MORE 'BEST-BOOKS-OF-2016' POSTS
It’s strange to think that Nursery Rhymes prove so difficult to round-up. I’ve done my best. After all, the art of the nursery rhyme is nothing to scoff at. There’s a reason they’ve kicked around all these centuries. Reading nursery rhymes to small children does wonders for brain development, to say nothing of the fact […]
So what do we mean when we say “Board Book Adaptations” exactly? Well, you’re probably familiar with the phenomenon of taking a picture book and chopping it down into a board book When this is done poorly the end product is strange and squished. The most egregious example of this might be the Cloudy With […]
We kick off our 31 Days, 31 Lists at the lowest age level imaginable. Finding quality board books for babies and toddlers is a challenge. It’s not enough to simply have thick pages. You need to be able to engage the interest and attention of someone who is still developing their visual and auditory processing […]
Snow White: A Graphic Novel By Matt Phelan Candlewick Press $19.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-7233-1 Ages 9-12 On shelves now I’d have said it couldn’t be done. The Snow White fairytale has been told and retold and overdone to death until there’s not much left to do but forget about it entirely. Not that every graphic novel […]
The Best Books of the Year lists are beginning to come out right around now. First we saw the Publishers Weekly List. Then the School Library Journal List was presented as part of a live feed on Kidlit TV. The New York Times released their Best Illustrated list for the year. Soon enough the other […]
Five Children on the Western Front By Kate Saunders Delacorte Press (an imprint of Random House) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-553-49793-9 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Anytime someone writes a new prequel or sequel to an old children’s literary classic, the first question you have to ask is, “Was this necessary?” And nine times out of ten, […]
The Cookie Fiasco By Dan Santat Additional Art by Mo Willems Hyperion Books for Children (an imprint of Disney) $9.99 ISBN: 978-1484726365 Ages 3-6 On shelves now See, this is tricky. Very tricky indeed. On the one hand, as a reviewer of children’s books, not bound to any single periodical, I have the freedom to […]
Juana and Lucas By Juana Medina Candlewick Press $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-7636-7208-9 Ages 6-9 On shelves now Windows. Mirrors. Mirrors. Windows. Windowy mirrors. Mirrory windows. Windows. Mirrors. Sliding doors! Mirrors. Windows. In the world of 21st century children’s literature, diversity should be the name of the game. We want books for our children that reflect the […]
What Color Is the Wind? By Anne Herbauts Translated by Claudia Zoe Bedrick Enchanted Lion Books $19.95 ISBN: 978-1-59270-221-3 Ages 5 and up On shelves now I’m going to have a hard time of it when my kids grow up. When I had them I swore up, down and sideways that I wouldn’t turn into […]
Are You an Echo? The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko Narrative and Translation by David Jacobson, Sally Ito, and Michiko Tsuboi Illustrated by Toshikado Hajiri Chin Music Press $19.50 ISBN: 9781634059626 Ages 5 and up On shelves now Recently I was at a conference celebrating the creators of different kinds of children’s books. During one […]