For a certain type of child, there is nothing better than anything tiny. Tiny books, tiny toys, tiny leaves and flowers. These are the children that tend to have elaborately tended dollhouses–no matter how patchily put together–and shelves full of miniature ‘found’ objects.
Children who like tiny things often like books about tiny creatures. Joining the grand tradition of The Borrowers, The Littles, and myriad others, is Richard Peck’s new book Secrets at Sea.
Peck’s book is part of what I call the ‘Mice in Outfits’ genre (The Rescuers, The Mouse and His Child, The Mousewife — all of which I adore), but he couples that tradition with his own particular sensibility. Secrets at Sea is the story of Helena, the eldest of a (distinguished but recently diminished) family of mice (Louisa, Beatrice and Lamont) who are living in the same Edwardian-era Hudson Valley house as the Upstairs Cranstons, a somewhat vapid family who decide to go to England to give their awkward eldest daughter a chance to catch a husband. The mice — in spite of their fear of water — go along, of course, and while the Upstairs Cranstons’ journey pays glorious dividends, the Downstairs Cranstons’ reaps completely unexpected results.
More like Fair Weather than any of Peck’s more recent books, Secrets at Sea is full of lovely details for both the tiny-oriented (a grand yardstick dinner table, spools for chairs, soup served out of thimbles), and those who love adventurous capers. Even young Titanic enthusiasts might enjoy reading about a non-doomed ocean voyage for a change. Secrets at Sea is recommended highly for all kinds of readers.
Posted by: Sarah
Most children like to yell, and this book encourages children to shout along if they know the answer. The book covers a variety of concepts including counting, the alphabet, colors, animals, and vehicles. The illustrations are bursting with energy, and children will enjoy seeing what the mouse is doing on each page. And of course, shouting along with each page.
Dumpling Days continues the story of Pacy and her family, whom we met in the books The Year of the Dog and The Year of the Rat. In this book, Pacy and her Taiwanese-American family go visit their relatives in Taiwan for an extended summer trip. At first, Pacy feels out of place because she can’t speak Chinese and everything about Taiwan is so different from what she is used to. But we see that as Pacy spends time with her loving relatives, eats many dumplings, and has many small adventures (like having her fortune told, taking Chinese painting classes, riding to the top of the world’s second tallest building, and getting lost at the night market), she realizes that she belongs to both Taiwan and America. And that’s the way she likes it.
This is the fourth book by Oliver Jeffers about the boy and his penguin. In the first book, 
I have always found the traditional Mother Goose ditties to be dated and old-fashioned. As cute as some of the rhymes might be, who knows what a peck of pickled peppers is? Who knows about maids a-courting or maids a-waiting? What are curds and whey? What are swine and farthings? Well, along has come a great new ‘recycled’ version of Mother Goose, filled with hilarious earth-friendly bits of rhyming wisdom. 
The Bed and Biscuit is an animal hospital and kennel. Grampa Bender is owner and veterinarian. He has a little pig named Ernest who takes showers and helps with chores, Gabby, a Mynah bird, who answers the phone, although Grampa Bender would rather he didn’t, and a kitty named Milly. All the animals love Grampa Bender. One day, Grampa Bender takes in a baby which survived a barn fire. The baby’s mother rescued it before she died. Grampa has the baby in an incubator and spends all of his extra time taking care of the baby. This makes the other animals out of sorts. They miss Dr. Bender. Will the poor baby survive and what kind of baby is it? This is a sweet series with animals that have charming personalities. The books have lots of pen and ink illustrations and they are easy reads. Recommended for children grades 3 through 5 who like fantasy books about animals.
My little one, now a whole 6 years old, LOVES numbers, and so this book caught my eye right away. The illustrations are funny and very child-like, and each page allows for counting to 100 using different animals, kids, and objects. Along the way, there are little captions leading to other things to count or to look for, for example, “Have you seen the ladybug?” or “Are there enough berries for everyone?. This book is reminiscent of Where’s Waldo and Look and Find books (still very popular in our library) and provides many fun counting opportunities all the way through. We are definitely going to be doing some counting at our house tonight!
Cupcake owns the Sweet Tooth bakery and is also a drummer in a band with his friend Eggplant. When he discovers that Eggplant’s Aunt in Turkey is friends with the famous pastry chef Turkish Delight, Cupcake realizes that he has sunk into a baking rut. Great news! Eggplant invites him along on his visit to Turkey where he will certainly find baking inspiration when he is able to meet his baking idol. Of course, there is just one problem – how can Cupcake afford such a trip? Hard work, determination and sacrifice pay off for him and he finds a way to purchase a ticket. But could there be yet another problem that Cupcake is faced with? You might enjoy finding out when you read this delightful graphic novel with its wonderful illustrations. 
