Category: Cream of the Crop Nominees

Home is not a country

Home is not a countryHome Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo
Published by Make Me a World on March 2, 2021
ISBN: 0593177053
Pages: 224
Genres: Fiction in Verse/Poetry, Realistic Fiction
Format: Chapter Book Fiction
Goodreads
five-stars

Nima feels lost — she doesn’t feel like her family or her community understands her. She lives in a suburban town, but her family grew up far away in an unnamed Arabic speaking country. Nima is bullied for her religion, for the way she looks and dresses, for her family and their customs. She relies heavily on her best friend, Haitham to get through life in this country, but when Haitham is beaten in a hate crime, he ends up in the hospital, and Nima finds herself even more alone and struggling to find her way. In addition to her “normal” teenage struggles, Nima struggles with the idea of being someone else, someone she was expected to be had she been given a different name—Yasmeen. Through the second part of the book, and in a twist of magical realism, Nima comes face to face with Yasmeen, the idealized version of herself she feels so many people wish she actually embodied.

This is a beautifully written book in verse, and the story is haunting, magical, real, and important. Nima’s life in the US is clearly colored by the events of 9/11, and the hatred directed at her, her family, and her friends is real for so many. This book paints a challenging portrait of a teen struggling to find and accept the real version of herself.

This book is recommended for readers 13 and up and for Cream of the Crop. This is a must-read. Reviewed by Jessie Trafton, Skidompha Library, Damariscotta, ME

five-stars

Are you a cheeseburger?

Are you a cheeseburger?Are You a Cheeseburger? by Monica Arnaldo
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on June 1, 2021
ISBN: 0063003945
Pages: 40
Genres: Animals, Humor
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Goodreads
five-stars

Grub is a raccoon who lives alone in an alley. He spends his days dumpster diving and doing raccoony things. Then there is seed. Seed is a seed and he is stuck in the trash. When Grub and Seed meet, Seed tells Grub he’s waiting to be planted. Grub wants to know if Seed will grow food—specifically, will he grow cheeseburgers. Seed isn’t sure but the two decide to wait and see. After much time, Seed turns out to be a flower and not food at all. Grub decides that flowers, like cheeseburgers, are something very special—maybe even more special than flowers. This is a unique and creative story of friendship in unexpected places. Grub spends a lot of time caring for Seed before he knows Seed’s fate, and in that time, they learn to love each other. The illustrations are high color, engaging, and add humor and emotion to the story.

Recommended for readers 4 and up and for Cream of the Crop. Reviewed by Jessie Trafton, Skidompha Library, Damariscotta, ME

five-stars

The Beekeepers

The BeekeepersThe Beekeepers: How Humans Changed the World of Bumble Bees by Dana L. Church
Published by Scholastic Focus on March 2, 2021
ISBN: 1338565540
Pages: 320
Genres: Non-Fiction
Format: Nonfiction
Goodreads
five-stars

Dana Church has done a tremendous amount of research on bumble bees–and has never been stung once!  She is intent on saving the bumble bees from extinction because of their use as pollinators in order to bring us fruits and vegetables.  She understands their motivations and tells the readers about the vast amount of past knowledge she has learned from other scientists. There are diagrams, photographs, and drawings, but they are often difficult to see because of being in black and white and fuzzy.  People are blamed because of their use of pesticides and we are made to realize that not using pesticides could be better for crops, as well as the bumble bees.  This book should win many awards because of the quality of the research, the many sources used, and the easily accessible style.  It is Cream worthy.

 

Reviewed by Ellen Spring Oceanside High School  Rockland

five-stars

What are little Girls made of?

What are little Girls made of?What Are Little Girls Made Of?: Nursery Rhymes to Empower Young Feminists by Isabelle Follath, Jeanne Willis
Published by Nosy Crow on February 4, 2021
ISBN: 1536217336
Pages: 32
Genres: Non-Fiction
Format: Picture Book Nonfiction
Goodreads
five-stars

This nonfiction picture book for readers in grades 2-4 reimages some popular nursery rhymes from a feminist and non-gender affirming point of view.   Girls are made of “sun and rain and heart and brain” and boys much the same.  Little Jade Horner is found in her striped pajamas creating spaceships to send her teddies to Mars.  Georgie Porgie is sent on his way after being told by the girl “don’t kiss me unless I say!”  Little Miss Muffet enjoys ham and eggs and pets the spider’s furry legs when he joins her.  Some of the rhymes may not be as familiar and some of the song cadences may be changed slightly with the re-imagined version, but they all work for a new generation.  The final rhyme entitled “Girls and Boys, Come out to play” support play that doesn’t conformed to gender stereotypes.  The layout provides one and two rhymes per two-page spread with mix media illustrations featuring muted pinks and greys.

Reviewed by Sheila Dube, Youth Services Librarian, Springvale Public Library

five-stars

The House of Grass and Sky

The House of Grass and SkyThe House of Grass and Sky by E.B. Goodale, Mary Lyn Ray
Published by Candlewick Press on April 13, 2021
ISBN: 9781536200973
Pages: 32
Genres: Realistic Fiction
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Goodreads
five-stars

The old white saltbox house describes what makes a house a home from its point of view. Once it housed beloved families, but now it sits empty until the “right” family moves in to build new memories. An abundance of poetic language and pastoral watercolor illustrations create a thought provoking text that gives the reader a sense of time passing. This book can be paired with other books about houses, such as The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (1942), Home Place by Crescent Dragonwagon and Jerry Pinkney (1990), and The Little Blue Cottage by Kelly Jordan (2020) for a compare and contrast lesson or about the meaning of home.

Reviewed by Barb Rehmeyer, Liberty Library

five-stars

What’s Inside a Flower: and other questions about science and nature

What’s Inside a Flower: and other questions about science and natureWhat's Inside a Flower?: And Other Questions about Science & Nature by Rachel Ignotofsky
Published by Crown Books for Young Readers on February 2, 2021
ISBN: 9780593176474
Pages: 48
Genres: Non-Fiction
Format: Picture Book Nonfiction
Goodreads
five-stars

Book 1 in series “What’s Inside.” The distinctive art style and engaging text clearly answers any questions you have about flowers. It’s both a picture book to read to kids and a book for them to sit and search through. Although it is very informative, the stunning artwork is what truly makes this an exceptional book.

Reviewed by Barb Rehmeyer, Liberty Library

five-stars

The Way of the Hive

The Way of the HiveThe Way of the Hive: A Honey Bee's Story by Jay Hosler
Published by HarperAlley on April 20, 2021
ISBN: 0063007363
Pages: 160
Genres: Animals
Format: Graphic Novel
Goodreads
five-stars

I tore through this graphic novel about Nyuki, a Honey bee, and her hard earned acceptance of her place in her hive. Nyuki is convinced that she’s destined to do whatever she wants and can pick and choose jobs despite what her beloved older sister, Dvorah, says. After she adventures out and experiences a terrifying encounter with both a spider and a praying mantis, she withdraws into the hive and has trouble facing the fact that soon she’ll have to leave and collect nectar. I loved Nyuki, even when she was being difficult, and her quest to grow into her altruistic self. The book goes into intricate and fascinating detail about the life cycle of bees (they have spinnerets and spin their own larval cocoons?!) and it all works and flows within the context of the story. The characters are well developed and I admire how much emotion they were able to capture in the illustrations of the bees’ faces and body language. That couldn’t have been easy. The book also includes an introduction based on bee mythology and has an extended section in the back for further reading. Excellent for budding entomologists in middle school or even high school .

Reviewed by Sarah Maciejewski, Patten Free Library, Bath

five-stars

WOW in the World: The How and Wow of the Human Body

WOW in the World: The How and Wow of the Human BodyWow in the World: The How and Wow of the Human Body: From Your Tongue to Your Toes and All the Guts in Between by Guy Raz, Jack Teagle, Mindy Thomas
Published by Clarion Books on March 2, 2021
ISBN: 0358306639
Pages: 192
Genres: Non-Fiction
Format: Nonfiction
Goodreads
five-stars

WOW in the World:  The HOW and WOW of the Human Body

 

Mindy Thomas and Guy Raz have written a book, based on their children’s podcast, covering all parts of the human body aimed at elementary students.  It is filled with facts, humor, and the answers to the type of questions students wonder about: “Mindy Interviews Her Lungs”. “What is the Color of My Pee Telling me?”, and “The Scoop on Poop”, for example.  Poop gets an eight-page spread with the different types illustrated.  Farts get four pages.  The drawings are excellent and confer so much information.

One thing I did notice was that menstruation wasn’t mentioned.  The butt gets four pages and even describes animals that don’t have butts.  There is a Glossary, a bibliography, and QR codes to take readers to the podcast sections.  The Source Notes are extensive and impressive and there is an index.  This book should be in all elementary and public libraries and is recommended for Cream of the Crop.

 

Reviewed by Ellen Spring, Oceanside High School, Rockland

five-stars

When the World Was Ours

When the World Was OursWhen the World Was Ours by Liz Kessler
Published by Aladdin on May 18, 2021
ISBN: 1534499652
Pages: 352
Genres: Historical Fiction
Format: Chapter Book Fiction
Goodreads
five-stars

Liz Kessler, author of the Emily Windsnap series takes readers in a totally different direction in her new book When the world Was Ours. Inspired by a true family story, she introduces the three main characters living in Austria just as Hitler is coming to power. Leo, Elsa and Max are the three young friends who have been best friends forever. the story opens in 1936 and Leo has invited Max and Elsa to his ninth birthday, a day at the Vienna Ferris wheel, the Riesenrad. Little do they know that after this day, their lives will never be the same- ever.

Leo and Elsa are Jewish and as the reader reads each chapter-the years that follow , they are in the classroom where they ae asked to sit in the back, friends told that they are to shun them, and they don’t understand why. The reader follows the fear, humiliation and then terror of what their lives become as Hitler rises to power. Max’s family on the other hand rises in stature and position as they embrace the new rule, though Max wanting to please a father that is disappointed in him, struggles to do what is expected of him as a Hitler youth.

This is a hard book to read. Kessler writing hits hard and she does not hold back in its reality. The friends do not live happily ever after and when the horror of the war is over, their families are forever changed, as is the world.

There are many, many stories of the war and the holocaust, but somehow this one is different, it leaves an impression on the reader and there are pieces of it that one could be reading in todays news.

Cream of the Crop

suggested reading level-grades 4and up

Reviewed by Kathy George

Gray Public Library, Gray Maine

 

 

five-stars

Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey

Maybe Maybe Marisol RaineyMaybe Maybe Marisol Rainey by Erin Entrada Kelly
Published by Greenwillow Books on May 4, 2021
ISBN: 0062970429
Pages: 160
Genres: Realistic Fiction
Format: Chapter Book Fiction
Goodreads
five-stars

Marisol Rainey is a delightful and endearing character. She has a penchant for naming inanimate objects and a healthy fear of many, usual childhood things, the most absorbing being climbing the tree (Peppina) in her backyard. Marisol is such a relatable and likeable character. She lives in a world where her mother is Filipino and her father is white, but is also away working on an oil rig, so in addition to feeling different for having a parent from another country, she also acutely misses her dad. Her nemesis, Evie, has a way of pointing out how much fun she has with her own dad, which hurts Marisol’s heart. However, she has a best friend, Jada, who is a particularly lovely character, and who helps her feel like she is enough even with her sadness and fears. A wonderful book for readers in grades 2-4 who know what it’s like to worry about everything and who are still defining for themselves what it means to be brave. Highly recommend.

Review by Jill O’Connor, Merrill Memorial Library, Yarmouth

five-stars