Author: Rosemary Kiladitis

I'm a mom, a children's librarian, bibliophile, and obsessive knitter. I'm a pop culture junkie and a proud nerd, and favorite reads usually fall into Sci-Fi/Fantasy. I review comics and graphic novels at WhatchaReading (http://whatchareading.com). I'm also the co-founder of On Wednesdays We Wear Capes (http://www.onwednesdays.net/), where I discuss pop culture and geek fandom from a female point of view.
Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Setting the tone for a new year: A Hundred Thousand Welcomes

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

A Hundred Thousand Welcomes, by Mary Lee Donovan/Illustrated by Lian Cho (Oct. 2021, Greenwillow Books), $18.99, ISBN: 9780062877727

Ages 4-8

Welcome! Readers travel to homes all over the world to share food and friendship in A Hundred Thousand Welcomes, being greeted in with a hearty “Welcome!” in 14 different languages. Each welcome includes a phonetic pronunciation to allow for readers to learn and share greetings with one another and spread a message of empathy, unity, and hope for a better world. Families greet one another and invite them to sit at tables together; a note from the artist explains her inspiration: “Food is something that joins us across cultures”. Warm colors and rhythmic verse send a wonderful message to all as people come together to share food, their cultures, and their homes. Reading this book today gives me hope for the holiday season and for a new year. Back matter includes a pronunciation guide, notes form the author and artist, and information about the languages featured in the story. Publisher HarperCollins includes A Hundred Thousand Welcomes discussion prompts and extension activities in a home and community teaching guide.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Welcoming Winter: Winter Lullaby

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Winter Lullaby, by Dianne White/Illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki, (Dec. 2021, Candlewick Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781536209198

Ages 3-8

I’ve been on a bedtime story kick lately; I must be missing the days I put my own littles (not-so little now) to bed with a story or 3… or 4. This latest lullaby centers on Small Bear, who doesn’t understand – despite the snow falling to the ground! – why he has to get ready to sleep the winter away. After all, he’s seeing other friends running around, like Mouse, Skunk, and Hare; why can’t he stay up? Mama patiently explains each time that each of the animals is preparing for their own winter nap, whether they are gathering food or finding a warm, comfortable spot to bed down. She soothes Small Bear’s frustration by promising that they’ll wake up to a beautiful, green spring, and they’ll spend brighter, warmer days at play. But for now, it’s time to dream. Kids and caregivers alike will recognize Small Bear’s resistance to bedtime, and pointing out the injustice of having to go to sleep while other kids get to stay up. Rhyming couplets add a soothing cadence to a readaloud, and the digital artwork has gorgeous texture, using cool and warm winter colors to bring the story to life. Different sized fonts alert readers to the change between Mama Bear and Small Bear’s dialogue. Mama and Small Bear are playfully affectionate. Illustrations and verse teach readers about various animal homes as we see skunks bed down underground, hares sleeping in a hollowed out tree, and badgers snuggling in their dens. Pair with the humorous Hush Up and Hibernate! by Sandra Markle (2018) for a hibernation storytime or lesson. Author Dianne White has an activity kit for Winter Lullaby available on her website.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Don’t miss Tracey Baptiste’s Looking for a Jumbie!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

I have been a fan of Tracey Baptiste’s Jumbies series since the first one hit shelves in 2015. They’re such a rich, spooky mix of Caribbean folklore and horror, with smart characters and fantastic pacing: every kid in my library knows that if they ask me for something scary, they’re going to get a Jumbies book handed to them. Fast forward six years, and Tracey Baptiste has a Jumbies picture book, so that I can start getting my itty bitties into all things Jumbie. Start them early, right?

Looking for a Jumbie, by Tracey Baptiste/Illustrated by Amber Ren,
(Sept. 2021, Balzer + Bray), $17.99, ISBN: 9780062970817
Ages 4-8

Naya is a little girl who just knows jumbies are real, even if her Mama says they only exist in stories. Naya heads off, Going on a Bear Hunt-style, to find some, and makes some… interesting friends along the way. Repeated, familiar phrasing that may remind readers of the classic We’re Going on a Bear Hunt runs throughout the book as Naya meets a new friend to join her quest: “We’re looking for a jumbie. We’re going to find a scary one”. She meets several interesting characters in the woods, all who seem to meet the characteristics of well-known jumbies (especially for older siblings and parents who’ve read the novels!), but they don’t seem terribly mean at all. They all manage to convince Naya that they’re not the monsters she’s looking for, and join her quest. Vibrant digital illustrations are colorful and eye-catching, and Naya, a young girl of color, is a brave heroine who forges through each spread. Jumbies are a friendly a group of monsters, and while Naya provides informational descriptions of these spooky monsters, the colorful group are very friendly and cartoon-like in appearance. Looking for a Jumbie could be a wonderful story to read at bedtime to kids who may be worried about things that go bump in the night, as jumbies offer practical reasons for their appearances that have nothing to do with being a monster. No nightmares here! I love, love, love this book.

Tracey Baptiste offers a field guide to jumbies on her website, along with further resources on her Jumbies novels for anyone interested in learning more.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads, Uncategorized

Books for Animal Lovers

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Fox and the Forest Fire, by Danny Popovici, (Aug. 2021, Chronicle Books), $17.99, ISBN: 9781797202822

Ages 5-8

A boy and his mom move to a home on the edge of a forest. While the boy isn’t thrilled at first, he grows to love his new home after forming a friendship with some of the local forest animals, including a friendly fox. When he discovers smoke on the horizon one morning, he rushes home to tell his mother, and they evacuate. When they finally return home, they see the destruction that the fire has caused, but he knows they will rebuild. After all, “the forest knows what to do after a fire. And so do we. A realistic story of something most of us only see and hear about on the news, The Fox and the Forest Fire is written by former forest firefighter Danny Popovici, who talks about his experience as a firefighter in an author’s note; he also provides more information about wildfires and the havoc they wreak on the local wildlife and their home. He tells a sensitive, powerful story filled with friendship and hope as the boy and his mother look to the forest animals for inspiration as they rebuild their lives after the fire. For those of us who have only read about wildfires, or seen them on the evening news, Popovici approaches his topic with sensitivity but packs an emotional punch for readers. Have books like NatGeo Kids’s Extreme Wildfire and direct kids to resources like Tree Removal’s section on wildfires, Smokey the Bear’s page on wildfires, with games and coloring sheets, and Surfing and STEM’s Wildfires Emergency Plan worksheet set from TeachersPayTeachers.

Publisher Chronicle has a free educator’s guide with insightful discussion questions and extra resources. Danny Popovici’s website has more of his illustration work available.

 

Farm Lullaby, by Karen Jameson/Illustrated by Wednesday Kirwan, (Oct. 2021, Chronicle Books), $17.99, ISBN: 9781452181035

Ages 3-5

All is quiet around the farm as animal families settle down for the night. Farm Lullaby is gentle, loving bedtime reading, with Golden Book, retro-feel illustrations of farm animals settling in with their babies for the night, set to rhyming couplets: “Neigh-a-bye lullaby / Slowly swaying rock-a-bye; Nuzzle nose, breathing deep / Plodding, nodding off to sleep”. Horses, cows, sheep, pigs, all gather together to bed down for the night as silhouettes of human families get their little ones ready for bed. An owl keeps watch overnight. Endpapers present a field of ducklings by day and by night. A tender story to relax the littles and send them off to sleep while encouraging cuddle time between parents and children.

Perfect for lapsit and pajama storytimes. TeachersPayTeachers has some fun, free printables to have handy for farm animal storytimes, including a mini-book of animals and their sounds from Tea Time Monkeys and Renee N’s farm animals count and read mini book.

 

 

 

A Cub Story, by Kristen Tracy/Illustrated by Alison Farrell, (Sept. 2021, Chronicle Books), $9.99, ISBN: 9781452174587

Ages 0-3

Follow a bear cub through a year in this lovely board book that shows readers a little one’s place in the big world. To some, cub is big. To others, he’s quite small. He may eat a lot compared to a hedgehog, but very little, compared to a moose. He plays, explores, and looks for food alongside other animal friends, and in doing so, educates little readers about bears and the seasons. Mixed media illustrations in muted colors show Cub frolicking in a verdant springtime forest; playing games in the summer; fishing in the fall, and hunkering down with his family in their den, ready to hibernate through the winter. Text is informational but presented in short, readable sentences that give toddlers and preschoolers enough information to delight them and let them engage in imaginative play. Pair this one with Farm Lullaby and Dianne White’s Winter Lullaby for a cuddly bedtime storytime.

A Cub Story has a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

 

 

 

Hornswoggled! A Wacky Words Whodunit, by Josh Crute/Illustrated by Jenn Harney, (Nov. 2021, Page Street Kids), $17.99, ISBN: 9781645672845

Ages 4-8

Finishing strong with a funny book that plays with language and invites readers to unleash their inner Poirot and Miss Marple! Deer wakes up to a shocking discovery: one of his antlers has been replaced with a tennis racket! He’s been HORNSWAGGLED! When Deer heads over to tell his friend Catfish what’s happened, Catfish puts on her glasses to discover that someone’s replaced her glasses with donuts! What a load of CODSWALLOP! Someone is taking everyone’s stuff and replacing them with the wackiest items, causing a big stir! Luckily a helpful armadillo is there to let us know what all these funny-sounding words are, and teach kids a bunch of new animal-based vocabulary words. Will they catch the thief? Who else will fall victim? Readers will love the hilarious story and have a blast trying to figure out who’s behind the crime spree… keep an eye on the endpapers for some clues! Digital artwork creates cartoony animals with bold outlines and hilariously expressive facial expressions. Absolute fun, a must for storytime and language collections. Make up some flash cards – make it fun by having a volunteer hold up cards during the storytime, just like Armadillo!

Author Josh Crute has a Hornswoggled activity kit free for download at his website, including a word meaning activity.

 

Posted in Uncategorized

Welcoming Winter: Where Snow Angels Go

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Where Snow Angels Go, by Maggie O’Farrell/Illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini, (Nov. 2021, Candlewick Press), $18.99, ISBN: 9781536219371

Ages 7-10

A little girl named Sylvie discovers that she has a wintry protector when she catches a snow angel in her room one night. The angel reveals that snow angels are created when people make them in the snow; though the snow may melt and evaporate, the snow angels are ours forever, always watching over us. The angel has come to wake Sylvie’s mother up, because Sylvie is ill, but Sylvie won’t remember this interaction when she awakens. That doesn’t happen, though; Sylvie remembers and when she recovers, tries to make her angel reappear, putting herself in dangerous situations in order to force him into saving her. But it’s only when she really needs him that he returns to save her – and then Sylvie tasks herself with getting all of her friends and family to make their own snow angels, so they have someone looking out for them. It’s a warm, contemporary tale perfect for Christmas and for seasonal readings, with a touch of winter magic. Watercolor spreads give an otherworldly touch to the angel and the season. It’s a lengthy picture book but can easily be read over the course of two or three sittings. An activity kit invites readers to decorate their own snow angel’s wings, and color in decorative snowflakes.

Posted in Uncategorized

A quick update

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Hi all, a quick note because I know posting has been a little erratic. I’m still working on getting atop my review piles, and I’m taking the ups and downs of holiday season during a pandemic surge as best as I can mentally. Some days, I may just not be able to post, and some days, I may post all the things. I appreciate every author, illustrator, publisher, and publicist that has sent books my way, and I do love reading and talking about all your books. I may be putting some booktalk videos up, to be able to chat up some of these great books at a quicker pace than writing and posting.

Having said all that, I hope you all are having a wonderful winter season with those you love. Please stay safe, and all my love and best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Posted in picture books

The Girl Who Could Fix Anything – Great STEM Bio!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Girl Who Could Fix Anything: Beatrice Shilling, World War II Engineer, by Mara Rockliff/Illustrated by Daniel Duncan, (Sept. 2021, Candlewick Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781536212525

Ages 5-9

Beatrice Shilling, a British World War II engineer, gets her time in the spotlight in this picture book biography. As a child, she “wasn’t quite like other children”, preferring tools and tinkering to usual childhood pursuits. After working for another female engineer as an apprentice, she went to school for engineering and eventually landed a position at the Royal Aircraft Establishment… to write handbooks about plane engines, not to work on them. Eventually, she did get to work on engines, and when World War II broke out, Beatrice was put in charge of a team that traveled to airfields and demonstrated winterizing planes to fighter pilots. She went on, with her team, to figure out an engine problem that fighter planes encountered during a dive, saving countless lives. Another great story about a female figure in STEM, The Girl Who Could Fix Anything tells Beatrice Shilling’s story; Daniel Duncan adds humorous reactions to Beatrice’s being “othered” as a woman in a traditionally “man’s field” and brings thrilling air fight moments to life to add some excitement. Beatrice is drawn as a determined, thoughtful woman, while men around her don’t always quite seem to know what to make of her. Endpapers show a variety of airplane parts, blueprint style. An author’s note and additional resources make up the back matter.

 

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Two fun books about cats

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Inside Cat, by Brendan Wenzel, (Oct. 2021, Chronicle Books), $17.99, ISBN: 9781452173191

Ages 3-5

Caldecott Honor author/illustrator Brendan Wenzel brings readers a new story about cats from a different point of view. Where 2017’s They All Saw a Cat showed us how other creatures perceive cats, Inside Cat shows us how a house cat perceives his world. Using rhyme and repetition, we follow Inside Cat as he wanders through a room, stops at windows, and looks outside. Cat’s imagination fills in what he perceives the rest of the outside world entails, from birds wearing clothes stolen off a clothesline to a giant salt shaker shaking snow just outside the window frame. Inside Cat is pretty confident that he knows everything about what goes on in the outside world… until he ventures outside for the first time. Mixed media illustrations and playing with color let readers create their own stories about what goes on outside Cat’s window – or their own! Endpapers get in on the fun. A story that encourages imagination and plays with perception, kids will love hearing Inside Cat again and again.

Inside Cat has starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. While I didn’t see an Inside Cat activity kit, you can use many of the cat-tivities (I had to) from the kit for They All Saw a Cat.

 

Bathe the Cat, by Alice B. McGinty/Illustrated by David Roberts, (Feb. 2022, Chronicle Books). $17.99, ISBN: 9781452142708

Ages 3-5

Grandma’s coming to visit, and it’s time to clean the house! Daddy is calling out chores, all written out with fridge magnets, but Cat will do anything to get his name off that list. As the chores get wackier and wackier, Daddy and Papa are desperate to know who’s messing with the list! I mean, really: sweep the dishes? Scrub the fishes? The clock is ticking! Can these dads and their kids get it together and get the house clean in time? A laugh-out-loud story about a cat who’s a step ahead of its family, with bright, eye-catching pencil and watercolor artwork. There are two brown-skinned dads and a diverse group of kids, and the chaos is fun and relatable as they turn into a whirlwind of misguided chores as Cat, firmly set against having a bath, gives knowing smiles and side-eye expressions in between spreads showing them playing with the magnet letters and creating all sorts of wacky chores. There are thoughtful details, like various Pride flags decorating the refrigerator and Grandma’s tote bag (I see you, Philly!). A fun, quietly meaningful book that embraces the chaos of family life and shows a fun, positive depiction of an LGBTQ+ family. Pair with Friday Night Wrestlefest by JF Fox and Micah Player for more stories about family hijinks.

Download a fun activity kit, complete with a chore list and wacky word scramble, to hand out at storytime.

Posted in Fiction, Intermediate, picture books

The Great TBR ReadDown, 2020 Edition

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

I’ve said it before: when it comes to books, my eyes are bigger than my reading capacity. I’m attempting to read down as much as I can before the new year, so please enjoy my TBR as I whittle it down.

21 Cousins, by Diane de Anda/Illustrated by Isabel Muñoz, (Feb .2021, StarBright Books), $16.99, ISBN: 978-1-59572-915-6

Ages 4-8
Big families are big fun, and this mestizo family – a mix of Mexican people and cultures (Indian, Spanish, French) – is full of cousins! They’re all gathering for a special reason, and Alejandro and Sofia act as our narrators as they introduce us to each of their cousins. The family members are different ages, have different interests, abilities, and appearances that we learn about as we go through each colorful spread. There is some Spanish language infused into the English text, and the book is also available in Spanish. Beginning with the pages of a family photo album and closing with a family picture of all the cousins, it’s a wonderful story about how cultural diversity exists and flourishes within families: the small communities where it all begins.
Bronson Beaver Builds a Robot, by Teko Bernard/Illustrated by Howard Russell, (Apr. 2021, Tabron Publishing), $9.95, ISBN: 978-0986059360
Ages 7-11

Bronson Beaver is a 13-year-old builder, inventor, and video game fan whose family runs Beaver Valley Lodge, a hugely popular vacation resort. While Bronson just wants to spend a weekend playing video games with his best friends, his father has other plans: the big pancake festival is happening, and Bronson has a list of chores to get done for the festival! Like any brainiac inventor, Bronson decides to take the easy way out and invent a robot to do all the chores while he and his best friends can take part in the Zombie Fight video game tournament and win the cash prize that will allow them to build their dream workshop. You know the true course of video games and robots never did run smooth, though, and things go wrong in a big way: and now it’s up to Bronson and his friends to make things right. A smart chapter book about friendship, making good decisions, and with a nice STEM component, plus black and white illustrations throughout, I hope we see more of Bronson and friends in the future. Give this indie published book a shot and invite your kiddos to build robots of their own, with some after-holidays boxes and decorations you have available to repurpose.

Sharks at Your Service, by Mary Cerullo/Photos by Jeffrey Rotman, (July 2021, Tumblehome), $17.99, ISBN: 9781943431632

Ages 7-9

There are two stories at play in this story about sharks and all the jobs they do: the fictional story of a girl named Marina and her dad’s trip to the aquarium, where they see sharks and attend a talk by shark photographer (also the photographer behind the photos in this book) Jeffrey Rotman, and the nonfiction facts and photos of sharks that run parallel to the fictional narrative. Marina’s aquarium visit starts a growing fascination with sharks; on the way home, she sees sharks everywhere! This gets her thinking of all the jobs sharks have, keeping the ocean in balance and clean: sharks like tiger sharks eat just about anything they see, earning the nickname “garbage collectors of the sea”; they weed out weak and sick ocean life, keeping disease from spreading through schools of fish; their superior senses help them maintain their status as alpha predators of the sea. Manga-influenced color illustrations and incredible color photos on every page make this a book shark fans will pick up again and again.

 

Starboy : Inspired by the Life and Lyrics of David Bowie, by Jami Gigot, (May 2021, Henry Holt), $18.99, ISBN: 9781250239433

Ages 4-8

Inspired by artist, singer, actor, and icon David Bowie, Starboy is a breathtaking tribute to every kid who doesn’t feel like they fit in… until they find that they do. David is a boy who lives in a black and white world until he hears “star chatter” that brings color to his world… and then again when he hears music on the radio. Music brings color to his world, and gives him a place where he belongs: and reaches out to color other people’s worlds, too. Jami Gigot’s illustrations bring David Bowie’s magic to life through sparks of color and nods to his personas like the Starman, Major Tom the Astronaut, the chic ’80s music and fashion icon, even Labyrinth’s Goblin King. As David the Starboy comes to life through music, the spark spreads to his schoolmates and people on the street, showing readers the ability that music has to reach inside and speak to us – just like “star chatter”. An author’s note talks about the influence of David Bowie on fashion and music, an there are fun facts and further resources for readers interested in learning more. The cover is a gorgeous tribute to Bowie’s Starman persona from the 1972 Aladdin Sane album cover.

Starboy has a starred review from School Library Journal.

 

I Can Be Kind, by Rainbow Gal, (June 2021Fat Cat Publishing), $12.99, ISBN: 978-1-989767-00-9

Ages 4-7

A cute pet shop fairy tale, I Can Be Kind is the story of Oscar, a 2-year-old piranha found in the sewer after being flushed by his owner. He ends up at a pet shop in Brooklyn, where he terrorizes the fish in the tank next to him. Being a carnivorous fish, the pet shop owner fed goldfish to Oscar until one day, when Maria – a friendly goldfish who refused to be scared off by Oscar’s posturing – ends up in Oscar’s tank! Oscar can’t eat Maria – she’s his friend, and he’s got a crush on her – and the two end up sharing fish food together, living happily ever after. It’s a sweet story, illustrated in full color, with coloring sheets available with the paperback version and for free at Rainbow Gal’s website.

Posted in Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads

Going Outside board books introduce concepts in nature

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Going Outside: Look, by Amy Huntington, (Sept. 2021, Kane Miller), $5.99, ISBN: 9781684642465

Ages 0-3

This new concept board book series invites readers to mindfully explore their world, concentrating on their senses.  In Look, a toddler and her parent help rehabilitate an urban space, creating a community garden where there was once litter and neglect: “Bags of paper, bottles, cans, / Bits of plastic, shards of glass. / Friends and neighbors, pitching in. / Look, what can you see?” Spreads show the community working together to clean up the area, boxing up garbage and tending to the land, planting and watering the earth, creating a welcoming garden. The artwork moves from a darker, almost gloomy cityscape to a warm, green space that local wildlife returns to, with gentle repetition to encourage readers to point out what they see on each spread. Ask your littles what they see and how it differs from the previous spread: are there more plants? Less junk and litter? Notice how the cityscape fades further into the background as the garden – the focus of the story – grows and flourishes. The toddler and her parent are brown-skinned; the community is diverse.

Download a coloring page for Look from publisher Kane Miller and have them ready to hand out.

 

 

Going Outside: Listen, by Amy Huntington, (Sept. 2021, Kane Miller), $5.99, ISBN: 9781684642472

Ages 0-3

The companion book to Look, Listen follows a toddler and his parent as they go on a nature walk on a rainy day. The focus here in on the sounds around the two: “Winds whisper. Winds whoosh. / Rain pitters, patters, pours, / Through the leaves. / Listen, what can you hear?” The fonts play with language, stretching and bending to elicit sounds from readers. The repetitive question, “What can you hear?” invites readers to think about what the characters must be hearing, based on the verse, or even what they themselves hear in their environments. This is a great book to read twice in a seating if you can manage it: ask your readers to close their eyes and listen to a reading first, asking them, to form a picture in their minds of walking through a woodsy area on a rainy day. Animals add to the soundscape on each spread, as deer sniff, moles scratch, birds tweet, and frogs croak. The parent and child are people of color. Watercolor illustrations create a peaceful landscape and foster a love for nature.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Amy Huntington has planned for our other touch, taste, and smell! Download a coloring page for Listen at Kane Miller’s webpage.