Zero by Katryn Otoshi
Zero is a big round number. When she looks at herself, she just sees a hole right in her center. Every day she watches the other numbers line up to count: “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 . . . !” “Those numbers have value. That’s why they count,” she thinks. But how could a number worth nothing become something? Zero feels empty inside. She watches One having fun with the other numbers. One has bold strokes and squared corners. Zero is big and round with no corners at all. “If I were like One, then I could count too,” she thinks. So she pushes and pulls, stretches and straightens, forces and flattens herself, but in the end she realizes that she can only be Zero. As budding young readers learn about numbers and counting, they are also introduced to accepting different body types, developing social skills and character, and learning what it means to accept yourself and others.
KO Kids Books, 2010, 32 pp., hardcover $17.95 Books for Children ages 9–12
Toby Alone by Timothee De Fombelle, illustrated by Francois Place
Toby Lolness may be just one and a half millimeters tall, but he’s the most wanted person in his world—the world of the great oak Tree. Toby’s father has made a groundbreaking discovery; that the Tree itself is alive, flowing with vital energy, and there may even be a world beyond it. Greedy developers itch to exploit this knowledge, risking permanent damage to their natural world. Toby’s family has been exiled to the lower branches, and only Toby has managed to escape—but for how long? “The impressive debut novel from French playwright de Fombelle deftly weaves mature political commentary, broad humor, and some subtle satire into a thoroughly enjoyable adventure.” — Publishers Weekly
Candlewick Press, 2010, 384 pp., paperback $8.99 Also available: the sequel, Toby and the Secrets of the Tree, hardcover $16.99
Truce The Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting by Jim Murphy
A book about the “Christmas truce” in World War I, when German and English soldiers came out of their trenches, talked, sang, and celebrated together. Conveys the horror and pointlessness of the war without being too gruesome. Murphy tells of the war, its course until then, the commander’s reactions, and of the effect the truce had on the opposing soldiers. A thoughtful anti-war book.
Scholastic, 2009, 116 pp., hardcover $19.99
47 by Walter Mosley
Number 47, a fourteen-year-old slave boy growing up under the watchful eye of a brutal master in 1832, meets the mysterious Tall John who claims he arrived by Sun Ship on Earth. He introduces 47 to a magical science and teaches him the meaning of freedom. The story is part mystery, part historical fiction, and part science fiction.
Little Brown, 2005, 232 pp., paperback $7.99
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QUAKERBOOKS AUTUMN 2011
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