Snow White: A Graphic Novel By Matt Phelan Candlewick Press $19.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-7233-1 Ages 9-12 On shelves now I’d have said it couldn’t be done. The Snow White fairytale has been told and retold and overdone to death until there’s not much left to do but forget about it entirely. Not that every graphic novel […]
Review of the Day: Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders
November 14, 2016 by
Five Children on the Western Front By Kate Saunders Delacorte Press (an imprint of Random House) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-553-49793-9 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Anytime someone writes a new prequel or sequel to an old children’s literary classic, the first question you have to ask is, “Was this necessary?” And nine times out of ten, […]
Review of the Day: The Cookie Fiasco by Dan Santat
November 4, 2016 by
The Cookie Fiasco By Dan Santat Additional Art by Mo Willems Hyperion Books for Children (an imprint of Disney) $9.99 ISBN: 978-1484726365 Ages 3-6 On shelves now See, this is tricky. Very tricky indeed. On the one hand, as a reviewer of children’s books, not bound to any single periodical, I have the freedom to […]
Review of the Day: Grandmother Fish by Jonathan Tweet
October 28, 2016 by
Grandmother Fish: A Child’s First Book of Evolution By Jonathan Tweet Illustrated by Karen Lewis Feiwel and Friends (an imprint of Macmillan) $17.99 ISBN: 978-1250113238 Ages 3-6 On shelves now Travel back with me through the Earth’s history, back into the farthest reaches of time when the sand we walk today was still rock and […]
Review of the Day: Juana & Lucas by Juana Medina
October 19, 2016 by
Juana and Lucas By Juana Medina Candlewick Press $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-7636-7208-9 Ages 6-9 On shelves now Windows. Mirrors. Mirrors. Windows. Windowy mirrors. Mirrory windows. Windows. Mirrors. Sliding doors! Mirrors. Windows. In the world of 21st century children’s literature, diversity should be the name of the game. We want books for our children that reflect the […]
Review of the Day: What Color Is the Wind? by Anne Herbauts
October 12, 2016 by
What Color Is the Wind? By Anne Herbauts Translated by Claudia Zoe Bedrick Enchanted Lion Books $19.95 ISBN: 978-1-59270-221-3 Ages 5 and up On shelves now I’m going to have a hard time of it when my kids grow up. When I had them I swore up, down and sideways that I wouldn’t turn into […]
Review of the Day: Are You an Echo? by David Jacobson
October 6, 2016 by
Are You an Echo? The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko Narrative and Translation by David Jacobson, Sally Ito, and Michiko Tsuboi Illustrated by Toshikado Hajiri Chin Music Press $19.50 ISBN: 9781634059626 Ages 5 and up On shelves now Recently I was at a conference celebrating the creators of different kinds of children’s books. During one […]
Review of the Day: Cloud and Wallfish by Anne Nesbet
September 27, 2016 by
Cloud and Wallfish By Anne Nesbet Candlewick Press $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-8803-5 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Historical fiction is boring. Right? That’s the common wisdom on the matter, certainly. Take two characters (interesting), give them a problem (interesting), and set them in the past (BOOOOOORING!). And to be fair, there are a LOT of dull-as-dishwater […]
Review of the Day: They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel
September 21, 2016 by
They All Saw a Cat By Brendan Wenzel Chronicle Books $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0 Ages 4-7 On shelves now It’s funny. Unless you’re a teacher or librarian, a grown adult that does not work or live with children will come into very little contact with picture books. Then, one day, they produce a few kids and […]
Review of the Day: Presenting Buffalo Bill by Candace Fleming
September 12, 2016 by
Presenting Buffalo Bill: The Man Who Invented the Wild West By Candace Fleming A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Book Press (a division of Macmillan) $19.99 ISBN: 9781596437630 Ages 9-12 On shelves September 20th I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we present history to our kids. Specifically I was thinking about picture book biographies […]
Review of the Day: Makoons by Louise Edrich
September 5, 2016 by
Makoons By Louise Erdrich Harper Collins $16.99 ISBN: 9780060577933 Ages 7-12 On shelves now They say these days you can’t sell a novel for kids anymore without the book having some kind of “sequel potential”. That’s not really true, but there are a heck of a lot of series titles out there for the 7 […]
Review of the Day: Who Broke the Teapot?! by Bill Slavin
August 25, 2016 by
Who Broke the Teapot?! By Bill Slavin Tundra Books $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-77049-833-4 Ages 3-5 On shelves now In the average life of a child, whodunits are the stuff of life itself. Who took the last cookie? Who used up all the milk and then didn’t put it on the shopping list? Who removed ALL the […]
Review of the Day: Kid Beowulf by Alexis Fajardo
August 19, 2016 by
Kid Beowulf: The Blood-Bound Oath By Alexis E. Fajardo Color by Jose Mari Flores Prologue Color by Brian Kolm Amp Comics for Kids (an imprint of Andrews McMeel Publishing) $10.99 ISBN: 978-1-4494-7589-5 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. This is a true story. I started college in 1996. Earlham College. Richmond, Indiana. Nice place. Little Quaker […]
Review of the Day: Ghost by Jason Reynolds
August 11, 2016 by
Ghost By Jason Reynolds Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7 Ages 9-12 On shelves August 30th This is a generalization, but in my experience librarians really enjoy reading within their comfort zones. They’ll travel outside of them from time to time but always they return to the books that they like […]
Review of the Day: Leave Me Alone! by Vera Brosgol
August 6, 2016 by
Leave Me Alone! By Vera Brosgol Roaring Brook Press (an imprint of Macmillan) $17.99 ISBN: 9781626724419 Ages 4-7 On shelves September 13th Knitting. It shouldn’t be so hard. I say this as the grown daughter of a chronic knitterer (not a word). I grew up neck deep in roving. I know the difference between a […]
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