Tag: books

Posted in Non-Fiction, picture books

Jackie and the Books She Loved – a different look at Jackie after JFK

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Jackie and the Books She Loved, by Ronni Diamondstein/Illustrated by Bats Langley , (Nov. 2023, Sky Pony), $19.99, ISBN: 9781510776425

Ages 4-8

While most remember Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis as President John F. Kennedy’s wife and JFK Jr.’s mother, she had a storied career in publishing. Diamondstein and Langley bring that Jackie to younger readers, beginning with her book-loving childhood and accomplishments, her career as a journalist, and her key role in helping her husband win the Presidency, thanks to her newspaper columns. Diamondstein concentrates on Kennedy Onassis’s post-JFK life in New York as an editor, her interest in helping young women writers, and her commitment to putting the author first. Langley’s illustrations keeps Jackie in the center of the action and includes her trademark scarves and sunglasses. Back matter includes a timeline of Jackie’s life, an author’s note, and a sampling of the many titles she edited. A solid addition to picture book biography collections, Diamondstein treats her subject with respect and affection, making Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis much more than a former First Lady.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

It begins with a word, it creates a community: This is a Story, by John Schu & Lauren Castillo

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

This is a Story, by John Schu/Illustrated by Lauren Castillo, (March 2023, Candlewick Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781536204520

Ages 4-8

Children’s librarian, literacy advocate, and author John Schu follows up last year’s This is a School with a moving tale of how stories connect communities. Beginning with a word on a page, Schu takes readers to the library, where a child and librarian connect over a book, creating a reader. Readers read together, dream together, and grow together: all because of a story, which helps us make sense of the world around us. Castillo uses ink, watercolor, and pastels to create warm images of a diverse group of readers and creates a welcoming, comfortable space a place where people can come together: the library. The choices for favorite children’s books throughout the book can be found in the acknowledgements, and would make for a great reader’s advisory list or display. Choosing to put the library at the heart of a community is a powerful statement. An excellent choice for collections and a first choice for class visit readalouds.

This is a Story has a starred review from School Library Journal. Candlewick offers a downloadable teacher’s guide on the book detail page on the publisher’s website.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Cozy Storytelling: Books Aren’t for Eating

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Books Aren’t for Eating, by Carlie Sorosiak/Illustrated by Manu Montoya, (Sept. 2022, Walker Books US), $17.99, ISBN: 9781536214963

Ages 4-7

Bookstore owner Leonard the goat loves losing himself in books and delights in choosing the just-right books for his customers, but the day another goat walks in and starts eating his books, he is beside himself! His wife lovingly reminds Leonard that he used to eat books, too, prompting Leonard to find a read that will show the other goat that Books Aren’t For Eating. This cozy story is all about the love of books and finding that one story that :excited me, challenged me, and made me feel less alone”. Sorosiak combines humor and the transformative power of books; Montoya brings the words to life with soft gouache illustration, showing readers how we can be carried away on the wings of a story; she creates warm, cozy settings with delightful details, like Leonard’s green Fair Isle sweater with goat detail, the cozy bookshop exterior and warm interior, and the cute white mice that show up throughout the story. I love reading this to my class visits to show them not only how to love books, but how to respect them. A definite add to collections.

 

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Back to School Readaloud: Read Island

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Read Island, by Nicole Magistro/Illustrated by Alice Feagan (Oct. 2021, Read Island, LLC), $18.99, ISBN: 9781736523308

Ages 3-6

A magical celebration of books and stories, Read Island follows the adventures of a young girl and her animal friends who journey to “an island made of books” and spend time with all the literary animals who live there. The delightful rhyming story is filled with vibrant color and cheery rhyme; digital images use printed media, including maps and pages from classic children’s stories and songs, as part of the scenery: a sailboat’s sail; animals and trees in silhouette; the curve of the ocean. A raven has a book trapped to their back as they circle the water eaglets cheer from their nest, greeting their parent as they swoop in with a book in their talons; a grizzly emerges from a cave holding a mug and a book. Everyone gathers on the beach for a storytime, and the verse invites readers to sit and take part: “Can you join them? / Just be still. / Breathe in. / Breathe out. Listen well”. Perfect to greet new students for the beginning of a school year; perfect for a class visit storytime. Visit the Read Island website for activities including a coloring sheet and a word search.

Released last October, Read Island is a delightful choice for back-to-school storytime collections.

Posted in Uncategorized

Moose’s Book Bus brings book love to you!

Posted on 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.

 

Posted in picture books

Library Love: Lila Lou’s Little Library

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis
Lila Lou’s Little Library : A Gift From the Heart, by Nikki Bergstresser/Illustrated by Sejung Kim, (Oct. 2021, Cardinal Rule Press), $16.95, ISBN: 9781735345116
Ages 5-7
A little girl who loves to read has too many books for her home, so she creates a Little Free Library for her community! A story of book love, library love, and literacy activism, Lila Lou’s Little Library is perfect for class visits and book-about-books storytime. It’ll inspire kids and grownups alike to share their love of books with their neighbors. Back matter includes tips on creating and curating your own little library, and that’s one of the things I love most about this story: it’s not just about loving books, although that’s certainly at the heart of the story; it’s about the love of sharing – the community starts to get involved, contributing to the library with their own books – and the love of librarianship. Lila Lou is a little Reader’s Advisor, selecting just right books for everyone who asks her for a suggestion; she shows readers what librarians’ real talent is. We listen, and we share information that readers want and need. Adults, children, Lila Lou is ready to help them all. It’s a very sweet story about gentle, but firm, literacy advocacy. Colorful kid-friendly artwork is eye-catching, and the storytelling will inspire readers to look over their own piles of books and share them with their friends, their classrooms, and possibly, their communities. Lila Lou’s tree stump reminds me of the librarian in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, who created a gorgeous Little Free Library from a hollowed-out tree in her yard, but there easier ways to share books with others. Talk about some of those ways, using the information at the end of the book, and the free, downloadable reader’s guide. Print out coloring pages to share, too!
I would love to see where Lila Lou goes next – maybe she’s got more book-related adventures to come?
Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Let’s get some #LibraryLove!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

I am SO excited. I’m returning to my community library on Monday for the first time since I locked the doors on March 16, 2020, when New York went on “pause”. We’ve got two weeks of work to get our little home away from home back in shape (so many bins await unpacking), and then we reopen to our families on July 12th. It’s the day I’ve been waiting for and I am just so happy. So let’s celebrate some library love with two great books!

Stanley’s Library, by William Bee, (Aug. 2021, Peachtree Publishers), $14.99, ISBN: 9781682633137

Ages 3-7

It’s the Stanley book I’ve been waiting for! The hardest-working gerbil in town is back with Stanley’s Library. It’s going to be a busy day for Stanley, who arrives at work, loads up his bookmobile (they call it a “library van”) and head to the park for a day of truly public librarianship. He spots some friends and makes sure they get books he knows they would love, and then gets back to the library in order to set up for their big author event! The day is done, and it’s time for Stanley to go home, have supper, take his bath, and get to bed – with a good book. ‘Nite, Stanley!

The Stanley books are the best career books I can offer to my little kids (you have to love a multi-tasker!), and Stanley’s Library is so much fun. The endpapers show all the tools of the trade, including a date stamp, stamped library card, author event ticket, and bookmark. There are great details throughout the story, too, like the labeled shelves and the books on them: the Horror section includes books on Owls, Cats, and Snakes, all predators to gerbils; History stocks books like Famous Gerbils and More Famous Gerbils; Cheese gets its own very popular section, as we learn later on. Stanley exhibits fantastic readers advisory and collection development skills as he makes sure to give books to his friends that are in just in line with their interests, too; he gives Hattie, who’s working on her motorbike, a book on traveling twisty roads, and Little Woo gets a book on pirates, as he works with Shamus on his boat. The Stanley books are such fun and such easy reading; they’re a hit for your shelves.

 

Nia and the New Free Library, by Ian Lendler/Illustrated by Mark Pett, (June 2021, Chronicle Books), $18.99, ISBN: 9781452166865

Ages 5-8

Inspired by Stone Soup, this story hits on so many things: the idea that the library is always there, but no one uses it; that ideas people have about libraries aren’t always the reality, and my favorite, that libraries are built by communities, for communities. The Littletown Library has always been there. Until it’s not when a tornaldo carries it away. A young girl named Nia wants to rebuild the library, but – in a series of panels every librarian will identify with – hears a lot of talk as to why it’s not a priority: “What’s the point? No one uses libraries anymore”; “That costs money, and I can’t spare a dime”; and of course, “My son and I get everything we want online”. Taking matters into her own hands, Nia comes up with a very creative idea to get her community to come together and create a library – first, as a community, then, within a building. There are wonderful moments as Nia brings townspeople together to create their own stories or remember stories and parts of writing that inspired them; one gentleman recalls Maya Angelou’s And Still I Rise; detectives and boat captains recall the works that they loved from childhood. The library reopening is a stirring statement on what we do: “everyone crowded into the library to admire what they had accomplished”. Children paint, read books, and write their own, new ones; grandparents learn to use computers; there’s a knitting class taking place.  In an author’s note, Ian Lendler remembers how his grandfather helped rally his own community to build the library he dreamed of a kid, saying, “That’s when I realized – a library is an expression of a town and all the poeple who live in it”.

An excellent book for storytime and class visits, and for just reminding people that we all have a stake in our libraries.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Never Show a T-Rex a Book! Or else…

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Never Show a T-Rex a Book!, by Rashmi Sirdeshpande/Illustrated by Diane Ewen, (Jan. 2021, Kane Miller), $12.99, ISBN: 978-1-68464159-8

Ages 3-7

In this adorable nod to cumulative favorites like Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a… series, Never Show a T-Rex a Book! warns readers against letting their T-Rexes get hold of a book… because then they’ll want more, naturally! A little girl starts the story off, reading to her dinosaur toys, when her imagination takes her on a thrill ride: her T-Rex becomes real, and demands a trip to the library – and an all-night reading marathon that will result in a VERY clever dinosaur. Which could lead to the first dinosaur in government, the education of other dinosaurs, and a WORLD DINOSAUR TAKEOVER. Imagine? Giggle-worthy, with illustrations that show the power of books exploding all over the spreads, Never Show a T-Rex a Book! is all about imagination and embracing the fun of reading. We get frightened librarians and towering T-Rexes holding stacks of books (pshaw, I say; like we’ve never seen dinosaurs in the library before); dinos holding court in classrooms and in Parliament, and demanding luxuries like larger seats in the movie theatre! Get your dinosaur toys out and let them read along with you as you take your Kiddos on this cartoonish, wild, book-loving adventure.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me…

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Pirate Nell’s Tale to Tell: A Storybook Adventure, by Helen Docherty & Thomas Docherty, (Sept. 2020, Sourcebooks), $17.99, ISBN: 978-1492698678

Ages 4-7

This rhyming tale of literacy on the high seas stars an all-canine cast. Nell, a younger pup, is so excited to join a pirate crew, but Captain Gnash scoffs at her bookishness and saves the ickiest tasks for her to do. A treasure map in a bottle shows up one night, but Captain Gnash manages to get himself and his crew into big trouble until Nell, and her Pirate’s Almanac, save the day! They finally make it to the island and discover the best treasure of all. Smart and light, this upbeat tale of books and how handy a little extra knowledge can be is great for library visits. Helen Docherty and Thomas Docherty always manage to create the best stories about book lovers: they also wrote The Snatchabook and The Storybook Knight; both wonderfully woven rhyming tales of books and how they make things better. The colorful acrylic artwork will attract all readers; who doesn’t love a rollicking pirate story with sea monsters and treasure? Endpapers show off a cross-section of a pirate ship before and after the plunder. See if kids can spot the differences! Pair with Ronan the Librarian for the ultimate class visit storytime. Visit Helen Docherty’s website for downloadable goodies including masks and coloring sheets!

 

Daniela and the Pirate Girls, by Susana Isern/Illustrated by Gómez, Translated by Laura Victoria Fielden, (Aug. 2020, NubeOcho), $16.95, ISBN: 978-84-17673-27-7

Ages 5-8

The second book to star Daniela the Pirate, Daniela and her crew spend a good part of this new adventure aboard their pirate ship, the Black Croc, tracking down a group of pirates called The Fearless Piranhas. They keep showing up to rescue sea folk just before the Black Croc arrives, and the crew is starting to get worried: what if they beat the Croc to the best treasure, too? Just as the Black Croc happens upon the Fearless Piranhas ship, they both get caught up in a dangerous storm: luckily, Daniela knows a friend who can help everyone out! The two crews finally meet and decide that teamwork is the best way to work! Upbeat and positive, this pirate story is all about sharing and teamwork, with the acknowledgement that sometimes, jealousy and competition can get in the way of how we perceive others. Gómez always uses bright, cheerful colors in her artwork; here, vibrant landscapes and pirates stand out against the light blue sea and sky, really giving the characters center stage. Originally published in Spanish, this English translation will appeal to pirate fans while teaching a lesson in kindness.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

The epic tale of Ronan the Librarian

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Ronan the Librarian, by Tara Luebbe & Becky Cattie/Illustrated by Victoria Maderna, (Apr. 2020, Roaring Brook Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781250189219

Ages 3-7

To truly enjoy this writeup, please click here to enjoy The Anvil of Crom from the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack, courtesy of Spotify and CimmercianRecords.com.

The mighty Ronan was a barbarian invader, raider, and trader. He led his people and pillaged the best jewelry, precious metals, weapons, you name it. If you wanted to trade for it, Ronan had it. But when one of Ronan’s raids turned up a chest  of books, he was baffled. Barbarians don’t read, right? What was he supposed to do with these things? No one else wanted them either! Until… well, one night he figured reading a sentence won’t hurt. Maybe a paragraph. A page? Every reader worth their salt knows what happens next: a true disregard of bedtime; Ronan becomes a Reader and seeks out books on all of his pillages from then on. And again, like any true book fan… his collection threatens to overwhelm him. After all, no one else wants the books: Barbarians don’t read! So Ronan builds a library, and decides to entice his fellow barbarians into reading. Like any bookworm knows, one of the best parts about loving books is sharing them with friends! This hilarious, wonderful story about barbarians and books is perfect storytime reading (I’ve got one coming up myself): it’s got adventure, barbarians, and books! Tara Luebbe and Becky Cattie create a story that book lovers will relate to, and give a wink, nudge, come to the Book Side for those kids who don’t think they’re readers… yet.

Victoria Maderna’s artwork is cartoony fun, with so many little moments to love: the Viking ship toppling over with books (I feel seen); Ronan riding into battle, axe held high in one hand, book wide open in his other hand; Ronan curled up with a cup of tea amidst his towering pile of books (so precarious!), the swirling, dreamlike story of Odin coming to life as it leaps from a book Ronan reads out loud to his fellow barbarians, and – one of my favorite pieces in the whole story – the bulletin board Ronan puts up in his library, with notes like “Keep Out: This Goat” (sharp-eyed viewers will notice the goat snacking on some books, a few spreads earlier), “Closed During Raids”, and a cautionary “Swords Make Terrible Bookmarks”. Clearly, library signage hasn’t seen the need to evolve much.

I’m gushing with love for Ronan the Librarian because it’s just too much fun and it’s all about discovering the joy of books and reading. Insta-buy for your collections if you don’t already have it. Consider it an investment in your class visits for life. Make sure to visit the authors’ website, and find activities, guides, and more information about their books!