Peace Comes to Ajani

Keith Kelly

The effects of war have made an impact on Ajani and his family when his dad was killed in action. The repercussions seem to be insurmountable for Ajani, both at home and at school. Ajani developed a problem with anger that created a rift between him and his friends. Then a new student in Ajani’s school seemed to be getting along better with his friends than Ajani did. While Ajani tried to deal with his grief, his anger consumed all of his relationships … family, friends, and school. Through a series of unfortunate events, Ajani was given an opportunity to learn to deal with his grief. Finally, in an attempt to help Ajani manage his anger, his mother arranged an after school job for him. What should have been a positive example for Ajani, just created more tension, yet lead to a better life lesson in the end. Ajani not only finally found the peace he struggled for, but a richer life than he expected.
This is a wonderful story of redemption from tragedy and so timely given the status of our country’s armed forces. The illustrations provided by Mr. Kelly are colorful and dramatic adding the necessary touch.

BIBLIO: 2009, Carolina Wren Press, Ages 10-14, $9.95
REVIEWER: Debby Willett
FORMAT: Fiction
ISBN: 978-0-932112-59-0
REVIEWED FOR: Children’s Literature, Online Version, 9/3/09

Count Down to Summer

One-hundred and eighty poems, riddles, and rhymes for every day of school. Just a few of the titles I came across, A Billion Years A.D., Gold Teeth, Dead Weight, I was Your Teacher Once, Dolly and Dilly, The Loneliest Creature, Food Fight, Rabbit Math, Riddle, Who Can Tell?, Alphabet Game, Beneath a Shady Tree, The Most Common Vowel … and, the most interesting title I found, Punxsutawney Phil.

Some of the poems rhyme and some do not. Some of the poems are relevant to school topics, and others are just relevant to miscellaneous subjects as #38 Ocean Motion, or #114 Girl and Boy. Number 42 talks about Animals at Odds … snails and whales, pachyderms and worms, newts and bandicoots.

Civil War Couplets, #64, is actually educational, in a couplet sort of way. There are a few of the poems most kids will want to pass over, a few of the riddles they will not give any time to, but within the pages of this book are a few fun rhymes the younger set would enjoy and might want to repeat.

At best, it’s a one-time read and the kids will want to pass it along to another pal, or to another class. At worst it will languish on a bookshelf somewhere before the cover is torn off and returned to the publisher and the book is tossed in a trash can. The illustrations are black ink and very elementary and do not add to the text of the book. Perhaps if the illustrations were more engaging, the poetry and riddles would be more attractive.

BIBLIO: 2009, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, Ages 8 to 12, $15.99
REVIEWER: Debby Willett
FORMAT: Poetry Book
ISBN: 978-0-316-04318-2
REVIEWED FOR: Children’s Literature, Online Version, 5/09