School Library Journal Starred Review

K-Gr 3--Another lovely autobiographical snippet from Polacco. The story centers around Trisha and her family as they make loving preparations for Hanukkah, especially her Grampa, who carves wooden toys for the children for each day of the Festival of Lights. When several families in their farm community come down with scarlet fever, Grampa and Babushka realize that their neighbors won't be able to celebrate their holiday properly and take Christmas trees and baskets of food to them. The blending of the two holidays is touching and heartfelt. Polacco's warmly detailed illustrations enrich this tender tale about the true nature of giving, of being good neighbors, and of celebration.--Ann Cook, Winter Park Public Library, FL

ALA Booklist (Sat Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 1997)

Nearly 30 years after poet and anthologist Adoff first published his classic core collection of black poetry, this new edition has been expanded to include 21 additional poets, 10 of them women. In a celebratory afterword, Adoff remembers how he collected those first poems into a book in 1968 so that he could present to his students, of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, the complete vision of an American literature. Many of us can still remember the excitement of reading that original anthology, of discovering those distinct, powerful voices so long left out of the American canon. The arrangement here is still by theme, with the new poems echoing, arguing with, connecting, and extending the core. There are eloquent introductions by critic Rudine Sims Bishop and poet Nikki Giovanni and notes at the back on the poems as well as brief biographies of the poets. A must purchase. (Reviewed February 15, 1997)

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2004)

Fourteen-year-old Staggerlee's growing feelings for her cousin confirm her own suspicions that she might be gay. Resisting the less subtle exploration of girl meets girl and falls in love and lives happily ever after, Woodson crafts a more complex examination of gayness in the emerging adolescent in this welcome reissue of a reflective, lyrical story.