Month: September 2021

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Let’s Play: To make a friend, be one!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Let’s Play! A Book About Making Friends, by Amanda McCardie/Illustrated by Colleen Larmour, (May 2021, Candlewick Press), $16.99, ISBN: 9781536217650

Ages 3-7

A young girl named Sukie arrives at her new school, feeling “lonely, sad, and small”, but her new classmates welcome her and help her feel comfortable in her new surroundings. As a result, Sukie greets other new classmates, and before she knows it, she has a new group of friends that play together, look out for one another, and support each other. Amanda McCardie touches on recognizing and supporting others’ comfort zones, whether it’s understanding that some friends prefer to work alone, or reassuring friends when they feel scared or sad. Mixed media illustrations present a diverse group of kids playing together and spending time together at school. Endpapers show a variety of school-related objects, from playground equipment to paper airplanes and backpacks. Let’s Play! is all about understanding social situations, and is a good choice for preschool and kindergarten-ages children, who are just starting to navigate these waters.
Let’s Play! A Book About Making Friends has a starred review from Kirkus.
Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Rafflecopter Giveaway: Between the Lines by Lindsay Ward

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

You read the post, now enter the giveaway! One winner will receive a copy of Between the Lines, courtesy of Two Lions – will it be you? 

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway today!

The fine print: U.S. addresses only, and no P.O. Boxes, please. If you’ve won a giveaway in the last six months, please don’t enter this one: give someone else a chance! Good luck and thanks for reading!

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Between the Lines Blog Tour: New Lindsay Ward!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

If you’ve read this blog for a minute, you’ll know that I love Lindsay Ward’s books. From Brobarians to Dexter T. Rexter, and all the books in between, I love her storytelling and her artwork, and I’ve been able to get kids to laugh out loud along with the world’s most neurotic dinosaur, marvel at a tractor who pitched in during World War II, and extend a hand to friends who may be feeling… well, a little gray. So a chance to read her latest book? Count me in, please!

Between the Lines, by Lindsay Ward, (Oct. 2021, Two Lions),
$17.99, ISBN: 9781542026901
Ages 4-8

A young boy remembers when all the colors “were swept from our street”. His community loses their connection to one another and as they do, the vibrancy fades. A storm sweeps away the last “hints of bluebird skies and lemon-Popsicle days”, leaving a divide that feels almost impossible to breach. The adults seem content to move around in this faded haze, but the boy wants color back in his world, and sets out to make changes.

 

Lindsay Ward has beautifully captured how to explain what is going on in our world, on a larger scale, to children. In a world without color, compartmentalized and without diversity, a dull landscape fills the void. Where we had laughter, we have silence. In three words – “Lines were drawn” – we get a mental image of our world today, divided along lines of color, beliefs, opinions. Her artwork communicates the story, with soft color heralding the fade; the storm rains down on the neighborhood, taking with it what little vibrancy remained, and leaving only black and white lines. Bringing color back, we have a rainbow of people and landscapes, happy once more. Can we get there? We have to hope. Lindsay Ward empowers children with her latest story: they have the power to bring color back into their world.

 

Essential to read, essential to discuss.

“A vibrant neighborhood loses its color, literally, as the community becomes fractured.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The illustrations…bring the atmosphere and ideas of the story to life. The depictions of both isolation and community in a dense urban neighborhood are poignant, especially after a year when COVID-19 forced people worldwide to forgo, and then to reinvent, community togetherness.” —Booklist
Lindsay Ward is the creator of the Dexter T. Rexter series as well as Rosie: Stronger than Steel; This Book Is Gray; Brobarians; Helping Hospital; the Wheels on the Go series; Rosco vs. the Baby; and The Importance of Being 3. Her book Please Bring Balloons was also made into a play. Lindsay lives with her family in Peninsula, Ohio with her family. Learn more about her online at www.lindsaymward.com.
Twitter: @lindsaymward
Instagram: lindsaymward
Check out a storytime for Between the Lines and other books here on Lindsay Ward’s website!
Posted in Early Reader, Intermediate, Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction

Jurassic Pets! Dr. Dean Lomax and Mike Love gives us Preshistoric Pets

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Prehistoric Pets, by Dr. Dean Lomax/Illustrated by Mike Love, (Sept. 2021, Templar), $17.99, ISBN: 9781536217148

Ages 5-9

Cat people all know that our little furballs think of themselves as savage, saber-toothed tigers on the hunt, whether they’re stalking a daydreaming dinosaur or a dust bunny. But did you ever imagine what your guinea pig’s ancestors may have looked like? Paleontologist Dr. Dean Lomax has you covered. Prehistoric Pets looks at the evolution of seven favorite kinds of pets: guinea pigs, parakeets, corn snakes, cats, goldfish, dogs, and horses. Using the fossil record to trace each pet’s lineage, Dr. Lomax goes back through the family trees of each of these popular pets to give us an idea of their prehistoric parentage. That chatty parrot likely descended from the Velociraptor; your corn snake can trace its heritage back to the giant Titanoboa. Each spread folds out into a pop-up gatefold, with the prehistoric beast rising up from the pages. Loaded with facts about both the modern animal and its primeval counterpart, and filled with colorful artwork, this is a home run for your prehistory collections. Display and talk up with one of my favorite read-alouds, Steve Jenkins’s Prehistoric Actual Size. The pop-ups are going to seal the deal for readers on this book – get a couple if your budget permits.

 

Posted in Intermediate, Middle Grade, Non-fiction, Non-Fiction

Ducks Overboard! The story behind the story that inspired Eric Carle

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Ducks Overboard!: A True Story of Plastic in Our Oceans, by Markus Motum, (Sept. 2021, Candlewick Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781536217728

Ages 7-10

In 2005, Eric Carle wrote Ten Little Rubber Ducks, a story about a shipping carton that leaked dozens of plastic rubber ducks into the sea, and their adventures after landing in the water. The book is based on a true story that took place in 1992; Ducks Overboard! is about the environmental impact of that accident, and about the pollution crisis facing our oceans. Narrated by one rubber duck, the story is part narrative – the duck’s story – and part nonfiction text. As the duck tells its story, smaller font provides factual information about plastic, its uses, and its the environmental impact. As the ducks bobs in the water, it sees pollution all around it: a plastic bag here; discarded fishing nets there; all creating problems for the animals in the water. Getting caught in a trash whirlpool, the duck spends years tossed around the ocean, until arriving on a beach shore during an environmental cleanup. The mixed media artwork is bright and colorful, and creates strong statements with its imagery: hundreds of dots in the ocean look like the shape of a continent, until one realizes that it’s a depiction of the shipping containers that get lost in the sea every year; a sea turtle swims underwater, dragging a fishing net wrapped around its neck; a spread illustrates the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The message is clear: plastic is choking our oceans. Back matter includes more about the 1992 shipping container that spilled ducks and other plastic toys into the ocean; how trash moves along ocean currents; facts about plastic, and how kids can help protect the waters. Great for storytime, great for STEM and Earth Day stories, great to read before a beach or neighborhood cleanup project.

Science Friday has a Great Pacific Garbage Patch teacher’s guide; Better Lesson and Siemens STEM Day have free downloadable lesson plans and activities.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads

Books about things that go

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

It’s time for a vehicle book roundup! I’ve got the new Sherri Duskey Rinker, a Pop-Up Guide, and a Do You Know? for the wee ones. Let’s roll out!

 

The Pop-Up Guide: Vehicles, by Maud Poulain/Illustrated by Charline Picard, (Sept. 2021, Twirl Books), $16.99, ISBN: 9791027609994
Ages 2-5
These Pop-Up Guides from Twirl Books are too much fun. The newest one is all about vehicles: what vehicles roll around in different locations and what they do. Visit a bustling city with street cleaners, buses, trains and more going about their workday, then visit a more rural area, where farm vehicles like tractors and harvesters get to work. Emergency vehicles help save people, and roads and rails get you where you need to go. You can travel through the sea and sky with vehicles, you can race them, and you can use them to transport all sorts of things! Ten spreads fold out to 3-D landscapes with colorful, labeled vehicles and local color, and a few descriptive sentences place the reader in each of the settings. There are elastic bands to hold pages and allow for hands-free reading and play; get some minifigs and small action figures and let the littles really explore! Keep a reference copy on hand for storytimes; the pages are sturdy but will heavily circulate.

 

 

Do You Know? Vehicles and Transportation, by Camille Babeau, Illustrated by Benjamin Bécue, Julie Mercier, & Cristian Turdera, (Oct. 2021, Twirl Books), $16.99, ISBN: 9782408029159

Ages 5-8

Another fun entry in Twirl’s Do You Know series hits shelves in just a couple of weeks! Vehicles and Transportation is full of facts and detailed illustrations of vehicles, from people (transportation had to start somewhere!) and animals, cruise ships, military vehicles, hot air balloons, and more. Chapters are organized into land, water, and air vehicles, with a final “More to Know” chapter that lays out the big points of all the content, including a travel timeline, a review of different machines, and future vehicles. Cross-section illustrations provide detailed information, and helpful Q&A sections run on each page. Learn answers how to recognize an emergency vehicle; how a steam engine works, and when you can try hang gliding! There is a wealth of information, laid out in a way that is easy and engaging to read. The book is fully indexed for easy reference, too. Make a display of Do You Know? books, or match this up with Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, Mike Lowery’s The Way Downtown and Nadja Spiegelman and Sergio Garcia Sánchez’s Lost in NYC: A Subway Adventure. Have coloring sheets on hand!
Construction Site: Road Crew, Coming Through!, by Sherri Duskey Rinker/Illustrated by AG Ford, (Oct. 2021, Chronicle Kids), $17.99, ISBN: 9781797204727
Ages 2-5
Sherri Duskey Rinker, ruling headmistress of the transportation story, is back with a new Construction Site story! In this latest rhyming tale, the construction team heads off to their biggest job yet as they build a superhighway. Kids meet a group of new machines with exciting, big jobs: Water Truck squirts water on the ground to keep dirt and grit from flying around; Paver lays down asphalt and Roller smashes the asphalt down to make the surface even and flat; Striper Truck rolls down the road, spray painting yellow and white lines to keep the traffic moving. With teamwork like this, happy cars will be driving down the new mega-road in no time! Kids love these books, and it’s so easy to see why: Sherri Duskey Rinker’s text is cheerful, with happy rhymes about friendship, teamwork, and enjoying one’s work. AG Ford’s wax and oil crayon illustrations depict happy vehicles working and driving together, helping one another out, and getting the job done. An author’s note at the end calls the reader’s attention to a coyote at the beginning of the book, who shows up later, and mentions that road builders are increasingly taking local wildlife “travelers” into account and making special allowances to accommodate them. Visit Sherri Rinker’s website for more of her Construction Crew books (including some upcoming books!), and visit artist AG Ford’s website to see more of his gorgeous artwork, including his Children’s Book Gallery. Download activity kits, teachers’ guides, and watch videos at the Good Night Construction Site.
Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Two animal adventures for you: The Walloos’ Big Adventure and Obi’s Mud Bath

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

I’ve got two adorable animal adventures with ecological messages for you today. Have a look!

Obi’s Mud Bath, by Annette Schottenfeld/Illustrated by Folasade Adeshida, (June 2021, Spork, $17.99, ISBN: 978-1950169535

Ages 4-8

Obi is an adorable little rhino who wants to enjoy  mud bath, but his home in Zimbabwe is experiencing a drought. As he searches for an ooey, gooey, mud bath, he meets other an ostrich, a giraffe, and an elephant, all of whom help out when he gets his snout stuck in one situation after the next. Will poor Obi ever find a way to cool off? As the animals join together in their search to cool off and find water, they may just be able to make some magic happen. Inspired by a true story, Obi’s Mud Bath introduces concepts like climate change and its effects on the animal population – the current drought in Zimbabwe is at crisis levels – and examines ideas of determination and teamwork. Adorable animal illustrations will delight animal fans.

Back matter includes the story of Mark, the rhino who inspired Obi’s Mud Bath, and a glossary of words in Shona, one of the most widely spoken of 16 languages in Zimbabwe, and English. A portion of the proceeds from sales of Obi’s Mud Bath will be donated to Water.org, an organization which providing families around the world with access to safe water and sanitation. Illustrator Folasade Adeshida hails from Laos, Nigeria; you can see more of her illustration work at her website. Author Annette Shottenfeld also used the services of a sensitivity reader, Fubright Scholar and lecturer in African Studies, Esau Jabulani Mavindidze, as she wrote Obi’s Mud Bath.

The Walloos’ Big Adventure, by Anuska Allepuz, (July 2021, Candlewick Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781536215311

Ages 3-7

The Walloos are kangaroo-like animals that live on a small, rocky island where Little Walloo dreams of having an adventure. The family travels to a tropical island, where they begin using the island’s plants for food and building, but something doesn’t feel right. The island is making funny sounds and… moving! When the Walloos realize that their island is actually a big hippo, they’re delighted, until they realize that they’ve made life rough on the hippo, by stripping away all the plants that used to keep Hippo cool and shaded. If Hippo can’t get relief from the hot sun, he’s going to have to go underwater, and that will be disastrous for the Walloos! The family quickly gets to work on making positive changes to help undo some of the damage they’ve done. A sweet story about adventure, with a great message about being sensitive to the environment, The Walloos’ Big Adventure is adorable storytelling. Mixed media illustrations are colorful; kids will love the cute Walloo family and the lush settings. Hippo has a kind face and is huge in scale to the Walloos, giving kids a nice side lesson in scale.

Adorable, and gives real meaning to the phrase, “Take only photos, leave only footprints”.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads, Uncategorized

The Book of Hugs: Tim Harris tells you everything you need to know about hugging

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Book of Hugs, by Tim Harris/Illustrated by Charlie Astrella, (Sept. 2021, Flowerpot Press), $12.99, ISBN: 9781486721047

Ages 4-7

Hug-master Tim Harris – seriously, he is a world record holder for giving hugs – has written the book that’s just what we need right about now. It’s all about different types of hugs: happy hugs, sad hugs, fast hugs, bear hugs, they’re all in here, and Tim tells you how to give them. He even gives you the important steps to follow to give the best hugs: make sure the recipient wants to receive a hug; open those arms up really wide, and hug them nice and tight, but cozy and comfortable. You can make people feel better with a hug, and you can give someone a quick hug or a nice, 10-second hug. Are you friends with a monkey? There’s monkey hugging tips in here, too! Adorable illustrations of Teddy Bear Tim – our guide to hugging – and his monkey friends are like hugs themselves: warm colors, softly illustrated, and with all the wonderful emotions that a good hug evokes: closed eyes, tucked in heads, and joyful smiles. The word on consent makes this a particularly great read-aloud for preschool through the lower grades. Cheerful endpapers show cascades of yellow bananas – you have to have them for the monkeys, you see!

Tim Harris is a disability advocate, Special Olympics athlete, and restaurateur who had hugs on the menu of his New Mexico restaurant, Tim’s Place. He closed his restaurant, but is now a motivational speaker and heads up Tim’s Big Heart Enterprises. Visit his Instagram page here.

Posted in Middle Grade, Non-Fiction, Non-fiction, Teen, Tween Reads

Good for you, good for the planet, Green Kids Cook!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Green Kids Cook: Simple, Delicious Recipes & Top Tips, by Jenny Chandler, (Aug. 2021, Pavilion), $23.95, ISBN: 9781911663584

Ages 8-14

You have to love a cookbook that teaches kids to cook and to be good global citizens al at once. Green Kids Cook has over 50 recipes, organized into 5 areas: Breakfast and Brunch, Snacks, Soups and Salads, Mains, and Sweet Things. There’s an intro for kids and adults, focused on food and cooking area safety and having a balance of food on your plate: vegetables and meat can share the same space! There are spreads throughout on reducing food waste and plastic use (smartly referred to as reducing our “foodprint”); crafts like making your own cook’s apron and beeswax wraps rather than relying on plastic wrap, and creating a welcoming table. Colorful photos accompany tasty-sounding recipes, and each recipe includes tips on adding variety and swapping in alternatives, like less spicy options, more vegetables, and additional tasty treats to excite palates. I’m ready to dive into the Halloween Hummus, made with pumpkin; Indian Chickpea Salad, and flatbreads. Originally published in the UK earlier this year, there’s also a glossary for us US folk that call tea towels “dish towels”, kitchen paper “paper towels”, and cornflour “corn starch”. Recipes include measurements for grams and ounces, too.

Grab this one for sure! My library system isn’t doing in-person programming and we tend not to do food programming with kids, but if your system differs, there are plenty of no-bake recipes here to try, including the Super-Cool Smoothie Bowl that only calls for some quick prep on your end.