Lisa’s Picks — Sept
Before I leap into my picks of kids books for September, I wanted to mention that, while at ALA, Jo Ann Jonas, the woman who inspired me to become a librarian, and I made a recording for StoryCorps. We both enjoyed talking about why we love about our jobs.
Part of what continues to inspire me is discovering new books that kids will love. Below are some of my favorites for next month.
Bedtime Books
A Bedtime for Bear by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton, Candlewick. Ages 4 and up.
The bear who likes things in his house to be “just so” and the mouse (small, and gray and bright-eyed of course) from A Visitor for Bear return to deal with going-to-bed rituals.
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Switching on the Moon: A Very First Book of Bedtime Poems by Jane Yolen, Andrew Fusek Peters, and illustrated by G. Brian Karas
Here is a Little Poem is an essential buy for every children’s room. It is one of my favorite collections for young children. The same team brings together poems, old and new for nighttime reading paired with Karas’s dreamy paintings.
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Max and Ruby’s Bedtime Book, by Rosemary Wells, Viking. Ages 3 and up
Very short stories of our favorite sister and brother bunnies are collected in a lavishly illustrated volume perfect for settling our own little ones during the night time read-aloud ritual.
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Board Book
The Baby Goes Beep, by Rebecca O’Connell, illustrated by Ken Wilson-Max, Albert Whitman. Baby to toddler.
Baby goes beep, Baby goes splash, Baby goes shhhh. Hats off to Whitman for bringing back this rollicking repetitious toddler read aloud in a board book edition.
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Picture Books
I’m Big!, by Kate Mcmullam, illustrated by Jim Mcmullan, Balzar and Bray. Ages 4 and up
The latest from the creative duo of I Stink, I’m Bad, and I’m Mighty bring forth a not-so-little lost sauropod (check out the book trailer).
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Children Make Terrible Pets, Peter Brown, Little Brown.
A very feminine girl bear finds a little boy in the woods and brings him home for a pet. She names him Squeak for the noise he makes. Domesticating a human turns out to be more than she can handle because children DO make terrible pets. Brown makes the most of this ludicrous premise with his detailed cartoon drawings and deliberately tongue-in-cheek storytelling.
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A Pig Parade is a Terrible Idea, by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, Simon and Schuster. Ages 5+
In a droll serious tone the narrator details why it would be imprudent to stage a parade with a hundred pigs. Hawkes double page spreads of realist paintings not-at-all picture-book-cute (bringing to mind more Jamie Wyeth than David McPhail) instill an understanding of the madness of expecting porcine mammals to dress up in majorette costumes, play band instruments and tether balloons to the earth. Did you know pigs lack of any appreciation for floats except for the root beer kind?
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Three Little Kittens, retold and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, Dial. Ages 2 and up.
Caldecott award winning illustrator, Pinkney, presents the sweetest little kittens who lost their mittens.
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Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier, Little Brown. Ages 8 and up.
Very little is known about Dave the Potter. He could read and write, skills not common during a time when slaves were forced to be illiterate. He created huge well-crafted pots that survive to this day. The author weaves Dave’s own words in lyrical text that supported by Collier’s multi-media collage illustrations In this well-researched picture book biography
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Dust Devil, by Anne Isaacs, illustrated by Paul Zelinsky. Random House
Remember Swamp Angel? The heroine of that tall tale of the greatest Tennesse woodswoman has moved to Montana where she and her trusty steed Dust Devil find themselves up against the meanest bad guy ever.
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Easy to Read
Bink and Gollie, By Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee, illustrated by Tony Fucile, Candlewick.
Two authors who are friends team up to write an easy-to-read chapter book about two very different best friends. One is tall, one is small. One is deliberate, one is enthusiastic. The retro-modern, luminous art perfectly matches the authors’ dry absurd humor, imagination and other-worldliness. Can’t wait for number two.
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Graphic Novel
Babymouse #13: Cupcake Tycoon, Jennifer L. Holm, Random House. Ages 7 and up
This series are graphic novels in the best sense; compelling, emotionally satisfying with three dimensional characters that we have grown to love. As a series it is remarkable because the most recently published in the is just as engaging as the first. which is not always the case.
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Transitional
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Birthday Parties, Science Projects, and Other Man-made Catastrophe , by Lenore Look and LeUyen Pham,Schwartz and Wade. Ages 7 and up
I suspect the Alvin Ho series has not been as popular as it could be, so here’s my pitch. A transitional reader (Henry and Mudge but before Fudge) with a reading level similar to Junie B Jones, Judy Moody but with a boy main character who just happens to be Chinese. Alvin is quirky and funny and kids can relate to his trials and tribulations with school, teachers, friends and parents. Did I mention laugh-aloud funny?
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Chapter Book
This Isn’t What It Looks Like (Secret Series) by Pseudonymous Bosch. Little Brown. Ages 8 and up.
I don’t know if these have taken off at your library, but at Bank Street, our kids can’t wait to get their hands on the 4th fourth in the series (the first was The Name of This Book is Secret).
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Upper Middle Grade
Guys Read: Funny Business edited by Jon Scieszka, Harper ages 10 and up.
Jon Scieszka IS my hero. The former ambassador of children’s literature tirelessly campaigns for children’s right to read — anything they want. Especially boys’ right to read fun, high-interest, adventurous, and sometimes grossly humourous books that the stereotypical female teacher might raise her eyebrows at as “Not appropriate.” Study after study has shown that self-selection is the magic key to life-long reading. Sieszka has gathered his writer buddies and convinced them to contribute this short story collection. Teachers are often scouring my library for short story collections and this one fits the bill. Kids will recognizer their favorite authors, Jeff (Wimpy Kid) Kinney, Adam (True Meaning of Smek Day) Rex, Mac (Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem) Barnett, Kate (Tale of Desperaux) Dicamillo, Eoin (Artemus Fowl) Colfer are among the contributors. Are some of the stories gross? Duh. Will some of the content make a grown-up squirm? You bet. Do the stories, engage, delight and provoke? Without a doubt. Just what the literacy specialist ordered. Thank you, Mr. Scieszka.
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The Search for WondLa, by Tony DiTerlizzi, Simon and Schuster. Ages 10 and up
This IS the big book. DiTerlizzi of Spiderwick fame opens this wide-ranging fantasy novel with a girl who lives underground and is raised by a robot named Mothr. My 4th and 5th graders couldn’t put it down and were begging for more.
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What Happened on Fox Street, by Tricia Springstubb, illustrated by Heather Ross, Balzar and Bray. Ages 9 and up
Mo loves her neighborhood and is looking forward to her best friend’s return for the summer. It would have been easy to overlook this sleeper, a seemingly quiet story of two long-time friends on a dead-end street, but Fox Street is much more than that. It is about change that happens even though we resist it. It’s about forces beyond our control. It’s about the pain of growing up as well as the everyday joys of friendship.
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Reckless, by Cornelia Funke, Little Brown. Ages 10 and up
Funke, the master of the richly imagined world populated with mystery and danger (Inkheart) presents a new series drawing on the dark side of traditional fairytales.
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Young Adult
Half Brother, by Kenneth Oppel, Scholastic. Ages 12 and up
What if your parents uproot your life and move you to a distant small town where you know no one? What if they bring a baby chimpanzee into the new house and try to raise him as your brother? What if they think they can teach him to speak in sign language , would that be okay with you?
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