Blog Post
New Animal Picture Books
by manz
Do you like pretty picture books about animals that are filled with illustrations so gorgeous you can't stop staring? Here are two worth a view.
A Tower of Giraffes: Animals in Groups features simple information on different animals and what they are called while in a group. A scurry of squirrels, a mischief of mice, a romp of otters. The book is beyond beautiful and will delight both adults and children.
In The Bear Report a little girl ponders what there is to say about polar bears, and her answer is “nothing.” She is quickly corrected by a polar bear named Olafur who shows her the light, literally. They go off on an adventure North where he teaches her about where they live and how they spend their time. It’s a small, quiet book perfect for lap time with the little ones, and demonstrates how wonderful it is when you look at something up close to admire it.
Blog Post
Collect Away!
by evelyn
Cabinet of Curiosities: Collecting and Understanding the Wonders of the Natural World, by Gordon Grice, is a great new book that tackles collecting natural treasures. I was thrilled to find this book, because I have a large collection of bones, shells, feathers, and more. This book explains scientific classification and breaks down the chapters in the book using the Linnaeus classification system.
Each page of this book is filled with beautiful photographs and drawings that show off the specimens that you might find in the wild. The book gives clear instructions on how to find animals that are already dead, rather than killing live creatures. It also explains the laws for certain protected shells and species. Instructions are provided for cleaning, caring for, and displaying specimens of all kinds.
Cabinet of Curiosities is a great book for curious readers of all ages who want to learn how to find and display the treasures that the earth has to offer.
Blog Post
New Picture Books to Celebrate Friendship
by evelyn
Two new adorable picture books about friendship have showed up in Youth, and I can’t stop talking about them! Buddy and Earl, written by Maureen Fergus and illustrated by Carey Sookocheff, is a slight and simple story about the friendship between a dog and a hedgehog. When Earl the hedgehog shows up in Buddy’s life, Buddy doesn’t know what to make of him. Earl tells Buddy that he is a race car, a hairbrush and a giraffe, among other things. Buddy is wonderfully naive and sweet, and Earl is clever and loyal. Fergus’ text is witty and unexpected, and Sookocheff’s illustrations capture their unusual friendship beautifully.
Written by Lisa Mantchev and lavishly illustrated by Taeeun Yoo, Strictly No Elephants is about a little boy who is devastated to find that his tiny elephant is not allowed at the local Pet Club. Rather than wallowing, he teams up with a girl and her pet skunk to start a new club that welcomes everyone. The variety of animals that come to this new club is astonishing, and each one is drawn with beautiful care. Throughout the book, readers are reminded of the kind things that friends do. Never didactic, this book is absolutely adorable and highly recommended!
Blog Post
Please, Open This Book!
by manz
Do it. Open it.
You might remember the funny picture book Warning: Do Not Open This Book! by Adam Lehrhaupt. Well, those animals are back in his follow-up Please, Open This Book! And they’re not too happy. They’ve been trapped in a book! It’s dark in there, and if a book is closed all of the monkey’s bananas get smushed! If you happen to open this book and then close it the animals will be trapped all over again! What will you do? I highly recommend you open the book and find out.
Blog Post
Parent’s Corner: What’s New?
by manz
Many great new books have hit the Parent Shelf! The Parent Shelf is located in the downtown youth area, where you’ll find all sorts of books on hot parenting topics like behavior, potty training, divorce, and picky eaters.
There are new books on discipline such as Positive Discipline: The First Three Years, When Kids Call the Shots, and for the teen years there’s The Angst of Adolescence: How to Parent Your Teen and Live to Laugh About It.
Or maybe you’re looking for books on how to help your kids succeed. If so, check out Raising kids to Thrive: Balancing Love With Expectations and Protection with Trust and The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed.
Perhaps you're looking for guidance working with children with special needs. Parenting Children With ADHD: 10 Lessons That Medicine Cannot Teach is full of helpful tips. And Autistic Logistics: A Parent's Guide to Tackling Bedtime, Toilet Training, Tantrums, Hitting, and Other Everyday Challenges focuses on many aspects of autism and how to help your child in every day life.
Blog Post
Shark Detective
by manz
This new picture book is a winner! Shark Detective! tells the story of a shark who lives in a hotel, watches detective shows on TV and eats potato chips. But he was ever so lonely. At night he would dream he was a detective solving mysteries! Then one day he saw a poster for a missing kitty. Oh no! What could do? He had a great idea -- Shark Detective to the rescue!
The book has charming illustrations, is hilarious, and tells a sweet story about how friends are made. This book is recommended if you're a fan of the silly style of Dragons Love Tacos or Weasels.
Blog Post
If You’re a Monster & You Know It!
by manz
This week Ms Amanda told stories about monsters at preschool storytime! Not the scary kind, really, but monsters of the cute, funny, silly, and sad variety.
In Glad Monster, Sad Monster: A Book About Feelings by Ed Emberly we explored different emotions. We practiced looking at a monster and guessing how it was feeling by the face it was making. We then got silly and tickled a monster until he went way in Tickle Monster by Édouard Manceau. And to end with, since we’re talking monsters here, we had to get a little scary in Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas. (It wasn’t really that scary, but we all made our best scary face and scared away a lady bug and a giant green frog!)
All in all it was loads of fun, and a grand adventure to be surrounded by cute and silly monsters.
Blog Post
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Illustrated Edition
by PizzaPuppy
Harry Potter fans rejoice! The brand new illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is now on the shelves!
This edition of the first book in the popular Harry Potter series includes the full original text paired with stunning color illustrations. Each and every page has been filled with visually appealing and intricate artwork. All of the chapter intros are illustrated in addition to many other images throughout the novel. Some illustrations span multiple pages while some are small asides or details. However, each and every page has something visual-- there aren't any white pages in the entire book. In addition, aside from the switch from 'Philosopher's Stone' to 'Sorcerer's Stone', all of the Americanized changes to the first few printings of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone have reverted to their original British roots (for example: substituting motorcycle for motorbike or lemon drop for sherbet lemon).
Jim Kay does a wonderful job of bringing these familiar characters to life in new and sometimes surprising ways. Harry and the gang don't resemble their movie counterparts, but are a more accurate depiction of the characters as they appear in the novels. These otherworldly illustrations are sure to delight fans and newcomers alike.
Author J. K. Rowling has also been busy with the recent release of her latest novel Career of Evil, adding to the collection of novels published under her pen name Robert Galbraith.
Blog Post
New Steve Jenkins: How to Swallow a Pig!
by eapearce
Steve Jenkins has been using his amazing cut-paper art to illustrate his science and nature books for kids for over a decade now, and I still look forward to each new book that he creates. His most recent one is How to Swallow a Pig: step-by-step advice from the animal kingdom and it's one of his best yet. He uses animals with particularly unique habits: pythons who eat pigs, crows that use cars to crack nuts, and monkeys that use toxic millipedes to fend off lice and offers fun, step-by-step "instructions" for how these animals go about their amazing activities. And of course, the illustrations are as beautiful as ever. This book stands out to me as a particularly great one for classrooms--the detailed, fascinating facts about a diversity of animals would be a fun and complimentary addition to any lesson plan about animals and the natural world.
See more of Steve Jenkins' books on this list!
Blog Post
The Marvels by Brian Selznick
by manz
Brian Selznick has done it again. The Marvels is a beautiful book and the third in what the author is calling a trilogy, following the Caldecott Medal winning The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck. The books are all stand-alone novels in words in pictures. Not just pictures – gorgeous, amazing illustrations done by the author.
The first 400 pages of The Marvels are all pictures and the tale begins in 1766 as we follow the story of a fantastical theater family from generation to generation, starting with Billy Marvel, survivor of a shipwreck. The last section of the book is told in words and takes place in 1990 and centers on a runaway youth named Joseph with map in hand searching for an uncle he’s never met.
The two stories seem unrelated but converge in the most beautiful way and it is up to the reader to connect the dots. I loved that it was loosely based on real people and a real house! If you enjoyed the first two books in this words and pictures format, this one should be a treat as well. To quote a theme in the book, Aut Visum Aut Non. You either see it or you don't.