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It’s a new year, and that means we have more glorious books to rave about!  This month’s picks will spark creativity, help kids understand the experiences of others and take them on journeys to secret underground caves.

For Pre-K to 1st Grade (Ages 1 – 6)

Not a Box written and illustrated by Antoinette Portis

How can you write a whole book about a box? Because it’s not a box – it’s so much more! The rabbit in this cleverly simple board book is asked repeatedly why it is sitting in, standing on, spraying, and wearing a box. Each page reveals what the rabbit’s imagination has turned the box into, from a mountain to a race car to a hot air balloon. This entertaining story is perfect for an interactive read aloud to help inspire kids to use their own imagination. Just make sure you have an empty box ready after you finish!

For Grades 1st – 3rd (Ages 5-8)

The Black Book of Colors written by Menena Cottin and illustrated by Rosana Faría

What would it be like to be blind? This inventive book helps children think about how they might experience the world and its colors if they used only their senses of touch, taste, smell, and hearing. Readers can run their hands over the raised black drawings printed on black paper, and feel the braille letters stamped into the page. They hear about the taste of red, the smell of brown, the feel of blue, and so on. A unique and richly rewarding reading experience!

For Grades 3 – 5 (Ages 7-10)

The Lion Who Stole My Arm written by Nicola Davies

This is the wonderfully suspenseful story of a boy in rural Africa who loses his arm in a lion attack. His goal is to find and kill the lion who took his arm. Then he meets a team of researchers who teach him how they use science to track lions and change his understanding of the lions’ relationship with his village. Short and satisfying, this is an engaging story (great for reluctant readers) about adapting to life with a disability and understanding the value of species and habitat conservation.

For Grades 6+ (Ages 11 and up)

Fourth Down and Inches: Concussions and Football’s Make or Break Moment written by Carla Killough McClafferty

The knowledge that playing football can cause serious brain injury is not new. In 1905, no less than nineteen football players died from playing the sport and anti-football sentiment almost wiped it out of play. So, how and why did it continue on, becoming America’s most popular sport? This eye-opening work of nonfiction helps readers understand how football gained the popularity it has today and why it’s still the subject of heated debates about safety. A fascinating mix of science and history!

For Grades 6+ (Ages 11 and up):

The Secret of Priest’s Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story written by Peter Lane Taylor and Christos Nicola

Underneath the fields of Western Ukraine, a dark labyrinth of caves crisscross back and forth for 340 miles. The passages contain an astonishing story of despair, loyalty, and ultimately, survival. This captivating piece of nonfiction follows a team of modern cave divers as they unearth the previously unknown story of several Jewish families who lived within the cave system for over a year during Nazi occupation and the holocaust. Along with harrowing narration from the actual survivors, readers can follow the explorers underground and into the past, to witness one family’s extraordinary fight to survive.

The post Our Favorite Books for January appeared first on First Book Blog.

#84 Not a Box by Antoinette Portis (2006)
24 points

2006 – a marvelous springboard for creative play for any little kid who has never sat inside a cardboard box and yelled “blast off!” – Diantha McBride

And then there are the books that just don’t move all that much.  #89 last time, #84 this time, Portis is an 80s woman, that’s for sure.  This is the book that began her career and now we’ve many a fine title from her since.  I’m pleased to note that this is one I once reviewed.  This Geisel Honor winner (not too shabby) made equal use of simple words and a clean simple format to ensure that Ms. Portis burst out upon the scene.  As debuts go, this one was hard to beat.

The description from my review is: As the story opens and the reader flips through the publication and title page, a small bunny spots and tugs away a box that it has found. Now we see the bunny sitting quietly within his treasure as someone (perhaps the reader) asks, “Why are you sitting in a box?” A turn of the page and it’s the same bunny in the same box, but now red lines have appeared around them to sketch out a fabulous racing car. The opposite page is now bright red and at the bottom of it sit the words, “It’s not a box.” Turn the page and now the bunny is standing on top of the box. When asked why, the red lines have turned the box into an alpine peak with the bunny at the crest of the summit. “It’s not a box.” And so it goes until the reader finally asks of the bunny (with, perhaps, a note of impatience in the question), “Well, what is it then?” The bunny ponders this, in the same position as Rodin’s, “The Thinker”, then comes up with a fabulous answer. As we see it blasting off into space it waves good-bye from its rocket-box to say, “It’s my Not-a-Box!” The last image is of a distant bunny soaring past the planet Saturn.

Part of the allure lies with the packaging.  The book is bound without a dust jacket, the brown cardboard of the book serving as its actual cover.  It’s smart formatting (very box-like) but the real question is this: How well does it stand up to use in a public library?  My copies, which are moderately used, remain intact if slightly fuzzy after multiple small sticky hands have played with them.  However you can still make out the title on the spine (more than can be said for my copies of A Series of Unfortunate Events) so we’ll declare this an unqualified design success.

Kirkus said of it, “Portis pairs each question and increasingly emphatic response with a playscape of Crockett Johnson-style simplicity, digitally drawn with single red and black lines against generally pale color fields.”

And Publishers Weekly agreed with, “Readers won’t abandon their battery-charged plastic toys, but they might join in a game of reimagining everyday objects. Most profitably, Portis reminds everyone (especially her adult audience) that creativity doesn’t require complicated set-ups.”

If ever there was a classic in the making, this is it.

Last week, our super duper cat-scratching post was delivered, with the manufacturer’s guarantee that this will become our cat’s new best friend and will make him the envy of all cats. Well, Binky wasn’t impressed. However, he was wild about the box it was delivered in; he spent hours playing with the packaging. I remember [...]