I am not a fan of comics or graphic novels or any book in which the words are in bubbles. I know that this is not a hip opinion in the world of children’s literature today but it is mine.

So when I read about A Trip to the Bottom of World with Mouse, I requested it from the library only because I had heard about it from my much trusted friend Jules. She has never steered me wrong and her record continues.

A Trip to the Bottom of the World with Mouse may just have changed my idea about words in speech bubbles. This book is just perfect for early readers to read with a loved one near by to help with an occasional word or two. There are plenty of decodable words, many sight words and lots of opportunity for pictures to help out when words are unfamiliar.

Needless to say, I am glad that I let my mind be changed. Perhaps I should go explore a few other speech bubble filled books…

Read more

I currently have 1, 173 pictures on my iPhone. And many, many more on my computer.

I haven’t put ‘real’ pictures into an album in years.

This weekend, I was reminded of why that is a problem.

For a long time, Katherine sat on Rob’s lap, pouring through pictures of Rob’s childhood. She saw him swimming as a toddler, sitting in a funny low ‘high’ chair, celebrating his first birthday. She saw her aunt wearing a funny Halloween costume and dressed up for an ice skating performance. She asked question after question and learned things about her father and her aunt that she wouldn’t have known if we hadn’t pulled out the album. 

Years from now, how will the girl’s children be able to look at pictures and ask questions and learn if the pictures are trapped on my phone and on my computer?

It seems I have a pretty hefty to-do list for the week…

 

Read more

Yesterday I wrote about two of my favorite new picture books and questioned how one person could love Jon Klassen and Marla Frazee in equal measure.

I think the answer lies in their strengths. Both talented authors and illustrators. Both with excellent senses of humor. One who appeals to the rainbow and smily faces in us all and the other who awakens the part of us that really does just want to laugh when someone walks out of the bathroom with toilet paper stuck to the bottom of their shoe. We all have these two parts in us and sometimes we need books that talk to one side or the other.

Frazee’s latest, Boot and Shoe, tells an amazingly sweet and funny story of two dogs, devoted to each other even during one very long day. Even non-dogs lovers will want to snuggle up with these two.

And then there’s Klassen’s much anticipated follow up to I Want My Hat Back, This is Not My Hat. Again, we are left to wonder the fate of the main character as we consider whether to giggle uproariously or to question if the ending is too dark to read to little ones before bedtime.

So, a little bit for each of us and for each part of us. Enjoy…

 

Read more

Sometimes when you’re an early reader and the book you were assigned for homework includes the word ‘true’ with no picture clues or rhyming clues and you get really frustrated and decide that you can’t read, the best solution is to listen to lots of great new picture books with your mom.

p.s. More on these great new picture books to come. For now, let’s just say I love both Marla Frazee and Jon Klassen. I’m pretty sure that fact says something deep about my personality but I’m not sure what…

Read more

Really, The Great Unexpected was all that I had expected.

With Sharon Creech as it’s author and the gazillion positive reviews that I had read, I was ready to be wowed. Often, that’s a problem. Living up to such high expectations can be the death of a book.

Not this one.

The story is a lot of friendship. a bit of mystery, some tragedy and all amazing writing.

I leave you with only one quote and the promise that the book contains many, many more that are just as wonderful.

“But what is ‘a story?’ It’s in here in now”- I tapped my head-” with all the other stuff, so maybe everything is a story.”

That night, I went to sleep supremely happy. If I could be a knight, then I could be a pteranodon, or I could be an eagle or a bear or a fox, or anything at all, and I could dwell where I pleased and do what I pleased, and if I wanted to have a mother, I could have a mother, and if I wanted to have a father, I could have a father. I could do and be and have all these things; I could be anywhere and everywhere.

Read more

 

One of the best part of the KidlitCon was attending presentations given by many of the bloggers whose writing I have followed for years.

Or even seeing some of the “bigger bloggers” walking through the halls.

Yes- there was a hint of middle school going on…

But then the truly best part was meeting people who I had read only a bit or never even read at all. Just the week before, I had read a post on a Kid Lit list serve about the need for cross over between parenting blogs and children’s literature blogs. Clearly, this blogger was singing my song.

Mom and Kiddo writes at both What Do We Do All Day, a parenting blog and Storied Cities, a niche children’s literature blog featuring books with urban settings.

And then on Mondays, she brings her two worlds together. At her parenting blog, What Do We Do All Day, she hosts The Children’s Bookshelf, an opportunity for bloggers to share posts about children’s literature. In this way, she hopes to connect parents to the wonderful world of children’s literature bloggers and the books they love.

Pop on over here to see this week’s recommendations.

 

Read more

I love that I know so much about children’s literature. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed and to share this love with my family and friends is such a treat.

What I love even more is when I find out about something I should have known about for a long time and didn’t.

The other day, a good friend was talking about her children’s favorite read alouds. “All the Barbara Cooney books.” she said casually as if I surely knew all about Barbara Cooney. Somehow, Cooney, an equally talented author and illustrated, had flown low on my radar. I had heard of her book Roxaboxen but hadn’t ever read this amazing tribute to imagination. I had knew of Ox Cart Man but had never read it. And then there are titles like Emma and Hattie and the Wild Waves which both celebrate creativity in a beautiful way but that I never even knew existed.

My friend’s children have had to go without their favorite read alouds for the past few days as we have borrowed all their collection. I am thrilled to have been introduced to such a great new (to me) talent. I wonder what else is out there…

 

Read more

With Cybils season upon us, I have begun to think even more than usual about what makes an Easy Reader, an easy reader. As a judge for the Easy Reader category, I got in to a few heated debates last year about the criteria for these books. It is both my personal and professional belief that easy readers should be really and truly easy to read. Many publishers label their books in very misleading ways, causing parents to buy book after book that they think their child should be able to read.

My definition of easy, is quite conservative. Most words should be simple to decode. There should be picture support for those words that aren’t. The font should be clear and simple and large. There should be lots of white space.

In truth, very few books that are published outside of the educational market meet these criteria. And even fewer of those books are actually well written. And even fewer of those books contain a compelling story.

You can imagine that I am leading up to a happy dance here right?

Katherine came home from school today with a book today that I love. Bears in the Night by Stan and Jan Berenstain. The words are decodable and supported by the pictures (for the most part), the font is easy to read, there is lots of white space, the story is well written and you actually care about the characters and the very simple plot.

A true easy . Off to do a happy dance…

Read more

I have wanted to attend the KidlitCon since it’s inception six years ago but did not attend until this year.

The event was held at the New York Public Library. Interestingly, as much as I love libraries and as close as we are to the city, I have never been inside this much talked about building. What a treat it was to see the lions and to admire the gorgeous design of the building with new and old friends as we talked about topics, trends and loves in children’s literature.

My day began with a presentation from a few of the many contributors at From the Mixed Up Files.  The format of their workshop, “Community Building On and Off the Blog,” was engaging with Jeopardy questions interspersed giving audience members chances to win books and live tweeting going on during the discussion. My greatest take away had to do with the concept of diversity of posting. By this the presenters referred to the idea of not only paying attention to the diverse nature of the books you talk about but also diversity in your type of posts. They suggested thinking about booklists, contests, interviews and general posts as different and making sure to rotate through these types of postings. While I do this in a haphazard way, I liked the idea of really thinking through this to make sure my posts are varied.

Moving on to my next session, I was thrilled to be able to learn from Greg Pincus of GottaBook and The Happy Accident. I follow Greg’s work often and especially love his 30 Poets 3o Days series. His talk was titled, “Avoiding the Echo Chamber: Bringing the World of Children’s Literature to the World.” This is already a favorite topic of mine. My goal in blogging is to find and connect with parents, empowering them to get new children’s literature in to the hands of those they love. Greg focused on reaching out to groups that share your passions, other than children’s literature. He impressed upon me that everyone out there in the big wide world is someone who may just be dying to hear about a great new read aloud. I left with inspiration to broaden my on-line circle and my reach through social media.

I spent lunch time eating quickly so that I could browse through some fun New York City stores like Joe Fresh, Zara and H & M, each across the street from the library. No one says you can’t love books and clothes in equal measure…

After lunch, the group reconvened for a panel discussion titled, “How Nice is Too Nice? Critical Book Reviewing in the Age of Twitter”. Panelists included author Maureen Johnson, Betsy Bird, Liz Burns, Monica Edinger, Sheila Barry (from Groundwood Books), and Marjorie Ingall (Tablet Magazine, amongst other cool things) and the group was moderated by Jennifer Hubert-Swan. The comments from panelists were insightful, funny and wise. As I do not receive books from publishers, as many do, for review, I haven’t thought too deeply about the way I respond to books. I began to think my posts in new ways, after this session, as Betsy (I think!) talked about posts falling in to one of three categories, reader response, cheer leading and critical review.

My final session was titled “The Benefits of Blogging” and was presented by Diane Estrella. The presentation was geared more toward new bloggers so I probably could have chosen better for this one but refreshers are always helpful and it’s always great to meet new people.

Unfortunately, I had to leave before the end of the day keynote which was given by Maureen Johnson. Having heard her during the post-lunch panel, I knew I would be missing some amazing information and a few good laughs. Turns out I missed a give away of her latest novel, The Name of the Star as well.

Needless to say, though, one missed book did not a conference ruin. KidLitCon, as I had expected, was full of great information, fascinating people and more information than I could hold in my head.

Thank you to the ever talented Betsy Bird for organizing such a knock out event!

Read more

The Cybils Nominations opened at midnight!

If you are not familiar with the Cybils, their purpose is to “reward the children’s and young adult authors (and illustrators, let’s not forget them) whose books combine the highest literary merit and “kid appeal.”

Everyone can nominate one book per category and there are ten categories. That means you  need to get your thinking cap on and nominate so that your favorite book of the year doesn’t fall through the cracks.

Off to nominate! Follow me!

 

Read more