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As of November 20, 2012 (that is, Midnight Eastern Time tonight) I am closed to queries. I will reopen to queries January 7, 2013.

If I already have your work, you should hear from me by January 7. (That's the point of taking the break, I have to catch up!)

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - PEANUT -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} Peanut by Ayun Halliday and Paul Hoppe is a gem! I am a tremendous fan of Smile and Drama by the exceptional Raina Telegemeier but have been frustrated by the fact that I have yet to find

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - PRIMATES -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas is written by Jim Ottaviano, who's very cool website, G.T. Labs, has the tagline, "

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - TUNE BOOK 1 VANISHING POINT -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} Derek Kirk Kim, two-time Eisner winning author of the fantastic Same Difference, brings us this first in a new series, TUNE : Book 1 : Vanishing Point. Kim has a way with

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - MANGA MAN -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> Mangaman, by Barry Lyga and Colleen Doran is just brilliant! And, while Lyga provides a fantastic glossary at the end of this book of terms, telling readers that

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - ODD DUCK -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> Odd Duck is the newest book from my favorite of favorites,  Sara Varon. Varon has teamed up with YA author Cecil Castelucci for yet another slightly off center,

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - NOTHING CAN POSSIBLY GO WRONG -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks. As with Hicks's fantastic graphic novel Friends with Boys, Nothing Can Possibly

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - WILL WHIT -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} Will & Whit is the newest graphic novels from the stunningly creative Laura Lee Gulledge. Her last book, Page by Paige, the story of an artistic girl who has to move from her childhood home

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - WELCOME TO YOUR AWESOME ROBOT -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> I am not the kind of person who collects anything by any means (books DON'T count, obviously) but I do really dig robots. And I also really,

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - THE SLEEPWALKERS -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} The Sleepwalkers is a graphic novel from Viviane Schwarz, the brilliant picture book illustrator and author, and, in her own words, maker of "other useful things." Schwarz's book from

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - TIMOTHY AND THE STRONG PAJAMAS -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> Timothy and the Strong Pajamas by Viviane Schwarz has long been a favorite of mine, a book I read often when I was a bookseller at story times and

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - THE SHORT SELLER -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> The Short Seller is the newest book from Elissa Brent Weissman, author of Nerd Camp, Standing for Socks and The Trouble with Mark Hopper. What I love about

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - JEMMY BUTTON -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> The cover art alone for Jemmy Button by Jennifer Uman and Valerio Vidali made me want to read this book, regardless of what it is about. Everything about it made

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - HEDGEHOG'S MAGIC TRICKS -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} I love hedgehogs, especially in pictures books. I think this goes back to a book I had as a very young child, Miss Jaster's Garden by N. M. Bodecker. All apologies to Ruth Paul and

Thanks to my husband, my eight-year-old has his first pet peeve. Whenever he tells his dad he is hungry, this is what he hears, "Nice to meet you, Hungry!" Of course a book titled My Dad Thinks He's Funny is going to be a hit in our house, but I think my husband is not alone in his specific sense of humor... My Dad Thinks He's Funny by Katrina Germein and illustrated by Tom Jellett

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos won the Newbery Medal in 2012. Set in Norvelt, PA, in 1962, Gantos has written a fantastic, funny, thought provoking novel. If you don't already know, Norvelt, PA (scroll to the bottom of the review for pictures and links to a great article) is a real town and Jack, the twelve-year-old narrator is none other than Jack Gantos. I almost feel like 

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - A VOICE OF HER OWN THE STORY OF PHILLIS WHEATLEY SLAVE POET -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> There are a handful of decent series of biographies for kids second through fourth grade reading level and they

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - DOODLE WITH MAISY -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> Last year I reviewed Create with Maisy by Lucy Cousins, which I adored above all else for the fact that Cousins really did create a craft book with projects

The Snow is Melting               The snow is melting            and the village is flooded  with children. Painting by William James Glackens Washington Square, 1910

You travel a path on paper You travel a path on paper and discover you are in a city you only thought about before. It's a Sunday marketplace. Parakeets and finches are placed on the stones and poppies in transparent wrapping. How can you be where you never were? And how did you find the way-with your mind your only measure? Fanny Howe Included in the book:  Poem in Your Pocket for

  Everything about Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell feels real and immediate, painfully and achingly so. While I managed to spread the experience of reading this breathtaking book out over the course of three weeks (this IS the kind of book you don't want to end, both because it's so good you want it to last forever but also because you know that it will make you cry) I could have easily read

This Is Just to Say I have eaten the plums that were in the ice box and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold -William Carlos Williams Of course, there is the wonderful collection of non-apology apology poems by Gail Carson Levine with fantastic illustrations

Ways of Composing typewriter: a mouthful of teeth chattering afraid to be quiet a pencil can lie down and dream dark silver silences Eve Merriam Included in the book:  Poem in Your Pocket for Young Poets: 100 Poems to Rip Out and Read painting by Christopher Stott

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - BINK GOLLIE BEST FRIENDS FOREVER -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> I think that Bink & Gollie : Best Friends Forever just might be the third and final title in  Bink & Gollie series. The first two books,

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - HOORAY FOR BREAD -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> You know how much I love all things Allan Ahlberg and, while Janet and Jessica Ahlberg are my favorite illustrators of his work, frequent collaborator Bruce