This month, we’ll be talking about picture books – old favorites and new arrivals. Loud and quiet, serious and silly, fiction and non-fiction. To kick the month off, we’re ecstatic to be able to celebrate the picture book debut of ReaderKidZ Dianne White, author of the beautiful BLUE ON BLUE (Beach Lane Books), illustrated by… Read more »
Author-In-Residence
The man who unlocked the mysteries of the universe
“In the Milky Way galaxy … in a big city … in a small apartment … lived a boy named Carl.” And so it begins, STAR STUFF, Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos, (Roaring Brook Press, 2014), written and illustrated by Stephanie Roth Sisson. In a charming book about the man who introduced… Read more »
The many sides of friendship
Fourth grade isn’t easy for Penelope Crumb in Penelope Crumb is Mad at the Moon by Shawn Stout. She proudly wears her gray elephant costume with the huge nose to school for “Be An Animal Day.” Trouble is, it’s the wrong day. That’s all it takes for her used-to-be-best-friend Patsy Cline and other girls to… Read more »
Accepting your friends for who they are
Odd Weird & Little, by Patrick Jennings (Egmont, 2014) Woodrow has always born the brunt of the bullying from Garret and Hubcap, two boys in his fourth grade class. Until the day that Toulouse arrives, that is. Toulouse is little. Very little. He wears suits with vests and big glasses over his huge round eyes…. Read more »
Fact and fiction – a winning combination for middle grade readers
The newest book in the popular “I Survived” series is I SURVIVED THE NAZI INVASION 1944. Two more books are already in the pipeline, with more to come. ReaderKidZ talked to author Lauren Tarshis about how she researches each disaster, the challenges of creating a fictitious story around each one, and why there are no… Read more »
Gripping adventures! Real life disasters! Heroic kids!
What middle grade reader doesn’t want to read a book in which the hero in a true-to-life disaster is his own age? The popular I Survived series has been a huge hit among reluctant and not-so-reluctant middle grade readers. Packed with fast-paced action, fascinating information about terrifying disasters around the world, and – at the… Read more »
Meet Author Rhonda Gowler Greene
NO PIRATES ALLOWED! Said Library Lou author Rhonda Gowler Greene has written a clever picture book founded on comedic contrasts. And illustrator’s Brian Ajhar’s play with proportion and expression is simply delightful. The story is about bombastically boisterous Pirate Pete’s search for treasure, and petite and powerful Library Lou’s insistence that he make some changes before… Read more »
