The Book Search

 One of the things that's been great about reading books for kids is reading picture books.  Picture books tap into a part of brain that's completely different from text so yeah, comic books read differently from text books, but they are no less reading than reading text.  I'll also tell you that if you haven't picked up a picture book or a graphic novel lately, you're going to be surprised at the quality of the art work.  These artists are putting out some amazing, awe inspiring work.  Here are two that you might consider.  The first one is a based on a Chinese folktale and it's called Kuan Yin written by Maya van der Meer and illustrated by Wen Hsu.  This story is based on possibly the most revered Buddhist saint and has connections to Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, and Indian culture.  It's about two sisters, Miao Shan and Ling.  Miao Shan likes to spend time with animals is filled with love.  She wants to be able to spread love and happ...

 OOOOOO, it feels SO good to have some time to read!  I found some really great science fiction this week in my Netgalley pile!  And guess what?  These two are on the SSYRA 3-5 list for 2022-2023! This one is called "The Lion of Mars" by Jennifer Holm.  I'm a big fan of Jennifer Holm-I love Turtle in Paradise and Babymouse and the Fourteenth Goldfish and Sunny.  The list is long and I'm so happy to see there's a new addition to the list!  The Lion of Mars is set on Mars.  The American government has sent a group of people to set up a colony there.  There are adults and children who grow their own food (with occasional resupplies from Earth) and make do with what they have.  There are strict rules about living in the colony and one is that there is no contact with the other colonies.  (Wait, what?  I hear you asking!) Yep, there is a French colony, a Finnish colony, a Chinese colony, and a Russian colony.  The Americans don...

Oh it's that time of year again and we are hosting the Scholastic Book Fair this week.  I found a couple of books there that I really liked and I can't wait to share them with the kids. The first one is a picture book.  It's called "I Wish You More" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Tom Litchenheld.  It's a very pretty picture book about wishing positive intent for someone else.  It's full of little truisms like "I wish you more will than hill." or "I wish you more Woo Hoo! than Whoa!".  What's really great about this one is that you can read this one a million times for lots of different reasons.  One teacher I showed it to wanted to give it as a gift to her pregnant daughter.  One wanted to give it to her partner on their five year anniversary.  One kindergarten teacher looked at it and said it would be great for teaching beginning sounds and another teacher thought it would make a great mentor text for writing.  See wh...

I love reading chapter books from the book fair.  I've gotten to the point where I really don't want to buy books because I live in a fairly small house without tons of storage so I just don't have room for stacks and stacks of books.  The other part is, why do I want to pay $25 for a hardcover book that I might only read one time?  So I love that I can haul these books home and then tell the kids which ones are worth owning (in my opinion!). My favorite one from the book fair is called "The Fourteenth Goldfish" by Jennifer Holm. (I bought three copies for the media center and nagged several people into buying it too!) I already adore Jennifer Holm who writes with an amazing mix of humor and deep feelings.  I completely loved her chapter book called "Turtle in Paradise" about a girl who moves to Key West in the 1930s and her graphic novels that she writes with her brother Matt,  "Baby Mouse" and "Squish" are also wonderful.  Her lat...