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For Ages 4 – 8
Down the Road by Alice Schertle; illustrated by E.B.
Lewis
In this gentle tale, a young girl's first
solo journey to the country store is not without its challenges
and mishaps. Hetty dutifully follows her parents's instructions
and carefully negotiates the road to the store. However, on
the way home, a tree full of juicy red apples diverts her
attention. What happens next will be reassuring to any child
who has stumbled on his or her journey to independence.
Feliciana Feydra Le Roux by Tynia Thomassie;
illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith
A lively tale of a spirited young Cajun
girl who is determined to join the menfolk on their annual
alligator hunt. When her doting grandfather ignores her pleas
("Poleez, pleez leeme go halligator huntin' wichoo.") Feliciana
takes matters into her own hands and sets off for the swamp
with her doll. All does not go well, but in the end Feliciana
saves the day.
On the Day I Was Born by Debbie Chocolate; illustrated
by Melodye Rosales
Love, affection and pride radiate from
the simple text and luminous illustrations in this book. It
captures the joy of an African-American family (both immediate
and extended) as they welcome a newborn child into the world.
For Young Adults
Cynthia Voight is an outstanding young-adult
fiction writer (Dicey's Song, The Runner, A Solitary Blue,
and others) and a Newberry Award-winner. Her stories resonate
with the plausible, the tragic, the comic, and the real. Her
narrative style is as entertaining as it is the soul of the
character. Each character has some hardship to overcome. In
Dicey's Song, the children are abandoned by their
mother at a grocery store to fend for themselves, and through
later books, Dicey helps share her outlook and what she's learned
with the other characters. The Wings of a Falcon
centers on a historical time with two young and homeless male
protagonists who seek their way in the world. |
From
Infancy to Independence Parents Support Group 