Tom Lichtenheld is on a role with the letters and numbers books this year! Zero the Hero by Joan Holub and Tom Lichtenheld (Henry Holt, 2012) is another story of writing coming to life: this time, it is the numerals that have personalities! Zero feels left out from the counting games that numbers 1, 2,
E-Mergency! by Tom Lichtenheld and Ezra Fields-Meyer (Chronicle Books, 2011) plays with letters by giving each letter a personality. When the letter E is hurt, the letters rally together to help him heal by convincing the world to stop using the letter E. The result is very amusing, and the twist at the end is
Backseat A-B-See by Maria Van Lieshout (Chronicle Books, 2012) is a perfect book for the child obsessed with vehicles and travel! I know my son would have loved it when he was two years old. As it is, he still enjoyed it and I did too. Maria Van Lieshout finds the alphabet in the street
The mind-boggling question of what infinity is provides the focus of Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford and Gai Swiatkowska (Carolrhoda, 2012). As a young girl stares at the sky, she wonders about the concept. Over the next day, she asks friends, family members, and teachers what they think infinity is. Inspired by the author’s
Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by James Dean and Eric Litwin (HarperCollins, 2012) is one of those sequels that may be better than the original (well, maybe; the original is fantastic too!). In this story about the cool cat, Pete loves his buttons, but they keep getting lost. With subtraction problems to
When I saw Faces from the Past on the Netgalley catelogy, I was excited, since my recent read about forensic anthropology was such a delightful read for me. My son and I have been studying early American history as well, so it fits in well with my current interests. Once again, I have to say how
It’s a Tiger! by David LaRochelle and illustrated by Jeremy Tankard (Chronicle, 2012) is a story of a child telling a story, and somehow a tiger keeps appearing, hidden amid the branches of the jungle. The bright ink illustrations give the jungle and the tiger a friendly cartoon-like feel, and the fact that the tiger
Oh, No! by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Eric Rohmann (Schwartz & Wade, 2012) features a tiger in a jungle, and this tiger is not friendly. Animals are trying to escape him. Fleming’s story has a perfect read-aloud rhythm as the various animals (a frog, a mouse, a sloth, and a sun bear, among others)
Railroad Hank by Lisa Moser and illustrated by Benji Davies (Random House, 2012) is a story of a train engineer who wants to help his granny feel better. Hank is rather slow, however: when Missy May suggests making a yummy plate of scramble eggs, Hank takes the chickens with him, and so forth. By the
Train Man by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha (Henry Holt, 2012) is a part of a series of books that also includes Fire Engine Man and Digger Man. In Train Man, a young boy tells his younger brother about trains and how he cannot wait to grow up so he can work on a train.
Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton (Candlewick, 2012) is a book I can’t quite bring myself to like, and yet my son loves it! Part of my dislike relates to the computer-rendered modern images: the bright orange and red illustrations remind me of computer drawings I attempted years ago and the typeface is also rather
I personally love poetry anthologies, and I have searched for something my son would also enjoy so he could learn to appreciate poetry as I do. We may have found a winner! Julie Andrews’ Treasury for All Seasons: Poems and Songs to Celebrate the Year (Little, Brown and Company, 2012) is a poetry anthology organized
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