Skip to main content

Serena the Sailboat [The Merry Marina Series bk. 1]

Image from amazon.com

As a matter of full disclosure, please be aware that I was gifted a free electronic copy of this book to review.

Serena the Sailboat is a charming tale about a day’s adventure involving the protagonist and her friends Simon Seagull and Danny Dolphin. After parading through the harbor and bidding their friends a joyous farewell, the trio head out to sea for a day of fun in the sun; however, their outing turns perilous when a storm rolls in and Serena fears that the gale may breach her hull. Recognizing the power of their collective strength, the friends find a safe harbor where they can weather the storm together. In Serena the Sailboat, Laura Thomae Young crafts a sweet, gentle story in verse while Raina M. Tubba’s illustrations extend the fun sing-song rhyme of Young’s quatrains in a friendly style that will make a good read for pre-kindergarten children ages 3-5. Furthermore, fans of Eric Carle, Leo Lionni, and classics from the Little Golden Book collection such as Scruffy the Tugboat and the Roundabout Train will find a new favorite here.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Becoming a Comics Librarian and the Importance of Joining a Community of Practice

  Originally published April 5, 2023 Library Developments Blog |  Library Development and Networking Division Texas State Library and Archives Commission ***** As a freshly-minted librarian, I was hired to serve at THE high school bearing my district’s name alongside an amazingly zany, veteran librarian who knew the current collection inside and out as she’d been the one to revitalize it with bond money just prior to my arrival. To say that I was intimidated about what I could possibly have to contribute is more than an understatement. So when the moment of truth arrived and I was handed a “small” purchase order to get my feet wet, I. Was. Stymied! Her  fingerprints were all throughout that collection, and what  she  didn’t read our assistant  did . How would I ever fit into this team?! What could I possibly contribute?! To be honest… after teaching a core, tested subject for fifteen years, I was just beginning to read young adult literature regularly...

My Equity Statement

Although I’ve led a relatively privileged life, I’ve never been allowed the luxury to forget that I am Black and that this life is Promethean fire, stolen from those who would refuse me such power. From a young age, I was raised with an awareness that the life I enjoyed was hard-won, secured by generations of conscious decisions to undermine institutional inequity, and that it could only be retained and furthered by never seeming too Black,  always outworking non-Black peers,  and pretending obliviousness to shock at my excellence. I was groomed to live as an exemplar of this rhetorical triangle, persuading the powers of American society not to bar my way to success and perhaps even grant the same opportunities expected by my non-Black peers. At home, I was taught to blend into non-Black America as a successful woman capable of navigating any social register. I grew up the daughter of college-educated professionals in an upper-middle class, predominantly white neighborhood in ...

Decloaking Wakanda: Creating Space for BIPOC Nerds

On February 9, 2023, at the fourth Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC), I had the exhilarating experience of guiding a discussion that focused on the need to connect with nerd culture and create a welcoming environment for the BIPOC fandom. The soul of this session had been several years in the making and built on countless heart-to-heart moments. So, I couldn’t imagine a better venue for seeing it actualized than my first JCLC. Furthermore, for this session, I had the honor of being in conversation with fellow nerds and comics librarians Jean Darnell and Deimosa Webber-Bey . To my eternal amazement, our talk was met with a standing room only reception, and afterward we were repeatedly regaled with tales of being turned away at the door. In hopes of capturing a small portion of that day's magic, this post grew out of that discussion. *** For the past 30 years, BIPOC nerds have existed in the cringe-worthy shadow of Urkel. What if, instead, they’d had portrayals such as ...