librarianryan's reviews
6364 reviews

 

This is both biography and a philosophy about finding uses for old things. An everyday sanitation worker in New York City collected things that were broken, but could be fixed could be reused, could be reimagined. He turned his treasures into a museum. His idea was to show people that what one person thinks is trash, could be treasure because he grew up with the lesson that all things are used until there is no use left. This was a lovely story that I think kids will get behind whether an environmentalist or not. 

 

Did you read and love all of the Bear books by Jane Chapman? You know: Bear Stays up for Christmas, Bear Snores On, Bear Wants More. Chapman has reimagined Twas the Night Before Christmas within her bear universe. Santa is a polar bear visiting the bear family. And his sleigh is a slay full of dogs. Most of the wording is the same, but some lines are changed to match this version of the story. Everything works together fabulously. This is an excellent addition to a long series or an excellent entry into the Bear books if you’ve never read one before. 

Thank goodness there is a pronunciation guide to the end of this book. This is a simple book that lists various types of pasta. If you’re saying the names right it’ll rhyme, if you’re not, it’s a tongue twister. I think a book that names the various type of pasta and gets to the pasta sauces will be very helpful with picky eaters.

 

This is a mashup of the movie Whip It, about roller derby, and the TV series Glow, about professional women’s wrestling. This book was such a fun read. Based on the cover, I thought it was going to be a middle grade book. It is solidly an adult graphic novel. Teens may enjoy it, but it is aimed for young adults. The story is very similar to the movies mentioned before and that a girl discovers that professional pillow fighting is a thing and thinks “I can do that”. They not only become very good at it, and comes out of their shell because they found their new niche. I love everything about this! I love the idea of taking a pillow fight from ladies in skimpy negligee, to real women controlling their outcomes, and taking the male view out of pillow fighting. There’s also the idea of family, of standing up for yourself, and seeing all the good things about yourself that other people see. This book was a joy from the first page to the last and I would love to see it get read by as many people as possible. And all honesty I want to see this on the Goodreads list of best graphic novels come the end of 2024. 

This is the mostly true story of the young man that brought mami, a type of noodle dish, in the Philippines. His is a story of hard work and devotion. This was an interesting story and a lovely biography of a man many may not learn of otherwise.

 

I understand the concept of making science fun and entertaining. This book set up to do that and it is semi successful. There is lot of information in this book. And it’s just one of a series of books that discuss the periodic table. The information is spot on however this is designed as a reference book. I think something simpler would work better. This is designed for middle grade, but the cover makes it more approachable to elementary, but it may be a hard for most readers to get a lot out of this book because there is so much information on so few pages. 

 

If you paid attention to social media, you might have heard of a team called Savannah Bananas. They put imagination back into baseball. This book is about a girl whose life is so devoted and focused on baseball that she has no imagination. Over summer must find her imagination so she can make new friends and grow closer to her brother. There are some good lessons in here. The reader can see the Mom pushing baseball. This is what the mom wants not what the daughter wants. But you can also tell that the daughter does love the game. This book was lots of fun for any age. 

 

This book was lovely. It told a great story that helped share information. At the end there was even more information on why stories like this and wildlife are important. The story is long but does not feel long or wordy. It feels perfect, for the story that needs to be told. The illustrations are a great addition and many of them are fun and would make great wall decoration. Overall, this book is a success. 

 

This is probably one of the best books Little People Big World has done. It feels fun. It feels exciting and it feels like you get to know the real Stanley. It doesn’t feel like you’re waiting for all the information in the paragraph on the last page. 

 

This is a book about grief and depression. It’s there to remind kids that the person you’ve lost will always be with you as long as they’re in your heart. What interesting is the book never comes out and says who is gone. It never mentions the word death. You just know something is missing , so in essence, this could be used for death. It could be used for someone who’s gone missing or somebody who’s far away and out of contact. What’s equally surprising is this is Imagination Press which is an arm of the American Psychological Association and there is no clues on helping a child to grief in the end. Highly unusual for an APA book. This book gets its message through and is a tad bit sad but there will be kids who needed it.