Posted in Non-Fiction, picture books, Preschool Reads

The Secret Life of Bugs: A kid-friendly close-up

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Secret Life of Bugs and Other Little Critters, by Emanuelle Figueras/Illustrated by Alexander Vidal, (Apr 2023, Twirl Books), $18.99, ISBN: 9782408042547

Ages 4-7

If it’s Spring and Summer, my bug books are going out like crazy. In every library community I’ve worked, kids are fascinated by bugs of all sorts. The Secret Life of Bugs and Other Critters is a unique new look at the hidden worlds that bugs inhabit, with laser-cut pages revealing the inner workings of a bee hive; a look at a spider’s web; leaves providing shelter for stick bugs, and more. Every spread has a laser cut page, adding dimension to the colorful pages. Factual text is interesting and short sentences are great for emerging readers. The laser cuts are delicate, so consider keeping a copy in your STEM reference; pages like the honeycomb and spider web may tear quickly. Originally published in French in 2019, the translation reads smoothly. The artwork shows movement and creates interest: butterflies fly from leaf to leaf in search of nectar while a spider waits in her web; bees actively gather nectar and pollen and protect their hive, and ants create their underground cities. There is something here for everyone.

 

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads, Uncategorized

Big books for little ones: board books and more!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

You know I love a board book bonanza, but I’ve got other interactive books to crow about, too! Let’s go right to it!

Ultimate Spotlight: Caring for Earth, by Sandra Laboucarie & Sarah Reynard/Illustrated by Julie Mercier, (March 2023, Twirl Books), $16.99, ISBN: 9791036353239

Ages 4-6

Twirl’s Ultimate Spotlight series is such fun for pre-readers and emerging readers. Loaded with interactive devices like lift-the-flaps, pull tabs, and spinners, each book is like a little adventure. Caring for Earth, the newest book in the series, is a fun and informative look into conservation and preservation. Spreads on respecting nature, creating gardens, eco-friendly living inform grown-ups and children about the many easy ways we can take action to keep our Earth green: create and support a seed library; compost food waste; switch from liquid soap to bar soap, and take a healthy walk when you can! Spreads on gardening show readers the different layers helpful in creating a layered ecosystem. Translated from the original French, the verbiage runs smoothly and is easy to read to younger learners. Flaps and pulls are sturdy and hold up to use (but I always suggest keeping an extra in your reference collection if you want to hold one for storytime and STEM programming). A good addition to a very fun series.

 

Hello Hummingbirds: Read and play in the tree!, by Hannah Rogge/Illustrated by Emily Dove, (May 2023, Chronicle Books), $12.99, ISBN: 9781797210094

Ages 2-4

This adorable book comes with two hummingbirds, attached to ribbons, that readers can use to swoop and play with the hummingbird narrator. A friendly hummingbird greets readers and takes them through a day in the life: swooping and flying, enjoying flower nectar, sheltering and building a nest. Quick, fun facts thread through the narrative, while the colorful artwork and playful fonts engage readers. The book stands up and pages open to become a tree. The pages are sturdy and the ribbons seem to hold up to extra tugging, making this a good storytime/playtime choice.

Let’s Go to Color Camp!: Beginning Baby, by Nicola Slater, (June 2023, Twirl Books), $12.99, ISBN: 9781797218724

Ages 0-3

The Beginning Baby friends return on a trip to Color Camp – and they need help identifying colors! Tabbed flaps with colors help children turn to a favorite color, or they can page through the story where they’re invited to identify colors in the camp surroundings as the Beginning Baby friends paint, eat lunch, go swimming, and enjoy a day at camp. The retro art and expressive, friendly animals are eye-catching, and the sturdy pages will hold up to multiple readings. Great for a read-aloud and quiet skill-building, this is a fun addition to a fun series.

 

Posted in Intermediate, Non-Fiction

Birds Everywhere! For the burgeoning birder in your life!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Birds Everywhere, by Camilla de la Bedoyere/Illustrated by Britta Teckentrup, (March 2023, Big Picture Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781536229738

Ages 6-9

The latest in the “Animals Everywhere” series has gone to the birds! Birds Everywhere features birds from all over the world, from prehistoric birds like the archaeopteryx to the more modern-day birds like parrots and finches. Teckentrup’s colorful digital artwork introduces a nonstop parade of avians, all labeled to acquaint readers with new flying feathered friends. de le Bedoyere’s factual text is engaging and informative, with thought-provoking questions and fun facts throughout. Birds Everywhere looks at bird biology and evolution; habitats and eating habits, and more. Sections on penguins and barn owls give readers a spotlight of sorts on some favorites. Endpapers feature penguins, with a fun challenge at the close. The foil-embellished cover will draw eyes right away. Fun and informative, this is perfect for a quick reference and introduction to birds for emerging readers.

 

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

I Want to Be Big! – but what happens if you get TOO big?

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

I Want to Be Big, by Tiffany Golden/Illustrated by Sawyer Cloud, (Apr. 2023, Page Street Kids), $18.99, ISBN: 9781645676300

Ages 4-8

A brown-skinned young boy wants to be big: “Bigger than Big Brother. Bigger than Big Sister. Bigger than Mom. Bigger than Dad”. Being big comes with perks, after all: being able to reach the cookie jar; swimming with sharks and being best friends with Bigfoot, all sorts of cool things. His wish is magically granted, and he’s delighted! He’s bigger than everyone! Unsatisfied, he wants to be even bigger, and that’s where things go a little haywire. The boy is simply TOO big. Too big for his favorite pants. Too big to go down the slide. Too big to play with his siblings and cuddle with his parents. Will he be able to reverse his wish and be small again? And will he be happy if he does? A gently funny “be careful what you wish for” story, I Want to Be Big is the refrain many a parent, caregiver, or educator has heard, making this an amusing and relatable story that reminds kids the best parts about being small. Colorful digital artwork plays with size, showing the boy’s giant shoe making an appearance at a family barbecue and a close-up of the boy with a tiny, tiny pair of pants on his nose. The story touches on realistic problem-solving, and how size isn’t always an issue if you can figure out how to use your environment as a workaround (no workarounds for being friends with Bigfoot, sadly). A fun readaloud choice for collections.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Bondi and Poppy Help Heal the Planet: Make Earth Day Every Day!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Bondi and Poppy Help Heal the Planet, by Judith A. Proffer/Illustrated by Yoko Matsuoka, (Apr. 2023, Juju Press), $19.99, ISBN: 9781088113431 

Ages 3-6

This sweet rhyming story stars two friends: Bondi, an Australian koala and Poppy, a California bear, who come together to raise awareness about the havoc wreaked by wildfires on their homes and how climate change plays a part in it. The two friends meet in Hawaii – the middle ground between their homes – where they spend time together and think of ways to help keep their homes – our home, Earth – safe. Kids will love the friendly-faced animals, colorful art, and playful rhyme. By outlining ways that everyone can pitch in and take responsibility for helping the environment – creating a family plan,; reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost; use less water and paper,  and rely less on gasoline and more on our own  bodies to get around – Proffer involves the whole family and empowers everyone from adults to kids. Initially published in time for Earth Day, Bondi and Poppy share a message worth repeating as Poppy’s part of the world heads into summer, when we rely on our air conditioners and prefer less walking over air-conditioned vehicles. A cute additional purchase for collections.

Posted in Intermediate, Non-Fiction, picture books

New in the Nature Book series: A Shell is Cozy

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

A Shell is Cozy, by Dianna Hutts Aston/Illustrated by Sylvia Long, (May 2023, Chronicle Books), $18.99, ISBN: 9781797212470

Ages 5-8

Enjoy a study on the world of shells in the newest entry in Aston and Long’s Nature Books series. Ink and watercolor illustrations bring the many types of shells to life; Aston moves between brief and meaningful observations – “A shell is cozy”; “A shell is everywhere”; “A shell is athletic” – and more informative explanations to explain her observations. Cursive font poses the initial observations; smaller, print text the explanations. Each shell is labeled, helping facilitate understanding and knowledge. Aston writes to educate and to delight, including facts like jazz musician Steve Turre using “the same shell instrument… as his Aztec ancestors did…”, or that sea scallops “clap” their shells to swim away from predators. A great addition to a long-standing, popular natural world series.

Create an activity pack with a seek and find sheet from Education.com, a set of seashell identification cards from Cara Ratner on TeachersPayTeachers, and this field journal from the American Museum of Natural History.

 

 

A Beetle is Shy, by Dianna Hutts Aston/Illustrated by Sylvia Long, (May 2023, Chronicle Books), $7.99, ISBN: 9781797215877

Ages 5-8

The softcover edition of the 2016 book, A Beetle is Shy, hits shelves this week and is a good choice for libraries that need a backup or whose budgets are facing some challenges. Here, Aston and Long introduce readers to the many types of beetles: their life cycles, their sizes, where and how they live. They touch on the beetle’s prehistoric origins, with a beautiful rendering of beetles preserved in amber, and discuss the many areas of the world where beetles are on the menu! The ink and watercolor art is breathtaking, with vibrant colors truly showing off beetle’s jewel-like appearances. Scripted verse observations, like “A beetle is tasty”; “A beetle is prehistoric”; “A beetle is a digger… a runner… a hopper… or a swimmer” lead to brief informational text to explain. A great addition to your nature, STEM, and insect collection.

Do you have bug fans, or want to do a program on insects? You can put together a fun learning activity pack with this Beetle Mania activity from Education.com, a beetle coloring sheet, also from Education.com, a Build a Stag Beetle activity from Teaching Resources by AJ, and a beetle lifecycle activity sheet from itsMamaMiller, both from TeachersPayTeachers. DK has a good Beetle Facts for Kids webpage, and NatGeo Kids has fact pages on both the stag beetle and the dung beetle.

Posted in Fantasy, Horror, Teen, Tween Reads, Young Adult/New Adult

Excellent Speculative Fiction: The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt, (March 2023, Blackstone Publishing), $18.99, ISBN: 9781665047036

Ages 12-17

An anthology that puts the science in science fiction, The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie brings together 20 stories by standout names – Jane Yolen, Scott Sigler, and Jonathan Maberry, to name a few – who spin dark stories about Nobel Prize winning physicist Marie Curie. Driven largely by the childhood losses of her mother and sister, the stories and poetry in Hitherto dream of scenarios that formed Curie. Set in her young adolescence, there are dark tales, supernatural tales, and straight-up unnerving tales, with several mainstays: Curie’s break with religion, the Russian occupation of her beloved Poland, and her dedication to science and learning. Stories are rooted in science, and many include Science Notes to clarify the divergence of fact and fiction. Run from the whimsical, like Alethea Kontis’s “Marya’s Monster”, where Curie confronts the literal monster under her bed with level-headedness, to the bittersweet, as with Seanan McGuire’s “Uncrowned Kings”, where Curie battles the disease-carrying beast that’s infected her town. Stories like Henry Herz’s “Cheating Death” take a turn into horror, where Curie’s obsession with halting Death leads her to disturbing experimentation, and Christine Taylor-Butler’s “Retribution” is a science murder mystery (minus the mystery).

Every single story here is an excellent read, with something for dark fantasy, horror, and thriller fans alike. Science fans will rejoice at having Marie Curie front and center in her own adventures (I know I did), and resources for further reading keeps the momentum going, with books about Curie, women in STEM, and websites to explore. An excellent choice for YA collections.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

When You Joined Our Family explores adoption

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

When You Joined Our Family, by Harriet Evans/Illustrated by Nia Tudor, (Aug. 2022, Kane Miller), $14.99, ISBN: 9781684644759

Ages 3-6

Adoption can bring up a lot of feelings and questions. When You Joined Our Family, written from an adoptive parent’s point of view, connects with them. A warm hug of a story, this could be any number of voices contributing to the narrative; a collection of adoptive parents talking about their experiences: “When you joined our family, I knew you were just who I’d waited and wished for”; “We spent time together, and you learned that I will always keep you safe”; “…I vowed to celebrate the ways you are unique… and the ways we are alike”. Positive, loving observations pair with multicultural, inclusive families of different ages, physical abilities, and households. Colorful digital illustrations are warm and inviting, showing families enjoying their time together. A very good choice for collections. Display with books like Jamie Lee Curtis’s Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born, Carrie A. Kitze’s I Don’t Have Your Eyes, and Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s And Tango Makes Three. Adoption & Beyond has a list of adoption books for children at their website.

 

Posted in Intermediate, Non-Fiction, picture books

What About…? Great series for developing minds

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Twirl Books has been great for producing high-quality, fun, and educational board books for the littlest learners. Their What About… series, originally published in France, skews slightly older and are “Illustrated Q&A Book[s] for Kids”.

What About: The Universe, by Bertrand Fichou/Illustrated by Pascal Lemaître, (Nov. 2022, Twirl Books), $16.99, ISBN: 9791036345159

Ages 7-11

If you’ve been around kids, you’ve heard the questions: “Why don’t people on the other side of Earth fall into space?” “Is it cold in space?” “What’s in our solar system?” These questions, and many more, get answered thoughtfully and visually in What About the Universe, which begins with a glossary. I love this: get the vocabulary up front, preparing kids for words they’re going to see along the way! Answers are broken up into bite-sized, step-by-step responses, hopefully answering additional questions that pop up along the way. For instance, the answer to “How are stars born?” goes through a 5-step answer: “1) a nebula drifts through space; 2) the nebula shrinks, 3) everything starts to heat up; 4) the star ignites, and 5) planets form around the star”. Visuals make each concept easier to comprehend, and additional fun facts provide deeper context. Colorful cartoon artwork makes learning fun. An index makes searching for specific information easier, and a Table of Contents at the beginning helps readers locate their big questions with no fuss. A very good choice for reference and STEM collections.

I’m enjoying putting together activity packs these days; if you are, too, consider a few NASA coloring pages, a planets wordsearch from Ana DeSousa on TeachersPayTeachers, and this planet order worksheet from abunchofbrinsons on TeachersPayTeachers.  Have them available for any of your space fans!

 

What About: Philosophy, by Gwénaëlle Boulet & Anne-Sophie Chilard/Illustrated by Pascal Lemaître, (May 2023, Twirl Books), $16.99, ISBN: 9791036353086

Ages 7-11

Kids are like mini-philosophers. Think of the big things they think about: “Why are there wars?” “What’s is fair or unfair?” “Why do I have to go to school?” There are 16 big questions in this book, all illustrated and considered with respect to the reader. Beginning with the biggie: “Why do humans exist?”, the book goes through age-appropriate explanations that consider existential theories and being self-aware. The authors explore concepts like being in love, being brave, and being free; what money is and why we use it, and abstract concepts like time.  Explanations are factual, non-judgmental, and age-appropriate, so younger learners will more easily be able to follow along and gain deeper understanding of emotions like anger or jealousy and how it makes a person feel. Overall, a good addition to the series and a good attempt at putting some big questions into context for younger readers. There is a table of contents, but no index in this volume.

PLATO (Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization) is an organization that offers philosophy and ethics programming to students, educators, and families. Their philosophy toolkit offers free, downloadable lesson plans, organized by grade level, that you can share with your families and school partners.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

You Rule!: The best things is life are measurable in words!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

You Rule!, by Rilla Alexander, (Apr 2023, Chronicle Books), $17.99, ISBN: 9781797211794

Ages 3-5

Sure, you can measure quantitatively – length, width, height – but measuring things with your heart is just as important and can be incredibly descriptive. You Rule! follows a child and their dog through the day as they help a caterpillar become a butterfly. They dash through spreads filled with common kids’ questions; imaginative, effusive responses help expand emotional vocabulary: How ready are you? Responses go from “not at all” to “fired up” and “rarin” to go”; How happy are you? calls forth responses like “exhilarated”, “pretty much ok”, “pleased as punch”, and “walking on air”. Bright, bold rubber stap and digital collage illustrations create eye-catching spreads and the positive affirmations for questions and responses make this a feel-good book to read again and again. Put this one in your collections and consider posting some of the words and phrases around your children’s area to keep these uplifting ideas in front of kids.