Category Archives: picture books

Read This!: CALL YOUR FATHER by Tracy C. Gold and Vivian Mineker

Authors You Should Know, picture books, Read This, Reviews

Call Your Father: A Tender Picture Book for DadsCall Your Father: A Tender Picture Book for Dads by Tracy C. Gold
Summary: From life’s highs to life’s lows, there’s one person who is always the first one we call: our father. He’s the one we want to comfort us, to wipe our tears, and to share our triumphs. Whether it’s falling off your bike or building your first crib, you can never have too many reasons to call your father. In this beautiful and relatable picture book, follow a father and son through the years as they face each new stage of life together. Accompanied by gentle rhymes from Tracy C. Gold and tender illustrations from Vivian Mineker, this book delivers the powerful and touching message that you are never too old to need your father. The perfect gift for the fathers or grandfathers in your life who always answer the call, this picture book just might make dad cry.

A poignant companion to Gold and Mineker’s previous collaboration, Call Your Mother, this book is a perfect gift for father figures of all kinds. We follow the protagonist from the time he is a little baby rolling on the rug, babbling “Ba ba ba! Da da da!” through the challenges of growing up, from skinned knees to speaking up for classmates, and on into the college years and ultimately becoming a father himself. At every stage, the refrain is the same: “Call your father”…and he always shows up. Gold’s moving text, accompanied by Mineker’s colorful illustrations, shows how the details of Dad’s support might change over the years, but his caring presence remains constant.

CALL YOUR FATHER is out now.

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Read This!: THE GALLAUDET ELEVEN by Kerry O’Malley Cerra

ASL/Deaf Culture Book Reviews, Authors You Should Know, picture books, Read This, Reviews

The Gallaudet Eleven: The Story of NASA's Deaf BioastronautsThe Gallaudet Eleven: The Story of NASA’s Deaf Bioastronauts by Kerry O’Malley Cerra. Illustrated by Kristina Gehrmann
Summary: Take a look inside one part of the journey to the moon, and meet the Gallaudet Eleven: the brave volunteers who helped make it possible. These hidden figures played an important role in NASA’s research, and it was their shared disability that made them so vital to the plan: their vestibular systems, a part of the inner ear, did not work, meaning they did not get motion sick. The Gallaudet Eleven were the perfect volunteers for NASA’s spinning, whirling tests to learn the effects of space travel on the human body.

In this groundbreaking nonfiction picture book, Deaf author Kerry O’Malley Cerra and Deaf illustrator Kristina Gehrmann bring forth the long-overlooked story of eleven Deaf men who participated in NASA experiments for ten years to help researchers understand motion sickness. The text lays out the hows and whys in an engaging and child-friendly way, incorporating quotes from the bioastronauts themselves and leaning into the humor. Gehrmann’s illustrations capture the joy and humor as well; one memorable spread shows the Deaf bioastronauts, chosen because of their inability to feel motion sickness, gleefully playing cards while the researchers on their ship loll in bed, too sick to work during a churning storm. It’s a readaloud perfect for the classroom, with lots of extension possibilities in the backmatter, including an author’s note, more facts, and a timeline of the Space Race. The book is also an ideal springboard for discussion about who gets to participate in scientific study. Quite simply an essential nonfiction picture book.

THE GALLAUDET ELEVEN is out now.

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Read This!: DREAMS TAKE FLIGHT by Brittany Richman and Alisha Monnin

ASL/Deaf Culture Book Reviews, Authors You Should Know, picture books, Read This, Recommended Reading, Reviews,

Dreams Take Flight: The Story of Deaf Pilot Nellie Zabel Willhite (Own Voices, Own Stories)Dreams Take Flight: The Story of Deaf Pilot Nellie Zabel Willhite by Brittany Richman and Alisha Monnin
Summary: After losing her hearing at four and following a tumultuous education, Nellie Zabel was introduced to the world of flight while working at the Sioux Falls airport. The planes and pilots captured her imagination as she watched them sail alongside the birds. With some encouragement, she enrolled in pilot training–carefully tailoring the courses to accommodate her deafness. In 1928, she took off on her own, becoming the first female pilot in South Dakota–and the first deaf pilot in the nation.

This lovely nonfiction picture book tells the true story of Nellie Zabel Willhite, who became the first licensed deaf pilot in the US. The world was far from accommodating when she was growing up as a deaf child in the early 1900s, but with a combination of her own persistence and the support of caring adults, she got an education and found a job. But when she finally took the flying lessons she had been dreaming of, her life took off. This story features an inspiring woman at its center, but it is also a great discussion-starter about intersectional identities and the various barriers that marginalized people throughout history have faced.

DREAMS TAKE FLIGHT is out now.

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Read This!: WE ARE THE SCRAPPY ONES by Rebekah Taussig and Kirbi Fagan

ASL/Deaf Culture Book Reviews, Authors You Should Know, picture books, Read This, Recommended Reading, Reviews,

We Are the Scrappy OnesWe Are the Scrappy Ones by Rebekah Taussig and Kirbi Fagan
Summary:  We are the scrappy ones. / We live, we adapt, we defy. / Made of stardust and grit, we are spectacular. 
Children with disabilities experience the world in all kinds of ways. Yet one thing they share is navigating a world that doesn’t always make space for them as they are. Existing on the edges can feel unfair—and downright exhausting. And at the exact same time, it can also foster creativity, resourcefulness, and adaptability. In a word, scrappiness.

In lyrical prose overflowing with gorgeous imagery, author and disability advocate Rebekah Taussig celebrates the unique and authentic experiences of children with disabilities: “We might move slowly or in zigzags, but we thrum our own tempos to beautiful songs.” Taussig’s text flows with Kirbi Fagan’s evocative pastel, colored pencil, and collage illustrations, which showcase the diversity of the disability experience. Yes, medical devices, wheelchairs, hearing aids, and guide dogs appear, but always the focus is on the agency of the children interacting with their world. This book is a glorious ode to the spirit of disabled children, acknowledging that “[the] burden we carry is the weight of a world that wasn’t built with us in mind.” Especially powerful is the section highlighting “revolutionaries thinking of you before you were born, fighting to get this world ready for you.” (Those revolutionaries, all members of the disability community, are featured in more detail in the back matter and each one is someone all kids and adults should learn about!) The core message is as simple as it is necessary: you are not alone. A beautiful, moving, and necessary picture book for all collections.

WE ARE THE SCRAPPY ONES is out now.

Bonus recommendation: Check out my review of Rebekah Taussig’s excellent memoir, Sitting Pretty.

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Read This!: MONSTER HANDS by Karen Kane, Jonaz McMillan, and Dion MBD

American Sign Language, ASL/Deaf Culture Book Reviews, Authors You Should Know, picture books, Read This, Recommended Reading, Reviews

Monster HandsMonster Hands by Karen Kane, Jonaz McMillan, and Dion MBD
Summary: When nighttime comes, Milo has a problem—he’s convinced there’s a monster under his bed! Luckily, his best friend Mel knows just what to do—scare the monster more than the monster scares you! So using shadow puppets on the wall, Mel and Milo make monster hands that roar, chomp and even laugh to scare the monster away. But uh oh! What if the monster thinks this is funny! This is NOT funny! Milo has an idea to show the monster who’s boss once and for all. Together Milo and Mel hatch a plan to scare the monster away forever. But in the end, they discover the true cure to a monster problem is a best friend who will stand and face it with you.

What do you do when there’s a scary monster under the bed? Scare it away, of course! Milo and his friend Mel communicate in American Sign Language from their neighboring windows, sharing ideas about what to do with that monster. This clever story features rhyming vocabulary in American Sign Language, and invites readers to sign along to scare that monster away. This book would be a terrific complement to interactive storytime classics like Ed Emberley’s Go Away, Big Green Monster! Check out the educator resource guide with more background information on the signs in the book here.

MONSTER HANDS is out now.

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