What if your favorite cereal company had more in mind than just making sure you got a tasty breakfast?
Scott (short for, well, you don’t want to know what), who gets migraines and sometimes sees things, sees a rabbit-headed man on the way to school, and finds a leprechaun in a public bathroom. Emily and Enzo (twins who look so little alike that it’s suspicious), who have an incredibly tall, big-footed housekeeper, think that their foster father is acting weird. What do the kids have in common? Their parents work for the Goodco Cereal Factory, a company with ties to nearly everything in town. Is there maybe something a little funny about Goodco? Is there REALLY “a little bit of magic in every box”?
Rex’s new fantasy is hilarious (a delight in a genre that is too often filled with portentious prophecies, grim weather and unsmiling heroes) and engaging. In spite of its (appropriately) epic length, the story moves quickly, and no reader will be tempted to put the book down. The characters, both the realistic and fantastical, are wonderfully drawn, and the back-story incorporates traditional myths and legends in a refreshingly original way.
While Scott, Emily and Enzo’s adventures are not over at the end of the book–a sequel! Hooray!–the volume is wrapped up in a very satisfying manner. In spite of that, I still can’t wait for the next book.
Posted by: Sarah
It’s not often that the combination of picture book and haiku get “mashed-up.” Andrew Clements used a series of haikus to tell his story, Dogku but as endearing as the book is, those were more a series of poems fit to describe the dog and his family. In Won Ton, Wardlaw is able to tell the story using only haiku and it doesn’t seem stilted or strained—not that Clements’ did, it was wonderful, too.
Monica Wellington’s books are perfect for the young preschool crowd. Right now, her book Mr. Cookie Baker is a favorite in our house, especially when I make cookies to go along with it. The story is a simple one. Mr. Cookie Baker takes readers through the steps of cookie baking and sales. After a busy day at his shop, Mr. Cookie Baker is able to enjoy one of his tasty creations. You can recreate the fun of this story with the cookie recipes included in the book. A yummy treat!
Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word is a delightful collection of poems sure to be engaging for a wide range of kids and adults. Inspired by the concrete poet Andrew Russ, Bob Raczka set out to make poems using only the letters from one single word, which is also the title of the poem. The poems are visual in that each letter of the poem is lined up vertically with the corresponding letter from the title word. This makes reading the poems a little bit like solving a puzzle. The poems are also typed in conventional verse on the next page. Aside from those “aha!” moments when you understand the poems, the best part of this collection is the likelihood that readers will be inspired to make their own “single word” poems.
Summer break is upon us and for those of us in the Chicago suburbs that often means trips into the City to enjoy all it has to offer. Michael Mullins offers the perfect primer for preschool and young school aged children to read before your adventure begins. The picture book tells the story of a boy named Pete and his family taking a trip to Chicago, complete with their dog, Larry.
I really enjoyed Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes which I blogged about earlier this year. In this second book, Pete the Cat is off to school and he is rocking in his school shoes! He sings his catchy little song throughout the book as he visits the library, the lunchroom, the playground and many other places in his school. His happy disposition shines all day long. As he gets off the bus, his mom asks him, “What did you do at school today?” He sings out that he was rocking in his school shoes and that he will do it again tomorrow!
In the months of February and March when winter seems to be dragging on and on, it is time for my own personal countdown to Spring. For me, it starts when I can’t bear the thought of wearing my winter coat one more day, and I love my winter coat! Luckily this year Spring came early, but in this story the wait is a little longer. The book starts out with the world all brown, “all around you have brown”, and then day by day inch by inch the world starts to wake up. The little boy plants a seed, and he wishes for rain, and then gets his wish, and then there’s more waiting and wondering. Finally, one day there is a little rain and the next day a little sunshine, and the boy walks outside to check on all the brown, and everything is GREEN! This wonderful book is a hopeful and still realistic view of what it feels like to be young and to wait for Spring!
This story is about the year after Arkansas was forced to integrate their high schools. The Little Rock Nine, nine African-American teens, braved the crowds, the publicity, the hate and the racism to take that first step toward equality in the Little Rock public school system. The author thought that that was what she was going to write about when she went to Little Rock. But when she started talking to people, all they could talk about was the year after the Little Rock Nine, when the governor of the state closed the schools in order to avoid integration.
