Three by Zetta Elliott

The Magic Mirror by Zetta Elliott. Illustrations by Paul Melecky. Rosetta Press, 2014. Review copy. Kamara suffers from the mean words of a boy at school until her Gramma comforts her and shows her the ancient mirror kept in a back bedroom of her old house. Kamara willingly cleans Gramma's mirror and discovers a magical storytelling window into her own family history. Generations of brave, heroic women have found the courage and determination to survive and overcome kidnapping, slavery,  oppression, discrimination and segregation. They fight for freedom, create communities, promote a renaissance of art, music and literature, contribute to building the American economy, support the war effort, struggle for Civil Rights, pursue education, and insist on dignity and freedom. Kamara is amazed and invigorated in the discovery of her history and her inheritance. Through the passing on of her family's stories, saved and treasured in the magic mirror, Kamara finds a way to value her own beauty and inherent worth. This is a delightful story perfect for middle grade readers eager to learn about history, culture, and the social power of discovering one's own strength through the network of family.

The Boy in the Bubble by Zetta Elliot. Illustrated by Nguyen Le Vu. Rosetta Press, 21014. Review copy. A Once Upon a Time story of friendship, loneliness, bravery, kindness and beauty. An unusual girl lives under a rock and wakes each morning to go out and discover beauty. A mysterious boy in a large, glistening bubble floats down out of the sky and starts up a conversation. The two explore the valley together as the boy asks the girl to describe how things feel, how they taste, how they smell. Of course, inevitably they have an argument followed by a sulky, sad separation. Then the boy comes back and heals the break. He finally has the courage to ask her to help him pop out of his lonesome bubble so they can travel and make music together. A very sweet story for young lovers of fairy tales.

The Girl Who Swallowed the Sun by Zetta Elliott. Illustrated by Bek Millhouse. Rosetta Press, 2014. Review copy. This one is a little more sad, and set in current history. Zoe and her daddy play a game each day, pretending that she swallowed the sun before he goes to work. He would tickle her until she laughed and let the sun back out to shine out from behind the clouds. "You're my sunshine and I love you," Daddy would always say." Then one day while daddy is at work in NYC the grownups at home start acting weird. Mama and Nana are listening to the news and the phone and crying SweetJesusSweetJesusSweetJesus. No one tells her what is wrong, they just tell her to go play. She thinks maybe she swallowed the sun for real. Her neighborhood is full of flags but no one is celebrating, and it is cloudy all the time. Daddy doesn't come home. At last her Mama pulls her into her lap and tells her the truth - about the terrible day thousands of people lost their lives, and Daddy was one of those people. They mourn together, and try to put the sun back in the sky. Mama says it is going to take a while, but everything will be alright. The story ends with comforting hugs between mother and child, and a hopeful note. A difficult subject but one that children need to bring us through and move us forward. Elliot shares on her blog her memories of hearing the news on 9/11, of the towers falling and the planes crashing. She stopped writing her dissertation and started reading stories for children. In the weeks that followed she wrote this story.

These three short early chapter books are perfect for primary and middle grade children, offering elements of fantasy and history with compelling characters and vivid descriptions of place and setting. Readers are quickly drawn into the story, the pacing is quick and the resolutions satisfying. Diverse characters are embraced in warm families as they work on building friendships and dealing with familiar challenges.

I nominated The Boy in the Bubble for a Cybils award in the Short Chapter Books category. The other two are still awaiting someone to nominate them!

Tomorrow, Oct. 15 2014 is the last day that Cybils nominations are open for the season. Have you checked to see if your favorites are on the lists? There are seven categories of the very best children's books published in the U.S. in 2014. This is your chance to make your nominations!! Round one judges (I am one!!) will select the top five to seven books in each category by Dec. 1, and then the Final judging selects just one winner in each, to be announced in February. Go check it out!