booktalk Archives - Page 1274 of 1347

The Girl Who Drank the Moon
by Kelly Barnhill (Author)

Booktalk: This middle grade book won the Newbery Medal!

Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the Forest, Xan, is kind. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon. Xan rescues the children and delivers them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey.

One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. As Luna’s thirteenth birthday approaches, her magic begins to emerge–with dangerous consequences. Meanwhile, a young man from the Protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Deadly birds with uncertain intentions flock nearby. A volcano, quiet for centuries, rumbles just beneath the earth’s surface. And the woman with the Tiger’s heart is on the prowl . . .

Snippet: Normally, the Day of Sacrifice came and went with with all the pomp and gravity that it ought. The children were given over without protest. Their numb families mourned in silence, with pots of stew and nourishing foods heaped into their kitchens, while the comforting arms of neighbors circled around them to ease their bereavement.

Normally, no one broke the rules.

But not this time.

Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
by Javaka Steptoe (Author / Illustrator)

Booktalk: A picture book biography won the Caldecott Award!

Jean-Michael Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City.

Snippet: Somewhere in Brooklyn, between hearts
that thump, double dutch, and hopscotch
In his house, you can tell that a serious ARTIST dwells
As he sits at a table with pencils scattered everywhere.

It’s Nonfiction Monday!