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Welcoming Winter: Where Snow Angels Go

Posted on December 22, 2021December 22, 2021 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.

Uncategorized

A quick update

Posted on December 22, 2021 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.

Uncategorized

Moose’s Book Bus brings book love to you!

Posted on December 17, 2021December 17, 2021 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Moose’s Book Bus, by Inga Moore, (Nov. 2021, Candlewick Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781536217674

Ages 3-7

A wonderful love letter to libraries and book lovers everywhere, Moose’s Book Bus starts with Moose, who has run out of stories to tell his family. He heads to the library after none of his neighbors have stories available, and he discovers a wealth of books to bring to his family! The news about Moose’s storytimes spreads, and before Moose can say “Cinderella”, his house is simply stuffed with friends and neighbors, all waiting for his stories! Moose asks the librarian at the library for some advice, and the two work together to create a bookmobile! Moose fixes up an old bus, the Duck Librarian fills it with books, and Moose drives the bus to his neighborhood, where he also teaches his friends to read – and they teach other friends, until everyone is able to read and love books together. This is heartwarming book illustrates the power that stories have to bring us together. Inga Moore’s pencil, pastel, and wash illustrations are soft, and her animal cast of characters are a delight. Perfect for library storytimes, you may want to pair it with Inga Moore’s A House in the Woods (2011), the companion book to Moose’s Book Bus. Sepia endpapers have a wonderfully antique feel to them, showing the book bus parked in the woods, with excited animal friends racing toward it. Download a free activity kit to have ready to hand out at storytime.

Fiction, Middle Grade, Uncategorized

The Wind in the Willows: A classic gets a new look

Posted on December 11, 2021 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame/Illustrated by Grahame Baker-Smith, (Nov. 2021, Templar Books), $19.99, ISBN: 9781536219999

Ages 7+

The classic story that introduced generations of readers to Mr. Toad, Mole, Ratty and Badger has a new gift edition, with cloth covers and incredible artwork. Watercolor and digital illustrations run throughout the book; some in full color, some in single color, all are just breathtaking: Mr. Toad goes on a wild ride (see what I did there?), eyes and mouth open wide behind the wheel of a car; Mole and Rat pass a lovely time in a rowboat, late afternoon sun shining on the water; a maid helps Toad into a disguise, bathed in shades of blue. Green endpapers place readers at the riverbank with vines and swirls of water. Glossy pages and a vintage-looking clothbound cover with foil and embossing give this book a truly classic look and feel. A beautiful gift, and a nice add to your classics bookshelves.

Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Teen, Uncategorized, Young Adult/New Adult

Wishes aren’t free: The Well

Posted on December 6, 2021December 6, 2021 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Well, by Jake Wyatt/Illustrated by Choo, (Apr. 2022, First Second), $17.99, ISBN: 9781626724143

Ages 14+

A seaside village is attacked by a monster. A woodcutter, his wife and mother in law, two powerful witches, join forces to battle it, and disappear, leaving behind their child and her grandfather, to raise her. Thirteen years later, Lizzie is a teen who helps her grandfather by selling their wares at the local market, but when she needs money to cover her passage home, she grabs money from the sacred well and awakens a spirit that urges her to repay her debt. Lizzie must grant wishes, but every wish comes with a price; some are painful to bear. In her quest to cover her debts at the well, Lizzie will learn about the magic that almost destroyed her family.

The Well unfolds like a fairy tale: a monster, a tragedy, a child left behind, and a legacy of magic to be discovered. The moral – every wish comes with a price, and having a wish granted isn’t always what it seems – runs through the story, reminding readers to think before they act, even before they wish. The artwork is dreamlike, with vibrant color and fantastic monsters. A must for your fantasy fans.

I love the idea of having tweens and teens create their own fairy tales, and The Well is a great way to introduce a program like that. Invite readers to volunteer fairy tale elements they see in the story. Outback Aussie Teaching has a planning template on Teachers Pay Teachers, to help writers organize their thoughts; the Bilingual Language Institute has a Spanish/English picture board with options for characters, setting, problems, solutions, and magic powers to help give readers a flow to work with.

picture books, Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads, Uncategorized

Guess the birdie! Who is Singing?

Posted on November 16, 2021November 14, 2021 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Who is Singing?, by Janet Halfmann/Illustrated by Chrissy Chabot, (July 2021, Pen It! Publications), $20.99, ISBN: 978-1954868373

Ages 2-6

Take a walk and listen on any given day, and you’ll hear a cacophony of birds: tweets, chirps, screeches, and coos abound; even city kids can hear a dove coo, a pigeon scold, and a blue jay (like the one who likes to argue with the squirrels, right outside my window). Who is Singing? is author Janet Halfmann’s tribute to some colorful, musical birds, all identifiable by their songs. Using each bird’s defining song, repetitive verse, and a noticeable characteristic for each bird, Janet Halfmann introduces readers to the gentle art of bird-watching and bird-listening, giving readers 11 fairly familiar birds to start out with. You’ll recognize pigeons, “begging for treats along a city sidewalk”; “bully loud and bold” blue jays screaming; cheery chick-a-dees, “dressed up for dinner in a black cap and bib”, and more. Ms. Halfmann encourages the birds to “take a bow”, making for a fun readaloud where you can invite your littles to take a bow – or let a bird puppet or flannel take their own bows when you announce them, too.

Chrissy Chabot’s illustrations are bright and lovely, photorealistic birds that will help readers more easily spot and identify them the next time they’re out and about. A lovely little story to read out loud, and works well with a lapsit. Print out some coloring pages and let the kiddos envision their own colorful birds and make some music of their own!

Uncategorized

Blog Tour: StarPassage – Cyber Plague

Posted on November 16, 2021October 22, 2021 by Rosemary Kiladitis

If you’ve been waiting since 2018 for the next chapter in Clark Rich Burbidge’s StarPassage series, your wait is over! CyberPlague, the fourth book in the YA paranormal/time travel adventure series, is on shelves now.

StarPassage: CyberPlague, by Clark Rich Burbidge, (Oct. 2021, Deep River Books),
$15.99, ISBN: 978-1632695789
Ages 10-14

Excerpt from the Prologue:

Across time and space another dreamer was greeted by confusing images. Courtney moved rapidly through a long dark hallway. She was led by someone, who pulled her by the wrist. She seemed to have difficulty running. Something was wrong. But she couldn’t tell what it was. Moving with urgency, she sensed they were being hunted by something dangerous. A tug on her arm told her she needed to move faster. The danger was closing the distance.

They approached a double door with signs that were unreadable in the dark. She wanted to slow down and figure out where she was. What is going on?

Her guide burst through the double doors into a large space. It was pitch dark, but suddenly, as if Christmas tree lights had been turned on, small pinpoints of multi-colored light appeared randomly scattered around the room. Their greens, yellows, reds, and blues were not bright enough to provide real light, so she continued to stumble along behind her guide.

They ran, looking for something. The double doors they had just passed through flew open, banging against the walls, and she heard footsteps and voices—lots of them. An angry mob! Her mind flooded with fear. Everywhere she looked she saw the multi-colored pinpoints. The guide turned a corner, then another, and a third. The pursuing mob’s footsteps faded a little.

She heard someone fumbling with a doorknob and a door squeaked open. “In here,” a voice said. “Stay down. I need to think. Be very still.”

She followed the hand into the room, heard the door latch lock, and sat down against the cold metal door they had just entered. The footsteps grew closer and stopped outside the door. She heard rhythmic chanting as if words were being repeated in unison by the mob. Courtney couldn’t understand what they said.

Suddenly, she felt as if she’d sat on an ant mound or had burst open dozens of spider sacks. Thousands of little legs were crawling all over her. She let go of the guide’s hand and frantically tried to brush them off. Courtney wanted to scream but knew the pursuers would hear. Valiantly, she tried to swallow the cry. Her panic mounted as she felt the crawling things burrowing into her skin.

It overwhelmed her senses. Self-control vanished, and a blood-curdling scream exploded from her as she sat up in bed, viciously fighting to get the crawling things off her.

She felt arms wrap around her. “It’s just a dream, Court. You’re all right. I’m here.”

Website and Social Media:

Website: http://www.starpassagebook.com

Facebook: @clarkrburbidge

Buy links:

Amazon | B&N | Bookshop

picture books, Preschool Reads, Uncategorized

Itch the Witch learns about real friends in The Twitchy Witchy Itch

Posted on October 29, 2021 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Twitchy Witchy Itch, by Priscilla Tey, (June 2021, Candlewick Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9780763689810

Ages 4-7

Itch the witch is having friends over to tea, but the worries are tickling her brain: is her house too twitchy? After some whirlwind housecleaning, her friends, Fidget and Glitch arrive, each with their own quirks, but Itch is too worried about her home’s appearance to enjoy herself. She casts another spell to get rid of the fidgets and glitches, only to discover that she’s banished her friends to the closet along with the itches, fidgets, and glitches! A humorous story about what really matters, Twitchy Witchy Itch shows readers – big and little! – that real friends don’t worry about appearances: they just want to spend time together.

Digital and gouache artwork gives feeling to the sensations described in the story: Itch has what looks like curly hair all over the house. As a proud pet mom, I feel Itch’s pain; my home is itchy, too. Fidget the witch appears blurred, in a constant state of fidgeting; she’s technicolor, and spreads her fidgets and colorful world to her surroundings. Glitch looks like a glitchy computer screen, with colorful, geometric smears that remind readers of a buggy video game. Like Fidget, she spreads her glitchiness around, but Itch doesn’t realize that these are her friends, sharing themselves with her; she immediately sees everything as a reflection on her and a need to be perfect. The rhyming text offers great opportunities for readaloud interaction, with knocks and amusingly worded spells for everyone to chant together.

Fantasy, Fiction, Middle Grade, Tween Reads, Uncategorized

Anne Ursu’s The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy is brilliant!

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy, by Anne Ursu, (Oct. 2021, Walden Pond Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9780062275127

Ages 9-13

Anne Ursu is an undisputed champion of kidlit fantasy. I’ve devoured The Real Boy and Breadcrumbs and am in awe of how she creates these incredible worlds with characters that are so realistic, so well-written, that looking up and realizing I’m still in my living room, dog across my legs, with a book in my lap, can be a little jarring. Her latest story, The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy, is kidlist feminist fantasy at its best. Taking place in a fantasy world and time, Marya Lupu is a girl living in a kingdom under attack from an army called The Dread. Her parents are straight-up awful; they dote on her brother, Luka, because in this world, the young men are sent into service as sorcerers to fight the dread while, if they’re lucky, the girls and families get to live off the sorcerer’s reputation. This sets the siblings up against each other, which never ends well: sure enough, on the day Luka is to be evaluated by the sorcerers for his skill, chaos ensues and it leads right back to Marya. The next day, a letter from a school called the Dragmoir Academy shows up for Marya: it’s a school for wayward girls, and her parents can’t pack her off quickly enough. What she discovers at the Academy, though, are a group of young women who are far more than just a bunch of “troubled” young women, and the Dragomir Academy has a darker history than they’re owning up to.

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy is about women, power, and fear. It’s a school story, with different personalities and the conflict that comes with putting that many personalities together under stressful circumstances; it’s also a story of hidden women, hidden messages, and who really controls the dialogue, whether it comes to today’s news or a high-fantasy novel about a land under threat from a horrific enemy that devastates everything in its path. Brilliantly written, with characters that readers will love; Marya is a smart young woman who’s been beaten down for a long time; unlike many of the other girls in the novel, though, she refuses to second-guess or question herself when it’s time to take action, and she motivates her schoolmates to own their own power, too.

Anne Ursu is an award-winning, National Book Award-nominated fantasy author. Visit her website for more information about her books and teacher guides, and upcoming events.

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy has a starred review from Kirkus and is an Indie Next pick.