Happy Valentine's Day!

Pink and red and white, lace and frills, roses and chocolates!  It's a love-ly time of year.   Michael Hall's new book, My Heart is Like a Zoo, uses heart shapes to picture all kinds of animals and how they might feel.
Hall's website offers animations of the illustrations in the book that show how the animals are constructed.  This book is a keeper, fun to look at, fun to read!

Henry in love, by Peter McCarty, is a snapshot of a small child's school day and includes big kids, schoolyard games and budding friendship. Henry, the cat, is smitten with Chloe, the prettiest girl in class.  This book is great for children who don't like mushy stuff.

Suzanne Bloom's ode to friendship, A Splendid Friend, Indeed,  is a clever and simple book about a quiet polar bear who is bombarded with questions and suggestions from a chatty goose. 

Love reveals itself in mysterious ways.  In Margaret Mahy's book, Tingleberries, tuckertubs and telephones, a shy orphan must overcome his reluctance to speak and find love and adventure.

Homemade Valetine's Day Cards are a time-honored tradition.  Dress them up with this simple origami heart from Activity Village.

Friends from PBS - Clifford, Cuyrious George and others - share their Valentine's Day ideas on the PBS Kids website.

Love is everywhere! - especially at the library.

Blizzard

Snow, snow everywhere!  Read more about snow by checking out these titles.  The blizzard by Betty Ren Wright tells of how a boy's birthday is almost ruined by a blizzard. 

One man dedicated his life to making a photographic record of thousands of snowflakes.  Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin tells his story with illustrations by Mary Azarian.   To see Bentley's photos, click here.

Grandparents can tell stories of amazing storms.  In Terrible storm by Carol Otis Hurst, two grandfathers tell stories of the snowstorm of 1888.

Older readers (grades 4, 5 and 6) will enjoy Help! I'm a prisoner in the library by Eth Clifford.  Two girls are trapped over night in the library during a blizzard.  Sounds like heaven to me!

Slightly younger readers can revisit a famous blizzard in Anna, Grandpa, and the big storm by Carla Stevens.  Anna's grandfather thinks living in the city is boring until the huge blizzard of 1888.

The blizzard of 1888 made history as told in the book by Jim Murphy, Blizzard : the storm that changed America.

NYCSubway.org has posted a history of how the blizzard of 1888 effected New York City.  The history is rather scholarly, so for pictures and personal stories check this site, presented by CUNY.

Just for fun, visit Make-a-Flake and create a snowflake online.   This site requires Flash 6.

Cutting a paper snowflake is easier and directions are available at ZOOM (pbskids.org).
Billy Bear has simpler instructions for paper snowflakes but the snowflakes end up with 8 points.  Check the site out.

This 3-dimensional snowflake is lovely at all times of the year, made in different colors.  This is for children and adults who are comfortable with paper folding.

Enjoy the snow.


 

The Death-Defying Pepper Roux

The Death-Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean is fun and action-packed.  For his entire life, Pepper Roux had been warned that he would die on or before his 14th birthday.  He woke up on that fateful day, STILL ALIVE.  What follows is one adventure after another, as young Pepper attempts to cheat fate.  The School Library Journal says ..."the memorable characters and lyrical prose make the novel hard to put down", and gives the novel a starred review.

The novel IS hard to put down and Pepper Roux is a fascinating character.  My suspicion that Pepper will not have further adventures disappoints me but I will await breathlessly McCaughrean's next novel.

Author #12 - Dick King-Smith

He writes about animals - sheep herding pigs and musical mice.  And he writes about children.  Dick King-Smith's books are full of what he likes to call "farmyard fantasy".

A farmer for twenty years, King-Smith knows a lot about the animals who have made him most famous - pigs.  Babe,the Gallant Pig was turned into a very popular movie.  His picture book, All Pigs are Beautiful, illustrated by Anita Jeram, expresses King-Smith's affection for swine.

King-Smith doesn't restrict himself to writing about farm animals.  He has written about singing mice, (A Mouse Called Wolf), very intelligent guinea pigs, (Jenius ; the Amazing Guinea Pig), and a boy whose uncles leaves him a madly entertaining parrot, (Harry's Mad).

King-Smith's books are appealing to children in grades 3 and up.  Younger children will enjoy listening to the books, too.

Here are a few interesting facts about Dick King-Smith.  His first name is not Dick, nor is it Richard.  His name is Ronald Gordon King-Smith.  He has written 100 books for children.  And in the New Year's Honours of 2010, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.  That's SIR Dick King-Smith, to us all. 

This completes my 12 authors in 31 days challenge and I did not even mention some of my all time favorites; authors such as Elizabeth Enright, or E. Nesbit or A. A. Milne.  I decided not to profile my favorite American author, Lloyd Alexander, or even Susan Cooper OR Suzanne Collins!  Nor did I mention David Adler or Bruce Hale or Eva Ibbotson - how could I neglect Eva Ibbotson?  Or Patricia Wrede or Jill Paton Walsh or Ann Rinaldi or.... Stephen Krensky!!!???  I am just getting started. There are wonderful books on the shelves of the Parkland Community Library - or any public library.  Just borrow one or two- or ten - until you find YOUR favorites.  Let me know who you like best, please.

Author #11

Guess which Newbery Award winning author lives above an airplane hangar with her husband?  Betsy Byars, who won the Newbery Award for her novel The Summer of the Swans.  Byars and her husband are avid aviators and fly their own airplanes whenever they can.

Byars has written over 60 books, most about children who are navigating the treacheries of growing up.  Her Blossom Family series has recently been reissued in paperback.  The series chronicles the Blossoms whose mother rides the rodeo circuit and whose grandfather collects aluminum cans to recycle.  The first book of the series, The Not-Just-Anybody Family introduces Junior Blossom as he is about to "fly" off the barn roof as his older sister and brother watch from below.  The whole family, mother, grandfather, three children and dog, are fully drawn and their adventures are humorous tragedies of errors. 

Herculeah Jones is Byars' pre-teen sleuth, starring in four different novels.  Herculeah solves real crimes to the frustration of her Private Eye mother and her police detective father.

These two series just scratch the surface of Byars' impressive writing output.  Two of Byars' children, Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers, write books for children now, too.  So, the legacy will continue.

Check out www.BetsyByars.com for more information on this prolific author.  Then stop by the library and check out her books.

Author #10 - Jim Arnosky

Jim Arnosky is an author/illustrator who concentrates on wildlife and acquainting children and parents with the animals who share the world with us.  His alterego - or avatar - is a whiskered fellow in buckskin named Crinkleroot. Among Crinkleroot's many adventures, he guides readers through the season's in Crinkleroot's Almanac and searches for his pet snake in Crinkleroot' visit to Crinkle Cove.  

Arnosky's artwork is lifelike with a soft touch.  Although his animal's are authentic and realistic, Arnosky adds expressiveness to his creatures and humor to the events he chronicles.  Some of his books are scientific treatments to introduce young readers to animals in their habitats.  Others are picture books that give a snapshot of the lives of rabbits or armadillos or deer or black bears.  Occasionally, Arnosky tells a story from his own life, as in Big Jim and the White-legged Moose,  a song about Arnosky's run in with a moose.

Arnosky has written guides for older children and adults to photographing wildlife and freshwater fishing and guides to field trips near the ocean, in the mountains and through swamps.  His paintings are the next best thing to seeing the animals in person.  Look for his books in the next time you stop by the library.

Katherine Paterson - National Ambassador for Young People's Literature

The title, National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, is only one year and a month old.  The first ambassador, Jon Sciezka, turned over his title to Newbery Award winning author Katherine Paterson, on Tuesday, Jan. 5th.

Paterson's most famous book is The Bridge to Terabithia, based on the actual death of her son, David's, good friend during his childhood.  The book was made into a major motion picture in 2007.  David Paterson worked on the screenplay for the movie.

Paterson won a Newbery Award for The Bridge to Terabithia and another one for Jacob I Have Loved, a novel that addresses conflicts between fraternal twins.

Winner of numerous other awards, Paterson's works include "problem" novels that deal with difficult subjects, such as death, social commentaries, and historical fiction like her look at textile factory workers in New England in the first half of the 1800s, Lyddie. 

Paterson is known best for her novels for readers in middle and high school but she has written original folktales that can be enjoyed by much younger readers.  Her The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks is a touching story of compassion and faithfulness with exquisite illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon.

This just introduces the wonderful writings of Katherine Paterson.  Her novels take place all over the globe and in many time periods, and they are always fascinating and challenging.