This is my favorite picture book of the year. The artwork is pretty amazing. There is so much implied motion in the seemingly simple lines, and the details are so much fun. (The little bits of stuff stuck on the hedgehog in every picture make me smile.) How can anyone resist the charm of a story that has a sleep-rumpled bear appearing after being awakened by a squirrel and a hedgehog singing sea shanties? Seriously. Just take a look. You won’t regret it. I promise.
When I finished reading The Bones of Faerie, I flipped back to the beginning and started re-reading; it’s just that good. Janni Lee Simner has combined all the elements of the classic fairy tale quest and coming-of-age novel into a tightly-written, post-apocalyptic journey through the ruins of suburban St. Louis. This is one powerful stand-alone fantasy novel, a species I had thought extinct.
I love this book! I could say all sorts of smart things about why I love it. For example, I could say that the depiction of an easy, loving relationship between father and son is refreshing. Or that Turtle’s Penguin Day reinforces the importance of creative play in the learning process (having taught a boy who was a t-rex for most of 4th grade, I completely understand the truth of that). Mostly though, I just fell in love with the gentle illustrations and the exuberance about learning and sharing new ideas. May this lovely book inspire penguin or turtle or even monkey days of your own!
First, this is a picture book about war. More specifically, this is a picture book set firmly in World War I. Rather than miring the book in history and rendering its message obsolete, the very humanity of it makes Letter’s message universal. Decker’s pen and ink illustrations are a beautiful complement to the sparse text of a letter from a medic in the trenches home to his son near the end of the war. They capture the loneliness, despair, horror, and boredom of warrnso intricately, and, more importantly, they remind us that there is hope, even in the darkest hour. While we may be growing unfamiliar with the images of trench warfare, we are still bombarded daily with images of armed conflict.
On the surface, this might appear to be a book for children that is stuck in the past. Look closer, my friend. This, this is a book for any age.
This is the edition of Mother Goose that I grew up with. I spent days curled up in my mother’s rocking chair poring over these rhymes. I love Fujikawa’s pictures and can still vividly recall some of my favorites: Old King Cole dancing with his pipe and bowl (pg. 42); the blackbirds flying out of a pie in Sing a Song of Six Pence (pg. 54); and most of all, the shoe I wanted to live in with the little old lady (pg. 66). Hours were wiled away trying to decide which room I would sleep in. (The hammock in the stairway is where I settled.) I’m so glad that Gyo Fujikawa’s works are back in print for a new generation. I hope you will be too.
Read. Enjoy.
Great Cookies: Secrets to Sensational Sweets
by Carole Walter Clarkson Potter
Our Price: $35.00
I gave a copy of this cookbook to my sister, who likes to bake. A month later, both her friends and mine were referring to it as “the cookbook of destiny” because she’d made so many fabulous treats for people.
These recipes are fun, and there’s a quick guide to the level of skill and time involved for each (described in the introduction). I haven’t made more than a handful of these cookies, but I have tasted twice as many. All were, in fact, great. Jeffrey’s Chocolate Sugarsnaps (page 78) are already a favorite. Because of this cookbook, several of my friends will be getting baked goods for the holidays this year.
All My Friends Are Superheroes
by Andrew Kaufman Coach House Press
Our Price: $14.95
“There are 249 superheroes in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. None of them have secret identities. Very few wear costumes. Most of their powers don’t result in material gain. The Amphibian can survive both on land and underwater, but really, what use is that? Who’s going to give him a job for that? He works as a bike courier for a company downtown called Speedy.” (Page 47)
This lovely novella is, at heart, a simple tale of boy meets girl.
Boy (Tom, normal) meets girl (The Perfectionist, superhero).
Boy falls for girl.
Boy gets girl.
At their wedding, girl’s ex-boyfriend (Hypno, superhero) convinces girl that boy doesn’t exist.
Boy, now invisible to girl, must win her back.
I love this book and all of its light-hearted, matter-of-fact prose about things that should seem completely absurd, but somehow don’t. I hope you do, too.
The Incredible Book-Eating Boy
by Oliver Jeffers Philomel
Our Price: $16.99
My parents used to say, “We buy you books and buy you books, and all you do is read the covers.” (Which was never really true.) I mistakenly repeated it once as, “Buy you books and buy you books and all you do it eat the covers.” It’s been a family saying (that often confuses outside parties) ever since. Henry, the main character of The Incredible Book Eating Boy, actually does eat the covers (red ones are his favorites). In fact, he eats whole books and becomes smarter. He’s well on his way to becoming the smartest boy in the world before his stomach starts having trouble digesting so much information. Can Henry find another way to appreciate books and all they have to offer? Of course! Join Henry on this delightful adventure as he learns the joys of reading. – Kari P.
Every time I look through this simple tale of a trip to the zoo, I find something new to entrance me. Sometimes, I follow the parents on their somewhat harried journey. Sometimes I follow the splashes of color across the page. Sometimes the hats and costumes on the background characters catch my eye (the alligator hat on the bespectacled child in the stroller is a favorite); other times the balloons held by children hold my attention. This book makes me want a pink poncho and galoshes.
I wish I could have gone to this zoo as a child. I’ll just have to make do with visiting it again and again on the page. Enjoy!
Lynch’s gorgeous illustrations truly enhance the text of my favorite holiday tale. This is a perfect classic for the season, and this is the perfect edition of that classic.
A Night-Time Tale (Picture books from around the World seri)
by Alexandra Junge WingedChariot Press
Our Price: $16.95
This lovely picture book is for every child, perhaps fearful of the dark, who ever asked, “Why does it have to be night?” What follows the initial question is a whimsical world where it is always daytime: a world of confounded stargazers, confused hens, and a very weary sun. Eventually our young heroine decides that a world with night is just fine, because the moon delivers such wonderful dreams.
How can I put into mere words the love I have for this book? I've recommended it to grade schoolers, teachers, friends, older brothers (well, really only the one older brother, but he was 25 at the time--that counts for something, right? but I digress) all to general acclaim.
When I was eleven I wanted to be Cimorene (the main character) more than anything in the world. Sometimes, I still feel that way.
Dealing With Dragons is Cimorene's first adventure. Join her on her fantastical journey that has just a hint of the absurd. If you enjoy, you should also check out the sequel, Searching for Dragons.
David Ives has mastered the art of distilling pure wit into a one-act play. Biting, heartfelt, absurd and wonderful, these plays are well-nigh impossible to describe and even more impossible not to enjoy.
In "Words, Words, Words," three monkeys -- Swift, Milton, and Kafka -- are locked in a cage with typewriters and cigarettes and attemting to write Hamlet.
"Sure Thing" is sort of Groundhog Day melded with a first date as a man and woman have repeated conversations in a coffe shop.
The title alone is enough to start me laughing where "Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread" is concerned.
Read, Enjoy.
Sorcery and Cecelia: Or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot
by Patricia C. Wrede Magic Carpet Books
Our Price: $6.95
This light, frothy wonder of an epistolary novel is the most fun you’ll have reading someone else’s mail all year (possibly even longer). Sorcery and Cecilia is a fantastical regency romp, like Jane Austen meets Diana Wynne Jones. It was a favorite of mine in high school (at which point it was already a few years out of print). Thankfully it’s been reprinted.
Now you, too, can enjoy the adventures of Kate as she embarks on her first London season and her dearest cousin, Cecilia (Cecy to friends), left in the country to languish until her own turn at the marriage mart. There are adventures and intrigues with a solid helping of magic and a dash of romance. With a bit of luck and a lot of wit (or was it the other way around?) our heroines prevail. They may just wile their way into your heart along the way.
This beautiful book lovingly brings to mind lazy days spent creating entire worlds out of blankets and books in my basement, listening to my sister have conversations with her favorite dolls over imaginary tea.
Such is the feeling of The Moon in My Room, a remarkably simple, whimsical story of a boy, his world, and his favorite toy bear. The open white spaces and sparing use of color blend wonderfully with the limited text, perfect for the young reader or just the young at heart.
Dakota: A Spiritual Geography
by Kathleen Norris Mariner Books
Our Price: $13.00
The landscape of my soul (and my formative years) is slow rolling prairie, broken, every so often, by a lonely highway or dirt road; country populated more with cows than people. For the last eight years, my physical landscape has been that of cities and sprawl; skyscrapers, gridlock and a sea of humanity.
Dakota is both everything that I yearn for from home and every reason that I will probably never live there again. In these vignettes, weather reports and essays, Kathleen Norris captures the spirit of the prairie and those that live there. Dakota is an observation and revelation of an area and a population often overlooked (both figuratively and literally, it is, after all, fly over country). It is also a very intimate journey toward personal understanding. Dakota is not so much about finding God as it is about finding peace both with oneself and one’s surroundings. It is about learning to see beauty, even in utter desolation.
This book makes me miss the sky.
Timequake
by Berkley Publishing Group
Our Price: $14.00
"All persons, living and dead, and purely coincidental."
If you're a Vonnegut fan and haven't read this, you should. If you've never read Vonnegut, this is a good place to start. (It's my favorite, followed closely by Breakfast of Champions.)
The basic plot (as briefly explained on page 63) is that at 2:27 pm (eastern time) on Feb. 13, 2001, the universe had a hiccup and shrank, sending everyone back in time 10 years. What follows are 10 years of unalterable deja vu before free will kicks in again at 2:28.
Like all Vonnegut, Timequake is absurd, profound, profane, inimitable. At times laugh-out-loud funny and poignantly sincere, it presents a worthwhile commentary on the state of the world while taking nothing, least of all itself, too seriously.
Ting-a-ling!
Big Sister, Little Sister
by LeUyen Pham Hyperion Books for Children
Our Price: $15.99
I love my sister. I adore this book. (She did, too I gave it to her for her 21st birthday.)
A Collection of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories
by Rudyard Kipling Candlewick Press
Our Price: $22.99
Once, long ago (though not so very long ago), O my Best Beloved, there was a curious little girl who loved nothing so much as having her mother read her stories juuuust so. Now, those Just So Stories came in book with a bright red binding and pictures in black and white. That edition is long out of print. This collection, O Best Beloved, does not contain all of those stories, but it does have wonderful illustrations from some of the best artists working in children's books today. These are stories full of wit and whimsy meant to be read aloud; to be said and savored. For a child, a child at heart, or anyone with a love of language these stories are wonderful ways to explore and explain how the world came to be juuuust so.
Looking for excitement? Adventure? A great book (despite what the cover art might imply)? Then look no further.
Meet Percy Jackson, a dyslexic 12-year-old with ADHD who's been kicked out of 6 schools in 6 years. It's not his fault, though; turns out his father is a god. A Greek god. Join Percy on his adventure as he discovers his divine heritage at a summer camp for demigods and takes up a cross-country quest to stop a war. With the help of his friends Annabeth (a daughter of Athena) and Grover (a satyr) he makes his way while battling monsters, dealing with gods on motorcycles, and racing against the clock.
The witty writing and intrepid antics of our hero kept my interest from start to finish.
