Welcome to the mid-February edition of the Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page, The Family Bookshelf, and Rasco from RIF. We're delighted to highlight several children's literature and literacy-related events on the horizon. We also have some news about literacy and reading programs and research, and a couple of suggestions for growing bookworms. Thanks for tuning in!
Literacy & Reading-Related EventsThe big news in the Kidlitosphere, of course, is that the 2011 Cybils winners...
Book: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green (@RealJohnGreen)
Pages: 336
Age Range: 14 and up
I was initially not interested in reading John Green's latest young adult novel, The Fault in Our Stars. Although I've enjoyed several of his other books (An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, Let It Snow: Three H...
Today I will be sending out the new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's and young adult books and raising readers. There are 1513 subscribers. Currently I am sending the newsletter out once every two to three weeks.
Newsletter Update: In this issue I have one book review of a young adult novel and one children's literacy roundup (with full details at Rasco from RIF). I also have an announcement about some of my being quoted in Parenting Magazine, and a post about the ...
Book: Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip
Author: Jordan Sonnenblick
Pages: 304
Age Range: 12 and up
I've been a fan of Jordan Sonnenblick's novels since reading Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie five years ago. I even interviewed Jordan for the Summer Blog Blast Tour in 2007, back when I was still doing occasional interviews. Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip is his latest, due out March 1st.
Peter Friedman has always been an ace baseba...
Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Cybils Day! That's right. The 2011 Cybils Award winners have just been announced. There are 13 winners across 11 categories (2 have sub-categories), ranging from nonfiction picture books to poetry to graphic novels and young adult fiction. You can find the complete list of winners (all with blurbs) here.
I was a round 1 judge for Fiction Picture Books this year. We came up with a shortlist of seven great titles. The round 2 committee selected Patrick McDonnell's lovely Me...Jane as the winner....
Book: Cinnamon Baby
Author: Nicola Winstanley
Illustrator: Janice Nadeau
Pages: 32
Age Range: 4-8
Cinnamon Baby, written by Nicola Winstanley and illustrated by Janice Nadeau, is about a baker named Miriam. Every day, Miriam saves the cinnamon bread, her favorite, for last, singing songs while kneading the dough, and filling her bakery with the smell of cinnamon. Then Miriam marries Sebastian (after a courtship involving Sebastian buying bread every day for a year), and later gives birth to a baby. Unfortunately, however, the baby cries. And cries. And cries. The baby cries buckets and rivers of tears. Until Miriam figures out how to soothe her "cinnam...
Book: Buglette, the Messy Sleeper
Author: Bethanie Deeney Murguia
Pages: 32
Age Range: 3 and up
Buglette, the Messy Sleeper, by Bethanie Murguia, is about an adorable little bug who has a sleeping problem. Though she settles neatly into her leaf bed each night, she is so active during her dreams that her bed is always a disaster in the morning. Her brothers try to help, but their efforts, combined with Buglette's powerful dreams, almost lead to disaster. Fortunately, Buglette is able to use skills honed during those dreams to save the day.
The overall pattern of this book is predictable, of course. Child laments some personal trait that turns out to be a special strength in the end. But the story itse...
Book: If Rocks Could Sing: A Discovered Alphabet
Author: Leslie McGuirk
Pages: 48
Age Range: 3-8
If Rocks Could Sing: A Discovered Alphabet is a creative and memorable alphabet book. Leslie McGuirk, over many years, collected rocks shaped like letters of the alphabet (mostly from Florida beaches). She also collected rocks shaped like objects that start with each letter. In If Rocks Could Sing, McGuirk brings together photos of the collected rocks, to bring the alphabet to rock-shaped life for kids. The results are delightful.
McGuirk pairs the rocks with other objects as needed, so that each letter tells a little story. For example, the "b is for bird" page shows a bird-shaped rock and an egg-shap...
Book: The Rabbit Problem
Author: Emily Gravett
Pages: 32
Age Range: 4-8
Emily Gravett's The Rabbit Problem is, like some of her other books, a bit of a concept book. But it offers a wealth of visual interest. The concept part is that The Rabbit Problem can be used as a calendar. There's even a hole drilled through the covers, and all of the pages, so that you can hang it up (sideways), and have a standard calendar configuration. Each page spread focuses on a different month.
Each month highlights a particular problem that rabbits face, from loneliness in January to cold in February, straight on through the end of the year (by which time loneliness is the least of the rabbits' problems). There...
Book: Wagons Ho!
Author: George Hallowell & Joan Holub
Illustrator: Lynne Avril
Pages: 32
Age Range: 5-10
Wagons Ho!, by George Hallowell and Joan Holub, is a dual narrative showing two families moving from Missouri to Oregon. Jenny Johnson's family sets out in 1846, on a five month journey. Katie Miller's family sets out now, and takes just five days to make the same trip. Various parallels exist between the girls (both have dolls, pets, and pesky little brothers). Their journeys are related in parallel, with them each passing landmarks on the same page, each complaining about the length of the journey on the same page, etc. These parallels serve to...