Blog Post
How To Build Your Own Country
by PizzaPuppy
Are you a kid that likes making stuff? Are you tired of people bossing you around all of the time? Why not start your own country? How to Build Your Own Country is exactly the guide you need to turn your diplomatic dreams into a reality!
How to Build Your Own Country is the essential guide for creating a new country. This book leads you through important steps in the country-building process, such as naming your country, finding a population, designing a flag and motto, and writing a national anthem. Once you've created your new country, it's time to keep your citizens in order! Let this book guide you through tricky tasks such as setting up a government, holding elections, making the laws and serving your citizens. Once you've got a handle on your country's internal politics, this book also looks at how to best handle keeping the peace between different nations. Pretty soon, you may find yourself with a fully functioning country on your hands!
As you read, you will frequently run into fun facts or interesting stories along the way to help you visualize how these tips played out with other real-life countries. This book includes comic-style illustrations, making it exceptionally easy to pick up and read. This fun and interactive book is a must read for kids of all ages.
Need some inspiration for your new country? Check out books like 100 Countries, 5000 Ideas or Building Manhattan to help spark your own creativity and imagination.
Blog Post
Taco Tuesday: Books!
by manz
It’s Taco Tuesday! What are you making for dinner? Are you reading books about tacos? No?!
AADL has some fun children’s picture books to help complete your Taco Tuesday. Even better would be to nom on some tasty tacos while reading together.
Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin is hilarious! And is probably my favorite taco book of all time. The author also has a new non-taco book called Big Bad Bubble that is also worth a read. If you want to make Tuesday pizza day instead, then read Rubin’s Secret Pizza Party and be ready for laughs.
Have you ever eaten Mud Tacos? In this picture book the kids find out that the best thing about making mud tacos is not eating them. But no worries, after the kids take a trip to the market some real tacos are in order and are way more delicious.
Hungry yet? Don't eat mud. If you’re looking for dinner plans, here’s a list of taco-tastic cookbooks with recipes to last for many Tuesdays to come.
Blog Post
Freddie Fernortner Series by Jonathan Rand
by manz
Local author Jonathan Rand of the popular American Chillers and Michigan Chillers series for children, has a series for younger readers called Freddie Fernortner: Fearless First Grader. The twelve book series can now be found at AADL!
The Freddie books feature a mix of spooky and silly aimed at early chapter book readers. Take a look if you’re looking for a new chapter book series by a very likeable Michigan author.
Blog Post
The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend
by PizzaPuppy
Every so often, you find a book that is so brilliant that you can't help but immediately pass it on. When I first read The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, I knew that I had found something special.
In the story, we meet little Beekle: an imaginary friend. In Beekle's world, all imaginary friends are born on a far away island where they wait to be imagined by a real child. One by one, all of his fellow imaginary friends are chosen by their child-- except Beekle. He waits and waits for his perfect partner, dreaming of all the fun activities they will do together... but no one comes for him. One day, tired of being the only little friend left on the island, Beekle does the unimaginable: he sets out in search of his new perfect partner on his own! Beekle travels to the real world where he experiences a bit of culture shock: the big city is nothing like the imaginary island he left behind. Beekle faces many challenges and set backs, all with the hope that he will one day find his new best friend.
What really stood out the first time I read this story were the beautiful and vibrant illustrations. These brightly-colored and delightful illustrations perfectly tell the story of Beekle's struggle to find his new best friend, and includes many small details within the bigger picture. Beekle's journey emphasizes going after what you want, being brave and taking risks. This is a heart-warming story about finding love and happiness. For other fun stories written or illustrated by Dan Santat, check out The Guild of Geniuses, The Three Ninja Pigs, and Oh No! or How My Science Project Destroyed the World
Blog Post
Telephone, by Mac Barnett
by manz
You know the hilarious game where you sit in a circle and whisper something to the person next to you, then they whisper it to the person next to them, and so on? And once the message gets passed to the the original person it is quite unlike the original message? It’s called telephone. You probably played it at a slumber party as a kid. The wonderful new picture book, Telephone, by superstar author Mac Barnett features something similar.
Several birds are sitting on a very long telephone wire. Momma bird says, “Tell Peter: Fly home for dinner.” The message gets passed from bird to bird until it finally reaches Peter at the other end of the wire. You wouldn’t believe the silly message the birds keep incorrectly passing along the wire.
With beautiful illustrations by Jen Corace, this picture book is a winner and will put a smile on your face.
Blog Post
An Alphabet Book For Everyone
by evelyn
Sick of regular old alphabet books? Never fear! The brand new picture book Take Away the A, by Michaël Escoffier and Kris Di Giacomo, will delight readers of all ages.
"Take Away the A" goes through the alphabet letter by letter, showing what would happen if that letter were removed from a word. On the first page, the beast becomes the best, and is donned with a sash proclaiming him the “Scariest & Hairiest.” My favorite page shows the G disappearing, causing a glove to fall in love. Throughout the book, tiny mice watch the scenes unfold in lovely and meticulous detail.
Kids learning the alphabet will have fun searching for where the letter is missing, and the whole family will adore the illustrations and funny scenarios.
Blog Post
Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads!
by PizzaPuppy
Popular children's author Bob Shea has struck gold yet again with his new title Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads.
Drywater Gulch has a problem: The Toads are in town. These thieving Toad brothers have been stealing, kidnapping, and kissing cattle (not to mention insulting chili-- the horror!). Just when all seems lost, hope arrives via a very slooow tortoise. Ryan has come to town with his trusty tortoise companion, and although he doesn't know how to handle a shooting iron, ride a horse, or perform rope tricks (and has a curfew of 8 p.m.), he is made Sheriff of the town. Although Ryan might seem like an unusual choice for the role of Sheriff, he soon proves that he has what it takes to finally stop those no-good rotten Toad brothers once and for all!
Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads takes familiar Western tropes and creates a brand new narrative story. This wacky and slightly sarcastic book is downright hilarious for kids and adults alike-- at several points I found myself uncontrollably giggling while reading. Because of this, Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads would make a wonderful read aloud book, especially for younger children.
In the mood for something similar? Other fantastic titles by Bob Shea include: Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great, Dinosaur vs. the Library, and Race You to Bed!
Blog Post
Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms
by manz
Katherine Rundell, author of Rooftoppers, has done it again. Her newest children’s fiction novel, Cartwheeling In Thunderstorms is a fantastic treat of words and imagery.
Young Wilhelmina Silver, better known as Will, Cartwheel, or Wildcat, lives half-wild in Africa on a farm with her English born father and best animal friends. She spends time running the plains with her best friend Simon, and the monkeys and hyenas she’s grown to love and care for. Will is as feisty as can be and the boys are no match for her wit and spunk. Whip-smart, spontaneous, and ever a dreamer, Will’s happy and magical world gets ripped apart when the family farm is sold and she is sent to a boarding school in London, where she sticks out like dirty thumb.
It’s a charming story with an irresistible voice in Will Silver.
Blog Post
The Hole
by manz
The Hole is such a magical picture book! Brain Pickings describes it as an “existential meditation in simple Scandinavian illustrations and die-cut magic,” and I could not say it any better.
The Hole is written and illustrated by Øyvind Torseter, was translated from Norweigan, and features sparse dialog. Our main character moves into an apartment and discovers that there is a hole in it and he searches to find out the cause. This includes boxing up the hole and taking it to a lab for testing. The best part of this book is the illustrations and the fact that there is a pencil-sized hole going through the entire book from the chipboard covers through the pages. And the hole gets wonderfully incorporated into every illustration and scene. It’s marvelous! It really makes you think about where that hole came from. Where does it begin and end? Why is it there at all? If you’re looking for a beautiful thinker of a children’s book, here you go.
For more beautiful books published by Enchanted Lion Books be sure to check out our nice list of AADL owned titles.
Blog Post
Winter Wonderland at the Tot Table
by StoryLaura
Too cold to roll in the snow outside? Come to the downtown tot table to celebrate winter and play with furry friends and snow people in colorful hats and mittens! They have a tiny skating rink, just like ours. They have a snow covered tree, like the lovely ones we see all over town. Can fox and bear and mouse all fit in the Mitten? Come and see!