Animals fact and fiction

SQUIRRELS ON SKIS by J. Hamilton Ray with illustrations by Pascal Lemaitre. Random House 2013.

THUMPY FEET by Betsy Lewin. Holiday House, 2013.

OFF WE GO: A BEAR AND MOLE STORY by Will Hillebrand. Holiday House, 2013.

TURKEY TOT by George Shannon with illustrations by Jennifer Mann. Holiday House 2013.

BEST FOOT FORWARD: EXPLORING FEET, SLIPPERS, AND CLAWS by Ingo Arndt. Holiday House 2013.


BEAVERS by Gail Gibbons. Holiday House 2013.

Fins, flippers, claws, toes, teeth, tails: all these books present animals in action. Pairing the fiction (Lewin, Hillebrand, Ray, Shannon) with the nonfiction (Arndt, Gibbons) during story time or bedtime reading shows kids that books can inform or entertain and sometimes accomplish BOTH tasks.

little

LITTLE OWL'S ORANGE SCARF by Tatyana Feeney. Knopf, 2013.

His scarf is too big
And orange. How can he fix this?
What's the solution?

Fables

AESOP'S FABLES retold by Ann McGovern. Scholastic, September 2013.

Aesop wrote fables
To instruct the young and old
Using animals.

ADVICE FROM AN OLD FRIEND

EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED FROM A LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK by Diane Muldrow. Golden Books, 2013.

Illustrations from some of my childhood books are captioned with some important advice (always believe in Santa Claus). I suspect the book will mean more for adults than for know and again.ids, but it is certainly lovely to revisit my youth

I Like to Read

HAPPY CAT by Steve Henry

COME BACK, BEN by Ann and John Hassett

PETE WON'T EAT by Emily Arnold McCully

FIREMAN FRED by Lynn Rowe Reed

ME, TOO! by Valeri Gorbachev

WHERE AM I? WHAT AM I? by Ted Lewin

Here are a half dozen of the "I LIKE TO READ" series from Holiday House. Early, easy readers by some of the best authors and illustrators in the business. These are perfect for sharing with a class or one-on-one parent and child. It will not be long before kids can "read" along with the teacher or parent. Perfect for developing confidence while also providing entertainment.

More than this?

MORE THAN THIS by Patrick Ness. Candlewick Press, September 2013.

As this novel opens, our main characters, Seth is struggling against a vicious undertow in the ocean. He has been battered and slammed by the fierce waves. Finally, he is crashed against the rocks. One thrust breaks his shoulder. The next ends his life with a crushing blow to the skull. How can this story go forward, you might well ask? And that is the million dollar question.

Thankfully, Ness has the answer. It is one that will take readers on quite a wild ride as Seth finds himself alone (at least he thinks he is alone at first) in his old neighborhood, at his old home, one that holds too many painful memories. Where has everyone gone? Why have they simply disappeared? And the biggest question of them all: how could Seth have possibly survived the crushing blow against those ocean rocks?

As Seth seeks his own answers, Ness begins slowly to reveal the truth behind all of the mysteries, a truth this is, in and of itself, a mystery as well. Readers will be compelled to continue forward with Seth to try to reconstruct what has happened and what, exactly, is happening right now. Questions of life and death, truth and fiction, reality and unreality are at the heart of this remarkable story.

The Impossible Knife of Memory

THE IMPOSSIBLE KNIFE OF MEMORY by Laurie Halse Anderson. Viking, 2014.

As you can see, this was a bound manuscript some of us were fortunate enough to receive at ALA in Chicago in June. I read this during the flight home. My BH told me there was some turbulence. I did not notice because I was attached to Hayley Kincain who experiences her own brand of turbulence in this compelling novel. Hayley's Dad is a veteran, one who is not able to cope with the PTSD that sends him into alcoholic fogs and unpredictable episodes of rage and depression. It is a lot for Hayley to handle (and mostly by herself). She keeps to herself for the most part, searches for help from some of her father's friends, and does her best to be there for her father. It is not an easy life at all for a teen, but Hayley does the best she knows how. Complications arise now that she and her Dad are no longer living from place to place as she accompanies him in his semi. Se is in school for the first time, and she does not know the RULES. There are rules for having friends, different rules for having boyfriends, and rules about school and interacting with teachers. Quite frankly, there are too many rules, and some of them seem (no, they ARE) idiotic. Hayley is a strong young woman (and we would expect no less from Anderson) who must now learn how to ask for help, how to allow herself to be vulnerable, how to find love. Tough, uncompromising, compelling: there are not enough adjectives to prepare you for THE IMPOSSIBLE KNIFE OF MEMORY. Pre-order it now.