Just for fun: weekend reading

Reviews by Elizabeth Kennedy About.com's Guide to Children's Books.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Judi & Ron Barrett. The movie version of the children's picture book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs in 3-D animation will be released on September 18, 2009. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is a wonderfully imaginative picture book by Judi Barrett, with illustrations by Ron Barrett that add greatly to the reader's enjoyment of the story. This book is a wonderful read aloud for 4- to 8-year-olds. I hope you will share the book with your kids before you see the movie. After you read the book, try some of the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs crafts designed by our Family Crafts Guide Sherri Osborn. Before you see the movie, take a look at the movie trailer and other information provided by Carey Bryson, Kids' Movies Guide.

Diary of A Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw Jeff Kinney

In Jeff Kinney's third "novel in cartoons," Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, middle school student Greg Haffley continues the hilarious saga of his life. Once again, as he did in Diary of a Wimpy Kid and in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Jeff Kinney has done a masterful job, in words and pictures, of illustrating the general goofiness that comes with being a self-centered adolescent and the funny things that happen as a result.

The diary continues with tales about Greg's antics at school and at home as he tries to avoid homework, washing his clothes, and his father's attempt to get him to be more like his boss's kids, who are active and fit athletes. The emphasis in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw focuses much less on Greg's skirmishes with his older brother and much more on his skirmishes with his father and his growing interest in girls, specifically, a girl named Holly Hills.

Between joining the Boy Scouts and going camping in an effort to appease his father and thinking up schemes to attract Holly's attention, Greg is a busy boy. By the end of the book, there's a happy ending, which according to Greg, is as it should be. After all as Greg says, "I don't know anyone who deserves to catch a break more than me."

Four in All, by Nina & Adam Payne. Both the poetry and the artwork in Four in All are unusual and affecting. Written by poet Nina Payne and illustrated by her son, Adam Payne, the text features just 56 common nouns set in verses that are surrounded by dramatic cut-paper collages. The story of a young child's adventure is told in such verses as "oats wheat corn rye / sun moon stars sky."

Tomie dePaola's Mother Goose. This delightful book contains 200 rhymes, ranging from such familiar Mother Goose rhymes as "Old Mother Hubbard", "Simple Simon," and "Little Miss Muffet" to "Yankee Doodle" and other traditional rhymes. The folk art-style illustrations from the talented dePaola are full of good cheer and include a diverse group of children, adults, and farm animals.


Keats's Neighborhood, with an introduction by Anita Silvey. Keats's Neighborhood, a beautifully designed book, is a collection of ten children's picture books containing the incomparable stories and artwork of Ezra Jack Keats. The multicultural characters and depiction of life in the city in these stories are characteristic of the children's picture books of Ezra Jack Keats. Keats's Neighborhood also includes background information on the life and books of Ezra Jack Keats.

The book that established his reputation as both an author and an illustrator was The Snowy Day. Keats received the prestigious Caldecott Medal for 1963. The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, which is a division of the American Library Association, "to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children."

Ezra Jack Keats died in 1983 at the age of sixty-seven. He is remembered as something of a pioneer in his use of minority children as main characters and in his use of mixed media collages to illustrate his stories. It is a measure of the man that the praise that meant the most to him came in the letters from children who found themselves in his books.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick (2008 Caldecott Medal winner). Reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick is like entering into a 1930s black and white movie. Why is that? It’s because of the book’s unusual use of illustrations, for which Selznick was awarded the 2008 Randolph Caldecott Medal, the most prestigious U.S. award for picture book illustration. However, The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not your typical picture book.


This is a novel for 9-14 year olds, set in 1931 Paris. The book is more than 525 pages long; 284 of those pages contain Selznick's dense pencil drawings. Yet, just like traditional picture books, as well as graphic novels, both illustrations and text are needed to tell the story. As the title page describes the book, it is "A Novel in Words and Pictures.” Along with the text, numerous sequential double-page spreads of illustrations wordlessly move the reader through time, space, and the story of the orphan Hugo Cabret.

Hugo is on his own when his uncle disappears. Hugo and his uncle shared an apartment hidden away in a busy Paris train station. His uncle was responsible for taking care of the station’s clocks, and Hugo assisted him. With his uncle gone, Hugo continues to live at the train station and take care of the clocks.

A mysterious notebook belonging to his father and a broken automaton - a mechanical man - lead Hugo to an old man who runs a toy booth in the station and who is not what he seems. He meets the old man’s suspicious goddaughter, who becomes Hugo's friend, and he begins a life-changing adventure.

The intriguing characters, the unusual setting, the mystery that unfolds, and the book’s format make The Invention of Hugo Cabret a book that will appeal to a wide range of 9-14 year olds.

And coming up next month ...
The Beeman, Laurie Krebs

The month of September is National Honey Month, which makes it the perfect time to share The Beeman with your children. This entertaining picture book by Laurie Krebs also includes some interesting science information. I recommend The Beeman for children three- to six-years-old (and older). Because the story is told in rhyme, even the youngest child's attention will be easily captured. The Beeman covers a season of beekeeping and provides specific and accurate information about keeping bees and harvesting honey. One of the charms of the story is that it is told from the point of view of the beekeeper's young granddaughter who is learning all about beekeeping by watching and helping her grandfather. Most young children think honey comes from the grocery store. They are surprised and delighted to learn the truth.

Back-to-school, hooray!

School (skool), noun: Where kids go for nine months of the year to learn what made their parents so mixed-up.

A new school year can be confusing and full of questions. Here's a selected list of books old and new to help with the first-day-back jitters of kids and their parents. You can search any book in this list (and on all of BookBag) and locate a library copy near you simply by typing the title, subject or author in the World Catalog search box above on the left. (Booklist courtesy of ReadWriteThink.org, an educational-materials organization for teachers and students.)

GRADES K-2

Amanda Pig, School Girl by Jean Van Leeuwen. Outgoing Amanda befriends a shy girl pig on the first day of school.

Arthur’s Back to School Day by Lillian Hoban. While hurrying to get on the bus, Arthur and his friend unknowingly switch their lunch boxes; later Arthur finds out what surprise his sister had put in hers.

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. Chrysanthemum loves her name, until she starts school and the other children make fun of it.

David Goes to School by D. Shannon. David's high-energy antics fill each school day with trouble.

First Day, Hooray! by Nancy Poydar. Ivy Green can't wait for school to start tomorrow. But she is also a little worried. What if she misses the bus? How will she find Mrs. Bell's room?

First Grade Can Wait by L. Aseltine. Luke does not feel ready to move on from kindergarten to the first grade, and he is relived when his parents and teacher decide he can stay in kindergarten for another year.

Froggy Goes to School by J. London. Froggy is nervous about his first day of school, but, even though it's hard to sit still, he has a wonderful time.

Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus by Barbara Park. A young girl describes her feelings about starting kindergarten and what happens when she decides not to ride the bus home.

Rachel Parker, Kindergarten Show Off by Ann M. Martin. Five-year-old Olivia's new neighbor Rachel is in her kindergarten class and they must overcome feelings of jealousy and competitiveness to be friends.

When Will I Read? by Miriam Cohen. Impatient to begin reading, a first grader doesn't realize that there is more to reading than books.

GRADES 3-5

Amelia’s Notebook by Marissa Moss. The hand-lettered contents of a nine-year-old girl's notebook, in which she records her thoughts and feelings about moving and starting a new school.

Arthur’s Teacher Trouble by Marc Brown. Third-grader Arthur is amazed when he is chosen to be in the school spell-a-thon.

Fourth Grade Weirdo by Martha Freeman. Mr. Ditzwinkle is a "spontaneous" teacher who does magic tricks and gives all kinds of crazy assignments that Dexter doesn't understand.

How to Survive Third Grade by Laurie Lawlor. Ernest, an unpopular third grader, has a difficult adjustment to make until he finds a friend.

Marianthe's Story: Painted Words and Marianthe's Story: Spoken Memories by Aliki. Two separate stories in one book, the first telling of Mari's starting school in a new land, and the second describing village life in her country before she and her family left in search of a better life.

Moses Goes to School by Isaac Millner. Here, Moses and his classmates, all of whom are deaf or hard of hearing, head back to their special school after summer break. The book combines the words with American Sign Language.

Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. At first, Trisha loves school, but her difficulty learning to read makes her feel dumb, until, in the fifth grade, a new teacher helps her understand and overcome her problem.

Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys by Elizabeth Howard. In the post-Civil War South, a young African American girl is determined to prove that she can go to school just like her older brothers.

YA fiction: Growing up is (still) hard to do

Along with the pains of love, rejection, and curfews, fiction for young adults is filled with issues their parents never dealt with. There is a whole world of problems facing teens today that modern YA books confront with humor, directness -- and some surprising language. Look on the brighter side: your kid will grow out of this stage, and you can only hope he or she won't turn into a vampire.

Last Dance at the Frosty Queen Richard Uhlig
(Alfred A. Knopf, 2007) Fictional Harker City, Kansas, 1988: Just about everything that could bore Arty Flood, 18, is wrapped up in the dusty roads and familiarity of the town's "1700 smiling faces." He's counting on the $1,400 from his last job to get far, far way from town and head for Wichita as soon as he can.

That's his plan, anyway. What could go wrong? Plenty, as it turns out, in this funny and touching first novel by Richard Uhlig. This young-adult story sketches the everyday turmoil that lies beneath the small-town calm, where nothing is as it seems and Arty's life is a tangle of hormonal overdrive, frustration and family dysfunction.

One day, improbable as it seems, Arty meets the strange Lucia in a most unusual way and everything changes, including his plan. There is still a lot of complication in Arty's life, especially with his girlfriend Geraldine. And there's his relationship with the English teacher, who he comes to believe is "my only ticket out."

Last Dance at the Frosty Queen is written in a fast, first-person style that captures the confusion and uncertainty of life in a too-small town. There's some steamy sex and lots of salty language, too. Although the author never says as much, he obviously draws on his own small-town experience for much of the book's precise details. He seems to have had a lot of fun in the telling, too.

Does Arty get out before all his entanglements overwhelm him? Or, deep down, does he want to stay in Harker City for the rest of his life? These are similar to the big questions that everyone faces sooner or later. Arty makes some grown-up choices in this realistic, well-written story, and becomes an adult in the process.

The Confessional J.L. Powers (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007) The Confessional has all the elements that should make it a good novel for young adults (it's aimed at readers age 14 and older). It features a complex plot involving murder, race, religion and cultural differences in El Paso, Texas -- there's a lot of weight in its 300 pages.

To author J.L. Powers' credit, the book never takes the easy way out. All the action is revealed through interwoven stories told by seven main characters, all high-school friends. Details overlap, the story jumps ahead or behind, and important elements emerge or are omitted as the story progresses. It's a style well suited to the kaleidoscope of events surrounding this murder in a border town.

Is this an appropriate novel for teens? That depends.

As can be expected in a novel centering on young adults, parents and other authority figures are secondary in resolving issues. Not a big surprise there. However, an adult reader may be surprised to find a quote from Travis Bickle at the head of one chapter -- the homicidal vigilante from the film Taxi Driver. The main characters debate patriotism and racism, drugs and sex in very frank terms (parents beware: six of the seven deadly words are repeated, often, from the very first page) and while the overall effect of these debates is potent, they seem to happen simply for the writer to make her points. This is not The Hardy Boys.

The fireworks fizzle at the end, for all the razzle-dazzle. The writer struggles to reconcile all the big issues she's dealing with, including the role of the Catholic Church in immigration issues. A gay teen may or may not have a crush on a gay teacher, or another student. The end result is a very contemprary, teen-market potboiler, with some very harsh language and a case of severe attention-deficit disorder.

Along for the Ride Sarah Dessen (Viking Juvenile, 2009) Sarah Dessen’s ninth novel teaches that messed up families come in all shapes and sizes, and that success doesn’t always make someone the world greatest, most admirable person.

It's been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents' divorce - or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the beach town where they live.A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother.

Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she's been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.

Auden is a captivating character. It would be easy for a reader to feel sad for her, but many teen girls will find it all too easy to relate to her problems. High school can be a time for fun, friendship and feeling free, but there are more Audens in high school than we care to admit.

The book's cover is misleading; this isn't a light read about a summer romance. Dessen's novels have been turned into successful teen films (How to Deal, 2003) and her readers admire her ability to get into the mind of her characters and express the anxiety and turmoil that many parents dismiss or misunderstand completely.

YALSA Teens' Top Ten & Teen Read Week

The Young Adult Library Services Association will announce its Teens' Top Ten list soon. Teens can vote online from August 24 through September 18 at www.ala.org/teenstopten for their favorite books of the past year. The winners of the 2009 Teens' Top Ten will be announced in a webcast featuring WWE Superstars and Divas during Teen Read Week, Oct. 18-24. Tell your book group, youth organizations you work with, and any other teen groups you know to visit www.ala.org/teenstopten between August 24 and September 18 and vote. The more teens who participate, the more accurately the winning list will reflect the reading tastes of teens all over the country!

This year's nominating committee is made up of members of teen book groups in fifteen schools and public libraries around the country. Nominations are posted on Support Teen Literature Day during National Library Week, and teens across the country vote on their favorite titles each year. Readers ages twelve to eighteen can vote online anytime between Aug. 24 and Sept. 18; the winners will be announced in a webcast featuring WWE Superstars and Divas during Teen Read Week.

Just for fun: some new books

Yuck, it must be getting near the start of a school year -- everybody's got a new reading list, and summer's not even over yet. Well, here are some new books that are probably going to be worth reading. Even if they're not on a teacher's list, they look good enough to read on your own.

Younger Readers

Becker, Bonny. A Visitor for Bear. Illus. by Kady MacDonald Denton. Candlewick. Bear’s forest home sets the stage for a visit from the persistent and irritating mouse who insists the two will become friends.

Bee, Wlliam. Beware of the Frog. Illus. by the author. Candlewick. Living alone in the forest, Old Mrs. Collywobbles needs protection from the Greedy Goblin, the Smelly Troll, and the Giant Hungry Ogre. Her pet frog jumps out of folklore to come to her rescue and give Mrs. Collywobbles more than she anticipated.

Davis, Eleanor. Stinky. Illus. by the author. RAW Junior/TOON Books. Stinky, the swamp monster, is at first determined to rid his beloved “muddy, slimy, smelly swamp” of Nick, only to realize that this dreaded “kid” is not the appallingly clean intruder he supposes him to be. (2009 Geisel Honor Book)

Dorros, Arthur. Papá and Me. Illus. by Rudy Gutierrez. Rayo, an imprint of HarperCollins. The story of a father and son who spend a special day together in the city—singing, cooking, going to the park and the beach, riding the bus, and telling stories, culminated by a visit with Papá’s parents. (2009 Belpré Illustrator Honor Book)

Grant, Judyann Ackerman. Chicken Said, “Cluck!” Illus. by Sue Truesdell. HarperCollins. Earl and Pearl shoo Chicken away as they work on their pumpkin patch, but as the story comes full circle, it’s Chicken who does the shooing and saves the day. (2009 Geisel Honor Book)

Middle Readers

Appelt, Kathi. The Underneath. Illus. by David Small. Atheneum. A man, a loyal hound, an abandoned cat and a vengeful lamia sing of love, loss, loneliness and hope. (2009 Newbery Honor Book)

Broach, Elise. Masterpiece. Illus. by Kelly Murphy. Holt/Christy Ottaviano. An artistic beetle with a yen for adventure and a lonely 11-year-old boy team up to catch the thief who has stolen a priceless painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Dowd, Siobhan. The London Eye Mystery. Random/David Fickling. In a race against time, twelve-year-old Ted, with his sister Kat, uses his special skills and perceptions to discover how their cousin Salim disappeared while riding the London Eye, the world’s tallest observation wheel.

Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book. Illus. by Dave McKean

. HarperCollins. A child marked for death by an ancient league of assassins escapes into an abandoned graveyard, where he is reared and protected by its spirit denizens. A delicious mix of murder, fantasy, humor and human longing, Gaiman’s tale is told in magical, haunting prose. (2009 Newbery Medal Book)

González, Lucía. The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos. Illus. by Lulu Delacre. Children’s Book Press. The story of Pura Belpré, the first Puerto Rican librarian hired by the New York Public Library, who introduces the public library to immigrants living in El Barrio and hosts the neighborhood’s first Three Kings’ Day fiesta. (2009 Belpré Author Honor Book and Illustrator Honor Book)

Scieszka, Jon. Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories about Growing Up Scieszka. Illus. by author. Viking/Penguin. Growing up in a household with five brothers during the 1950’s and 1960’s by the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, illustrated with pictures from the period.

Schulman, Janet. Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City. Illus. by Meilo So. Alfred A. Knopf. The story of Pale Male, a male hawk who nests atop a Fifth Avenue apartment building in New York City and sparks a battle for his habitat among residents and conservationists.

And here's one more book,just because ... (because no one said you can't read books just for fun!)

An Octopus Followed Me Home

Written by Dan Yaccarino

A little girl arrives at her house with an octopus that followed her home, but when she asks her daddy if she can keep him, he reminds her of the other pets he has let her keep. That would be the crocodile, seals, giraffe, grizzly bear, penguins, mountain goats, rabbits, and elephants that are already cluttering up their home. (Review written by Brian Frank on August 4, 2009)

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