Today I will be sending out a new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's and young adult books and raising readers. I currenty send the newsletter out every two weeks.
Also, just so that it doesn't get lost amid the clutter of my Twitter links, I highly recommend a Summer Reading Tip a Day series that Ali Posner is running on her blog, Raising Great Readers with Great Books. These tips are well beyond your usual: take your kids to the library and participate in summer reading programs. For example, there's Tip #7: Make sure your kids have reading STARs – Space, Time, Access to books, and Rituals for summer reading. This one comes complete with a photo of kids quietly reading in a cozy, tent-like space. My daughter happened to see the photo, and immediately demanded her own reading tent. In short, if you are in need of detailed, out of the ordinary tips for engaging young readers this summer, you definitely won't want to miss Ali's series.
Reading Update: In the last three weeks I read two young adult and three adult books (helped out by a lot of time spent listening to books on MP3 while walking). I read:
- Demitria Lunetta: In the After. Harper Teen. Young Adult. Completed June 18, 2014, on Kindle. Review to come.
- Charlie Higson: The Fallen (Enemy #5). Hyperion. Young Adult. Completed June 29, 2014. I enjoy the plot twists of this series, and the way the various books connect and overlap. But the violence and gore are starting to get to me ...
- Victoria Thompson: Murder in Murray Hills (A Gaslight Mystery). Berkley Hardcover. Adult Mystery. Completed June 21, 2014, on MP3. This series remains one of my favorites, though there is some particularly disturbing content in this installment.
- Elizabeth Bird, Julie Danielson, and Peter Sieruta: Wild Things! Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature. Candlewick. Nonfiction. Completed June 23, 2014, ARC. Review to come.
- Janet Evanovich: Top-Secret Twenty-One (Stephanie Plum). Bantam. Adult Mystery. Completed June 24, 2014, on MP3. Must admit that I am getting a bit tired of the sameness of these books - I may stop here...
What are you and your family reading these days? Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for growing bookworms.
© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.
Abuelo by Arthur Dorros, illustrated by Raul Colon, is a quiet picture book about the relationship between a boy and his grandfather. They live somewhere in the country, where they ride horses, camp, and encounter wildlife. Later, the boy and his parents move to the city, leaving Abuelo behind. However, the skills that Abuelo has taught the boy (such as standing his ground) come in handy in his new life, too. 
The 2014 Carnegie Medal has been awarded to Kevin Brooks for The Bunker Diary, reports 
The 
So cool! First Photos Of Universal's Diagon Alley Are A Harry Potter Nerd's Dream Come True 
A Mini-Rant on Censorship from Becky Levine, inspired by a recent post by 
Lemony Snicket Helps 'Little Free Library' Advocate Spencer Collins 
New Baskets for Our 3rd Grade Classroom Library, 
Continuing the series from 
My daughter just turned four in April. She loves to be read to, and we are in no rush whatsoever for her to learn to read on her own. But I've noticed lately that she's sometimes resistant to even flipping through the pages of a book on her own (say, in the car). She'll say: "I can't read yet, Mommy." And it struck me that there was something defensive about this.
Open Wide! is a preschooler-friendly upcoming board book about the challenges of getting a baby to eat, and the lengths that parents will go to. A mom and dad are trying to get their baby to eat his dinner. He's old enough to be offered a variety of solid foods, and to take a certain delight in refusing to open his mouth. The parents attempt to manipulate him into eating through a combination of words and actions. They have a spoon that projects from a red airplane. They try to entice him with a series of animal comparisons, like:
June 23, 2014 (Somerville, MA): Candlewick Press is delighted to announce that Jon Klassen has won the 2014 Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration for his picture book This is Not My Hat.
10 Books For Kids Who (think they) Hate Reading by Lisa Graff in 
I love it! A Tuesday Ten: Incredible Introverts in 
Fun! RT 
How YA Books Engender a True Love of Reading in My Students | Tina Yang @
Series books for summer pleasure reading - This is the post for parents by 
An Art Exhibit Honors 75th anniversary of 'Madeline' - 
Press Release Fun: Teachers Are Givers Contest from Walden Media highlighting release of The Giver movie — 
Zephyr's Flight by Steve Light is an ode to people's fascination with flight. Zephyr is a little girl who is obsessed with airplanes. Her family is too busy to really notice, until her flight attempts cause her to knock over a set of shelves. Sent to her room, Zephyr discovers a hidden door behind her dresser, leading to a magical room full of books and implements related to flying, as well as all sorts of "flying machines." From this room, Zephyr embarks on a fabulous adventure. But, as in the best of children's books, in the end she is back at home, and with her pancakes (instead of dinner) waiting. 
I'm currently reading 
You can see the 
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (@LBKids)
I picked up Searching for Sky to skim the first few pages, and couldn't put it down. It's not that it's action filled, but more that the premise and the narrator are irresistible. Fifteen-year-old Sky has lived for as long as she can remember (since she was 2) on a tiny Pacific island. She was raised by her mother, Petal, and her mother's partner, Helmut, along with Helmut's son, River. Since her mother and Helmut died a year earlier, Sky and River have lived alone on the island. Though they worry a little bit about survival, they are happy, and just starting to perhaps have grown-up feelings for one another. Everything changes when a boat arrives one day, and takes the two frightened teens to California. Back to a world that they didn't even really know existed. 
It's a quiet sort of book about an introspective kid, but St. Antoine manages to touch upon the challenges families face as grandparents age, the aftermath of divorce, and the tentative first steps of boy-girl relationships. There's also a small mystery, and even a treasure map. It's a coming-of-age story, though without major drama. 
Britain's best-loved children's book? Winnie-the-Pooh | @
Predictions for the 2014 NYT Best Illustrated Children’s Books from 
2014 Boston Globe/Horn Book Awards | via 
For 
A quite useful addition to the 
How Wordless Picture Books Empower Children | SLJ Day of Dialog 2014 | Sarah Bayliss 
Helping if "kids can discover books that mean something to them, that sink in and stay with them" @
The Great Green Heist is a fun caper novel for middle school students, written by Varian Johnson. It features Jackson Greene, a semi-reformed prankster who sets out, with a talented crew, to ensure that his former almost-girlfriend wins the election for student council president. There are spy novel trappings such as disguises, hidden microphones, and custom gadgets. However, the real emphasis in The Great Greene Heist is on interpersonal dynamics, and the role that the various kids play in the drama.
. The end flaps include a User's Guide for Parents and Teachers on using PictureReading books (with pictures telling the story) to support storytelling with young kids. The guide says: "The ultimate goal of PictureReading is to turn over to the child the role of figuring out the plot points and connecting them with a narrative thread as soon as possible." So, something like a wordless picture book that is meant for the child to lead the reading of, instead of the parent taking the lead. An early reader without any words, if that makes any sense. 
12 Charming Tidbits About Beverly Cleary | Mental Floss via 
Ten Dystopian Visions for middle grade readers, some classic some new, at Views From the Tesseract 
Killers in Plain Sight: Five Stories about Assassins in High School 
15 books that should be the next Percy Jackson from 
30 Diverse YA Titles To Get On Your Radar from @
The Big Book of Slumber is as advertised. It's an over-size picture book sure to make any young listener feel cozily sleepy. Giovanna Zoboli's rhyming text, translated from Italian by Antony Shugaar, is soothing and full of whimsey, while Simona Mulazzani's detailed illustrations will reward repeat readings. The premise of The Big Book of Slumber is that a wide range of animals are going to sleep. Most of them are tucked into human-like beds, with blankets and pillows, though a few remain in their natural habitats. Like this:
I would take over when she seemed to run dry, and then she would pick the narrative up again when I next paused. The story bore certain elements of 
Yeti, Turn Out the Light! gives a very light touch to the issue of kids who are afraid of shadows in their rooms. Yeti is sleepy. He gets ready for bed, but once in bed he tosses and turns because he is frightened of odd shadows in his room. The odd shadows are each shown, in various page spreads, to be something completely harmless (but odd enough to generate a suspicious shadow). Three bunnies, a deer with three birds on its antlers, an owl sitting on a bear's head, drinking some tea. I each case, the shadow is quite frightening, while the reality is quirky but not at all scary. In the end, Yeti is able to send all of his shadow-generating friends home, and get a good night of sleep. 
Secrets of the Apple Tree is an informational text that uses the "Shine-A-Light" technology to make learning fun for kids. It starts out by showing an apple tree in the summer. When you shine a light behind the page (or hold it up to the light), you can see the image of the apple tree in winter, with bare branches. On the other side of the page, this inside view is shown in black and white, with some explanatory text. This pattern continues throughout the book, as the reader see mushrooms growing on a branch, a squirrel nesting inside the tree, a bug caught in a spider web, etc. 
Expiration Day is set in a dystopian near-future England a generation after fertility levels have dropped precipitously world-wide. Hardly any babies are born anymore, though most people don't realize how bad the situation is, because they parents are able to purchase uncannily lifelike robotic children. These children don't even know (unless some incident occurs) whether they are human or not.