BooksForKidsBlog

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Condition of Employment: Growing Up Grouchy: The Story of Oscar the Grouch by Michaele Munteon

EVERYONE AGREED THAT THE TINY BUNDLE OF GROUCHINESS SHOULD BE NAMED OSCAR.

He was named for a passing garbage truck with the sign Oscar's Trash Service on its side and a motto that read "Dump It or Lump It."
ALL GOOD GROUCH BABIES CRY AND FUSS A LOT, AND OSCAR WAS ONE OF THE CRANKIEST BABIES THEY HAD EVER SEEN.

And as he grows, Oscar meets all the expectations of the Grouch family. He grows a unibrow which looks as if a caterpillar is napping over his eyes. His favorite food is crabapple sauce, and for his first birthday, his family gives him his first little trash can and a starter pack of garbage.
OSCAR'S FIRST WORD WAS "YUCK!"

And would you believe Oscar's second word was "NO?"

It's a hard job, but somebody's got to do it, and being a grouch is actually a condition of employment for Oscar. He takes to his frowning, scowling, and pouting lessons as if he was born to it--which it seems he was. Think about it! Because Oscar takes care of being grouchy, the other Sesame Street characters don't have to be. They're free to be fun-loving and friendly, while Oscar is the Bah-Humbug Scrooge of Sesame Street.

In celebration of Sesame Street's fiftieth anniversary, Random House has introduced a series which reveal the backstory of their star characters, and in the new Jelly Bean Books edition, written by Michaela Muntean and illustrated by David Prebenna, Growing Up Grouchy: The Story of Oscar the Grouch (Jellybean Books(R)) (Random House/Jelly Bean Books, 2019) gives toddler fans of Sesame Street a chance to meet Baby Oscar. Share this one with How to Be a Grouch (Sesame Street).

Labels: ,

Monday, December 30, 2019

Logo-Pilferers Beware! The Word Pirates by Susan Cooper

It was early morning on the pirate ship.

"W O R D S!"

roared Captain Rottingbones.

"BRING ME FRESH WORDS! I NEED BREAKFAST!"

The Pirate King is ravening, and his crew releases their logo-hunting birds to ravage the shore-dwellers morning newspapers and steal author's manuscripts right from their typewriters, to feed their prey of fresh words to the Captain and crew.

Captain Rottingbones grabs and gobbles down the biggest word--antidisestablishmentarianism--for himself, while his crew fill their cereal bowls with bites like fib and pop and zip that stay crunchy in milk.

But Rottingbones' big maw is never filled. He cruises the oceans of the world, pillaging books and pulling words right out of the storytellers' mouths.

Still, Captain Rottingbones' logo-lust only grows more insatiable.
He had learned of a Word Wizard, a zany New Zealander, whose stories would be extra delicious.

He licks his large lips as he orders his mateys to set the sails for the South Seas, where the Word Wizard flourishes and delicious words flow fast from her lips and perfect from her pen.

And Rottingbones releases his voracious Bumblebirds to peel her tasty word morsels right from her pages. The story circle kids are first bemused, then confused, perplexed and then VEXED.
The Wizard was furious. So were the children.

"GIVE US BACK OUR WORDS!" the children yelled.

"WORDS ARE PRECIOUS!" the Wizard cried.

The Pirate Captain draws his cutlass. This is WAR. But the Word Wizard knows the pen is mightier than the sword, and she peppers the pirates with a scattering of Fi, Fie, Fos, a rapid fire of Rabbit Holes, and a barrage of Wild Rumpuses. And the story stealers are bested, their brains all a-buzz with stories!
What amazing things words could do if you didn't eat them!

And with their treasure trunk loaded with the seeds of literacy, the pirate ship sets sail, the world now safe for letters and syllables (and even Latin roots) and imagination blooms with all the words that are and can yet be, safe in books...
Like this one .

Words are the winners in this collaboration of superstars, multi-Newbery-winning author Susan Cooper (for The Dark Is Rising series) and noted author-illustrator Steven Kellogg, The Word Pirates (Neal Porter/Holiday House, 2019). Artist Steven Kellogg's warm and comic watercolor illustrations wash over this tale and welcome Cooper's apt logophilia, flowing through this one with obvious love for her craft. A book which ends with pirates learning their letters and the youngest picking up his pen to write, "Once upon a time..." is a welcome event. School Library Journal says, "Cooper's words are deliciously funny, and Kellogg'c comical style perfect complements Cooper's flair."

Labels: , , ,

Sunday, December 29, 2019

"Still, I Rise: The Fierce 44: Black Americans Who Shook Up the World

Back in the distant days of children's libraries, the biography section was usually modest, but there was one section where the worn and popular dusty-orange volumes of the Childhood of Famous Americans series were shelved, that is, when they weren't checked out to eager readers. The biographies of George Washington, Daniel Boone, Florence Nightingale and Louisa May Alcott were especially popular, and many young readers tried to read all the books in the series--if they could catch them on the shelf.

Fast forward many decades and the juvenile biography section in libraries boast biographies of many more noteworthy people from the past and the present, such as in the just published collective biography of forty-four African Americans--from George Washington Carver, the botanist, to Barack Obama, President, from Harriet Tubman, the Moses of her people on the Underground Railroad to Katherine Johnson, space scientist who computed the course of Apollo 11, from Frederick Douglass to Maya Angelou, from Sojourner Truth to Shirley Chisholm, from Duke Ellington to Jay Z, and from Jackie Robinson to Simon Biles--featured in short, pithy essays on their lives and accomplishments, with full-page portraits by Robert Ball, all of African Americans who contributed to our national life in their own ways.

As Dr. Henry Louis Gates says in his Foreword to The Fierce 44: Black Americans Who Shook Up the World (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019), " ...the pages... in this gorgeously rendered volume, fill that need... with mesmerizing and elevating artwork, while the snapshot biographies of the undefeated inside offer exemplary truths and models that will be a source of enlightenment and courage go every reader." A first choice for libraries, and a good source for middle-graders when those Black History Month assignments come their way.

Labels: ,

Saturday, December 28, 2019

MomTime! Saturday by Oge Mora

Ava's mother works on Sunday through Friday. So their Saturdays are very special.

THE DAY WOULD BE SPECIAL.

THE DAY WOULD BE SPLENDID.

THE DAY WAS
SATURDAY.

And this Saturday is a very full day. Ava and her mother have a lot planned--

--the local library for morning storytime!

--special hairdos together at the beauty shop!

--Saturday afternoon at the park! And in the evening--

--a real live puppet show at a big theater!

What a special, splendid Saturday they have planned. Except...

... There's a sign that says "STORYTIME IS CANCELED."
... Their fancy hairdos are ruined by a big puddle splash from a passing car.
... The park is crowded and noisy.
... And they have to run for the only bus to the theater, and then--Oh! Noooo!
AVA'S MOTHER GASPED. "I LEFT OUR TICKETS ON THE TABLE!"

Their Saturday has been anything but special or splendid. Ava's mother has had it!
"I RUINED SATURDAY."

Their best-laid plans have all gone wrong. What can Ava say or do to save the day?
"SATURDAYS ARE WONDERFUL...

BECAUSE I SPEND THEM WITH YOU!"

All's well that ends well, and Saturday ends with Mother and Ava back home, designing their own puppet show, in Caldecott author-illustrator Oge Mora's Saturday (Little, Brown and Company, 2019). Nothing goes wrong with Mora's evocative illustrations done in true mixed-media style, with paper collage, print scraps, bright acrylic paints, and markers, set in single and double-page spreads, as they deliver the premise that being together is what makes their Saturdays splendid. "A sweet ending ties a bow on the story," says Booklist.

Oge Mora's Caldecott Honor book is Thank You, Omu!

Labels:

Friday, December 27, 2019

The Art War! Fern and Horn by Marie-Louise Gay

Fern is into nature art.

Fern loves to draw flowers and butterflies, birds and bees, caterpillars and orange trees.

Her brother Horn wants to draw, and he wants to use ALL her crayons. But he's not good at flowers--or caterpillars.

His caterpillars look like striped snakes.

"Elephants! I'm good at drawing elephants."

But Horn's giant elephant tramples all of Fern's flowers. So Fern draws a whole sky full of stars, a tree full of cut-out paper stars.
"Can I make some stars, too?" asks Horn.

But Horn is not good with scissors, so he makes a giant torn-paper polar bear who gobbles up Fern's stars. Fern is piqued with his polar bear, so she captures cardboard boxes and constructs a castle that is elephant- and polar bear-proof. But Horn attacks the castle with a fire-breathing dragon.
Fern is ready. She throws a handful of chocolate chip cookies at the dragon.

Maybe it's time for a truce in the arts and crafts war for the day, in Marie-Louise Gay's Fern and Horn (Greenwillow Books, 2019. Or maybe not. In this good-natured and riotous brother-and-sister war, creativity runs rampant and a good time is had by all. Author Gay's can-you-top-this plot is great fun, and artist Gay's mixed-media illustrations are filled with inspiration and plenty of humor, (Fern's castle moat is a goldfish in a bowl) along the way to a temporary truce in this sibling contest. Art and inspiration get a good workout and all's well's that ends with chocolate chip cookies in a great day of child's play.

“A dazzling romp celebrating childhood and imagination.” says Booklist's starred review.

Labels: ,

Thursday, December 26, 2019

What Would Joe Do? A Fist for Joe Louis and Me by Trinka Hakes Noble

Every Friday, after he came home from working at the auto plant, my father gave me a boxing lesson.

"Fists up, Gordy." he'd say.

Detroit made two things: great boxers and great cars. But when the Great Depression came, people stopped buying cars. Times got hard in Detroit. But we still had Joe Louis in our corner.

But Gordy's father loses his job and his mother has to take a job sewing for the new neighborhood tailor, Mr. Rubenstein. Ira Rubenstein is in Gordy's class, and Gordy know they had fled the Nazis to come to the United States, but he doesn't really know Ira.

When one day at recess he asks Ira what he likes to do, Ira shyly says he likes boxing. He says that he and his father always listen to the Friday Night Fights on the radio, and the two boys get together after school to practice their Joe Lewis boxing moves. The two new friends nickname themselves "Iron Ira" and "Gordy Steel."

And soon their hero, Joe Louis, the guy from Detroit, wins his World Championship fight over the boxer Max Schmelling from Nazi Germany.
Then one day at recess, Nicky Benkovski starts picking on Ira. At first Ira ignores him. But Nicky suddenly shoves Ira. Then it happened. Ira gets up ...
and puts up his dukes!

And Gordy knows what he has to do.
"I knew Joe Louis wouldn't let Ira go it alone."

Besting the school bully provides the action for Trinka Hakes Noble's latest A Fist for Joe Louis and Me (Tales of Young Americans) (Sleeping Bear Press, 2019), but there's more to this story than standing up to the classroom bully. The two boys combine forces and the lessons in boxing learned from their idol to protect each other and the other kids in the school because it is the right thing to do, in this latest title in the Tales of Young Americans series, which deals with the the issues of the 1930s-urban and international migration, the Great Depression, and the days before World War II. Artist Nicole Tadgell's perceptive ink and watercolor paintings add to this powerful storytelling of a focal point in American history.

Labels: , , , ,

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

'Snow Doubt About It! I Love You Snow Much by Sandra Magsamen

There's snow one like YOU.

We know that's true.

You are snow special, too!

It's snow secret you are snow bright! And there are snow shortages of endearments and snowy scenes inside for young fingers to follow.

In fact, There's snow chance any little one will not love Sandra Magsamen's I Love You Snow Much Scholastic, 2018), a snow-themed board book with its charming faux applique covers and illustrations, its lively rhymes, and its jolly snowman with his real felt snow cap.

Wintry but warm!

Share this one with its companion book, Magsamen's rhythmic reindeer ride, Our Little Deer (Made With Love).

Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Hero Reader! MIGHTY READER and the Big Freeze by Will Hellenbrand

The bus driver closed the door.

Hugo looked for an empty seat.

All he saw was a pack of unfamiliar pooches.

But new-pooch-on-the-bus Hugo is in luck. When he finds a place to sit, he finds that his seatmate, Barkley, is both friendly and an eager reader. He shares his favorite book, The Adventures of Mighty Reader, and passes along the good news:
"You picked a great day to start. We're having a substitute teacher and an author visit today."

Their substitute, Mr. Wulff, introduces Hugo, shows the class a book, Spring is Here: A Bear and Mole Story a hot-off-the-press book by their visiting author, and chooses Barkley to read the visiting author's book, which is--Spring is Here: A Bear and Mole Story.

But then the unthinkable occurs! Barkley the Bulldog has a total BOOK BRAIN FREEZE!

But PRESTO-CHANGE-O! Little Hugo the Hound suddenly morphs into a caped crusader--MIGHTY READER. He reminds Barkley that he's read other books by the same author. He advises him to observe what's happening in the illustrations on each page and look for words he knows. And then, the big book freeze is on meltdown, and Barkley speed reads through the WHOLE BOOK, acting out the pictures and reading with great expression like a true SUPER READER!

Barkley is just taking a bow when the visiting author arrives--a shaggy dog bearing a bunch of story books by the famous writer and illustrator--Will Hillenbrand, who admits some of his secrets:
"There are many ways to make a story, but for me the pictures always come first. Oh, I hit bumps along the way. Mistakes often help me see how to make my work better."

Barkley checks out all of Hillenbrand's books!
"I don't think you can have too many favorite books."

Author-illustrator Hillenbrand uses comic-book-style panels and speech bubbles to promote reading (and to plug a bunch of his books) in his latest, Mighty Reader and the Big Freeze (Holiday House, 2019). With over 70 books under his belt, this new one by Will Hillenbrand is the perfect choice for author visits and Library Week events, along with good advice for the reluctant or novice readers out there who could use a little superhero assistance in morphing themselves into power readers.

Labels: , , ,

Monday, December 23, 2019

A Winter's Tale: A Big Bed for Little Snow by Grace Lin

When winter began, Little Snow's mommy made a big new bed just for him.

"Now you have warm feathers to sleep on," Mommy said."

"Remember, Little Snow, this bed is for sleeping, not for jumping."

JUMPING?

That motherly suggestion is heeded about as much as the famous folkloric advice not to put beans up your nose!

As soon as Mommy goes away, Little Snow jumps. And Jumps. And JUMPS on his bed!

And in the morning when he doesn't hear Mommy stirring, he jumps some more!
Tiny feathers squeezed out of his bed and fluttered down.

This jumping goes on secretly. Mommy never catches him at it, until--
Once, Little Snow jumped so high and landed so hard, he made a rip in his bed!

What a lot of feathers fell that day!

Snowy feathers fill the floor of Little Snow's room, and feathery snow fills the landscape outside.

Did Little Snow do all that? What a powerful jumper Mommy's boy must be. The jig is up with Little Snow's bed, in Grace Lin's latest, A Big Bed for Little Snow (Little, Brown and Company, 2019). As in her lovingly illustrated companion book to Lin's Caldecott Honor Book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, Lin combines beautifully realistic illustrations with a fantasy-tinged bedtime story of a first snow--inside and out. This new one is a tender story of motherly love and a mischievous boy that warms the heart as the snow falls outside his bedroom window. Now it's time to jump in real snow as Mommy sews a new feather bed, and all's well that ends at last with a laugh, inside and out.

"A wondrous, wintry read." says Horn Book's starred review.

Labels: , ,

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Ten Seconds to Totality! Eclipse Chaser--Science in the Moon's Shadow by Ilima Loomis

"Ten seconds to totality"

Swallows retreat to their nests. The temperature drops ten degrees. For a few seconds, the sun is a thin white circle, sparkling with points of light. The sky turns blue-black, and a ghostly white halo glows out of the darkness. Just above the eclipse, the planet Venus hangs in the sky like a solitary blue diamond.

The corona is spectacular, reaching millions of miles out into space with long, soft, white plumes.

For anyone privileged to see the eclipse of August 21, 2017, it was a thrilling two minutes, a stunning sight when life seemed to stand still. But for physicist Dr. Shadia Habbal, a total eclipse is an opportunity to observe and record a brief view of the composition and behavior of the gases in the sun's corona. To record that event takes tons of equipment and a large crew, a huge scientific expedition which can fail because of  the vagaries of sandstorms, smoke from wildfires, and mere fluffy clouds. Dr. Habbal had known such disappointments, but on August 21, 2017, everything came together.  There was an eclipse path across the well-populated North America, and the weather predictions looked good for a pass from Oregon to South Carolina, allowing more humans than any in history to view it, and Shadia oversaw five teams with identical equipment to record the chemical activity of gases in the corona from different sites to be studied for years afterward.

Wispy clouds appeared, with a bit of smoky haze from forest fires on the horizon, but as the crucial time drew near, the sky was sparkling clear. This time the recording instruments were carefully calibrated and controlled by computer software, and when the call of "ten seconds to totality" came, all the scientists stepped away from their devices, fearing the slightest tremor of  a hand would disturb their functions. But when the eclipse ended, the crew rushed to their instruments.
"What's the first thing after? Backup everything."

Not nearly all space science is done extra-terrestrially by space probes or lunar and Mars Rovers. Most such research is done from good ol' terra firma  And Ilima Loomis's just published Eclipse Chaser: Science in the Moon's Shadow (Scientists in the Field Series) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019) backups this stellar event for middle-reader science readers. Author Loomis captures the heart-stopping moment of a full eclipse, but she also describes the importance of those two minutes to gather data of great importance to astrophysics--the chemical activity in the sun's corona only observable during an eclipse. As the winter solstice reminds us, there's no light or life for earthlings without our sun, and knowing more about its nature is vital science. Photos of  Shadia and her teammates and illustrations and diagrams of how an eclipse occurs bring it all into focus, backed up by the solid appendix of all Scientists in the Field volumes, with glossary and bibliography to serve rising young science students doing projects and reports. A totally stellar book!

Labels: ,

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Hard to Hold: Treasure by Mireille Messier and Irene Luxbacher

A boy follows his sister into the woods on a treasure hunt.

"How will we know when we've found a treasure?" he asks.

"A treasure is shiny and mysterious and precious.

And the best treasures are always hidden," she says.

They ramble along a little stream and the boy finds striped yellow leaf, but when he shows it to his sister, she says its not shiny enough. His acorn is not mysterious enough, and when he captures some floating thistle fluff in the meadow, it doesn't please her.
"It's not precious enough," she declares.

Holding on to his finds, her little brother wonders if he can ever find anything that pleases his sister. He offers his pockets to help carry the treasure home. She simply tells him to to follow her.

And at last she leads him along the stream and through birches and evergreens until they find--
the waterfall.
"That's our treasure."

In quiet happiness, brother and sister sit by the pool below the falls together, and they know that finding it together is the treasure, even if they can't take it home in their pockets, in Mereille Messier and Irene Luxbacher's Treasure (Orca Book Publishers, 2019).

The real treasure is, of course, not something that can be held in the hand, but the experience of beauty the two share. As the little brother sets his found leaf, acorn, and seed pod fluff adrift in the stream, this lovely and simple story reveals the truth that, more than objects, shared experiences can be the best treasures of all. Lovely muted colors and gauzy illustrations seamlessly add depth to this story. Says Kirkus in a starred review, "A gentle exploration, using a child's words and told at a child's pace, of a marvelous world."

Labels: ,

Friday, December 20, 2019

The Grooviest Generation? The Truth about Grandparents by Elina Ellis

My grandparents are really old.

I've been hearing lots of strange things about old people. Some people say they are--

--NOT MUCH FUN.

But that's NOT the way this boy sees his own grandparents.

They take him on roller coasters and ride down the big drop with their arms up! They chase him all the way around the roller rink. They're not SLOW!

They excel at yoga and tossing pancakes. They are plenty BENDY. They are not put off by new stuff: They all share the latest digital devices.

The elders jump and jive to the sound of their Victrola. They jam loudly on trombone and sax with their band. They are adventurous enough to sack out on a hilltop and watch a midnight meteor shower with the kid.

The word for these energetic elders is AMAZING, in Elina Ellis' The Truth About Grandparents (Little, Brown and Company, 2019). While Grandma is not so svelte and Grandpa has little hair left up on top, their grandson can count on them for plenty of funny and action-filled adventures, with the theme that these grandparents can't be stereotyped. A great read-aloud for that salute to the increasing role of family elders on National Grandparents Day or any event that celebrates the role of the family.

Labels: ,

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Cycle of the Seasons: Birdsong by Julie Flett

It's a mucky morning as we pack up the last of our belongings and leave our little home in the city by the sea.

For a child, a move to a different place, leaving friends and relatives and her favorite tree in her window behind, is hard. Katharena doesn't even feel like unpacking her drawing things.

But it is spring, and the new little house is surrounded by early snowdrops all in bloom. Soon her mother sends her to meet their neighbor, an elderly woman named Agnes, who welcomes her and show her own clay pottery and sculptures and garden.
There are berries and flowers and so many of her clay things.

"Your mom says you love to draw," said Agnes.

As summer ripens into fall, Katherena and Agnes become fast friends. They prepare the garden for its winter rest, and Agnes says her bones are as creaky as the bare limbs of trees in the wind. She takes Katherena to her studio and shares the new pot she is making, and shares moon lore, and Katherena shares her Cree Indian name for the changing moon.

But as the geese fly away and autumn sinks into the cold of winter, Agnes is not well, and the girl and her mother make salmon soup and take it to her. And even as spring nears, Agnes has no strength to work her garden, or even to go outside to see summer's harbinger, the snowdrops in bloom. But she does have a last gift to give...

Agnes sends me home with a cup full of bulbs--snowdrop bulbs to plant in the field next autumn.

This is a winter's tale, a gentle story that deals with the cycle of the seasons and the cycle of life as well, Julie Flett's Birdsong (Greystone Books, 2019) chronicles an unlikely friendship of age and youth and the time that that the two share. In Katherena's own words, the narrative is lovely but spare, powerful in what goes unsaid but not unrevealed in words, but revealed in artist Flett's striking illustrations, done in flat outlines against bright white pages, in a palette limited to blacks and browns, which speaks of the rhythms of the seasons and of the heart.

Life goes on in this meaningful book, published to raves from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal and Horn Book.

Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

In A Crooked Little House: Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo

She walked down the A1A. She tried not to look behind her because Buddy had always been behind her, and now he wasn't. Up ahead there was a phone booth. She had the idiotic thought that she should call Buddy. Buddy. Who was a dog. Who was dead.

She went up to the phone booth. It felt like stepping into a tall, narrow oven. Her mother answered on the first ring. She didn't sound too drunk. "Where are you?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter," said Beverly. "I got a job."

"Whoop-de-do," said her mother.

Beverly hung up the phone. She closed her eyes. She could hear the cars going down A1A, and underneath that, the sound of the ocean. She opened her eyes, and when she lifted her head, she saw words scratched into the glass, glinting above her. She read the words out loud. "In a crooked little house by a crooked little sea." It was like the beginning of a story.

Beverly walked back up the A1A, past the fish restaurant where she had just gotten a job as bus girl, past the Seaside End Motel and almost past the Seahorse Court Trailer Park, where an old woman watering flowers calls out "Howdy, Howdy" to her.

For some reason Beverly turns into the park, where the old woman named Iola asks for help turning off the water and kindly invites Beverly inside her tiny trailer for a tuna melt sandwich. Beverly doesn't want to talk to her, but she's hungry and the old woman needs someone to drive her old Buick for her so she can go to play Bingo. Beverly's been driving since when her uncle taught her at age four, so she accepts the offer for tuna melt sandwiches and a sofa on Iola's porch for a bedroom.
There was something about sitting at the tiny table in the tiny kitchen and having Iola slide a plate of food in front of her that made Beverly feel like a little kid--happy, taken care of.

It soon seems everyone in Tamaray Beach, Florida wants to go somewhere else. Iola wants to go the the VFW Christmas in July dance and win the world's largest turkey, and at the cafe' waitress Freddie informs Beverly that she's going to be a famous model, maybe a movie star in Hollywood when she saves up enough money to go there with her boyfriend Jerome. Elmer, the boy at the counter at Zoom City on the A1A, has a scholarship to Dartmouth to study engineering but wants to go there to see art museums. Even Vera, the little girl crying outside the store, wants a go on the weathered mechanical horse that doesn't go anywhere. But Beverly doesn't know where she wants to go.

In her latest, Kate DiCamillo's Beverly, Right Here (Candlewick Press, 2019), the author immerses the reader in the coastal Florida landscape so deeply that you feel the sun in your eyes and the sand in your shoes. It's not the Florida of posh high-rise beach hotels with cookie-cutter balconies, but a 1970s Florida of tiny trailers that go nowhere and struggling seafood diners permeated with the smell of fried fish, but where fourteen-year-old Beverly Tapinski nevertheless discovers where she wants to be.

In this book DiCamillo returns to the roots of her Newbery-winning Because of Winn-Dixie and completes her trilogy that began with her Raymie Nightingale (review here). Says Booklist's starred review, "DiCamillo writes in a spare style, describing small, seemingly disparate moments that gradually come together in a rich, dynamic picture. The other thing she does brilliantly is shape characters whose eccentricities make them heartbreakingly, vividly real.

Labels: , ,

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Chicks Just Want to Have Fun! A Friend for Bentley by Paige Keiser

Bently was the only pig on Sunset Farm.

And when you're the only, it can get a bit lonely.

Bently has no one who wants to wallow in the mud with him.
The sheep found it too dirty for their clean white wool.

The chickens gagged at the sight of his gloppy slop.
They preferred seeds and worms.

And NO ONE wanted to do Crossword Puzzles! BO-RING!

But one day lonely Bentley hears something that sounds like a distinctive OINK.

The source turns out to be a baby chick taking a dust bath in the dirt and oinking as loudly as she can.
"I thought I heard another pig!" Bently said, noticeably disappointed.

Daisy the Chick excitedly explains that she wants to be a pig, but wallowing in mud is too hard for her, so she is working up to it by taking dust baths. Bently offers her some of his slop. Sadly she isn't as great at gobbling slop as she is at oinking. But she's already a whiz at crossword puzzles.

It's a friendship made in heaven and for a while Bently is never lonely with Daisy to share all his favorite things. But as Daisy begins to grow into a chicken, she comes to dislike mud baths and drops slop for earthworms, and she's no longer so fond of crossword games. But before she completely loses all her crossword chops, she enters and wins a contest, and the grand prize is--
A PIG!

Now Daisy is happily at home in the hen house, and thanks to her friendship, Bently has a porcine pal with whom to take a wallow, in Paige Keiser's A Friend for Bently (Harper, 2019), told cheerily and filled with charmingly Disneyesque farm animals doing their thing (except for the occasional all-nighter crossword contest). Handling differences that develop between friends is here handled with the sort of insightful and kind understanding that keeps a long-term friendship shipshape.

Labels: , ,

Monday, December 16, 2019

Too Much of a Good Thing? Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party by Kimberly and James Dean


Pete the Cat loves pizza.

Pete the Cat loves parties.

Pete had a idea--he would have a Pizza Party!

Pete knows that the PERFECT pizza is a pizza with pepperoni and extra cheese. What could be better? What could be simpler?

It's an EASY-PEASY PIZZA PARTY!

Pete's friends all arrive, ready to build their own pizza.
There's just one problem....

No one else wants pepperoni with extra cheese.

Callie calls for pretzels on her pizza.
"Well, that's something new," Pete muses. "But maybe pretzels could be groovy, too!"

But Squirrel wants pistachios on his pizza. Grumpy Toad opts for pickle pizza. Gus the Duck prefers popcorn on his pizza, and Alligator picks papayas for his topping. Pete picks up his guitar and plays a riff:
"It's a pizza, a pepperoni, pretzel, pickle and pistachio, popcorn and papaya pizza!"

OUT OF SIGHT!
DYNAMITE!
JUST RIGHT!"

It's different strokes for different folks, and when better to try something new than New Year's Eve, in Kimberly and James Dean's latest Pete The Cat picture book, Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party (Harper, 2019). It seems that if it's hot enough and has cheese on top, it's a pizza, and Pete the Chef makes a diverse pizza for every one of his friends. Kimberly Dean writes the rhymes and artist James Dean draws the daring diners and tasty toppings, even tempting his adventurous eaters with endpapers picturing yet more er, groovy combinations for exotic toppings. just in case they feel like, Oh, I don't know... an avocado and artichoke pizza? Bon Appetit!

Labels: , , ,

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Sesame Street Wit and Wisdom: Love The Fur You're In

FIND SOMEONE TO DANCE TO YOUR TUNE.

Be your own best friend is the message of Sesame Street Studios. Your most important friend is--right inside your skin.

Sometimes you need a buddy to share a cookie with, and--
SOMETIMES YOU NEED A LITTLE SPACE--

--and sometimes you need to have the things and people you love all around you.

And there are always kites and cookies and green underwear! But there's also good advice from your friends on the street:

It's a good idea to have a Plan B (and C and D and...) before you undertake Plan A, and remember--whatever you undertake--
DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT!

There is good advice for all ages in the Monster Wit And Wisdom from Sesame Street's new Love the Fur You're In (Sesame Street)(Random House, 2019) Filled with art from the entire history of Sesame Street, this one is a fun way to share Cookie Monster's philosophy of life with the youngest fan.

Labels:

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Snow Time: Snow Globe by Erin Dealey

There's a big storm moving in. A powerful wind rips holiday decorations loose from the lampposts as snowflakes begin to fly.

Lost connections on phones, computers, Bundled, homeward-bound commuters. Traffic slows.

Roads disappear,
beneath the worst storm of the year.

The lights go out, so out come candles for the mantels. A fire in the fireplace warms the room as the family of four picnics on takeout on the floor.

Beside the Christmas tree, Dad builds a blanket tent, and by lantern light reads snow stories to the kids, the kitty, and their dog. One kid shakes their snow globe and wishes for, what else? More snow!
Snow globe wishes,
Snowplows rumble lullabies..
.

The snow is too deep for cars and school buses to make their way, so everyone has a magical snow day holiday. Snowmen and snowballs, sleds and snow forts, even the grownups get in on the fun. What more could they wish for? Well...
Peace on earth
throughout the year!

In a jolly rhyming snow story that every kid wishes for, Erin Dealey's Snow Globe Wishes (Sleeping Bear Press, 2019) is an idyllic story of a pre-Chistmas snow day where everyone gets an unforeseen but much appreciated holiday. Claire Shorrock adds merry illustrations that reflect good times among everyone in the neighborhood, a happy time-out for the sheer joy of a good snow. This one is an engaging account of a surprise snowstorm that brings holiday cheer and good will to all.

Labels: , ,

Friday, December 13, 2019

Be Yourself! Dear Boy, by Paris and Jason Rosenthal

DEAR BOY,

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.

BE KIND.

HONESTY WILL NEVER LEAD YOU DOWN THE WRONG ROAD.

There are many things a parent wants to say to a child, and in this sequel to to Amy Krouse Rosenthal's best-selling advice for girls, Dear Girl, (see review here), the late Amy Krouse's daughter Paris and son Jason Rosenthal have written a companion book for boys, Dear Boy, (Harper, 2019). Parents of boys will find the authors' advice says a lot, including their closing:
KNOW THAT YOU CAN ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS TURN TO ME.

Labels: ,

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Magical Mystery Tour (The Sequel) Hey, Grandude! by Paul McCartney

Lucy and Tom and Em and Bob were spending the weekend with their granddad.

Today was one of those days when nothing felt quite right. It was gray and drizzly and everybody was grumpy and too bored to be bothered.

Bear up, Chillers!" said Grandude.

Grandude is too cool to let a little ennui ruin the day. He pulls out a bunch of picture postcards of intriguing sunny scenes and encourages each one of the kids to choose one they'd like to visit.

Em picks a sunlit beach with sun-kissed sand and blue waves.

And with a magical flash, they are there, on that actual beach. Wavelets splash their toes and the sun warms their backs. They splash and build sandcastles, and then join a school of flying fish and soar OVER THE WAVES.

Then for Tom, Grandude spins his magical compass needle and the kids find themselves at a dude ranch, lassoing their cayooses and riding like cowpokes, fully at HOME ON THE RANGE. Another compass spin for Lucy take them high on an Alpine meadow, but when they try out their YO-DE-LAY-DEE-HOOS, they find themselves fleeing a rock 'n' roll avalanche with the cows.

By now Bob is ready to call it A DAY IN THE LIFE!

It's Grandude's Magical Mystery Tour, for sure, in Paul McCartney's Hey Grandude! (Random House, 2019). A grandpa six times over, author McCartney evidently knows a lot about entertaining kids.   Along with the fantastic illustrations of Kathryn Durst, McCartney, who owns 18 Grammies and stacks of gold and platinum records, also knows how to keep a top-selling hit rolling.

Grandads (a.k.a Grandudes) Rock!

“This picture book debut from the musical icon hits all the right notes," trills Publishers Weekly.

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Lost Recipe! Cookies for Santa by Johanna Tarkela

It's the week before Christmas. Everyone at the North Pole is getting ready for the big day.

Everyone but SANTA.

Santa is in a funk.

It seems he cannot find his copy of the Kringle Family Cookbook; ergo, he can't make the Chocolate Krinkle Cookies he always gives to his staff--elves, reindeer, mice....

Christmas is canceled!

But meanwhile, in the marginally warmer clime of Boston, U.S.A., there are two kids, Benton and Abigail, out Christmas shopping with their mom, and at Abigail's urging, they stop off at the downtown library to find a Christmas cookie recipe book. Abigail spies a dusty but intriguing old volume and checks it out. The perceptive Abigail quickly figures out that Santa's lost recipe book has somehow found its way to the stacks of the Boston Public Library and that she herself must save Christmas by baking a bodacious batch of Chocolate Krinkle Cookies!

But there's one hitch! The recipe calls for elfin chocolate, an ingredient that no one seems to be selling. For such a culinary question--Who you gonna call?
"I have an idea!" said Mom. "America's Test Kitchens are down the street. They'll know what to do!"

Is that august collection of culinary skills up to the Krinkle Cookie challenge?

It looks as if this will not be The Year Without A Santa Claus after all in Johanna Tarkela's Cookies for Santa: The Story of How Santa's Favorite Cookie Saved Christmas (Sourcebooks, 2019). While this modern version of the evergreen "helping Santa" theme is well retold here, Tarkela's  lively and jolly illustrations really sparkle--lovely, merry, and bright.

Share this one with Phyllis McGinley's heartwarming classic, The Year without a Santa Claus or the tasty top-seller, A World of Cookies for Santa: Follow Santa's Tasty Trip Around the World (see review here).

Labels: , , ,