Kids will love this book. Yeah, it’s a visual/literary masterpiece of picture book art and writing but that means bupkiss if you hand it to a kid, or read it aloud to a group, and they’re bored to tears. Precisely because Fogliano knows how to talk on a kid’s level, precisely because Tamaki has made her art so visually appealing.
Good news. I know exactly what to do with this particular middle school book. You need to weigh it down with awards, so many that it can no longer stand under its own weight and is forced to stagger to the display unit that stands front and center in the library where all the best books go. Then, and only then, will it have found its true home.
The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist By Cynthia Levinson Illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $17.99 ISBN: 978-1-4814-0070-1 Ages 6-10 On shelves now Today I’d like to begin with a small talk about diversity. Not diversity of people necessarily, but diversity […]
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 […]
Freedom Over Me: Eleven slaves, their lives and dreams brought to life By Ashley Bryan Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $17.99 ISBN: 978-1481456906 Ages 9 and up On shelves September 13th Who gives voice to the voiceless? What are your credentials when you do so? When I was a teen I used to […]
The Storyteller By Evan Turk Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $24.99 ISBN: 9781481435185 Ages 4-8 On shelves June 28th Credit the internet age for doing what the television age never could. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there is a movement around the world that can be interpreted as nothing so much […]
Hug Machine By Scott Campbell Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-4424-593509 Ages 3-7 On shelves August 26th Do you remember that old Shel Silverstein poem “Hug O’ War”? This may be considered sacrilege but did you ever notice how the guy could do something brilliant one moment, like “Sister For Sale” […]
Grandfather Gandhi Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus Illustrated by Evan Turk Atheneum (an imprint of Simon and Schuster) $17.99 ISBN: 978-1-4424-2365-X Ages 4-8 On shelves now. Are you familiar with the concept of booktalking? It’s a technique librarians developed to get people interested in books they might otherwise not pick up. The whole concept is […]
Locomotive By Brian Floca Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $17.99 ISBN: 978-1-4169-9415-2 Ages 4 and up On shelves September 3rd Many childhood obsessions come down to sheer scale. Whether it’s dinosaurs or trucks (the modern, smog belching dinosaur equivalent) or even princesses (adults are large, no matter how you approach them), size matters. […]
East Dragon, West Dragon By Robyn Eversole Illustrated by Scott Campbell Atheneum Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-689-85828-4 Ages 4-8 On shelves now Sometimes the obvious can also be the impossible. Take dragons, for example. Now say you’re a children’s librarian and a five-year-old approaches your desk and asks you for […]
Jazz Age Josephine By Jonah Winter Illustrated by Marjorie Priceman Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $16.99 ISBN: 978-104169-6123-9 Ages 6 and up On shelves now When we try to name the biggest and best picture book biography authors out there, two names spring immediately to mind. The first is David Adler. Mr. Adler […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Meaning of Life and Other Stuff By Jimmy Gownley Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $19.99 ISBN: 978-1-4169-8613-3 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. Sometimes it feels to me that when it comes to realistic stories about learning and growing the comic strip world for kids used to have some serious advantages over the […]
Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet Below the Chilean Desert By Marc Aronson Atheneum Books for Young Readers (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1416913979 Ages 10 and up On shelves August 30, 2011 The notion that history is always happening isn’t necessarily obvious to a kid. I remember […]
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