Rosemary Kiladitis

Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Intermediate, Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction

Pippa Morgan returns in Love and Chicken Nuggets

Posted on May 27, 2016May 27, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Pippa Morgan’s Diary: Love and Chicken Nuggets, by Annie Kelsey (June 2016, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky), $12.99, ISBN: 9781492631415

Recommended for ages 8-12

Pippa’s back, and she’s still BFFs with Catie, despite The Voice Factor debacle from her first book! This time around, Pippa’s got two missions: to find her newly single mom a boyfriend, and to get Catie to discover the joy of chicken nuggets. Oh, and she has a school project about “love” – gross.

Pippa’s second outing is just as much fun as her first one. She’s funny, unexpectedly introspective, and I laughed with her more than at her, because she’s so likable. Written in journal format, with black and white illustrations, this fits very nicely on series shelves with Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rachael Renee Russo’s Dork Diaries, and Jim Benton’s Dear Dumb Diary. These books appeal to kids because they’re so relatable: they all have their own family wackiness to deal with, but they win at the end of the day. Pippa’s big imagination is sweet and well-intentioned, if sometimes a bit off radar, and that’s what makes her work so well.

Get this series on your shelves: it won’t be there long.

Intermediate, Middle Grade, Non-fiction, Non-Fiction, Teen, Tween Reads

Knit, Hook, and Spin teaches kids the fun of making

Posted on May 27, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Knit, Hook and Spin, by Laurie Carlson, (June 2016, Chicago Review Press), $14.99, ISBN: 9781613734001

Recommended for ages 8+

If the kids in your life – or you – want to be crafty but aren’t sure where to start, this is a great book to have handy. Knit, Hook, and Spin is an easy-to-follow primer that includes over 70 projects for beginners. Clear instructions and illustrations teach you how to knit, crochet, spin yarn, tie dye, weave, and even make your own plarn (yarn from plastic bags). Big on making and recycling, there are instructions and invitations to repurpose clothes; unravel an old sweater to get some yarn for a new project, or tie dye a t-shirt to give it a new look. Weave a rug out of brightly colored plastic bags that you brought your groceries home in last week.

Fiber facts and tidbits about fiber art and crafting history are included throughout, giving kids an understanding of the long-standing history of handmade clothes and everyday accessories that they’ve now become part of. The emphasis is on practice and developing a love of the craft, rather than unnecessary, expensive gadgets: Carlson teaches readers to make weaving looms from sticks or paper plates; knitting needles from chopticks, if that’s what you have around. She notes when adult supervision is suggested, and I hope this gets parents and kids crafting together. There’s no downside to together time or crafting time.

This is a great book for kids and adults, who want to learn to craft but aren’t sure where to go. When I first learned to knit and crochet, I went straight to the children’s section of my library, because I wanted simple, step by step instructions. The wealth of different crafts here makes this a valuable addition to collections where there’s an interest in crafting.

Laurie Carlson’s blog is rather new at the moment, but does include a nice post on the benefits of kids crafting.

Early Reader, Fiction, Preschool Reads

Nibbles is the cutest little book monster – but keep him away from your fairy tales!

Posted on May 26, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Nibbles the Book Monster, by Emma Yarlett (Apr. 2016, Kane Miller), $16.99, ISBN: 978-1-61067-467-6

Recommended for ages 2-6

Nibbles is an adorable little monster. He likes to nibble on everything from clocks to toes, but his favorite thing to nibble on is BOOKS. When Nibbles munches his way out of his box and gets loose, he wreaks havoc on some fairy tales! Can you catch him?

I LOVE this book, and so does my 3 year-old. This book has entered daily storytime rotation, and I’m happy to read it again and again, because it’s so much fun. The rhyming text just begs you to giggle along with it, especially when paired with the adorable, cartoony illustrations (Nibbles hanging on, teeth first, to a swinging clock pendulum never fails to make me crack up). Holes and die-cut flaps throughout the book send you and your readers on an adventure – books within books! – as you pursue Nibbles through Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack and the Beanstalk. It’s an exciting romp for little ones, and just when you think Nibbles has been caught… well, let’s hope that there are more Nibbles adventures to come. There are a lot of fairy tales out there, after all!

Highly recommended for children’s collections, and you can pair this with any fairy tale or fun monster book for a great, laugh-out-loud storytime.

Emma Yarlett is a Kate Greenaway award-nominated author and a winner of the English Association Picture Book Prize. Her author webpage showcases her artwork, links to her blog and a shop where you can purchase her books and art prints. You can buy your own plush Nibbles to love and display (maybe not too close to your books) at the Usborne website.

Check out the adorable book trailer!

Nibbles: The Book Monster from Bee Grandinetti on Vimeo.

Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Science Fiction, Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

YA sci-fi must-read: The Almost Girl (The Riven Chronicles #1)

Posted on May 26, 2016July 6, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Almost Girl (The Riven Chronicles #1), by Amalie Howard (May 2016, Sky Pony Press), $9.99 ISBN: 978-1510701717

Recommended for ages 13+

Seventeen-year-old Riven isn’t your run of the mill high school student. She’s not even from our world; she’s a soldier from Neospes, a world in a parallel universe, devastated by war and catastrophe. It’s a world where children learn to kill as soon as they can walk, and Riven is one of the best. She’s a Legion General, sent to Earth by her best friend, the Prince Cale, to find his long-lost brother and bring him back to Neospes. After a long time searching, Riven’s found Cale and is getting ready to move him out when Vectors – the undead soldiers created by her father – attack, forcing Riven into an uneasy alliance with her sister Shea, who she’s been at odds with. Riven will discover family secrets and lies that have been hidden from her for most of her life as she and Shea work together to bring Cale back to Neospes – and Riven begins to doubt everything she thought she stood for.

The Almost Girl is a fast-paced, well-developed sci-fi adventure for teens. It’s got a bit of a Terminator 2 vibe, but it’s entirely its own story. Riven is a complex, thoughtful character at odds with what she’s been raised to believe versus what’s truth. She’s the cold-hearted soldier who runs far deeper than an ice-cold killer, and her journey through the book keeps the pages turning. Cale finds himself in the damsel in distress characterization, but he’s not completely helpless, so it makes for a solid, interesting story. There’s solid sci-fi elements: gadgetry, android-human hybrids, space travel using technology rather than vehicles; there’s also space-opera factors that bring the drama and thus, the story: betrayal, family secrets, several missions intertwined.

Give this to your teens that like a good sci-fi adventure with a touch of romance. The sequel, The Fallen Prince, is newly released, so keep an eye on this blog – I’ll be getting to it shortly!

Amalie Howard has a fantastic author webpage with updates, contests, and an event calendar with appearances.

Early Reader, Fantasy, Fiction, Preschool Reads

The Seven Princesses: A fairy tale about sisters and your own space

Posted on May 21, 2016May 18, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Seven Princesses, by Smiljana Coh (May 2017, Running Press), $16.95, ISBN: 9780762458318

Recommended for ages 4-8

Once upon a time, there were seven princesses, all with diverse interests, who did everything together. But one day, they had the biggest fight in the entire history of princess fighting, and they all decided to build their own towers and be on their own. But that wasn’t the answer, either; the princesses really missed one another. What’s a princess to do?

Smiljana Coh’s book about sibling rivalry is a great story for preschoolers to early school-age kids, because it gets to the heart of sibling arguments: sibings are largely together day and all night, and space eventually gets tight, no matter what the living situation. Arguments are bound to happen; kids are all too quick to say things like, “I never want to see you AGAIN!”, but eventually, love wins out, and things get smoothed over. She also captures the feeling everyone around kids feel when there’s sibling unrest: the palette goes from soothing, happy pastels to washed out, sad, sepia-toned art, and she addresses how painful the sound of silence can be. When the princesses reunite, there’s joy in the kingdom again!

I also love that the princesses are such great girl-power figures for younger readers: the multi-ethnic princesses are interested in math, building, music, fashion design, gardening, animals, swimming, and the arts; one princess creates the blueprint for a grand castle layout. The royal parents show up in the beginning and end of the book; other than looking lovingly at one another and their kids, there’s not much of a role here, except to show a beautifully diverse family.

I can’t wait to put this into storytime rotation, especially since princess books are aces with my crowd. I’d spotlight this with both Kate Beaton’s Princess and the Pony and Andrea Beaty’s Rosie Revere, Engineer; let girls see how amazing they are with these fun and fabulous role models.

Smiljana Coh is a Croatian author and illustrator. You can follow her on Facebook or check out her author website for more information.

Follow the Seven Princesses blog tour!

5/18 Anastasia Suen

5/20 Kid Lit Frenzy

5/21 Mom Read It

5/23 Reading Through Life

5/24 Unpacking the POWER of Picture Books

Early Reader, Fiction, Preschool Reads

Spotlight On: I Wanna Be A Great Big Dinosaur!

Posted on May 19, 2016May 14, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

This latest spotlight is an adorable story about the grass being greener on the other side. Sourcebooks Jabberwocky presents…

A little boy wants to be a Great. Big. Dinosaur! Luckily for him, a great big dinosaur is nearby, and is happy to show him the ropes: the roaring, the stomping, the eating LOTS of meat… but the boy has some pretty cool things to show the dinosaur, too! Playing video games and soccer, and eating ice cream are pretty awesome, after all.

Kids will see themselves in both little boy and dinosaur: each wants to try on the other’s life, just to see if things are as cool as they look. It taps into a child’s sense of imagination and play – who among us hasn’t wanted to be a dinosaur? A bird, a butterfly, or something other than who we already are? And when the boy sees things from a dinosaur’s point of view, he realizes that there are some pretty great things about being a little boy, too, and shares them with his dino friend. The verdict: you can be a little bit of both, and be very happy!

I love this book and can’t wait for it to enter my regular storytime rotation. My three-year old LOVES it. We stomp, roar, and chomp on imaginary pteranodon drumsticks as we read it. The art is vibrant and there’s a bigness to it, coming off the page and inviting readers to join in. Words like “STOMP!” and “ROAR!” splash across two-page spreads, contributing to the giant feeling of the story and the words and will keep younger listeners entertained and giggling.

Grab some shoe or tablet boxes, paper, and some dot art painters (really cuts down on the mess), and let the kids make their own dinosaur hats and tails! Add this book to your storytime rotation and your home and library/school collections; it’s a good one.

And now, the Sourcebooks Spotlight – keep reading for your chance to win your own copy of I Wanna Be a Great Big Dinosaur!

Title: I Wanna Be A Great Big Dinosaur!

Author: Heath McKenzie

Release Date: May 17, 2016

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Summary:

Want to find out what it takes to be a Great Big Dinosaur? This book is for you!

More than anything in the world, one little boy wants to be a great big dinosaur. And he’s in luck! A great big T. Rex shows up to teach him how to stomp and roar just like a dinosaur. But dinosaurs aren’t so great at soccer or video games… Maybe being a little boy isn’t all bad?

A story about being whoever (or whatever) you want!

Buy Links:

About the Author (photo by Angela Ginsberg):

Heath McKenzie has illustrated numerous picture books and children’s book jackets. He lives with his wife and kids in Melbourne, Australia. Visit him online at heathmck.com.

Enter a Rafflecopter giveaway for a chance at one of two finished copies of I Wanna Be A Great Big Dinosaur! (Runs May 1-May 31st; U.S. & Canada only)!

Early Reader, Intermediate, Non-Fiction, Preschool Reads

Kooky Crumbs is loaded with wacky poems for wacky days

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Kooky Crumbs: Poems in Praise of Dizzy Days, by J. Patrick Lewis/Illustrated by Mary Uhles (Jan. 2016, Kane Miller), $12.99, ISBN: 978-1-61067-371

Recommended for ages 4+

I know we’re out of National Poetry Month, but I just discovered this book and had to talk it up. You know those wacky holidays that come up, and leave you scratching your head? Holidays like International Museum Day (it’s legit, and pretty cool, actually), or National Bike to Work Day? Some of these holidays lend themselves to a pretty fun storytime, like these two, and some of them leave me scratching my head. But Kooky Crumbs, by former U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis, is loaded with poems that salute tons of these “holidays”. Take, for instance, “First Ever Idea for Arithmetic”, written in honor of World Math Day (October 15): “Add two numbers together/and you’ll get sumthing else”. “When Should We Meat?”, observing World Vegetarian Day on October 1, is more traditional in its rhyme scheme: “If vegetarians have trouble/ finding tasty lip-smackers/Aren’t they allowed to cheat a bit/By eating animal crackers?”

The poems are fun, short, and perfect to punch up a storytime. You can build a theme around one – National Pancake Day begs for a reading of Eric Carle’s Pancakes! Pancakes!, and World Toilet Day would be even livelier with a reading of Once Upon a Potty – or you can just add a poem to your normal storytime, mentioning a funny holiday and giving the kids and parents a good laugh. Mary Uhles’ cartoony illustrations add to the fun of the poems. The only things missing are the actual dates of the holidays – some may shift, so that’s understandable, but a month by month guide would be great. No worries, though; Google has all of these holidays listed.

A fun addition to poetry collections and storytime reference collections – I’m going to have a lot of fun for next year’s Poem in Your Pocket Day with this book!

J. Patrick Lewis is the former U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate and the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the NCTE award for Excellence in Children’s Poetry and the Cybils Award for Poetry. Mary Uhles is an award-winning illustrator and former animator for Warner Brothers and Fisher Price Interactive.

Adventure, Fiction, Middle Grade, Tween Reads

STEM Siblings: Nick and Tesla are back!

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Nick and Tesla’s Solar-Powered Showdown, by “Science Bob” Pflugfelder and Steve Hocksmith/Illustrated by Scott Garrett (May 2016, Quirk Books), $12.95, ISBN: 978-1-59474-866-0

Recommended for ages 8-12

Super smart siblings Nick (short for Nicolas) and Tesla are back, and so is Uncle Newt, plus friends Silas, and DeMarco! Nick and Tesla are having a heck of a summer: their parents are still missing, and all signs point to them being kidnapped, possibly by an evil mastermind. This latest installment in the popular middle grade mystery series has brother and sister working together to create all sorts of solar-powered gadgets that will get the attention of their government contact, distract the bad guys, and save the day. Let’s hope it’s enough!

This is such a fun series for middle graders, because it puts the power in their hands. Nick and Tesla are competent, smart kids that aren’t middle school pariahs; they have fun, wacky friends, and they have a strong, supportive – if eccentric – family. They can MacGuyver a solution to seemingly every problem: from getting a secret agent’s attention, to cooking hot dogs using a Pringles container and solar power. The best part? The kids can recreate the experiments! As with the other books in the Nick and Tesla series, Solar-Powered Showdown features five projects readers can make along with the twins: a a hot dog cooker, listening device, nighttime LED signal cannon, range rover, and alarm bell. All solar-powered, and all easy to make (with adult supervision).

You don’t need to be intimately familiar with the series to pick this one up – this is the first book I’ve read in the series; it’s been on my “to get to” list for a while – because the text will fill you in, usually via humorous footnotes, on what’s happened in the previous books. A note at the beginning of the book lets parents and kids alike know that project instructions should be reviewed by an adult, and that adults should supervise and assist on each project. The instructions are detailed, numbered, and illustrated, really encouraging kids to go for it and create exciting, sustainable things!

The Nick and Tesla website has videos, educator guides, book excerpts, and downloadable shopping lists, by book, for each of the projects featured in the novels. You can submit your own work for them to check out, too.

I’m working on a lot of STEM/STEAM ideas for Summer Reading, so this series will be on display, along with Gene Luen Yang’s Secret Coders and HowToons graphic novels (the second Secret Coders book is due out in August!), and Jon Sciezska’s Frank Einstein series of novels. Get kids thinking and creating this summer!

Need more ideas? Science Bob has tons of them on his own website, and his Instagram has some very cool science facts and videos, like Tesla coils at work and BB8 droids under construction.

gaming, geek, Guide, Non-Fiction, Teen, Tween Reads

Minecraft teaches kids Python, empowers future programmers

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Learn to Program with Minecraft, by Craig Richardson (Dec. 2015, No Starch Press), $29.95, ISBN: 9781593276706

Recommended for ages 10+

The kids in my library are obsessed with Minecraft. From 2:30 on, as the kids storm the beachhead that is my children’s room, I hear shouts of, “Don’t touch my skin!”; “GET THE CREEPER! GET THE CREEPER!”; “OMG, get away from the Enderman!”; and “DIAMONDS!” I see the potential of Minecraft, and how it can be a fantastic tool to teach kids to create online worlds. I also, as a children’s librarian and mom of three boys, know that for the most part, they want to kill creepers and each other in some kind of 8-bit battle royale more often than not.

Books like Learn to Program with Minecraft are my gateway drug to programming with these kids. First, I get the fiction in (the GameKnight999 series by Mark Cheverton is available in English and Spanish, and they fly off my shelves), then I introduce coding programs like the Hour of Code, to show them how playing their game actually teaches them the building blocks of coding programs and apps of their own. Finally, I use part of my book-buying budget to buy coding nonfiction to keep around. I love DK’s coding books; those are especially great for my younger coders. My older kids need a little more, though, to keep them interested. That’s where the No Starch Books come in.

No Starch has great programming books for kids and teens, and Learn to Program with Minecraft is a solid addition to middle school and YA collecctions. A heads-up: you have to download Python to work with this book, but it’s a free programming language. Don’t be scared! The book will guide you along your Python/Minecraft journey, with screenshots and step-by-step bullets points that make creating much less stressful.

The book will help you create mini-games within Minecraft, take you on an automated teleportation tour around your Minecraft world, and teach you to make secret passageways. You’ll learn to make lava traps and cause floods, but be a good Minecraft citizen: no griefing.

I don’t quite have the Minecraft skills for this just yet, but I’m confident in my crafters here – I’ll be investing in this for my summer crowd, especially since we’ll be running a Google CS program here in a couple of months. Get kids to love programming, and watch what they come up with. I’m pretty psyched.

Realistic Fiction, Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

Draw the Line addresses hate crimes and homophobia with empowerment and comics

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Draw the Line, by Laurent Linn (May 2016, Margaret K. McElderry Books), $17.99, ISBN: 9781481452809

Recommended for ages 14+

Adrian is a quiet high school junior that really tries to go through life unnoticed. He hangs out with his two best friends at school, Audrey and Trent, and they form their own little group of misfits, and he tries to avoid Doug, the local football hero/top cop’s son, and his sidekick, Buddy. At home, Adrian loses himself in movie and video game soundtrack music and creates his comic book character, Graphite, who ponders life from his lunar fortress of solitude and pines for someone to share life with. Graphite is Adrian’s secret – and, at first, so is the fact that he’s gay. That all changes when a hate crime is committed right in front of him. An openly gay classmate is attacked by the “bubbas”, as Adrian refers to them, and the town spin makes Adrian see red. He’s got to take a stand: someone has to draw the line.

This is such a powerful story that builds on so many levels: friendship, budding romance and the challenge of taking a romance public when you’re a gay teen in Texas, family problems at home, and self-esteem/image issues. Every character – much like every kid in real life – has a challenge they’re facing in their own lives in addition to the big-ticket challenge that frames the novel. Adrian is a smart, funny, complex main character who has a strong voice that drives the story. His friends and antagonists all have their own voices, and while you may root for some and hiss for others, they are real and act and react believably. The black and white comic book art enhances the story and illustrates that having your own voice can take a multitude of forms.

A powerful addition to YA and teen collections, and packed with diversity and events that are happening now: this book will spark discussions.

Draw the Line has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews.

Check out the book trailer/cover reveal for Draw the Line below: