Catalanotto, Peter Books

An Angel For Solomon Singer

Cynthia Rylant

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An Angel For Solomon Singer (by a 5 year-old reviewer) 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I think it is one of the most perfect books ever. Since my mom bought it, well,I'm encouraged. Because I'm a student, I could have it for my schoolbook. If I could give it ten billion stars, I'd yell out, "Hey, Solomon Singer!" (Giggle!)

An Angel for Solomon Singer (By Christopher,a 7-year-old homeschooler) 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I like this book because it's very creative. It shows a lot of thought. Solomon learns a lesson to use his imagination more. He knows he cannot have balconies, change his walls a different color. And that is why he did not like his hotel at all. The author doesn't use simple words. For example, he doesn't say "a quiet voice said..." He says "a quiet voice like Indiana pines in November said..."
I recommend this book for all people.

WHAT A HAUNTING, PROFOUND STORY...... 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is one of those works that will stick with you. It is rather difficult to discribe. I do note, after talking to several people, and reading several reviews on this site and others, that each person who reads this one finds something a bit different. Myself, I was haunted, in a good way, and yet disturbed at the same time. The wonderful prose pulls you into this unknown mans life. The wonderful art work keeps you there. I personally love the work. I do recommend though, that it would probably be best to read this one with the young reader rather than let them try it by themselves for the first time. I find it difficult to think that a very young person would be able to identify with the lonely man in this story nor understand just what is happening (as a matter of fact, after several readings, I'm not all that sure myself, and I am as old as dirt). Be that as it may, this is certainly one worth giving a read, several reads as a matter of fact!

Editorial Review:

A lonely New York City resident finds companionship and good cheer at the Westway Cafe where dreams come true.

Ivan the Terrier

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Long Live the Terrier 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Peter Catalanotto's IVAN THE TERRIER brings a breath of fresh air to the multiplicity of fractured fairy tales that dot the landscape of children's literature. This deceptively simple story is a treasure trove for all, children, parents, teachers, and dog lovers everywhere. The joyful, interactive text is seamlessly synthesized with beautiful paintings that are filled with visual clues as the story unfolds. Ivan, a feisty Jack Russell, demands his own story by consistently interrupting the narrator's attempt to tell traditional fairy tales. Ivan's antics to stop the stories always elicits laughter and cheers from children of all ages. But alas when he finally achieves his goal, Ivan is too tired to care. The final page shows him trundling off to bed. Children easily identify with Ivan and they instinctively know he'll try again. IVAN THE TERRIER appeals to children on many levels: it is a laugh out loud story, the art is beautiful and filled with new discoveries on each viewing, and
every child has faced frustration trying to make his/her wishes known.
As a children's librarian who works in classrooms regularly, I have used this book with Head Start, elementary and middle school children, as well as with educators. It is always a crowd pleaser, but it is also an excellent book for older children to use as a jumping off point for writing their own fractured fairy tales, and for even older children, the ending is a classic way of explaining the concept of irony.
IVAN THE TERRIER is a treasure for children to read and read again, and a treasure trove for educators of older children. Peter Catalanotto has created a book that should become a classic.

Editorial Review:

Ivan loves a good story.

Like that one about the three bears or those three gruff billy goats.

Where else can a dog find such

playmates

action

fun...

or a cookie?

Ivan's own good story lands him just where he loves to be.

In your lap.

Emily's Art

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Gorgeous Watercolor Picturebook about Feelings 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

EMILY'S ART is the story about Emily, a first-grade girl who loves to paint. There is a colorful aura of joy around Emily as she paints with her heart, and she radiates a soft, pink glow when she paints a watercolor picture of her friend, Kelly. When Emily's class participates in a school-wide art contest, Emily chooses to enter a picture of her dog, Thor, with great big ears, "Because Thor hears everything." When all the first-grade pictures are judged in the art contest, Emily is heart-broken to see her beloved picture of Thor passed over because the judge hates dogs. Fortunately, Emily's friend, Kelly, and her teacher, Ms. Fair, show Emily how much they care about her, and the story ends with a class party to celebrate all the beautiful pictures the children made.

What makes this picture book so very special is the way that every illustration of Emily shows how she feels in body posture, facial expression, and her human energy field. When Emily is happy, soft colors of light shine around her head and shoulders. When Emily is sad, her head droops forward and she becomes transparent as her aura disappears. Every picture of her aura is delightfully different -- my favorite is the one where she is showing her friend, Kelly, how to draw a dinosaur and lots of bright colors surround her head, back, and arm!

This is a gorgeous watercolor picture book that shows how feelings look in the human energy field. I give it my highest recommendation!

-- Cynthia Sue Larson

Editorial Review:

"What a gorgeous painting," exclaimed the judge of Ms. Fair's first-grade art contest. "What a beautiful rabbit!"

For Emily, the words are a shock.

Her painting is of her dog, Thor. Not a rabbit.

But instead of thinking: What's wrong with this judge? Emily takes the words, and the judgment, to heart.

Just as she takes her art.

Not everyone, not Ms. Fair, or even Emily's best friend, Kelly, can see that.

At first.

Matthew A.B.C.

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Perfect for the little Matthew in your life 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is a story about a teacher with 25 Matthews in her class. Some of our favorites are Matthew C. who has cowlicks(look for the words his cowlicks form throughout the book),Matthew H. appears to be headless (ever know a boy who pulls his shirt over his head), and Matthew K. is unusually fond of ketchup (He dresses like a ketchup bottle). Matthew Z. (dressed in zippers) transfers into her class at the end of the book. I puchased this book after reading a rave review in the chicago trib. I looked in every bookstore I could find before finding it cheeper at amazon. This is a wonderful book for any child preschool thru 1st grade. My 5 year old has it memorized! I sent it to school with him and the teacher just loved it, we are going to order an extra one to donate to his class.

Editorial Review:

Mrs. Tuttle has her hands full with a class of twenty-five boys -- and to make matters worse, they're all named Matthew! Could there be room for one more Matthew? Mrs. Tuttle thinks so...and she doesn't even have trouble figuring out which boy is which. The new Matthew fits right in with the others as readers discover that each Matthew is unique in his own special, alphabetical way.

Celebrate! Stories Of The Jewish Holiday

Gilda Berger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Wonderful! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This has proven to be the perfect book to help our own (Catholic) children learn about the holidays our Jewish friends and neighbors celebrate throughout the year. Thank you, Gilda Berger and Peter Catalanotto!

Informative, entertaing teaching stories 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I used this book to introduce my private-school, sixth grade students to some Jewish holidays. The stories are clear, entertaining, and accurate, explaining the history and religious reasons for each holiday without being educationally or spiritually overwhelming. They are written with love and care; even my non-Jewish students remembered and referred to the stories throughout the year. This book is a treasure!

Editorial Review:

This collection focuses on the eight major holidays in the Jewish year, starting with the weekly celebration of Shabbat and ending with Shavout, the festival that marks the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses. Each section begins with a lively retelling of the Bible story connected to the featured holiday, followed by an explanation of how the holiday is celebrated, and closing with directions and recipes for making holiday-related crafts and food. This family treasury is written in the Jewish storytelling tradition and is meant to be shared by families throughout the year.

All I See

Cynthia Rylant

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

One of my son's favorite books 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

When we first found this book at the library; the beautiful cover illustration first caught three-year-old Matthew's eye. Once home, it became his favorite book among the 20 or so that we had borrowed that week. I am not sure, nor can he verbally elaborate for me the draw of this book for him, but I will offer my own opinion. The tender, loving approach of the painter to the shy young boy, Charlie, is quite appealing. That the painter is male is all the more special as he becomes a wonderful role model for young boys bombarded by so many conflicting messages in the popular media. Matthew seemed to identify with the child in the story and began walking around with a pencil behind his ear, just the way Charlie and the painter do in the book. He also wanted to "get my paints, Mama" after reading the book. Lastly, the awakening of the affective and expressive side of this boy is a lovely process to observe and is elaborated beautifully by the watercolor illustrations throughout. I am confident that these too led Matthew to love this sweet, gentle book.

Editorial Review:

"A dreamy piece about a young boy's awakening to artistic vision through his friendship with a lakeside painter. . . . The developing relationship parallels Charlie's inner process of getting to know the private, creative part of himself. . . . This is romantic, but not sentimental. It is eloquently done, and the whole--words and pictures--speaks and lingers."--School Library Journal, starred review. Full color.

We Wanted You

Liz Rosenberg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A must have for adoption collections! 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 17 people found this review helpful.

As a school media specialist and the mom of two kids adopted from Korea, I am always looking for new books with an adoption theme. This one immediately caught my attention and actually made me cry as I read it! The sequence, starting with the son as a graduate and working backwards to his joyous arrival, is refreshing and thought provoking without being maudlin. The soothing text combines comfortably with the soft illustrations which depict a child with dark skin and black hair who could be Asian or Latino (at the end, a banner reading "welcome home Enrique" infers that he is of Latino heritage). The message that adopted children are so wanted is reinforced throughout this beautiful celebration of a family.

Editorial Review:

The loving voices of a child's parents tell the story of an adoption, from waiting to meet the baby for the first time through the growth of a family. Peter Catalanotto's vibrant illustrations form a clever and dramatic counterpoint to the text: presented as a series of family snapshots, the images run backward in time.

My House Has Stars

Megan Mcdonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Superbly illustrated and great factual information... 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This wonderful picture book is both beautiful and informative. It takes the reader to the homes of eight unforgettable children from around the world. A memorable book for children of any age.

Editorial Review:

Eight children--from the Philippines, Ghana, Japan, the American Southwest, Brazil, Alaska, Mongolia, and Nepal--share stories of the stars that they can see from their homelands.

Mother to Tigers (Junior Library Guild Selection)

George Ella Lyon

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Animals -> Zoos -> Nonfiction

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Frostburg State Univ.'s Children's Literature Centre 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This remarkable book tells the story of Helen Martini, founder of the Bronx Zoo's animal nursery in 1944 and its first woman zookeeper. Helen and her husband, Fred really wanted children. They lost their first child and Helen couldn't have any more. They began to fill their lives with pets. Fred found a job in the Bronx Zoo. He often took home some baby tigers and Helen cared for them just like she would care for a human baby. This lead to her setting up a nursery at the zoo to care for lots of baby animals. This story will be adored by both children and adults.

Editorial Review:

You are a Bengal tiger cub,

one of three -- Dacca, Rajpur, Raniganj -- abandoned by your mother.

You are so cold and thin that someone with kind hands puts you on a heating pad and sits by you for hours, moistening your mouth with milk.

When you give a weak cry and look up, there is a human face almost crying too.

Your new mother is Helen Delaney Martini, who has already raised a lion cub in her New York apartment. Tigers in the bathtub will be no problem for her and her husband, Fred.

This remarkable book -- strikingly striped as tigers are, sympathetically spoken as any child could wish -- tells the story of Helen Martini, founder of the Bronx Zoo's animal nursery in 1944 and its first woman zookeeper.

No More Pumpkins (Second Grade Friends)

Peter Catalanotto, Pamela Schembri

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Editorial Review:

Emily is tired of pumpkins. At school she and her friend Vincetta Louise have been doing pumpkin math, pumpkin field trips, and pumpkin writing. Can’t they just carve jack-o-lanterns? But even this ends up being an assignment: the kids have to make pumpkin selfportraits.

Then something happens to Emily’s jack-o-lantern, and her friendship with Vinni is tested. The two girls get past their quarrel—but will they ever want to see a pumpkin again?