As one who read Walk the World’s Rim aloud, I rate the book quite highly: a seven or eight out of ten. I remembered the names of Panfilo de Navarrez and Esteban from Florida History back when I was nine years old, but that’s all they were to me: names. Reading Walk the World’s Rim helped me to see these historical figures as real people rather than just names in a textbook. Traveling such great distances, and for so long, as Esteban and the Spaniards did, is hard to fathom, and this book helps the reader to understand what such a journey must have been like. Baker combines historical fact with vivid, imaginative descriptions of people, terrain, and events, putting the reader right in the middle of history. Centering the story around Esteban, a Moroccan who was sold into slavery to the Spanish as a youth, also provides a necessary corrective to the story as often told in the history books, in which such topics as slavery and genocide are often whitewashed. In all, Walk the World’s Rim is a well-rounded, enjoyable read.

Our Library entry for Walk The World’s Rim.

Here is Birdie’s student review.

Om-kas-toe by Kenneth Thomasma is a book about a boy named Twin Boy who one day goes out of the village with his dad to collect sticks for arrows and finds a raven with a broken wing. The bird fell out of its nest in the wind. In the summer time it is time to move to their summer camp. Along the way a dog spots some deer and ran towards them. The baby that was on the travois is thrown off and into some bushes. For about an hour everyone is looking without any luck. Twin Boy hears the raven squawk and runs towards it but his twin gets there first. The raven found the baby. That night the oldest of the tribe elders stands up and says, “Twin Boy, your bird found the baby so now you will be called Om-kas-toe, meaning raven.” Om-kas-toe is very good with animals.

I like this book because the boy goes on many adventures with the raven. The raven and his sister join him in many adventures. I would recommend this book because it is an exciting read.

–Birdie, age 9

Our Library entry for Om-kas-toe.