"The title is actually a quote, and though here it's taken out of context and, in the author's note, incorrectly attributed to a man, it makes a powerful statement across racial lines, nationalities and generations. (Picture book. 7-9)"
In this moving testimonial, an old man eloquently recalls escaping from slavery with a few apple seeds in his pocket, as he and his young granddaughter stroll out to the lushly flowering orchard that has since grown from them.
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"Grifalconi's collages mingling manipulated photographs and painted surfaces have magic of their own, establishing a strong sense of place with a touch of the surreal. (Picture book. 4-9)"
Set in a small village of wood carvers in southern Mexico, this gentle tale celebrates artistic creation, community and kindness.
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In this powerful tale presented in the style of African storytelling, a girl, mother, and grandmother draw upon their individual strengths to help save their Yao village from slave traders.
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"Not exactly a fun read, but highly effective and very important. (Picture book. 8-12)"
Myers returns to the setting of his award-winning Fallen Angels (1988) with a stunning, unsettling picture book that attempts to put the reader into the heart and mind of an American soldier in Vietnam.
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"Grifalconi's gentle watercolors group people together in intimate moments and in larger groups that convey familial bonds. (Picture book. 5-8)"
A graceful chronicle of the last year in a beloved great-uncle's life, relayed month by month in the first-person narration of a Mexican-American girl.
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"A vivid tale and a welcome, polished pairing of author and illustrator. (Picture book. 5-8)"
Anancy Spiderman leaves his house one day and through simple acts of kindness increases his wealth before abruptly losing it again.
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"Grifalconi's book has redeeming value and may appeal to those needing books about the difficulties faced by the urban poor. (Fiction. 8-12)"
When their mother needs to go to the hospital, Tommy, 11, and his little brother, Dicky, move to a group home until she recovers.
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"A conventional but informative story accompanied by dreamlike, pastel-colored illustrations. (Fiction/Picture book. 4-8)"
On New Year's Day, a little Mayan boy is charged with the duties of playing the flute and carrying a drum on his back while leading the people of his village in a parade into town.
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"There's hardly more drama here than a generous gesture toward a grump who, for once, almost smiles; but the joyfully bustling milieu comes alive in Joseph's descriptions and Grifalconi's subtle characterizations and vibrant settings. (Picture book. 4-8)"
In prose enriched by the lilting patois of her native Trinidad, the author of Wave in Her Pocket (1991, ALA Notable) portrays a day when wares are sold from seaside "parlours" (stands).
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"Missin' my papa," who died when she was a baby, Sissy's sitting in the yard of her family's Georgia farm, "feeling awful sorry for myself" and "Pokin' holes in the dirt for no good reason."
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"Still, Grifalconi's imaginative approach makes for a striking, if not wholly effective, offering. (Picture book. 4-8)"
An artist with several fine books set in Africa to her credit (The Village of Round and Square Houses, 1986, Caldecott Honor) experiments with collages of photographic images (from the National Geographic and similar sources) of people, artifacts, etc., sometimes reversed or with their colors exaggerated, to create what she terms "magical realism."
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"And as in Ets' memorable In the Forest, her journey has a strong undercurrent of the human search for trust and truce with sterner antagonists than the dark."
In a book that in its technique and setting is a companion-piece to her Village of Round and Square Houses (Caldecott Honor Book), Grifalconi explores the fear of the unknown suggested in an old African saying: "Darkness pursues the Butterfly."
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"The illustrations seem inspired by that Slightly Irregular put-on of a couple of years back, the text geared to those who feel more comfortable with some semi-straight matter worked in."
Playing to both the campy nostalgia for vintage Sears Roebuck catalogs and the current anti-sexist imperative, Grifalconi has compiled an "album" from the ads and illustrations of "unknown artists of the nineteenth century," tying the pictures together with the quaint, occasionally rhyming tale of paragon Lucy who is always busy mending and cooking and scrubbing (and even waxing skis) for her seven brothers ("Her care for her brothers was constant,/ Her concern for their comforts so great. . . .
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