Kimberly Olson Fakih

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10 Things I Love About Starred Reviews | Opinion

2 weeks ago | slj.com | Kimberly Olson Fakih |Kathy Ishizuka

Starred reviews are always good news, for what they mean and for what happens next. 10 Things I Love About Starred Reviews [Read: 10 Things I Hate About Starred Reviews]Recently I wrote an opinion piece, and the counter-arguments began to roll in immediately. Thank you, Mrs. DeWald, high school debate team coach. I really can pick a fight with anyone. Here's what I love about giving books starred reviews.
Tim Jones Named 2025 School Librarian of the Year

1 month ago | slj.com | Andrew Bauld |Kimberly Olson Fakih |Travis Jonker

Photograph by Antonio Pantoja Tim Jones, library media specialist at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Louisville, KY, is the 2025 School Librarian of the Year. Jones has built a connection with students and created a library space for fun and learning. In less than two years at the school, he has enacted a variety of innovative programs that draw students into the library while modernizing and expanding the collection and creating a makerspace stocked with coding toys and STEM kits.
Romantasy Manga: Whirlwind Tales of Love and Adventure | Mondo Manga

1 month ago | slj.com | Brigid Alverson |Kimberly Olson Fakih |Kara Yorio

It’s romance! It’s fantasy! It’s romantasy: The portmanteau word that designates the hottest trend in prose and graphic novels of the past few years. The word may be new, but the concept isn’t. It has long been a fan favorite category for shoujo manga, with series such as “Fruits Basket” and “Snow White with the Red Hair.”Many romantasy manga have fairy tale settings, with elaborate costumes, handsome princes, and backdrops of gossipy, backstabbing royal courts.
10 Things I Hate About Starred Reviews | Opinion

1 month ago | slj.com | Kimberly Olson Fakih |Kathy Ishizuka

10 Things I Hate About Starred Book ReviewsDining with professional colleagues, perhaps in the aftermath of the pandemic and continuing WFH, doesn’t happen as often as it did when I first came into publishing (and I never mastered a one-martini lunch, let alone three). Still, whenever I am across the table from a publisher or editor or marketing director—or even an author or illustrator—there is only one low-hanging question that the person plucks from the air.
Do Hippos Brush Their Teeth?: How Animals Care for Their Bodies

Dec 20, 2024 | slj.com | Kimberly Olson Fakih |Amanda MacGregor |Patricia Ann Morris

by (text) & illus. by Jenna Piechota . Mar. 2024. 32p. Tr $18.95. ISBN 9781771474931. COPY ISBN Gr 1-4–The cartoonish illustrations and the expressively goofy animal characters belie the serious nature of this fact book. The title question is just the opening, and the answer is “no.” “No” also answers other questions about how animals care for their bodies. For children wondering if whales get a good night’s sleep, they do not; they take power naps all day long. Do pheasants take baths?
Do Sheep Count Sheep? How Animals Sleep

Dec 20, 2024 | slj.com | Petra Bartíková |Kimberly Olson Fakih |Amanda MacGregor |Patricia Ann Morris

. (My First Books of Nature). Oct. 2024. 28p. Tr $15.95. ISBN 9788000072821. COPY ISBN Gr 1-3–In spread after spread, Barikova’s facts about animals and Macurova’s illustrations treat knowledge like gossip, using magazine-style layouts and clipped, expressive language. Speech bubbles from the animals in the scenes add humor, but under the introduction, “How Do Animals Sleep?” is serious information—a bat hangs upside down, a giraffe curls up like the letter C.
Ned and the Great Garden Hamster Race: A Story About Kindness

Dec 20, 2024 | slj.com | Kimberly Olson Fakih

. Jul. 2024. 32p. Tr $14.99. ISBN 9780593659045. COPY ISBN Gr 1-2–Get readers ready to fall in love with a hamster named Ned. Looking very much like a small golden mango with googly eyes, Ned has been counting the days till the Great Garden Race. Hamsters from all over the world, in many shapes and colors, have come to participate, but Ned is ready. He has trained for this. He has focus. What he has not trained for are all the small obstacles along the path.
Every Monday Mabel

Dec 20, 2024 | slj.com | Kimberly Olson Fakih

PreS-Gr 2–“Monday is the best day of the week (according to Mabel, at least).” With tan skin, light brown hair in double ponytails, and purpose coursing through her, Mabel gets started on her day, pouring herself a bowl of cereal and heading somewhere to do the “cutest” thing, according to her mother. Mabel takes up her station to wait for the garbage truck.
My Big Book of Happy Sounds

Dec 19, 2024 | slj.com | Kimberly Olson Fakih

PreS-K–In an intriguing version of ASMR for toddlers, this board book features squared-off scenes and label-like phrases or words to call out or impress upon readers, paired with associated sounds with every setting. A picture of a kitchen, for example, shows a red-haired father with pale skin giving a baby bottle of milk to the baby in a high chair while another child pours juice. The children both have brown skin.
Mad at Dad

Dec 19, 2024 | slj.com | Kimberly Olson Fakih

by (text) & illus. by Janie Hao . Oct. 2024. 32p. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9781525310263. COPY ISBN K-Gr 2–With jagged, childlike scribbles on the endpapers and concerned stuffed animals looking on, a child with a black ponytail and terrifying eyebrows has tried counting, cartwheels, and jumping rope, because that’s how big the anger inside is. And that makes this child sad. Dad comes in to cuddle, soothe, and share a quiet time, and that does the trick.