Submitted by Tess from Lexington Park!
Answering the call for more quality literature about the plight of kitchen utensils are Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Scott Magoon with Spoon. Meet Spoon, an average spoon, with a large spoon family (including Aunt Silver). He’s got a nice spoon life, but he’s a little insecure about his identity. All his friends seem so much more useful! Knife can cut and spread! Fork seems to go everywhere, from salads, to spaghetti, to cake. And Chopsticks are just so exotic. If only Spoon knew how jealous his friends are of him though! They don’t get to measure things, dive headfirst into bowls of ice cream, stir relaxing cups of tea, or snuggle with the other spoons in the drawer.
Redwoods
Submitted by Tess from Lexington Park!
Redwoods by Jason Chin is an awesome work of nonfiction. A boy on a big city subway train is reading a book about redwoods, and he imagines the book coming to life around him. The city scape gives way to these enormous trees, the tallest living things on the planet, which have been around since the time of dinosaurs. The fantastic illustrations complement the incredibly informative and interesting text (including a fascinating passage about the proper way to climb a redwood, which includes launching a rope to climb into the canopy with a bow and arrow!), and there’s an afterword from the author about the value of conserving the redwood forests. Perhaps it will even inspire you to make a trip to California to see these amazing trees up close!
In Our Mothers’ House
Submitted by Tess from Lexington Park!
In Our Mothers’ House is the latest from celebrated children’s author and illustrator, Patricia Polacco. Reportedly, Polacco was always interested is writing about a book about a non-traditional family, but was spurred into action while visiting a school, and hearing a teacher tell a child who was adopted by two women, that she did not “come from a real family.” Polacco modeled the family in this story after that school girl’s family: Two mothers, with three adopted children, and based her illustrations on her own family (her daughter Traci, and Traci’s partner Nikki, posed as the mothers). In the story we witness family events such as holidays, new puppies, treehouse building, and visits with grandparents. Gay rights are only addressed briefly. The true focus of the story is the love of the mothers for their children.
Always
Submitted by Tess from Lexington Park!
The unfathomable expanse of devotion between a child and their beloved pet is explored in Always by Alison McGhee, with adorable illustrations by Pascal Lemaitre. In this book, we meet a girl, and her tiny dog, who vows to keep the castle (their small home) safe, by taming wild squirrels, preventing closet avalanches, and vanquishing evil of all kind. If you have a protective family pet, your child is sure to relate to Always. When the tiny dog in this story proclaims, in all seriousness, to “protect the blanket,” it certainly reminded me of my dog, who insists on sleeping in the bed every night!
A Penguin Story
Submitted by Tess from Lexington Park!
In A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis we meet Edna, who is tired of the lack of diversity in the palette of her Arctic home. Everything is either white (like the snow and ice), black (like the night or the feathers of her friends), or blue (like the ocean and the fish that swim in it). There must be more to life than things which are white, black, or blue! So Edna goes in search of a different color, and boy does she find it: orange! As in the orange of scientists and their jumpsuits, tents, and equipment! Edna realizes the world is much bigger than the small glacier she inhabits, and wonders what other colors could be out there.
Mouse Was Mad
Submitted by Amanda from Lexington Park!
Mouse Was Mad by Linda Urban is great book to help kids learn how to deal with their anger in an appropriate way, and how to express it. Mouse was mad, and he didn’t know how to express it. He tried to be “hoppin’ mad,” “stompin’ mad,” “screaming mad,” and even “rolling mad,” like his friends, but each time he just ends up getting angrier because he cannot be mad like Rabbit, Bear, Bobcat, or even Hedgehog. He gets so mad, he stands very, very still, and discovers his own way to be mad. No one else can be “still mad” like Mouse and this makes Mouse happy.