GDC Newsletter Updates
Jerry Flack’s Children’s Book Reviews
Peter Rabbit is very likely the most famous rabbit in all of children’s literature. He is no doubt as famous today as he was well over a century ago when children first discovered his naughty behavior. Peter is one of four young rabbits and the only son of Mrs. Rabbit. His well-behaved sisters are Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail. On a lovely morning, Mrs. Rabbit encourages her children to play, but she warns them to avoid Mr. McGregor’s garden, where their father met with an unfortunate accident. He ended up in one of Mrs. McGregor’s pies.
Glorious Shakespeare
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Shakespeare’s First Folio is one of the most exquisite publications for children in the past decade. It is sure to remain a classic in homes, classrooms, and libraries.
Diversity Within Diversity
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Kevin Noble Maillard uses bold verses to highlight important elements in his tribute to the delicacy that is the most celebrated food entree in the collective Native American diet. Fry bread is food, time, art, history, place, and nation.
The Power of Words
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Words can sing, exalt, encourage and cause children to soar. But, they can also sting, hurt, and cause children to stop believing in themselves and their dreams. BIG tells such a story. The picture book is proof that a book need not have a sea of words to be astonishing, triumphant, and forever memorable. It is, indeed, a book about words and the exceptional power they manifest.
The Most Infamous Art Theft Ever
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | The Mona Lisa Vanishes is history that reads very much like a mystery thriller; it is a quick page turner. Along the way there are fascinating insights into the creation of the painting, a time in the history of the portrait when it was not considered one of the Louvre’s great treasures, and why the Mona Lisa became the international sensation that she remains today well over a century after her intriguing theft and her miraculous recovery.
The Wonder of Trees
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Arboretum takes readers to many habitats and explorations of at least 150 of the world’s trees in the seven biomes where they flourish. Gifted readers will be delighted to have an accessible “museum” in their own homes or classrooms. Arboretum is the newest volume in a series of giant-sized nonfiction books that simulate the experience of visiting museums devoted to erudite fields of knowledge such as archaeology, history, oceanography, geography, botany, zoology, paleontology, and astronomy.
Halley’s Comet
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Cosmic Wonder is an excellent fusion of several sciences (astronomy, biology, botany, geology, zoology) and history (anthropology and archaeology). Author-Illustrator Ashley Behnam-Yazdani reveals the astronomical history and point of view of the most famous comet in our solar system while she also forges a stunning visual timeline of the evolution of early Earthlings and the growth of humanity, the dominant species on our planet.
The King of Letters
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | There Was a Party for Langston is not so much a juvenile biography of
Langston Hughes as it is a celebration of his profound legacy as a word maker and his influence on generations of African-American authors and poets such as James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, and Alex Haley.
Two Good Girls
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | The most recent Book of the Month column in the Gifted Development Center publication (December, 2023) was titled “Two Bad Boys.” As promised, the Book of the Month column begins the new year, 2024, with a tribute to “Two Good Girls.”
Madeline and Eloise are two of the most gifted and assertive girls in the history of 20th century picture books.
Two Bad Boys Explore Santa Questions
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | In a new secular Christmas book, Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen encourage questioning and brainstorming about the countless ways Santa Claus may make his annual Christmas Eve visit to all good girls and boys. No children are left out even if their homes are tropical residences made of grass, pueblos made of mud bricks, or urban high-rises made entirely of steel and glass.
A Great Hero and Patriot: Tammy Duckworth
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Ladda Tammy Duckworth is one of the most heroic persons to ever sit in the Congress of the United States. She is an incredible role model for women, persons with severe disabilities, critically wounded soldiers and veterans, gifted children and adults, and citizens of bi-racial ancestry. A Life of Service is a book to be read by all readers who admire courage and extraordinary giftedness realized.
Australia’s Great Reefs
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | A Is for Australian Reefs is a wonderful example of the alphabet book genre. It is filled with revealing information, cogent and insightful writing, and brilliantly colorful illustrations.
How Do You Spell Memorable?
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Academic competitions are part of the lifeblood of many programs for gifted students and perhaps the most famous such event is the Scripps National Spelling Bee. How Do You Spell Unfair? is a beautifully written and illustrated picture book tribute to a brave young girl who was the first African American finalist in the National Spelling Bee.
Mathematics + Poetry = A Dynamic Duo
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Betsy Franco is a prolific author of more than 80 books for children, including several titles that combine mathematics and science with poetry. Priscilla Tey’s frolicsome illustrations superbly complement the text of Counting in Dog Years. Readers will have an amusing time visiting familiar mathematical functions and perhaps even learn a few new “sassy” math terms and tricks.
America’s Gift to the World
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Reading for gifted youths is basically divided into two major genres: fiction and nonfiction. The essence of fiction is storytelling and the primary format is the use of the narrative voice. Nonfiction writing may use either exposition or narration. Expository writing is information based. One of the characteristics of expository writing is the presence of extensive author research. The text introduces and explains information that may be new to students.
Hello Lighthouse
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Lighthouses along the coasts of the North Atlantic, especially from New York to Newfoundland, are portrayed in this luminous and highly informative picture book. They serve as steadfast sentinels that from dusk to dawn send out the life-saving message, “Hello, Hello, Hello” to ships at sea that may be in peril in all kinds of weather.
Farmhouse: Stories brought to Life
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Sophie Blackall has a rare visual talent for bringing old stories to life for contemporary readers in her remarkable history-oriented picture books. Farmhouse explores a time in the distant past when a family of mother, father, and their 12 children made a white clapboard farmhouse the center of their lives. In simple verse and inspired images, Blackall celebrates the plain yet loving lives of a large family on a real farm in upstate New York.
An Enduring Classic: The Westing Game
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | The Westing Game is one of the all-time favorite Newbery Medal-winning books. Originally published in 1978, Ellen Raskin’s final book is a novel of delight that should be introduced to each new generation of readers. The Westing Game is much more than a mystery novel. It is a puzzle, a word mystifier, a game to be played, and a work of fiction filled with delightfully eccentric characters of multiple disguises, aliases, and even at least one case of mistaken identity. One of the particularly relevant features of this classic work of juvenile fiction is the presence of four highly gifted teens among the cast of unlikely game players.
The Poet Who Was Green
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | “The Poem Forest” is a picture book biography of W. S. Merwin (1927-2019), an exceptionally gifted man who adeptly combined his life passions for poetry, literary translations, and the wilderness.