Childrens Books

999 Frogs Wake Up By Ken Kimura Illustrated by Yasunari Murakami North South Books ISBN: 9780735841086 $17.95 Grades PreK-1 In Stores Find it at: Schuler Books | Your Library Croooak! Creeeeck!! As I write this, there are two frogs ribbit-ing back and forth in my backyard. Every spring they arrive, every time with their bordering-on-oppressive volume level. Maybe it’s just me, but when I think frogs I think childhood. These amphibians figure big in the lives of a lot of kids. Even those who would never lay a hand on one often fall victim to their fascinating grossness. Originally published in Japan, 999 Frogs Wake Up continues the story begun in 999 Tadpoles. Similar to its predecessor, this is a simple tale, well-told. It’s spring and Mother Frog pops her head out of the mud. Time to awaken her brood. But when you have 999 kids, the accounting can be difficult. ‘One, two, three …,’ Mother Frog counted. But no matter how many times she counted, she could only find 998 froglets. The mystery is solved when sleepyheaded big brother finally emerges. But there are other slumbering creatures as well, and big brother and the rest of the family set out to rouse them. Turtle, lizard, ladybugs – everything’s a breeze until they come across a big snake, where some quick thinking by Mother Frog ensures the froglets will live to see more adventures. The illustrations are simple and bold. White space is a key element, making the froglets and the other creatures leap off the page. Although it’s fiction, I could see 999 Frogs Wake Up working well for introducing some nonfiction concepts. The story provides a number of jump off points for exploration on hibernation, habitats, ecosystems, life cycles, and more. It also ranks high the on the read aloud meter. An all-around good book to have on hand. Review copy from the publisher. New feature! Great Kid Books, The Nonfiction Detectives, Kid Lit Frenzy, and I are teaming up to review books on similar topics. We’re calling it Common Core IRL: In Real Libraries. Click here to get the full scoop at Great Kid Books.

This panel from Batman, #159, drawn by Sheldon Moldoff for Bob Kane, suggests how Alfred saw the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson—and thus how scripter Bill Finger (credited with this story in the Grand Comics Database) saw it shortly before the arrival of the “New Look.”This is one of the “imaginary stories” featuring a putative son of Bruce Wayne and Kathy (Batwoman) Kane, as pictured by Alfred. The story refers to Dick Grayson as Bruce’s “ward.” But it also matter-of-factly refers to him twice as “uncle” of redheaded Bruce Wayne, Jr.Thus, Dick wasn’t an older brother to Bruce’s son, as a later generation of scripters would portray his relationship to Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne. Instead, he was a younger brother to Bruce himself.

Welcome to yet another week of what I found in my blog reading of interest to us fans of middle grade sci fi/fantasy, and possibly of interest to people who aren't fans themselves but have to buy the books for others. Please let me know if I missed your post, please feel free to send me links any time during the week, please feel free to tell me about the posts of others, and please feel free to mention these round-ups on your own blog if the spirit moves you!The ReviewsAn Army of Frogs, by Trevor Pryce, at Journey of a BooksellerThe Bell Between Worlds, by Ian Johnston, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted BooksThe Cats of Tanglewood Forest, by Charles de Lint, at Fantasy Book CriticThe Clan of the Scorpion (Ninja Meerkats), by Gareth P. Jones, at Jean Little LibraryThe Circle, by Cindy Cipriano, at SA LarsenDoll Bones, by Holly Black, at The Book Smugglers and Cover2CoverBlog Fyre, by Angie Sage, at Unlikely LibrarianGoulish Song, by William Alexander, at That Blog Belongs to Emily Brown and TorThe Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy, at Between the PagesIron Hearted Violet, by Kelly Barnhill, at Great ImaginationsThe Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis, bySharon Ledwith, at swlothianLoki's Woves, by K.L. Armstrong and M.A. Marr, at One Librarian's Book ReviewsNation, by Terry Pratchett, at The Book SmugglersNew Lands, by Geoff Rodkey, at Geo LibrarianThe Path of Names, by Ari Goelman, at Charlotte's LibraryThe Planet Thieves, by Dan Krokos, at The O.W.L.The Princelings of the East, by Jemima Pett, at The Ninja Librarian The Reluctant Assassin, by Eoin Colfer, at Book NutThe Rose Throne, by Mette Ivie Harrison, at Kiss the BookSeeds of Rebellion, by Brandon Mull, at Fantasy Literature Summerkin, by Sarah Prineas, at Random Musings of a BibliophileTilly's Moonlight Garden, by Julia Green, at Kid Lit GeekThe Tree of Mindala, by Elle Jacklee, at alibrarymamaThe Water Castle, by Megan Frazer Blackwood, at Charlotte's LibraryWednesdays in the Tower, by Jessica Day George, at Sharon the Librarian, The O.W.L. and Small Review (giveaway)Wonderlight, by R.R. RussellA World Without Heroes, by Brandon Mull, at Fantasy Literature ps: just once I would love to have a book for every letter of the alphabet. So please, why not consider reviewing a book beginning with E, I, J, K, M, O, Q, U, V, X, Y, or Z? Then I would not have to search frantically, and disappointingly, for reviews of The Menagerie, or Undertown. For a while, Jinx and The Key and the Flame covered those two difficult letters, but that well seems to have run dry... You Only Die Twice, by Dan Gutman, gave me a Y once, but no one has reviewed Zombie Kid or Zombie Tag or Zeus and the Thunderbolt of Doom for ages...It's probably a fruitless task-- I don't know if I have ever been able to include a book beginning with X. I once read a book beginning with X, but did not feel moved to review it.....Authors and InverviewsSage Blackwood (Jinx) at Charlotte's Library (giveaway)Anne Nesbit (Box of Gargoyles) at The Enchanted Inkpot"Lemony Snickett" (Who Could That Be At This Hour?) at The Children's Book ReviewSoman Chainani (The School for Good and Evil) at The Enchanted InkpotAri Goelman (The Path of Names) at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia and Brooklyn Arden (who edited the book; giveaway)Jessica Day George (Wednesdays in the Tower) at Small ReviewKelley Armstrong (Loki's Wolves) at Literary Rambles (giveaway)Kit Grindstaff (The Flame and the Mist) at CynsationsR.R. Russell (Wonderlight) at A Backwards StoryBarbara Brauner and James Iver Mattson (Oh My Godmother: The Glitter Trap) at All For One and OneFour KidlitDorine White (The Emerald Ring) Blog Tour stops so far:Tuesday, May 14- From The Mixed up Files of Middle Grade Authors- Author Interview and giveawayTuesday, May 14- The Misadventures of a Twenty Something- ReviewWed, May 15- I am a Reader, Not a Writer- Author Interview and giveawayThurs, May 16- Word Spelunker- Spotlight/GiveawayFri, May 17- Th

LULU HAD COME OVER TO PLAY WITH BABY BEAR. "I'M PLAYING TIGER WITH RORY," SAID BABY BEAR. "I LOVE TIGERS!" CRIED LULU.A friend of my friend is my friend, right?Baby Bear's fuzzy orange tiger toy is his best friend, Lulu approves of his choice, and for a while all goes well with the playdate. But when Baby Bear gets rumbly in his tumbly and goes to fetch some snacks, things take a turn for the worst.LULU WAS PLAYING WITH RORY! BABY BEAR GRABBED RORY'S LEG. LULU HELD ON TIGHT!Suddenly the playdate isn't working out so well! Lulu is in tears, and when Mom tells Baby Bear to share, he tries to placate Lulu with a zebra toy. It's got stripes, too, right?But Lulu is having none of that. It's Rory or nothing.So Mom steps in, takes charge of Rory for the moment and suggests a diverting trip to the park.Grudgingly the two tots set off, but the playground is enticing. Studiously avoiding each other, Lulu tries playing solo on the see-saw, and Baby Bear sits down on the swing. Neither one of them seem to be going anywhere with their plans. See-saws that don't go up and down by themselves, and swings that don't swing are NO FUN! Lulu needs a partner, and Baby Bear needs a push! Hmmm!Luckily, Mom knows how to facilitate a quiet compromise in Tracey Corderoy's It's Mine! (Good Books, 2012). Artist Caroline Pedler's sweetly rounded little bears are beguiling, and the use of bright orange flocking on her illustrations of Rory Tiger make the little bears' rivalry for the fuzzy toy totally understandable. Sharing a beloved toy is hard (think having a friend over who demands to take your brand-new car out for a solo joyride!), and learning to share fairly is a big step in the preschool years. Pair this one with Anna Dewdney's latest best-selling Llama story, Llama Llama Time to Share (see my review here), which covers the same premise, managing to offer quite a bit of character development while sticking to a demanding but appealing rhyme that makes this life lesson go down sweetly.

Hold Fast By Blue Balliett Scholastic $17.99 ISBN: 978-0545299886 Ages 9-12 I honestly don’t think you can be a reviewer without being honest about your own personal prejudices first. When I pick up a book for children I have to cut through a thick swath of issues infecting my brain that may have little to nothing to do with the book in hand. Maybe I was forced to read Stuart Little when I was a child and that’s why I’ve never liked animal fantasies. Maybe a poorly constructed sports novel burned a small hole in my soul and that’s why this particular baseball novel isn’t ringing true to me. You have to own up right from the start to what makes you tick as a reviewer. So that’s what I’m going to do with Blue Balliett’s book Hold Fast. Here are the facts of the matter. I have read two other books of Ms. Balliett’s in the past and they were not to my taste. That’s fact number one. Fact number two is that when I am disappointed in a book it makes me even more critical of the title than would be normal for me. So read on if you like, but bear in mind that these two facts are at the forefront of this very review. I read Hold Fast by Blue Balliett. I did not much care for it. Sum, Dash, Early and Jubie. Four people in a single family. Take away one of them? Disaster. That’s how Early feels when her beloved father Dash disappears one night on his way home from the library. The police are willing to believe that he’s just another deadbeat dad but Early knows better. Surely his disappearance has something to do with a side job he got at the library. And what’s the connection to those scary men who threatened her family, forcing them to seek help in one of Chicago’s many shelters? Though she’s just a kid, Early is determined to solve the mystery for the sake of her little brother Jubie, her seriously depressed mom Sum, and the father who might be out there needing her help. You might wonder why I would suck on such bitter disappointment with this book right from the get-go when, as I’ve already stated, it wasn’t as if my expectations were high to begin with. But you see my expectations were high. Not because of the author necessarily, but because of the description of the plot. I work in the ultimate urban library system: New York City. I see middle grade books for kids waltz through my library’s doors every single solitary day. Sheer hoards of books are published for children in a given year. Now recount for me all the titles you can think of off the top of your head that deal with the shelter system. Not the foster care system (though that genre could certainly use a kick in the pants as well) but the kids and adults caught up in shelters. In all my years of librarianship I can tell you honestly that I have never read a single solitary middle grade novel, or picture book for that matter, that dared to explain, explore, or inhabit the world of shelters. The children living there might as well not exist for all that they don’t show up in books. So for Ms. Balliett to research and throw herself heart and soul into a book that dares to explore this remarkable topic is to her credit. For that alone she should be commended. And had I not read the book I could have left it at that. But I did read the book. That is where the trouble started. I recently wrote a post on my blog decrying the lack of African-American male protagonists in middle grade novels (particularly in the publishing year 2013). Balliett’s protagonist is female, but that’s fine and dandy with me. As much as we need boys, we need girls just as much. I’ve never had a problem with an author writing about a character outside their own race. Do your research and avoid the obvious pitfalls and you’ll have my support. “Hold Fast” starts out fine in this respect. The family lives lower-income lives (in part, perhaps, due to Summer’

Lynn:  It’s pretty exciting when a new baby first comes home but for a toddler, that magic often diminishes as reality sets in and the baby gets a lot of attention.  Phoebe & Digger (Candlewick 2013) is a wonderfully funny, nuanced look at that common situation from the toddler’s point of view.  In our story there has been some parental planning at work here: “When Mama got a new baby… Phoebe got a new digger.” Phoebe loves her new toy but it’s clear that she is less than enchanted with the new baby.  One afternoon, Mama is very busy with the baby and Phoebe is equally busy with Digger.  Jeff Newman’s funny illustrations show what Phoebe and Digger are up to and it is no wonder that Mama decides a trip to the park is in order.  All is fine for a while until Phoebe tries to explain a perfectly reasonable situation to a “crybaby boy” and ends up in time out.  Released, Phoebe next has an encounter with a “big girl with mean teeth” who takes Digger away from her.  Happily, in steps Mama and much is resolved in an ending that is sweetly reassuring. This little slice of life is a delight – as much for the little ones adjusting to a new sibling as for the adults also adjusting.  I adore Newman’s illustrations that reveal the reality behind the toddler-perception of the story.  I’ll leave more about that to Cindy and will just say that my favorite illustration is of Phoebe in time-out. This is the perfect book for little ones and families!   The spacious pages and large illustrations make it great for a story-hour as well as being a lap-time treasure for parents and toddlers to read while a new baby sleeps.  I’ve already ordered this for the youngest member of our focus group, Henry, who is going to be a big brother in a few months! Cindy: Digger is quite the expressive construction toy with facial moves that are sure to elicit laughter and Phoebe’s imagination doesn’t hurt. Earthworms become boa constrictors and the sandbox holds mountains. The day is full of adventure…and conflict. When confronted with the bully, Phoebe tried using her words (oh, did I say that a lot over the years…”use your words!”) But that doesn’t work this time…nor does her knuckles (just a little) or her foot (not too hard). Sometimes the presence of an adult can smooth things over. Mama might seem preoccupied with the new baby, but she has eyes everywhere and she sizes up situations all throughout the story in subtle ways, ones that will surely amuse the adults reading this book to young children. Thank you for a family with brown skin. For a girl who plays with toy trucks. For a story that shows acceptable limits of behavior with enforced consequences. For a funny but reassuring story about new babies. For the simple but dual look at bullying behavior. Rarely do we see a character who is both bullied and bully in books for the very young. This is a story with love at its heart, expressed in words and art on every page.

“You might be afraid of the dark, but the dark is not afraid of you.” -The Dark by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Jon Klassen

Today is Armed Forces Day, the day on which we honor our fellow Americans currently serving in the five branches of the U.S. military—Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The holiday was first observed in 1950, shortly after command of the five branches of the military was centralized under the Department of Defense. Despite this, Armed Forces Day didn’t become an official holiday until 1962. Many of us have friends and family who are in the military, and most people probably know at least one person with a friend or family member in the military. While every day is likely Armed Forces Day for those with loved ones serving overseas, today is the official day when we all band together to show our support of, and respect for, the members of the U.S. Armed Forces. So to all those brave men and women who make the choice to wear the uniform and potentially risk their lives in order to protect ours: thank you. You can find some great Armed Forces–themed reads below. Military Branches Pack Available in SeeSaw May 100 Days and 99 Nights by Alan Madison Available in Arrow May An Inside Look at the U.S. Navy SEALs by Joe Funk Available in Storia eBooks Military Machines Pack Available in SeeSaw June No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden by Mark Owen Available in BookBeat Dogs on Duty: Soldiers’ Best Friends on the Battlefield and Beyond by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent Available in Club Shop

BLACK BLOP WHITE BLOP !POLB REVOCSIDBLOP is a blob--a four-lobed blob, a shape that can be almost anything the mind can imagine--a flower, a cloud, a butterfly, a Blop family, a classroom of blops in neat rows, what-ever-you-want blops.Herve' Tullet's latest, I am Blop! (Phaidon, 2013) explores what can be done with a faithful shape like the blop. Blue blop teaches colors with an acetate overlap of yellow which yields a green blop which works both ways, forward and back. Pink and purple overlays play with a touch of red.There are blops with faces, blops becoming animals, broken blops, measled blops, even invisible blops, blops as famous paintings, blops seen on a mirrored page. There are fill-in-the-blank blops and even punch-out blops that kids can take away to put into their own blop stories.Herve' Tullet's books play with the very idea of the book, extending the two-dimensional page into the non-dimensional world of the imagination, as he did in in his 2011 best-seller Press Here (see my review here) and his equally imaginative The Book with a Hole. Tullet's little books have broken new ground--genre-breaking, interactive books with deceptively simple art on traditional white pages which nevertheless become interactive when mixed with the imagination of the child. This one is no exception. Publishers Weekly puts in "... even the format is a novelty," and Kirkus Reviews quips "Tullet will intrigue children and encourage them to think outside the blop."

Submitted by Ethan, Age 11 from Rhode Island Rating: 5 out of 5 stars In the book Beasts and Monsters there is a legend called ”The Spotted Egg”. There is magic in the air. Two Cheyenne indians are lost and they find the spotted egg,but it has special powers and it doesn`t end well.The best part is the end of this legend. Any one who likes mythes and legends will love this book