Scholastic Book Fair February 27-March 3

This week is Yulupa's annual Scholastic Book Fair held in the Library/Media Center from 8-9 AM and 1-4 PM. On Wednesday it will stay open from 1-7:30 PM. This is a great opportunity to get your kids some books, both for read alouds and for reading on their own. And maybe even pick up a book for your child's classroom; teachers fill out slips of paper with the names of books they would like to add to their classrooms. Check out the Scholastic Book Fair Flyer. This is just a small sample of the books available.

One of the books I plan to purchase is Dog Man Unleashed by Dav Pilkey of Captain Underpants fame. This is the second book in the Dog Man series. In this short clip, Dav Pilkey talks about why graphic novels should be in every classroom. You can here more from him in this January, 2013 interview on NPR.

Another book that interests me is Pig the Pug because it is 1) a dog book and 2) it is about a pug, albeit a rather naughty one. This book is part of a picture book series.

One of my granddaughters loves the Upside Down Magic books. The flyer features Showing Off, the third book in the series.

To help you and your child find the just right book to read here is the Five Finger Rule again:

The Great Pet Escape

Three furry friends have been rescued from the wild and are now class pets,: George Washington or G. W. in the second grade classroom, Barry in the first grade and the notorious Biter in the Kindergarten classroom. G.W. longs for the glory days of freedom and antics in the wild, so he carefully plans his escape from his cage hoping his old friends are eager to escape the confines of Daisy P. Flugelhorn Elementary School, too. He looks for Barry in the first grade classroom. He finds Barry reading a book and seemingly content but willing to go find Biter. They find Biter, now Sunflower, doing yoga in the Kindergarten. Sunflower likes being a classroom pet and has put her rowdy past behind her, but eventually G.W. and Barry convince her to join them. As they are planning their escape from the school, a mouse named Harriet and her minions confront them. There is no way she will allow them to escape from the school because that will lead to tighter security and tighter security is not good for Harriet. What follows is an increasingly slapstick effort to keep Harriet and her minions from spoiling the next day's school lunch ending in a food fight. 

Victoria Jamieson, fresh off a Newbery Honor for Roller Girl, wrote and illustrated this funny and clever graphic novel. The Sonoma County Library has eight copies and the AR is 2.8.

Reading and Bookish Links

First an important message:

Long gone are the days that comic books were considered inferior reading materials, even harmful. Jennifer L. Holm, three time Newbery Honor recipient, writes for Brightly about the benefits of comics or graphic novels for beginning readers. Check out What Comic Books Teach Young Children at Brightly.

A companion to the previous link is Start 'Em Early: Comics for Young Kids with reviews of several comic books. One of the favorites around here is A Trip to the Bottom of the World With Mouse by Frank Viva. 

My review is here.

From a Mighty Girl, a quote from Carl Sagan: 

Finally, an article from the New York Times Mo Willems and the Art of the Children's Book. Mo Willems is the author and illustrator of the wildly popular Pigeon series, Elephant and Piggie books and the Knuffle Bunny books (which are wildly popular with a couple of my granddaughters). While Willems has written dozens of books for children, the exhibition at the New York Historical Society focuses on these three series. Reviews of some of his books can be found on this blog.

Picture Book Gift Ideas

2014 saw several  new picture books aimed at kids 4-7 years old by some honored picture book authors. The author and illustrator of a 2013 Caldecott Honor book, Extra Yarn, Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen have teamed up again on Sam & Dave Dig A Hole. A simple story about two boys digging a hole to look for something spectacular.   Some kids back in the olden days amused themselves during long summer days by digging holes either to bury or look for treasure or for the more ambitious, to dig their way to the other side of the world. While the story is told pretty straight, Jon Klassen’s illustrations are humorous. We can see what Sam and Dave cannot. Just as they are getting close to finding something, they change course. Fortunately, their dogs does dig his way to a spectacular find. The boys eventually fall down the hole and come out the other side. They decide that is a pretty spectacular way to spend the day.  The AR is 1.9.

Mac Barnett came out with another book this year  illustrated by Jen Corace. Telephone is a play on that  another amusement from the olden days. One person whispers something to another, that person whispers what he heard to the next person and the last person who hears it repeats the message aloud. More often than not, it bears little relationship to the original. The whole story takes place on a telephone wire, the characters are birds. Peter’s mother tells a cardinal carrying a baseball bat  “Tell Peter: Fly home for dinner”. The cardinal tells a flyboy, “Tell Peter: Hit pop flies and homers”. Flyboy passes his version to the next bird on the wire and so on. Each bird adds a twist to the message until finally a very drenched bird relays a message that combines parts of all the versions to a wise looking owl who happens to be sitting near Peter on the wire. The owl thinks about what he just heard and says to Peter, “Your Mom says fly home for dinner”.

 

Tom Lichtenheld, illustrator of Exclamation Mark, has teamed up with Richard T Morris on This Is A Moose.

An unseen director is making a wildlife movie about a moose. Take one: the star of the movie wants to be an astronaut.  This will not do. The director yells, “Cut!” and says matter of factually that a moose cannot be an astronaut. Take two is interrupted by the star’s grandmother (yeah grandmas!). She wanted to be a La Crosse goalie and don’t tell her a moose can’t be one or you have a fight on your hands. Take three is interrupted by a  Regal Giraffe who always wanted to be a doctor. The director dismisses the giraffe because this is a woodland movie not a safari movie. At this point Grandma and Regal Giraffe take matters into their own hands and launch Moose into space. The director goes into a tirade about how that cannot happen because this is a movie about a moose doing moose things. Nonetheless the Moose is in outer space. Finally, we see the director, who happens to be a duck, yelling, “will somebody please find me an animal that acts like it’s supposed to!!”  We see the director pausing to  think and coming to the realization that if a duck can be a director then a moose can be an astronaut . The new movie is “This is an Astronaut” on location on the moon.

Great read-a-loud book. The AR is 1.9.

Katherine Applegate, the winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal for The One And Only Ivan, has written a picture book about the real Ivan called Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla. The book is beautifully illustrated by G. Brian Karas.

The story tells of Ivan’s birth in a tropical forest in Central Africa, his capture by poachers and his arrival in Tacoma, Washington. He was raised like a human child for three years until he became too big.  Then a cage in the shopping mall became his new home. He lived in that cage for 27 years without the company of another gorilla. Some people thought Ivan should have a better life. After letters, petitions and protests it was arranged to transfer Ivan to Zoo Atlanta. There he lived out his days in “a place with trees and grass and other gorillas”. The AR is 3.7.

More Best Books of 2013

Horn Books and James Patterson’s Read Kiddo Read blog have published their list of best children’s books for 2013. You will notice a great deal of overlap with the Nerdy Award finalists and between the two lists. There is a book to please very kid. Check it out!

Good News for Timmy Failure Fans

Monday’s Press Democrat has an article about local cartoonist and author, Stephan Pastis. For fans of Timmy Failure Mistakes Were Made a second book has been  completed (but not published) and the author is working on ideas for the third book. I know some eight year olds that are really excited about that.

 

As of Sunday, Copperfield’s Books in Montgomery Village still had signed copies for sale. And on Friday, May 3, he will be at the Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma at 7 PM.

The Dog Rules

The Dog Rules by Coco La Rue, illustrated by Kyla May, is the first book I have read authored by a parrot. A parrot on a mission to get rid of the monstrous mutt, Monty. The parrot, Coco La Rue, finds Monty to be dim-witted, dirty and smelly. She is on a mission to get him banished from the house forever. Both Coco and Monty live with the Lane family: Coach Walker, Dr. Aurora and Parker. The Coach (or the big hairy human) has six rules for Monty: don’t act like a dog, gym shorts are for wearing, not for eating, don’t touch the Coach’s meat loaf, the couch is a dog-free zone, if your name is not “Trash”, stay out of the can and Mr. Famous* is not a toy. Coco’s plan is to trick Monty into breaking all the rules so that he will be banished forever and she can live in peace. Her plan is working beautifully until, Monty, quite by accident, rescues Mr. Famous and becomes a hero.

The story lends itself to the graphic novel format with plenty of humorous asides and questionnaires. The AR level is 3.2.

* Mr. Famous is a cat, who is also a movie star. He lives next door.

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made

Is there a kid in your life who is a fan of The Wimpy Kid books? Or the '”Pearls Before Swine” comic strip? Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made by local cartoonist and author, Stephan Pastis, might be the perfect book.

Timmy Failure (formerly from the French, Fayleure, which does not mean failure in French) is the founder, President and CEO of his own detective agency,Total Failure, Inc. His business partner is a very hungry, 1500 pound polar bear named Total. He gets a call from Gunnar, neighbor and classmate,  now  missing his Halloween candy. Timmy and Total hop on the Failuremobile (his mom’s Segway) and head to Gunnar’s house.  The interview reveals that the candy was in an orange, plastic pumpkin on his nightstand. Now it is gone. Timmy quotes his fees and expenses to Gunnar and on the way out he walks past Gunnar’s brother, Gabe’s room. Gabe is sitting on his bed surrounded by candy wrappers with an empty plastic pumpkin and chocolate smeared on his face. Timmy, ever looking for clues, writes in his notebook: “Gabe not tidy”.

The adult portion of the review: Timmy seldom interacts with reality. The script in his head is so much more exciting and less threatening. He isn’t doing well in school, his mother’s hours have been cut and they have to move from their house to an apartment. Things are even so bad that Total has to go live in the zoo. Who wants to deal with all that? In Timmy’s mind, he is just one case away from freeing his mother from worrying about money forever.

Back to the fun part of the book: some of Timmy’s scheme’s involve his classmates, Rollo Tookus (aka Stanfurd because he wants to go to a good college) and Molly Moskins (aka Tangerine Girl because every time Timmy is near her he gets a whiff of tangerine). His nemesis and rival is the “ One Whose Name Shall Not Be Uttered”. Her detective agency, CCIA is located in a fancy building downtown with pillars, marble floors and a large safe. However,  that does not make her a good detective!

Stephan Pastis has interesting adult characters who lookout for Timmy. My favorite is the biker librarian, Flo, who reads Emily Dickenson and  helps Timmy with his “research”.  According to Timmy, they are professional colleagues.  The yard lady, Dondi Sweetwater, gives Timmy Rice Krispies Treats for Total. And New Guy, the substitute teacher who takes over the class when Timmy drives Old Man Crocus on a sabbatical. New Guy has a clever way of getting Timmy to do his school work, he hires him to do research!

I am looking forward to the further adventures of Timmy Failure. I laughed out loud many times while reading this book. As a further incentive, right on the cover is an enthusiastic endorsement from Jeff Kinney. My eight year old grandson just finished the book. He gives it a big thumbs up.

The Sonoma County Library has several copies. If you live in Sonoma County, Copperfield’s has signed copies in stock.

The AR level is 3.8.

The Templeton Twins Have An Idea

Yesterday, I was wandering around Copperfield’s and came across a table that featured children’s books the staff thought were the best of the year. For some reason, The Templeton Twins Have An Idea by Ellis Weiner and illustrated  by Jeremy Holmes stood out. Maybe because the inside flap says that the book is “perfect for boys and girls who are smart, clever and funny (just like the [Templeton] twins), and who enjoy reading adventurous stories (who doesn’t?!).”

Abigail is the theoretical twin who loves cryptic crossword puzzles (pay attention, these are important facts) and John is the practical twin who loves to play the drums. Their father is a famous inventor and scientist and they have a ridiculous dog named Cassie. The twins and Cassie are kidnapped by twins Dean D. Dean and Dan D. Dean because Dean D. Dean wants something from Professor Templeton. The story is told by an opinionated narrator who keeps asking for affirmations. He (perhaps, she, it is not clear) asks questions at the end of each chapter. Some are practical, some theoretical and some are ridiculous. Oh, and the narrator loves alliteration and there is a recipe for meatloaf.

Abigail and John use their smarts and their talents to escape from their kidnappers, save their father and at the end are getting ready for their next adventure. As you can plainly see, the Templeton Twins are planning on a series.

This would be a fun book to read out loud. It is a perfect book to try out Mo Willem’s Secrets for Raising a Reader, especially secret number 1.

The Sonoma County Library has two copies.

100 Best Children’s Books for 2011

A group of librarians at the New York Public Library have posted a list of the best children’s books for 2011. A hundred year tradition (since 1911) the books are divided into seven categories: picture books, fairy and folk tales, early chapter books, chapter books, poetry, graphic novels and non-fiction. Here is one sample in each category:

Picture Books

This is the story of Jane Goodall as a child and her favorite toy chimpanzee named Jubilee. Jane dreams of some day “living with and helping all animals” until one day her dream comes true. The book is written by Patrick McDonnell the  Creator of the Mutts comic strip. There are several  copies of this book in the Sonoma County Library. Yulupa’s library has one copy.

 Folk and Fairy Tales

Nine tales of ancient Egypt are told comic-strip style. The Sonoma County Library has three copies of this book.

Early Chapter Books

Spunky tells this story because his humans, the Bates, do not speak dog. Due to a miscommunication, his family gives him a friend he is not so sure he wants. Our family loves books about (and by) dogs. The Sonoma County Library has several copies of this book.

Chapter Books

This should be no surprise. See the post on The Houdini Box below. The Sonoma County Library has many copies. The Yulupa library has one copy.

Poetry

More than 130 never-before-seen poems and drawings to delight all ages. The Sonoma County Library has several copies.

Graphic Novels

Superhero, Captain Amazing, is looking for a sidekick. His pets duke it out for the the honor. The Sonoma County Library has several copies.

Nonfiction

This is a book about one of the greatest friendships and greatest rivalries in our history. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were strong allies before and during the Revolution. They became political rivals, each seeing the role of government differently, during their service under President Washington. They became political enemies during their respective terms as President. After retirement, these two men commenced a written dialogue that lasted over a decade. And in one of the most spectacular coincidences in American history, they died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826. There is one copy in the Sonoma County Library.

Best Children’s Books of 2011

Melissa Taylor from the blog Imagination Soup has posted her Top 20 Children’s Books of 2011. There are recommended books from infant to readers 10 and older.  A few of the ones appropriate for younger elementary readers are

   

You can find the rest of her list at

Melissa Taylor's best children's books of 2011