The Apothecary By Maile Meloy Illustrated by Ian Schoenherr G.P. Putnam’s Sons (an imprint of Penguin) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-399-25627-1 Ages 10 and up On shelves now I can be a very smug librarian sometimes. It can get me into trouble. Take my reaction to the cover of Maile Meloy’s The Apothecary, for instance. Here we […]
Bandits By Johanna Wright A Neal Porter Book – Roaring Brook (an imprint of Macmillan) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-59643-583-4 Ages 4-8 On shelves now There has been inadequate use of raccoons in children’s literature. Seems to me that if you have a furry woodland creature with a homegrown mask as part of its fuzzy face, it’s […]
The Dead Gentleman By Matthew Cody Alfred A. Knopf $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-85596-2 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Steampunk will never supplant some of the better known genres out there in the hearts and minds of children. Kids walk into my library every day asking for fantasy, mysteries, funny books, scary books, and what have you. […]
All the Water in the World By George Ella Lyon Illustrated by Katherine Tillotson A Richard Jackson Book, Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-4169-7130-6 Ages 4-8 On shelves now The role of the public library has changed so often over the last century or so that its latest incarnation as a […]
A House in the Woods By Inga Moore Candlewick Press $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-5277-7 Ages 4-8 On shelves now When I ask adults what their favorite picture books were when they were children, their answers tend to fall into two categories. Either they’ll name a famous classic (a Where the Wild Things Are or a Goodnight […]
Drawing from Memory By Allen Say Scholastic Press $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-545-17686-6 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. I am happy to report that there has been an uptick in options for those children handed the standard “You Must Read an Autobiography” assignment in school. Which is to say, more and more people are writing their autobiographies […]
Toys Come Home: Being the Early Experiences of an Intelligent Stingray, a Brave Buffalo, and a Brand-New Someone Called Plastic By Emily Jenkins Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky Schwartz & Wade $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-86200-7 Ages 5-10 On shelves now I’m feeling tetchy. Let’s set out some rules when it comes to prequels of children’s books […]
The Princess and the Pig By Jonathan Emmett Illustrated by Poly Bernatene Walker & Co. (a division of Bloomsbury) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-8027-2334-5 Ages 4-8 On shelves now The princess craze is a relatively new phenomenon. I’m sure that little girls have pretended to be princesses for as long as the occupation has existed, but the […]
Big City Otto: Elephants Never Forget By Bill Slavin With Esperança Melo Kids Can Press ISBN: 978-1-55453-476-0 Ages 8-11 On shelves now Boy, The Man With the Yellow Hat just lost all credibility, didn’t he? Time was that Curious George snatcher could nab the jungle beast of his choice, slap his hands together, and call […]
The Luck of the Buttons By Anne Ylvisaker Candlewick Press $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-5066-7 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. There are kids out there that like historical fiction. I know that there are. I’ve met them. They come into my library and curl their lips in disgust at the covers with the shiny dragons and sparkly […]
Come to Bed, Red! By Jonathan Allen Double Digit productions Kindle Edition File Size: 6845 KB For ages 4-8 Available now Each year I like to review one independently published title. In an era where even review journals like Kirkus have a section dedicated to self-published titles, it’s always a good idea to give some […]
Coral Reefs By Jason Chin Roaring Brook (an imprint of Macmillan) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-59643-563-6 Ages 5 and up On shelves now First things first. Let’s just get something out the way here before I go any further. I am not exactly a disinterested party when it comes to this book. No, I don’t know the […]
The Trouble with May Amelia By Jennifer L. Holm Illustrated by Adam Gustavson Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-4169-1373-3 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Reviewing a Jennifer L. Holm book is a bit redundant. Telling anyone that the woman can write is like pointing out that the sky is blue. It’s […]
Everything Goes on Land By Brian Biggs Balzer & Bray (an imprint of Harper Collins) $14.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-195809-0 Ages 3 and up On shelves now There is much to be said for simplicity. The elegant understated picture book that contains peaceful moments of serenity with the idea that a child might get lost in the […]
From Then to Now: A Short History of the World By Christopher Moore Illustrated by Andrej Krystoforski Tundra Books $25.95 ISBN: 978-0-88776-5407 Ages 9 and up On shelves now. I have nothing but respect for contemporary historians. A few of them, let us be honest, are rock stars. They have to take something as strange […]
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