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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | “Jackie” (Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy) and the Mona Lisa (Lisa Gherardini) are two of the most beloved women in the world. One of the advantages of fact-based picture books is that they serve all ages of gifted readers. Children can simply enjoy the story line and acquire new information. Older readers can use such books as points of departure to engage in fascinating research. Jackie and the Mona Lisa is just such a book.

Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | On July 15, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) rewrote their records to declare Jim Thorpe as the sole winner of the gold medals for the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Stockholm Games. On that historic day, Jim Thorpe became the first Native American to win Olympic gold medals. He completely dominated his two Olympic events. Sweden’s King Gustav V presented Thorpe with his medals and said to the young champion, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.”

Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Ella in the Garden of Giverny presents a delightful story of a young American girl in the early 20th century who is befriended by the creator of Impressionism, Claude Monet. Daniel Fehr smartly integrates Ella’s first-person narrative with an extended dialogue using the voices of Ella and of Monet, who becomes her mentor.

Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Award-winning author, Sally M. Walker, employs one of the most widely known and used verse forms to take students on a poetic trip into space, near and far, far away. Further, she devotes a large part of Out of This World to an exploration of space using informative prose to help gifted readers further explore and better understand the extraordinary space phenomena initially introduced in her haiku poems.

Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | ‘Twas the Night Before PRIDE is an easy reading celebration of families from the all-inclusive LGBTQ+ population around the world.

Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Donna Barba Hilguera’s The Last Cuentista would be a standout book for middle-grade and secondary gifted readers in any year. The fact that it was the novel chosen to receive the Newbery Medal on the occasion of the American Library Association’s 100th Anniversary of the award, as well the 2022 Pura Belpre Award, add to its distinction.