Picture Book

Good Night, Commander

The Commander has lost his mother and one of his legs in the Iran-Iraq war. Now he spends most of his time alone in his room where he recreates the conflict with an imaginary enemy and soldiers, trying to avenge his losses. His father urges him to take off his artificial leg when he is at home, to join his uncles and aunties who have arrived for dinner. But when he does, he finds out that they are all about to go off to meet his “new mother.” Back in his room the imaginary war continues, and he confronts an enemy soldier who is also missing a limb. A battle seems inevitable until The Commander offers the enemy his artificial leg.

See the reviews at WOW Review, Volume 2, Issue 4 & Volume 5, Issue 3.

Goal!

A lyrical, strikingly illustrated story celebrates the unifying power of soccer. In a dusty township in South Africa, Ajani and his friends have earned a brand-new, federation-size soccer ball. They kick. They dribble. They run. They score. These clever boys are football champions! But when a crew of bullies tries to steal their ball, will Ajani and his friends be able to beat them at their own game?

Willow’s Whispers

Willow’s voice, soft and shy as a secret, goes unheard by everyone at school and causes her to no end of troubles. (Having to drink orange juice at snack time when she has asked to nicely for apple is just one disappointment.) After a night of wishing, thinking and planning for a way to make louder words, Willow wakes the next morning with the perfect idea: a magic microphone! But although she fashions if from the sturdiest recyclables, her beglittered invention doesn’t last the school day. Will Willow find another way to make herself heard?

The Red Scarf

Amazing stories can be told with almost no words, as Anne Villeneuve demonstrates in The Red Scarf, originally published in French as L’echarpe rouge. One day, a taxi driver finds a red scarf left behind in his cab by a customer. Determined to find the scarf’s owner, the cabbie unknowingly walks into a world filled with strange characters: a friendly lizard, a mischievous bear, a fearsome lion and his tamer, a daredevil, and a mysterious magician. Before he knows it, the cabbie becomes part of the show. Young readers will relish this almost wordless picture book about a seemingly ordinary day, which quickly turns into an extraordinary adventure.

Mortimer (Board Book)

Even after his mother, his father, his brothers and sisters, and even two policemen try to get Mortimer to be quiet and go to sleep, he still insists on making noise.

The revised text and child-friendly format make it appropriate for preschoolers, but it retains all the humor of the original story .

Edgar Potato

If you knew you were to read a story of a Prince Edward Island potato that had grown too big, you would be able to predict the rest: his peer potatoes would give him a hard time, right? Right. But in the end he would win out, right? Right again, in fact the prize for the Potato Beauty Contest. There is not too much to be put in the middle of such predictability, but Don Oickle has made a good effort. Because Edgar Potato is so near the surface, he gets to see and experience much of the lovely Prince Edward Island scenery. This makes up in part for the insults he receives from his smaller neighbour potatoes. He will not, they jeer, be able to become a wonderful baked or French fried or instant mashed potato. His fate will be to be made into pig food. After winning his beauty prize, Edgar’s last comment is “Maybe being bigger than all the others isn’t so bad after all!

50 Burning Questions

A red-hot feast of fiery facts — the first book in Annick’s new 50 Questions seriesIf we took the time to examine flames in our world — fires that have built civilizations, sparked entire religions and literally changed the surface of the Earth — can you imagine how many questions we would have? The 50 questions in this book may be just the beginning, but they will intrigue and excite young readers.From “Who’s for dinner?” (before mastering fire, humans were more likely to be prey than predators) to “Who were the first firefighters?” (Romans over 2,000 years ago), the amazing questions and answers in this book reveal fire’s crucial role in our world.With a humorous touch (“Who was the first hairy potter?”), Tanya Lloyd Kyi presents fascinating facts alongside innovative activities for kids, like sending breath through a glass jar and playing spy games with a flashlight. Sidebars turn up the heat on the subject, while comical illustrations make for a fun and fiery visual presentation.