BooksForKidsBlog

X-Dog Martha: Secret Agent Dog (Martha Speaks) by Susan Meddaugh and Jamie White

2012-01-29T00:01:00.002-05:00

UH-OH! I'd been caught red-pawed.

I fled the scene. I didn't stop running until I'd reached the chief's office. (Do two-legged spies run this much? Where's my fancy car with the windows open and the top down?) I delivered K9-001's message.

"November 29-X?" the Chief repeated.

"That's right. He said it was a code."

"It certainly is, Martha! The case is cracked." The Chief shook my paw.

"Congratulations, Martha! You saved the soup!"

Martha loves a mystery, and when she is summoned by a mysterious pair in dark suits, dark glasses, and a dark limousine, she is delighted to be told that because of her special abilities, she has been chosen by spymaster The Chief to go undercover as a guard dog in the Granny's Soup headquarters. Rumors are circulating that a nefarious band of industrial spies are plotting to get their hands on Granny's secret alphabet soup formula. Martha is on board with the force right away: after all, she's always dreamed of the glamorous life of a secret agent, and besides, she needs that soup daily to keep on talking.

On the job as K9-002, Martha is disappointed that the role doesn't come with a tuxedo, dark glasses, and toilet water martinis, but she willingly agrees to work with the force's K9-001, guard dog Ruff, a rugged Rottweiler already in place at the factory. On her first night of surveillance, Martha, playing a friendly nighttime watchdog, observes the janitor picking the lock to Granny's office, where the secret formula is kept safe in the, um, safe, to which only Granny herself knows the combination. Certain that she has uncovered the undercover agent, Martha and Ruff take the news to Granny, and watch as she rushes to open the safe and make sure her formula is still there.

It is, and when Ruff tells Martha a secret code to capture the crook (the bilingual Martha speaks dog, remember?), she rushes to report it to The Chief. Mission accomplished. Case closed, thanks to souper-dog Martha, she thinks.

But no. Martha soon learns that The Chief was an impostor who played upon her desire to be a secret agent. Ruff, Agent K9-001, was actually part of the mastermind's plot. He observed the combination Granny's safe (which Martha's owner Helen quickly decodes as 11-29-10) and used Martha's ability to translate it into human talk to get it to The Chief, who then knew all he needed to rip off the recipe and end Granny's Soup's preeminence as Numero Uno in the soup biz.

Martha mopes for a minute or two, but then decides it's up to her to save Granny's Soup and keep herself in place as the world's only talking dog, even if it requires really going undercover, disguising herself as a pink poodle and infiltrating The Chief's operation. But this time, it's not Martha's linguistic skills or becoming a master of disguise that save the day--it's her good old doggy sense of smell that finally uncovers the master criminal and saves the soup.

In their forth-coming-in-February beginning chapter entry, Martha Speaks: Secret Agent Dog (Chapter Book) (Houghton Mifflin, 2012), Susan Meddaugh and collaborator Jamie White put their mystery-solving mutt through her paces in a comic little volume in which Martha again cur-tails the crooks and saves the world for talking dogs. Fans of the hit PBS show and Meddaugh's series of picture books and I-Can-Read Martha Speaks stories will love Martha as souper-spy, and the appended glossary and secret agent activities will undercover additional vocabulary enrichment opportunities as they create their own secret code messages and become "masters of disguise."

Small Kindnesses: Squish Rabbit by Katherine Battersby

2012-01-28T00:01:00.003-05:00

SOMETIMES SQUISH WAS HARD TO SEE (WHICH IS HOW HE GOT HIS NAME).

WONDERFUL THINGS PASSED HIM BY.

Squish is truly little, but as we know, good things come in small packages, and this maxim is also true for this little book and its even smaller protagonist.

Squish is a tiny white rabbit who feels unworthy and unnoticed. A tempting red balloon floats by, just out of reach and out to sea. The big white rabbits don't seem to listen to him, and he is lonely, seemingly stuck in his small world.

Drawing a friendly looking little rabbit with sidewalk chalk doesn't do it. An apple tree doesn't make a good playmate either, dropping too many apples at once. Squish gets angry and tries a tantrum, finally throwing a windfall apple as far as he can. It bounces toward the cliff overlooking the sea, and Squish watches in horror as an unseen little squirrel just appears and heedlessly bounds after it. Suddenly Squish finds his voice.

"STOP!"

In a bit of book design drama, the two stare at each other from opposite pages, as they each recognize a kindred spirit, and a friendship begins that makes Squish feel bigger and bigger.

Katherine Battersby's sensitive little story, illustrated minimally with blackline drawings highlighted with a judicious use of red, Squish Rabbit (Viking, 2011), has a lot to say about friendship in just a few words. "A delightful and promising debut," says Publishers Weekly.

Vive La Difference: One of Us by Peggy Moss

2012-01-27T00:01:00.005-05:00

Roberta James put her hair up. Straight up, and walked into Baker School.

She was late. Two weeks late.

"I just moved here," Roberta explained to the principal.

It's her first day as the new girl in school, and so far, so good.

Roberta likes the friendly principal, the well-equipped playground, the cheerful, bright hallways, and the library with tons of books. And when she gets to her assigned classroom, a girl named Carmen motions for her to sit with her and two friends.

"Sit here," said Carmen. "You are one of US."

Roberta sees the three girls, all with top-knots of hair like hers. One even has braids bent into the shape of a heart on top of her head! All goes well with her new friends until it's time for morning recess. Roberta can't wait to hit those fabulous monkey bars outside.

"We don't play on the playground," said Carmen. "We sit here and talk."

But Roberta is a monkey-bars kind of kid and the other climbers welcome her gladly.

"You're one of US," says Jasmine, and Roberta plays with this active group for the whole recess.

But at lunch, she finds herself invited by another group, the lunch-in-a-flowery-lunchbox group who all sit together. All goes well until Roberta pulls out her pita-wrapped mayo, coconut, and raisin sandwich.

"Kids who eat that kind of stuff sit over there," Emiko informs her.

It seems that in her new school, there's a special group for everything, and Roberta is confused. She retreats to eat by herself at the end of the table while she contemplates where she fits in this cliquish class.

"Who ARE you?" asks Anna, who approaches her curiously.

"I'm a straight-up hair girl who climbs on bars, has a flowered lunch box with a pita roll-up, and wear running shoes," Roberta says.

"So you're one of US."

"I doubt it," said Roberta.

"I'm a trumpet-playing girl who likes baseball and car racing and ballet." said Anna.

"I love building and spicy food and origami and bowling!" said Jason.

"I love spicy food," said Roberta, "and baseball, but I'm not crazy about ballet."

"Perfect!" said James.

And Roberta relaxes, feeling that she has found a group where she can be herself, whatever she is.

Although Peggy Moss' One of Us (Tilbury House, 2011) pushes her message of personal diversity a little hard here, she does hit all the right nails on the head in identifying the early stages of elementary cliqueish-ness, those subtleties of appearance or behaviors that make for social success or failure in the early and middle grades. Penny Weber's delightfully upbeat illustrations help make Moss's premise that there is a place for people with different interests, even if it is in a group who value each other because of that variety of traits and talents. It's a point that needs to be made, and Moss' story of a girl with her running-shoe-clad feet firmly on the ground hits home, ending with a double-page spread of the whole class mixing it up on the playground.

Secret Admirer: A Giant Crush by Gennifer Choldenko

2012-01-26T00:01:00.004-05:00

My best friend, Jackson, has been making Valentines all day long.

"Who's the special Valentine for, Jackson?"

"It's not special, Cooper, really," he says.

"How come is it so full of chocolate kisses that you can barely close it?"

Jackson is obviously smitten with the cute and charming Cami, although he is too shy to reveal his feelings to his best friend, much less to the object of his affections.

Cooper watches as his friend leaves a giant yellow flower, chocolate kisses, and a giant, handmade Valentine on Cami's desk anonymously. Cami doesn't seem to get the message, but class pest, Carter Corey, and Cami's girlfriends pick up on the vibes and what poor Jackson has feared comes to pass with predictable results:

"Cami and Jackson sitting in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" all the girls sing.

Carter Corey is all too quick to jump on the teasing train. The shy beau is mortified when the taunting comes down, especially after the tall Jackson chooses to pass the soccer ball right to Cami at recess.

Cooper gives good advice to his buddy, telling them that if he wants a girl to like him, he at least needs to let her know about it. But the extra-tall Jackson has a real fear: what if Cami thinks he's a giant!

But faint heart never won fair lady, and on Valentine's Day Cami turns out to have a heart as big as Jackson's Valentine and the feminine moxy to handle the whole situation with definite diplomacy:

"I don't have a boyfriend," Cami tells him.

"But if I did have a boyfriend, he'd be totally giant!"

In the early elementary years, the coming of Valentine's Day provides the opportunity for the ever-popular subject of LOVE to rear its head. Newbery Award-winning author Gennifer Chuldenko combines forces with the equally-award-winning illustrator Melissa Sweet in their latest, A Giant Crush, (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2011) a Valentine's Day tale which is both empathetic and humorous.

While Katrina Comes: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

2012-01-25T00:01:00.007-05:00

I bend over and scrub my face dry with my shirt, but the tears still come.

"I can't," I sob.

"I need you," said Randall.

And then I get up because it is the only thing I can do. I step out of the ditch and brush the ants off because it's the only thing I can do; if this is strength, if this is weakness, this is what I do.

After Mama died, Daddy said, What are you crying for? Stop crying. Crying ain't going to change anything. We never stopped crying. We just did it quieter. We hid it.

This was the only thing we could do.

Jesmyn Ward's 2011 National Book Award-winning novel, Salvage the Bones: A Novel (Bloomsbury, 2011), traces the cataclysmic approach of Hurricane Katrina made concrete in the story of the twelve days in one rural family's lives as the storm grows and strikes.

In the beginning only Daddy is prophetically manic with concern about the storm, raging when his children, all teenagers except seven-year-old Junior, belittle his orders to help prepare for the storm, as yet only a tropical depression in the Atlantic. Oldest son Randall is consumed with his desire to win a basketball scholarship and the upcoming playoff game is his only chance to star and initiate that dream. Skeetah is obsessed with his fighting pit-bull China, about to give birth to her first litter, promising part of his earnings from the sale of the pups to Randall for basketball camp. Main character and narrator, fourteen-year-old Esch is preoccupied with the realization that she is pregnant with a child by her brother's friend Manny, who is oblivious to her situation, oblivious in his interest in another girl.

As the hurricane develops, each of the family's personal storms grows and comes to a climax, until the final approach of Katrina focuses the attention of all upon the storm, breaking with a ferocity that destroys everything they own, stripping them all down to what they really are, a family that in the end helps each other survive and understand that their bonds and their hopes are what they really have to begin again.

Ward skillfully assigns epic, mythical proportions to her story by interweaving the classical Greek tale of Jason and Medea with the struggles of the Baptiste family. In fact, Medea is not the central symbol, but a sort of touchstone, destroyer and preserver, sometimes linked to the white dog China, the mother who gives life and sometimes takes it away, sometimes haunting Esch, who is fixated on the story of Medea as she, the memory of her mother's death still fresh, tries to conceive of herself as a mother, as one who therein holds life and death within her own will, and sometimes seen as the storm Katrina itself.

...Katrina, the mother that swept into the Gulf and slaughtered. She was the murderous mother who cut us to the bone but left us alive, left us naked and bewildered as wrinkled newborn babies, as blind puppies, as sun-starved newly hatched baby snakes. She left us a dark Gulf and salt-burned land. She left us to learn to crawl. She left us to salvage. Katrina is the mother we will remember....

This is not a book for children, filled as it is with the blood, sweat, and tears of life, but mature young adult readers, high school juniors and seniors, those with a grasp of literary tradition and elements of the novel, will find this book absorbing and intensely insightful. The New York Times reviewer points up the dual nature of this novel, a contemporary story on its own, but also a story as primordial as mankind itself: ..."smartly plotted and voluptuously written. It feels fresh and urgent, but it's an ancient, archetypal tale." The Washington Post says "Masterful… Salvage the Bones has the aura of a classic about it." Indeed, Salvage the Bones: A Novel has the promise of joining iconic novels like Moby Dick and To Kill a Mockingbird among those great American novels, firmly rooted in a particular time and place and yet universal in their theme.

Property Rights: I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

2012-01-24T00:01:00.004-05:00

BEAR: "MY HAT IS GONE.

HAVE YOU SEEN MY HAT?

FOX: "NO."

BEAR: "OK. THANK YOU ANYWAY."

A bare-headed bear asks one animal after another--Fox, Turtle, Snake, Armadillo--if he has seen the missing hat. Fox, a man of few words, is laconic; Turtle goes off-topic, remarking that he's been busy trying to climb a rock, and Bear helpfully gives him a boost to the top. Snake On A Limb gives irrelevant information, pointing out that he saw a hat once, a blue and round one.

Bear moves on to question Armadillo, who is no help either.

ARMADILLO: "WHAT IS A HAT?"

Reliable witnesses are in short supply, it seems. Only Rabbit, wearing a peaked red cap, has much to say, and his loquacious reply doth protest too much.

RABBIT: "I DIDN'T STEAL IT!"

Deer, however, has the good sense to ask for a description of the missing chapeau, and as Bear is describing his hat, red and pointed, he suddenly remembers on whose head he has just seen that cap.

Jon Klassen gently draws the veil over the probable conclusion of this crime and punishment story, but young readers will chuckle at Bear's own quiet disclaimer ("I wouldn't eat a rabbit,"), assuming that justice--and nature--have taken their course, as Bear moves off the final page, his red hat restored to its rightful head.

Klassen's just published I Want My Hat Back (Candlewick, 2011) has wowed the reviewers and the public as well, judging by its best-selling status among new picture books. With its ironic understatement, expressive but minimalist drawings, and its wry humor, Klassen's work recalls classics by William Steig, Roald Dahl, and Mo Willems, and in his first outing as solo author-illustrator, Klassen has himself a hit.

Publishers Weekly says it succinctly: "A noteworthy debut," while the New York Times reviewer goes all out: "This is a charmingly wicked little book and the debut of a promising writer-illustrator talent."

Ed. Note: I wrote this review on November 5 and apparently forgot to publish it. Since this book was named a Caldecott Honor book yesterday, it seems that the reviewers called this one about right.

This Just In! American Library Association Youth Media Awards Just Announced

2012-01-23T10:06:00.012-05:00

ALA has just completed their annual awards program announcing the prestigious 2012 Newbery and Caldecott Awards

I am especially pleased with the Newbery Medal winner, Jack Gantos, for his wonderful serio-comic/mystery/coming of age novel, Dead End in Norvelt (Farrar, Strous, and Giroux, 2011), reviewed here only last week. Gantos is no stranger to the Newbery Awards lineup, but this top award is indeed well deserved, both for this excellent book and for his entire body of work.

Newbery Honor Books include Thanha Lai's National Book Award winner, Inside Out and Back Again (see my recent review here,) and Eugene Yelchin's Breaking Stalin's Nose.

The 75th annual Caldecott Medal, given to illustrator Chris Raschka, is A Ball for Daisy. Raschka is also a repeat winner for this award. Caldecott Honor Books are Patrick McDonnell's Me . . . Jane, (reviewed here April 14, 2011), Lane Smith's Grandpa Green (see my November 11 review) and John Rocco's Blackout.

Taking both the author and illustrator Coretta Scott King Awards is the peerless Kadir Nelson for his historical and personal narrative, Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans, with my recent review here.

Taking the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal for excellence in books for beginning readers is Tales for Very Picky Eaters by Josh Schneider. Taking second honors for this award are former Geisel winner Mo Willems for his I Broke My Trunk! (An Elephant and Piggie Book), (see review here) and John Clausen's best-selling I Want My Hat Back.

The Sibert Award for children's informational books goes to author-illustrator Melissa Sweet for her delightful Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade. My review of November 7 is posted here.

The Andrew Carnegie Award for Excellence in children's videos goes to Weston Woods' production of Peter Brown's book Children Make Terrible Pets, review posted here.

A complete listing of all of the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards has just been posted here. If you, like me, missed a few of these winning titles, we've got something to look forward to!

Whistle Pig School: Groundhog Weather School by JoanHolub

2012-01-23T00:01:00.001-05:00

HAPPY GROUNDHOG'S DAY!

I DO NOT SEE MY SHADOW. THAT MEANS SPRING IS HERE!

Rabbit takes the word of his friendly neighborhood groundhog seriously. "YAHOO!" he rejoices, as he joyously dons his tropical shirt and shades and clambers up out of his burrow to greet the spring.

SIGH!

Rabbit is greeted by a snowy scene and freezing weather. "I guess it's really hard to predict the weather," he grumbles sadly, and dashes off a letter to Weather Groundhog, suggesting he train some apprentices to help him gather more data for next year. "Hmmmm," says Professor Groundhog, who sees an opportunity to advance his profession here. Soon he's fashioned a catchy ad to attract students for his new venture:

HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A WEATHER FORECASTER?

TAKE THIS QUIZ AND CHECK ALL THAT APPLY!

Requirements are stringent. Applicants must be mammals, rodents, furry, burrow-dwelling, and hibernation prone. More than a few good woodchucks make the cut, including one interloper, Skunk, who meets all the conditions except the last one. He tries bedding down by December, but January finds him wide-awake and hungry. Still, he sneaks into the matriculating class ("I'm an exchange student," he explains.)

With fresh shiny faces in line, Professor Groundhog's Weather School welcomes its freshman class for introductory lectures in GeHOGraphy, and the Prof takes them through the history of Groundhog's Day, the various names for their species (woodchuck, whistle pig) their habitat (Northeastern and central North America) and some famous icons of Hognostication--Punxatawney Phil of Pennsylvania, Pierre C. Shadeaux of Louisiana (actually a nutria, but hey, he's a Cajun sensation!) Buckeye Chuck of Ohio, Sir Walter Wally of Raleigh, North Carolina, General Beauregard Lee Lilburn of Georgia, and Staten Island Chuck of, of course, New York. "Is this going to be on the test?" whines one typical student.

But when the day for the Big Test rolls around, Professor Groundhog's class proves themselves, er, well-grounded in groundhog lore, and he's all ready to roll out his group prediction by the upcoming February 2 deadline. Will groupthink trump the Professor's call this year, or will Rabbit be disappointed yet again when he peeps out of his hole?

Joan Holub's brand-new Groundhog Weather School (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2011) provides a nifty way to take youngsters through a good deal of weather lore and information, all within the boundaries of a tongue-in-cheek tale that can brighten this year's Groundhog Day whether it's sunny or not. Prolific children's author Holub (The 100th Day of School (Hello Reader!, Level 2) combines her narrative skills with Kristin Sorra's arresting mixed-media art to make a book that kids will want to pour over for all the delicious tidbits of groundhog humor in both text and illustrations, joining Gail Gibbons' standard, Groundhog Day! and recent "hognosticators" such as Ten Grouchy Groundhogs, Go To Sleep, Groundhog! Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day! Punxsutawney Phyllis and Substitute Groundhog in the lineup of storytime tales for this just-for-fun holiday.

Oh, and Rabbit, just in case, pack earmuffs AND your sunglasses for that overnight on February 1. It IS hard to predict the weather!

Mysteries of Egypt: The Jewel Fish of Karnak by Graeme Base

2012-01-22T00:01:00.007-05:00

Long ago, in ancient Egypt, two scruffy thieve called Jackal and Ibis were caught stealing a golden trinket in the marketplace of Asyut.

They were brought before the Cat Pharaoh.

"Forgive us, O Pharaoh," they begged. "We are but poor and stupid thieves."

The kindly Cat Pharaoh is somehow moved by their manipulative pleas, but the penance she gives certainly fits the crime. The two are ordered to travel up the Nile to Karnak and steal back from the Crocodile King the Jewel Fish belonging to the Pharaoh. But knowing her larcenous minions, she has another command for them:

"Be warned," the Cat Pharaoh told the two as they departed.

"Do not take anything else while you are in Karnak, and know that the Jewel Fish is magical. Be sure it does not get wet."

Taking the Pharaoh's little felucca, the two make their way up the river and hiding the boat in the reeds along the bank, manage to steal into the inner sanctum of the Crocodile King and filch the Jewel Fish right under his nose. Stealing away, however, they cannot resist rewarding themselves with a trio of golden goodies on the way out, figuring that a trio of small trinkets too minor to matter.

But the Crocodile King suddenly discovers the interlopers and his guards give chase. Just ahead of their swords, Jackal and Ibis leap into the first boat they see on the riverbank, a tiny coracle just large enough for themselves and their booty.

"We did it!" they laughed. "We shall win the Cat Pharaoh's pardon and with our three treasures, we will live happily ever after."

But if their consciences are light as a feather, their cargo is not, and the two con men soon find that their little boat is taking on water. Alas, the precious Jewel Fish that is to buy their pardon gets wet, and as the Pharaoh warned, it magically comes alive and leaps into the Nile. The two bumbling bad guys jump in and give chase underwater, where they are confounded by the sight of many almost identical fish. The Jewel Fish, camouflaged among so many look-alikes, escapes them. The two foolish felons return and confess their failure to return the Jewel Fish to the Pharaoh.

"Then you will have to find it," she told them.

The two sat down and began fishing.

And they will probably be fishing there forever.

Unless, of course, you can help them.

Graeme Base is the master of intricate illustrations, perplexing puzzles, and marvelous mysteries. Using the over sized picture book format, he here gives readers a piquant piece of Egyptian mythology, a puzzle which requires decoding hieroglyphs which form the frame for each page, a link to a website which offers clues, and a rotating device in the built-into-the-inside back cover which enables the curious sleuths to recapture the image of the true Jewel Fish of Karnak. All this in one lovely and humorous book, Base's just published, The Jewel Fish of Karnak (Abrams, 2011). Publishers Weekly says it succinctly: "This tale packs in plenty of puzzle solving and Egyptology amid the boldly animated scenes; the illustrations' exquisite details—right down to the comical facial expressions of the bumbling thieves—tell much of the story."

Literary License: Once Upon A Baby Brother by Sara Sullivan

2012-01-21T00:01:00.003-05:00

Lizzie loved to tell stories.

Tall ones. True ones.

Funny ones. Sad ones.

Lizzie loved them all.

Only child Lizzie is a born storyteller and the apple of her parents' eye--until she turns seven and Marvin comes along. Suddenly Mom and Dad are absorbed in their new little baby boy and there's not much time to listen to Lizzie's newest literary work. And as Marvin gets old enough to get into Lizzie's stuff, he's just a pest. Who needs a toy bear decorated with glitter glue? Who needs Marvin?

The one bright spot for our frustrated young author is Ms. Pennyroyal, her second-grade teacher, who just adores Lizzie's tales of daring heroines. Suddenly, Lizzie scores a twofer--she gets even with messy Marvin, making him the villain of her classroom writings--Marvinosaurus, Marvin the Ugly Prince, Marvin the Pesky Pirate--while she wins the praise of her pretty teacher and the giggles of her classmates.

And then Mom takes Marvin to visit Grandma. At first Lizzie enjoys having Dad as her full-time audience again. But then Ms. P. gives her class a novel writing assignment--a graphic comic novel--and suddenly Lizzie realizes that she's got an unfamiliar case of writer's block. She's fresh out of material and inspiration. Yikes!

But it's messy Marvin to the rescue. Mom returns with Lizzie's pesky protagonist who brings a fresh repertoire of annoying activities polished at Grandma's. Amazing Marvin and His Wonderdog George rides again, and Lizzie's back in the literature business!

Sara Sullivan and the award-winning artist Tricia Tusa team up in Once Upon a Baby Brother (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) in this story of siblingitis with its due of happy endings. Tusa's comic watercolor sketches add a lot to this story, and The Amazing Marvin has lots of literary promise for future sequels.

Fences: The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson

2012-01-20T00:01:00.003-05:00

That summer the fence that stretched through our town seemed bigger.

We lived on one side of it.

White people lived on the other.

And Mama said, "Don't climb over that fence when you play." She said it wasn't safe.

"Good fences make good neighbors," said Robert Frost, but he was a crusty New England farmer worried about footloose cows, and even that solitary poet found that good neighbors can come together in their shared humanity.

And as all kids know, fences are made for climbing.

That summer, trying to be a good girl for her mama, Clover keeps to her side, sometimes a bit lonely for a playmate and always curious about the white family just moved into the white house on the other side of that fence.

But Annie is more daring than Clover, and she dares to climb and sit on the top rail, looking curiously as Clover plays in the yard of her yellow house. Early summer brings a string of rainy days, and Clover watches longingly as that girl plays outside in the rain and even splashes in the forbidden puddles.

When at last the sun returns, Clover feels brave enough to approach the fence where that girl is sitting.

I got close to the fence and that girl asked me my name.

We stood there smiling.

"It's nice up on this fence," said Annie. "A fence like this was made for climbing."

"My mama said I shouldn't go on the other side," I said.

"My mama says the same thing. But she never said anything about sitting on it."

Fence-sitting slowly turns into a tentative friendship as the summer warms up, and one fine day, when Clover's friends come over for a game of jump-rope, Annie feels brave enough to slip down on the other side and join the game, and after some fun together, all the girls take a rest on the top rail of that fence, and for the moment, that fence is just a fence made for climbing and sitting.

"Someday sombody's going to come along an knock this old fence down," Annie said.

"Yeah," I said. "Someday."

The multi-award winning Jacqueline Woodson's The Other Side (G.P. Putnam's Sons) returns in its tenth anniversary (2011) edition, as moving and meaningful as ever. Woodson's text is perfect, telling this iconic story so simply and well that it avoids didacticism, and E. B. White's watercolor paintings are so stunning that they practically tell the story without the need for words. Humans have long felt a fear and yet an attraction for the "other," and the combination of text and art reveal this truth of trans-fence-friendship found as well as it can be told.

Guest of Honor: Tea With Lady Sapphire--Sharing the Love of Birds by Carl Sams and Jean Stoick

2012-01-19T00:01:00.015-05:00

Sweet Child gazed out the window,
Making circle clouds
With her breath.

The morning sun came up,
Gifting them with a crystal white snow globe world.

"We have a mission, Sweet Child," Gram's voice sang out.
"Our feathered friends are expecting us."

The tea is brewing in the cheerful Lenox teapot, and a jolly snowman, his red cap and mittened hands filled with bird treats, is waiting just outside the frosty window in the snowy yard. All that is lacking are the guests of honor, including Lady Sapphire, the rare pileated woodpecker.

As the child and grandmother wait expectantly, chickadees and nuthatches, a titmouse and a goldfinch, drop in for a snack, chased away eventually by the more riotous partygoers, the cardinals and blue jays, followed by the party's heavyweight guests, juncos, doves, and even wild turkeys, who partake of the feast and move on, but still the two wait at the window. Will Lady Sapphire and her consort, Mr. Succotash, honor their tea party with their presence?

Jean Stoick's and Carl R. Sams' newest snowtime saga, Tea with Lady Sapphire: Sharing the Love of Birds (Carl R. Sams Photography, 2011) provides a cozy introduction to wintertime birdwatching with no numb toes and red noses, providing sightings of some of the woodlands winter denizens in closeup view with identifying details in the text. Pair this one with either of the creators' earlier snow stories, First Snow in the Woods: A Photographic Fantasy, Stranger in the Woods: A Photographic Fantasy: Snowflake Edition, or for a lovely introduction of the subject of wintertime habitat adaptation, Lost In The Woods: A Photographic Fantasy for an appreciation of the world of winter woods.

Drop-Dead Funny: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

2012-01-19T00:01:00.010-05:00

"The reason you remind yourself of the stupid stuff you've done in the past is so you don't do it again."

With this salient rewording of the well-known aphorism, Jack Gantos states his theme and is off on another of his memoir-cum-fiction tales. In this one his main character is Jack Gantos, or "Gantos boy," as this Jack is known to most of the neighbors in the dead-ending small town of Norvelt.

Jack is ready for a summer vacation of 1960s boyhood adventures as the novel opens, playing at a bit of combat fantasy at twilight with his father's forbidden Japanese souvenir binoculars and rifle. When he takes a pretend potshot at the evil black-and-white-movie Jap soldiers on the giant screen of the nearby drive-in theatre, the rifle actually fires a chambered round, the neighborhood is alarmed, and his mom is livid. Jack is busted, but he buys his mom's silence by agreeing to tend her prize corn patch, the source of money for the poor of Norvelt whom his social Democrat mother collects. But then his libertarian dad orders him to mow down the corn so that he can prepare the field as a runway for his dream, an assemble-it-yourself war surplus J-3 airplane. Jack is caught in the crossfire between his parents' clashing ideals and winds up grounded for the summer.

Luckily, a bit of respite is offered when his mother assigns him the role of household helper to their elderly neighbor, Mrs. Volker, whose passion is keeping her promise to Eleanor Roosevelt, founder of their egalitarian town, to chronicle its life. Mrs. Volker was named coroner and historian of Norvelt by Eleanor herself, and fulfils this passion through her job of writing obituaries for the local newspaper. Her hands crippled by arthritis, the crusty chronicler makes Jack her amanuensis, making him take down and type her obits, filled with tidbits of local color and history, and assisting her with her medical examiner duties whenever someone dies within Norvelt's town limits.

"Hurry" called out Mrs. Volker, waving one of her claws at me. "I just got a call about another possible dead person--a Norvelt original. I got a call about Mrs. Dubicki over at house number C-27. My spotter hasn't seen her for a week."

"We'll have to look in the windows, and then we'll have no other choice--you'll have to sneak into the house."

"What if she's alive and recognizes me?" I said fearfully. "She'll call the cops and I'll be grounded forever only in a jail cell."

"Hmmmm" she said, thinking out loud. "It would be best if you wore a disguise."

"I have my Halloween costume from last year," I said.

"Of what?" she asked.

"The Grim Reaper," I said.

She threw back her head and laughed her cackling laugh. "You are my perfect partner," she said grandly. "Mrs. Dubicki is going to see the Grim Reaper sooner or later, and it might as well be sooner."

So Jack, black-clad as the Reaper, finds himself poking the recumbent but not-quite-dead-yet Mrs. Dubicki with his fake ax, and his drab summer takes a macabre but exciting turn for the better.

And strangely, there are a lot of deaths among the elderly female founders that summer, providing Jack with both an welcome escape from spending his days reading the Landmark American history series in his bedroom and up-close and personal encounters with the work of the Grim Reaper himself. Then Jack's summer picks up more excitement when a visiting Hell's Angel is flattened by a truck and he is invited by his friend Bunny Huffer, daughter of the local undertaker, to view the amazing remains of the tattooed, nearly two-dimensional body. Bunny's father, obviously intuiting that the town's declining population makes his business a dead-end job, opts to buy up the all of the deceased's original Norvelt cottages, hiring Jack's jack-of-all-trades father to haul them off to sell to a more thriving community.

Then houses in Norvelt start bursting into flames all over town, and rumors fly that the sudden succession of deaths of old ladies in Norvelt is death, not by natural causes, but by poison, and that the nightly fires are also part of the plot to kill off the town itself. Jack's mega-boring summer is suddenly filled with high drama when Mrs. Volker is arrested for murder by means of poisoned Girl Scout cookies packed in the meals on wheels that she has been sending to the town's elderly widows.

Gantos' novels are like no other, filled with drop-dead wacky fun, seemingly chaotic, but somehow pulling themselves together brilliantly, like kaleidoscope glass which suddenly falls into a meaningful and beautiful pattern as it turns. His latest, Dead End in Norvelt (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011) is no exception to the pattern established in his notable Jack Henry Adventures and his poignant tales of a good kid who tries to make sense out of his ADHD life, in the Newbery and National Book Award-recognized Joey Pigza series.

Serious and hilarious, fast-paced yet reflective, untidy but emerging as solid coming-of-age stories, this novel easily takes its place within Gantos' formidable body of work. His Twain-like boyhood stories appeal to reluctant readers and bookophiles, fans of the Wimpy Kid series and followers of Gary Schmidt's and Gary Paulsen's premise-driven character studies alike. Gantos is an original, a literary treasure, and this one belongs on every kid's summer (or anytime) reading list.

"Memorable in every way," says Publishers Weekly, who named it to their Best Children's Fiction list of 2011. Horn Book does the same and says "This is a richly layered, semi-autobiographical tale, an ode to a time and place, to history, and the power of reading."

A preview of Dead End in Norvelt can be seen here.

Raising a Reader: What Every Parent Should Know!

2012-01-18T00:01:00.001-05:00

Common Sense Media offers a list of tried-and-true ways to raise a reader, to turn almost any child into a lifetime lover of literature. I love their advice to read aloud to older kids; they'll remember the experience forever--and so will you.

Read the complete article here.

Black History: Heart and Soul: Stories of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

2012-01-17T00:01:00.005-05:00

"You have to know where you came from so you can move forward."

Kadir Nelson begins his epic illustrative narrative of African American history, Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans Balzer & Bray, 2011), as most of our family histories begin, in the old country, in a slave-catching episode in west Africa where a young girl is snatched along with most of the young people of her village and taken to the coast to be sold to traders heading for North America.

Nelson, speaking in the narrative voice of his own grandmother, traces the interwoven story of America's history with the personal history of Black Americans who somehow survived the "middle passage" to work as slaves. "Dem days were Hell," says the actual quote from an emancipated slave woman, and Nelson describes the passage from slavery through the days of the Abolitionists and leaders such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman in their own words and through the imagined eyes of his own ancestors who lived those days themselves.

Nelson continues with chapters on "Lincoln's War," headed by the grim quotation "War is hell, but slavery is worse," and on to sections on "Reconstruction," describing the development of Jim Crow laws and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan, "Cowboys and Indians," during the westward movement, and particular focus on the twentieth century, with chapters on "The Turn of the Century" and "The Great Migration," the Black diaspora to the north and midwest, followed by "Harlem and the Vote for Women," "Hard Times and World War II," "Jim Crow's A-Dying" and "Black Innovation," featuring the contributions of African American inventors and science.

The author concludes with his chapter titled "Revolution," which takes the reader, with stunningly dramatic paintings and powerful text, through the Civil Rights Movement and up to 2008 in this century. Aimed broadly at middle elementary and middle school readers, Nelson's book is both human in its first-person narrations, and fully usable as a supplemental historical text for young researchers.

Nelson's award-winning artistic skills are remarkable, but his narrative style matches that of his striking illustrations to make this a highly readable book, the one book on Black history that should be available to young readers at some time in their lives. As Publisher's Weekly's review states, his "jaw-dropping portraits radiate determination and strength. A tremendous achievement." Nelson's paintings must be seen to be appreciated. View the book's trailer, narrated by the author, here.

Kadir Nelson's other award-winning historical books include Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (Caldecott Honor Book), Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad and We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.

On Stage: Cecile's Gift (American Girl) by Denise Louise Patrick

2012-01-16T00:01:00.002-05:00

"Mathilde," Cecile asked, "how did you become so good at cooking?"

Mathilde smiled so that her eyes crinkled at the corners. "Grand-mere said I had a gift for cooking."

"A gift?" Cecile felt puzzled. "but a gift is--"

""--not always what you think. It can be something that comes natural to a person. That doesn't mean I always get things right at first, but I like to practice and learn. Cooking is easy for me. It's my gift."

Cecile slowly pushed the nutmeg back and forth against the grater. What was it Marie-Grace had said about singing? She enjoyed it because it was easy... or it was easy because she enjoyed it?

"I want to make people happy," Cecile said. "That's why I want to get my poem right."

"Everything is better when you put love inside it, cherie," said the cook.

It is the early fall of 1853 in New Orleans, and the yellow fever epidemic which has cost 10,000 lives in the city is waning with the cooler weather, but the city is struggling to take care of the widows and orphans left behind. Cecile Rey and her white friend Marie-Grace volunteer in the two orphanages that care for white and African-American children, and even though Cecile's status as a member of a well-to-do gens de colour libre family has protected her from material hardship during the epidemic, her family's maid Ellen has died and her brother Armand has just begun to recover.

Then, as Cecile and Marie-Grace are about to enter one of the orphanages, a young man collapses with fever on the street in front, and Cecile discovers his little sister, Perrine, cowering in a a doorway nearby. Talking softly to the frightened girl, Cecile finally learns that the two are also without parents and manages to take Perrine to the sisters at the Children of Mercy home, but her heart aches for her and the other children and for the nuns who are struggling to find the means to care for so many homeless children. She feels that somehow she herself should do more.

Then the girls learn that the city is planning a citywide benefit in Jackson Square, La Celebration, to raise money for the needy left behind by the yellow fever. Marie-Grace is going to sing with her Aunt Oceane from one of the many performance stages, and Cecile feels that she must also help by volunteering to recite a heroic poem, one that she hopes will inspire the orphan children. Working harder than she ever has, she memorizes a long, grand poem, but when she performs it for little Perrine, she does not get the response she hopes for.

Perrine was looking out the window, not at Cecile. "I...I didn't understand it," she murmured.

Cecile heart sinks. Suddenly she sees that if she wants to reach grieving children like Perrine, she is going to have to write a poem herself, one whose simple words will lead the children into facing the future. Cecile knows what she must do. But does she really have the gift for writing such words and then performing them before such a large audience?

In this latest book in her new American Girls series, Denise Patrick's Cecile's Gift (American Girl) (American Girls Collection) (American Girl, 2011), Cecile has grown, no longer the sheltered daughter of an illustrious and artistic Creole family in nineteenth century New Orleans. Yellow fever has changed the city forever, and the diverse populations--"Americans" from outside the area, Creoles, Black slaves, old Spanish and French families, and German populations--come together for a time to take care of their own. What they have seen during the epidemic, so many deaths, so much grief and disintegration of families, has matured both Cecile and her "American" friend Marie-Claire and deepened their friendship as well. As is true for all the books in this notable series, young readers are given a look back into a unique period and place in American history to see how other girls have faced the challenges of their own time.

Along with full-color illustrations which show the dress and customs of the time, plenty of French expressions give the book the flavor of the nineteenth-century Crescent City, bolstered by a complete glossary of terms and pronunciation, and a pronunciation guide to names is also appended. The series' customary illustrated historical notes are also included, titled "Looking Back: Recovering from Disaster, 1853," giving modern children a picture of how Americans have dealt with natural disasters in the past as we do today. A worthy addition to a uniquely notable series.

Earlier books in this New Orleans series include Meet Cecile (American Girl) (American Girls Collection), and Troubles for Cecile (American Girl) (American Girls Collection) and the companion books Meet Marie-Grace (American Girl) (American Girls Collection), Marie-Grace and the Orphans (American Girl) (American Girls Collection), and and Marie-Grace Makes a Difference (American Girl) (American Girls Collection).

Toe to Toe: Bullies Never Win by Margery Cuyler

2012-01-15T00:01:00.007-05:00

Jessica was a worrier.

But in Mr. Martin's first-grade class, Jessica had one big worry: Brenda Bailey.

Brenda was perfect. Her bangs were even.

Her homework was always right.

She wore a new outfit every day.

And she scowled when Jessica did something better than she did.

It's obvious that Brenda is determined, even in first grade, to be the queen bee, and she's figured out that Jessica is the competition. Brenda sets out to head off a potential rival at the pass, and her weapon of choice is the deftly delivered putdown. She knocks Jessica's knobby knees. She nails her with the nickname of "Toothpick." She slyly whispers that Jessica gets her work right by cheating. And then when Jessica accidentally winds up with her brother's lunchbox, she inadvertently hands Brenda the perfect putdown:

"Jessica's got a boy's lunchbox!

Hey, Toothpick! No wonder you're so skinny. You eat BABY FOOD!"

For days Jessica eats alone or leaves the lunchroom hungry to avoid Brenda's taunts. Finally she tearfully tells her mom the whole story. Mom listens and tells Jessica that she either has to tell her teacher what's going on or stand up to Brenda on her own. Jessica doesn't want to add fuel to Brenda's teasing by being a tattletale, which means she has to figure out a way to beat Brenda at her own quick-quip game. And, of course, Brenda soon gives her that opportunity, and when she does, Jessica is ready.

Jessica the worrier is back in veteran author Margery Cuyler's fourth book about her, Bullies Never Win (Simon & Schuster, 2010), again ably and humorously illustrated by the notable Arthur Howard. Although Jessica's verbal confrontation obviously isn't the only route to go with a classroom bully, Cuyler's account rings true for first-grade girl social politics and offers parents, teachers, and counselors a good resource in initiating conversation about the problem of non-physical social abuse in the early grades.

Snow Job: Olivia Builds a Snowlady by Farrah McDoogle

2012-01-14T00:01:00.004-05:00

"Something very special is happening this weekend," said Mrs. Hoggenmuller."What is it?"

Harold raised his hand. "My mother is taking me to get long underwear!"

"Not THAT! It's the Maywood Winter Festival!" said Olivia.

And the highlight of the Winter Festival is the Snowman Contest, and that means there is a chance for Olivia to take charge!

Right away she brainstorms an idea--not a boring old snowman, but this year a snowLADY! Olivia deputizes her classmates and they roll up three huge snowballs. But how can they lift the enormous second and third snowballs on top of the first? Olivia borrows an idea from the pyramid builders and comes up with the idea of a snow ramp to roll the frozen orbs up, and soon their creation takes shape. The team is proud of their work. Now all they have to do is wait for the beginning of the Festival the next day and get ready to take their bows for their work!

"Beautiful!" said Francine.

The next day dawns bright and sunny. A good thing, right? Well, not really. Sunshine and snowladies aren't exactly made for each other, and when Olivia's classmates arrive, they are disconsolate.

"She melted," said Olivia.

"What will we do?" moaned Harold.

Once more it's Olivia's fertile brain to the rescue. Suffice it to say that her idea involves huge balls of pink cotton candy from the concession stand and a very large pink snowlady stand-in, and the warmest Winter Festival yet is saved.

Farrah McDoogle, standing in for Ian Falconer, has another sunny winter tale in her paperback series of Olivia adventures in her latest, OLIVIA Builds a Snowlady (Simon Spotlight, 2011). This latest one shows that there's no time like snow time, even when the thermometer doesn't cooperate with our plans.

Snow Pair: Quiet Bunny and the Noisy Puppy by Lisa McCue

2012-01-13T00:01:00.005-05:00

QUIET BUNNY WOKE UP ONE MORNING TO FIND THE FOREST BLANKETED IN SNOW.

"I WISH I HAD SOMEONE TO PLAY WITH IN THE SNOW," THOUGHT QUIET BUNNY.

Quiet Bunny heads out to find someone to romp with him in the snow. But Mother Bear, with apologies, opts her boy out to begin his winter hibernation, and Bunny's mallard fans seem to have all flown south.

But snow fun is no fun without a friend to share it with, and Bunny is dejected until the silence of the snowy wood is broken by a very loud interloper:

"ARF ARF ARF ARF! GRRRRR! RRUFF! ARF!"

Quiet Bunny is in a quandary. This noisy critter is obviously friendly and wants to play in the snow with him. But he's so NOISY! What's a quiet-loving little bunny to do?

Owl has some timely wintertime advice:

FARM ANIMALS ARE DIFFERENT, BUT WE ARE ALL ANIMALS.

YOU CAN BE DIFFERENT AND STILL BE FRIENDS.

They are definitely different, but the two become winter playmates, sliding across the pond and playing tag in the snowbanks, until spring forces Puppy to go back to work on the farm and Bunny's old buddies are back and ready to join him again.

Just in time for the first big snowfalls of winter is Lisa McCue's latest, Quiet Bunny & Noisy Puppy (Sterling, 2011). McCue's story is cozy and nostalgic, recalling the "Little Golden Books" of yore, with friendships formed and adventures attempted with their cute little animal friends,but her artwork, done in full but not garish color and highly detailed skill, is a cut above those familiar stories. McCue's other books in this series are Quiet Bunny and Quiet Bunny's Many Colors.

Home for the Holidays: A New Year's Reunion by Yu Li-Quong

2012-01-12T00:01:00.006-05:00

PAPA BUILDS BIG HOUSES IN FARAWAY PLACES.

HE COMES HOME ONLY ONCE EACH YEAR, DURING CHINA'S NEW YEAR.

TODAY MAMA AND I WAKE UP REALLY EARLY BECAUSE...

PAPA IS HOME.

At first the child is frightened by his newly returned father, big and unfamiliar in his beard and bushy hair. But after a shave and haircut, he is Papa again. He pitches in to make the holiday treat, sticky rice balls, and hides a coin inside one of them. That night the little one falls asleep safe and secure, between her two quietly whispering parents. And in the morning, there are rice balls for breakfast, and in one of her sticky balls she finds the coin, the good luck coin that brings fortune all year.

"PUT IT IN YOUR POCKET QUICK, MAOMAO," SAYS PAPA, "SO THAT THE GOOD LUCK WON'T ESCAPE!"

Special activities fill the day--a snowball fight with her friends, helping Papa make repairs, even up on the forbidden roof, where she sees the approaching Dragon Parade. Down to the street the two run, and on Papa's tall shoulders, she sees the New Year's dragon dance past, down her own street. Papa dresses Maomao in the new jacket he has brought and the family goes out to call upon friends and family. It is a wonderful day, until she discovers that her coin is missing from her pocket. Maomao is disconsolate, until suddenly, her fortune returns:

I BAWL, BUT AS I TAKE OFF MY JACKET, CLINK!

IT'S THE COIN!

But the next morning it is again time for Papa to leave for the faraway land where he works. Maomao tries to be brave, and when it is time for him to leave, she reaches in her pocket.

I PUT THE COIN, ALL WARM FROM BEING IN MY HAND, IN
PAPA'S PALM.

"HERE, TAKE THIS, PAPA. NEXT TIME YOU ARE BACK, WE CAN HIDE IT IN
THE RICE BALLS AGAIN."

It is a covenant meant to be kept in Yu Li-Quong's simple but poignant story of Chinese New Year, A New Year's Reunion: A Chinese Story (Candlewick, 2011), one that points up the real meaning of family holiday traditions. Yu's art uses full-page color and evocative, textless double-page spreads to press home his theme in this setting of a stoic but devoted family.

Yu's book was named one of the ten best illustrated books of 2011 by the New York Times. The entire list, including many titles reviewed here can be seen by following this link.

Judge and Jury: The Lemonade Crime by Jacqueline Davies

2012-01-11T00:01:00.005-05:00

It had happened just last week. Right in the middle of that heat wave. They'd all been at Jack's house. All the guys--Paul and Ryan and Kevin and Malik and Scott--were playing pool basketball. Evan had $208 in the pocket of his shorts. It was more money than he'd ever seen in his whole life. He'd left his shorts folded on the bed in Jack's bedroom while they all went swimming. But then Scott got out to go to the bathroom. And a minute later he came running out of the house, saying he had to go home right away. And when Evan went back in the house to get dressed, the money was gone.

Two Hundred and eight dollars! That was the sum total of the money he and his sister Jessie had made all summer, competitors in rival lemonade stands in the hot sun, the lemonade war between him and Jessie that they had just resolved, agreeing to share their profits.

And now Scott is bragging to everyone that he has a new X Box 20/20, not even yet on the market, that his mom had gotten through her Japanese business connections. It seems an open and shut case. As legal-minded Jessie puts it, Scott had the opportunity and the means, and now his motive is clear. It's an open and shut case.

Still, Scott denies any guilt, and the dispute between Evan and Scott causes a split among their
friends. The whole fourth grade has become two camps in the throes of a crime and punishment
drama.

At last Jessie takes things into her rational hands and manages to set up a real trial set on the
playground after school, with an impartial judge and jury of peers drawn by lots. She will represent her brother, and she is sure her evidence will sway the jury. But Scott refuses her offer of counsel, and insists he will be his own attorney. Then Megan, Jessie's best friend, insists on making the trial fair by pleading Scott's case, that he should be acquitted on the basis that the evidence against him is purely circumstantial. Jessie loses the case and, it seems, her best friend as well.

But Evan is angry at the injustice of it all and challenges Scott to a trial by ordeal on the
basketball court--seven points, sudden death, no ref, no fouls, winner take all--and if Scott is
defeated, he is presumed guilty.

And does Evan win that game! Scott is humiliated, hands and knees and nose bloodied, his only
revenge kicking the ball into the swampy woods beside the playground for Evan to search for.
Still Evan should feel justified. He is the winner, right? Then why does he feel like he's a loser?

In her sequel to the top-selling The Lemonade War (The Lemonade War Series), Jacqueline Davis's sequel, The Lemonade Crime (Houghton Mifflin, 2011), is a tightly woven exploration into the fine points beyond legal justice, of what right and wrong mean, set in a believable milieu of fourth-grade social relationships. The author's well-constructed plot manages to see justice done in a way that also finds a place for atonement and forgiveness. Although the two books are best read in sequence, this newest one can stand alone, thanks to Davis's skill in exposition in the early chapters. It's a great read for middle elementary students, with strong boy and girl protagonists, and one which also gives the reader something to think about all the way to the final paragraph.

Booklist, in a rare starred review, says ..."this involving and, at times, riveting chapter book has something to say and a deceptively simple way of saying it."

Spelldown: Where's My T-R-U-C-K? by Karen Beaumont

2012-01-10T00:01:00.001-05:00

SHHH! I HEAR MY PARENTS SAY,
"TOMMY'S NOT HIMSELF TODAY!

HE'S LOST HIS T-R-U-C-K!"

We've all been there. Something we have GOT to have is NOT where it's supposed to be, and we can't do anything until we find it!

Tommy's in that kind of funk. He woke up in the mood to play with his red truck, and now it's nowhere to be found. You might think that it's his fault. After all, he's a rumply, disheveled sight, and his room, with its half-open drawers trailing pajama bottoms and his closet, an avalanche waiting to happen, is in total disarray. But he knows just WHERE that truck is supposed to be, and IT'S NOT THERE!

He can't be consoled and he can't be cajoled into doing something else. His brother tries to distract him with a jaunt outside to climb trees, and his sister offers to play house with him, but Tommy keeps searching.

"I SEARCHED MY BROTHER'S PILE OF JUNK.

I LOOKED IN GRANDMA'S SMELLY TRUNK.

AND UNDERNEATH THE BED AND CHAIR.

AND BEHIND THE CURTAIN...

OOOPS! NOT THERE!"

Grandma's bath is interrupted by Tommy's search behing the shower curtain, and her screech doesn't improve his mood in the least. Outside he goes to search the sandbox and flower garden plots. Tommy even gets stranded in the treehouse when his dog mysteriously zooms by and knocks the ladder down.

But no luck! No TRUCK!

Tommy may not have a clue, but by this time most of the young readers will have figured out the source of the problem--his dog Bowser, who is seen on each two-page spread making off with a different object firmly clamped in his teeth. And when the mutt makes off with the cat's favorite toy, the fur flies as the cat gives chase and leads Tommy right to Bowser's secret stash in a well-excavated hole in the garden, where a quick archaeological dig uncovers (you don't say!)--Tommy's T-R-U-C-K!

Author Karen Beaumont, the creator of such hilarious rhyming tales as I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! (Ala Notable Children's Books. Younger Readers (Awards),) Doggone Dogs, and No Sleep for the Sheep!, is reunited with zany illustrator David Catrow for another funny-bone tickler, Where's My T·R·U·C·K? (Dial Books, 2011), a sure-fire pleaser for the preschool/Kindergarten set. There's even a short and sweet spelling lesson thrown in, with everyone (including Tommy) learning how to spell TRUCK by the conclusion.

Kirkus Reviews has some salient advise here: "Don't read this at bedtime; the boisterous energy here is aptly summed up in the final rhyme: "HOORAY! I FOUND MY T-R-U-C-K! / Come on, Bowser! Let's go play!"

Transport! Everything Goes: On Land by Brian Biggs

2012-01-09T00:01:00.010-05:00

Wow! There are so many cars. Where is everyone going, Dad?

Well may Henry ask. He and Dad are on their way to pick up Mom at the downtown library, and all the world seems to be on wheels, too.

Brian Biggs' newest, Everything Goes: On Land (HarperCollins, 2011), takes us on a tour of transportation on land in perky cartoon style. Young Henry has lots of questions about the vehicles they see--convertible sportsters, electric cars, vans, SUVs, and plain old station wagons in a carpool--and all kinds of trucks--dump trucks, 18-wheel tractor- trailers, motor homes, firetrucks, cement mixers, and ice cream vendor trucks.

And since this is a big city scene, that's not all Henry sees. There are trolleys, elevated trains, subways reached through stairs to the underground station and tracks, school buses, city buses, and airport shuttles, even double-decker tourist buses. And then there are the bicycles--tandems, trikes, racing bikes, mountain bikes--and of course, those cool cruisers, the motorcycles--dirt bikes, police bikes, scooters, choppers, and big Hawgs with motorcycle gang guys in leather and plenty of bling.

If you have a nascent mini-motorhead at home, this new series by graphic artist Biggs has it all. The first in a planned series on all forms of transport, this one is a worthy successor to the perennial go-to book of go, Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, with city scenes just as teaming with vehicles and the added fillip of a human boy to ask the questions. Biggs' book also offers an additional treat, with an iconic figure (a la Waldo) to search for an every page and an additional brainteaser in a figure that doesn't belong in his cityscapes to find among the variety of mini-episodes going on on every page. This one is a keeper for those in the preschool set who find all things mechanical to have a sort of magic of their own.

Watch a brief preview of the book here.

Dork Doings: Nerd Camp by Elissa Brent Weissman

2012-01-09T00:01:00.007-05:00

Gabe closed Zack's phone. "I'm going to camp!"

"You are the luckiest person in the world!" said Zack. "If it's in the woods, then we can write actual letters!"

I'm not just a nerd, Gabe told himself. Zack wouldn't be friends with me if I was nothing but a nerd.

With the badge of camp honor, Gabe no longer had to make sure everything he said would convince Zack that he was cool.

He just had to make sure Zack didn't find out the truth about Summer Center.

Gabe has always wanted a brother, and he's long dreamed of going to sleep-away camp, and this summer both are going to happen!

Gabe's dad is getting re-married and Gabe is going to have a step-brother, Zack, also ten years old. Zack is Mr. Cool, raised in L.A., surfing in Malibu and texting his cool friends on his own cell, and now that he's moving to New York, the two of them can see each other often. Gabe already suspects that he is a born nerd, though, and when he finds out that he's been accepted to "Nerd Camp," Summer Center for Gifted Enrichment, he's worried about how that's going to look to his future "brother." When Zack glibly remarks that "you can't be on the math team and be cool--all those things make you a geek," Gabe figures out that there's a lot he's going to have to conceal if he wants to hang out with Zack.

But Zack is envious of Gabe's going to a real summer camp, and Gabe realizes that his letters are going to have to be carefully censored. He can say his bunkmates are cool, but he can't say why--that they're all memorizing pi to the twentieth decimal place. He can brag about his swimming medals, but not about his poetry and logic classes. He can tell Zack that they have sports and music posters on their bunk's walls, but not that they are portraits of Beethoven and the rules of badminton. He can brag that he creamed the annoying girl who is stalking him, but not that he bested her by improvising a song listing all the world's countries in alphabetical order.He can describe the camp's epidemic of vampire lice, but he can't report that he actually was invited to the secret Lice Lab of the coolest geeks in camp to see their experiments on the life cycle of Pediculus humorus capitis.

As the summer goes by, Gabe realizes that he is right where he should be: he's a nerd and he is happy in the company of other nerds. As he reads Zack's almost illiterate letters, he wonders if there is going to be any way for them to find common ground as step-brothers if and when Zack discovers who he really is. Gabe may be cool enough to kayak at midnight to Dead Man's Island to help his team win the Color War Scavenger Hunt, but will he ever be cool enough to be Zack's friend? And then Mom's promised end-of-camp surprise turns out to be just what Gabe fears: she's bringing Zack along to pick him up on the last day of camp, and his cover is definitely going to be blown!

Elissa Weissman's funny and poignant latest novel, Nerd Camp (Atheneum, 2011) explores the treacherous Land of 'Tween, where being cool, whatever that is in the current group, is everything. There's little of the "different strokes" philosophy in the middle school years, and Gabe faces the perennial problem of learning to fit in while still being true to yourself. Weissman negotiates this mine field deftly, with plenty of humor and camp adventures interspersed with Gabe's and Zack's letters, hilariously punctuated with Gabe's meticulous tables listing what really is happening at Nerd Camp and what he can safely tell Zack about it and keep his cred. Funny and yet heartfelt, making fans of Andrew Clements' middle reader novels will feel right at home with this one.

Multitasking: Olivia Says Good Night by Gabe Pulliam and Farrah McDoogle

2012-01-08T00:01:00.001-05:00

Olivia was reading a story to Ian. It was a wonderful story about a princess who had an adventure in the desert.
"The best part was when they built that beautiful tent," said Olivia.

"That was my favorite part, too," said Ian. "But there should have been robots."
Suddenly Mom calls TIME on the reading session, determined to move her two along on the continuum to that final good night, telling Olivia to make sure she and Ian clean up their rooms and get ready for bed. "I guess your amazing idea will have to wait until tomorrow," said Ian sadly.

Now Olivia wants to please her Mom. But her imagination is already off and running, dreaming of being a princess living in a treasure-filled tent in the desert.So as she helps Ian by gathering his scattered playthings and tidies up her own room, she is already lost in her plan to build her own exotic desert tent suitable for a princess pig. Instead of tidying her blanket, she drapes it into a tent covering the whole bed. And in the bath she has another brilliant idea: her tub toys will make great undersea treasures for her princess tent. A few deft decorating details gives her bed/tent an exotic look fit for a princess, and the special pajamas Grandma gave her for Christmas make the perfect ensemble for desert royalty.

"That's a beautiful tent! said Mom. "Great job.

But it's missing something!"

"What?" said Olivia.

"A beautiful girl sleeping inside."

Farrah McDoogle's and Gabe Pulliam's latest installment in the Olivia Adventures, OLIVIA Says Good Night (Simon & Schuster, 2011) shows that a fertile imagination can make bedtime a personal project rather than a chore. Patrick Spaziante's illustrations duplicate the creative insouciance of Ian Falconer's porker character with judicious use of strong colors, predominantly Olivia's signature red, set against bright white pages, to make the lively Olivia come alive on the page.

One question. Will there be robots for Ian in the morning?

The Right to Sing The Blues: Brand-New Baby Blues by Kathi Appelt

2012-01-07T00:01:00.001-05:00

It's official.
It's the news!

With my brand-new baby brother
Came the brand-new baby blues!

Our gal has got the right to sing the blues! There's her new little brother, wearing her cute little newborn-sized sleeper, snoozing in her cute little bed. Mom and Dad, whose lives seemed to be perfect when all their thoughts were of her, seem totally besotted with this baby, even though he can't do anything cool with them like she can, just eat, sleep, and make P-E-E-U-W diapers.

"Am I blue? You'd be, too" she thinks as she makes her case. But there's just a hint of a possibility that things may be look up in, oh, or year or two, or maybe more. Then they'll fly kites and play ball together. She'll have someone to play hide and seek with and introduce to all the big kid mysteries:

"I can't wait to teach him to spit!"

Kathi Appelt, whose hilarious Bubba and Beau picture books, augmented by the just-right Texas touches of Arthur Howard, looked at life from the baby's point of view, flips the perspective in her Brand-New Baby Blues (Harper, 2011), making the most of her considerable (Newbery Honor-winning) literary skills to craft a funny rhyming text which sum up the sibling's dilemma.

Don't Forget to Write! Letters to Missy Violet by Barbara Hathaway

2012-01-06T00:01:00.007-05:00

Uh-oh! Mama found out I wrote to Missy Violet. Mama told Papa she was going to whup me for being so fast and nosin' in grown folks' business. I think Papa was tickled, but Mama didn't think it was funny at all!

"Viney Eleanor, didn't I tell you not to go worryin' Missy Violet with letters and things while she's down in Tallahassee? I can't believe that gal went behind my back and wrote that letter!" Mama kept saying. "I didn't know that child had such Judas ways!"

Mama never calls me Viney Eleanor unless she's real mad. She made me go out in the yard and get her a switch.

But Missy Violet told her to be sure and write, and besides, there's all these people who need Missy Violet to make them better, and with her down in Tallahassee with her sick brother, there's nobody but Viney, her "best helper girl" in Richmond County to take care of it all. First off, there's Miss Roula, who can't find the big jar of boneset medicine Missy Violet made up before she left, wondering around the graveyard and mumbling in her bathrobe. There's Viney's big brother Claude, getting more sullen and withdrawn every day, saying he's going to have to kill him some white people, and there's daddy's hurt foot that he won't stay off of, and cousin Charles who's always acting biggity and getting in trouble, and all the rest, and Viney's just got to write to Missy Violet and find out what to do for them all. After all, she spent all summer helping Missy Violet "catch babies," saving Teeny William with her special eyedropper and formula, and learning all about medicinal plants, and she is the only helper girl around.

Viney never gets that switching, as even Mama,determined to raise her right, softens as she reads Missy Violet's wise reply, and as the school year goes on, Viney needs all the wisdom she can get from her mentor. There's mean Miss Battle, her teacher, who takes over for sweet Miss Glover who loves her class but gets "snapped up" by a handsome man from out of the county. But then Missy Violet writes to tell her about her friend, Irene Battle, born a slave but dedicating her life to making sure even the sharecropper's children stay in school and get some education.

Then there's the Klan, who catch Viney and Charles spying on them in the woods, and a deformed baby whose mother doesn't have to courage to take care of her, There's Papa, laid off and threatening to move the whole family up North, and folks all around who need something, and Viney can't wait for Missy Violet to come back and take care of things. Viney needs her help to find out what she's supposed to do about it all.

"You know, the world is changing all the time and there is a place for colored
in every trade," Missy Violet writes back.

And in Barbara Hathaway's second novel about Viney, the forthcoming Letters to Missy Violet (Houghton Mifflin, 2012), we do see that world changing through the eyes of Viney Eleanor, who comes to see that there's a place for her in that world that's coming, even a nursing school for colored right up there in the North, and if she learns everything Miss Battle can teach, she knows she's going to ready to go there soon.

Told chiefly as an epistolary novel, with letters from Viney, Charles, and Mama and replies from Miss Violet, Hathaway's beautiful narrative, based on her grandmother's stories, brings her characters to life in the world of 1930's rural Georgia. There are plenty of childhood adventures--the capture by the Ku Klux Klan and unexpected release by a Klansman's little son and a scary escapade in which Charles dares the kids to climb in through the church window and take a peek inside the casket of a dead Chicago gangster brought back to be buried. There are beautiful episodes--of big, slow Ruby Dean, held back with the little kids, whom Miss Battle finds a way to teach-- and of the essay contest in which Viney gets an A and even Charles buckles down to pass, and many small victories in the life of a family and community that despite their roots in that now faraway time and place, are universal to children everywhere.

Although Letters to Missy Violet successfully stands alone, it is best read in tandem with the award-winning Missy Violet and Me as one warm and thoughtful narrative for middle readers.

How Come You Deux Me Like You Deux, Deux, Deux?: Miss Lina's Ballerinas and the Prince by Grace Maccarone

2012-01-05T00:01:00.002-05:00

In a cozy white house in the town of Messina
Nine little girls stood dancing with Miss Lina.

Christina, Edwina, Sabrina, Justina.
Katrina, Bettina, Marina, Regina, and Nina.

It is a very homogeneous corps de ballet. Even their names rhyme with their teacher's, and everyone is d'accord that things are just perfect at Miss Lina's ballet school.

But then, Miss Lina makes an announcement that turns their pirouettes into perplexities.

A dancer would join them the following day.

"He's a boy," said Miss Lina. "I want you to know.
He'll join us for class and our end-of-year show."

The ballerinas' brains are suddenly filled with images of themselves, dancing in the annual recital, not just with the corps, not even soloing in the spotlight, but dancing a classic pas de deux, a princess dancing those classic steps with her handsome prince.

But when Tony arrives for his first class, the sight of nine pink-clad princess wannabes posing en pointe is totally intimidating, and Tony turns his athletic audition into a dramatic dance exiting page right!

He took three big steps, then he bounced off the floor,
Did a split in the air and he soared out the door!

"Chasse!" said Miss Lina."Get him! Now, GO!"

The girls track him down at last to the zoo, where the outdoor setting inspires the whole class to join Tony in a wild, leaping dance for the appreciative animals.

They sprung and they lunged and they spun.
And the boy learned that a pas de deux could be fun.

Grace Maccerone's sequel to the popular Miss Lina's Ballerinas, her newest, Miss Lina's Ballerinas And The Prince (Feiwel & Friends, 2011) again parallels the classic Madeline stories in her clever versification style, and Christina Davenier's soft line and lavender and pink palette will have young balletomanes practicing their penches and promenades, and doing their developpes dutifully while they read this latest ballade of the nine ballerinas and their first pas de deux. As in her earlier book, Maccerone includes an appendix of ballet terms for the balletophile reader.

Freeze Fun: Just a Snow Day by Mercer Mayer

2012-01-04T00:01:00.003-05:00

I GO SLEDDING ON MY SLED.

PLEASE GIVE ME A PULL!

Toddlers and preschoolers love to use their senses, to hear, see, and do at the same time, and when it comes to snow activities, this is doubly true. Mercer Mayer's classic Little Critter: Just a Snowy Day (Harper Festival), give tots a chance to be part of the snow-day fun.

Little Critter's sled has a "rope" to pull it with, and little fingers can grasp that rope, give it a tug, and Critter's sled glides down the hill. When he skates on the frozen pond, a pull tab can swing back and forth, making him totter forward and fall backward on the "shiny, slippery ice." His warm coat swings open so that its fuzzy lining can be felt, and his knitted cap has a woolly, poofy tassel to touch. And when he goes inside to thaw out, there's a scratch-and-sniff cup of hot chocolate to sniff, and when he warms up in a steamy bath, he asks the reader for help pulling his folding shower curtain aside when it's time to get out.

For fans of Little Critter, pair this snowy day story with Mayer's Little Critter: Just a Snowman for a toddler twofer. And don't forget your mittens!

The Way We Roll! Clementine and the Family Meeting by Sara Pennypacker

2012-01-03T00:01:00.003-05:00

Usually when I get home, things get better, but not THAT day.

Clementine is having a bad day. Her sometimes best friend seems to moving on into an early adolescence and is obsessed with getting her to wear lipstick in third grade. The class pet rat, "Eighteen," subject of her science project. is missing from her cage, meaning her half-done project is kaput. She's lost her cap of many colors, handknit by Grandma, Dad won't even let her try on his new toolbelt, and then there's an ominous message on the fridge door standing between her and a soothing cup of hot cocoa.

FAMILY MEETING

A family meeting usually means that Clementine has done something very wrong. But she can't think of anything she's done, and Mom only says mysteriously, "You'll find out tonight."
Clementine settles for hoping that her family has finally relented and she's getting a pet gorilla.

Clementine's feelings are all mixed up. But that's nothing new for her.

One way that I am like my fruit name is that I have lots of sections. Right now, a couple of Clementine sections are worrying about Eighteen. A few Clementine sections were thinking about that tool belt and a few of them were mad at my dad for thinking it was even funny not to share it.

But it's not a gorilla her family is getting. They're going to have a new baby!

For Clementine that just feels wrong. With her little brother, there are already four of them--two boys and two girls. They each have a parent partner to do stuff with. They fit perfectly around their four-sided table. They can all work on the same puzzle, one on each side. Things are just right (except for that gorilla) just as they are! Everything comes in even numbers--even hot dogs!. Now a whole bunch of Clementine's sections are worrying about how a baby is going to spoil their perfect family. And no one else seems to be worrying nearly enough about that. After all, they won't even fit around their dining table anymore.

"That's just how we roll, Clemmy!" Dad says.

Sara Pennypacker's latest, Clementine and the Family Meeting (Hyperion, 2011), takes up the evergreen subject of the difference that new babies make in every family. With good humor and family spirit, Clementine comes around to the idea of a permanently changed family, and along the way other things work out, too. Eighteen turns up, in a hole behind the class bookcase, with her own expanded family, in a nest padded by shreds of Clemmy's lost cap; Grandma knits and sends a new one, and best of all, Dad gets her her own grown-up tool belt and tools with which they begin a new project--a table of Clementine's design, one with five sides.

Pennypackers' fifth book in her notable Clementine series, so charmingly illustrated by Caldecott artist Marla Frazee, put her solidly in contention as the worthy successor to Beverly Cleary and her beloved Ramona books, solid family-centered fiction for the beginning chapter readers in the early elementary years. After all, with a talented author and artist working together, that's just how it rolls!

Lower Than A Snake's Belly Button: Everybody Gets the Blues by Leslie Staub

2012-01-02T00:01:00.009-05:00

Moms and Dads
dogs and cats,
rodeo clowns in silly hats,
scary bullies,
beauty queens,
little old ladies in New Orleans.

Everybody has the blues sometimes, especially those post-holiday letdown blues. Sometimes it's the "I've got a right to sing the blues" kind when nothing goes our way. Sometimes it's the "Woke up this mornin'" type that comes down like a ton of bricks for no clear reason. What do you do when the blues come to stay?

Leslie Staub's forthcoming book takes on this universal emotion, reminding our little boy blue that he's got a lot of company when he's got the blues. All kinds of folks feel the same way from time to time. But in this case our boy has a mentor, Blues Guy, a burly tweed-clad guy with a horn who sits with him and sings and blows the blues so sweet and low that things begin to look up right away. Those bad-time blues float away into a sky that's, well, blue, but not blue anymore, just filled with sunshine and light, as light as our boy's heart.

Staub's Everybody Gets the Blues (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012) has just the right rhyme and reason to deal with this quirky emotion. Our boy's got good stuff, a loyal pup, a fine bike, a ball and glove, toys, and a nice cityscape neighborhood, but when the blues set in, what he needs is a sympathetic friend and a song to lift his spirits and remind him that this, too, shall pass. R. G. Roth's illustrations, fabric collage in subdued blues and browns set against a pale pastel retro city world, are inspired, hitting just the right blue note here to empathize and yet lift the heart.

Goodbye, Blues Guy!

As Publishers Weekly puts it,"Writing cheerfully about sadness sounds like an oxymoron, but Staub performs this balancing act with casual grace."

As the old, old song says

Trouble in mind, I'm blue,
But I won't be blue always.
'Cause the sun's gonna shine
In my backdoor someday.

Mine! All Mine! Martha Doesn't Share by Samantha Berger

2012-01-01T00:01:00.006-05:00

MARTHA HAS A NEW FAVORITE WORD....

MINE!

"MYE?" ASKED HER BABY BROTHER EDWIN.

"NO! MINE!" SAID MARTHA.

With the results of Santa's bounty spread all over the house, the issue of sibling sharing soon becomes salient. Kids tire of their own new gizmos, and the one their brother or sister is playing with begins to look ever so interesting, especially if it's an older sib who is not above playing Tom Sawyer painting the fence. Look how much fun MY toy is. Don't you wish YOU had one? Well, you don't!

That's Martha, in Samantha Berger's second book about big sister Martha, Martha doesn't share! (Little, Brown). Martha hoards her stuff, whether it's her stack of pancakes, her lava lamp, or her ample pile of Teddies. Little Edwin gazes with obvious longing at Martha's belongings, and her parents try to encourage some taking of turns with the toys. Edwin is eager, but Martha is frankly oppositional to the whole concept.

"BESIDES, IT'S MINE!" SAYS MARTHA.

"OKAY." SAYS HER MOTHER AND WALKS AWAY.

"OKAY." SAYS HER FATHER AND WALKS AWAY.

" 'K, MAFFA," SAYS EDWIN AS HE WADDLES AWAY.

Martha hoards her precious stuff and takes it all to her own room. She tries putting on a play with her puppets but a one-man puppet show falls on deaf ears. She does a few tricks with her magic kit. There's no magic without an audience to mystify. She picks up her ping pong paddle and hits the ball. The result is uninspiring.

IT'S HARD TO PING WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE SOMEONE TO PONG.

This sharing thing needs to be re-negotiated, Martha muses.

In the sequel to her Martha doesn't say sorry! Samantha Berger shows a couple of parents with a lot of insight into their stubborn little daughter, and Martha, of course, discovers a major truth--there are some things in life that must be shared to be enjoyed.

Berger's Martha doesn't share! joins Leo Lionni's classic It's Mine! and Mo Willem's recently published Should I Share My Ice Cream? (An Elephant and Piggie Book) as notable treatises on that most thorny of human issues: when do we reserve our possessions and when do we share? Bruce Whatley (famous for his artwork in the Diary of a Wombat books) provides the stylish illustrations of Martha and family, in which their body language and facial expressions are charmingly portrayed and extend Berger's simple text.

Words Make Meaning: Man Gave Names to All the Animals by Bob Dyland and Jim Arnovsky

2011-12-31T00:01:00.001-05:00

He saw an animal that liked to growl,
Big furry paws and he liked to howl,
Great big furry back and furry hair.
‘Ah, think I'll call it a bear.'

Noted nature artist Jim Arnovsky, known for his highly accurate, yet individualistic representations of animals and plants, has taken a somewhat surprising author, Bob Dylan, as partner for the text in his newest, Man Gave Names to All the Animals (Sterling, 2011). From a song in his 1979 album "Slow Train Coming," the artist takes Dylan's wry and witty text as his narrative, but does not settle for a predictable two-page spread for each animal named. Instead, Arnovsky's pages swarm with animals in a Garden of Eden world.

Arnovsky's beasta crawl, dash, climb, slither, leap, soar and swim across the pages in a profusion of grace and beauty which celebrates the diversity of life. He does not hesitate to let the lion lie down with the lamb, so to speak, as he juxtaposes whales and crocs, lambs and lemurs, wild pigs and cockatoos, over 170 in all, in a lush sub-tropical forest with both mountains and shores for their habitat, giving the reader the fun of spying out the animal featured amidst the throng in the rhyming text.

The illustrator also provides an appendix listing all the animals shown, so that readers are drawn to continue the task of "naming" the animals depicted. Dylan's playful, sly, and sweet song is also provided as a CD within the book which will allow children to follow along with the pages, act out the verses, or sing along as they go. A different turn on the bestiary picture book, one with one foot in poetry and one in nonfiction, this one gives the reader the chance to become the final master of nomenclature by naming the last animal

I saw an animal as smooth as glass,
Slithering his way through the grass.
I saw him disappear by a tree near a lake.
I think I'll call him a ....

School Library Journal gives this one an unqualified thumbs up: "With its broad appeal to spiritual, scientific, and just plain animal-loving audiences, this book is a winner."

A Snowy Day: Snowflake Baby by Elise Broach

2011-12-30T00:01:00.007-05:00

SNOWFLAKE BABY, WINTER DAY.

SNOWFLAKE BABY, LET'S GO PLAY!

Snowy days are a miraculous transformation to the very young. Where did everything go? The world outside is hidden under a white blanket and nothing looks the same. What is going on?

Uncovering the mystery of a snowy world is the perfect subject for a sturdy board book with flaps to lift to discover what is just below the surface of things.

Baby is snowsuit clad and outside in a trice, and the revelations start right away. What's under that giant snowflake? Baby pulling his puppy on a sled and saying BRRRRR! What's under that snowbank? A cozy tunneled-out snow cave to play in! What's under that snow-covered evergreen? A little deer peering out at Baby and Puppy. And then we find a squirrel and a rabbit under another snowy tree.

But the next snow-covered branch has a different brand of excitement in store for Baby. Just as she reaches up for the branch, that snow goes PLOP! right in her eyes!

SNOWFLAKE BABY, COLD SURPRISE!

And, of course, after a snowy adventure, as every weary parent knows, the best thing is a warm bath for Baby and an early, cozy nighty-night. And what's behind the closed curtain in Baby's bedroom? Look and see? More snow falling just outside the window! Just wait until tomorrow!

Elise Broach, author of the award-winning When Dinosaurs Came With Everything, makes the most of her brief text with nifty rhyming couplets that will charm little lapsitters as they discover what's under all those flaps, opening in all directions, well designed by Cori Doerrfeld for little listeners to find a surprise on every page. Her latest, Snowflake Baby (Little, Brown, 2011) is a fine book for little ones not quite ready for Ezra Jack Keats' classic, The Snowy Day.

Both Going and Coming: Inside Out and Back Again by Tranhha Lai

2011-12-29T00:01:00.004-05:00

No one would believe me
but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon
over peacetime in Alabama.

Tranhha Lai's National Book Award-winning novel, Inside Out and Back Again (HarperCollins, 2011), paints an unbelievably intimate portrait of an immigrant girl from a "boat people" family from Viet Nam fleeing the invasion of the victors from the north, but in many ways it is the story of every immigrant whose life is turned inside out as a stranger in a strange land.

Ten-year-old Ha is taken abruptly from her happy life into a dangerously crowded ship where her family huddles together on one straw mat for days until the refugees are picked up by the U.S. Navy and taken to Guam. From there to a transitional camp in Florida they go and at last a sponsor, "the Cowboy," takes them to a new home on the Alabama coast. Although each of the family has few material things with them, they all bring their own baggage. Her mother brings the photograph of her soldier father, taken prisoner, missing in the war; her little brother tries to bring a baby chick from their backyard flock which he clings to too long after its death in his pocket; her oldest brother brings his English book and frantically studies, knowing that he will have to be the go-between for his family in their new life. Ha brings the stubborn knowledge that she is smart and a deep longing for the tastes and sights of home, especially the taste of fresh papaya from her own backyard tree.

At first Ha's family finds no safe haven in backwater Alabama. Ha's oldest brother finds a job as a mechanic's assistant in a small garage and her mother also finds menial work. Ha finds herself put back in the grade she's just completed, a girl who can change fractions into percentages is humiliated by the round of applause her well-meaning teacher forces on her classmates for the pitiful accomplishment of counting to ten in English:

I wish I were still smart.

The food at school is tasteless; English seems a language with insane rules; and Ha hides the food from home from smirking eyes and eats her lunch in a bathroom stall. And then "Pink Boy," not the class's shining star, discovers that he can gain status by bullying Ha, chasing her shouting "Ha-Ha-Ha" and "Pancake Face" and tripping and hitting her when he can catch her. Ha hits the class door at the end of the school day and races to outrun Pink Boy until she can meet up with her older brother for protection. And there is no papaya to be found anywhere.

But "the Cowboy" is kind and takes the stories of bullying to the school, where her well-intentioned teacher does what she can to protect her from the overt unkindnesses of the class. The Cowboy takes them up and down their street to introduce the family to the neighbors, most of who slam their doors in their faces. But one neighbor, a retired teacher whose son was killed in Viet Nam, understands her pain, tutors her in English, and tries to make her special foods to ease her homesickness--even offering the only form of papaya to be had in South Alabama, sickly sweet and tough, dried papaya in a plastic bag. It's nothing like the juicy fruit Ha remembers and in despair she tosses the disappointing food into the trash. But her mother retrieves the fruit, soaks it until it is soft and moist, and Ha recognizes that taste, not quite the same, but sweet with the love of those who are trying to give her what she needs.

Ha's problem with "Pink Boy" is solved in the usual way with bullies. She makes two friends and allies at school and her class begins to accept her. And then, when Pink Boy catches her one day after school, her oldest brother appears astride his new motorcycle, intimidating the bully for good. Ha finds that she has, indeed, come "back again," as her family's loss begins to heal and she sees that life will again be good.

Inside Out and Back Again offers a powerful look at what it is like to be an immigrant child thrust into a radically different culture. Written in easy free verse, its spare but poignant language is moving and elegant, suited to both middle and young adult readers.

Finger Fun: Snow Baby (Finger Puppet Book)

2011-12-28T00:01:00.005-05:00

Soft are baby's clothes.

Soft as falling snow.

Snow Baby Finger Puppet Book (Chronicle Books, 2011) is cleverly designed with a die cut circle in the back and a baby's face to fit on the snowsuit which can be moved by one finger inside. Baby goes out in the falling snow, gets showered by a lacy snowflakes and warms up snuggling in his mommy's arms.

This simple snow story is perfect for a snuggle itself or a bedtime story. Also good for the wintry season are the companion books, Little Polar Bear Finger Puppet Book (Finger Puppet Brd Bks) and Little Snowman: Finger Puppet Book (Finger Puppet Books), great for winter birthdays or stocking stuffers.

Surprise! Happy Birthday, Hamster! by Cynthia Lord

2011-12-27T00:01:00.004-05:00

YOU ARE INVITED TO HAMSTER'S BIRTHDAY PARTY.

BUT SHHHHHHHH! IT'S A SURPRISE!

What's more fun than a birthday party? A surprise birthday party--especially when the guest of honor is totally clueless.

Hamster is sure that his friends, especially his best friend Bulldog, will remember his birthday, but as the day goes along without a mention of the big event, Hamster starts to fret.

Sure, Bulldog comes over and congenially invites Hamster to keep him company as he does his daily errands. First stop is the bakery, and Hamster looks hopefully at the birthday cakes in the case.

PINK CAKE, BLUE CAKE.

CHOCOLATE THROUGH-AND-THROUGH CAKE.

"WHICH ONE WOULD YOU CHOOSE?"

Hamster volunteers that he would picks the biggest, with the most frosting, but Bulldog just nods and orders a bag of dog biscuits. Hamster's heart sinks.

A trip to the toy store is even more disheartening. All those nifty toys, and despite yearning looks and hints by Hamster ("I LOVE toys!"), Bulldog selects a utilitarian ball for himself.

"WAIT! HAVEN'T YOU FORGOTTEN SOMETHING?" HAMSTER SAYS.

Bulldog agrees, and heads on to finish his rounds in the barber shop and party store, where he bypasses all of Hamster's hints and glancing at the festive balloons and pirate costumes, buys a greeting card "for a friend," and declares himself satisfied with his completed shopping expedition.

Hamster heads for his house, sadly contemplating a lonely birthday, and morosely and perfunctorily invites his friend in when they reach his door.

And of course by this time everyone but Hamster knows what is going to be behind that door! Newbery-winning author Cynthia Lord's and artist Derek Anderson's brand-new Happy Birthday Hamster (Scholastic, 2011) ends with a happy surprise--a happy birthday surprise in which Bulldog's assistant mice, only partially in view, stealthily taking notes all through the expedition, have picked up on all of Hamster's hints along the way, and he finds just the kind of birthday party he dreamed of. Lord's verse and Anderson's illustrations, first found together in their hit Hot Rod Hamster, are full of birthday cheer sure to please honorees and guests alike.

Not So Bare Bear: Bear in Long Underwear by Todd H. Doodler

2011-12-26T00:01:00.005-05:00

Bear and his friends are inside drinking hot chocolate.

Bear is feeling cozy, but a little cooped up from being inside all day.

He looks out and says, "The snow has stopped falling. Who wants to go outside and play in the snow?"

In no time the whole gang, Bear, Skunk, Rabbit, Turtle, and Hedgie, are bundled up and romping in the snow. They decide to build a really great snowman, and soon they step back to evaluate their work.

"You call that a snowman?" says Bear. "He needs clothes."

Quickly Bear adds his own hat to the snowman's head. But something is still lacking, his friends suggest, and Bear proceeds to add his scarf to the snowman's neck. But he's still chilly-looking, and cool is apparently not cool for this snowman, so Bear then adds his snow pants and his warm jacket. But does that leave him standing in the snow in his trademark whitie tighties?

Well, no. Bear has obviously planned ahead, in the latest in Todd H. Doodler's popular Bear in Underwear series, titled Bear In Long Underwear (Blue Apple Books, 2011). With his characteristic deadpan wit and flat, bright acrylic illustrations that feature sly visual humor on each page, this bear in his natty red union suit is dressed just right for the occasion.

As Publishers Weekly says,"Toddlers should continue to find Doodler’s lovably dim cartoon animals and deadpan humor—and, of course, the underwear theme—irresistible."

Keeping: Snow Friend by Alison McGhee

2011-12-25T00:01:00.002-05:00

What if you made a friend, a perfect friend, with a great smile just for you?

And what if one day, he suddenly went away?

Alison McGhee's latest, Making a Friend (Atheneum, 2011) tells the story of a boy, all dressed for the snow in his blue coat and red hat, who goes out to find that snow has taken over his landscape, starry snow drifting down while he slept.

All ready to play but feeling a little alone, he builds a snowman, the perfect friend for a snowy day, just the way he wants him to be--a carrot nose, a big smile from lumps of coal, and a scarf and hat borrowed from the boy. Finally, with a last hug for his friend, the boy goes inside, and when he is at last in his pajamas, he tells his new friend goodnight from his window.

But snowmen don't stay forever, and soon the snow has melted, leaving only the boy's red cap behind.

"Snowman, you left your hat.

Where did you go?"

And slowly, as the seasons continue to turn, he knows.

Look! He's in the falling water.

And the frost on the window.

What you love will always be with you.

Marc Rosenthall's illustrations lift this simple philosophical story with its universal theme. His vintage row houses done in faint sepia outlines contrast beautifully with his detailed child and elements of nature in beautiful color, as the boy makes his way through the changing seasons of the year and of life. A sweet story for thoughtful moments.

Keeping Friends: The Hard Kind of Promise by Gina Willner-Pardo

2011-12-24T00:01:00.003-05:00

Sarah Franklin had been best friends with Marjorie Fingerhut for eight years. She couldn't imagine life without Marjorie.

They had met in preschool, when Marjorie told everyone at show-and-tell that she was a leprechaun. But it was in kindergarten, when they were five, that Sarah had really come to understand how it really was with her and Marjorie. They were coloring at the Fingerhut's kitchen table.

"We should be best friends forever," Marjorie had said.

Now, remembering that afternoon filled Sarah with a longing that was both piercing and inexplicable, and a little bit like dread.

But seventh grade changes everything, everyone says. Marjorie was still her best friend, the friend who just knew how she felt about things without having to be told, the friend who always accepted everything about her, who never argued with her.

Marjorie hadn't changed. The thing was, everything else had. Suddenly there were rules that you had to follow, rules that suddenly Sarah just knew, like how to dress like the cool people, and which boys were cute, and which people to stay away from because their weirdness was, like, catching, somehow. But Marjorie didn't get the rules, or if she did, she didn't care. She still wore tee shirts with cartoon characters and ate embarrassingly smelly peanut butter and potato chip sandwiches out of embarrassing grocery sacks at lunch, and was increasingly absorbed with the embarrassingly geeky film production class kids. Then, at the ballroom dance class's Cotillion, she shows up in an elaborate Victorian outfit with a huge hat, and high-buttoned shoes. "I love to dress up," she says, unconcernedly, seemingly oblivious that everyone is whispering about her weird clothes, about how strange she is
.
Sarah wants to be a loyal friend, trying to include Marjorie in a lunch group with her new chorus class friends, Carly and Lizzy, and even agreeing to be a green alien in her film project for class. But when the shooting date for the film conflicts with Sarah's required Saturday rehearsals for the annual choral competition, Sarah has to choose between her promise to Marjorie and her membership in the choir, and she suddenly realizes that she really loves, not just being with her new friends there, but the actual making of music. Singing really matters to her.

Gina Willner-Pardo's The Hard Kind of Promise (Houghton Mifflin Clarion), deals honestly with the pain of separation, the inevitable growing apart of childhood friends that adolescence sometimes brings. As Sarah begins to find who she really is, forming new bonds with her choir buddies on their successful competition in San Francisco, she also begins to see that her choice of music is no different from Marjorie's love for film making: they just have different passions which will take them in different directions and which change their friendship in ways they cannot yet know.

Sarah knew it was a lie to try to pretend that nothing was different, nothing had changed. Sarah knew it, and she knew Marjorie knew it, too. Marjorie always knew.

"I don't get why this happened," Sarah whispered.

"Maybe it's just supposed to happen. Like getting taller," Marjorie said. "Only no one told us."

There's An App For That: Toddler Apps for Travel Days

2011-12-23T00:01:00.012-05:00

For families that will be in transit at some time during the holidays, it's always been a good idea to take along plenty of games and books. But with airlines limiting carryons and cars going for efficiency instead of roominess, it is hard to find a way to fit in that time-honored grabbag o' fun along.

Common Sense Media, a site devoted to helping parents choose media experiences--books, movies, games, et al--has some sound suggestions for taking all of the above along in your pocket or purse. And with children's books becoming widely available for iPad, smart phones, Nooks, and Kindles, there's a whole library of picture books at hand that won't crowd the trunk or tumble out of the overhead bin! Common Sense's recommendations include one of the books reviewed here some time ago, Sandra Boynton's blockbuster Moo Baa La La La, as an app, but if you are traveling with any one of the above devices, many of the books posted here are available on Amazon in Kindle format, and many are available in other ebook formats as well.

Here are some of the sanity savers suggested by Common Sense.

In a Nutshell: Bill Bryson's A Really Short History of Nearly Everything

2011-12-22T00:01:00.002-05:00

“There isn’t anything in existence—not a thing—that isn’t amazing and interesting when you look into it.”

For example...

Every atom in your body has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to being you.

If you are an average-sized kid, you have enough potential energy inside you to explode with the force of several hydrogen bombs.

Even the most jaded of science-resistant kids couldn't resist at least investigating how those amazing factoids can be true, and it's like eating peanuts: it's hard to stop with just one. From the beginning swirls of energy and matter in astrophysics to our own dear internal atoms and microbiology, Bryson makes the reader feel part of the whole amazing history of what we know and how we know it called science.

From the history of the Big Bang and everything that has come afterward, Bill Bryson's funny and engrossing A Really Short History of Nearly Everything (Delacorte Young Readers' Edition, 2011) is just the gift for middle and young adult readers. Those who are of the nerdlike persuasion will find it totally absorbing, and the avoiders of the physical sciences out there won't be able to resist Bryson's lively style and fantastic factoids. Everyone and anyone short of holders of doctorates in these fields can learn something from this book and come up with some deep thoughts as a result of their reading this one.

The New York Times said that this book "brims with strange and amazing facts . . . destined to become a modern classic of science writing.”

Desperately Seeking Presents: Where Is Baby's Christmas Present? by Karen Katz

2011-12-21T00:01:00.007-05:00

Every baby loves variations on the old game of Peek-A-Boo. Every parent has played a related language-learning game. Where are your ears? Where is your mouth?

Karen Katz has a whole series of lift-the-flap board books based on this theme, the best-known of which is probably Where Is Baby's Belly Button?

Luckily for parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, Katz also has a holiday book, Where Is Baby's Present? (Little Simon) which offers the thrill of the hunt for little ones.

Where can baby's present be? Is it in the closet? No, but there are some interesting Christmas decorations inside. Underneath that pile of wrapping paper? Inside the nifty gingerbread house on the table? Under Baby's own pillow. No?

How about UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE? AHA!

As older kids know, half the fun of the holiday season is looking for their Christmas presents, evaluating the size and weight, shaking them and listening to what's inside, and trying to guess what is going to be found. Katz' little board book, with six sturdy liftable flaps, give the youngest ones a chance to get in on that act during those exciting days before the night before Christmas.

Buried Treasures: The Bippolo Seed: Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss

2011-12-20T00:01:00.004-05:00

The not-exactly lost stories of Theodore Seuss Geisel, moldering away in various periodicals in which they appeared in the 1930s and early '40s, have been resurrected, their faded color illustrations enhanced, and published for the first time in picture-book form by Seussophile Charles D. Cohen.

Going through Geisel's earlier work is a bit like an archaeological dig. Cohen's theory is that Seuss, a former adman and illustrator, had been focused on the visual impact of his illustrations until World War II convinced him of the importance of the message of children's books. His postwar stories, published in household magazines like Redbook and Children's Activities offer a transition to emphasis on theme, vestigial versions of Seuss' later subjects, the value of free-range imagination, samples of what Cohen calls his "bizarre bestiary," and prototypes of the Cat in the Hat (as Big Cat), the "fish in the bowl," and the seemingly irremovable spot. along with his now instantly recognizable anapestic pentameter.

In seven stories, including "The Bippola Seed," "Gustav the Goldfish," "The Rabbit, The Bear, and the Zinniga Zanniga," and "The Great Henry McBride" Cohen brings us both a preview of the mature beloved author and delightful stories in process from the fertile mind of Geisel. The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories, (Random House, 2011) edited by Charles Cohen, are too good to miss, a blast from the past from Dr. Seuss.

Publishers Weekly piles on the praise as well: "The stories' rhymed couplets are pitch-perfect, the verse's rhythm as snappy as in any of Seuss's better-known works...[F]ans old and young will deem these 'lost' stories a tremendous find."

Grinchtown: The Happy Elf by Harry Connick, Jr.

2011-12-19T00:01:00.010-05:00

Eubie checked the lists...and checked them TWICE.

In the whole town of Bluesville there was not one child on the Nice List.

NOBODY would get presents.

If only Bluesville could get on the Nice List before Christmas!

Eubie the Elf longs to move up to Santa's A Team--the crack crew who are chosen to ride along with Santa on his once-a-year mission to deliver toys to the world's children.

Eubie does due diligence all year, but his holiday assignment this year is the bean-counting job of checking the Naughty and Nice Lists. A slow slog for an ambitious workshop elf, but somebody's got to do it. Eubie is giving it his best shot when he discovers a whole town of naughties. (Bluesville must be the place where the Beatles got the idea for the Blue Meanies.) Something must be done!

Desperate situations call for desperate means.

"I will use my magic hat to go to Bluesille and spread Christmas cheer.

"But Eugie," Elf Gilda worried, "you'll break Santa's most important rule, never to use the magic hat outside the North Pole!"

But with hat on head and with a wondrous WHOOOOSH, Eubie touches down in that terrible town and quickly assesses the situation.

"No wonder everyone is on the Naughty List!" Eubie thought. "This is the saddest place in the world."

Yep! Bluesville has got the blues! Nobody can be nice when their hearts are heavy. What can Eubie do to get Bluesville out of the dumps in time for a merry Christmas morn?

Grammy winner Harry Connick, Jr., knows a thing or two about playing the blues, and in his newest, The Happy Elf (Harper, 2011) he finds a way to bring the Christmas spirit to Bluesville. Dan Andreason aids and abets the uplifting activity with his jolly cartoon illustrations as a whole town full of Grinches learn to light the night and find a way to be "happy every day." No more Naughty Lists for Bluesville ever again!

Previously aired as a seasonal television special, the animated trailer is available here. and the book comes complete with a CD featuring Connick's jolly score that will brighten this season and many more.

Toy Story, Too! Can You See What I See? Toyland Express by Walter Wick

2011-12-18T00:01:00.003-05:00

Walter Wick is back, with toys sporting a fresh coat of paint and a jolly toy story to tell.

His just-published Can You See What I See?: Toyland Express: Picture Puzzles to Search and Solve (Scholastic, 2011), Wick provides much more than intriguing search-and-find puzzles to solve. The book is itself a toy story, recalling for young readers the premise of last year's movie, Toy Story III, as we see a wooden toy train, innocent of paint, a jumble of carefully crafted parts in the "Maker's Workshop," as readers are challenged to find "a pencil, a pail, a ball of string..." and other items. The next double-page spread offers a full-page picture of the train being painted, with more picture puzzles to spot, and, as in many of Wick's picture book creations, the "lens" zooms out to show the completed toy train the center of a "Toy Store" show window display, followed by "Happy Birthday Box," in which the boxed set of train, trees, and houses has just been unwrapped at a party.

In subsequent spreads we see the train set up ("All Aboard") and ready to go; traversing a carefully constructed tinker-toy trestle ("Mountain Pass"), and tootling past a fully-furnished doll house, just visible through the little dwelling's windows in "The Passing Train."

But the tale eventually turns wistfully tristful. The following spread shows the train and other toys "Forgotten" in the attic, some broken, all dusty and deserted as only cast-off toys can seem, lit only by a stray dust-mote-filled sunbeam streaming from the garret window. But this is not to be a sad, James Whitcomb Riley "Little Boy Blue" ballad, but a joyous story of toy resurrection, as the toys are sold at a "Yard Sale," and find their reincarnation in a happy "In For Repairs" workshop scene which recalls their beginnings, ending happily with the "Toyland Express," restored and repainted, back on track in a new and welcoming home.

Wick's books are a wonder, with educational activities and aesthetic mixed-media qualities that knock your socks off. Sly wit and humor permeate the work, textually and visually, especially in the partially concealed presence of Wick's iconic little wooden bead man, Seymour, (a bit of delicious wordplay in that name!) to be spotted on each picture page. Walter Wick & Co. is an industry all to itself. Wick, who seems to have found himself an enviable career in which he is allowed to create and to play with delightful toys, can be seen at work in his fabulous workshop here. Great for gifts, a must-have delight, a great entry in this genre.

You're On, Sugar Plum! Mary Engelbreit's Nutcracker by Mary Englebreit

2011-12-17T00:01:00.001-05:00

AS THE CAR ROLLED THROUGH THE NIGHT, THE NUTCRACKER WONDERED WHAT WAS IN STORE.

THEY STOPPED IN FRONT OF A LOVELY HOUSE ALL AGLOW WITH FESTIVE LIGHT. BEFORE YOU COULD SAY "MERRY CHRISTMAS," THE NUTCRACKER WAS INSIDE.

Popular author/illustrator Mary Engelbreit takes a few liberties with her version of the classic Christmas ballet in her new MaryEngelbreit'sNutcracker (Harper, 2011). As always, the avuncular Drosselmeyer is there, giving Marie a large, droll nutcracker for her gift, and little brother Fritz, jealous in all versions, plays his part in breaking the poor fellow's lower jaw "accidentally on purpose." As ever, Marie mends her Nutcracker, giving him a sympathetic kiss, wakes to strange sounds, and finds her Nutcracker engaged in warfare with the scary MouseKing from the tree and Fritz's battalion of toy soldiers. When the Nutcracker is imperiled by the overwhelming forces, Marie rushes to his aid as ever. And, just as we expect, as soon as Marie throws that shoe, we're off to a never-never land, with dancing flutes and sugar plum fairies, fountains of goodies, exotic dances, and a twirl with the transformed Nutcracker, now the Prince of this magical land.

With all the traditional plot elements in place, Engelbreit takes a couple of liberties with the classic outline of the Tales of Hoffmann, which in its original iteration was far more an adolescent girl's surreal fantasy of romance with a handsome Prince who loves her for her steadfast and loyal heart. Engelbreit's Marie is much younger, a round-cheeked primary-schooler, and the setting is changed to a kitschy 1920s ambiance, one well suited to her intended audience of preschoolers and early elementary school readers. In this version, Marie doesn't awake to find the Nutcracker's broken jaw magically restored while he remains a nutcracker, with only dreamlike memories left of her romantic fugue: here Marie actually gets a royal promisory proposal right on the spot from the Nutcracker Prince:

"YOU FREED ME FROM THE MOUSEKING'S SPELL.

IF YOU AGREE, WHEN YOU ARE GROWN, I'LL RETURN AND MAKE YOU QUEEN OF TOYLAND."

... AND IN THAT MAGICAL PLACE, THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

And that Disney-style denouement is not likely to displease the designated audience in this rococo setting. Engelbreit's legions of fans will love this ending, non-traditional as it may be. with her easily recognizable illustrative style in ample evidence and her fulsome line and palette certainly given a tailor-made expression here.

But for my money, the best choice, especially for children who may be planning to see the actual ballet, is Susan Jeffers' lovely classic, The Nutcracker.

With simple but lyrical text and elegantly beautiful full-page illustrations based on the Ballanchine ballet's staging of the dance, this one has it all, doing justice to its classic source while inspiring the imagination of the reader in that way that a nearly perfect picture book has the power to do.

Santa Needs a Hitch! Oh, What a Christmas! by Michael Garland

2011-12-16T00:01:00.005-05:00

"HO HO, SLOW!" SANTA HOWLED RIGHT BEFORE HE CRASHED KABLAMM! INTO THE SIDE OF A BARN.

...THE BARN DOOR CREAKED OPEN AND A SLEEPY SHEEP PEEPED OUT.

"HO HO ....OH! ... HELLO!" SAID SANTA.

It's Christmas Eve and Santa's sleigh is on its way, when a harness malfunction sends the reindeer flying over the horizon and Santa careening down into a darkened barnyard. Our saint is fortunately unscathed, but Santa is definitely in need of a stand-in team to hitch up if he's going to deliver all his toys around the world.

It's motley group which ambles sleepily out of the barn, blinking in disbelief at the sight of a red-clad portly gentleman surrounded by spilled packages scattered all around in the snow.

"WELL, THIS IS A FINE MESS! THOSE REINDEER MUST BE HALFWAY ACROSS THE WORLD BY NOW!"

But Santa is nothing if not dedicated, and he quickly determines to improvise with what he's got in the way of draft animals before him--a couple of sheep, a pair of cows, a goat, a pig, a horse, and one very old dog. Lining them up in pairs, he re-fashions his torn-up traces and hitches his new helpers to the uprighted sleigh. A quick reloading and the unusual team is ready for the adventure of their lives. Santa issues the familiar call with just a slight change of nomenclature:

"NOW SHEEP! NOW GOAT! NOW PIGGY AND COWS!

ON HORSEY, ON DOGGIE!

OH, WHAT A CHRISTMAS FLIGHT WE HAVE NOW!"

And when Santa completes his whirl around the world and brings his team back to their barn, he finds his reindeer waiting and the stand-ins find their barn lighted up by a candy-decorated tree with lots of presents, all ready for their Christmas morning.

Michael Garland's Oh, What a Christmas! (Scholastic, 2011) arrives just in time for the holiday season, and although the theme of Santa's impromptu helpers is a well-used one, his jolly illustrations make this new Santa story a welcome and timely new tale for 2011 storytimes. Publisher's Weekly agrees, saying, "Garland’s coyly expressive, digital cartoon animals pop off the page in this funny holiday adventure."

Pair this one with Rob Scotton's Russell's Christmas Magic, (see my earlier review here) for a duet of Christmas Eve delivery delights.

A Calabrian Christmas: Strega Nona's Gift by Tomie DePaola

2011-12-15T00:01:00.002-05:00

EVERYONE IN THE LITTLE VILLAGE IN CALABRIA, INCLUDING STREGA NONA, HAD BEEN BUSY IN THEIR KITCHENS AND AT THEIR TABLES SINCE THE MONTH OF DECEMBER BEGAN.

FIRST IT WAS THE FESTIVAL OF ST. NICHOLO--ST. NICHOLAS--ON DECEMBER 6. ON DECEMBER 6, THE CHILDREN GOT TO CHOSE THE FOOD FOR THE FEAST BECAUSE SAN NICOLO WAS SAID TO LOVE CHILDREN.

But no sooner are the crumbs from St. Nicholas's Day gone than the famous cooks of the town start preparing for Santa Lucia's Day. Strega Nona keeps Big Anthony busy, fetching and carrying, as she cooks up a storm in her house on the hill. Down in the village Papa Bambo and his daughter Bambolina are dusty with flour as they prepare the special goodies for the upcoming festivals in their bakery.

And then it is Christmas Eve, time for La Vigilia, where no one eats until after the midnight mass that welcomes Christmas. Big Anthony and Strega Nona prepare the codfish for the Feast of the Seven Fishes and the singing Zampognari, the shepherds from Abruzzi, climb the hill to Strega Nona's little house for her famous feast and to welcome the big day with heavenly music.

Big Anthony manages to stay out of trouble, even on St. Sylvestro's Night on December 31. He asks permission to go down to the bonfire in the village, but even then Strega Nona has to warn him about the customs of New Year's Eve:

"Watch out! People throw old stuff out windows. Senora Anita threw her old stove out last year!

Oh, and don't forget to wear your red underwear! It brings luck!"

This year Big Anthony makes it goof-free until the eve of the Feast of Ephiphia, the night that the animals can speak to each other. True to the custom, Strega Nona prepares a delicious-looking dish in her magic pasta pot for her favorite, Senora Goat, and asks Big Anthony to carry it carefully out to her just before midnight.

"I'll just take a tiny taste," Big Anthony tells himself.

Soon, Santo Cielo! It was all gone."

Senora Goat is not pleased with Anthony's substitution of ordinary hay and oats, and in revenge, she eats most of Big Anthony's warm blanket for dessert. Anthony spends a chilly and guilty night, shivering and having strange dreams filled with phantasmic foods. Will Big Anthony's crime go unrevealed? How will he make it up to Senora Goat and to Strega Nona on the final day of the holiday season?

A new Strega Nona book from the Caldecott and Newberry-winning author and artist Tomie de Paola is indeed a Christmas gift for us all. De Paola still has his artistic gifts, and his latest, Strega Nona's Gift (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2011) has been welcomed by reviewers and readers alike for the holiday season. De Paola adds an appendix with additional information about Italian holiday customs, and Publishers Weekly takes note, saying "DePaola delivers a hearty sampler of Italian holiday traditions and seasonal cuisine."

Pair this one with De Paola's wonderful Merry Christmas, Strega Nona for a magical storytime. As Strega Nona says in that one,

CHRISTMAS HAS A MAGIC OF ITS OWN!

St. Nick Rides Again: The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Charles Santore

2011-12-14T00:01:00.003-05:00

"T'WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS..."

Many, many editions of Clement Clark Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" have come and gone over the nearly two centuries since it was first published in 1823 as a newspaper article. Some editions have come to stay, and as the picture book has flourished as an artistic medium over the past 50 years, many significant artists of this genre have found its charming setting and verse irresistible.

Now comes Charles Santore, noted illustrator of children's classic stories, to take Santa for a splendid ride on yet another night before Christmas.

Santore keeps the classic old-fashioned setting, a fine, traditional house with beautiful furnishings and lovely traditional Yuletide decorations just begging for rich artistic detail. Santore makes full use of the picture-book possibilities inherent in Moore's beloved text, the necessary mouse watching and waiting for his chance for a holiday feast, chubby children in their snug beds, a waking father startled awake to throw open the window to a stunning winter landscape shown in a four-page gatefold, the snow-covered lawn, with prowling foxes, the bare trees and white-decked evergreens, Santa's sleigh just silhouetted against the requisite full moon, while his team of tiny reindeer appear large in the foreground.

Santore continues to make fine use of amplified perspective throughout, with long views and closeups of Santa, including that fetching wink that means all's well to the watching Papa as he prepares to ascend the chimney (presciently unlit in obvious expectation of its use as ingress to those waiting, hand-knit stockings.)

Santore's illustrations are perfectly matched to the beloved verse, right down to the nice use of the sleepy cat, not a new element in such illustrations, but done nicely here, making The Night Before Christmas (Cider Mill/Applesauce Press, 2011) a welcome entry into the field of famous illustrators who have made that midnight ride with St. Nick earlier. Publishers Weekly gives this edition a thumbs-up with its coveted starred review, saying, "It’s a gorgeous interpretation of a beloved holiday classic."

Who Very Soon Will Come Our Way? Must Be Santa by Tim Moore and Pete Whitehead

2011-12-13T00:01:00.009-05:00

WHO'S GOT A BEARD THAT'S LONG AND WHITE?

You know and I know who owns that iconic beard, but for those tots just coming into one of their first holiday seasons, this sturdy little book based on the familiar popular song, a staple of the season right up there with "Jingle Bells," is just in time to introduce them to everyone's favorite saint.

Featuring the familiar folk call-and-response format, Must Be Santa (Big Little Golden Book) offers charming double-page spreads, complete with red-clad Santa and his precious pack, gambling green-clad little elf helpers, and the requisite pajama-ed tots spying as he makes his rounds at the fireplace and Christmas tree, as one by one the questions of the song are posed.

In most cases, the following page features the answer, telling the reader that You-Know-Who has a beard that's long, white and so on through the song. Each call and answer has its own recap, as we work through the entire description of Santa, giving kids time to learn the answer and chime in with the verse or sing along with the song. With more jolly verses describing the whole operation, Santa's reindeer and sleigh, Santa soon coming our way...., the conclusion sums up the whole description with Santa's complete M.O., working backwards to the beginning:

CAP ON HEAD,
SUIT THAT'S RED,
SPECIAL NIGHT,
BEARD THAT'S WHITE...

It must be Santa who's coming our way with lots of anticipation for his visit from holiday newbies, and here to put some HO-HO-HO in the holidays is Tim Moore's new Must Be Santa (Big Little Golden Book) (Random House, 2011). Pete Whitehead provides the perky comic characters and all the trimmings, and the book's simple but effective design catches the infectious rhythm of the song to a T for tots.

Jaded adults may have heard this tune a time or two, but for tiny tots it's a great NEW song--easy to sing and offering learning opportunities in its cumulative format, recurring rhyme scheme, as well as great opportunities for the narrator to ham it up and for group singalong opportunities which make it a staple for seasonal storytimes. If you're rusty on the music, watch Raffi's traditional run-through for kids here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U7MZkSlsOU or for a refresher with a more offbeat adult presentation, Bob Dylan, complete with mystery fugitive, polka-dancing revelers, and look-alike accordionist, does it all here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8qE6WQmNus&ob=av2e

School Library Journal says, "Charming, colorful cartoon illustrations accompany the classic song written by Hal Moore and Bill Fredricks in 1960."

The Power of a Gift: The Carpenter's Gift: The First Rockefeller Center Tree by David Rubel

2011-12-12T00:01:00.004-05:00

Nearly a lifetime had passed, but Henry could still remember what it felt like to wake up in the old shack, especially during wintertime.

It is 1931, and the Great Depression has settled on the land, and in a drafty little frame house in the country just outside New York City, there is little work for his parents and little to spend for coal for the stove or food for the family. To try to earn some money, Henry and his father cut some evergreens and drive to Manhattan, hoping to sell some as Christmas trees.

Downtown, they set up their small lot near a group of construction workers preparing the site for the future Rockefeller Center. The workers are friendly, sharing their lunches and small bonfire with the two, and when Henry's father has sold all but one of his trees, he gives the last one to the workers, who stay after work hours to fashion decorations for their little tree from scraps of materials left around the site, cans, bits of twisted metal, and paper scraps.

Henry helps by making a star from a folded piece of newspaper, and when he sees the strangely beautiful Christmas tree, he wishes on that star for a snug, safe home:

"If ever there was a magical moment," Henry thought,"this is it."

And in true Christmas story form, there is a small miracle, as the workmen return the gift by showing up at Henry's dilapidated shack and in their off-hours build with scraps from their job a small but sturdy house for his family. When the job is completed, Frank, a carpenter, gives Henry his hammer as a Christmas gift. "Here, Sparky," he says, "you'll need this."

Those gifts, a home and a hammer, are the key to Henry's future. He himself becomes a carpenter and builds a secure career for himself with that hammer and his own hard work. And by chance, when he is an old man, he gets to return the gift, giving a magnificent evergreen found on his own property as the chosen tree to be the Rockefeller Center tree. Learning that the wood from his tree will be passed on to build the home for a Habitat family, Henry gives a seed cone from the tree and the treasured hammer to the daughter of the family who will help build and live in the house to be constructed for them.

"Here you go, Sparky," Henry said, "you'll need this."

David Rubel's The Carpenter's Gift: A Christmas Tale about the Rockefeller Center Tree (Random House, 2011), lighted by Jim LaMarche's luminous illustrations, is the heartwarming affirmation of joy that each Christmas season needs. Like Newberry author Kate DiCamillo's and Bagram Iboutalline's Great Joy (midi edition) or P.J. Lynch's beautifully illustrated version of O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi this is that book for this season. Horn Book's reviewer gets it right: "Rubel’s story of compassion hits all the right holiday notes; LaMarche’s lush, warm illustrations of glowing Christmas trees and smiling, caring characters drive home the central message of charity."

Heavenly Peace: Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd-Jones

2011-12-11T00:01:00.003-05:00

THE SKIES SHOUTED IT TO THE SEAS...THAT ROARED TO THE GREAT WHITE WHALES THAT SANG TO THE STARFISH IN THE DEEP.

AND TINY SANDPIPERS DANCED ON THE SHINING SANDS.

"IT'S TIME! IT'S TIME!

Most Nativity stories concentrate on the human and supernatural elements of the story--the innkeepers, Joseph and Mary, the three kings from the east, the shepherds and the angels. Sally Lloyd-Jones' and Allison Jay's new Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story (Zonderkidz, 2011) lets "heaven and nature sing"--and even dance first, feeling the fullness of time before the waiting humans know what is happening.

Telling the story of the Nativity from the point of view of the natural order--plants and animals around the world--is a bit of a change from the usual focus upon the baby in the stable, but in Lloyd-Jones' prose and Jay's beautiful folk art-like illustrations, the story broadens to take in what the author says as she opens the story:

THE WORLD WAS ABOUT TO CHANGE FOREVER. AND IT ALMOST WENT
UNNOTICED.

BUT THE LEAVES THAT NIGHT RUSTLED WITH A RUMOR. NEWS RANG OUTACROSS THE OPEN FIELDS.

A SONG DRIFTED OVER THE HILLS.

Young listeners and readers will feel the import of this event whether or not they grasp the theology behind the presentation in this lovely picture book, which just perhaps may be one of the choosen Nativity stories of this season. A preview of the book may be seen here

A Very "Moving" Christmas: A Magical Christmas (A Moving Pictures Book)

2011-12-10T00:01:00.003-05:00

Mater always believed in Santa Car, but he never dreamed that on Christmas Eve, he'd get to help Santa Car deliver presents!

But thanks to the old-but-new technique of the "lenticular storybook," Disney's new A Magical Christmas (Disney Enterprises, 2011) allows young fans to fly with Santa and his new elf "Mater" to deliver gifts to all the best-loved cartoon movie characters. Santa hitches our racing hero up to his "sleigh" and the two pay visits to Lady and the Tramp and their new pups, Nemo and his dad, Scrooge McDuck and his nephews Huey, Louie, and Dewey, Ariel and Eric (in her first dry-land Christmas), Tiny Tim and all the Crachits, the beauteous Belle and the Beast, and the far-out Wall-E and Eva and their best bot buddies.

The "lenticular moving pictures" are in full color and quite well done as large insets into each double-page spread, with action scenes from the well-known stories, set in motion by turning or moving the pages. For little fans of the Disney classics, this holiday tie-in provides a lot of fun with the familiar Disney figures.

The Honeymoon's Over: Jessica Rules the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

2011-12-09T00:01:00.005-05:00

No, the vampire concepts of history, legacy, and birthright didn't hit home until I saw that heritage measured out in stakes.

"Lucius, that is..." Amazing? Unbelievable? Disgusting?

The room was small, but what that chamber lacked in size, it made up for in weaponry. Almost every square inch of wall held a bracket that in turn held a stake, point down, so that the entire room looked like the upper jaw of a great white shark. I felt like I was being eaten alive.

I'm in a museum of destruction.

Lucius stood still and silent, allowing me to explore. So much history--and so much old blood.

And then...my eye was caught by another familiar name, next to the only stake encased in glass.

I turned to Lucius, baffled. "Why is Raniero's stake here? He's alive. He was your best man."

It's hard times in Transylvania. Anastasia (nee Jessica Packwood) has married her vampire prince and is now embedded in an icy castle in the middle of the gloomy, snowy Carpathian mountains, surrounded by spies, conspiracies, double-agent cousins, and more blood than even a newly-bitten vampire princess wants to see...ever!

No sooner does Jessica get settled in as co-ruler of the vampire kingdom than her cool but hot husband Lucius Vladescu finds himself accused of the grisly murder (by stake, natch) of his uncle Claudiu. Nobody at court actually misses Claudiu, mind you, a duplicitous Draculian scoundrel, it seems, but still, that's Lucius' own stake still wet with the victim's blood, and Claudiu's murder must be avenged by destruction of the offending vampire under law.

With her Lucius in the dungeon and no other vampire claimants to the throne at hand, Jessica has to become the ruler and call for the trial of her own husband, confined in a subterranean cell without a bit of blood to drink to keep him sane. Her look-alike cousin Ylenia seems to be auditioning for the job as her new BFF, but the fortifying vintage blood she brings the princess to drink tastes suspiciously evil, even to a relatively new vampire. Being a Mathlete and a recent graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School hasn't prepared Jessica for any of this.

So Jessica does what any vampire princess new to a difficult job would do--she calls up her real BFF Mindy Sue on her pink Motorola and begs her to come over for winter break. Mindy arrives with everything necessary to rescue a vampire princess--dozens of shoes, her rolling carry-on of cosmetics and hairstyling gear, a supply of TastyCakes, and a lifetime of wisdom garnered from reading Cosmo. Whew! Things are in good hands at last. Now the reader can relax!

But hard behind Mindy Sue comes her old boyfriend Raniero Vladescu, sometimes Buddhist surfer/slacker dude, onetime vampire assassin, Lucius' cousin and a potential pretender to the throne. Lucius trusts him, but Jessica is not so sure, and Mindy is on the horns of the dilemma, too. Is Raniero her ex or not? After all, he never offered to bite her, like Lucius did for Jessica, and how's a girl to know if it's true love without that immortality-granting big hickey? Not to mention that he confesses that he already lost his first bite virginity to the sneaky Ylenia. Was it love at first bite, or just a one=night nibble? Mindy, with her chick-lit education, rightfully suspects Ylenia as having her hopes set on making Raniero king and becoming his consort queen in the Vladescu dynasty.

It's a Gothic vampire mystery slash teen love triangle tale that makes the Twilight saga, with its straightforward rogue vampires and werewolves, seem simplistic. Will Jessica finally take up the reins of royalty and really reign over this bunch of unlikable fanged backbiters? The, er, stakes are high in this Draculian saga of happy-ever-after princessville.

Beth Fantaskey's long awaited sequel to the frankly funny (if fangful) first book, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, her forthcoming Jessica Rules the Dark Side (Harcourt Houghton Mifflin, 2012), lacks the fang-in-cheek humor of that book's juxtaposition of vampire culture with high school mores, and the grim, however fantastical, situation now facing our heroine drives out much of the wit whenever Jessica and Lucius are on-page. However, Mindy Sue flies in to save the day, bringing a humorous ironical voice to the narrative along with her reticule of coiffure and shoe possibilities, while her hot and cold romance with hottie "Ronnie" (a.k.a. Raniero Vladescu) provides the heat that keeps the reader going through the myriad candlelit crypts, secret subterranean passages, midnight grave-robbing forays, assorted bloody stakes, and the worst in-laws in the history of royal romance. (Sorry, Cinderella!)

If only Princess Diana had had a Mindy Sue on her side!

No Place Like Home for the Holidays: Home for Christmas by Jan Brett

2011-12-08T00:01:00.002-05:00

ROLLO WAS A WILD TROLL. A VERY WILD TROLL, ALWAYS RACING OFF, HIS SCRUFFY TROLL TAIL BOUNCING AROUND BEHIND HIM.

The thing about troll tails is that no troll wants to keep one. Rollo's little sister, obviously the perfect little troll in the family, has already lost hers, but Rollo's disobedience has insured that his tail grows, if anything, even longer and more scraggly each day. He won't make his bed; he won't chop wood; he won't feed the chickens, and one morning, ordered to get to work, he just runs away, off into the beckoning mountains.

It's early fall, and fruits and berries are everywhere, and with the plenitude of food, the other animals--a mother owl, a mama bear and her cubs, a lynx, and a troop of river otters--are happy to share with the playful Rollo. At last he catches a ride on the back of one of a small herd of moose, and just in time, too, for ice has formed on the pond every morning, and it isn't very long before snowy winter sets in.

One day, when the moose have dropped their big antlers, Rollo commandeers one for a sled and is off on a thrilling downhill run, one which ends in a valley where Rollo smells something that reminds him of home, the scent of a wood fire, obviously fed with wood Rollo didn't chop. Will the bushy-tailed runaway find a welcome by the fire with his family?

Well, there's no place like home, even for bad little trolls, in Jan Brett's latest, Home for Christmas (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2011). A brand-new Jan Brett Christmas story is an event, and this one is faithful to her tried-and-true format--brilliantly colored and intricately detailed watercolor and gouache paintings, accented with just a touch of Yuletide red and green, framed by birch bark borders that portray the doings of Rollo's loving (and tailless) troll family in his absence. True to the prodigal son theme, Rollo's welcome return is celebrated in jolly Scandinavian Yuletide tradition.

Pair this one with any of Brett's classic Christmas stories--The Wild Christmas Reindeer, The Three Snow Bears, Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve?, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and The Night Before Christmas: Book & DVD--they're all beautifully illustrated Christmas classics!

The Herdman's Are Back! The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

2011-12-07T00:01:00.001-05:00

Our Christmas pageant was always the same--kids in bath robes and bedsheets...and everybody knows the story...

Everybody but the Herdmans.

The Herdmans, known universally as the horrible Herdmans--Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys--have certainly never darkened the door of the church before, but with their usual timing, they pick the day of the casting of the annual Christmas pageant to show up. Not content with heisting the contents of the collection box, they shove their way to the front of the assembled Sunday School kids and take over the major roles in the play.

"I'll be Mary, and Ralph, he'll be Joseph. Leroy, Claude, and Ollie'll be the Wise Men," bellowed Imogene.

Nobody dared to argue. Nobody ever won an argument with Imogene. The kids looked about nervously. There was only one major part left, the best one, one with only one short line to learn but with a chance to make a climactic appearance in the limelight--The Angel of the Lord.

"ME!" Gloria hollered. "I'll be that!

What is it?"

One hapless kid is picked to read the Nativity story to the Herdmans. They have a few, um, artistic suggestions to make to the pageant director.

"What good is some smelly oil? Let's bring pizza!" the prospective Wise Men agree.

No parishioner family is willing to volunteer their baby for the previously coveted role as the Christ Child, so Imogene brings an old, naked doll as a stand-in. And the rehearsals proceed. The pageant director is appalled with her actors, who apparently have no reverence for the beloved story and fight over every stage direction. Everyone doggedly slogs through the rowdy rehearsals, knowing for certain that this is going to be the worst Christmas pageant ever!

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature nor to fool around with a classic Christmas story such as Barbara Robinson's beloved novel, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which, since its publication in 1972, has become standard Yuletide reading in English-speaking countries everywhere. It's been issued on film and CD, a staple of readlouds for classrooms and a required novel study in many systems, and the popular playscript for this story has itself become the "Christmas pageant" in churches and schools. But Harper's new 2011 version, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Picture Book Edition), illustrated by Laura Cornell, does an excellent job of translating the novel into a picture book format accessible to preschool and primary school students. Missing, of course, is the first-person narrator, whose ruminations on the Herdmans misadventures are as humorous as their subjects are horrible, but the adapted text works well to build suspense for that moment when Angel Gloria steps into the spotlight to deliver her punchline to the assemblage:

"HEY! UNTO YOU A CHILD IS BORN! HE'S IN THE BARN!"

The Wise Men just sat down, as if they had come a long way, and you didn't expect them just to hand over their ham and leave.

Somehow every wrong thing the Herdmans did seemed right and natural.

Imogene started to cry,

In the candlelight her face was all shiny with tears... as if Christmas had just come over her all at once.

Everyone agreed. It was the best Christmas pageant ever.

Power Down--A Bedtime Tale for Grown-ups: Goodnight, iPad by "Ann Droyd"

2011-12-06T00:01:00.005-05:00

THERE WERE THREE LITTLE NOOKS
WITH 10,000 BOOKS.
AND A HUGE LCD WIFI HDTV,
WITH BOSE 5.1, SIX REMOTES, AND 3-D.

Ever discover yourself fatigued with finding fresh batteries, sick of setting up setups, pooped with plugging in chargers to proper power sources, a bit underwhelmed with hunting what USB cord goes with which device? If these smart devices are so smart, why can't they charge themselves via wi-fi?

Do you have a year-end case of electronic exhaustion, WI-FI weariness, device care despair?

Then have I got just the old-fashioned remedy for you--Ann Droyd's (a.k.a. David Milgrim's) Goodnight, iPad (Blue Rider Press, 2011).

Unlike the olden days of Goodnight, Moon, where the little old lady whispering "Hush!" had only a couple of attention-getting frisky kitties to contend with, the old lady in this story has the electronic enticements of Netflix, Facebook friends, Angry Birds, and Twitter tweets to deal with at bedtime. Beeps and bleeps, glowing red, yellow, and green power sources, and endless entertainment for all ages--she's had it up to her mp3 and is ready to flush the whole bunch down the YouTube.

It's out with the new and in with the old for her family as she lowers the boom on Doom and downloads, and unfriends them all:

GOODNIGHT, IPAD.
GOODNIGHT, DOOM.
GOODNIGHT, BIRDS
LAUNCHING OVER THE MOON!

GOODNIGHT, McBOOK AIR...
GOODNIGHT, GADGETS EVERYWHERE.

Milgrim's verses are perfectly synced with the original's rhyme and meter scheme, and the illustrations evoke the classic bedtime story while spoofing the all-too-familiar media-obsessed family scene. You'll LOL when this old lady says GNSD to her electronically sleep-deprived family in this spot-on spoof of media mania. But if reading all these old-fashioned words is too much for the beeped-out brain, you can follow a link to the virtual preview video here.

[Ed. Note: The above-reviewed book is (ironically) also available on Kindle, Nook, and apps for the iPad.]

Before the Star: The Third Gift by Linda Sue Park

2011-12-05T00:01:00.007-05:00

My father collects tears.

That is what they are called, the pearls of swap that seep out of a tree when the bark is cut. Maybe they are called tears because it seems as if the tree is crying.

They are not beautiful trees. Their branches are stunted, knotty, spiny. Their leaves are a dull grayish green.

My father has to see inside each tree.

A boy and his father search an arid, rock-strewn landscape in search of the straggly trees which can yield their valuable pearls, the congealed sap called myrrh, used for perfume, incense, medicines, and embalming fluid. The father's skills recognize just the trees ready to give up their sap as the valuable "tears" which are indeed "pearls of great price" in the marketplace.

On one such expedition the boy spots a huge pearl, a single handful for the young boy, and his father lets him harvest it gently, with just the right twist to keep it intact, worth much to the spice traders in the town.

And soon the two take their basket of harvested treasures to market, where they find three buyers waiting, sitting cross-legged and sipping tea in the spice merchant's tent. The lad is dazzled by their brilliantly colored robes, red, blue, and gold, so different from his and his father's rough gray clothing.

The man in red greets my father. "We are buying gifts," he says. "We have some already,but we wish to buy one more. Something special."

My father nods at me. I give the basket to the merchant. With practiced fingers, he culls through the tears and places several of the largest on a cloth. In the center is my pearl.

The three men examine the tears. They speak to one another in a strange language. Finally they look at the merchant and my father, and they nod.

"We have a gift of gold, and a gift of frankincense," says the man in red. "Now we will add to them a gift of myrrh. The gifts are for a baby."

There the story of the proud little boy and his pearl of myrrh ends, but the reader knows that this episode is but the prequel to the Nativity story as narrated in Matthew, Linda Sue Park's just-published The Third Gift (Clarion, 2011), gorgeously illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, deserves a special place in this year's new books for Christmas.

In text as spare as the landscape but poignant with symbolism, Park portrays the father's gentle instruction and the boy's pride in their shared find as they present their prize for sale. Ibatoulline's subtle gouache and acrylic illustrations of a landscape done, except for the royal-robed Magi, in subdued sepia shades. appear almost as if shrouded in history. The figures and faces of father and boy are given expressive detail, while the barren landscape and the Nativity scene itself are shown in minimalist style, the stable as a rough opening in a dusty, rocky hillside where only the approaching shapes of the Wise Men on their camels reveal the identity of the baby for whom the gift was intended.

Linda Sue Park, a Newbery medalist, and Bagram Ibatoulline, noted illustrator of the modern Christmas classic, Great Joy by Newbery author Kate DiCamillo, are a perfect pairing for this gentle but deeply meaningful story of a small boy who unknowingly plays an important part in the Nativity.

Doodle Me, Do! My Beastly Book of Hilarious Heroes by Vincent Boudgourd

2011-12-05T00:01:00.002-05:00

MEET THE HILARIOUS HEROES!

THEY'RE THE ENEMIES OF EVIL! THE PROTECTORS OF THE PEOPLE!

TOO BAD THEY'RE ALSO A BUNCH OF SCAREDY CATS, SHOW OFFS, AND CLUMSY SLEEPYHEADS.

IN OTHER WORDS, THEY REALLY NEED YOUR HELP!

GRAB YOUR OWN GADGETS OF JUSTICE AND WHIP THESE HEROES INTO SHAPE!

Long, dreary winter days lie ahead, and kids need a stock of paper-and-pencil fun to tide them over long stormy afternoons, long car rides, and long waits at the dentist's office. Vincent Boudgourd's My Beastly Book of Hilarious Heroes: 150 Ways to Doodle, Scribble, Color and Draw (Owlkids, 201l) is ready for a heroic rescue for just such moments. In generous-sized paperbound format, this book, which boasts "150 ways to doodle, scribble, color, and draw," is actually open-ended enough in its prompts to provide even more things to do, and just a little judicious use of the home scanner, copier, and printer can actually multiply the fun and give young artists a chance to try out different ideas from the same page.

Some instructions, such as "Help Super-Invisible disappear by coloring this page black" could be accomplished by preschoolers with only a black crayon or #2 pencil. Others, such as "Change this ordinary family into a family of heroes. or"Draw what you think the evil villain the BIG CHEESE and his partner MILK SHAKE look like" will challenge older kids to let their imaginations have sway. Some pages provide fun practice for skills such as connect-the-dot activities, mazes ("Can the bad guy escape through the web of the Web Master?"), finding differences, and cutting, coloring, and pasting--superhero door hangers for the artist's bedroom or a postcard of the well-known kid superhero "Super Persuader" in which the young artist adds his own headshot, cuts out the card, writes a message, and addresses to his parents.

This latest book of doodle activities joins its companion titles from Owlkids Books, My Beastly Book of Twisted Tales: 150 Ways to Doodle, Scribble, Color and Draw My Beastly Book of Monsters: 150 Ways to Doodle, Scribble, Color and Draw and My Beastly Book of Silly Things: 150 Ways to Doodle, Scribble, Color and Draw, all ways to spark creativity and encourage skills in an easily tote-able format. Pair these with a spare pack of washable markers, colored pencils, or crayons for a stocking stuffer, or squirrel them away in the car or activity shelf at home for those moments when a little silly fun is just the right anecdote for the winter blahs.

Hungry, Hungry, Hungry! The Vole Brothers by Roslyn Schwartz

2011-12-04T00:01:00.001-05:00

WANTED

TWO SMALL, RAVENOUS RODENTS RECENTLY ARRIVED FROM THE COUNTRY.

LAST SEEN CHOMPING AND CHEWING ON DAISIES, TULIPS, AND ROSES.

The Vole Brothers have just one thing on their minds. FOOD!

When they awaken in their new urban pad (a paper bag inside a drainpipe), they are HUNGRY. But they are not down on the farm anymore. They realize right away that they may have to alter their daily diet!

I'm so hungry I could eat a cat!

There is, in fact, a fat feline on the same mission strolling by their home at the moment, following a delicious smell emanating from a nearby trash receptacle. The ravenous rodents are enticed by the ripe aroma themselves, and quickly gnawing out dual eye holes in their sack, they follow the cat as he retrieves an intact slice of (YUM!) pepperoni pizza. But the tubby tabby is not entirely oblivious to being followed by a perambulating paper bag intent on his pepperoni.

AHA!

He snatches the bag, but not before the two rodents have done what they do best, dig themselves an escape tunnel, and leaving the cat, er, holding the bag, they make off with his pizza slice posthaste.

But turnabout is fair play, and while the Vole Brothers celebrate their victory, the pepperoni is pinched by a felonious fowl who flies away with his prize, cawing victoriously, And then, to add insult to injury, while they are admonishing the crow, a troop of ants scoot into the scene and bearing the entire crust on their shoulders, make a run for it.

Are the Vole Brothers out of luck, fated to skip breakfast? Nope! They sight a bunch of birds brunching on a dropped donut and quickly purloin the pastry for their own, and oblivious to the chubby cat hot on their trail, settle down to enjoy their prize. But this time they are really busted!

"In MY tummy!"growls the cat.

The avenging cat grabs a rodent in each paw. Are the Vole Brothers fated to find themselves on the menu this time?

DING-A-LING-A-LING!

"Dinner!" realizes the cat.

It's saved by the bell, the dinner bell, that is, as the corpulent cat heeds the call, tossing the Vole Brothers aside for fancier fare, fortunately flinging the two right into the garden, where they at last get to chow down on succulent strawberries. It's a fun food fight in Roslyn Schwartz' latest The Vole Brothers (Owlkids Books, 2011). Schwartz, author of the noted The Mole Sisters series, offers a simple but humorous text and charming illustrations to create another pair of sibling heroes with an altogether engaging and equally single-minded villain, the fat cat, who almost steals the show. It's a classic cat-and-mouse story that is sure to please preschool fans of the chase.

The "illustrations are delightful, displaying a pitch-perfect sense of comedic timing," agrees Kirkus Reviews.

Back Off, Tiny Tim! A Very Baby Mouse Christmas by Jennifer L. Holm

2011-12-03T00:01:00.002-05:00

Baby Mouse will do whatever it takes to make sure she gets the present she wants this year--even if she must outsmart Santa himself!

BabyMouse wants a Whiz-Bang, the electronic gizmo du jour, It's a phone; it texts; it's a video game and music player; it does everything her heart desires--except straighten her permanently kinked whiskers. But that's a story for another day.

Right now, BabyMouse has to make sure that Whiz-Bang is in her stocking on Christmas morning, and she plans her campaign as carefully as a military tactician. She drops hints like mad at home; she writes a personal letter to Santa making her case, and just in case the mail goes astray, she disguises herself as a tot in line to see Santa at the Mall. She enters a best-holiday-decorated locker contest at school hoping to win one, with disastrous results to her locker door. She searches all the usual hiding places on closet shelves at home, but only succeeds in inducing avalanches of old boots and mittens. She thinks about nothing but Whiz-Bangs as she goes to Wilson's for Hanukkah, takes in the Nutcracker ballet, featuring the Dance of the Sugar Plum Whiz-Bang, and even has a disturbing dream where she is Scrooge, visited by the three Ghosts of Mean Girls.

"No crumbs for YOU, Bob Crachett. I need to sell my cupcakes so I can buy a Whiz-Bang."

Finally Christmas morning arrives. Under her tree BabyMouse finds--a doll house!

"Does Santa even READ those letters?"

And then--her faith is restored. There is one more small, rectangular package for her, and inside--Oh, Joy!--a Whiz-Bang! There's just one problem.

"Batteries not included."

"Typical" said BabyMouse.

Will BabyMouse find the true meaning of Christmas with her family while her much-wanted Whiz-Bang lies battery-less? You betcha!

In three-time Newbery author Jennifer Holm's A Very BabyMouse Christmas (Random House, 2011) our heroine finds fun and fulfillment with her family, ably abetted by the cartoons of brother Matthew Holm, in book #5 of her best-selling middle grade graphic novels. Baby Mouse gets the spirit of Christmas right at last.

"Sometimes the best presents are the ones you don't expect."

Spaceship Santa: Aliens Love Panta Claus by Claire Freedman

2011-12-02T00:01:00.008-05:00

The aliens are excited,
For tomorrow’s Christmas Day,
So instead of stealing underpants,
They’re giving them away!

Those aliens who were besotted with briefs, doting on drawers, and wild about underwear are back just in time for a Christmas Eve caper with their favorite saint, Panta Claus. No they're won't be filling those stockings with sugar plums or passing out dollies or skateboards. It's underthings in jolly Christmas colors for everyone this year in Claire Freedman's latest undergarment undertaking, Aliens Love Panta Claus (Aladdin Books, 2011).

The usual helpers, those little green-jacketed workshop elves, get to take the night off, as Santa, er, Panta Claus, takes off with the lingerie-loving green aliens riding shotgun in their flying saucer. And when this Kris Kringle has a crash with his sleigh and reindeer, it's a spaceship for St. Nick, as he has to hitch a handy ride with the aliens with their load of unmentionables on board. The alien pilots manage to hover and land deftly on snow-capped roofs and other domiciles around the globe and even loan their hero some waistband elastic on which to rappel down the really tall chimneys.

The aliens follow Santa
As he tiptoes to each bed.
They take down the stockings,
And tie up underwear instead.

For waking kids who find their Christmas trees trimmed with underthings, our British author and illustrator have their aliens leave behind a cheery Cockney-accented note: "Aliens wuz 'ere!"

For fans of their previously published chuckle-fests, Aliens Love Underpants! (Book & CD) and Dinosaurs Love Underpants, Freedman and Cort have another winner. And who wouldn't ho-ho-ho a bit at this silly seasonal story in rhyme, augmented by Ben Cort's now familiar comic portrayals of undie-loving extraterrestrials sporting brightly-colored briefs. So... here's my, um, brief versified review:

With aliens on Santa's midnight ride,
There'll be cause for plenty of snickers,
'Cause what kid wouldn't get the giggles,
When aliens pass out the knickers?

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL TIGHTY WHITIES!