MORE 'BEST-BOOKS-OF-2018' POSTS
Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish By Pablo Cartaya Viking (an imprint of Penguin Random House) $16.99 ISBN: 9781101997260 Ages 9-12 On shelves now The other day a woman contacted me and wondered if I could offer any picture book/middle grade/ YA suggestions for a list of various topics. The list consisted of things like “OCD”, […]
When I was a child I knew what Down syndrome was but I didn’t know it because of any picture books that contained characters with Down syndrome. None of my childhood literature covered it, so if I wanted to see someone represented in this way I had to turn on Sesame Street. Though it’s not […]
Dreamers By Yuyi Morales Neal Porter Books (an imprint of Holiday House) $18.99 ISBN: 978-0-8234-4055-9 Ages 5 and up On shelves now Work in the children’s book business long enough and you run the risk of harboring grudges. Or, to be more specific, grudges o’ love. Grudges on behalf of the hardworking authors and illustrators […]
Louisiana’s Way Home By Kate DiCamillo Candlewick Press ISBN: 978-0-7636-9463-0 $16.99 Ages 9-12 On shelves October 2nd There once was a book called Raymie Nightingale. Not a big flashy book with glitter on the cover and fonts that look like escaped balloon animals. Just a quiet book set in the late 1970s in Florida, patiently […]
Fox & Chick: The Party and Other Stories By Sergio Ruzzier Chronicle Books $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-4521-5288-2 Ages 4-7 On shelves now Have you ever sat down and looked at books meant to instruct children in the art of reading from the early 18th to 19th centuries? When Americans colonists first came around to the idea […]
Jabberwalking By Juan Felipe Herrera Candlewick Press $22.99 ISBN: 9781536201406 Ages 10 and up On shelves now Not too long ago I taught a six-week summer creative writing course for teens. Now I’ve never taught creative writing before. Truth be told, I had no idea where to start. So, like any good librarian, I hit […]
The Field By Baptiste Paul Illustrated by Jacqueline Alcántara North/South Books, Inc. $17.95 ISBN: 978-0-7358-4312-7 Ages 4-7 On shelves now Here’s an interesting conundrum for you. Rattle it about in your brain for a while. It is an uncontestable fact that the majority of picture books published in America in a given year feature either […]
No doubt by this time you’ve read PW’s list of the Most Anticipated Children’s And YA Books of Fall 2018. Good strong books are on that list, many that I absolutely adore. That said, I couldn’t help but notice a lot of gaps. Just one graphic novel. Three nonfiction. And, because a book is usually […]
Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness By Anastasia Higginbotham Dottir Press $18.95 ISBN: 9781948340007 Ages 6 and up On shelves September 4th The other day I was at the table with my 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son and the subject of police shootings came up. I think there was a time when I would […]
Small Spaces By Katherine Arden G.P. Putnam & Sons (an imprint of Penguin Young Reader’s Group) $16.99 ISBN: 9780525515029 Ages 10-14 On shelves September 25th In fourth grade I sold my soul to the Scholastic Book Club’s Apple paperbacks. There was only one thing in the entire world I ever wanted to read, at that […]