This Week’s Tweets and Pins

| Tasha

Here are the links I shared on my Twitter and Pinterest accounts this week that I hope you find interesting:

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

13 Day of the Dead books for kids | Babble http://buff.ly/19JdgfJ #kidlit

Bewitching Tales | Great Books for Halloween | SLJ – http://buff.ly/1hR3f2Z #kidlit

Caldecott winner David Wiesner bends kids’ brains with Mr. Wuffles! | Artery | Indy Week http://buff.ly/H1Q7fz #kidlit

Neil Gaiman: Let children read the books they love | Books | The Guardian http://buff.ly/H1QzdJ #kidlit

EBOOKS

ALA welcomes Macmillan expansion of library ebook lending | District Dispatch http://buff.ly/1asgmn2 #ebooks

Calvin and Hobbes | Coming Soon to a Tablet Near You – http://buff.ly/15ZJUfS #ebooks

LIBRARIES

BeerBrarian: The End of "The End of Libraries" http://buff.ly/1arfMWI #libraries

In digital age, librarians are needed more than ever [infographic] http://buff.ly/1hQWrSX #libraries

Looking for a 2 a.m. library fix? Milwaukee to debut 24-hour vending http://buff.ly/H1Qo24 #libraries

New breed of teen-services librarians emerges – Lifestyle – The Boston Globe http://buff.ly/19H2ad2 #libraries #librarians

READING

7 Unconventional Reasons Why You Absolutely Should Be Reading Books http://buff.ly/1ahPZAc #reading

Read Literary Fiction Before Dates or Meetings for Social Success http://buff.ly/16EupbJ #reading

Reading gives kids an edge, study says http://buff.ly/1hR47oi #reading

TEEN READS

Lockwood & Co. | The Interactive Game – YouTube http://buff.ly/1gLcS5l – Looking forward to the new book by Jonathan Stroud!

Neil Gaiman novel banned by New Mexico school after mother objects | Books http://buff.ly/19yiqgc

Review: Dusk by Uri Shulevitz

| Tasha

dusk

Dusk by Uri Shulevitz

On a snowy December evening, a boy, his dog, and grandfather talk a walk.  They stop to watch the sun sink over the river and then they head into the city.  There people are in a great hurry.  There are people shopping for gifts for their children, others heading home to feed their cats, and even an alien speaking its own language.  As darkness falls, the lights in the city start to turn on.  First just a few, then more, and finally the boy and grandfather are downtown near the large shop windows and it is revealed that this is a holiday book with different windows celebrating Christmas, Hanukah, and Kwanzaa. 

It took until that final reveal to realize that I was reading a holiday book, and that is a wonderful thing.  Instead of centering on the holidays, this book is about quiet moments and time spent together just looking at the changing light in the sky and in the city.  The text is so simple, then becomes dancing complexity when the people start to talk, then returns to the simplicity again.  Readers will be jolted by the change, just as if their own quiet walk at dusk was interrupted.

Shulevitz’s art is so beautiful.  He captures the setting sun with colors that will make readers linger alongside the characters in the book.  He plays throughout the book with shadows, light and darkness.  As the lights come on in the book, the light is warm against the winter darkness and pools in liquid on the ground.  In the reveal of the holiday windows, the illustrations become detailed and honeyed.  Again, a place to linger and bask in that holiday mood.

A top holiday pick, this book is a lovely companion to Snow and stands on its own too.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Review: Don’t Spill the Milk by Stephen Davies

| Tasha

dont spill the milk

Don’t Spill the Milk by Stephen Davies, illustrated by Christopher Corr

Penda lives in a tiny village in Niger with her family.  Her father has headed up into the grasslands with the sheep.  Penda volunteers to take her father a bowl of milk and has to try not to spill any along the way.  She puts the milk on her head and starts to walk.  She has to walk along the sand dunes and between the dancers at the rainy-season mask dance.  Then she takes a boat across the Niger River with the milk still on her head.  After that she has to climb one last mountain and there is her father.  She’s almost there when…  You will have to read whether Penda delivers the milk successfully or not.  

Davies has traveled extensively in Africa and carefully chose the setting of the Niger River thanks to its varied landscape and intriguing animals.  All of the landforms in the book exist in this area as do the animals too, including the unusual and endangered pale giraffes.  Davies writes with a lovely rhythm that moves the book along quickly.  Penda speaks to herself as she walks, reminding herself to pay attention in couplets of natural verse.

Corr’s art is eye-poppingly bright with yellow skies, orange hills, and blue water.  Against those bright colors, the characters wear even more color filled with designs.  The book evokes the vibrancy of Africa and the bustle of its villages. 

Expect small children to want to try to carry bowls of liquids on their own heads after this beautiful introduction to Africa.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Explorer: the Lost Islands

| Tasha

explorer lost islands

Explorer: The Lost Islands edited by Kazu Kibuishi

This second book in the Explorer series again takes a single theme and has short illustrated stories that center on that.  The book is a collection of different illustrators and authors, so one story to the next is very different both in the story itself and in the style of the art.  It makes for a very compelling book to read.  I had several favorite stories in the book, including The Mask Dance by Chrystin Garland where the setting is dark and looming and people are disguised by masks.  The reveal of the truth is great fun while still being dark and eerie.  Another favorite was Desert Island Playlist by Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier.  Readers of Smile and Drama will enjoy seeing another piece of work by Telgemeier.  This story too has a mystery at its heart all set on a desert island.  This is another strong graphic novel that young readers are sure to enjoy.

This second book loses some of the darkness and wonder of the first which was a masterpiece.  At the same time, it is a book worth getting because it displays such a wide range of art styles and story types.  Both books in the series are like unwrapping presents when you turn to a new story, you are sure to be surprised.

Amulet fans, graphic novel readers and students interested in art should all find something to love in this new collection.  Appropriate for ages 10-13.

Reviewed from copy received from Abrams.

Review: How to Train a Train by Jason Carter Eaton

| Tasha

how to train a train

How to Train a Train by Jason Carter Eaton, illustrated by John Rocco

Did you know that trains make great pets?  Well this is the book all about how to best keep a train as a pet and have it well trained too.  First, you have to decide what sort of train you want: freight, monorail or steam.  Then you need to catch one.  There are lots of ways to do this, but the best way is to catch their attention with smoke signals and then bribe them with coal.  You then have to name your train and try to set it at ease.  Spend time together and get to know one another.  Eventually if you have built enough trust, your train will let you ride him.  But it takes time to ride off into the sunset together.

Eaton sets the perfect tone in his writing.  The framework of a how-to book adds a level of structure that Eaton plays with throughout.  Reading along the way, Eaton invites you into his world of sentient trains where each reader is offered the opportunity to consider what type of train they would want as a pet and how they would care for it.  It’s a delightful world and one that lingers after shutting the cover.

Rocco’s illustrations are a large part of building that delight.  He has created trains that read as purely machine and yet have faces that smile directly at you.  He also maintains the scale of the trains, allowing them to be huge puppy-like beasts that have a great wildness as well.

This cheery book will delight train fans but also reaches far beyond them with its humor and world building.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Eat Like a Bear by April Pulley Sayre

| Tasha

eat like a bear

Eat Like a Bear by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Steve Jenkins

Released October 22, 2013.

Can you eat like a bear?  It means you will wake up very hungry in early spring and have to dine on sandy plants and frozen dead bison meat.  In May, you will have dandelions and cow parsnips to munch but you will still be hungry, so you eat some ants.  You will also eat clover and fish in icy streams for a meal of trout.  In July you will catch a squirrel you dig out of the dirt and in August you will have moths to munch.  September brings berries and October pinecones.  Then it is time to sleep for the winter, full with all of the various meals you have eaten for the rest of the year.

Sayre makes this book such fun to read.  She takes scientific information about what bears eat and makes it very accessible for a preschool audience.  She uses repetitive structures throughout the book, having the bear dig and pull to find food again and again.  This doesn’t just create a friendly structure for small children, it also underlines the fact that animals are in constant search for food.  Sayre also makes the book inviting by using the second person format, asking children if they can really eat like a bear.  I suspect many will stop saying yes when the ants, squirrels and dead bison appear in the diet.

The art of Jenkins is always beautiful, but he outdoes himself with the depiction of the bear.  I shared this book aloud with my son and we both spent time lingering over the first image of the bear.  Jenkins has managed to use the torn paper as fur, not only along the edges of the bear’s body but on its body too.  The result is fur so plush that you feel like your hand should sink into the page.

A glorious look at bears, this book is a fantastic introduction to a creature, its habitat and its diet.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Henry Holt & Co.

Review: The Children Who Loved Books by Peter Carnavas

| Tasha

children who loved books

The Children Who Loved Books by Peter Carnavas

This celebration of reading and books features a family that depends on their books for all sorts of things.  Lucy and Angus’ family is poor without a TV or a car, but they find everything they really need in books.  But there can be too much of a good thing as they find out when their little trailer home just won’t hold any more.  So they get rid of all of the books and clear out their tiny home.  But things aren’t the same.  The books that had taken up so much space also made the space between the family members smaller.  Then one day, a book falls out of Lucy’s backpack and the magic of reading happens all over again.

There is no move to hide that this book is purely about the joy of books in one’s life and the positive impact that reading together can have on a family.  Carnavas lets his message stand strong, which has positive and negative results.  A more subtle approach would have been more satisfying, yet the bold message lets you use the book with younger children.

Carnavas’ illustrations are filled with stacks and piles of bright colored books.  The family is clearly poor, but also clearly functional.  The morning after they return to reading, the family is stacked on top of one another in a tiny couch.  The quintessential image of a family coming closer together from reading.

Warm and cheerful, this Australian import will have book lovers smiling.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Kane Miller Publishing.

Review: My Basmati Bat Mitzvah by Paula J. Freedman

| Tasha

my basmati bat mitzvah

My Basmati Bat Mitzvah by Paula J. Freedman

Tara’s father is Jewish and her mother is East Indian, so Tara has mixed feelings about her upcoming bat mitzvah.  Some of the kids in her Hebrew class even wonder if she is actually Jewish at all.  Tara though is more concerned with whether she actually believes in God and if she doesn’t, does that mean that she can’t have a bat mitzvah?  She also worries about what celebrating this side of her family says to the other side.  So Tara decides to make sure that both sides of her family are represented by wearing a family sari that had been passed down for generations.  Unfortunately though, the sari is accidentally burned and Tara has to figure out how to tell her mother about it.  But that’s not the only complexity in Tara’s life.  Her best friend Rebecca seems to be spending more time with another girl, someone that Tara doesn’t get along with.  Her other best friend Ben-o seems interested in being more than friends sometimes but other times spends a lot of time with another girl.  It’s up to Tara to navigate all of the confusion and make her bat mitzvah her own.

Freedman very successfully tells the story of a young woman dealing with two distinct family heritages.  Happily, she doesn’t feel the need to build heightened angst about it, allowing Tara’s personal doubts to really drive this part of the story.  Her family around her does not have the same feelings, sharing holidays with one another and enjoying the same foods, most of the time. 

The book has a lightness of tone that makes the book very enjoyable.  Freedman explores bullying with a perfect touch, but less successfully explores the underlying issues.  Tara is a strong heroine who is far from perfect.  She has a temper, responds physically at times, and can be too self-absorbed to really see what is happening with her friends.

Hurrah for a book with a brown-skinned girl right on the cover that explores her multicultural heritage in such a straight-forward way!  Appropriate for ages 11-13.

Reviewed from ARC received from Amulet Books.

Review: Musk Ox Counts by Erin Cabatingan

| Tasha

musk ox counts

Musk Ox Counts by Erin Cabatingan, illustrated by Matthew Myers

The characters from A is for Musk Ox return for a counting book this time.  A counting book should be fairly straight forward, it’s counting after all.  But Musk Ox has different ideas.  Must to Zebra’s dismay, he doesn’t even make it to number one at the beginning of the book to be counted as one Musk Ox.  Instead he is on the page with 2 yaks.  Musk Ox offers to fix the problem on the page for number one, but still messes up the 2 yaks page.  Zebra is beside himself and a sulky Musk Ox heads back to page one on his own.  But he doesn’t stay there for long!  Expect plenty of counting chaos throughout the book though there is also some easy addition thrown in too. 

I enjoyed this book almost as much as the first one.  This one has the joy of returning to two engaging characters.  As with the first, you never know what is going to happen on the next page, making it very engaging reading.  Cabatingan writes the two characters with zingy dialogue and the book is a must for reading aloud. 

Myers’ illustrations add to the zany book.  He manages to keep crowded pages from being confusing as the number mount.  He also uses the effect of Musk Ox and Zebra peeking through from other pages very nicely. 

The result is a counting book worth sharing aloud to a group of preschoolers, and there aren’t many counting books that you can say that about!  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.