Childrens Bookclub

This is the most adorable, wonderful children’s story I have come across in 2010 yet! I cannot praise Little Night by Yuri Morales enough. I won’t even proclaim to know anything about Mexican mythology or culture other than minimal aspects, but I do know a magical story when I see one. This may simply be the perfect children’s book.

First off, the basic story is exceedingly simple and utterly beautiful. Mother Sky is getting her little girl, Little Night, ready for her nightly ritual. It’s the exact same ritual that millions of families likely go through every single night with their own children, including a calming bath, getting dressed, having a snack, hair-combing, and the like. And like many children, Little Night is delightfully mischievous, dashing around and delaying the routine by hiding from Mother Sky prior to each individual activity. Read more

Oh, Charlie Brown! Do you know anyone who’s more unlucky—more filled with the “Charlie Browniest luck in the world”—than the poor balding block head created by Charles M. Schulz? Having been a little red-haired girl, I used to giggle over ol’ Chuck’s attempts at telling his little red-haired girl his feelings for her at Valentine’s Day. Of course, we all know that, like with most other things in the poor boy’s world, the confession was doomed from the start!

(You have to wonder why we love Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. Sure, they’re funny—but don’t you pity the title character more than you enjoy him falling on his back every time Lucy tries to make him kick a football? Just sayin’.) Read more

I’m still raving about yet another delightful tale from Kate DiCamillo!

The Magician’s Elephant is the story of ten-year-old Peter Augustus Duchene and his search for his long lost sister, Adele. Peter, an orphan being raised by a cantankerous old soldier with ailing health, chances his luck with a fortune teller one day, who tells him that his baby sister, whom his caretaker told him had died in childbirth, is still alive—and that an elephant will take him to her. Read more

Next week is Children’s Authors and Illustrators Week. Here are 6 ways to celebrate with the children in your life.

Take them to story time. Most libraries have a weekly story time. Others may have special story times you have to sign up for. Ask your local library for information on their story times and what the featured books might be. Other places to find story times include recreation centers, museums, and book stores. Read more

Banned DictionaryWhat do Shel Silverstein, Judy Blume, and now Merriam-Webster have in common? All are authors in disrepute due to the “offensive language” or “inappropriate story-lines” in their works. In other words, all of them are writers whose works have been banned.

Just today, the AP wire reported that the Merriam-Webster dictionary has been taken out of classrooms in a kindergarten-8th grade school district in southern California because one rather investigative student discovered the words, “oral sex” within the dictionary. Apparently, “oral sex” is not the only offensive word in the dictionary, as the Assistant Superintendent has claimed that many of the words within are “age inappropriate”.

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The Curse of the Darkling Mill Read more

Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends"Whenever I walk on the sidewalks, I always avoid the cracks in order to ensure the safety, health, and well-being of my mother’s back. Possibly due to this mentality or maybe because of the sidewalk reference in the title, but more than likely because of the sheer genius of the book, I still like Shel Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends" after all these years.
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In the Midwest where I live, it’s a perfect time of year to enjoy Ezra Jack Keats’s The Snowy Day. Published in 1962, it’s the story of an adorable little boy named Peter who, donned in a gnome-like red snowsuit, embarks on a simple yet lovely adventure into the snow on the first snowy day of the year.

Peter engages in the very same things most preschoolers would find interesting to do in the snow. He admires the highly piled snow, crunches his feet in it satisfyingly, experiments with different ways to walk in the snowy powder, uses a stick to explore the snow, makes a snowman and a snow angel, and other activities. Peter even contemplates joining the “big boys” for a snowball fight but knows that he’s just not old enough—“not yet.” Read more

Emily the Strange: The Lost DaysWith her dark hair and strange penchant for cats, Emily the Strange has been a kind of cultural icon for the last few years. Now, “she” has her own book detailing the lost adventures she has in “Blackrock”.

Poor Emily awakens one day to find herself with no memory of who she is, where she is, how she got there, or why cats are so friendly to her. Unlike most of us who might have sought out help from a doctor, the intrepid young heroine searches for clues for her lost identity on her own with the idea that people might be looking for her.
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Deenie
Deenie by Judy Blume is just like all her other books; insightful and realistic. And, as is typical of her works, she is able to reach out to younger readers where the kids feel like she does understand their pain. In this way, the topics she covered were ones that kids often wonder about. Deenie stays true to her style of writing; in this case, she talks about an overbearing mother and how her daughters are affected by her expectations. 
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