100 Scope Notes
January 1, 2014 by Betsy Bird
Mr. Tiger Goes Wild By Peter Brown Little, Brown and Company $18.00 ISBN: 978-0-316-20063-9 Ages 3-7 On shelves now. Here’s a fun exercise to liven up a gloomy day. Find yourself a copy of the picture book Mr. Tiger Goes Wild. Now turn to the publication page. It’s the green one opposite the title page at […]
December 24, 2013 by Betsy Bird
The Silver Six By A.J. Lieberman Illustrated by Darren Rawlings Graphix (an imprint of Scholastic) $22.99 ISBN: 978-0-545-37097-4 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Ambition. It’s not a term I usually associate with children’s graphic novels. Your average everyday children’s comic is not particularly ambitious. There are so few of them out there that you can’t […]
November 18, 2013 by Betsy Bird
Jumping Penguins by Jesse Goossens Illustrated by Marije Tolman Lemniscaat $19.95 ISBN: 9781935954323 Ages 6-11 On shelves now. Here’s a puzzler for you. See what you think. There’s been a lot of talk lately about nonfiction for kids and the importance of highlighting those books that adhere strictly to the truth. That means no invented […]
September 13, 2013 by Betsy Bird
Monster On the Hill By Rob Harrell Top Shelf Productions $16.28 ISBN: 978-1-603090759 Ages 8-12 On shelves now See, people? *shakes book in the air* How hard is this, really? I stand beside thousands of children’s librarians who have, for years now, been in a bit of a pickle with the kiddos when it comes […]
September 2, 2013 by Betsy Bird
Ben Rides On By Matt Davies A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press (an imprint of Macmillan) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-59643-794-4 Ages 3-7 On shelves now. The cartoonist as great children’s book author is not a given. Consider the sad case of Berkeley Breathed, for example. He achieved levels of unattainable brilliance when he penned Bloom […]
August 12, 2013 by Betsy Bird
Lockwood & Company: The Screaming Staircase By Jonathan Stroud Hyperion Books for Children $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-4231-6491-3 Ages 10 and up On shelves September 17th I’m sick of historical fiction. I’m sick of contemporary fiction. I’m sick of realism and science fiction. Fantasy I watch with a wary eye. I don’t always feel this way but […]
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July 13, 2013 by Betsy Bird
The Year of Billy Miller By Kevin Henkes Greenwillow (an imprint of Harper Collins) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-226812-9 Ages 6-10 On shelves September 17th I don’t readily compare books to Ramona (now THERE’S a sentence opener, ladies and gentlemen). To compare any children’s book to Beverly Cleary’s classic series just leaves one wide open to ridicule. […]
June 10, 2013 by Betsy Bird
Flora and Ulysses By Kate DiCamillo Illustrated by K.G. Campbell Candlewick Press ISBN: 978-0-7636-6742-5 $17.99 Ages 9-12 On shelves September 24th I like a bit of subtlety with my “meaning”. What I mean by that is that when I pick up a book for kids, it’s tough on me, as a reader, to go through […]
February 1, 2013 by Betsy Bird
Stardines Swim High Across the Sky and Other Poems By Jack Prelutsky Illustrated by Carin Berger Greenwillow Books (an imprint of Harper Collins) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-201464-1 Ages 4-8 On shelves February 26th. To non-children’s librarians the statistics are baffling. Your average poetry book isn’t exactly a circ buster. It sits on the shelf for months […]
January 31, 2013 by Betsy Bird
Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made By Stephan Pastis Candlewick Press $14.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-6050-5 Ages 9-12 On shelves February 26th Call it the attack of the syndicated cartoonists. For whatever reason, in the year 2013 we are seeing droves of escapees from the comic strip pages leaping from the burning remains of the newspaper industry into […]
Politics in Practice
by John Chrastka
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