I’m pleased to announce that Baby Born is on the Early Literacy list for this year’s Collaborative Summer Library Program. This summer reading program is used in 48 states!
Baby Born
by Anastasia Suen (Author) and Chih-Wei Chang (Illustrator)
Booktalk: “The soothing verse follows a year in the life of a newborn…”
~Kirkus Reviews
Snippet: Baby born
in winter’s sleep
snowflakes fall
snuggle deep
For toddler time:
Craft: Make a baby in a blanket (just like the book cover!)
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Picture Book of the Day
Hey Little Baby!
by Heather Leigh (Author) and Genevieve Cote (Illustrator)
Booktalk: A little baby has found his hands, his tiny toes, his lovely voice, and his sweet nose—what else will he find in his world, his cozy, wonder-filled world? (A perfect baby gift!)
Snippet: Hey, little baby,
you’ve arrived in our world.
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Chapter Book of the Day
Marco’s Cinco De Mayo
by Lisa Bullard (Author) and Holli Conger (Illustrator)
24 pages
Booktalk: Marco loves the food, parades, and fun of Cinco de Mayo. This year he’s one of the dancers. (This short “faction” chapter book has facts about the holiday and a simple fiction story. Try the “Make Your Own Maracas” activity in the back of the book.)
Snippet: Hi, I’m Marco. See my costume? It’s for Cinco de Mayo!
That’s a holiday that started in Mexico. People there speak Spanish. “Cinco de Mayo” means the “5th of May” in Spanish.
“Suen’s sparse rhyming verse leads readers through the busy scenes and uses simple vocabulary that suits both the youngest listeners and those just beginning to read.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
“A batch of Grandma’s homemade oatmeal cookies beckons, but for this backseat narrator, the sights and sounds along the road to her house are equally compelling.” ~ Publishers Weekly
Booktalk: The Clearwater family is heading west in their covered wagon. But when Granny and Little Critter are accidentally thrown from the back, they are suddenly on their own.
Snippet: They flew through the sky for almost a mile until they landed stuck to a prickly pear cactus. Granny kept napping as if nothing has happened, but Little Critter’s eyes popped open wide as he watched his family’s wagon disappear from the horizon.
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Chapter Book of the Day
The Gray Wolf Throne (A Seven Realms Novel)
by Cinda Williams Chima (Author)
528 pages
Booktalk: Han Alister thought he had already lost everyone he loved. But when he finds his friend Rebecca Morley near death in the Spirit Mountains, Han knows that nothing matters more than saving her. But nothing prepares him for what he soon discovers: the beautiful, mysterious girl he knew as Rebecca is Raisa ana’Marianna, heir to queendom of the Fells.
Snippet: Three lean young men in Ardenine civilan garb played cards at a table by the door. Four had come in, but one of them had left a while ago. Several times, Raisa looked up and caught one or another of them staring at her. Apprehension slithered down her spine. Thieves or assasins? Or just young men showing interest in a girl on her own?
See inside the book
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Picture Book of the Day
St. Patrick’s Day
by Anne Rockwell (Author) and Lizzy Rockwell (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Mrs. Madoff’s class celebrates St. Patrick’s Day!
Snippet: On St. Patrick’s Day, I wore my green shirt, green pants, and even my green striped socks. Pablo wore green sneakers.
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Booktalk: Everyone, it seems, is going somewhere fun for spring break-everyone except Katie Jordan and her family. Even her best friend, Sierra, is going to Hawaii! But then Katie realizes she’s not the only one being left behind-what about all those poor lonely pets? And so Katie sets out to save her spring break with a pet-sitting business. But Katie hadn’t bargained on having a business partner-especially not someone as awful as Claire Plummer!
Snippet: On the last day of school before spring vacation, it sounded like almost every kid in my fourth grade class was getting away from Oregon. They were going places where the sun was shining. Places like Disneyland and San Diego. Even Hawaii!
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Join @CBCBook in celebration of the 93rd annual Children’s Book Week, May 7-13, 2012! #CBW
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I grew up in Florida and California, where the volleyball nets are up at the beach year round. We played volleyball in school, too. Unlike many other sports where you only play one position, in volleyball, you move around the court and play every position. Pass-set-spike!
Booktalk:
Are you a girl who loves to nail the perfect spike? Get in the game! Take your knowledge of volleyball to the next level. Learn the positions, skills, tips and tricks that will help you stay sharp on and off the field.
The ultimate guide to being the ultimate player or fan! Whether competing on the field or cheering from the stands, readers get the inside scoop on all the rules and key strategies of their favorite sports. Plus, find recipes, crafts, and activities to show your team spirit!
The Umbrella
by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert (Illustrators)
Booktalk: A little dog finds an umbrella in the garden on a windy day. The moment the dog picks up the umbrella, it catches the wind and pulls the dog skywards. This is the start to fantastic journey around the world. The wind carries the umbrellas and the dog all over the world, from the desert to the sea, from the jungle to the north pole. A wordless picture book that tells a thousand stories.
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Booktalk: Just like their names, Liv and Morte have always been opposites. The two can barely be in the same room together for more than a moment before all conversations turn into fights. It’s not until Morte disappears after a typical field party that Liv even realizes that she might actually love her brother after all. Missing is the tale of Liv’s journey to find out what happened to her brother the night he disappeared — to discover if everyone at the field party had really been typical.
Snippet: My mother named my brother. Most people assumed that his name was short for Mortimer or Morton or something, but this being my mom, it was just the Latin word for death. My father pretended that he had agreed to the name so my mother could have her little joke. “My little life and death,” she called us. In reality, Dad had no say in Morte’s name. It was one thing to name me, his baby girl, his first-born, the Norwegian word for life. It was quite another to name his son Death.
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March 2012 Online Workshops
The March 2012 workshops will begin tomorrow Wednesday, March 7th.
“Suen’s sparse rhyming verse leads readers through the busy scenes and uses simple vocabulary that suits both the youngest listeners and those just beginning to read.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
“A batch of Grandma’s homemade oatmeal cookies beckons, but for this backseat narrator, the sights and sounds along the road to her house are equally compelling.” ~ Publishers Weekly
Booktalk: Yetta, beautiful Yetta, manages to escape from the butcher’s shop. But now she is lost in Brooklyn—a strange place filled with rude rats and dangerous buses!
Snippet: Yetta, beautiful Yetta, will not be sold. She will not be soup. She will not be roasted chicken on a Friday night. She is free. She is in Brooklyn.
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Chapter Book of the Day
Nerd Camp
by Elissa Brent Weissman (Author)
272 pages
Booktalk: Ten-year-old Gabe is excited to go to the Summer Center for Gifted Enrichment, but then he meets his new stepbrother, Zack, who doesn’t like nerds. Now what? Gabe makes a chart to figure it out…
Snippet:
PROBLEM: Am I a nerd who only has nerdy adventures?
HYPOTHESIS: No.
THINGS I CAN TELL ZACK
(I am not a nerd.)
1. I am going to a sleepaway
camp for six weeks!
THINGS I CAN’T TELL ZACK
(I am a nerd.)
1. It is the Summer Center
for Gifted Enrichment.
For toddler time:
Craft: Make a baby in a blanket (just like the book cover!)
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Picture Book of the Day
Uh-Oh!
by Mary Newell DePalma (Author, Illustrator)
Booktalk: The word in the title is the only word in this almost wordless book about a small dinosaur who keeps getting himself into trouble. (A perfect “I love you no matter what” book for Valentine’s Day today!)
Booktalk: Most cupids have soft straight hair, rosy cheeks, and silky white wings. Not Willa Bean! She has a crazy mess of hair, a million-bajillion freckles, and bright purple wings with silver tips. And lately those bright purple wings with silver tips have been giving Willa Bean an awful lot of problems. They won’t fly!
Snippet: Harper was going to help Wllla Bean in a very special way.
She was going to teach Willa Bean how to get those purple wings with the silvers tips of hers to behave.
Because there was no way, nohow, nope-ity, nope, nope, nope, that Willa Bean was going to start at the Cupid Academy tomorrow without being able to fly.
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Since Derek is the tallest kid on his basetball team, his coach decides to let him play center instead of Jason. Derek thinks this is a lucky break, until Jason stops passing him the ball out on the court. As Jason takes his revenge on him, Derek begins to lose confidence. He’s not sure he’ll ever be able to make a successful free throw with Jason breathing down his neck.
Booktalk: Let’s face it. When it comes to death, everything is scary. Especially if your name is Alvin Ho and you maybe, sort of, agreed to go to a funeral for your GungGung’s best friend (who was your best friend too).
Snippet: “Why did Charlie die?” I asked.
“You’re asking me? You’re the one who was here when GungGung got the news.”
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Toco Toucans by Anastasia Suen
A National Science Teacher’s Association Recommended book
Toco toucans have a surprising way of protecting themselves from predators. These birds have multicolored feathers and big, reddish-orange beaks that should make them easy to spot—or so you would think. The brilliant colors actually provide the perfect camouflage among the bright foliage of the tropical rain forest. The toucans can stay safe by hiding in plain sight!
Copyright: 2010
Dewey: 598
Guided Reading level: I
ATOS Level: 4
Lexile level: 900
Recovery Reading Level: 16
Hardcover and hosted e-book: 24 pages
Publisher: Bearport
Book Activities:
Print this simple crossword puzzle – or solve it online.
Booktalk: This retelling of the classic Grimm’s tale, paired with lush, detailed illustrations, reminds us of the power of music, the importance of belonging, and the transformative effect of love.
Snippet:
The couple so longed for a child
that one day the man cried,
“I want a son even if he’s half a hedgehog!”
Th next spring the farmer’s wife gave birth
to a child who was exactly that–
a boy from the waist down
and a hedgehog from the waist up.
For the final stop on the Hans blog tour, Kate Coomb answers just 3 questions…
Q. When did you start writing?
A. I wrote plays and stories and poems as a child. I remember writing a Nancy Drew knockoff in about 4th grade for school (a long short story), and I recall being very proud of myself for writing a sonnet in middle school. In my grade school plays, I would cast myself as the Glorious Queen and my little sister as the Quiet Servant Girl. As a teen and in college, I mostly wrote poetry.
Q. Describe your writing process.
A. I brainstorm until I come up with an idea that appeals to me. If it’s for a picture book, I just start writing. This usually tells me whether the idea will work out. If it continues to seem promising, I revisit the story every day or so for weeks, playing with the manuscript and its possibilities. If the story works, I fine-tune it over and over. At times I step away for a week or two and come back to the story with fresh eyes.
For a middle grade novel, I brainstorm, as well, and pick an idea. Then I write several pages of story development notes, often questions and answers, e.g., “If they don’t catch the dragon, why not?” I also write random scenes that pop into my head–especially a scene that will come near the end of the book and show the direction I’ll be heading throughout. After a few days or weeks of this, I simply start writing with chapter one and go in order (unless a later scene makes itself known along the way, which does happen).
My best writing time is early in the morning, but I have been known to write on scraps of paper while in line at the post office. Sometimes I get an idea while I’m driving and pull over to write it down.
Q. Tell us about your latest book.
A. Retelling Hans My Hedgehog was actually illustrator John Nickle’s idea. It’s a less well-known Grimms’ fairy tale for a reason: the original is darker than some of the other tales and has a few narrative troubles. My goal, of course, was to keep the spirit and overall plot of the original while brightening the tale and smoothing out those bumps. Basically, Hans My Hedgehog is the story of a boy who is born a human from the waist down and a hedgehog from the waist up. He learns to play the fiddle and herd pigs, but the village boys and girls shun him. Riding on a rooster, Hans takes his pigs and goes off to live in the woods. There his music and magic grow, and Hans helps two kings in exchange for two promises. The question is, will a princess marry a youth who is half hedgehog?
Plus I have another book coming out in March, a collection of ocean poems called Water Sings Blue. This spring is a pretty happy time for me!
Thanks for stopping by, Kate! I look forward to seeing the new book in March…
Booktalk: Seventeen-year-old Hope Long’s life revolves around her brother Jeremy. So when Jeremy is accused of killing the town’s beloved baseball coach, Hope’s world begins to unravel. Everyone is convinced Jeremy did it, and since he hasn’t spoken a word in 9 years, he’s unable to defend himself. Their lawyer instructs Hope to convince the jury that Jeremy is insane, but all her life Hope has known that Jeremy’s just different than other people—better, even. As she works to prove his innocence—joined by her best friend T.J. and the sheriff’s son, Chase—Hope uncovers secrets about the murder, the townspeople, her family, and herself. She knows her brother isn’t the murderer. But as she comes closer to the truth, she’s terrified to find out who is.
Snippet: The first time Jeremy heard God sing, we were in the old Ford, rocking back and forth with the wind. Snow pounded at the window to get inside, where it wasn’t much better than out there. I guess he was nine. I was seven, but I’ve always felt like the older sister, even though Jeremy was bigger.
I snuggled closer under his arm while we waited for Rita. She made us call her ‘Rita’ and not ‘Mom’ or ‘Mommy’ or ‘Mother,’ and that was fine with Jeremy and me. Pretty much anything that was fine with Jeremy was fine with me.
We’d been in the backseat long enough for frost to make a curtain on the car windshield and for Rita’s half-drunk paper cup of coffee to ice some in its holder up front.
Jeremy had grown so still that I thought he might be asleep, or half frozen, either one being better than the teeth-chattering bone-chilling I had going on.
Then came the sound.
*This book is a Young Adult Edgar Nominee!
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Booktalk: Little Maomao s father works in faraway places and comes home just once a year, for Chinese New Year. At first Maomao barely recognizes him…
Snippet: Papa bries a coin in one of the balls and says, “Whoever finds the ball with the coin will have good luck.”
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Booktalk: The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps– it’s just harmless fun.
That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future. Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.
But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler. Recruit… or kill him.
Snippet:
The first time I jumped was about eight months ago, during my first semester of college. I was sitting in the middle of a French poetry class. I nodded off for a few minutes and woke up to a cold breeze and a door slamming me in the face. I was standing in front of my dorm. Before I even had a chance to panic, I was right back in class again.
The Very Fairy Princess
by Julie Andrews (Author), Emma Walton Hamilton (Author) and Christine Davenier (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Her friends and family may not believe in fairies, but Geraldine knows, deep down, that she is a VERY fairy princess. From morning to night, Gerry does everything that fairy princesses do…
Snippet: The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is put on my crown.
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Booktalk: Calvin Coconut’s fourth grade class meets Benni Obi, a weird and likable new kid. Benny brags about knowing kung fu, wears mirrored sunglasses, eats worms, crickets, and chocolate-covered scorpions, and says all the wrong things to bully Tito. Uh-oh. Meanwhile, the neighborhood kids and pets clear the road—Calvin’s babysitter Stella is learning how to drive. She’s got a lead foot.
Snippet:
Before lunch at school that day, right in the middle of our silent reading time, in Mr. Purdy’s class, this new kid walked in with Mrs. Leonard, the principal.
I looked up.
Whoa!
I stopped breathing.
The whole class did.
The new kid looked us over, his eyes scrunched.
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Literary Links
Study: Children Prefer eBooks (but remember less with “enhanced” ebooks) (via @eBookNewser)
Peskin to Head FSG Books for Young Readers (via @publisherswkly)
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