In a refreshing retelling of a classic story, The 3 Bears & Goldilocks shows Goldilocks not as mischievious but simply curious, adventurous, and with a very good-hearted desire to help. The bears, also, are shown in a more realistic way--eating porridge mixed with bugs and living amidst debris--although granted, they still live in a rather un-bear-like abode. The story is well told, the illustrations are inventive and suit the story perfectly with mixed painting and photographic collage, and altogether, it's a wonderful take on a very familiar story. Two thumbs up!
Kareem Between By Shifa Saltagi Safadi New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2024. Fiction. 324 pages. Kareem loves football and as he gets ready to start seventh grade he dreams of someday becoming the first Syrian American NFL player. Seventh grade is not off to a great start for Kareem, after football tryouts don't go as he had planned, his best friend moves away, and his mom returns to Syria to help bring his sick grandfather to the US for treatment. So when Austin, the quarterback and coach's son, offers to talk to his dad and get Kareem on the football team in the spring, if he will cheat and do his homework for him, Kareem agrees. Kareem really wants to fit in at school and he is desperate to find a friend, but deep down he knows that doing Austin's homework isn't the right thing to do. And to make things harder, Kareem's mom asks him to be a friend to Fadi, a Syrian Christian refugee. He knows he should stand up for Fadi and help him adjust to the new school,...

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