Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen by Sarah Kapit

Vivian J Cohen is a typical eleven-year-old. She likes cheese sandwiches and pizza. She likes baseball. Vivy enjoys watching televised professional games with her dad. Her favorite player is VJ Capello. In some respects she may be a not-so-typical fifth grader. She is a baseball (NOT softball) pitcher and can throw a mean knuckleball. She dreams of becoming the first female to play professionally. She is autistic, prone to meltdowns and flapping her hands when she gets anxious or excited.  When she was eight years old, she met minor league pitcher VJ. He took her aside and taught her how to throw a knuckleball. She has never forgotten him. Three years later Vivy has a letter-writing assignment. She opts to write to VJ. They begin a lively correspondence, mainly via email. ​Kapit begins the epistolary novel on the first day of spring training and concludes with the league's final game for the season. Their emails include plenty of play by play baseball action.

​The Everything I Have Lost by Sylvia Zéleny

Thirteen-year-old Julia keeps a deeply personal journal describing her life near the Mexico -United States border. Over the course of approximately two years she discloses her fears, her uncertainty, and the longings of her heart. Detailed lists and commentary reveal her life, her everything. Living in Juárez with father, mother, and younger brother Willy, Julia’s life experiences a seismic shift when her father begins working for the mafia. She assumes that he is a courier. Suddenly the family has a new car, a new house, and many luxury items. But wealth has a downside. Mamá is no longer her confidant. Her mother's primary objective is to protect and care for her husband. In an attempt ​to shield her children from the mob's influence and possible retribution, she sends Julia and Willy to live with family in El Paso: Aunt Tia, Cousin Jose, and their dementia- afflicted great grandmother.

Voices from the Border

​Ruth Objects: The Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Big Words)
by Doreen Rappaport ill by Eric Velasquez

This generously-sized picture book celebrates the life and legacy of the second woman to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. Using her trademark format, biographical narrative interspersed with appropriate quotations,  Rappaport recounts important events in the life of this influential woman.  The U.S Constitution serves as a backdrop for the cover’s close-up portrait of the Associate Justice. Looking directly into the faces of readers, Ruth is clear-eyed and resolute. ​Opening pages feature Ruth as a young girl, her childhood filled with books and school activities, music and traditional Jewish observances.

My mother was the bravest and strongest person I have known.

Big Words: Picture Book Series

Weird Little Robots
by Carolyn Crimi ill by Corinna Luyken

Penny Rose is lonely. In the past, she has always enjoyed friendships with other children in her neighborhood. Now everything has changed. Her family moved and she can't connect with any of her new classmates. She spends her free time sequestered in the shed in her family’s backyard, creating a collection of tiny robots from found objects: outdated technology, broken bits and pieces, even a set of false teeth. She names each creation and fills her days tinkering with these mini-friends. Then she meets her nerdy neighbor Lark. A budding ornithologist, Lark has a yard brimming with an incredible collection of birdhouses created from assorted curiosities that the birds leave for her, Lark wasn’t afraid to let her weirdness show, and Penny Rose thought that was very brave.

Build Your Own Robot

Hair Love
by Matthew A. Cherry ill by Vashti Harrison

Zuri is preparing for a special day and wants to have the perfect hairstyle. Daddy is napping. She reasons that he deserves a rest and decides that she can handle styling detail. The task becomes more challenging than she envisioned. ​I have hair that has a mind of its own. Sequestered on a bathroom stool, she searches her tablet for hairstyle inspiration. When the tablet clatters to the tile floor, dad wakes up and comes to investigate. He lovingly offers to help Zuri. "It'll be a piece of cake." Soon it is evident that this project is more difficult than he thought. Readers have the mirror’s perspective, viewing the reflected image of Daddy's repeated attempts at a variety of creative styles.

"You've got to be the prettiest supergirl I have ever seen"

Hello Matthew

While this is his first picture book, Cherry is a well-known personality. He transitioned from career as an NFL wide receiver to director of music videos and filmmaker. Hair Love is based on Cherry's direction of an animated short film.

Daddy and Daughter

To Night Owl from Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan & Meg Wolitzer

​​Full disclosure: Initially I skimmed this book's  back cover and concluded that it was a remake of The Parent Trap. To be honest, I wasn't crazy about the movie. So, no. I wasn't interested. But... this middle grade novel was by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer.  I reasoned that two extremely talented authors would write something more than a warmed-over Disney movie script. Once I started reading I was hooked.  ​​Reasons why I loved this book: Point one: The girls are interesting individuals, not plot contrivances. While they have a west coast vs. east coast point of view, they have enough unique traits to transcend the California and New York City stereotypes.  Point two: The dads.  These men are neither good guys nor bad guys. They are guys.  They are dads. They make some good decisions, arrive at some conclusions based inaccurate assumptions. They make mistakes. They love their families.

I Have Questions

Music of Love

Brave Ballerina: The Story of Janet Collins
by Michelle Meadows ill Ebony Glenn

​Echoing the rhythmic quality of dance, Meadows uses rhyming couplets to tell the story of Janet Collins.  The cumulative syntax traces her story from early beginnings to prima ballerina with the Metropolitan Opera House. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1917 and raised in Los Angeles, California, Janet displayed not only talent, but a love for dance. ​ In a time when dance opportunities were limited for a youngster of color, Collins found ways to realize her dream. Whether it was finding teachers or studying and performing other forms of dance including Spanish, Caribbean, and African, she continued to pursue her passion.

Young Ballerinas

Lumber Jills: The Unsung Heroines of World War II
by Alexandra Davis  ill Katie Hickey

During World War II, 8,500 British girls joined the little-known Women’s Timber Corps. They were armed with nothing but four-and-a-half pound axes, six-pound saws, and the willingness to pick them up. The average Lumber Jill was eighteen years old, and while these girls came from all walks of life, most of them had never lifted an axe before.      Author's Note Lumber Jills: The Unsung Heroines of World War II is the story of women whose service to their country is less well-known. None-the-less, their story is intriguing. Davis frames her rhythmic text within a numerical construct. Beginning with "one pair of woolen socks pulled up to the knee," she chronicles the work of young British girls who volunteered to support the war effort by felling and cutting trees, then hauling the logs to the mill by wagon teams.

Recently, several books about menstruation have been published for young readers. Most are collections of information presented in an engaging manner. The Moon Within takes a refreshing approach. Salazar weaves poetry, astronomy, and mythology together with Mexican and Caribbean culture in this intimate view of a young girl anticipating and experiencing her first menses. The book is divided into sections mirroring the lunar cycle: New Moon, First Quarter Moon, Full Moon, and Last Quarter Moon. This journey from childhood to maidenhood is like the moon: at times dark, at other times shimmering with reflected light.  Twelve-year-old Celestina Rivera lives in East Oakland with her father of Puerto Rican heritage, mother of Mexican ancestry, and younger brother Juju. Magda, a drummer in her bomba class is "better than my best friend," and "my best echo." The two are inseparable.

Culture, Identity, and Menstruation

Hands Up! by Breanna J. McDaniel ill Shane W. Evans

Breanna J. McDaniel takes an expression laden with negative connotations and turns it inside out and right-side up. Each page is filled with positive, self-affirming actions with Hands Up! Meet a little charmer as she lifts her tiny hands to the sun, plays peek-a-boo, and helps get ready for the day. Time passes. Now school age, she reaches up for a book high on the shelf, jumps to grab the basketball, and raises her arms in worshipful praise. There are moments when hands are extended to help her when she falls. The book concludes with a tribute to the power of raising consciousness through hands holding signs of peaceful protest. ​We begin small, but we grow big.  Together we are mighty. High fives all around, hands up!

Dynamic Duo

Together Diggs and Evans have created picture books joyfully celebrating children of color.

Raise Your Hands. Raise Your Voice.