Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Moon by Steve Tomecek (illustrated by Lisa Chauncy Guida; National Geographic Kids, 2005; Jump into Science! series) introduces young readers to basic facts about the moon with cartoon illustrations featuring a fun and friendly cat. It’s an easy to read picture book to read aloud, and not too dense. My three-year-old son and I read the
I’ve mentioned before that I love Gail Gibbons’ nonfiction picture books: she does a great job at capturing a subject with lots of detail, but presenting it in a way that kids can understand. The Moon Book (Holiday House, 1997) is no exception. While it is illustrated, it is not cartoony. Gibbons provides a readable picture book,
In a fantastic dream, a young boy travels to the moon in a plane in the picture book Moon Plane by Peter McCarty (Henry Holt, 2006). Once there, he walks and jumps on the moon, which feels like flying. There is little science in this book, since of course airplanes don’t fly out of the
Three books I ended up reading during the 48-hour Book Challenge were about slavery, plus I’m still in the middle of Gone with the Wind, which provides a quite different perspective on the institution. I really enjoyed the topical reading, because it’s giving me a more holistic view of slavery in different eras through different
Leslie McGuirk’s “discovered alphabet” in If Rocks Could Sing (Tricycle Press, 2011) gives life to rocks by discovering everything from birds and dogs to kicking and noses in the rocks themselves. Although my son loves alphabet books, I must admit that I usually find them rather tiresome and redundant. Leslie McGuirk’s alphabet is anything but
I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press, 2011) is a hilarious simple picture book about a bear looking for his hat. As he looks for it, he asks his animal friends if they’ve seen it. Then he remembers where he saw it. Did the young reader see it too? My son (an
After reading Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, April 2011), I must admit that I had not been very familiar with the life of Jane Goodall, who is an expert on chimpanzees and anthropology and a proponent of environmental and social issues. My son (age 4) certainly had never heard of Jane
In a simple rhythm and using bright and realistic paintings of animals, Nadia Krilanovich introduces animal and their sounds to the young reader in Chicken Chicken Duck (Tricycle Press, 2011). The animals are all stacked on top of each other in silly ways, and they are also painted on a plain white background, which is
In honor of my recent trip to New York City, I bring you thoughts on two books about the buildings in the city: Urban Animals and Building Stories, both picture books by Isabel Hill featuring images from the buildings of New York City. Urban Animals By showing the images of animals as carved in and
I had never before read a biography of Charles Dickens, but having read 7½ works by the author1, I’ve generated a good idea of the issues that are important to him. Andrea Warren’s new biography for young readers wonderfully captures the man and his stories. Although Charles Dickens and the Street Child of London (Houghton
Previously by Allan Ahlberg, illustrated by Bruce Ingman is a different type of fairy tale. It goes backwards, showing that each nursery rhyme or fairy tale characters came from somewhere else. showing the effect of the action before showing the action. It begins, for example, with Goldilocks: Goldilocks arrived home all bothered and hot. And
The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett (Putnam, 2007). Aloo-ki is a young Inuit girl. Her huskie team has floated away from her on an ice flow, and she sees a little igloo with the warm smell of soup. What follows is, of course, her finding what is just right in the house: the smallest bowl of
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