MY SWEET-ORANGE TREE, children's classic not out of print since 1968

MY SWEET ORANGE TREE
JOSÉ MAURO de VASCONCELOS (tr. Alison Entrekin)
Pushkin Children's Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$15.95 paperback, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: A WORLDWIDE CLASSIC OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: a moving, life-affirming story of a mischevious boy from Brazil and the power of kindness and imagination.

Meet Zezé—Brazil's naughtiest and most loveable boy, his talent for mischief matched only by his great kindness.

When he grows up he wants to be a poet with a bow-tie, but for now, he entertains himself playing pranks on the residents of his family's poor Rio de Janeiro neighborhood and inventing friends to play with. Zezé’s pranks can be a little too mischievous – at least, so say his parents, who punish him harshly when he misbehaves. His father is out of work and the family unhappiness falls hardest on Zezé, the second-youngest of seven siblings. That is, until he meets a real friend, and his life begins to change. With the help of Pinkie, the talking orange tree, Manuel, who gives Zezé rides in his car, and with his own endless supply of resourcefulness and imagination, Zezé will triumph over any adversity.

This worldwide classic of children's literature has never been out of print in Brazil since it was first published in 1968. Translated into an astonishing number of languages, it has won the hearts of millions of young readers from Korea to Turkey, Poland to Thailand, and many other countries too, with its inimitable blend of the heart-rending and the whimsical.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Pinkie the orange tree stole my heart.

With a start, I scrambled up and stared at the little tree. It was strange because I always talked to everything, but I thought it was the little bird inside me that made everything talk back. ‘But can you really talk? ‘Can’t you hear me?’ And it gave a little chuckle. I almost screamed and ran away. But curiosity kept me there. ‘How do you talk?’ ‘Trees talk with everything. With their leaves, their branches, their roots. Want to see? Place your ear here on my trunk and you’ll hear my heartbeat.’ I hesitated a moment, but seeing its size, my fear dissipated. I pressed my ear to its trunk and heard a faraway tick… tick…

Magic...a message that, all by itself, makes me want to give this book to every eight-year-old on the planet. The sweetness, the charm...the truth-telling about trees and their ability to communicate that he could not have known when he wrote the book in the 1960s. (It came out in Brazil in 1968.)

As a lonely, neglected child in the 1920s, the author needed more than he found in his family. He was like Zezé, and it shows...the siblings almost old enough to be parents, the parents mostly gone...these resonate with millions of us. Zezé seeks out any- and everything as he quests for the human necessity of connection, communication, and affection.

There is the period-appropriate distant, minatory father, full of his own rage and not looking at Zezé as a person to be formed but a mouth to be fed. The happiness Zezé seeks won't come from the angry, punishing papa, or the moveable street singer, or even his immobile friend Pinkie the sweet-orange tree...but being an energetic, curious, bright child, he does find the role model/friend he seeks in Manuel.

It would raise eyebrows into hairlines today for an adult man to bond with. I get vey sad thinking about this because the result of our culture's deeply sick relationship to sex and sexuality makes most parents very suspicious...hostile...to adults interacting with their kids. No wonder society is so very fragmented and solitary, so unsympathetic...we beat the sunny curiosity and openness to love out of our Zezés.

Rant over. I'd like to leave you with a beautiful sentiment to clean outthe anger of 2025. Take this away with you, and gift it to that middle-grade child who seems lost but has little to do.

Gran had once said that happiness is a ‘sun shining in your heart’. And that the sun lit up everything with happiness. If it was true, the sun in my heart made everything beautiful.

GOLEMCRAFTERS, fascinating middle-grade fantasy about identity and acceptance

GOLEMCRAFTERS
EMI WATANABE COHEN
Levine Querido (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$11.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.5 of five

The Publisher Says: Emi Watanabe Cohen’s sophomore novel travels from the most awkward surface tensions to the beautiful depths of Jewish culture and lore for a tale of magical and emotional discovery.

On the same day Faye's brother comes home with a black eye, a package arrives from a relative they have never met. It's a slab of clay: some weird kind of bar mitzvah present?

The strange gift turns out to be an invitation to learn a craft that has been in their family for centuries. And it's not pottery.

Faye and Shiloh are driven to New York City by their grandfather for a spring break filled with magical instruction. But at night, they find themselves transported to a strange parallel world, where groups of innocent people are facing appalling hatred and violence. Are Faye and Shiloh destined to defend them?

How is that possible for a brainy, unpopular eleven-year-old and her vulnerable older brother?

It will take all the strength they can draw from their Jewish and Japanese heritage to not only crack the mystery of this alternate world but to find the power in them to confront the troubles of their present.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Fascinating remix of the well-known, always interesting, legend of the Golem. Imagine being Othered twice over: Japanese and Jewish so too Jewish for the Asian crowd, too not-Jewish for the Jews. The bullying, the name-calling, all terrible enough in middle school, get that much worse!

Shiloh comes home after being roughed up by bullies at school...at no time in the narrative do we see kids more than glancingly interact with their parents, which I recall tracks well with middle school behavior...to find his last bar mitzvah present waiting for him. It's from his father's father, whom he's never met, so of course he's intensely curious about it. It's decided, after it gets opened to reveal it's a big lump of clay, that the kids will go spend the summer coming up with their Zeyde, there to learn the family secret trade of golemcrafting...a trade I'd *literally*never*considered might exist, even in a fantasy world.

In this summer of learning about Zeyde, about their ethnic history, about magic and its workings, there's a fair old bit of Jewish historical trauma. Here's what I say to parents who think their children can't, or shouldn't, be exposed to traumatic historical facts: If they've ever watched the news at all, they already know the worst of what people can do to each other in god's name. Teach them, or let them learn about if you can't do it yourself, the history of how hate for the Other has warped and perverted societies. They'll know what to look out for if they've seen it before they can fall into it.

The author's unique heritage, like Shiloh and Faye's, is part of the reason she should bet trusted to tell your middle-grader about this blended identity, its struggles, and its rich rewards. Even if your child is not either of these ethnicities, this novel is a delightful fantasy work about a stern old mage teaching bumptious apprentices the whys, hows, and don'ts of magic. I've never met a middle-grader (look at the name, forevermore!) who didn't feel that awkward neither fish nor fowl unbelonging. This novel will give the reader of most all ages the strong sense of being seen in their social awkwardness.

As there is a lot of violence dealt with, discussed, but not shown directly, so as to make the middle-grade designation fit comfortably. There is also a very...pat...ending. I'm not sure I'd expect a fourteen-year-old not to complain about the kid-book vibe this presents, so be aware before gifting it up.

A solid performance from a writer gifted in making the tough parts feel manageable.

AARON SHEPARD'S 2nd PAGE: THE CRYSTAL HEART; THE LEGEND OF SLAPPY HOOPER

THE LEGEND OF SLAPPY HOOPER: An American Tall Tale
AARON SHEPARD (illus. Toni Goffe)
Skyhook Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$25.00 hardcover, $15.00 paperback

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: WINNER OF THE 2024 AESOP PRIZE FROM THE AMERICAN FOLKLORE SOCIETY

You'd better believe Slappy Hooper was the world's biggest, fastest, bestest sign painter. He was bestest because no one else ever made pictures so true to life. But some folks said they were too good when the pictures started coming alive!

Will Slappy have to give up sign painting for good? Or will a couple of timely jobs from the Heavenly Sign Company let him climb to even greater heights? Find out in this delightful tall tale from mid-20th-century Chicago.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Charming, slight tale about an extraordinary guy who impresses everyone with his skills.

Honestly, it's a tale for lap-readers and story hour at the library. I don't care for the art too much. The spreads are well designed to go with the text, and the images aren't outside the realm of reason the way comic-book images can be:

a good example of what's in store

...I'm just not feelin' it. I'll show you some more:

the bulk of the narrative looks like this

But there are exceptions to the sameyness:

this one's a stunner in context

...and there's a lovely payoff to end us up right. I liked the story fine, think your preschool nibling or grand will too, and the parents won't hate it.

Quite the farewell!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

THE CRYSTAL HEART: A Vietnamese Legend
AARON SHEPARD (illus. Joseph Daniel Fiedler)
Skyhook Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$25.00 hardcover, $15.00 paperback, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: As the daughter of a great mandarin, Mi Nuong leads a sheltered life. But one day, sitting in her tower, a song floats to her from a distant fishing boat on the river.

"My love is like a blossom in the breeze.
My love is like a moonbeam on the waves."

The voice is so beautiful, she knows the singer must be young and handsome—perhaps even a mandarin's son in disguise. Could it be that the song is for her? She longs to meet him, but how? And what will she find if she does?

In this poignant legend, a young lady discovers that appearances can deceive, but the heart speaks true.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: A folktale about self-deception and how easy it is to leave it to externalities to guide us. Being careful what you ask for, lest you get it, is a lesson that can never be repeated often enough.

how we are greeted

where we are

We're with a ranking official, a man of substance in his community whose marriageable daughter harrbors romantic illusuions as she contemplates beginning her life:

father and daughter

As time passes and impending marriage occupies her mind more and more, she hears a beautiful song in her tower fastness, a song of piercing musical and lyrical beauty, again and again. It obsesses her, consumes her, as thoughts of her marriage to a mandarin's son...quite a step up...meld with the beautiful voice. She consults oracles to see if she will marry a man with beauty like that she hears.

Omens must always be interpreted...so of course, we know what happens.

Does it all work out?

Yes; and no.

Nothing on this Earth is forever; no ending is not also a beginning.

Excellent lessons for young girls most especially in this culture that orders them to consider men their dreams, or their paths to getting dreams in reality. It's not like that, but it's not all bad.

AARON SHEPARD'S 1st PAGE: PRINCESS OF INDIA; THE SEA KING'S DAUGHTER

PRINCESS OF INDIA: An Ancient Tale (30th Anniversary Edition)
AARON SHEPARD (illus. Vera Rosenberry)
Skyhook Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$15.00 paperback, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: The ancient tale of one of bravest, cleverest heroines of all time.

Beauty and intelligence were the princess Savitri's, and eyes that shone like the sun. So splendid was she that people thought her a goddess. When at last she found a man worthy to wed her, no one could sway her from her heart's path—not even the god of death.

This lovely retelling, now in a 30th Anniversary Edition, presents a classic tale of devotion, courage, wit, and will from India's national epic, the Mahabharata. (Original picture book title: "Savitri: A Tale of Ancient India.")

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Lovely, simplified but not dumbed-down kid-friendly retelling of a small part of the Mahabharata: the life of Princess Savitri.

Savitri herself

A woman whose entire will is bent to achieving a goal can overcome her father's resistance, can even defeat the God of Death...her power is formidable. So how does she use it?

To keep her husband from being taken from her.

he seems nice

There are relatively few ideas in this book, except focus, clarity, and a cool head will help you achieve yuor goals:

focus even when facing a god

After adventures are had, you can keep your prize:

Is it beautiful? yes; do I like its gender politics? not a lot. All this effort and all she gets is a man? There's lots of those. It felt to me as though I was being overcritical all the way through. I'm pleased the pricess saves the boy, but this doesn't make me think we ought to put this on the minds of second-graders somehow.

But that's some stunning artwork! You'll get happy smiles from the art-lovin' youth and parents.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

THE SEA KING'S DAUGHTER: A Russian Legend
AARON SHEPARD (illus. Gennady Spirin)
Skyhook Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$15.00 paperback, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Sadko the musician loved his city of Novgorod, the richest and most free in all Russia.

With its great feasts, its white stone churches, its merchant visitors from many lands, Sadko felt there was no better place to be. Yet he was lonely too, for the rich young ladies who danced to his music would never favor anyone so poor.

One night he takes his twelve-string gusli and goes alone to play by the River Volkhov. Suddenly from the water rises the Sea King, who invites the astonished musician to play at his underwater palace. But how will Sadko get there? And how will he get back? And will he want to return at all, when he meets the Sea King's lovely daughter?

One of the most popular legends of Russia, Sadko's story is found in medieval epic ballads, as well as in a popular opera by Rimsky-Korsakov. It is retold here in elegant prose, complemented by the entrancing illustrations of a modern Russian master.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Poignant tale of love that cannot ever be, of being separated from one's love by things outside our control, and living on as well as one can. It's a sad story, but longing is a human emotion children resonate with. A tale with long, long cultural roots in the Russophone world for a very good reason...now brought quite stunningly to life with some of the most spectacular illustrations I've seen yet.

how we're greeted

As expected from Author Shepard, the language is lovely, lyrical, and ideal for that still-alert six-year-old who gets to lap-read it at naptime, down to a truly little one who needs it read at bedtime. This artwork makes it a great coffee-table book, one I'd display very prominently and proudly. Look:

Sadko; by the river; the storm

the Sea King; with daughter Volkhova

I am more than a little in love with this style of illustration. It is transporting to the world of the story. It gives us a real, visceral sense of the Otherness and impossinility of Sadko in his situation:

In common with all legends, this one is well-populated with interesting folk. This spread is the one I'd spend the longest staring at:

...possibly because Sadko looks very, um, provocative down in that corner.

Not inappropriate, invisible to kids, but makes me wonder what this message really is....

Something I think any parent with a lap-reader would thank you for giving to their kid. Grand, aunts, uncles all duly encouraged!

XOLO, the dog-headed lightning god's story told at last

XOLO
DONNA BARBA HIGUERA (illus. Mariana Ruiz Johnson)
Levine Querido (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$19.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: It is said the mighty feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl, helped create the earth. He is the hero who stole back the bones of humanity from the evil god of the Underworld. In his quest to bring humans to the earth, Quetzalcoatl's dog-headed twin brother, Xolotl, was present. Not much is known of Xolotl, the god of lightning, death, and misfortune. A monster.

This is what really happened.

From Newbery Medalist Donna Barba Higuera comes a singular twist on the Aztec myth of the origin of man—and man's best friend—illustrated throughout with stunning full-color art from Mariana Ruiz Johnson.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: A wonderful read (literally...full of wonders), a corrective to the more triumphal tellings of Quetzalcoatl's origin story, and a gorgeous object to possess.

It's a long one, by page count; it isn't a text-forward read, though. It occupies a middle ground I didn't realize existed, long page count made up of a narrative told in sequential graphic art but with some text. It's a step between a picture book and a graphic novel, aimed squarely at the reluctant reader with its very interesting untold mythological tale of gods and lightning.

Here is the story's genesis explained by author and illustrator:

I was enchanted from the get-go.

I want to schmoozle his doggie-god ears!

Gods need mom-hugs, too!

The story goes on from here, obviously, but it is a real book-length affair. I had a gracious plenty of art to choose from...Levine Querido is very generous...so I've looked through it a couple times and selected a few to demonstrate the feel of the project.

I strongly recommend all grands and parents think about this as a #Booksgiving gift for their story-loving descendants; their boys who seem more reluctant to engage with text; their mythology soakers; and not least themselves. I hope and expect it will teach any of us more about the Indigenous myths our Anglophone schools ignored, as well as pop your eyes out with its beauty.

a particularly effective, emotionally resonant design job; one turns the page to get to the second illustration

text-heavy narrative; sequential-art narrative

I'd go on; I'd love all y'all to see and enjoy the entire book. It's published on 4 November 2025, and this is posted on 3 November 2025 in hopes some will find the joy of the art, the unfamiliar story, and the sheer pleasure of such a work existing will magically spring open their wallets. Order now and you can (carefully) read it yourself before gifting to the kid(s) you love enough to present it to.

Pinkie-promise not to tell.