Newbery Disappointed

I recently finished reading this year's Newbery award winner, Moon Over Manifest. I thought the language used in the story was beautiful, and the story itself was sweet and heartfelt. However. There's one huge problem with the plot, which is: ALMOST NOTHING HAPPENS! During the Great Depression, three girls mill around a small town looking for a spy and learning about the town's past. That's it.

I can think of several grown-ups who would really enjoy this story, because of course it has strong points as I've stated above. And I can see why the adults on the Newbery committee liked it. But unfortunately, I can think of very few actual children who would enjoy reading this book. This is disappointing to me.

Who else has read it? What did you think?

New Award Lists!

The 2012 nominee lists for the Rebecca Caudill, Bluestem, and Monarch awards are up! You can download them from here, here, and here respectively. I was really pleased to see that we had 14 of the 20 Rebecca Caudill nominees already here at the library, and I've already read 7 of them. So far, my favorite was Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, closely followed by Jon Scieszka's Knucklehead.

The Bluestem list looks really good, too. A couple of this year's Bluestem books are also Rebecca Caudill nominees, which is interesting. So if you read Extra Credit by Andrew Clements or Knucklehead, you're ahead of the game. I was also really pleased to noticed that a graphic novel made it onto the Bluestem list: The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis. I'm looking forward to reading that one!

And the Monarch selections are charming as always. I really liked Jim Aylesworth's version of The Mitten, and Jackie Urbanovic's story Duck at the Door. I think kids will really have fun going through these lists. Let me know what you all think of the selections!

Chocolate Party!

Join us for a Chocolate Party this Saturday at 2:30 for kids of all ages! We will play games with Hershey Kisses like Chocolate Guess, Chocolate Toss, Chocolate Drop, and Chocolate Bingo. Books will be given away as prizes in Bingo, and everyone will leave with some Hershey's Kisses. Please sign up if you are interested and I'll see you Saturday!

Fancy Nancy & More

For the huge crowd of Fancy Nancy fans, it might be hard to wait until the next book comes out (Fancy Nancy: Aspiring Artist, coming in March!) but I have come across a couple of great books that will be huge hits.




The first one is called Pink Me Up by Charise Harper (the same author of the fabulous Just Grace chapter books!). It's about a little girl rabbit who is really looking forward to a Pink Mother-Daughter tea. On the day of the event, the mom is sick, and the girl's father offers to take her. The girl "pinks up" her father and they go to the tea, where they are a smash hit and she has a great time. The book is really charming and will go over well especially with fathers and daughters.

The second one is Silverlicious by Victoria Kann, the fourth book in the wildly popular Pinkalicious series. I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of this (it's due out Feb. 1) and I liked the story. Pinkalicious loses a tooth and discovers that it is her sweet tooth. Various holiday figures (the Easter Bunny, one of Santa's elves) visit her instead of the Tooth Fairy and leave sweets for her, but Pinkalicious rejects all of them. Then she realizes that sweet behavior might be the key to recovering her sweet tooth, and writes them an apology letter for rejecting their gifts. The lesson is fairly obvious but not too heavy-handed. The cover design and illustrations literally make the book shine and sparkle, and they will be the key to putting this book in kids' hands.

ALA Book Awards!

The American Library Association has announced the 2011 Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz awards, among several others like the Coretta Scott King award and the Geisel award. Congratulations to all the winners! Unfortunately, at the time the awards were announced (Jan. 10) I had not read any of the award winners, but I'm working to change that. I'm especially curious about the Newbery winner, which is Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool. I did read the Caldecott winner, which is a wonderful little picture book called A Sick Day for Amos McGee. It's really interesting to compare the artwork style found in Amos to last year's Caldecott winner, which was The Lion and the Mouse (and especially to the 2009 winner, The House in the Night). The artwork is so different!

I hope you all enjoy reading these award winners as much as I have been. Get cozy with a good book!

Craft Explosion

Join us this Saturday at the library for a Craft Explosion! I will have leftover supplies out so kids can do crafts from the past, like treasure boxes, birds, octopi, and doorhangers. I will also be putting out general craft supplies like construction paper, beads, pipe cleaners, glue, and all that fun stuff so kids can create new things from their own imaginations. The activities will be most appropriate for kids ages 3+.

The party will start this Saturday the 15th at 2:30, and will be in the basement room below the library. Come one, come all, and get creative!

Five Star Chapter Books

I've recently read a few chapter books that I really enjoyed. The first ones were Big Nate: In a Class By Himself and its sequel, Big Nate Strikes Again. Fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid will love these books, as the blurb by Jeff Kinney on the cover tells readers. The series features plenty of humor and cartoons, plus an energetic main character that kids can relate to. These books won't just appeal to reluctant readers--all readers, of any age, will find something to enjoy here.

I also finally read The World According to Humphrey by Betty Birney. I can see why this series is so popular! Humphrey, the golden hamster in an elementary school classroom, gets to go home with a different student every weekend. He's a really smart little guy and ends up giving help to all the people who take him home. The story was really funny and sweet and will be a hit with kids who like animal stories.


I've heard that the Newberry & Caldecott awards will be announced on Monday, so stay tuned for that!