finish their doctorates in Michigan, Aref refuses to embrace the move. The important things—school, friends, his grandfather, the sea turtle beach—do not fit in Aref’s suitcase, and he finds himself getting in his mother’s way while sinking into sadness. Underneath his sadness is fear: Will Sidi be here in three years when Aref returns? Will Aref remember Muscat?

Gently and tenderly, Sidi pulls his grandson away from the packing and takes him out into the world they love. They visit beloved, familiar places and have adventures in new ones. They spend a night in the desert where they see the night sky free from light pollution. They meet a falconer, and Aref watches as the falcon flies away and then returns. They sleep on Sidi’s rooftop and take a boat ride into the harbor to do some fishing. They save important stones and memories along the way.

In a world of speed and instant information, it is a blessing to slow down with Aref and his grandfather and to think about what we love and what we would miss if we had to leave it. Nye’s poetic prose is so filled with tenderness that I found myself slowing down and rereading long passages just to enjoy the feel of the words on my tongue. It’s been a long time since I have read a book that has brought me that special kind of pleasure, and I look forward to sharing this with children and adults.

 

Robin Smith lives in Nashville, where she teaches second grade, knits and reads, sometimes all at the same time.

This article was originally published in the September 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Eight-year-old Aref loves nature, making lists, his family, his grandfather Sidi and his home in Muscat, Oman. When his parents decide to finish their doctorates in Michigan, Aref refuses to embrace the move. The important things—school, friends, his grandfather, the sea turtle beach—do not fit in Aref’s suitcase, and he finds himself getting in his mother’s way while sinking into sadness. Underneath his sadness is fear: Will Sidi be here in three years when Aref returns? Will Aref remember Muscat?
Children's & YAPicture Book

The ties that bind three generations

Review by Robin Smith

It’s hard to believe that Jacqueline Woodson and James Ransome have not worked together since 2002’s Visiting Day. Both have written many books about African-American experiences and been honored with many of the same awards, in particular the Coretta Scott King Award. Now they have joined forces once more with This Is the Rope, in which Ransome’s rich oil paintings complement Woodson’s gentle story of one family and their move north from South Carolina.

Like so many families before them, this family is heading to better opportunities, but they are forever joined to the South. The story is tied together with the image of an unusual keepsake: a rope that was found “a long time ago, back home in South Carolina.”

The narrator’s grandmother is shown as a little girl, awash in the yellow sky and ground of her childhood. Though she eventually seeks a better place to live during the Great Migration, as a little girl, she is well cared for. Her mother hangs wash on the line, there are chickens in the yard and her home is inviting. Her fuchsia dress bounces as she skips rope. Soon the rope finds new uses: tying luggage down on the roof of a station wagon bound for New York City, hanging flowers for drying, as a clothesline for diapers, pulling a toy duck, and on to the present, where it lives on as a jump rope today.

Ransome’s work adds much to this simple but important story. He includes so many small details that will resonate with grandparents and great-grandparents as they read to their little ones: the dashiki-clad mother with a stroller in New York, the chubby baby in a cloth diaper, the stack of Ebony and Jet magazines, white socks and Converse sneakers, Prince and Keith Haring posters on the wall, the minivan and the large family at a reunion in the park.

No matter how styles might change, one thing remains the same. This is a family with a rich history in love, born in the hot sun of South Carolina and united by memories of one simple artifact: a rope.

Families of all backgrounds will find much to love in Woodson and Ransome’s latest collaboration.

It’s hard to believe that Jacqueline Woodson and James Ransome have not worked together since 2002’s Visiting Day. Both have written many books about African-American experiences and been honored with many of the same awards, in particular the Coretta Scott King Award. Now they have…

Children's & YAPicture Book

The curious mind of young Einstein

Review by Robin Smith

Of the many stories about Albert Einstein that are available for young readers, the new picture book by Jennifer Berne and Vladimir Radunsky is one of the best. On a Beam of Light portrays a little boy who is loved and encouraged to follow his own interests and his own way of thinking.

“Over 100 years ago, as the stars swirled in the sky, as the Earth circled the sun, as the March winds blew through a little town by a river, a baby was born. His parents named him Albert,” the story begins. Radunsky’s gestural watercolor-and-ink illustrations capture the spirit of young Albert, as he turned one and two and three and “hardly said a word at all.”

As his parents worried about his development, they loved him and saw him as different but dear. He was a quiet boy who spent his days observing and wondering and thinking. In other words, he was a scientist. Reading Berne’s carefully chosen stories of Albert’s childhood, the young reader begins to understand how this quiet boy became one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century.

The illustrations slow the reader down in a way that is deeply pleasurable. On a page where Einstein is thinking about atoms, Radunsky uses dots of color to paint the whole spread. This joyful departure into pointillism makes the idea of atoms understandable for the young reader. Another favorite is a painting of Einstein, floating in his sailboat, letting his mind wander.

Albert’s questions frame the heart of this winning book. First, he noticed that the compass always pointed north and he wanted to understand why. While riding his bike, he wondered what it would be like to ride on a beam of sunlight. Reading through these stories, it’s impossible not to be inspired, not only by Einstein himself but also by this dazzling account of his life and imagination.

Of the many stories about Albert Einstein that are available for young readers, the new picture book by Jennifer Berne and Vladimir Radunsky is one of the best. On a Beam of Light portrays a little boy who is loved and encouraged to follow his…

Children's & YAPicture Book

Let your freak flag fly

Review by Robin Smith

Graphic novel meets picture book in Odd Duck, a humorous and heartfelt story of friendship. Theodora is a creature of habit who spends each day shopping and visiting the library before heading for home, where she always makes the same wish: “Theodora wished that nothing in her happy life would ever change.”

Soon a moving truck arrives next door, disrupting her happy life and depositing all manner of oddities: smelly chairs, umbrella sculptures and a giant cardboard chicken. Though Theodora is worried, she is a gracious bird, and she bakes a cake for her new neighbor, Chad. She tries to look beyond his oddly colored feathers, lack of manners, splashy swimming and loud construction jobs, but her only hope is that Chad will fly south with the other ducks when winter comes.

Chad isn’t bothered by the cold, however, and that allows this odd couple to develop a friendship. Starting with their mutual love of constellations, the two ducks end up having lots in common. Chad and Theodora spend all their time together until one day, a comment from other ducks threatens their friendship. The comment? “Look at that odd duck!”

Each thinks the comment is aimed at the other, causing a rift between them. It takes some serious soul-searching to allow these true friends to mend the split, understanding that they are both odd in their own ways.

Readers who are struggling with friendships will be heartened that these ducks are able to deal with their differences. Kids with a quirky sense of humor will be drawn to the graphic elements but will stay for the endearing story.

Graphic novel meets picture book in Odd Duck, a humorous and heartfelt story of friendship. Theodora is a creature of habit who spends each day shopping and visiting the library before heading for home, where she always makes the same wish: “Theodora wished that nothing…

Children's & YAPicture Book

There’s a crocodile in my book!

Review by Robin Smith

Children’s books break the legendary fourth wall when the characters on the page speak directly to readers or involve them in the action. A number of books in the past few years have asked the reader to join the fun: Herve Tullet’s Press Here, David Wiesner’s The Three Pigs and Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie books, among others. Following in this vein is Open Very Carefully, an amusing British import by illustrator Nicola O’Byrne and author Nick Bromley in which the reader is part of the story.

The very first illustration appears to be a traditional piece of artwork from an old version of The Ugly Duckling. As we turn to the right-hand page, we see a giant crocodile tail with a red arrow and the words, “What’s that? I’m trying to read you the story ‘The Ugly Duckling,’ but there’s something in this book that shouldn’t be here!” The next page is torn, and assorted fairy tale animals cover most of the body of the offending crocodile.

The fun really begins when the red-capped duck narrator asks the reader to get involved.  When the crocodile starts eating letters and then words, something must be done—and the duck is just the one for the job! First, the duck asks the reader to rock the book back and forth, to put the crocodile to sleep. Then she draws a purple tutu on the reptile to make him seem less scary (a scene reminiscent of Harold and his purple crayon). The funniest page of the book is when the crocodile tries to escape but smacks into the edge of the page, curling up his snout in pain.

How DOES he get out? Well, shaking the book doesn’t work, that’s for sure! But he figures it out for himself. Those sharp teeth are good for something.

Picture books are a child’s first museum, filled with art that is critical to understanding the story. Visual literacy starts with board books and continues through every illustrated book a child reads. By breaking the barriers, cleverly crafted books such as Open Very Carefully challenge and engage the reader in a special way—and amuse parents at the same time.

Children’s books break the legendary fourth wall when the characters on the page speak directly to readers or involve them in the action. A number of books in the past few years have asked the reader to join the fun: Herve Tullet’s Press Here, David…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Searching for a mother, finding herself

Review by Robin Smith

Blue, all three pounds of her, was discovered in a copper kettle in December 1941 and adopted by the generous and caring Hannah Spooner. Now Blue is going into fifth grade and spends many of her waking hours wondering about her birth mother. Was she Amelia Earhart? A movie star? Why did she desert Blue?

Set in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont against the faint backdrop of the Korean War, True Colors is a gentle page-turner, filled with secrets, mystery and history. Blue’s farm life is simple, if difficult: There are weeds to be pulled and cows to be milked. Blue is in charge of delivering the breads from Hannah’s small bakery and listening to the stories each recipient tells.

Blue is on the verge of puberty, but her best friend, Nadine, seems to have already grown up. It’s a confusing time, made more confusing by other changes. Why is Nadine’s father absent this summer? Why are the farm animals disappearing?

Natalie Kinsey-Warnock envelopes the reader in the world of the early 1950s, where divorce is a terrible scandal, being in trouble means making difficult choices and family secrets are respected by the community as private.

Blue’s 10-year-old voice is especially effective here. She has a lot to think about, but she sees the world clearly through her young eyes. True Colors is a real keeper.

Blue, all three pounds of her, was discovered in a copper kettle in December 1941 and adopted by the generous and caring Hannah Spooner. Now Blue is going into fifth grade and spends many of her waking hours wondering about her birth mother. Was she…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

A boy’s search for harmony in the world

Review by Robin Smith

Like troubled, dream-filled sleep, there’s a delightfully mysterious quality to Grace Lin’s new novel, Starry River of the Sky. More a companion than a sequel to her Newbery Honor novel Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, this is a meditation on home, forgiveness and what it means to be in balance in the world. These are not easy ideas for anyone, but Lin invites young readers to think beyond the page.

The reader is lulled into the tale of Rendi. At first he is a cranky runaway, fleeing his materialistic magistrate father. Later he learns to consider needs greater than his own and to become not only the hero of his life, but the hero of the Village of Clear Sky. The villagers all suffer from the missing moon and worry about the innkeeper’s absent son. Rendi fills in for the missing boy by working as a chore boy at the inn. When a mysterious woman takes up residence there, things slowly begin to change. Her storytelling, and the stories she teases from Rendi, change everything.

Like the earlier novel, much of the story is told through Chinese folktales that are woven together to reveal a mystery. Slowly, through these stories, we see Rendi examine his circumstance, take great risks to save the village, endure painful goodbyes, forgive his father and realize his need for home.

I found myself folding over page corners and flipping back to reread sections as the meaning of the story was slowly revealed. Savoring a book like this reminds me of what I like most about reading: diving deep into a new place and finding personal connections in the most unlikely of characters. Lin has written another book that is truly for all ages.

 

Like troubled, dream-filled sleep, there’s a delightfully mysterious quality to Grace Lin’s new novel, Starry River of the Sky. More a companion than a sequel to her Newbery Honor novel Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, this is a meditation on home, forgiveness and…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

The nuts and bolts of friendship

Review by Robin Smith

In this short illustrated chapter book, new readers will giggle along with Robot and Rabbit as they compromise their way through one of childhood’s milestones: the sleepover. Unlikely friends, these two have different ideas about spontaneity, food, games and sleep.

Rabbit is the host of the sleepover and he has made a thorough list and insists on following it, no matter what. The first order of business is to “Make pizza.” Easy enough, until it turns out that these two friends have very different taste buds. Rabbit prefers fresh veggies while Robot loves anything attractive to his magnet hands, especially the nuts and bolts that hold together Rabbit’s furniture. Watching TV is difficult when Rabbit cannot find the remote control, playing Go Fish is impossible when Robot loses power, and going to sleep is made more interesting (and funny) when Robot forgets his pajamas.

Illustrations, in gentle greens and purples, add to the story. When Robot’s magnet hands grab the pizza toppings, alert readers will notice something new in Rabbit’s ear. The thing is there for a few pages, unnoticed, until it is revealed to be the missing remote! Robot in pajamas is also calculated for humor. The pajamas are hooded, transforming the rectangular Robot’s head into a hilarious egg-shape.

An engaging, well-paced story, told with simple (but not too simple) vocabulary is tough to write, but Cece Bell has nailed Rabbit and Robot: The Sleepover. Let’s hope it’s the first of a series.

In this short illustrated chapter book, new readers will giggle along with Robot and Rabbit as they compromise their way through one of childhood’s milestones: the sleepover. Unlikely friends, these two have different ideas about spontaneity, food, games and sleep.

Rabbit is the host of the…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

A one-legged pigeon seeks adventure

Review by Robin Smith

This gem of a story, covering eight days in a sleepy small-town summer, has an unusual central character: a one-legged homing pigeon named Sherman who has gone missing from Mr. Mineo’s flock.

While on the lam, Sherman is spotted by many folks. Stella and her friend Gerald want a pet. Amos and Ethel Roper enjoy arguing about the bird. Mutt is enthralled that the silly pigeon seems attracted to his head and that everyone thinks he is making up the story. And the unnamed sweet brown dog only wants a friend.

All these stories twist and turn into each other like the footpaths of a small town. Where will it all end up? Just where it should: The brown dog finds a home (and a name: Harvey) with Stella, Mutt’s story is proved true, Sherman finds his girl pigeon and everyone has a soda at the bait shop.

Barbara O’Connor’s gift in storytelling is her restraint. Holding back allows the reader to fill in a bit, making the story more personal. Her talents make On the Road to Mr. Mineo’s an unforgettable trip.

This gem of a story, covering eight days in a sleepy small-town summer, has an unusual central character: a one-legged homing pigeon named Sherman who has gone missing from Mr. Mineo’s flock.

While on the lam, Sherman is spotted by many folks. Stella and her friend…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Coming of age in a turbulent time

Review by Robin Smith

In Fire in the Streets, Kekla Magoon picks up where her award-winning 2009 novel The Rock and the River left off, exploring the role of young people in the Chicago office of the Black Panther party during and after the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Maxie, a 14-year-old girl who lives in the projects and is in an on-again, off-again relationship with Sam (whose older brother was killed in the first book), wants to be a full-fledged Panther. She is tired of babysitting the leaders’ children, filing papers and straightening out the office. Maxie is in that in-between stage between childhood and adulthood. She wants to be a grownup, but she still loves her best friends. She wants to have a boyfriend, but she is confused by Sam’s mood swings.

She worries about her mother and the parade of men through her house, and she also worries about having enough to eat and the money to pay for electricity and the phone. She wonders how her older brother manages to hold the family together.

After a violent attack on the Panther offices, it becomes clear that Maxie has what it takes to be a real Panther. She is observant and is asked to keep her ears and eyes open for a mole in the office. Someone is giving information to the police, and Maxie is determined to find out who that is. When she finally discovers the truth, Maxie is faced with a moral decision that changes many lives.

Magoon was wise to have Maxie tell her own story, as the first-person narrative allows the reader a front-row view of her angst, worry and nearly blind love for the Panthers. We understand the attraction that the Panthers had for many young people, and we further understand how far some will go to belong to the group. The moral questions of Fire in the Streets are many, and readers will be left to consider them for a long time. The historical backdrop adds a lot to the novel, but, in the end, it’s a powerful story of one young person trying her best to find her way in a complicated world.

In Fire in the Streets, Kekla Magoon picks up where her award-winning 2009 novel The Rock and the River left off, exploring the role of young people in the Chicago office of the Black Panther party during and after the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Maxie, a…

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