Dancing Hands

As a little girl, Teresa Carreño loved to let her hands dance across the beautiful keys of the piano. If she felt sad, music cheered her up, and when she was happy, the piano helped her share that joy. Soon she was writing her own songs and performing in grand cathedrals. Then a revolution in Venezuela forced her family to flee to the United States. Teresa felt lonely in this unfamiliar place, where few of the people she met spoke Spanish. Worst of all, there was fighting in her new home, too the Civil War.

Featured in WOW Review Volume XIII, Issue 4.

Blue Planet: Life in Our Oceans and Rivers

Every creature in the ocean—from the tiny snail to the enormous blue whale—depends on water for survival. This engaging book introduces children to the animals that live in the world’s oceans, rivers, lakes, and ponds. It also presents fascinating facts about the water cycle, different modes of transportation in water, and how water is prepared for drinking.

At the Mountain’s Base

A family, separated by duty and distance, waits for a loved one to return home in this lyrical picture book celebrating the bonds of a Cherokee family and the bravery of history-making women pilots.

The Chicken Thief

When a fox steals a chicken, her friends are determined to rescue her. Rooster, Bear and Rabbit negotiate forests, climb mountains and cross the sea to get her back. But it becomes perfectly clear that chicken and fox love each other, as chicken explains most eloquently-in a book entirely without words.

The Lazy Friend

The sloth lives in the jungle with some excellent friends who care about him very much. When the sloth’s tree is cut down and he is taken away on a truck, his friends must do everything they can to get him home safely. He leads them on an enormous adventure, even if he is asleep the whole time.

Rooster’s Revenge

A seafaring adventure! A storm! Giant turtles! Glowing slugs! A tale of excitement and surprise, Rooster’s Revenge follows The Chicken Thief, and Fox and Hen Together. Together with Bear and Rabbit, the disappointed Rooster makes his way home over the sea when a terrific storm hits. After running aground in the storm, the trio finds themselves in a strange cave. Rooster notices a mysterious glowing ball. What kind of a ball is it? Will it lead them to safety or to more trouble? And will the friends ever find their way home? This illustrated offering from Béatrice Rodriguez is a surprising guide to mending a broken heart. Rooster’s Revenge is the third title in the Fox and Hen series and the fourth in a Stories Without Words series.

Animal Village

The story is especially relevant to sub-Saharan Africa as it focuses on the devastation of drought and the importance of received knowledge. With its dual themes of wisdom and grit, the book happily entertains while it teaches the importance of hard work and persistence as keys to success.

The Lost Words

In 2007, when a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary ― widely used in schools around the world ― was published, a sharp-eyed reader soon noticed that around forty common words concerning nature had been dropped. Apparently they were no longer being used enough by children to merit their place in the dictionary. The list of these “lost words” included acorn, adder, bluebell, dandelion, fern, heron, kingfisher, newt, otter, and willow. Among the words taking their place were attachment, blog, broadband, bullet-point, cut-and-paste, and voice-mail. The news of these substitutions ― the outdoor and natural being displaced by the indoor and virtual ― became seen by many as a powerful sign of the growing gulf between childhood and the natural world.