Center for Children's Literature Blog

Enemy Child is about a Japanese-American boy in World War II. His family was taken to the camps that Japanese people were put in after Pearl Harbor. What makes this book special is that it tells the story of the person, and it’s a real story. It gives his emotions of what he felt during that time. What I liked most about this book is the way he shares his feelings.

I absolutely adored this book. There are little to no young adult books about segregation in South Africa, and I was so excited when I learned the premise of the book. “When the Ground is Hard” didn’t disappoint or lower my expectations whatsoever and Nunn’s novel was an excellent example of storytelling while still displaying a point.

I loved this book. It was so cool! The astronaut, Alan, went to the moon, and then painted pictures of being on the moon with bright colors. This book is a non-fiction book; it happened for real! My favorite part of the book was the pictures and the footprints Alan’s boots left in the moon dust

This book was different because it had NO WORDS! My mom and I made a story up of a dad and his son going on a fishing trip. They see a big whale in danger. The son says, “WE HAVE TO HELP!” So the dad and some other people save the whale. When the dad is swimming back, he looks tired, and so the son has to save him. In the end the whale jumps out of the water to say: “Thank you for saving me!”

Our young reviewer has this to say about Louise Greig’s book “Sweep.” I like that Ed decides not to be in a bad mood and I also like that he thinks twice about his bad mood. I like the pictures because they are very beautiful with the hot air balloons and the fair.

Lenny’s Book of Everything was inspiring and eye-opening. I particularly enjoyed this book because it highlights the love one experiences when being part of a family: sibling and mother love.

Filled with humor, this book shares the harsh realities of life in the arctic and how polar bears survive. One of young reviewers said, “It has good information with a lot of action. I like the parts about eating. How to eat a seal was funny and I didn’t know that walrus meat was tough.”

I found this book extremely fun and entertaining to read. Although the story was told through poetry, I was still able to get a sense of different characters, settings, and picture the descriptions in my head. The fast-paced poetry was an exciting and interesting platform of telling Güero’s story, and the conflicts were well explained.

Stefano liked the part when the mom and baby were walking around and found the library. When they first got there they first felt nervous and were confused, but the library became like a home to them where they felt happy, excited and smart, because books help you learn things and reading is awesome.