Field Library Book Reviews

Book review of The Angel of Santo Tomas: The Story of Fe del Mundo Written and illustrated by Tammy Yee Published by Tumblehome Books This picture book biography of 20th century Filipina pediatrician Fe del Mundo tells an inspiring true story about a person young readers will be able to relate to, as opposed to a story about someone adults will recognize. Fe del Mundo begins the book as a young girl in mourning for an older sister, deciding to take her sister's dream of becoming a doctor as her own, in memory of and honor of her sister. She excels at her studies and later immigrates to the United States, becoming the first woman and first person of Asian descent to attend Harvard. She leaves the US during World War II to return to the Philippines, where she invents an incubator and convinces authorities to move orphan children out of a prison camp into a home where she can care for them. After the war, she opens the first pediatric hospital in the country. The book includes a map, ...

Book review for "Kai and the Dancing Butterfly" Written by Crystal Z. Lee Illustrated by Allie Su Published by Balestier Press Picture book, informational text embedded in a story The information about Taiwan cities, parks and landmarks in this book is framed inside a story told by a purple butterfly named Kia who is travelling from north to south across the island. This references an actual biological event that happens each winter when hundreds of thousands of purple crow butterflies travel hundreds of kilometers to Maolin on the south of the island. The book includes mentions either in text or illustration of indigenous tribes of Taiwan, and unique Taiwanese fauna. At the end of the book is an extensive glossary of mentioned landmarks, with names in both English and Chinese, and brief descriptions.  The overall effect is of a tour guide to Taiwan, aimed at young children. This would be fun for both children visiting Taiwan for the first time, as well as children who have m...

  Book review of My Favorite Memories  Written by Sepideh Sarihi  Illustrated by Julie Völk Translated by  Elisabeth Lauffer Published by Blue Dot Kids Press I love this book! I can't wait to share it with students. They are going to love to start shouting about how you can't put trees or people or furniture inside of bottles. This very short picture book has just enough information to setup the story, but leaves a ton of room for kids' imaginations. The contrast between the detailed, fine-lined, rather mature style of the illustrations with the simple, naive, extremely childlike point of view of the text is so charming. I could easily see this book being used for creative writing lesson launches, for art lessons, or simply as a fun palate cleanser read-aloud when everyone is bored of school rules and needs a way to break out and capture some fresh wonderment.  The narrative opens briskly, dropping us right into the middle of the story, as the unnamed main chara...

A Promise is a Promise Written by Bridget Hodder and Fawzia Gilani-Williams Illustrated by Cinzia Battistel Published by Kar-Ben Publishing Picture Book This picture book opens up in a Moroccan village with two boys, Jacob and Hassan, and their friendship of shared treats, time at each other's homes, and the supportive relationships of their parents. Over several pages of rhythmic descriptions of how they spend their time with their own families and then with each other in Jacob's family's garden, we learn about the games they play, their chores, and their favorite foods from each other's culture. Hassan and Jacob decide that the garden, a prayer and a promise to their parents, warrants time and attention from them as well, so they take some of their afternoons away from play to maintain the garden. When dangerous developments in the outside world force Jacob's family to flee, Hassan promises to continue to care for the garden. Many decades later, he is rewarded wit...

Katie Woo's Neighborhood: Good morning, Farmer Carmen! Katie Woo's Neighborhood: Helping Mayor Patty Katie Woo's Neighborhood: Katie's vet loves pets Katie Woo's Neighborhood: Open wide, Katie! Written by Fran Manushkin Published by Picture Window Books/Capstone Beginning reader chapter books These level J beginning readers feature Katie meeting community helpers (farmer, mayor, veterinarian, dentist) and learning a little about their daily work. Elementary students learning about communities in social studies will enjoy these age-appropriate realistic fiction introductions, which would pair well with a nonfiction source like a PBS Learning Media video clip from the "Meet the helpers" or "Kids Clubhouse" series, or an online encyclopedia article. Katie helps harvest fresh vegetables for a farmer's market, enjoying the taste of just picked tomatoes. She adopts a stray kitten she finds in her neighborhood, after getting help nursing ...

Thank you to Julia Inserro, the author of the new picture book, Nonni's Moon , for gifting Field Elementary Library with a review copy.   Nonni's Moon  is written by Julia Inserro and illustrated by Lucy Smith, published by Julia Inserro. This is a picture book about a young girl and her family separated by many time zones, and their struggles to stay in touch. Beanie misses her Nonni desperately and wants to talk to her every day. Rather than calling on the phone, the two devise a clever plan to use the moon to send messages to each other.   Beanie’s teacher wears a headscarf and her family is mixed race. Some elements of the illustrations, like the palm trees and desert hills outside Beanie’s school, may call to mind a setting in the Middle East, but no country is specifically mentioned in the text. Nonni, (Italian for “grandmother”) seems to live in a large city on the “other side of the world”, although the illustrations blend from page to page in such a way...