Posted in Graphic Novels, Middle Grade, Teen, Tween Reads, Young Adult/New Adult

A CYBILS graphic novel rundown

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

I know, being on the CYBILS first round, I can’t give TOO much away about graphic novels I’m reading, but I did have these on my TBR before I was nominated to judge, so… I’ll just talk them up a wee bit. To whet your appetite for what’s coming.

Softies: Stuff That Happens After the World Blows Up, by Kyle Smeallie, (Oct. 2020, Iron Circus Comics), $15, ISBN: 9781945820489

Ages 10-14

This is sort of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with a dose of stuffed animals tossed in for good measure. Earth blows up: kablooey, just like that. But there’s a survivor! Kay, a thirteen-year-old girl, is floating around in space when she’s rescued by Arizona, an alien space-junk collector, and his cybernetic pet Euclid. Arizona looks like a cuddly pink space stuffie that you’d find on the shelves in Target, and Euclid would definitely have his own action figure. There are laughs to be had, especially when Kay explains where she’s from, time and again, to blank faces – we’re not that well-known in the universe after all – and the levels of bureacracy that pop up time and again, as the new friends make their way through space. Softies is comprised of short stories, put together into one volume. The artwork is cartoony and very kid-friendly; the material is probably better suited for higher middle grade to middle school. There are some chuckleworthy moments and some sweet moments as Arizona and Kay try to figure things out together in this new relationship they’re forging. The storytelling has some lags, but overall, kids will get a kick out of it. Good to have for those tough-to-pin-down middle school collections.

 

The Magic Fish, by Trung Le Nguyen, (Oct. 2020 Random House Graphic), $23.99, ISBN: 9780593125298

Ages 12+

Told in parallel narratives between fairy tales and real life, The Magic Fish is the story of Tiến, a Vietnamese teen who loves his family but lives with a secret that he fears will change things. He’s gay, and doesn’t quite know how to come out to them. He shares stories with his parents, particularly his mother, and we can see the story within the story here: each is about suffering, and eventually, rising above difficult circumstances, which mirrors not only Tiến’s life, but his mother’s escape from Vietnam to America and her longing to be with her mother. The artwork itself is breathtaking; the fairy tale scenes are incredible, dreamlike; Tiến’s reality is realistically drawn with fleshed-out characters and expressive body language. Sensitive, beautifully drawn, and perfect for teen collections. The Magic Fish has starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus, and is an Indie Next pick.

Witches of Brooklyn, by Sophie Escabasse, (Sept. 2020, Random House Graphic), $12.99, ISBN: 9780593119273
Ages 8-12
I LOVED this magical story! Effie is a kid whose mom has passed away, and she’s brought to Brooklyn to live with her aunt, Selimene; a woman she’s never met before. Selimene and her partner, Carlota, are two “herbalists” who just seem plain weird to Effie, until she discovers that the two women are… shhhh… witches. Good witches, to be sure, but witches! And shortly after arriving, Effie discovers her hands start glowing and that she’s a witch, too! Could this day get better? You bet – she makes two great friends in school, and when she arrives home, discovers that her favorite pop star, Tily Shoo, is in her house in need of Selimene and Carlota’s help. Everything is fun about Witches of Brooklyn, which also has wonderful storytelling and statements about family. Great artwork, great character development and storytelling, and  – let’s hope – more to come. Give this to your Lumberjanes readers and while you’re at it, hand them a copy of Emma Steinkellner’s graphic novel, The Okay Witch.
Swamp Thing: Twin Branches, by Maggie Stiefvater/Illustrated by Morgan Beem, (Oct. 2020, DC Comics), $16.99, ISBN: 9781401293239
Ages 12+
Twin brothers Alec and Walker Holland are sent off to spend their last summer before college with their rural cousins after catching their father having an affair. Alec, the studious one, buries himself in a lab where he continues working on a project that takes everything in him – a bit literally – to keep going, while Walker hits the social scene. The two brothers find themselves diverging this summer, with tensions and memories forcing their way between the two. And the swamp… well, that’s just waiting for someone, isn’t it? Maggie Stiefvater is an amazing YA writer, and Morgan Beem has a nice list of comics illustration to her credit. She creates an eerie atmosphere with her green and murky artwork, giving Maggie Stiefvater’s creepy storytelling a wonderfully oogie vibe. I’ll be honest, the story dipped for me a few times when Alec gets caught up in his botany discussions, but the overall storytelling is strong and macabre; very American Gothic.
Posted in geek, professional development

Happy Halloween Week!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Hi, all! I took a couple of days off and actually got to GO somewhere: my Hubs, my Kiddo, and I took a nice weekend trip upstate to visit family (we wore masks the entire time; let’s hear it for the Kiddo, who didn’t sweat it once for the 8 hours or so that we were with family!) and enjoy the leaves turning color. We had cider donuts, hot drinks, and relaxed, and it was so nice to be somewhere that isn’t my living room. Now I’m back, rejuvenated, and ready. I’ll be starting up my posts again shortly, but in the meantime, I created a little Halloween Bitmoji library for you. Each book will link to the book’s detail page on WorldCat; from there, you can enter your ZIP code and find libraries in your area that have them. Come on in, help yourself to some Halloween candy, have a seat if you can get that black cat to move over, and enjoy some books and my dorky dab dance.

Posted in Toddler Reads

Don’t miss these Halloween reads for babies!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Developing a love of Halloween starts early. Encourage your littles from the beginning! Read Halloween!

Brooms Are for Flying!, by Michael Rex, (July 2020, Henry Holt), $7.99, ISBN: 9781250241481

Ages 0-3

Michael Rex has been an essential part of my Halloween storytimes for years. Goodnight Goon and The Runaway Mummy get regular rotation and my kiddos love the familiar spin on beloved bedtime stories. His 2009 book, Brooms Are For Flying!, is now available in board book for your littles to gnaw on (but not if they’re library books, please!) and wander through again and again. If kids love Goodnight Goon and The Runaway Mummy are because they love the similarities to Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, then Brooms Are For Flying! will appeal to kids who love Sandra Boynton’s Barnyard Dance!: a young witch leads a group of her fiendish friends through a spookytime dance that gives every part of the body a workout: “Legs are for marching/  Feet are for stomping.  Eyes are for peeking. / Arms are for reaching.” Get your little ones up and stomping, shambling, and dancing like their favorite ghouls and ghosts! Perfection for Halloween readalouds and for any old time, really.

 

Spooky Pants, by Roger Priddy, (July 2020, Priddy Books), $9.99, ISBN: 9780312530211

Ages 0-3

Part of Priddy Books’s Turn the Wheel series, Spooky Pants gives kids a treat – lots of laughs! – as they scroll through various tops and bottoms to match 8 costumed friends with their missing pieces. Give Billie Bones a Jack-o-Lantern head, or Hound the Werewolf a groovy disco pair of pants and platform shoes. Little prompts on each page offer a seek-and-find for little pointer fingers, as they are prompted to search for other items in each picture: magic wands and fizzing potions, jingly-jangly chains and fancy collars. A fun page at the end lets kids see all the different possibilities, and choose their favorites. Study cardboard pages and wheels hold up to lots of use by exploring hands! Priddy Books are great to have for little explorers – I’ve had some in my own home collection since the third grader was wee.

Check Priddy Books’s free downloads page to get activity sheets, picture puzzles, and more.

Posted in Fiction, Middle Grade, Tween Reads

Halloween-ish Reading: Ghostology

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Ghostology: A True Revelation of Spirits, Ghouls, and Hauntings, by Dugald A. Steer & Lucinda Curtle/Illustratrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert, Garry Walton, & Doug Sirois, (Aug. 2020, Candlewick Press), $27.99, ISBN: 9781536209150

Ages 8-12

A spooky letter from a ghost hunter who’s just seen too much. A tome filled with information, including notes about (in)famous hauntings and maps of haunted rectories, and sketches of ghost towns; journal excerpts and information on hunting ghosts, with flaps and secret notes throughout. And… a missing page, torn from the book? Are those… notes from a ghost, scribbled hastily all over the book? Ghostology is a ghost-hunting adventure in a book, with fun facts on putting together a ghost-hunters kit, detailed information on the types of ghosts and a map of notable spottings, haunted houses, hotels, and forts, and so much more. Perfect for Halloween collections and for readers who love reading about ghosts all year long, but make sure you keep a copy on your Reference shelf; my library kids love the “-Ology” books, but they are eaten alive in circulation.

Back when I used to have actual people and programs in my library – fun times, right? – I used the “‘Ology” books as part of my program planning. I would recreate notes, leading kids to clues that they could look up in the books (Wizardology); read excerpts and use codes (Spyology) as part of dossier files I’d hand out to the kids. They are just so much fun for grownups and kids alike – imagine what I’d have been able to do for this last year’s Imagine Your Story Summer Reading? Now, to think about ways to recreate these programs virtually… Actually, these are pretty much made for Escape Room planning, so let me just get my notebook out and start writing!

The ‘Ology books are largely authored by Duglad Steer and have been around for a while, but as they’ve had different publishers, it’s hard to find one spot for all of them. I linked to Candlewick’s page earlier, and I also found a Beautiful Books page that lists quite a lot of them. If you click through to the Ghostology book detail page, check the lower left-hand part of the screen for more titles by Dugald Steer, and that’s also a pretty detailed list. Dugald Steer also has an ESL-ology website for teachers and educators, with free tools for English lessons in the classroom!

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Fair Shares teaches kids about equity

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Fair Shares, by Pippa Goodhart/Illustrated by Anna Doherty, (Jan. 2020, Kane Miller), $$12.99, ISBN: 9781684640485

Ages 3-7

Hare and Bear both want some of the tasty-looking pears in a tree, but can’t reach. Hare finds three chairs, but Bear says it’s unfair if Hare takes two chairs, to Bear’s one – but once they’re on the chairs, Bear is the only one that can reach! Luckily for Hare, Beetle steps in and explains that “giving everybody the same thing isn’t always fair”. Whew! Bear realizes that Hare really does need two chairs to reach the pears. Now, what does Beetle want to eat?

Originally published in the UK in 2019, Fair Shares is a beautifully smooth and straightforward explanation of equity, Fair Shares teaches readers of ALL ages that equal doesn’t always mean fair. Bear, who towers over Hare, only needs one chair to reach the pears. With just one chair, Hare is still struggling. Once Bear realizes this simple fact, he’s happy to let Hare get his share. The digital artwork is wonderfully textured, and Anna Doherty’s scanned ink and pencil textures give the story a lovely fall feel, with deep reds, greens, and yellows, and a fuzzy Hare and furry Bear. The ending will surprise and delight readers. Beautifully done, and an essential book to keep on hand.

Free Spirit Publishing has an article, with additional book suggestions, on teaching kids the difference between fair and equal. Teachers Pay Teachers has several free, downloadable classroom printable posters that explain and illustrate equity, including this one from the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity, this equity classroom poster from Panda Circus, and this equity poster from Studying Education.

Posted in Intermediate, Non-Fiction

Books from Quarantine: Tag Your Dreams!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Tag Your Dreams: Poems of Play and Persistence, by Jacqueline Jules/Illustrated by Iris Deppe, (Apr. 2020, Albert Whitman & Company), $17.99, ISBN: 9780807567265

Ages 7-10

I’m getting that TBR under control a little more every day! Tag Your Dreams is a book of poetry about sports and play for kids, but it’s more than that. These are poems about endurance, self-esteem, community, and reaching goals. It’s about a girl reaching out to a new friend by reciting a rhyme that her Guatemalan grandmother taught her (“Clapping  Hands”); it’s about a girl, swimming gracefully, mermaid-like, as she remembers being bullied for her weight earlier that day (“Mermaid Manatee”); a father and son cruising through a park on matching scooters (“Kick Scooters”), and a playground where “Spanish jumps just as high as English” as the kids skip rope and sing together. A multicultural group of adults and kids come together on these pages to play, to laugh, and to inspire readers. Jacqueline Jules, award-winning author of the Zapato Power and Sofia Martinez book series, created 31 poems about the power of play and the power of persistence to motivate readers: motivate them to play, motivate them to embrace themselves, and work as part of a team while striving to be their best. Iris Deppe’s colorful artwork shows children and grown-ups together in various stages of play: clapping hands underneath a tree, reaching for a ball in the outfield, or walking a trail with grandparents. A nice addition to poetry collections, with positive messages that we need more than ever these days.

Jacqueline Jules’s author webpage has information about her books and plenty of free, downloadable activities connected to her books.

Posted in gaming, Intermediate, Middle Grade

Blog Tour: You’re Pulling My Leg Jr!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

My family and I are gaming fans. We love our tabletop games, and I also love finding new games that will get my third grader thinking and using his imagination. I’ve also been looking for ways to game with my library kids now that we’ve gone virtual. You’re Pulling My Leg ticks both of these boxes, and the best part is that it’s easy, fun, and hilarious.

Here’s the deal: You’re Pulling My Leg! is adapted from a board game to adapt to… well, *gestures* THIS. The game, now in book format, has two volumes: You’re Pulling My Leg!, and You’re Pulling My Leg! Junior Edition, both by Allen Wolf and Morning Star Games. The objective is to come up with hilarious stories, based on a prompt, while your fellow players try to figure out whether or not you’re bluffing.

You’re Pulling My Leg! Junior Edition, by Allen Wolf,
(Aug. 2020, Morning Star Publishing), $12.99, ISBN: 9781952844027
Ages 9+

You’re Pulling My Leg!, by Allen Wolf,
(June 2020, Morning Star Publishing), $12.99, ISBN: 978-1952844003
Ages 12+

 

Here’s an example: the question is “Tell Me About Something You Found”. Folks, I’m a children’s librarian in an urban public library system. I guarantee you I will tell you a story of something I found that you will either scream with laughter or horror over, but I can get outrageous and YOU MAY NOT KNOW, or I can be kind of low-key and keep you guessing. A conversation from a game about two weeks ago:

Me: “One day, when I was cleaning out the shelves in the storage room, I found – behind the craft sticks and the finger paints – a box of comic books from an old Summer Reading program I’d run. So, you know… I was there, and the comics were there, so I started looking through the box, right? Because there may be an issue of Batman I hadn’t read before, and my lunch hour was coming up. So I’m shuffling through this box of comics, and I find a photo. It must have fallen off the person’s desk when they were packing the box, because there was no way this photo was sent to me on purpose, it was buried at the bottom of the box. The photo was of a guy dressed up like Batman – no, seriously, like Batman, with the cape and the boots and the belt and all of it! But when I looked closer… it was STAN LEE. What the heck was Stan Lee doing dressed as Batman?”

Kiddo: “No way, Mom! Stan Lee does Marvel movies, you’d never find him dressed like Batman.”

Foiled again, my friends. My kid knows me too well. But you have to admit, I made it plausible, right? Let’s try another example.

Me: “Tell me about a time when you caught something.”

Kiddo: “This one time… in gym… at school… my friend and I were throwing a basketball at each other back and forth, because it was gym, right? So he threw it to me, and I caught it, and I kicked it at him, and he picked it up and he sneezed on it but he didn’t tell me and when he threw it at me and I grabbed it, it felt wet and then I ended up catching a cold because he had a cold and that’s why he sneezed on it.”

Me: “Oh my GOD, that’s SO GROSS, WHY WOULD HE SNEEZE ON THE BALL? Is that why you had that cold at the end of last year? Is that how I caught that cold? I felt like garbage for a week, WHAT THE HECK MAN?”

Kiddo: “Gotcha.”

Me: “You made that up?”

Kiddo: giggles madly

Me: “Don’t you ever tell me you can’t write a personal narrative for ELA ever again.”

You see, my friends? This game is GOLD. Librarians, if you’re doing virtual programming, including class visits, this is perfect for getting kids playing and laughing along with you. You can make it as quick or stretch it out for as long as you’d like, and you’ll never play the same game twice. Are you doing a NaNoWriMo program? Let this be your guide. Do your kiddos need to write a small moments personal narrative? There are plenty of ideas here. Each book comes with pages dedicated to Game Highlights, where you can write down some of your funnier/more poignant observations and return to them to expand on, or just keep as a fun journal of a really stressful time. Enjoy.

Games Website: MorningStarGames.com

Twitter: @MorningStarGame

Facebook: @morningstargames

Instagram: @playmorningstargames

Author Website: AllenWolf.com/yourepullingmyleg/

Twitter: @theallenwolf

Facebook: @theallenwolf

Instagram: @theallenwolf/

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Blog Tour: Sometimes A Wall…

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

A group of children play with walls, both figurative and literal, at the neighborhood playground in this rhyming picture book that explores the feelings that come up when walls enter the conversation. Walls have been a big topic of discussion in our adult lives over the last few years, and a book like Sometimes a Wall… helps put things into perspective for children AND adults.

Sometimes A Wall, by Dianne White/Illustrated by Barroux,
(Oct. 2020, OwlKids), $19.95, ISBN: 9781771473736
Ages 3-7

 

There are so many walls at the playground! A sprinkler can make a spill wall; kids can climb a rock wall. These are walls that invite people to work together, to play together. But some walls come between people, as one child finds out when friends make a wall to hide behind, taunting and being cruel to those left out. Being behind a wall gives children a different point of view, as we see one child adopt a crown and refuse to play with others entirely, and then we discover that walls can separate and bring feelings of isolation and regret. But these kids can look at a wall as a new opportunity, and decide to make it a structure that welcomes everyone in the end. Some paint and a feeling of community is all it takes to mend walls and hearts.

The story is touching, using few words, but they are words that wield power, especially when paired with Barroux’s colorful artwork. When the children work together, there’s color and happy faces; when the wall initially goes up, the landscape is dominated by the giant gray wall, giving the children’s cruel facial expressions even more menace; putting a gray cloud around the child left brings a sadness to their posture and to the reader. The artwork and text work beautifully together, never overwhelming the page or the reader, to tell a moving story as eloquently and simply as possible.

A wonderful book to have ready to read to younger children, and a good choice to have available for school-age children, to start important discussions.

A conversation with a friend got author Dianne White thinking about different kinds of walls, both physical and metaphorical. Sometimes a Wall… is an exploration of these, and, with it, an invitation to take down barriers and find common ground. Dianne’s other books include Green on Green and Who Eats Orange? A long-time elementary school teacher, she lives with her family in Gilbert, Arizona. To learn more, and to download discussion guides and more, visit Dianne’s website at DianneWrites.com. You can follow her on Twitter @diannewrites or on Facebook.

Barroux lives in Paris, France, and has studied photography, art, sculpture, and architecture. His work has been published in The New York Times and The Washington Post. He believes that the world needs fewer walls and more trees. You can follow him on Instagram @barrouxillustrations.

“Rhyme, rhythm, and simple art – all including references to walls – show children expressing different emotions and behaviors… Mending walls for the nursery crowd.” – Kirkus Reviews

Author Dianne White has put together a fantastic packet of information for readers, parents, and educators:

The “Why” Behind the Book

A Letter to Parents and Educators

A Letter to Young Readers

Discussion Guide

Sometimes a Wall… Discussion Guide

 
A lesson in 3 Movements…
Intro to the Unit (PLEASE READ FIRST!)
1st Movement: TOGETHER (I Walk With Vanessa by Kerascoët)
2nd Movement: APART (Draw the Line by Kathryn Otoshi)
3rd Movement: REGRET. NEW START? (Sometimes a Wall… by Dianne White, illustrated by Barroux)
 
Coloring Pages for Younger Students
Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

A Little Space for Me addresses kids’ need for their own space

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

A Little Space for Me, by Jennifer Gray Olson, (July 2020, Roaring Brook Press), $18.99, ISBN: 9781250206268

Ages 3-6

In a story that speaks to all of us, but especially young children, A Little Space for Me is a relatable story of a little girl who needs a little space of her own from time to time. The opening sentence says it all: “Sometimes my life feels very crowded”: the art depicts a young girl sitting on a window seat of a living room, along with five other family members and a pet cat. The child’s life is crowded; her space gets too loud, messy, scratchy, bright – you get the idea. After seven months of quarantine and living in the age of the Coronavirus, this an unbelievably relatable observation. The artwork speaks volumes, showing the girl, curled into herself against the white space of the page, with a riot of color swirling around her as becomes “too much for no reason at all”. She needs space, and claims it for herself: in the story, she physically grabs the page and pulls it down, revealing a black and midnight blue stretch of our space that she puts into a bottle around her neck and claims more and more, as her need for space grows. When she decides to share her space, we see members of her family all have a piece of the space in their heads; their hair revealing the calming cosmos of space as the main character sits in a cross-legged meditation pose with her fingers in a meditation mudra.

Artwork and simple text really reaches readers in this story, made even more relevant by current events. When I first read this, pre-pandemic, I thought of many of my library families, many of whom live with extended family, which can make for crowded spaces. Reading it now, it takes on even greater relevance, as many of us are still sheltering in place, remote learning, with several family members working and attending school together in the same space. The book brings home the importance of meditation and mindfulness and the need to give kids their own space, and, even more important, to help kids understand how to recognize their need for space and ways they can claim that space. This is an excellent book to read at storytime, and an excellent companion read to Charlotte and the Quiet Place (2016) by Deborah Sosin and Leyla by Galia Bernstein (2019).

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Blog Tour and Giveaway: It’s Not Little Red Riding Hood, by Josh Funk

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Josh Funk returns with the latest in his It’s Not A Fairy Tale series with a sassy little girl who’s one step ahead of the narrator. Get ready, friends, because…

It’s Not Little Red Riding Hood, by Josh Funk/Illustrated by Edwardian Taylor,
(10/2020, Two Lions), $17.99, ISBN: 978-1542006668
Ages 4-7

Little Red is a little girl who lives with her family in a little cottage in the woods, so when the Narrator shows up and starts telling her to put on a red cape and go visit her sick grandmother in the woods, she’s got questions. Lots and lots of questions: why is the Narrator sending a little girl with a giant basket into the woods all alone? Why does she have to wear red? And why does she have to walk, when she usually takes a carriage? Regardless, she listens to the narrator and heads off to Grandma’s, in spite of being concerned about the Narrator’s willingness to keep putting her in danger, and meeting an amusing, if unexpected, cast of characters. The story of Red Riding Hood is turned on its head as the Narrator becomes flustered and Red keeps pointing out big problems in the story.

With different fonts to denote different speakers (Narrator in conversation mode versus Narrator in story narration mode, plus word balloons for character dialogue), expressive sounds and snappy back and forth banter between characters, the laughs come fast and frequent for readers here. Edwardian Taylor’s artwork is hilarious fun, loaded with little extras, exaggerated expressions, and fairy tale cameos aplenty.

The This is Not a Fairy Tale series is just too much fun, and a welcome addition to fractured fairy tale collections. The kids in my library love them – especially when I give Narrators and characters different, increasingly manic voices. You can’t read these with a serious voice, and that is a good, good thing. Let yourself be as silly as you want to be – your littles will appreciate it.

 

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Let’s do it. I’ve got a great giveaway thanks to Two Lions/Amazon Publishing.

Two Lions is offering all three books in the It’s Not a Fairytale series–It’s Not Jack and the Beanstalk, It’s Not Hansel and Gretel, and It’s Not Little Red Riding Hood  to one lucky winner (U.S. addresses only, please). Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway here!

 

Like the characters in his books, Josh Funk doesn’t like being told how stories should go—so he writes his own. He is the author of many popular picture books, including the popular Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast series, illustrated by Brendan Kearney, and the It’s Not a Fairytale books, illustrated by Edwardian Taylor. He lives in New England with his family. Learn more about him at www.joshfunkbooks.com.

 

Twitter @joshfunkbooks

Instagram: @joshfunkbooks

 

Edwardian Taylor is the illustrator of multiple children’s books, including Race!, written by Sue Fliess; the Toy Academy chapter books, written by Brian Lynch; and the It’s Not a Fairytale books, written by Josh Funk. He lives in Texas with his partner and their four dogs. Learn more about him at www.edwardiantaylor.com.

Twitter: @edwardiantaylor

Instagram: edwardiantaylor

Tumblr: Edwardian Taylor