Mouse Tails, er Tales

This year has been a big one for mice.  Not only did they move into my kitchen towel drawer, but they infested children's books as well.  One of my all-time-favorite children's books as a fourth grader was The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper by Jan Van Leeuwen, about some rodents that moved into Macy's department store for the winter.  Many well-known authors continued the tradition of great mouse tails, er tales, this year.  In the most recent edition of Hornbook magazine, author Richard Peck mentions Stuart Little by E. B. White as an inspiration for a sequel for his new book, Secrets at Sea.  Other mouse-y books recently published include:  Young Fredle by Cynthia Voigt (a mouse finding his way home), Bless this Mouse (church mice surviving extermination) by Lois Lowry, and The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale (mystery in London) by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright.  Whether underneath your favorite quilt or in your favorite reading nook, enjoy those mice - who are so endearing and enjoyable in our books, yet so troublesome in our walls.  -Elaine B.     

Superheroes and African American Authors

We have two new guides to great reads on our website: Superheroes and  Books by African American Authors.  Superheroes leads the reader through some of the best graphic novels, novels and non-fiction featuring superheroes in our department.  You may be interested in the classic Amazing Spider-Man comics for kids and Superman: the Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel.  Or you may be more interested in new superheroes like Buzzboy: Trouble in Paradise by John Gallagher, Archvillain by Barry Lyga, and Sardine in Outer Space by Emmanual Guibert.  If you get inspired to make your own heroes, you can even visit Heroes!: Draw Your Own Superheroes, Gadget Geeks, and Other Do-gooders. Books by African American Authors leads the reader through great fiction books by African American authors. Younger readers may be interested in Kadir Nelson's He's Got the Whole World in His Hands or Melanie Turner-Denstaedt's The Hat that Wore Clara B.  Older readers may be interested in Sharon Flake's The Broken Bike Boy and the Queen of 33rd Street or Dwayne J. Ferguson's The Werewolf of P.S. 40.
-Elaine B.

Youth Literature Festival

School is getting ready to start and that means the date for the next Youth Literature Festival is getting closer too! Mark your calendar for Saturday, October 9 for a fantastic day filled with your favorite authors, book-related activities, puppets, music and storytelling. Krannert Center for the Performing Arts will be hosting the day-long event from 10-4. You will have the chance to see favorite local authors like Patricia Hruby-Powell, Dan Keding, Sara Latta and Alice McGinty, as well as authors from farther away like Jim Aylesworth, Esme Raji Codell and Jenny Meyerhoff. To get in the mood for a day of meeting your favorite authors, you may want to try Patricia MacLachlan's new book Word After Word After Word - about an author who visits a classroom just like yours. Hope to see you at the festival! -Elaine B.

Laugh Out Loud!

Are you looking for some crazy, fun picture books to share with your family? Two of my favorites are Bark, George by Jules Feiffer and Chicken Cheeks by Michael Ian Black. In Bark George, the reader meets George, a puppy who won't bark. Instead, George quacks, oinks and moos. His worried mother takes him to the vet, with some hilarious results. Chicken Cheeks begins - and ends - with a celebration of the derrieres of various animals. The jaunty, rhyming words are fun to read aloud, while the art shares a second, parallel story. Don't miss the Amazon.com video of Black, dressed as a chicken, reading his book. -Elaine B.

Classics for Children

We get questions all the time in Children’s Services about “Children’s Classics.” Sometims people will make suggestions – like Alice in Wonderland or the Boxcar Children. These are the easy ones. Often parents will wonder if we have The Incredible Journey or Finn Family Moomintroll, because their mother or father read these wonderful stories to them. Still others just want a list. When creating lists like our current two, Enter the World of Family Classics and Enter the World of Family Classics, 1960-2000, we ask ourselves questions like these. How old does a book have to be to be a “classic?” What characteristics should it have? Does it need to be a great read aloud?

We’ve recently added to our reference collection a title that will help us as children’s librarians, and all of you as our patrons identify familiar and unfamiliar quality titles, that if not “Children’s Classics” are at least “must reads.” It is 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up edited by Julia Eccleshare and selected and reviewed by leading international critics. The international is important, especially in our community where many of members hail from far away, but also to make sure we United States natives don’t miss some excellent books for children published elsewhere in the world.

It is divided by age levels and includes titles like Elmer and Mr. Gumpy’s Outing for ages 0-3. For children ages 3 and up Jamela’s Dress and Sleep Well Little Bear are among the offerings. And so it continues from The Paper Bag Princess (English) (Spanish) for ages 5 and up through My Friend Flicka for ages 12 and up. Each page includes a brief summary of one or two of the titles. Many pages have a box listing other similar reads or other great books by the author listed. Take it home and peruse; it is a real treasure. Barb L.