A Story A Story
By: Gail E. Haley
Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED
Many African stories, whether or not they are about Kwaku Ananse the "spider man", are called "Spider Stories". This book is about how that came to be.
The African storyteller begins: "We do not really mean, we do not really mean that what we are about to say is true. A Story, a story; let it come, let it go."
And it tells that long, long ago there were no stories on earth for children to hear. All stories belonged to Nyame, the Sky God. Ananse, the Spider man, wanted to buy some of these stories, so he spun a web up to the sky and went up to bargain with the Sky God. The price the Sky God asked was Osebo, the leopard of-the-terrible-teeth, Mmboro the hornet who-stings-like-fire, and Mmoatia the fairy whom-men-never-see.
How Ananse paid the price is told in a graceful and clever text, with forceful, lovely woodcut illustrations.
From the dust jacket
The Angry Moon
By: William Sleator
Illustrated by: Blair Lent
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
The Moon is the villain this imaginative legend. An Indian girl who dares to laugh at the Moon's face is spirited away and made his prisoner. In fear and anger, her friend Lupan shoots his arrows into the sky all that night. The arrows link into a ladder which Lupan climbs into the sky country. With the aid of an old grandmother and her magic, Lupan finds his way to Lapowinsa and frees her. Their flight across the sky country, pursued by the angry Moon, is a triumph of their wits and the grandmother's magic.
Blair Lent has adapted Tlingit Indian designs into his full color paintings of the sky country, and of the Indian characters and Alaskan settings. They lend a haunting vitality to the legend, adapted expressly for the artist by William Sleator. The Angry Moon is an extraordinary experience that touches both earth and sky with wild beauty and imagination.
From the dust jacket
★
REVIEW TEAM FAVORITE
Frog and Toad Are Friends
By: Arnold Lobel
Honor
Reviewed by: Sara Masarik
Also read and recommended by: Christine Kallner, Lara Lleverino, Sandy Hall, Sherry Early
Such a simple, lovely friendship - it is no wonder that so many people today have such a fondness for these two friends.
Read full review
In The Night Kitchen
By: Maurice Sendak
Honor
Reviewed by: Deanna Knoll
This is an odd book...full of imaginative people baking a cake in someone's dreams. I found a lot of the imaging personally disturbing and would not choose to read or keep this book on our shelves.
