By Jan Pease
New
books!
It’s too
late for Halloween, but a most disturbing book sits on my desk. A protruding eyeball seems to stare directly
at me from the clear cover of one of the more interesting anatomy books we’ve
added to the children’s collection.
“Outside-In Human Body” answers the question, “What’s under the skin
you’re in?” Author Clive Gifford and illustrator Mark Ruffle have produced a colorful,
information-packed book that looks at the human body from the hair and skin to
the muscles, bones, and internal organs. 
“Andrea
Davis Pinkney is an author and Coretta Scott King Award-winner who strives to
create books geared toward children that display pride in the African-American
culture and its achievements.” This
description of Ms. Pinkney is from her amazon.com author page. Ms. Pinkney is
married to illustrator Brian Pinkney, who often illustrates her books. Their
new collaboration, “Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America” is a
beautiful book that gives
information with a poetic and personal touch. The 10th person profiled in Ms.
Pinkney’s book is President Barack Obama. Some of
the heroes chosen by Ms. Pinkney are well known, such as Frederick Douglass and
Martin Luther King, Jr. Others are not
so well known, such as Benjamin Banneker, an astronomer in Colonial times. This one is definitely worth reading.
There are many ways to tell the Christmas
story. We have versions of the Nativity
told from the point of view of animals, shepherds, and magi, to name a
few. Tomie de Paola has written and
illustrated “The Birds of Bethlehem,” which tells the story from a “birds’- eye
view.” Do birds really talk? Tomie de
Paola will make you believe that they might.
He has been designated a living treasure by the state of New Hampshire,
where he makes his home. I agree with the state of NH, and hope that Mr.
dePaola, who just turned 78, will continue to write and illustrate children’s
books for years to come.
Doreen Rappaport
is a recipient of the Washington Post-Children’s Book Guild lifetime
achievement award for the writing of nonfiction. Her newest book, “Beyond Courage, the Untold
Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust,” took more than six years to
write. She says of her book, “How Jews
organized themselves in order to survive and defy their enemy is an important
but still neglected piece of history. I
present a sampling of actions, efforts, and heroism with the hope that I can
play a role in helping to correct the damaging and persistent belief that Jews
‘went like sheep to the slaughter.’”
Ms. Rappaport looks at the horrors of the Holocaust
without flinching. Knowing the truth of
each story and that some of the individuals survived to build new lives after
the war gives a sense of hope to this important book. If it doesn’t win a book award, I think I’ll
start a “Jan’s medal for extreme excellence in children’s literature” and
nominate this book to be the first recipient.
These wonderful books are waiting for you at
Litchfield Library – I hope to see you there!
