This Christmas I was delighted to find that someone had given me the latest incarnation of Harry Potter, this time in the form of the fully illustrated book by Jim Kay. Called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, my book was a little different as it was the British Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. […]
Mars Evacuees By Sophia McDougall Harper Collins $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-229399-2 Ages 9-12 I’ve a nasty habit of finishing every children’s book I start, no matter how dull or dire it might be. I am sort of alone in this habit, which you could rightly call unhealthy. After all, most librarians understand that their time on […]
Cuckoo Song By Frances Hardinge Amulet Books (an imprint of Abrams) $17.95 ISBN: 978-1419714801 Ages 10 and up On shelves May 12, 2015 I was watching the third Hobbit movie the other day (bear with me – I’m going somewhere with this) with no particular pleasure. There are few things in life more painful to […]
Consider, if you will, the strange relationship that exists between a book jacket created in America vs. a book jacket created in the United Kingdom. Both are appealing to an audience that speaks primarily English. But the perception of what will sell/appeal in one country can vary widely from that of another. Over the years […]
Rose By Holly Webb Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.) $6.99 ISBN: 978-1-4022-8581-3 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. Like a bullet whizzing past your ear, I shudder when I consider how close I came to never hearing about Holly Webb’s mesmerizing, charming, purely delightful Rose. It’s an innocuous little book. Doesn’t draw a lot […]
A Boy and a Bear in a Boat By Dave Shelton $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-385-75248-0 Ages 9 and up On shelves now First off, I like it. I think it’s important to make that note right upfront. Particularly since I’m probably going to break out terms like “bizarre”, “peculiar”, “odd”, “weird”, and “eerily strange” (or “strangely […]
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 […]
The No. 1 Car Spotter By Atinuke Illustrated by Warwick Johnson Cadwell Kane/Miller (a division of EDC Publishing) $5.99 ISBN: 978-1-61067-051-7 Ages 7-11 On shelves September 1st. When I discovered the amazing, remarkable, one-of-a-kind, never before seen Anna Hibiscus books by Atinuke last year I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. It just didn’t […]
Season of Secrets By Sally Nicholls Arthur A. Levine (an imprint of Scholastic) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-545-21825-2 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Sally Nicholls is not a household name here in America. She is possibly not even a name that most children’s librarians, booksellers, and teachers would recognize right off the bat. This, in spite of […]
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