"Helping adults find great children's books"
Title: The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau Author: Dan Yaccarino Genre: Picture Books for Children (Nonfiction) Age Category: 6 to 8 years Today, in honor of Nonfiction Monday, I’m reviewing Dan Yaccarino’s The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau. I must say, this picture book made me nostalgic: I grew up fascinated by Cousteau’s [...]
Title: Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes Author: Mem Fox, (illustrations: Helen Oxenbury) Genre: Baby Board Books Age Category: Infant to 5 years Baby’s toes are one of nature’s wonderful features. When I catch a glimpse of them I can’t help but marvel a bit. The toe pads are almost perfectly circular. And the [...]
Title: Pippo Gets Lost Author: Helen Oxenbury Genre: Best Baby Board Books Age Category: Infant to 2 years In my view, Helen Oxenbury’s old-school baby board books set the gold standard for children’s books in the infant-to-2-years age category. Here I review a board book from her delightful series about Tom and Pippo. For my [...]
Title: Beezus and Ramona Author: Beverly Cleary Genre: Juvenile Fiction / 3rd Grade Chapter Books Age Category: 6 to 12 years With the upcoming release of the movie “Ramona and Beezus” on July 23rd, I thought it would be fun to review Beverly Cleary’s classic chapter book Beezus and Ramona, the first in the series [...]
Title: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Author: Eric Carle Genre: Baby Board Books Age Category: Infant to 2 years The Very Hungry Caterpillar: Summary Eric Carle’s classic baby board book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, begins with a small white egg resting on a leaf by moonlight. When the sun comes up the next morning—on Sunday—the little [...]
Title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) Author: J.K. Rowling Genre: Young Adult Fiction Age Category: 14 to 19 years + I plan to review the seventh and last of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)—before the release of the seventh Harry Potter movie in November, 2010. [...]
Title: Grandfather Twilight Author: Barbara Berger Age Category: Infant to 2 years Genre: Baby Board Books Grandfather Twilight, by Barbara Berger: Summary The central character of Barbara Berger’s baby board book Grandfather Twilight is, logically enough, an old man with white hair and beard named Grandfather Twilight. He lives in a beautiful deciduous forest and [...]
Title: Are You My Mother? Author: P.D. Eastman Age Category: 3 to 5 years Genre: Picture Books (Beginner Books / Easy Readers) Well, I’m a bit late with this—Mother’s Day was last Sunday—but I couldn’t resist. This is one of my favorite Beginner Books / Easy Reader picture books. A classic. I still remember reading [...]
Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) Author: J.K. Rowling Age Category: 12 to 16 years + Genre: Young Adult Fiction Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Book Review and Summary Today I present a Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book review and summary. This fifth [...]
Title: One Child, One Planet: Inspiration for the Young Conservationist Author: Bridget McGovern Llewellyn Photographs: Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick Age Category: 3 to 5 years + Genre: Picture Books Children’s Books for Earth Day One Child, One Planet is an attractive children’s book for earth day that conveys the message and importance [...]
Title: Petook: An Easter Story Illustrator: Tomie dePaola Author: Caryll Houselander Age Category: 3 to 5 years + Genre: Picture Books Creating good traditional Easter stories for children is difficult for a couple of reasons. First, the traditional story is quite violent, so a graphically illustrated version of the story could be quite shocking or [...]
Title: The Egg Tree Author: Katherine Milhous Age Category: 3 to 5 years + Genre: Easter picture books Easter is coming, and so I’ve been planning to review some Easter picture books. However, when I started looking around online and in the library for good titles, it seemed there really weren’t that many. Either I [...]
Title: Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland Author: Tomie dePaola Age Category: 6 to 8 years Genre: Picture books If you are looking for a story for children about Saint Patrick to help explain the significance of St. Patrick’s Day to 6-to-8-year-olds, Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland is a great one. This children’s book is a [...]
Title: When You Reach Me Author: Rebecca Stead Age Category: 9 to 12 years + Genre: Middle-grade Fiction When You Reach Me: Summary Miranda—the protagonist of the 2010 Newbery Medal-winning juvenile fiction book When You Reach Me—is a twelve-year-old latchkey kid living with her single mom in New York City in the 1970s. She’s smart, [...]
Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Author: Jeff Kinney Age Category: 9 to 12 + Genre: Comic Juvenile Fiction With the March 19th release date of the movie based on Diary of a Wimpy Kid fast approaching, I thought I would write a review of this madly popular book. Although it was first published in [...]
