Both my kids regularly refer to me as 'the crazy cat lady.' When Eldest gets especially annoyed, I get shooed off with advice to conduct feline conversations instead. So imagine my delight in discovering a shared obsession with Canadian Korean cartoonist Seo Kim! Currently Los Angeles-domiciled and...
Mr. Brown is a bit of a curmudgeonly dandy. He's friendless on purpose, but he makes sure he looks good when he goes out. In spite of his protests, the truth is something else entirely: " ...
What? 2014 is almost over? I never caught up with everything I shoulda done in 2013. Oh well ...
The underdog overpowers her detractors. Check! The unjustly accused is publicly exonerated. Check! An unexpected friendship repairs foolhardy mistrust. Check! Girl power saves all! Check! Surely that sounds like just the superhero adventure tale you want to share with your kiddies! Munia's tiny village is in an uproar over a missing...
The text is not new: you probably recognized the kiddie tune from the title. The origin information appears on the copyright page, so you'll know immediately that "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is a beloved children's folk song written in the...
Here's a book without words, which speaks a universal language that we all need to hear loud and clear: Be kind. Could the message be simpler? Somewhere, anywhere, on a cold wintry night made bright with snow, a single fox seeks shelter. The glow of soft...
As much as Gustave tends toward dark (both in illustrations and initial narrative content), it's even more so about hope ...
Like many 5-year-olds, Joseph Fipps is a never-resting ball of energy. Which means things like potted plants, wall hangings, ladders, and anything else in the way of his adventures might not necessarily remain intact. His mother calls him Gremlin for all his "kind of silly" bumps...
If you like to giggle and guffaw – and really, who doesn't?! – have I got a book for you! "Don't start a food fight with an octopus." Why? Well ...
Lest you're tempted to dismiss this as just another gender-bender version of a familiar tale, banish that thought immediately! Yes, our hero bursts forth from a peach to become the child of an until-then childless older couple, and yes, her name is Momoko – literally...
While her classmates are book reporting on Dr. Seuss, Portia chooses more precocious fare: "Reason and Emotion: Classical and Romantic Philosophies in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia"! So maybe exploring "contrast between logic and emotion" doesn't exactly endear her to the other 10-year-old kids. And even if the teacher recognizes...
Fall is upon us once again, and Lion is out in his garden, raking leaves, turning soil, getting ready for the winter ahead. "Oh! Poor little thing!" he notices: Bird has fallen from the sky, his wing broken. Bandaged and revived, Bird watches as his flock...
Happy, happy to Larry who's celebrating his birthday. He's not so thrilled about having "to work like a dog" – even though that's exactly what he is – to prepare for his natal fest, but he's so "very excited" that all his friends are coming. Being a native...
It's subtitled "An ALPHABEAST of a book!" which should give you some indication that letters will be involved. Ah, but there's a catch – a simply ingenious, uniquely entertaining one at that. Ready to wordplay? "Without the A the BEAST is the BEST." I can vouch for...
"This is the story of a cruel mother, her daughter, and her blind son." That 'cruel' is fair warning that this is not a happily-ever-after fairy tale. It is, however, "one of the most ancient and commonly told [stories] in Inuit history," filmmaker/creator Alethea Arnaquq-Baril writes in...
OH. MY. What a tiny world. Although I don't personally know first-time kiddie book author Anna Kang, I could definitely recite and/or impersonate (badly) parts of her graduate thesis film, not black or white, on command as I've used it some 148 times in classrooms over the...
Oh, oh, oh ...
The son woke up blasting Pharrell Williams' "Happy" this morning which prompted me to exuberantly sing praises for this splendiferous book of the same title. Having only recently discovered Mies van Hout's newest Surprise, I'm quickly catching up with her earlier titles and goofily, gleefully adoring them all....
Welcome to Peach Blossom, a faraway ancient farming village known for its peaches and almonds. The inhabitants rely on Dragon Bridge to get in and out, especially during the harvest season when they sell or trade their bounty in the neighboring town. One autumn, disaster occurs: Dragon...
A baker's dozen of perfect active verbs, measured out sparingly just one at the time, culminating in a final two words together. Twelve dazzlingly expressive illustrations of different birds in various stages of anticipation (the adults) and growth (the chicks) on stark black backgrounds that make the...
