Month: July 2007

What to Read Next?

| Tasha

Now that Harry Potter fans have their hot hands on the latest book and the excitement is still tangible in the air, what should they read next?  NPR has a nice piece on exactly this where two children’s lit experts offer their lists of likely hits with the Potter crowd.  It does my heart good to see so many great fantasy series listed.  I was going to list my favorites included on the lists, but my list got far too long.  Let’s just say that any reader whether they are a Harry Potter fan or not can’t go wrong with the books here.

Oh yes, I did spend a blissful weekend devouring the new Harry Potter.  I am not commenting here because people have to really read it for themselves and I don’t want any spoilers.  Feel free to add comments about your own favorite after-Harry reads, but I won’t publish any comments with spoilers. 

Pictures of Hollis Woods on TV

| Tasha

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff is being made into a TV movie by Hallmark.  Sissy Spacek is going to star as Josie.  No premiere date yet.

YA Debut Award

| Tasha

YALSA (the Young Adult Library Services Association) announced a new award for first-time authors writing for teens called the William C. Morris YA Debut Award.  The award can be given to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, short stories or graphic novels, but the author must not have published in any format before.  Sweet!  A whole new award to speculate about, and even better, this one will get everyone reading new authors.

How Can They Read That Fast?!

| Tasha

Slate has recycled an article about how professional reviewers can review books so very quickly.  The article has a new intro on Harry Potter but is really about Bill Clinton’s My Life.  Part of what I love about blog reviews is that we post about books that we feel merit the mention.  I know that when I start reading glowing reviews they are being written because that blogger feels passionately about the book.  Not because it was assigned.

There is a sort of natural quality control that happens.  While I do accept free books from publishers, I only review a fraction of them on the blog.  Only the ones I love.  Or in the case of one special book about a stuffed rabbit, the ones that others love but I don’t.

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?

| Tasha

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara, illustrated by G. Brian Karas.

Charlie is the smallest kid in his class, always the last in line when they line up by size.  One fall day, his teacher, Mr. Tiffin brings three pumpkins to class and asks how many seeds are in a pumpkin.  The pumpkins are three different sizes and the children guess how many are in them.  Then they break into groups to count the seeds in each pumpkin.  Charlie is the only one who thinks that the smallest one may have the most seeds and is willing to count them on his own.  Each group counts the seeds in different way, by twos, fives or tens.  Charlie as the person counting by tens looks like he has the fewest seeds, but actually the littlest pumpkin has the most!

This book offers both a story of being the smallest and a math lesson in counting by units.  The two elements work very well together and in the story itself.  There is also some information on pumpkins worked into the book.  I always enjoy Karas’ illustrations which are child friendly and somehow remind me of the Peanuts strips.  McNamara has done an admirable job of uniting a story and a math lesson, making both of them interesting.

Share this with older elementary children who are at least in first grade so that the mathematics make sense to them.  It is also a good picture book for children who tend to enjoy nonfiction picture books, because it is full of information.  This is a nice autumnal title free of any witches or Halloween references.

Kirkus SF & Fantasy List

| Tasha

Kirkus Reviews has its new Science Fiction and Fantasy list out for summer/fall.  Scroll down to page 9 for the children’s section.  I haven’t read any of the books yet, though I do have some in my reading pile and I even have Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks on CD riding around in my car, waiting for me to finish some others first.

Note:  This is a pdf file, so expect slow loading times.

The Green Wizard Movement

| Tasha

Eco-Libris, a wonderful program where you can balance out the books you read by planting a tree, is offering a way to offset your purchase of the new Harry Potter.  Send them a picture of you posing with a copy of any of the HP books, and you will get a chance to have trees planted in your name.  The first fifty entries will get trees planted in their name:  seven trees, one for each book.  Then the best picture will get a free copy of the newest Harry Potter printed on 100% recycled paper. 

Whooo's There?

| Tasha

Whooo’s There? by Mary Serfozo, illustrated by Jeffrey Scherer.

A rather grumpy owl patrols the night woods, asking “Whooo!” to every noise and creature it encounters.  The deep blue of the cover continues through the book as the dark sky that frames each picture.  The sense of darkness is given through the depth of the colors rather than any smudging or dark washes.  This makes it very welcoming for small listeners.  Children will get to see all sorts of creatures, including raccoons, skunks, bats, and a howling coyote.  They are all presented as friendly, wide-eyed cartoons.

This book doesn’t have the same magic and mystery of Brian Lies’ Bats at the Beach, but it does offer a very friendly, basic look at night animals.  I would recommend using this with toddler and young preschool audiences.  It has a nice sense of humor, the rhythm of the text will make it accessible to even the youngest children, and there is the awe of being out in the dark.  Even better would be to read it at an evening or pajama storytime.  Then they can head home and see what critters may be out in their own backyards.

After Harry Potter – The Movies

| Tasha

 

Warner Brothers is going to make the magical Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage into a series of films.  Her books are Magyk, Flyte and Physik.  I read the first and really enjoyed it.  I loved its charm and quirks.

Does anyone know if the second and third were just as good?