Book Reviews: “Tea Rex” and “I Want My Mommy!”

These are children’s books that I spotted at work and couldn’t help but pick up, read, and then recommend to customers. And when that happens, it’s worth putting up a review and then qualify them in my yearly challenge.

Tea Rex by Molly Idle 

Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Publishing Date: April 2013
Genre: children’s, picture book
ISBN: 9780670014309
Goodreads: 4.10
Rating: ★★★★

Some tea parties are for grown-ups.
Some are for girls.
But this tea party is for a very special guest.
And it is important to follow some rules . . .
like providing comfortable chairs,
and good conversation,
and yummy food.
But sometimes that is not enough for special guests,
especially when their manners are more Cretaceous than gracious . . .

Averaging five words per page, this book is remarkable. The illustrations tell the story even more than the words, and those illustrations are fantastic. You see how large Rex is — so big Rex’s full body cannot fit on the page — and how frustrated the hostess becomes. Tea and flying crumpets and torn lace and everything, it’s all so humorously beautiful. The manners written in the book almost appear to be the exact opposite in the illustrations. For example: “good conversation” has a picture of the hostess jabbering away, making one guest doze off and the other sneaking another cup of tea. It’s cute, children are bound to love it.

I Want My Mommy! by Tracey Corderoy 

Publisher: Tiger Tales
Publishing Date: February 2013
Genre: children’s, picture books
ISBN: 9781589251304
Goodreads: 3.61
Rating: ★★★★

It’s Arthur’s first day apart from his mommy and he really misses her. Even his fantastic dragon suit and favorite toy dragon don’t help cheer him up. Rargghh! he roars grumpily. But luckily Grandma knows just what to do!

So adorable and true to life, little mouse Arthur dresses up in a dragon costume and goes to Grandma’s for the day. Every time the doorbell rings he races to see if it’s Mommy. But Grandma’s plan to dress up as a Knight makes Arthur’s day pass super fast. Beautiful, soft artwork and a charming story. It’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face!

Any children’s books recommendations?

My 11-year-old cousin is a voracious reader. She devoured Harry Potter two years ago, and has finished reading everything Rick Riordan currently has published. Do you have any other recommendations for children’s fantasy?

I’ve suggested:

• Sisters Grimm
• Artemis Fowl
• Inheritance Cycle

Unfortunately, I have not read any of these yet — I just know they’re fantasy-driven and it’s just the right age for her (most of the YA content is too mature for her, and although she devoured Potter a lot of it she’s admitted she didn’t quite understand fully or was too scared to read herself and it had to be read aloud).

Have you read those mentioned above? What else would you recommend?

Book Reviews: “The Nutcracker” and “The Night Before Christmas”

Or, in other words, “Book Reviews: Children’s Picture Book Edition!” These are classic tales, so why would we need to review them? Because there are some twists and new illustrated editions out there, and what better way to promote them than review them?

The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers

Published: 2007
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780060743864
Goodreads: 4.13
Rating: ★★★★★

New York Times bestselling artist Susan Jeffers has created a Nutcracker unlike any that has gone before, with a lovely spare text based on the ballet.

This is the perfect gift to share with children before they see The Nutcracker. Everyone who has seen the ballet will cherish it–as will anyone who enjoys stories where love triumphs.

Everyone knows the story of the Nutcracker. Either they’ve seen the ballet, heard the symphony, danced in the ballet, played the music, or read various books. This, however, is a unique book! Here, Susan Jeffers has combined the true Russian tale — both romantic and terrifying — with the ballet. The artwork reveals movement, the characters look like they are dancing. Play the music with each passing page and you’ve got a real experience in your hands for children to enjoy!

The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore, Charles Santore

Published: 2011
Publisher: Applesauce Press
ISBN: 9781604332377
Goodreads: 4.32
Rating: ★★★★★

Since it was first published anonymously in 1823, the poem “The Night Before Christmas” has enchanted children with the story of St. Nicholas climbing down the chimney and filling all the stockings before springing back to his sleigh. Many families read the poem every year, and now they have an edition to treasure. The poem, faithfully reproduced here, is accompanied by Charles Santore’s lavish illustrations.

I love this edition! The one I grew up with, Jan Brett’s beautiful illustrations, was stunning enough. When I opened this book and gazed at Santore’s artwork, I was blown away. I especially enjoyed opening and unfolding several pages to reveal more of the poem and the accompanying artwork. One day I hope my children will be as enchanted.

Book Review: “Snowed Up” by Rosalie K Fry

Snowed Upby Rosalie K Fry

Published: 1970
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
ISBN: 9780374371005
Goodreads: 3.67
Rating: ★★

This was read for an assignment in a publishing course. We were to read an out-of-print book and then create a book proposal to bring this back in print. While my proposal will focus on the need for realistic children’s survival stories, and perfect timing with the survival theme in dystopian YA, this review will be different.

Anna, Brian, and Verity are cousins visiting family in Wales. Their aunt slips on some ice as a terrible blizzard sets in, and Aunt Marian and Uncle Fred decide the children need to head back to London immediately. The children miss the bus that would take them to the train station, and they are stranded in a farmhouse. The next several days the three scramble to find and make food, boil water, sleep, and keep warm till they devise a plan to be rescued.

On the surface it’s an excellent read, especially for children. As an adult reader, though, I have to admit some flaws. First, there are very little descriptors. Sometimes it was difficult to distinguish between characters, and the story is mostly dialogue driven. I was surprised when hours had passed as one character spoke two sentences, such as “I am going to pack my bags. There, now I’m done, so let’s check on Brian.” (Not an actual quote.)

But when the children are stranded, the story became very fun to read. What sort of food would they eat? How do they plan to keep warm? How will they escape the buried farmhouse? In a time without cell phones and easy transportation, how did these children get in touch with other people in order to be rescued? Little hints are dropped throughout, a small mystery for child readers to solve as the story progresses.

Upcoming Books! [34]

Title: The Yellow Birds
Author: Kevin Powers
Genre: fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown
Publishing Date: September 11
Summary: “The war tried to kill us in the spring,” begins this breathtaking account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger.
Bound together since basic training when their tough-as-nails Sergeant ordered Bartle to watch over Murphy, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes impossible actions.
With profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home, THE YELLOW BIRDS is a groundbreaking novel about the costs of war that is destined to become a classic.

~

Title: The White Forest
Author: Adam McOmber
Genre: historical fiction, fantasy
Publisher: Touchstone
Publishing Date: September 11
Summary: Young Jane Silverlake lives with her father in a crumbling family estate on the edge of Hampstead Heath. Jane has a secret—an unexplainable gift that allows her to see the souls of man-made objects—and this talent isolates her from the outside world. Her greatest joy is wandering the wild heath with her neighbors, Madeline and Nathan.
But as the friends come of age, their idyll is shattered by the feelings both girls develop for Nathan, and by Nathan’s interest in a cult led by Ariston Day, a charismatic mystic popular with London’s elite. Day encourages his followers to explore dream manipulation with the goal of discovering a strange hidden world, a place he calls the Empyrean.
A year later, Nathan has vanished, and the famed Inspector Vidocq arrives in London to untangle the events that led up to Nathan’s disappearance. As a sinister truth emerges, Jane realizes she must discover the origins of her talent, and use it to find Nathan herself, before it’s too late.

~

Title: Amber Brown is Tickled Pink
Author: Paula Danziger, Bruce Coville, Elizabeth Levy
Genre: children’s
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Publishing Date: September 13
Summary: Amber can’t wait to be Best Child when her mom and Max get married, but planning a wedding comes with lots of headaches. Amber can’t find the right dress, her dad keeps making mean cracks about Max, and Mom and Max have very different ideas about how much this wedding should cost. Her mother even suggests they go to city hall and skip the party altogether! Even though adults can be a lot of work, Amber is determined to be the best Best Child ever. She helps find the perfect location, makes her dad shape up, and, with the help of best friend Justin, gives the perfect wedding speech.

For American Girl Fans – A New Girl!

American Girl was my life when I was younger. I read all the books, had five dolls and five beds and five sets of wardrobes, went to the American Girl Store in Chicago and blew years’ worth of savings in less than two hours, attended historical events at my local living history museum and with my grandmother in her city’s museum…

And then middle school happened, and I grew older, and the magazines stopped coming and I was out of the loop.

Sad.

But then (!) I became a bookseller, and now I’m “meeting” all of the new AGs and looking forward to the stories they have to tell! Finally, this week, a new girl has arrived that I know nothing about and the younger girls I sell books to are just as excited as I am!

Meet Caroline Abbott! She’s stuck in the middle of the War of 1812 (AG appears to have broken the ‘[#]4 formula), and a lot is going to turn her world upside down.

Caroline Abbott is doing what she loves most—sailing on Lake Ontario with Papa—when her world turns upside down. A British officer boards their sloop, announces that Britain and America are once again at war, and takes her father prisoner. As Papa is led away, Caroline promises him that she will be brave until he returns. Then the British attack her village, and it looks as if the Americans are in trouble. Can she stay steady enough to help win the day?

My favorites in the boxed sets were the Christmas / winter / holiday stories. I genuinely want to start with Caroline’s winter story first whenever I get the chance to feel ten again.

Upcoming Books! [32]

Title: The Distance Between Us
Author: Reyna Grande
Genre: memoir, biography
Publisher: Atria Books
Publishing Date: August 28
Summary: When Reyna Grande’s father leaves his wife and three children behind in a village in Mexico to make the dangerous trek across the border to the United States, he promises he will soon return from “El Otro Lado” (The Other Side) with enough money to build them a dream house where they can all live together. His promises become harder to believe as months turn into years. When he summons his wife to join him, Reyna and her siblings are deposited in the already overburdened household of their stern, unsmiling grandmother.
The three siblings are forced to look out for themselves; in childish games they find a way to forget the pain of abandonment and learn to solve very adult problems. When their mother at last returns, the reunion sets the stage for a dramatic new chapter in Reyna’s young life: her own journey to “El Otro Lado” to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father.

~

Title: The Beautiful Mystery
Author: Louise Penny
Genre: mystery, thriller
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publishing Date: August 28
Summary: No outsiders are ever admitted to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec, where two dozen cloistered monks live in peace and prayer. They grow vegetables, they tend chickens, they make chocolate. And they sing. Ironically, for a community that has taken a vow of silence, the monks have become world-famous for their glorious voices, raised in ancient chants whose effect on both singer and listener is so profound it is known as “the beautiful mystery.” But when the renowned choir director is murdered, the lock on the monastery’s massive wooden door is drawn back to admit Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec. There they discover disquiet beneath the silence, discord in the apparent harmony. One of the brothers, in this life of  prayer and contemplation, has been contemplating murder. As the peace of the monastery crumbles, Gamache is forced to confront some of his own demons, as well as those roaming the remote corridors. Before finding the killer, before restoring peace, the Chief must first consider the divine, the human, and the cracks in between.

~

Title: Splendors and Glooms
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Genre: children’s, fantasy, gothic
Publisher: Candlewick
Publishing Date: August 28
Summary: The master puppeteer, Gaspare Grisini, is so expert at manipulating his stringed puppets that they appear alive. Clara Wintermute, the only child of a wealthy doctor, is spellbound by Grisini’s act and invites him to entertain at her birthday party. Seeing his chance to make a fortune, Grisini accepts and makes a splendidly gaudy entrance with caravan, puppets, and his two orphaned assistants.
Lizzie Rose and Parsefall are dazzled by the Wintermute home. Clara seems to have everything they lack — adoring parents, warmth, and plenty to eat. In fact, Clara’s life is shadowed by grief, guilt, and secrets. When Clara vanishes that night, suspicion of kidnapping falls upon the puppeteer and, by association, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall.
As they seek to puzzle out Clara’s whereabouts, Lizzie and Parse uncover Grisini’s criminal past and wake up to his evil intentions. Fleeing London, they find themselves caught in a trap set by Grisini’s ancient rival, a witch with a deadly inheritance to shed before it’s too late.

San Francisco and Sacramento Book Reviews Start Monthly Children’s Sections – PW

San Francisco & Sacramento Book Reviews Start Monthly Children’s Sections – Publisher’s Weekly – Wendy Werris

Because of the success of their recent Children’s Book Week supplement, previously just an annual event, the San Francisco Book Review and Sacramento Book Review have announced they will regularly include the popular child-reviewed feature every month, beginning with the next issue in June.

The publications attempted children’s reviews before, but it was difficult to round up teachers and children to turn in book reviews. Since their special issue, they’ve decided to try this once more. Instead of receiving reviews from children while they’re in schools, the children’s parents and grandparents will encourage them and help them participate in this project. The response so far is fantastic! The books will feature a child’s opinion and an adult’s opinion – everything will be perfectly balanced.

Get those kids reading!

The Hans Christian Andersen Award Announces the 2012 Short List – Pitch Engine

The Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury of IBBY Announces the 2012 Short List -Pitch Engine – Raab Associates

Five authors and five illustrators have been selected from 57 candidates submitted by 32 national sections of IBBY for the 2012 Hans Christian Andersen Award. The award, considered the most prestigious in international children’s literature, is given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People to a living author and illustrator whose complete works have made lasting contributions to children’s literature. The winners will be announced on Monday, March 19^th at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

Check out the five authors and five illustrators that made the list. Congratulations!

PW Tip Sheet: This Week in History

Publisher’s Weekly – Marc Schultz

The historical novel is a perennial fixture in the book business, a nimble genre that works its way into all corners of  the storytelling ecosystem: bestseller lists, hot new subgenres, movie adaptations and, of course, the literary canon. Historicals make up more than half of the just-released longlist for the UK’s Orange Prize for woman-penned fiction, and scripted historicals are in full force on TV (Downton Abbey, Mad Men) and at the movies (2011 Best Picture winner The Artist was one of four historicals nominated for the honor—five, if you count Midnight in Paris). This week, they’re also all over the On-Sale Calendar.

I’m a huge fan of historical novels! There’s something fun and thrilling about taking historical fact, throwing in fictional characters or turn-of-events, and creating a new piece. Sometimes the novels can be silly, and other times there are gems that convince you of plausibility.

This list contains historical paranormal, historical romance, historical fiction, historical mystery, and even “straight-up” history in the nonfiction list. Michael Morpurgo (author of War Horse) is also mentioned in his latest young reader book about a cat on the Titanic.