A yearly round up of recommended children's picture books and middle grade fiction for 2022.
Bookcase Bizarro: Children’s Book Reviews November 2022
This month, we compare ourselves to excavators, tin cans and mushrooms, attempt to take over the world, await the birth of a new Ojibwe horse, confront scheduling challenges with Spider-man, fight ghosts with a ghost-zapping light, learn the difference between being in a street gang and becoming a baker's apprentice, and revisit an historical pandemic.
Bookcase Bizarro: Children’s Book Reviews October 2022
This month, we plant a city garden in 1950s Brooklyn, NY, during The Great Migration, search for an aurora on a cold winter's night and hide from the scary things that drift down from the ceiling when the lights go out. We re-discover the meaning of family and connection through the eyes of a girl who is possibly somewhere on the autism/Asperger's spectrum, and the various people she touches with her very practical generosity. We fight racism with Superman and experience a whole different kind of heroics rowing alongside a working class athlete during the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. True to our ever-evolving format, Bookcase Bizarro is pleased to announce a new feature: Tween and Teen Non-Fiction, with a focus on narrative non-fiction for older readers.
Bookcase Bizarro: Children’s Book Reviews September, 2022
This month, we move to the country and make friends with an artist, walk the paths of a lost community, get a first job, fight a few wars, and become a secret rebel with a band of underground artists as well as a lunch lady. We also shine a spotlight on graphic novelist Jarrett J. Krosoczka, whose tween/YA memoir shines it's own light on family addiction.
Bookcase Bizarro: Children’s Book Reviews July, 2022
This month, we celebrate carnival and the birth of a new baby, run wild through the summer streets of Brooklyn, remember a beloved grandfather, are sorely tempted by a website that grants wishes, go down a very different kind of rabbit hole, watch art come to life, and fight the power with a band of magically-deprived 'troubled' girls. We also ask the question: what is solarpunk?