Review by New York Times Review
Boyce, the author of "Millions," tells good stories about fathers and sons. With echoes of Roald Dahl, four specially chosen fathers and children (well, with one ringer - a very tall 12-year-old) face a set of challenges posed by a slightly mad billionaire that will send them around the moon, if they don't drift into space first. The novel ends with an elegant punch line, and a touching endorsement of filial love. "Maybe everyone's got their own special gravity that lets you go far away, really far away sometimes, but which always brings you back in the end." THE LONGEST NIGHT By Marion Dane Bauer. Illustrated by Ted Lewin. Holiday House. $17.95. (Ages 4 to 8) "The snow lies deep. The night is long and long." Aided by Lewin's shadowy watercolors of a forest at night, Bauer beautifully conjures the deepest part of winter, when bears and mice sleep but other creatures think they know how to bring the darkness to an end, like a moose who says, "I have antlers strong enough to scoop up the sun and bring it home" (the wind sighs, "Not you"). In the end, the chickadee's song does the trick, and light floods in. NASREEN'S SECRET SCHOOL A True Story From Afghanistan. Written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter. Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster. $16.99. (Ages 6 to 9) Winter's precise acrylics tell this story in matter-of-fact images: Taliban soldiers coming down the mountain to the city of Herat, "where art and music and learning once flourished"; a girl called Nasreen sitting at home, silent since her parents disappeared, forbidden to attend school; the grandmother, who tells the story, taking her to a secret girls' school in a private home. The students' brightly colored headscarves stand in for their bravery and eagerness to learn. HERE COMES JACK FROST Written and illustrated by Kazuno Kohara. Roaring Brook. $12.99. (Ages 3 to 6) Kohara follows up her beguiling Halloween tale, "Ghosts in the House!" with another seasonal fable. "Once there was a boy who lived in a house in the woods. It was winter, and all his friends were hibernating. 'I hate winter,' he sighed." Then Jack Frost, a spiky elf full of good cheer, shows up to remind him that winter has a magic all its own. Kohara's linocut illustrations begin in faded blue, but deep azure and white take over as everything is covered in snow and ice; finally an early sign of spring brings the fun to an end, until next year. WAR GAMES By Audrey Couloumbis and Akila Couloumbis. Random House. $16.99. (Ages 8 to 12) In this richly detailed novel, a Greek family tries to stay on the sidelines as the German Army closes in. The year is 1941, and two brothers shoot marbles and play catch as a cover for dangerous games, like passing defiant messages (inspired by a 19-year-old cousin, a resistance fighter). Based on research and family memories of the period, the novel shows how the greatest risk for the villagers, besides enemy soldiers, may be the suspicion that comes between neighbors. WHEN STELLA WAS VERY, VERY SMALL Written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay. Groundwood/House of Anansi. $16.95. (Ages 2 to 5) In a kind of prequel to Gay's much loved Stella series, a toddler Stella - we immediately recognize the unruly red hair - has some early adventures. "Stella couldn't open doors, look through keyholes or even tie her shoes," but she can already train her sky-high imagination on her surroundings. The repeated words "when Stella was very, very small" accompany images of everyday objects and family pets pressed into service as sidekicks, charmingly animating her world. JULIE JUST
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 17, 2010]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Following titles such as The Librarian of Basra (2005), Winter tells another powerful story, based on true events, of an individual activist whose singular courage brings social change. In the Afghan city of Herat, little Nasreen's father is abducted by Taliban soldiers. After her mother sets out in search of him, Nasreen lives with her grandmother, who laments that her granddaughter is forbidden to learn. Then the grandmother discovers a secret school for girls run by neighborhood women, and heartbroken Nasreen gradually begins to heal in the outlawed classroom. Winter artfully distills enormous concepts into spare, potent sentences that celebrate Herat's rich cultural, Islamic history ( art and music and learning once flourished here ), even as they detail the harrowing realities of Taliban rule. And in her signature style of deceptively simple compositions and rich, opaque colors, Winter's acrylic paintings give a palpable sense of both Nasreen's everyday terror and the expansive joy that she finds in learning. In the story's conclusion, the grandmother's wrenching mix of sorrow and defiant hope is clear: I still wait for my son and his wife. But the soldiers can never close the windows that have opened for my granddaughter. An introductory author's note about Afghanistan today will help teachers lead discussions about Nasreen's story and basic human rights for children around the world.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Winter's (The Librarian of Basra) understated but powerful story is set in modern Afghanistan under the Taliban when girls were forbidden to attend school. Offering an adult's perspective on the changes the country has seen, Nasreen's grandmother serves as storyteller, her narrative obliquely noting that since the soldiers arrived in Herat, "The art and music and learning are gone. Dark clouds hang over the city." After soldiers take Nasreen's father away "with no explanation," her mother defies the law by leaving home alone to look for him, never returning. Nasreen refuses to smile or talk, and her worried grandmother sneaks her into a "secret school" in a private home, where Nasreen eventually speaks again, makes friends and learns about Afghanistan's brighter past. Though the child's parents are still missing, her grandmother takes comfort in her realization that "the soldiers can never close the windows" that the school has opened for Nasreen. Framed by bright, striped borders, Winter's handsome acrylic folk art effectively imparts the ominous omnipresence of Taliban soldiers, Nasreen's social and intellectual transformation and the book's hopeful final note. Ages 6-9. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4-This story begins with an author's note that succinctly explains the drastic changes that occurred when the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in 1996. The focus is primarily on the regime's impact on women, who were no longer allowed to attend school or leave home without a male chaperone, and had to cover their heads and bodies with a burqa. After Nasreen's parents disappeared, the child neither spoke nor smiled. Her grandmother, the story's narrator, took her to a secret school, where she slowly discovered a world of art, literature, and history obscured by the harsh prohibitions of the Taliban. As she did in The Librarian of Basra (Harcourt, 2005), Winter manages to achieve that delicate balance that is respectful of the seriousness of the experience, yet presents it in a way that is appropriate for young children. Winter's acrylic paintings make effective use of color, with dramatic purples and grays, with clouds and shadows dominating the scenes in which the Taliban are featured, and light, hopeful pinks both framing and featured in the scenes at school. This is an important book that makes events in a faraway place immediate and real. It is a true testament to the remarkable, inspiring courage of individuals when placed in such dire circumstances.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary) An author's note at the beginning provides background, contrasting the way women were allowed to live before and after the Taliban ascended in Afghanistan; Winter explains that her main character, Nasreen, is real, but her name has been changed. With explanations out of the way, Winter is able to keep her text elegantly and eloquently spare. The story is narrated by Nasreen's grandmother, who recounts how, after Nasreen's father was taken away by soldiers and her mother disappeared, the little girl "never spoke a word. She never smiled. She just sat, waiting for her mama and papa to return." Finally, the worried grandmother takes her granddaughter to a secret school for girls, where for months she remains silent until another little girl whispers (after the long winter break), "I missed you." Winter keeps to her characteristic art style, with each acrylic painting neatly enclosed in a frame, and uses many patterns and colors representative of Afghani fabrics. Dark clouds provide a recurring motif throughout, in the sky or echoed below on the pavement, until at the end, as Nasreen finally opens up again, the clouds turn pink and there are glimpses of blue sky. As in The Librarian of Basra (rev. 1/05), Winter celebrates the importance of education ("the soldiers can never close the windows that have opened for my granddaughter"), and the reminder to Western children that it is a privilege worth fighting for is a powerful one. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
