(2) K-3 Illustrated by Leslie Staub. In this gentle story, Haitian American Saya's mother is incarcerated because she has no papers. Danticat's direct, resonant prose doesn't shy away from the realities--telling of the loneliness of missing your mother and the trauma of saying goodbye at the detention facility. Staub's naive-style oil paintings keep the focus on the child; the larger issue of the plight of refugees and immigrants makes the story universal.

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2015

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Leslie Staub. Sacajawea, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, and Langston Hughes are some of the sixteen Americans whose lives are celebrated in this collection. Poets include Jane Yolen, Nikki Grimes, J. Patrick Lewis, and Alice Schertle. Each poem faces an oil portrait of its subject rendered in a folk-art style. Brief biographical information about each person is appended.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute