A Path of Stars by Anne Sibley O’Brien (Charlesbridge, 2012).

Real Kids/ Good Books has been up and running for a year and a half-ish now and this is the first book I’ve found that features a Cambodian protagonist and her family.

A Path of Stars is about the power of storytelling. Daya’s grandma, Lok Yeay, loves to tell stories about growing up in Cambodia, playing with her brother among coconut and mango trees, going to the temple for New Year, looking at the stars with her own grandparents.

She also has darker stories, stories about “a day the soldiers came.”

“…we ran from the war. By then I had only two people left— my brother, who is your Lok Ta, and my little daughter, who is your mother. We took turns carrying her on our back, just the way you are carrying your brother.”

“Lok Ta and I held on to the only treasures we had been able to save: your mother, and pictures of those who had died. So many people— our parents, our brothers and sisters, my husband, Lok Ta’s wife.

“We hid in the jungle by day and walked at night by the light of the stars. Lok Ta read the stars like a map, finding our way west.”

I have talked about the responsibility of children’s book authors in sharing historical moments that are heavy from war, racism or other violence when reviewing other books. It takes both a delicate touch and an unflinching commitment to the truth to pull it off well. And O’Brien has achieved that balance here.

(Cover image: Coloring Between the Lines) (Interior image: Charlesbridge)

Home by Jeannie Baker (Harper Collins, 2004).

This is a wordless picture book that chronicles a neighborhood becoming more of a livable, green community from the time the featured family brings home their baby girl to the time that she herself has a baby of her own.

In the best light, it’s a testament to the small things that we all can do to improve our communities. But fair warning, if you have seen gentrification at work in your slice of the world, you’ll see strains of that in this book as well. 

(Image: Goodreads)

11 Experiments That Failed by Jenny Offill and Nancy Carpenter (Schwartz and Wade, 2011).

I think you probably remember the ol’ science lab report outline, right?

Question
Hypothesis
What you Need
What to Do
What Happened

Basically the stuff of school science experiments. Now add one zealous young girl with a fervor for scientific inquiry, her little brother, her dog, some mighty mishaps and you have one charming romp of a book.

A perfect example of a scientific question that obviously needs an answer:

Question: Do dogs like to be covered in glitter?
Hypothesis: Dogs like everything.

Just look at these sample pages and tell me you don’t get a hankering to mix up a messy scientific experiment with your favorite mini-mad-scientist-in-training. (Image Source: Publisher’s Weekly)

Namaste! by Diana Cohn, illustrated by Amy Cordova, afterward by Ang Rita Sherpa (Steiner Books, 2009).

A children’s story set in Nepal. Nima’s father is a mountain guide and when he leaves on his yearly trek, he asks his young daughter to save up some stories to tell him when he gets back home. Nima spends her day meeting all kinds of people in her community, each time greeting them with “Namaste.” Her story? “She will tell [her father] how she helps others every time she says Namaste!”

(Image Source: Goodreads)

Rattle and Rap by Susan Steggall (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2008). 

There are plenty of train books like Rattle and Rap that take our junior readers on a journey along the rails, probably because when kids are into trains, they can never get enough of them. But even though there are plenty of people of color riding trains, there are few kids books that feature them. Rattle and Rap has taken care of that. 

Check out Steggall’s website to get a few more glimpses of her artwork. 

(Image source: Goodreads)

We March by Shane W. Evans (Roaring Book Press, 2012).

A family wakes up before dawn to attend the historic March on Washington. Like his other book, Underground, this book is simmered down to the simplest sentences. This strategy captures so much with so little, giving young kids a first glimpse of the struggle for Civil Rights in the U.S. 

In an interview at Kirkus Reviews Evans talks about We March:

That’s what a march is, people bonding together. That’s the original social media—250,000 people gathering, prior to texts, prior to cell phones. It’s a powerful tool. There’s something spiritual about it, when many people come together with one heart.

When you think about what was going on in 1963, not so long after that march, there was an explosion that killed four little girls. Even in my own child-mind, I think, “After that speech, all was good.” It was not all good. Everybody didn’t get with that “I Have a Dream” speech. We can never be complacent. We can always fall backward.

(Image Source: Washington Post)

My Little Car by Gary Soto, illustrated by Pam Paparone (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006).

Lowriders for kids. Need I say more? 

(Image Source: Goodreads)

P is for Pinata: A Mexican Alphabet by Tony Johnston, illustrated by John Parra (Sleeping Bear, 2008). 

The glory of John Parra’s artwork is what this book is all about for me. Stop by Parra’s website for more examples of his work. Each entry is a folk-artsy treasure unto itself. 

Tony Johnston has done a great job choosing a wide range of entries to diversify our understanding of Mexico, including aspects of culture, geography, agriculture, and history. She writes both a longer description of each entry, plus a short rhyme— most likely to make the book more appealing to a wider age range of kids. The rhymes don’t always work, but here’s an quirky example of a more successful one. 

D is for Diego Rivera

Diego painted everything, from radishes to chilies.
He painted Aztec history — and lots of calla lillies.

Johnston uses the term Aztec in much of the book, although I have seen Mexica being used more often these days. Also, there are fewer entries that focus on Mayan history and only one that mentions the Olmec.

But my main question about the book comes from the entry for the 1968 Olympic Games. It stands out as completely bowdlerizing an infamous chapter of Mexican history. 

Unfortunately, before the Games, a student demonstration and its bloody result marred the event. But even so there was a strong feeling of camaraderie. In Mexico the world gathered—united for sport; united for peace.

Here’s NPR’s version of what happened. Most historians call it the Tlatelolco massacre. 

This excerpt leaves me turning around the perennial question about how to portray true history to kids— history that includes the oppression, repression and violence of our world — without painting a world that is beyond a kid’s understanding.

Would it have been better have a different entry for O altogether? For me, yes. Leaving the impression that the 1968 Olympics was an event promoting peace except for a small, bloody student disruption is actually distorting the truth. And I’m not sure that there is a way to responsibly portray the massacre to kids. So better to leave this piece of history for older high schoolers or college students to unpack and understand. 

(Image source: www.johnparraart.com)

Finklehopper Frog by Irene Livingston, illustrated by Brian Lies (Tricycle, 2003). 

Brian Lies and Irene Livingston have created an irresistible force in Finklehopper Frog. The illustrations are the most joyful representations of any creature I’ve seen in a good long while. And the rhymes are fun to read— just take these few out for a spin. 

Finklehopper, Finklehopper,
Finklehopper Frog
saw that all the other folks
were going out to jog.

Finklehopper whispered,
“I will buy a jogging suit.
I’ll get myself a jazzy one,
a dandy one, a beaut!”

By the end Finklehopper has learned a great lesson from his friend Ruby Rabbit— that we all are special in our own ways. 

(Image source)

Ton by Taro Miura (Chronicle, 2006)

A ton is 2,000 pounds. It’s a forklift full of bricks.

Want to know what 5 tons looks like? 
It’s a giant tree trunk lifted by a crane. 

10,000 tons?? 
It’ll take a tanker to carry all that.  

(Image Source: taromiura.com)