Princess Cora and The Crocodile🐊, When Stars Are Scattered✨

The Magic Book House no. 5

Hello Hello and Happy 2023. I hope this new chapter brings you peace, happiness, and the power to take your life in a new direction, if that is what you desire.

Not much of an intro today, as I have a birthday boy in my house (11!) and I need to go curl up somewhere and cry over baby pictures. 🥹🎂 (yes, I found the emoji keyboard.)

Today’s recommendations are for two very different books written by Newbery award winning authors. (Laura Amy Schlitz for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! and Victoria Jamieson for Roller Girl, both of which I loved.)

Have a wonderful day, and a great weekend ahead.

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Princess Cora and the Crocodile, by Laura Amy Schlitz, illustrated by Brian Floca (2017)

Dear Godmother,

Nobody listens to me. My mother and father won’t let me have a pet and Nanny says I don’t even want one. But I do. And I’m sick and tired of everything. Please help me.

Love, Princess Cora

When Princess Cora is born, her doting parents think she’s absolutely perfect. They marvel at her tiny pink toes and her big blue eyes.

And then, they begin to worry. They worry that Cora might not be prepared to rule their kingdom as Queen someday. They worry so much about teaching and training the princess that soon, they’ve scheduled every minute of Cora’s life.

When her parents and nanny deny her request for a dog, Cora has had enough. She appeals to her fairy godmother, who sends her a crocodile instead. Although she’s a little confused, the princess is desperate for a break and agrees to switch places with the crocodile.

While Cora slips out of the castle for a day of classic outdoor adventure— climbing trees, building a fort, and wading in the creek, the crocodile happily causes chaos in the castle.

Cora returns from her adventures a braver, wilder, more confident version of herself. She sorts things out at the castle and finally gets the grownups to listen.

For me, the artwork is the strongest part of this story. Brian Floca’s illustrations perfectly capture Schlitz’s characters, especially the hilariously ill-behaved crocodile. (Floca won the Caldecott Medal for the picture book Locomotive).

Clever, slightly odd, and simultaneously timely and timeless, Princess Cora and the Crocodile makes a fun, quick read aloud or independent choice for early chapter book readers.

Recommended for ages 5-8

(The feminist in me cringed when Cora’s father asks her, with a sad look on his face, whether she’s being a ‘good girl.’  The crocodile later bites him in the butt, and for that I am glad.)

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When Stars Are Scattered, by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed (2020)

To the untrained eye, the night sky is a scattering of stars, a chaos of light and dark across the universe. And yet, the stars are not lost. They form patterns. Constellations. If you know how to look, there are stories woven into the very essence of stars. Be like a star. Shine your light. Shine your story. For stories will lead us home.

This graphic novel, based on a true experience, is about two young brothers living in a refugee camp in Kenya after fleeing war in Somalia. We meet Omar when he is about 11 years old, but he and his younger brother Hassan have already lived at the camp for several years.

In a flashback, Omar recounts how soldiers came to his family farm in Somalia and killed his father. In the chaos and confusion, Omar and Hassan became separated from their mother. Even though the boys are paired with a Fatuma, a loving, supportive foster mother, Omar feels responsible for Hassan, who is nonverbal and has significant special needs.

When Omar is offered an opportunity to attend school, he knows an education could change their lives. However, he worries that something terrible will happen to his brother if he is not constantly by Hassan’s side.

Throughout his childhood, Omar struggles to maintain hope-hope that he’ll find his mother and hope of resettlement. But despite unimaginable living conditions and near constant disappointments, Omar and Hassan build a community full of people who love and care for one another.

Graphic novels like this one have such an essential place in children’s literature. The interdependent text and illustrations allow the reader to experience Omar’s reality- a reality that is unfathomable to most people, regardless of age.

An afterword and authors’ notes (with photographs!) offer further closure to Omar’s story and connect readers to the “real people” behind the characters.

When Stars Are Scattered is a remarkable, important novel; one that my son and I both loved.

Recommended for ages 9-13