The Knight Who Took All Day by James Mayhew is a bright colored, silly picture book that would have been a perfect addition to our summer reading program on dragons. There once was a knight who wanted to impress the princess, but she didn’t pay much attention to him. So he headed out to find a dragon. He couldn’t find any sign of a dragon anywhere, but children will be able to spot the dragons hiding all over. Finally, a dragon appears at the castle. The knight is thrilled! This is his opportunity to show the princess how brave he is. So he sends his squire to get armor, but it has to be his shining armor, then he needs a plume for his helmet, and much more to make him even more dashing. Meanwhile, readers will notice that the princess is quietly getting herself ready and heading out to meet the dragon. At the end, the princess proves that she did not need the knight’s help after all and flies off on the dragon with the knight’s squire.
The bright-colored pictures are done in a cartoon style that minimizes the scariness of the dragon’s attack. Plus, the twist at the end is wonderful. The amount of text on each page is inviting to small children and the book doesn’t hesitate to offer wonderful long words for kids to add to their vocabulary, like marvelous and tangled and trusty. This is a great addition to a storytime or unit on knights and dragons. Great fun.

A Good Night Walk by Elisha Cooper is a wonderful new picture book. As the reader you get to walk down the block, watching all of the houses, yards and people. Then you return back to the beginning, seeing that as evening falls things in each home are changing. With faceless people on a street, Cooper has created a neighborhood that could be anywhere. Filled with animals, activity and people of many colors, the street is welcoming and invites the reader to explore.
This one is perfect for smaller storytimes and lap reading, because some of the details may be lost with larger groups. The pictures will inspire discussion about neighborhoods and could lead to a project of map drawing of the children’s own block. I enjoyed that the walk is described with other senses beyond just sight, so the reader is invited to imagine smelling and hearing things. This would also make the book a good addition to a unit on the senses, and talking about what they would hear and smell at their home.

Releasing in mid-September, Inkspell by Cornelia Funke is the the sequel to the well-received Inkheart. The sequel continues the story of Dustfinger, Farid, Meggie, Mo and Resa. Dustfinger has discovered another reader, Orpheus, who can not only read characters out of books, but can return them into books by rearranging words from that book. After Dustfinger is read back into Inkheart, Farid is desperate to follow him and warn him that Basta, the villain, is after him. So Farid goes to Meggie to try to get her to read him into Inkheart too. But Meggie does more than that and reads herself into Inkheart with Farid. Soon afterwards, Mortola and Basta force Meggie’s father Mo to enter the story of Inkheart as well.
Once into Inkheart, the reader and the characters begin to see the magic of Inkheart with their own eyes. This is perhaps the most charming part of the book, as we are allowed to see the tiny fairies and complex society of Inkheart. Funke’s prose is weighty and heavy as it was in Inkheart. She has a unique style of writing that can take some getting used to. But this writing is exactly what creates the world of Inkheart with such vibrancy. Inkspell is a masterpiece of setting, with an imaginary world so well-rendered that it makes the real one pale. We are introduced to a new group of fascinating characters in this book, each complex and distinct.
Recommend this to good readers who will be able to see their own love of books reflected back to them, and see themselves as people who would like someday to enter their favorite books too. I enjoyed Inkheart, but would say that this novel is even better. It is more vibrant and evocative. There are many great quotes about reading in the book, but my favorite comes early:
“Isn’t it odd how much fatter a book gets when you’ve read it several times?…As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells…and then when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you, like a pressed flower… both strange and familiar.”
A sigh-worthy quote that will hopefully get you to try this series.