How do you describe the color of your skin? My skin is
light colored with blue and green veins.
If I hold it against a piece of paper, it isn’t white. It isn’t pink. It isn’t yellow. It isn’t brown. I could invent my own color. Maybe I’d call it arctic marble or pale blue
cheese! Skin color and identity are
explored by Monique Fields in her new book, “Honeysmoke.” A little girl who is a bit of her mom and a
bit of her dad solves the question by inventing a beautiful color called
honeysmoke. I love it.
There are no bears in this library. Better yet is the
book, “There are No Bears in This Bakery,” written and illustrated by Julia
Sarcone-Roach. An orange cat named
Muffin is the night watchman for her neighborhood. In the best tradition of detectives in film
noir, she is determined to investigate the strange sound coming from the open
window in the back of Little Bear Bakery.
“The air was cool and wet like a dog’s nose. The bakery’s back window
was open like a crooked smile. I slipped
into the darkness like icing melting down a hot cake.” This may be more fun for the grown up reader
than the child listening, but I think it works on many levels.
No one that I know is wishing for snow, but Sarah
Dillard’s new book, “I Wish it Would Snow!”
is really cute. A rabbit-child is
waiting and waiting for snow. And when
it snows, and snows, and snows, the child wants it to stop. This book reminds me of our winter, when we
had a brown Christmas followed by snow, and snow, and snow.
“Amy is Famous” is a new book by Barbara Bottner, whose
book, “Bootsie Barker Bites,” is a favorite.
Amy is a victim of today’s over-praising of children. Amy wears red and signs autographs because famous people do that. But her life
turns upside-down when a new girl arrives on the scene. Someone’s wise mom gets the two girls
together for a play day, and, surprise! They discover how alike they are and
become friends.
Litchfield Library doesn’t have many books originally written in Hebrew. Einat Tsarfati graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Israel. Her book, “The Neighbors” tells the story of unusual families who live in an apartment building with seven stories. Each family is unique, including the narrator’s, even though she thinks her parents are boring. In fact, they are super heroes, and in the last spread it looks like they are working on a super-hero costume for their daughter.
