The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

I Am Not Afraid: Psalm 23 for Bedtime by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, illustrated by Marta Dorado Beaming Books, 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Jeff Gottesfeld Buy at Bookshop.org I first encountered Psalm 23 as a boy, reading a paperback World War II memoir I am sure was called "10,000 to 1," about an American B-17 navigator who was shot down and found himself wounded and alone on a Japanese-controlled island. The psalm gave him solace. In I Am Not Afraid , veteran author Sasso uses that famed, powerful, and comforting psalm for a short and simple text that is a variation on its timeless themes. She centers a young girl (Dorado's captivating art has her old enough to be in a regular bed and grown enough to have her toes touch the floor when she sits on the bed, old enough not to cry out instinctually to the mother we see at the book's outset, but young enough to sleep with a stuffed lamb, so...maybe age 10? 11?) who goes to bed, counts sheep, and then is beset by i...

Rosalind Looked Closer: An Unsung Hero of Molecular Science by Lisa Gerin, illustrated by Chiara Fedele Beaming Books (imprint of 1517 Media), 2022 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton   Buy at Bookshop.org   Rosalind Looked Closer follows the childhood, education, and accomplishments of British Jewish scientist Rosalind Franklin, who lived in the early- to mid-twentieth century. This narrative nonfiction book has a length and complexity that make it a good fit for the older end of the picture book audience.  Lisa Gerin’s text shows how a little girl with interest in science can overcome obstacles and develop into a woman whose research impacts the world. The repeating refrain “Rosalind always took a closer look” is fitting for both Rosalind’s passion as a scientist and for her accomplishment of capturing the first images of DNA, something that she was not credited for because she was a woman. The story effectively shows how Rosalind, and all scientists,...