Illustrated by Violeta Encarnación 5 stars A beautiful picture book that celebrates a young girl’s connections to her grandmother, her ancestors, nature, and hoodoo. It’s the end of the school year and Juniper can’t wait to get away from the bullies at her school and visit her grandmother for the summer. There she will connect…
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4 stars So weird. When a Haddesley patriarch dies, he is released into the bog. In return, the bog produces a bog wife for the new patriarch to continue the compact between the two entities. At least, that’s how the Haddesley siblings have been told it’s supposed to happen. But when their father dies, the…
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by Carina Wohlleben 2 stars An okay read. Originally published in German, I feel like the translated title is a bit misleading. The book focuses on arguments for veganism and connecting more with nature. There isn’t a whole lot in the Buy Less and Slow Down departments. It also comes from a very privileged perspective…
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Illustrated by Sonia Lynn Sadler 3 stars A beautiful picture book detailing the life and activism of Wangari Maathai. Stunning artwork. Beautiful use of color. The natural aesthetic perfectly matches the themes of the text. Nicely written. It is quite a long picture book with some wordy pages, but it includes a great amount of…
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4 stars A beautiful collection of poetry celebrating the beauty of gardens, flowers, nature, and the seasons. While the collection focuses on gardens and nature, themes of death and love are also mixed in, rounding out the reading experience. The majority of the poets included are American as well as a few European poets and…
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Selected by Ella Risbridger Illustrated by Anna Shepeta 3 stars A nice anthology of poetry from a variety of poets from around the globe and across time. Includes some classic poets like Emily Dickinson, Sappho, and Christina Rossetti, more modern voices like Amanda Gorman, Joy Harjo, and Mary Oliver, and some new voices including poems…
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Illustrated by Sonia Lynn Sadler 3 stars I checked this out from the library because I love reading about Maathai’s work and activism. This book is an expansion of Sadler and Johnson’s picture book, Seeds of Change: Wangari’s Gift to the World. This is the first of Lee & Low’s The Story Of series that I’ve…
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by Franck Prévot Illustrated by Aurélia Fronty Translated by Dominique Clément 5 stars Originally published in French, this wonderful picture book biography celebrates the life of Wangari Maathai and her impact on the world. The book follows Maathai’s childhood in Kenya, her atypical education, founding the Green Belt Movement, and her activism to promote environmentalism,…
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4 stars I have been enjoying slowly making my way through Oliver’s collections. While I absolutely adore her nature poetry, I was pleasantly surprised by this collection’s themes of love and relationships. Wonderfully crafted, these short poems leave the reader with a wonderful sense of calm. A sweet collection celebrating the joys of love and…
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4 stars Another stunning collection from Oliver. I especially love her musings and observations of nature. The way she describes birds is absolutely perfect. Themes of this collection include nature, love, death, and aging. A few of my favorite poems here are “Porcupine”, “In a Dark Wood: Wood Thrushes”, “Stories”, and “I Looked Up”. A…
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