Best Part of Me: Children Talk About Their Bodies in Pictures and Words, written by M. Tingley

Gr 1-3-Third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students offer personal observations about their bodies. Entries look hand lettered and face a black-and-white photo of the body part featured. Camila Villasana likes her hair-"It's wavy like the ocean." Colette Cosner likes her hands "because they turn the pages of a book slowly and magically." Andrew Legge likes his legs because they "carry me a long way." The result is insight into how the children of varied ethnicities see themselves and take pride in their heritage.

Why the Sky is Far Away, written by Mary-Joan Gerson & Carl Golembe

This pourquoi tale, first told 500 years ago by the Bini tribe of Nigeria, has a topical message that is accessible to children without being heavy-handed. ``In the beginning,'' the sky was so close to the earth that anyone who was hungry could just reach up, take a piece, and eat it. The sky was delicious, tasting sometimes of meat stew, sometimes of roasted corn. But the people grew careless with the sky's gifts, taking more than they needed to satisfy their hunger. The sky grew angry, threatening to withhold its gifts if the people continued to waste them. True to its promise, the sky moved far away, and the Bini were forced to plow the fields and hunt the forest. Golembe's striking illustrations deepen and enrich this simple tale, adding immensely to the book's appeal.

Bippity Bop Barbershop, written by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley

What Natasha Anastasia Tarpley did for the mother-daughter bond in I Love My Hair! she now does for father and son in Bippity Bop Barbershop, illus. by E.B. Lewis. One full-bleed watercolor spread depicts three generations of men draped in purple barber's capes, each with his own distinguished hairstyle.

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