Great Reads: Schneider Family Book Awards

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The picture book Django is like a catchy rhythm you just can’t get out of your head, as lyrical phrases and pictures join together to tell the story of jazz legend Django Reinhardt.  The author and illustrator, Bonnie Christensen, explains how Django was born into extreme poverty and had a difficult life, but as a child found music to be a balm for tired souls. Django soon realized that he could play the guitar well and began performing in front of appreciative audiences receiving rave reviews. But on his way to stardom, a fire burned his hands and threatened to take music away from him. Despite doctor’s opinions that he would never  perform again, he found a way to play his beloved guitar and went on to become one of the greatest jazz guitar players of all time. Django is the winner of the Schneider Family Book Award in the young children’s category.

Middle-school students should meet sixth-grader Jason Blake, the hero of Anything but Typical  by Nora Raleigh Baskin. Jason is a silent boy with autism who prefers writing on the Storyboard web site to talking with classmates. Online he becomes friends with PhoenixBird, a girl who likes his stories, but his anxiety mounts when he learns that they are both attending a Storyboard convention. Given his nerdy appearance and autism, he realistically figures that a face-to-face meeting will be disastrous. Find out more about Jason and his encounters with neurotypicals—people without autism—in this book, which won the Schneider Family Book Award in the middle school category.