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Josh Lieb has a very impressive page on IMDB with some solid comedy credit, including several Emmys. His first book for kids, I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I want to Be Your Class President, had hilarious blurbs from Judd Apatow and Jon Stewart, who likened to the book to the baby of War and Peace and The Breakfast Club that had been left to be raised by wolves. Writing funny kid's

There are a handful of early readers that have a special place in my heart - Frog & Toad , Poppleton by Cynthia Rylant (a multiple Newbery winner) and Mark Teague, Dav Pilkey's Dragon series, Elephant & Piggie,  of course, and James Marshall's fabulous George and Martha books. And, as of 2011, Tim Egan's Dodsworth books (my review here) have edged their way into this small space. A good

With the new live action movie coming out at the end of this year, there is a renewed interest in Paddington, the wayward bear from Darkest Peru. The Paddington Treasury, a collection of six picture book stories about Paddington and the Browns, the family that finds him at Paddington Station in London and takes him in, is a new, lovely collection with illustrations by American R.W. Alley,

In May of 2013, Boris on the Move, the first book in Andrew Joyner's fantastic new series was published, followed by three other titles before the year was out. Boris is part of a new line of books (seven series and counting) from Scholastic called Branches. I've been a children's bookseller for almost 20 years now and, about 10 years ago when my oldest son started reading, I began to

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - INVISIBLE INKLING WHOOPIE PIE WAR -->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 Dangerous Pumpkins, the second book in Emily Jenkins' Invisible Inkling series, illustrated by the marvelous Harry Bliss.

First reviewed on 3/9/09, Daisy Dawson remains perfect in every way. She is a thoughtful, brave, kind person who can talk to animals and the books about her are the ideal refuge for readers (and parents) who are tired of sassy girl characters and oafish boy characters. And the illustrations are as charming as the title character. Daisy Dawson is on Her Way! by Steve Voake, perfectly

This review first ran 8/5/09. I discovered Catwings in a bookstore in Portland, OR when I was in college and was immediately enchanted - both by Le Guin's straightforward story about these amazing creatures and by Schindler's realistically detailed illustrations. These were the first chapter books my daughter and niece read, but they make for fantastic read-out-louds as well. Also, it's really

I first posted this review in September of 2008, when my blog was barely a month old and I was racing to write reviews of all my favorite (and my children's) books. A new comment on these books reminded me how wonderful and rare they are and I decided to repost this review and hopefully introduce a whole new generation of emerging readers to these superb books! If you already know the DRAGON

<!-- 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 - BENJAMIN BEAR IN BRIGHT IDEAS -->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 --> When Philippe Courdray's Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking was released in August of 2011, it was a big hit in my home, one of the first books my

BENJAMIN BEAR in Fuzzy Thinking  is NOW IN PAPERBACK!!! TOON BOOKS hits another home run with their latest offering, Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking by Philippe Coudray. This book had me and my son in stitches when read it together. If you can imagine a little bit of the zaniness of Elephant & Piggie rubbing off on the bear from I Want My Hat Back who has chosen to befriend rabbits, not

Part One: In Which I Reminisce About What The Wind in the Willows Means to Me (Scroll down for my review of Inga Moore's adaptation of this classic) (Scroll to the very bottom for a peek at Return to the Willows by Jacqueline Kelly, author of   The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate!) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908. I have wanted to review this book since I

The Fog Mound trilogy by Susan Schade and Jon Buller, bills itself as part graphic novel part heroic fantasy, and an adventure like no other! And it is all true! I LOVE this book! A week of reading books with squirrels as main characters - realistic squirrels, cartoonish squirrels, villainous quasi-medieval squirrels - has lead me here to Travels of Thelonious (published in

I first reviewed A Dog's Life in 2008. While stories about animals are hard for me to read because they always involve some kind of injury or cruelty, I read A Dog's Life because I noticed so many kids looking for a good dog story to read. Squirrel's story still lingers in my memory four years after reading and A Dog's Life continues to be a bestselling book at the store where I work, and all

I have so many reasons to recommend The Six Crowns series by Gary Chalk and Allan Frewin Jones I'm not sure where to start. The Six Crowns is a highly readable, fantastically illustrated fantasy series that can easily take its place next to standards like Brian Jaques' Redwall series and Chris Riddell and Paul Stewart's Edge Chronicles. In fact, The Six Crowns is a perfect blending of these

Before there was Erin Hunter and the Warriors cat clans, before there was Brian Jacques and the rodents of Redwall Abbey, even before Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, there was the hill and those who inhabited it. Reading Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson again, I am moved by the sense of community and companionship that he creates amongst the various woodland animals as well as forging a

Lulu and the Brontosaurus is by Judith Viorst of the Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day trilogy fame and Lane Smith of  Grandpa Green, It's a Book and The Stinky Cheese Man fame. If you know anything about either of these giants of kid's books, then you know that Lulu and the Brontosaurus is a book worth reading. Everything about Lulu and the Brontosaurus, from the

Despite intentions otherwise, the Reading Level 1.5 label at books4yourkids.com represent a wide range of books. My intention with this  distinction is to recommend books that can serve as a bridge between the large format, leveled beginning to read books and the smaller chapter books like Magic Tree House, Junie B Jones, Ivy + Bean and the like, which are a solid second grade reading level,

The cover art and superb interior illustrations from Sam Nielson are what drew me to Neversink by Barry Wolverton. As a reader, books populated with societies of anthropomorphized animals are not my favorite. Of this type of book I thought, very wrongly, I see now, "Why not just tell the story with humans?" Wolverton, who has written for National Geographic and Discovery Networks and long

I know that I am a broken record when I start talking about the lack of creative, interesting stories being told in the chapter book format, but it really is a quantity versus quality situation when you scan the shelves. However, this has been a bountiful and exciting spring! First, the awesome Mega Mash-Ups, a DIY chapter book series from Nikalas Catlow and Tim Wesson debuted, then

There aren't too many books with animals as characters written at a fourth grade reading level or higher, and of those, even fewer are set in a real world (where animals behave like animals and are not anthropomorphized) and not a fantasy one. Rabbit Hill, Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIHM, Exiled: Memoirs of a Camel, A Dog's Life and The One and Only Ivan are the first that come to my mind when I

The Author One of the first books I reviewed when I started my blog in 2008 was Polly Horvath's Newbery Honor winner, Everything on a Waffle, the story of Primrose Squarp of Coal Harbor, British Columbia, who loses both her parents (and a few digits over the course of the story) in a storm but never gives up believing that they are alive and will return home. The story follows her from neighbor

Since I started writing book reviews I have become the kind of person who reads the quotes of praise on the back of the book, the dedications and always, always the author notes and acknowledgements. Katherine Applegate's newest book, The One and Only Ivan, comes with some very high praise from award winning authors Patricia MacLachlan ("Beautifully written, intelligent, and brave, this story is