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We’re getting into the thick of summer now.  Both the BEA and ALA conferences have come and gone.  Folks are beginning to get a grip on the fall season.  So before we go any further I’m going to provide you with a bit of a sneaky peek at Harper Collins and what all they have ah-brewing for the future.  It’s a rather lovely line-up.  When this preview took place I was at my pregnant-ist.  Muy pregnant.  Back pain, gargantuan girth, the works.  I think I may have given birth two days later, so take that into account if the occasional note here sounds a bit wonky.

The room was lovely and the desserts plentiful.  It was also a very full room so each switch to a table played like a game of musical chairs.  But once we got ourselves in some kind of a working order fun was to be had.

Table 1

First up, a table sporting the irrepressible Balzer & Bray.  Our little sheets also suggested that editor Jordan Brown would be there but alas twas not the case.

Louise Loves Art by Kelly Light

We dove right into this one.  HC is quite charmed by debut author/illustrator Kelly Light.  You could be forgiven for thinking, at a mere glance, that this was illustrated by Tony Fucile.  A fellow former animator, Light was inspired to write this book when her daughter’s art classes at school got cut.  In this book Louise and her little brother Art attempt to create art (lowercase) together.  Louise is fixated on creating a new masterpiece while Art is fixated on impressing his big sister.  And he does get her attention . . . just not in the way she’d prefer.  The cat was my personal favorite in this book.  Wouldn’t mind seeing it star in a book of its own.  Just sayin’.  Look for Louise and Art to crop up in a whole series of I Can Read books in the future, by the way.

Tap to Play by Salina Yoon

After years of wondering at last I have my answer.  Author/illustrator Salina Yoon, who has probably graced more baby and toddler homes than there are stars in the sky, lives in San Diego.  I always wondered where she was!  This book is a marked change of pace for the woman.  It’s sort of Yoon meet Tullet.  Hoping to appeal to a whole generation of young parents that grew up with Q*bert (guilty here), the book follows a little noseless hero by the name of Blip that needs the aid of the reader.  You help him win the game by bouncing, tapping, tickling, etc.  It’ll be paper over board, much like Press Here.  Alongside Richard Byrne’s This Book Just Ate My Dog (seen at a recent Macmillan preview) we’re seeing an uptick in creatively interactive picture books this fall.  I wonder what accounts for that.

Lion, Lion by Miriam Busch, ill. Larry Day

Now this is interesting.  Here you have a book that reminds me not a little of Jerry Pinkney and Julius Lester’s Sam and the Tigers.  In this book a small boy yells for a lion.  Then things take a distinctly Pierre-like turn (consider this foreshadowing for something that comes later in this preview).  It is rather nice to see a small African-American boy on a picture book.  Rare enough, anyway, that it’s notable which, when you think of it, is a problem right there.

I’m Brave by Kate McMullan, ill. Jim McMullan

Alternate Title: How the Heck Have the McMullans Not Written This Yet?  At least that was my first thought when I saw this book.  Considering they’ve covered trains and garbage trucks and even dinos over the years, it took quite a surprising bit of time before firetrucks made their appearance.  Interestingly, this book spends a great deal of time concentrating on some extensively research tools used by firefighters.  Cool!

Creature Keepers and the Hijacked Hydro-Hide by Peter Nelson, ill. Rohitash Rao

They’re baaaaack!  Remember Nelson and Rao?  These two charmers (and they are, if you ever meet them) were behind the lovely but too little lauded Herbert and the Wormhole series a couple years back.  I’m pleased to see that Harper Collins believes in them, though.  In this particular book a boy moves to Florida for the summer.  There, in the swamp behind his grandpa’s house, he finds a group of kids determined to protect some rare creatures like the swamp ape, the Jersey Devil, etc.  Then Nessie goes missing.  It reminded me a bit of the Suzanne Selfors Imaginary Veterinary series.  Sounds like they’d pair well together.

The Zoo at the Edge of the World by Eric Kahn Gale

For half a second there I got confused and thought that this was part of the Brian Chick Secret Zoo series (same publisher, after all).  But this is entirely different and by the same guy who did that awesome Bully Book last year.  In this story our hero is the son of a famous explorer turned curator of a zoo at the edge of the world.  The boy suffers from a severe stutter so no one really knows him except his dad and the animals in the zoo.  When it turns out that there’s a jaguar in the zoo that the boy can communicate with, things get interesting.  I was reminded of a nonfiction picture book out this year called A Boy and A Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz, ill. Catia Chien that also concerns a kid with a stutter and a jaguar.  I love funny connections like that.

Guys Read: True Stories, edited by Jon Scieszka

I love any cover done by Brian Floca, but if I had to change this one I’d probably turn old George Washington there into a grinning Jon Scieszka.  Am I crazy?  Of all the Guys Read books out there I confess that this is the one I want to read the most.  There are a number of reasons for this.  First off, this 5th book in the series is entirely nonfiction.  Second, the content is from folks like Steve Sheinkin, Candace Fleming and Nathan Hale.  Nathan Hale!!!  Want want want.

Meet the Dullards by Sara Pennypacker, ill. Daniel Salmieri

There are about five or six books hidden in this preview that are coming out, not in the fall of 2014 at all, but early 2015!!!  This is the first.  Slated for release around April 2015 (wowzah!) I was surprised to see that Daniel Salmieri is creating books now with folks other than Adam Rubin.  This book was described as “The Stupids with boring people” which may be my favorite catchline of the day.  The book, without saying too much too early, shows the subversive ways in which the kids in this family declare that being boring is not for them.  Best line: “Please. No exclamation marks in front of the children.”

Table 2

With a ring-a-ding-ding we move on to our next table.  And here we find the stylings of Rosemary Brosnan (not there that day, alas), Karen Chaplin, Margaret Anastas, and Nancy Inteli.  Onward!

The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel: Volumes 1 & 2 by Neil Gaiman, ill. P. Craig Russell and others

Yea verily do I salivate over these.  I was intrigued to see them split the original book in twain.  Guess they didn’t want too high a page count in the end.  In any case, the first GN covers chapters 1-5 and the second covers the rest.  #1 is slated to release in the summer and #2 in the fall.  Now it looks at first like P. Craig Russell, the guy who illustrated the Coraline graphic novel, has done this one as well.  In truth, however, each chapter in these books is illustrated by a different artist.  This solves the problem of many a book-to-comic adaptation (Wrinkle in Time, City of Ember, the aforementioned Coraline, etc.) where the art fails to capture any real originality beyond the source material.  Want to see this, I do I do!

Writer to Writer by Gail Carson Levine

Years ago, best beloved, Gail Carson Levine wrote a little book called Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly.  It came out around 2006 or so and was purchased by systems in need of writing advice from Newbery Honor winners.  Now she’s back, baby, and her latest book is a writer how-to.  Filled with exercises and advice, some of it culled from her blog, its publication will come out at the same time as the newly repackaged (and aforementioned) Writing Magic.  Apparently Writer to Writer is slated for early 2015 so don’t go digging about for it quite yet.  Special Note: Gail is currently working on her MFA in poetry which, for those of us who were fans of her Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems is good news.

Eighth Day by Dianne K. Salerni

Ah HA!  One I’ve actually read!  Not sure if this one was out yet when they presented it but it certainly is now.  I think when I initially saw this book I assumed that it was science fiction.  It certainly presents itself that way at the start, but soon you get clear on where it’s truly headed.  A sort of Percy Jackson meets King Arthur tale, in this story a boy discovers that for some people, when they reach the right age, there’s an extra day wedged in between Wednesday and Thursday.  Salerni has taught 5th grade for over twenty years so she knows how to keep a kid’s interest.  With it’s Arthurian roots it reminded me a bit of that Adam Rex series (Breakfast of Champions is the most recent).  Though it stands entirely on its own, another one is slated to be released next year.  FYI!

Goodnight, Already! by Jory John, ill. Benji Davies

That Benji Davies, man.  He’s having a bit of a banner year.  First we learn at the Macmillan preview that he has the lovely The Storm Whale coming out, and then this.  You’re not in Bizzy Bear territory anymore, man (though we haven’t strayed too far since he’s still doing bears, it seems).  This book lets Davies stretch his style a little alongside the author of the book All My Friends Are Dead.  Remember that book?  Here it is in a viral photo that’s been making the rounds lately:

Get it?  Anyway, this book is a bit different.  In it an overzealous duck annoys to no end an exasperated bear who just wants to tuck in for a good night’s rest.  The cover alone will sell it wherever it goes.  I was reminded too of A Splendid Friend Indeed by Suzanne Bloom.  Granted, in that case it’s a white goose rather than a white duck, but the similarities remain.

Aw, Nuts! by Rob McClurkan

Well I’ll be hornswaggled!  Looks like Connie Hsu was right when she said at the recent Little Brown preview that “Nuts are the new legume.”  Granted she was talking about The Nuts: Bedtime at the Nut House by Eric Litwin, illustrated by Scott Magoon, but the odds were good that there’d be at least one other nut related book this season and here it is!  Bringing to mind that little squirrelly character in the Ice Age movies (albeit with better footwear), this is an interactive picture book.  The “Aw, Nuts!” refrain is meant to be yelled by the audience.  And yes, by looking at the art you’d be correct in assuming that Mr. McClurkan is yet another refugee from the animation world.  This book also marks, to my mind, another trend for 2015.  Squirrels!  Clearly Flora and Ulysses is to be credited (I joke, but barely).

Our Solar System by Seymour Simon

The initial excitement of the television show Cosmos has worn off a tad, but that doesn’t mean its popularity has ebbed and waned.  What better time then to update this Simon classic?  Goodbye, Pluto!  Consider yourself excised from the record.  And happily, we learn that this will be the first in Mr. Simon’s reprinted series plus we’ll be seeing four all new titles as well.  Woot!

Harlem Renaissance Party by Faith Ringgold

Remember when I did that post the other day on authors and illustrators who walk away from making any more children’s books?  Well if I hadn’t already known about this book I might have included Faith Ringgold on that list.  Her Tar Beach is a NYC classic as far as we’re concerned, and if you go to The ABC of It exhibit at NYPL (still going on!) you’ll see that a whole wall has been dedicated to her.  Now we learn that in February of 2015 we’re going to get a picture book glimpse at the Harlem Renaissance.  Good news for me!  I purchase for Harlem libraries!  The hero of the book is Lonnie, a kid who has appeared in other Ringgold titles as well.  In this book he goes back in time to meet some luminaries like the usual suspects as well as Marcus Garvey (and where is HIS picture book bio, I might ask?). There’s a glossary and a bibliography as well as a further reading section.  Backmatter!  Love it!

Table 3

Lemme see, lemme see.  Now we’re at a table of Jen Klonsky, Alyson Day, and Kristen Pettit.  A very YA table, which is a genre I don’t tend to write up, but that isn’t to say there weren’t a couple that caught my eye.  For example . . .

Positive by Paige Rawl

I think I’ve had this vague sense that ever since they invented the HIV cocktail all the prejudice surrounding AIDS just magically dissipated into the ether.  Not exactly.  This YA memoir is the story of Paige, a kid who was born HIV positive but who, thanks to the aforementioned cocktail, has never been sick.  So really it wasn’t an issue until, at a middle school lock-in, she tried to comfort a friend by confiding her own illness.  Big mistake.  Next thing she knew she was being called “PAIDS” and each and every adult around her failed to stop the bullying.  At one point she took fifteen sleeping pills and when she survived she found a new sense of purpose.  Paige lobbied her state congress to make school administrators track bullying and make a plan when it happens.  Written in a very close first person p.o.v. Paige has since gone on things like The Today Show to talk about what happened.  There is also a Resources section in the back for kids going through similar struggles.

This next little guy might look familiar . . .

Why mention him again (I brought him up when discussing Lion, Lion earlier)?  Because I was very pleased to discover that all the books in The Nutshell Library, from Alligators All Around to Chicken Soup With Rice to One Was Johnny and, of course, Pierre will be rereleased as board books this month!  Too long overdue, this move.  In celebration I present a video in which the animated Pierre is set to Amanda Palmer’s rendition of the song:

Watch Out Hollywood! by Maria T. Lennon

Here’s a fun fact you might not know: Author Maria T. Lennon lives across the street from the Houdini mansion in L.A.  If that were me or you it might do something seriously wacky to our brains.  In her case, she simply worked it into the plot of her latest Middle Child book.  In this book our heroine Charlie Cooper is back.  Her father is working on the Houdini house and when Charlie saves a friend from the house’s tunnels she inadvertently becomes famous.  No surprise, it goes to her head.

The Keepers: The Box and the Dragonfly by Ted Sanders

Love that cover.  Ain’t it a beauty?  Well, what we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is the first in a four book series.  It stars an average boy who one day spots a very strange sign.  Which is to say, it has his name on it.  Literally.  Soon he meets a secret society and gets sucked into the world of Keepers vs. Makers.  All the magic in this book is based on real physics so that it’s all potentially possible.  You know what that means, don’t you?  Common Core!!  I ain’t kidding.

DING!

Table 4

Now we come to my publishing imprint (remember?).  Greenwillow Books and seated here are Virginia Duncan and Martha Mihalick.  And to begin . . .

Cabinet of Curiosities: 36 Tales Brief and Sinister ill. Alexander Jansson

Ah yes!  So I see a lot of middle grade fantasy in a given year and sometimes it’s a good idea to leave that stuff up to the professionals.  And by professionals I mean librarian Stephanie Whelan who has a very keen sense of what fantasy is good, what is bad, and what is particularly noteworthy.  I always trust Stephanie’s opinions in these matters (and so can you if you visit her blog Views from the Tesseract which recently had a great post about the 1982 book Clone Catcher) and she’s read this book and deems it great.  So I’m in.  You should be too.  Coming out simultaneously in both hardcover and paperback, the four authors Stefan Bachmann Katherine Catmull, Claire Legrand, and Emma Trevayne, met online and started a blog together.  They would then write short stories on different themes (love, cake, fairies, etc.) while their editors edited their longer stuff.  Calling themselves The Curators of Curiosities, this is their collaboration.

Circle, Square, Moose by Kelly Bingham, ill. Paul O. Zelinksy

Interestingly enough this was the only picture book being discussed on the Greenwillow fall list.  A sequel to Z is for Moose, it returns to the dynamic duo of moose and zebra and covers shapes for the first time.  One interesting question that came out of all of this: Are there any squares in nature?  Your answers are appreciated.  There was some talk of there being another book trailer for this book, but I haven’t been able to find it.  In lieu of that, here’s that AMAZING trailer for the previous book Z is for Moose. Because of this trailer I now cannot read these books without the voice of Brian Floca standing in for the zebra.

The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye

Remember Ms. Nye?  In terms of her novels for kids she was last seen writing the excellent Habibi.  That was published in the last century, however.  The time has clearly come for a new book.  With that in mind, here is the story of a boy who is slated to move from Muscat, Oman to Ann Arbor, MI (yay, Michigan!).  The catch?  He does NOT want to go.  In a form of protest he refuses to pack his suitcase, so the book focuses on his mother attempting to persuade him to do so.  It’s all about the suitcase, baby.  I like a lot of things about this book, but mostly I really like that the experience of moving is universal.  No kid wants to do it, doesn’t matter where you live.

Nuts to You by Lynne Rae Perkins

“Incredible Journey with squirrels.”  Need I say more?  That was how the latest Perkins title was described to me.  With art on every spread, this definitely struck me as yet another Flora and Ulysses companion novel.  It has has some darkness.  When a squirrel is picked up by a hawk his companions see this and think they see him get away.  With that in mind they set out to find him.  Said Greenwillow, it’s a book about storytelling and stories . . . and trees.

A New Darkness by Joseph Delaney

It’s not just a new darkness for Delaney.  It’s a new cover look altogether.  Fans of Delaney’s Spook’s Apprentice series will be pleased to see that in this book Tom Ward is now 17 and his own spook.  The tale is told with two perspectives, his own and that of a 15-year-old 7th daughter of a 7th daughter who wants to be his apprentice.  The book stands on its own so you need not have read the previous books in the series to understand it.  It’s also part of a three book arc.  Naturally I wanted to know when the movie of the first Tom Ward book was coming out.  The date?  February 6, 2015.  Woohoo!

Poisoned Apples by Christine Happermann

I saw this at a Greenwillow event about half a year ago and I was very struck by its loveliness.  I then promptly forgot its title and for months afterwards was at events involving photography in children’s literature trying as hard as I could to recall it.  So, in a way, it’s a massive relief to see it finally coming out.  A book of poetry, this is punctuated with eerie photographs very much in the vein of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.  However, while I thought originally it had a single photographer, apparently it instead has photos from a range of up and coming artists.  Like the Graveyard Book graphic novels, it’s not afraid to include more than one creative person within its pages.

Red by Michael Hall

Okay.  I know this is coming out in February 2015.  My head is aware of this fact, but my heart wants it now now now now now!!  On the surface it may look like it was inspired by The Day the Crayons Quit.  Not by half.  If anything, this is a story about how appearances can be deceiving.  A blue crayon is accidentally packaged in a red wrapper.  So everyone insists that it draw red things, and yet it just can’t, not even after Scarlet tries to give it a pep talk.  They say it’s a tale about coming to terms with you really are, and it is.  But in another way this is the first picture book I’ve seen that would be perfect to hand to anyone who has come out as transgender.  The metaphor is effortless.  And there’s a final line in this book that’ll knock your socks off.  Cannot WAIT for this to be released!

DING!

Table 5

Table 5, and it’s great to be alive.  Here we find ourselves in the company of Erica Sussman, Alex Arnold, and Katie Ginell with Tara Weikum now relocated to Hawaii.  Nice work if you can get it, Tara!  Additionally we saw Anica Rissi and Katie Bignell of Katherine Tegen Books.

Endgame: The Calling by James Frey

Not the kind of book I usually cover in these round-ups but this Frey/Johnson-Shelton collaboration has an odd little twist.  Remember Masquerade by Kit Williams?  No?  Hmmm.. Well how about The Clock Without a Face by Mac Barnett?  In both cases these were books with real world treasure hunts attached.  Moves of this sort are awfully gutsy on the author/publisher’s part.  The understanding is that the riddle of the book is so difficult that only a very small segment of the population is going to have the willingness (and brains) to solve all the clues. And though adults tend to be the ones solving the puzzles, the books are almost always published for children.  Now, for the first time that I know of, someone is doing the same thing on the YA side.  In each book in the Endgame series there is a different puzzle to be solved and a different prize to be found.  Don’t ask me to clarify since that’s all I really know.  That and the fact that the final puzzles will only appear in the final copies of these books and NOT in the galleys.  Clever ducks.

The Scavengers by Michael Perry

Tara Weikum, the editor who I may have mentioned is now all about Hawaii, grew up in a very small town.  As an adult she read author Michael Perry’s Visiting Tom (I think) about that very thing.  So when Perry reached out to her about writing for kids, she was game.  In this dystopian middle grade we’re hearing folks compare it to City of Ember.  The environment has been destroyed and most people are living inside giant bubbles.  Not our heroine Maggie (who has renamed herself Ford Falcon).  She and her family live outside the bubble.  Then things take a distinctly Mad Max turn.  Blurbs are in from Wendy Mass, Leslie Connor, and Katherine Applegate.  Oh, and my librarians really like it.  I’m hearing it may be one of the best science fiction books for kids for the year.  FYI.

Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai

Before I say anything else about this book I should reiterate that the cover art shown here is by no means final.  Just FYI.  Now it is mighty exciting to see that Ms. Lai, last seen winning a Newbery Honor for Inside Out and Back Again, has a second novel on the horizon.  Slated to release in March 2015, this book is written in prose and set in Orange County.  There, a girl lives with her Vietnamese parents and grandmother.  When she finds out that she’s stuck visiting Vietnam with said family she’s less than thrilled.  Apparently her grandfather was lost in the Vietnam War years ago and her grandma is determined to go back and find him.  So basically we have a contemporary Vietnamese middle grade.  Score!

TodHunter Moon, Book One: Pathfinder by Angie Sage

Behold!  It’s a spinoff series to Sage’s Septimus Heap books.  Set seven years after the original, this trilogy is meant to please old fans and new.  Alice TodHunter Moon is a fisher who discovers her own magic when she goes to the castle.  Folks who know the series will know what that means.  And yes.  Septimus is in the book.

The Swap by Megan Shull

I was saddened to hear of the recent passing of Mary Rodgers, author of that classic work of children’s fiction (and multiple Disney adaptation) Freaky Friday.  Mary sort of pioneered the switching bodies genre in children’s books, so hat tip to her.  Her influence continues long and strong with books like this one here.  In it, a mean girl switches bodies with the most popular boy in school.  Wowzah!  You don’t usually get to see boy/girl swap books.  Scieszka himself provides the cover blurb here, as you can see.  That says something.

Balance Keepers #1: The Fires of Calderon by Lindsay Cummings

An epic fantasy middle grade trilogy with a cover that bring back happy memories of my mother’s old 1970s/80s fantasy novel paperbacks?  Don’t mind if I do!  Selling this one as “Journey to the Center of the Earth for the Percy Jackson generation”, the book is by YA author Lindsay Cummings of The Murder Complex n’ such.  In this book a boy follows a map into the forest and then under the forest.  His job?  To keep the balance between the below and the above.  If he fails fires will destroy New York City.  So, y’know.  No pressure.  And lest you think this book is YA as well, it’s meant to hit squarely into the 8-12 age range.

Clariel by Garth Nix

Oh man.  This brings me back.  When I was in library school I decided I needed to read all the important YA novels as well as children’s (this was before I decided to specialize solely in the kiddo area).  On my list of must reads?  Sabriel by Garth Nix.  A great book, and one that has its fans, most certainly.  The Abhorsen trilogy is well regarded but we haven’t seen a book in the series in a long long time. Now Nix is back (he never really went away) with a prequel to Sabriel.  He’s about to make some librarians out there very very happy.

And that’s all she wrote, folks.  Except we simply cannot forget about the “meets” as I call them. In some ways, they’re the best part of any preview.  Here are the ones I caught this time around!

Best Meets:

• “The Breakfast Club with a body count” – Get Even by Gretchen McNeil (shouldn’t that be The Breakfast Club meets Heathers then?)

• “Graceling meets The Selection” – The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

• “The Great Gatsby meets Looking for Alaska” – Even in Paradise by Chelsey Philpot

• “Downton Abbey meets Cassandra Clare” – Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White (the book sounds like Rose for the YA set)

• “The Breakfast Club set in a grocery store” – Top Ten Clues You’re Clueless by Liz Czukas (or, alternatively, maybe The Breakfast Club meets Empire Records)

Many thanks to Patty Rosati and & Co. for the invite, the tasty treats, and the books!

And the hits just keep on coming!  Ain’t no party like a Macmillan party, cause a Macmillan party has superior brownies.  So there I was, HUGELY pregnant with some major back pain attending my penultimate librarian preview in a publisher’s home base (I actually have three more to write up after this, so no worries about me running out anytime soon).  As you may know, Macmillan is based out of the Flatiron Building here in NYC and a nicer little ancient structure with teeny tiny elevators you will never meet.

Now a Macmillan Librarian Preview is a bit different from any other publisher’s preview.  First off, superior desserts.  So superior, in fact, that it takes an act of will not to eat large quantities of them.  Second, they hold their previews in the afternoon, post-lunch, and end at the end of the work day (5ish or so).  This allows you the chance to arrive on time, not particularly bleary-eyed, feeling guiltless when you go home afterwards.  Third, they assign each attendee a group and then the groups go off into separate rooms.

I have been to (rough guess here) ten or so Macmillan previews over the years.  I’ve seen them change and evolve over time into the clever current layout.  And not once, NOT ONCE, had I ever been allowed to be a part of the group that stays in the first meeting room.  Which is to say, the group that has access to those previously mentioned delicious snacks.  But now I must credit the magical powers of my pregnant stomach.  I got the first room!  I got it!!  Oh frabjous day, calloo, callay!  Pardon me while I chortle in my joy.

And so it was that I sat in on the preview, finding that now I had to concentrate my willpower on NOT eating the delicious snacks, one after another.  I tell ya, man.  I ain’t never satisfied.

Onto the preview!

Farrar Straus Giroux

If You Were a Dog by Jamie A. Swenson, ill. Chris Raschka

It’s not as if Chris Raschka has to prove that he’s capable of drawing dogs or anything.  I mean, he bloody won a Caldecott Award with one such book not too long ago.  In the case of this particular title, we’re seeing a slightly squared off Raschka at work.  The author is Jamie Swenson, whom I am delighted to report is a children’s librarian from Wisconsin.  In the book a kiddo imagines being a dog, cat, fish, frog, and dinosaur.  I particularly liked the line about being a “dino-eyed, perching-raptor sort of bird.”  Extra Added Plus: In the vein of The Hello Goodbye Window (another Raschka award winner) the kid is mixed-race with a light mom and dark dad.

Rupert Can Dance by Jules Feiffer

You can never predict a Feiffer.  For a couple years now he’s been pairing his art to his daughter Kate’s writing, yielding such lovely titles as My Side of the Car (which I personally am really quite fond of).  From time to time he’ll still strike out on his own, though.  I consider some of his solo picture book efforts true classics (see: Bark, George and The Daddy Mountain as two examples).  Now we meet Rupert, the dancing cat.  Since Feiffer’s picture books often have interesting back stories, one can only hope the tale behind this tale will come out someday.  In this book a cat that likes to dance en seul is discovered by his human owner.  Unfortunately, her attempts to “help” result in him pulling away and quitting his high-stepping altogether.  Things eventually reach a happy conclusion, and I couldn’t but think that the story was an excellent metaphor for when parental “help” offered to children is rebuffed in much the same way that Rupert rebuffs his mistress.  Consider pairing this with Flora and the Flamingo or Penguin Cha-Cha.

And Two Boys Booed by Judith Viorst, ill. Sophie Blackall

I’m all about helping kids deal with disappointment and failure.  Seems to me a healthy thing to do.  Recently I reviewed The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires, which shows kids that getting things wrong over and over again can actually be a good thing.  Along much the same lines comes the latest from the author that brought us Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  So basically, we’re talking about a woman with some experience with disappointed boys.  In this tale there is a small classroom talent show going on and our hero is going to sing.  Trouble is, there are a LOT of kids before him and he really has to wait before his singing happens.  Told with rhythmic text and some really nice little flaps that you lift, it doesn’t hurt matters any that the art is by Sophie Blackall, one of my favorite illustrators of regular everyday kids.  When our hero does finally get his chance, most everyone applauds though two boys do boo him.  Fortunately, it doesn’t hurt him one jot.  And brother, if you can survive being booed as a kid then you are emotionally and mentally set for LIFE!  What a cool idea for a book.

Little Humans by Brandon Stanton

So I’m walking down the street with my husband the other day and he says to me, “You know what the Humans of New York guy should do?  He should make a book for kids.”  I was mighty pleased to be able to say, “It’s out this October.”  So there you go, folks.

The Key That Swallowed Joey Pigza by Jack Gantos

Sometimes a book jacket artist is so obvious you feel as if they’ve always been the artist on a series.  Lane Smith’s covers of the Joey Pigza books?  Yes, obviously.  He did those years ago, right?  Nope.  And why no one thought to pair Smith and Gantos together before now is baffling.  I mean, talk about a match made in heaven!  These guys complete one another.  As for the fact that there’s another Joey Pigza on the horizon, woohoo!  Do you remember how angry some folks got when the last one came out?  I remember some librarians complaining because at the end of #3 Joey really seemed like his life was coming together.  Then it all fell apart in #4 (I Am Not Joey Pigza).  In #5 he’s still dealing with some major problems and if I were a betting woman I’d say it’s likely that there are no easy answers.  One thought about the title, it’s going to make keyword searches for the first book just the teensiest bit more difficult now.

Spirit’s Key by Edith Cohn

More keys.  I have to remember how they were describing this one.  If I’m remembering correctly then they said this was “Savvy meets Because of Winn-Dixie” (a “meets” I have certainly never seen before).  I heard their description of this book but for some reason I just wasn’t able to get my fingers to write down the information correctly.  Here’s the official summary then: “By now, twelve-year-old Spirit Holden should have inherited the family gift: the ability to see the future. But when she holds a house key in her hand like her dad does to read its owner’s destiny, she can’t see anything. Maybe it’s because she can’t get over the loss of her beloved dog, Sky, who died mysteriously. Sky was Spirit’s loyal companion, one of the wild dogs that the local islanders believe possess devil spirits. As more dogs start dying and people become sick, too, everyone blames the dogs–except for Spirit. Then Sky’s ghost appears. His help may be the key to unlocking her new power and finding the cause of the mysterious illness before it’s too late.”

Feiwel and Friends

Frankenstein’s Fright Before Christmas by Nathan Hale and Rick Walton

I never really noticed it before but Frankenstein sort of looks like a shorter, more undead version of Hale’s Hangman from the Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series.  See?

Sorry. That was random.  I just love the Hazardous Tales series so much I’ll use any excuse to talk about ‘em.  Anywho, here we have the sequel to Hale and Walton’s rather successful Frankenstein which, as you may recall, was a parody of Madeline. Looking at the book I was definitely reminded of The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Not the worst thing to think of when looking at a new book, wouldn’t you say?

Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin

Right now this is the book I feel guiltiest for not having read yet.  To give us a taste, five pages of this book were read aloud.  And yup.  That was pretty much all it took to get us all very very VERY interested.  Yes, you could say that it looks rather familiar since it is yet again an Ann M. Martin dog book.  But the individual voices of the characters, in particular the father and the daughter, are amazingly well delineated.  With a heroine with Asperger’s who finds numbers and homonyms comforting, this was the take away line from the preview: “You may not like her, but you’ll love her.”  Oooo.  Well played, Feiwel and Friends.

Zorgoochi Intergalactic Pizza: Delivery of Doom by Dan Yaccarino

What does it say about a publisher when they have not one but TWO books for kids coming out the same year featuring outer space heroes that deliver pizzas?  Over at the First Second imprint they’ve already published James Kochalka’s The Glorkian Warrior Delivers a Pizza.  Now Feiwel and Friends are coming out with a middle grade novel about an independent space pizza company (never buy your space pizza from corporate sellouts, sweethearts).  Copiously illustrated by Yaccarino and nicely designed, there is a moral to this tale: “Aliens aren’t good tippers.”  It’s an interesting size for a middle grade, coming in at a slightly larger than usual 6″ X 9″.  And since the story does, at some point, involve talking garlic, I officially approve.  Insofar as I’m concerned, all books should involve talking garlic in some way.  It just makes sense.

Coming Home by Greg Ruth

Okay.  Fess up.  How many of you have watched those YouTube videos of soldiers returning home, being greeted by their loved ones and haven’t teared up?  Here, I’ll give you a challenge.  Watch this and don’t cry.

Now admit that this is a great idea for a picture book.  Greg Ruth was last seen creating the creepy as all get out graphic novel The Lost Boy.  Switching gears entirely, he’s now penned a picture book that will be out just in time for Veteran’s Day.  In this tale, a boy waits for his mom in an airport.  As he does we see family after family greeting returning soldiers home.

Henry Holt

The Storm Whale by Benji Davies

I’m the kind of parent who always makes a big show of reading the author’s name when I read a book aloud to my kiddos.  As a result, the name “Benji Davies” is VERY familiar to me.  That’s because here in the States we primarily know him through his Nosy Crow imports like the Bizzy Bear series.  Turns out, the man has loads of other books under his belt, and they do not all happen to involve wide-eyed board book bears.  This book sort of looks like a combination of One Morning in Maine meets modern Japanese prints.  With beautiful saturated color the story follows a boy, his fisherman father, and their cats.  One day the boy finds a small whale on the beach and brings it home.  Imagine this to be a companion to Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.  Then head on over to the 100 Scope Notes post on the proliferation of whales in children’s books this year.

This Book Just Ate My Dog by Richard Byrne

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but after the publication of Herve Tullet’s Press Here, its overwhelming success led to a string of copycat picture books.  And they all basically did the same darn thing, but with a mild twist here and there.  *snore*  If you’re going to make an interactive picture book where the format is key to the storytelling, at least put a little originality in there, people.  Originality is the name of the game with Byrne’s latest.  This is a book that uses the gutter (in layman’s terms, the middle of the book between the pages) as part of the plot.  It’s funny and quirky and really rather clever.  It would also make a GREAT readaloud picture book.  Just sayin’.

Little Elliot, Big City by Mike Curato

I consider this one a love letter to New York City.  It reminded me in equal turns of Gus Gordon’s Herman & Rosie and Dan Santat’s Beekle.  In this story a small polka dotted elephant (the polka dots are awfully light) finds that he is just too small in this way too big city.  Fortunately, he soon finds a friend who makes the experience of NYC a little more manageable.

Classic Comics: Pinocchio by Kate McMullan, ill. Pascal LeMaitre

Fun Fact: Did you know that in the original tale of Pinocchio it wasn’t a whale that swallowed everybody’s favorite wooden boy but a shark?  You can thank Disney for mucking up your memories in that respect.  McMulland and LeMaitre (who may sound familiar to you because he illustrated Andrea Beaty’s Ted books) have created an early chapter book hybrid graphic novel series in two-colors based on classics.  First up (working off the original text) is Pinocchio.  Next: Robin Hood.

Centaur Rising by Jane Yolen

In some ways, Jane Yolen is the queen of the hybrid humans.  I can’t tell you how easy it has been over the years to hear the pleas of mermaid loving girls and then hand them Yolen’s Neptune Rising (check out the cover and you’ll see what I mean).  Her latest is a bit of historical fiction with a title very similar to that old merman tale.  Here’s the official publisher plot: “One night during the Perseid meteor shower, Arianne thinks she sees a shooting star land in the fields surrounding her family’s horse farm. About a year later, one of their horses gives birth to a baby centaur. The family has enough attention already as Arianne’s six-year-old brother was born with birth defects caused by an experimental drug—the last thing they need is more scrutiny. But their clients soon start growing suspicious. Just how long is it possible to keep a secret? And what will happen if the world finds out?”

Little Author in the Big Woods: A Biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Yona Zeldis McDonough,

ill. Jennifer Thermes

The most interesting thing about this is that the cover and interior illustrations evoke most clearly (and we have to assume, deliberately) the original illustrations of the Little House books by Helen Sewell.  Knowing, as they do, that the Little House books are most accessible to slightly older children, this book makes Laura & Co. applicable to younger folks.  Recipes and crafts are also included.

And Away We Go by Migy

Balloons are very big with Macmillan this year (as you will soon see with an upcoming Philip Stead book).  In this cumulative story a fox gets a hot air balloon.  As he travels, more and more animals join for a ride, bringing something with them.  That’s when things get a little crazy.  Think of a book like The Mitten only set in a hot air balloon and you’ll have the right notion.  Plus, you’ve gotta love the retro look that one-namer Migy has cultivated here.  Sweet.

Strongheart: The World’s First Movie Star Dog by Emily Arnold McCully

There is something deeply askew in the universe this year.  I like dog books.  Books.  Plural.  I keep bloody running into dog books that I enjoy and I am NOT a dog person.  If it’s not Stubby the War Dog by Ann Bausum then it’s Tuesday Tucks Me In by Luis Carlos Montalvan or Kathi Appelt’s Mogie: The Heart of the House.  Know what these all have in common?  They’re all based on real dogs.  McCully’s is no different.  Before Lassie, before RinTinTin, there was Strongheart.  A former soldier dog from Germany, Strongheart could march and obey orders but he didn’t know how to play.  That meant he was an ideal actor (and don’t worry, the man who got him taught him to play as well).  He became a real sensation of the 1920s, and his on-screen exploits even inspired the owners of RinTinTin.  Pair this book with the aforementioned Stubby as well as Meghan McCarthy’s Balto for other books about dogs-turned-Vaudeville and onscreen stars.

Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny by John Himmelman

If I were to list my favorite picture books of all time, I would be ashamed not to mention Chickens to the Rescue and Katie Loves the Kittens, two of my favorite books.  In the same vein as such series as Usagi Yojimbo comes an early chapter book series about a martial art that is entirely for bunnies.  Short little stories and a single color (red), John himself has long studied martial arts so he knows from whence he writes when he includes such elements as bunchucks (they’re made of carrots).

Three Pickled Herrings by Sally Gardner, ill. David Roberts

To a certain extent I’m including this because I enjoyed the first book in the series so very much.  I’m sure I don’t have to tell you all how charming Operation Bunny: The Fairy Detective Agency’s First Case by Sally Gardner (which came out earlier this year) is.  If you haven’t read it yet then tsk tsk tsk.  It’s a pure delight.  Very much in the Dahl vein, only slightly more refined.  In any case, to know that there’s a second book coming out is just icing on the cake.  I will be reading this.

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon

As per usual I have a tendency to skip mentioning all the YA in a given preview and as per usual I make exceptions here and there.  Kekla Magoon will always be such an exception as she is exceptional.  What we have here is a kind of Trayvon Martin storyline.  A black boy has been shot by a white man.  Done in a  Monster style (there are multiple voices and conflicting viewpoints) the crime has already happened.  Lots of people feel conflicted about the crime.  A politician who honestly feels this was a horrible thing to happen discovers that it does wonders for his poll numbers.  A person who honestly didn’t like the victim now has to deal with his death.  Great cover (love the hoodie).  A must read.

The Book of Three (50th Anniversary Edition) by Lloyd Alexander

It’s been fifty years since Lloyd Alexander introduced the world to Prydain.  That’s long enough for people to have forgotten the lamentable Disney film based on them and to remember only Alexander’s wit and wisdom.  In this lovely new celebratory cloth-bound edition they’ve amped up the original cover and included an introduction from Shannon Hale.  The foundling stories are now included in the back, which is a clever idea.  Other books in the series will be coming soon too.

Roaring Brook Press

Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales

Are you excited?  You should be.  But you should also not rush to conclusions.  If you’re looking for a straight picture book bio of Frida Kahlo then this is not the book for you.  Written in both English and Spanish, Morales utilizes her impressive artistic skills to create this utterly beautiful mixture of illustration and models.  With extremely simple text the book is less about Frida’s life and more about her inspiration as an artist.  Biographical information is included at the end, but this is a book to hand to budding artists.  It reminded me of Yuyi’s previous, fantastic, experiment with models with Tony Johnston’s My Abuelita.  And speaking of Tony Johnston . . .

Sequoia by Tony Johnston, ill. Wendell Minor

Looks like we finally have a companion book for Jason Chin’s Redwoods.  The difference is in the complete and utter absence of humans.  In this book the tree is the true protagonist.  Using poetic language, the book examines a single sequoia.  Readers are encouraged to occasionally turn the book on its side from time to time to read it.  Very cool stuff.

Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting the Great White Sharks of California’s Farallon Islands, by Katherine Roy

Great cover, right?  There are a number of reasons to be excited about this particular book.  I heard about it a year or so ago and have been anxiously awaiting its appearance ever since.  This is the first book in the brand spanking new David Macaulay imprint at Macmillan.  As the editors put it this is, “the most up-to-date book on sharks you will find.”  Consider Ms. Roy a debut to watch.  Gotta love that title too.

Sebastian and the Balloon by Philip C. Stead

The other balloon book of note.  Here we have a new Stead, coming out at the same time as his interview site Number Five Bus Presents.  To hear his editors speak of it, it’s a book about loneliness, friendship, quests, “and realizing your heart’s desire.”  I found it to have a distinctly “classic” picture book feel to it.  Plus, the man does a good bear.  That’s important too, right?

Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads by Bob Shea, ill. Lane Smith

Look, I’ll level with you.  I love Bob Shea and I have great fondness for the work of Lane Smith, but neither of them guarantee a slam dunk of a book every time.  And yes, putting them together is fun but even that wasn’t enough to sway me.  I had to read this puppy before I’d write it off as brilliant.  And fortunately, it stood up to the test.  Maybe that’s because it’s so bloody odd.  Travis Jonker will tell you that the biggest trend in children’s books this year is whales, and he’s right.  But if I were to pick a very strange sub-trend, I’d go with Westerns Featuring People Riding Tortoises.  Don’t believe me?  Well, we have this and we also have the new Anne Issacs title Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch.  Sure, it’s only two but it’s two in the same year.  That’s gotta mean something.

The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse by Patricia MacLachlan, ill. Hadley Hooper

The way editor Neal Porter describes getting the pitch of this book, he was an event with Ms. MacLachlan and asked what she was working on.  She told him it was a book that would never get published.  Gotta watch yourself around Neal Porter though.  Them’s fighting words.  Challenge accepted!  So basically what you have here is a book consisting entirely of two sentences.  Two long run-on sentences, but still.  Just two.  Meant to be read aloud, this pairs well with the aforementioned Frida book because like Frida it has less to do with being a strict biography and more about what it means to be an artist.  Illustrator Hadley Hooper may look somewhat familiar to you, by the way, since his last book was that cool bio Here Come the Girl Scouts.

Born in the Wild: Baby Mammals and Their Parents by Lita Judge

A new Lita Judge is always cause for celebration.  Going a little bit more cuddly than her previous forays into birds and dinos, this book talks about the different things that babies need from their parents.  The book follows the current trend of including a younger readaloud text alongside nonfiction background information for older readers.  It’s a clever way of making a single book accessible to a range of ages.  Clever, yes?

Edible Colors by Jennifer Vogel Bass

As a mother who attempts to break the cycle of picky eating with her own children (and the universe says, “Yeah. Good luck with aallllll that”) I instinctively gravitate towards any book that includes photographs of healthy food.  The first thing I thought when I saw Jennifer Vogel Bass’s latest nonfiction picture book was of April Pulley Sayre’s Rah Rah Radishes and Go Go Grapes.  In the same vein as Eating the Alphabet, the book consists of different colors and the fruits and veggies that are those colors.  I’m very curious to see how Bass tackles blue.  For the photos, Bass actually grew most of the foods here, going to her local markets for the rest.

Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos by Stephanie Roth Sisson

With the new Cosmos television show I’ve been saying for quite some time that somebody needed to do a Neil deGrasse Tyson picture book bio.  Well . . . this ain’t it.  Ain’t it, but it’s the next best thing.  Carl Sagan for the kiddos!  Considering that in my own youth my sole understanding of who Sagan was consisted of a Bloom County cartoon (points to anyone who can name which one) this is a step in the right direction.  This story tells how Carl got into science and ends with the Voyager project, golden records and all.  So now at long last we’ve something to hand the Cosmos watchers!  Woohoo!

The Graham Cracker Plot by Shelley Tougas

Huh.  Is that a Jeff Newman cover I see?  Hard to tell.  I should have asked at the time, actually, but I was too distracted by (A) The cool title and (B) the fun sounding plot.  In this tale by debut author Shelley Tougas, Daisy and Graham decide the time has come to bust her dad out of jail and escape to Canada.  The entire book is told in the form of a letter to a judge about the events as they occurred.  As you might be able to tell, not everything goes according to plan.

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

Clearly somebody has been making blood sacrifices to the gods of good cover design.  That somebody must be Julie Berry.  In this Victorian farce seven girls in a boarding school make an unusual choice when their headmistress drops dead at tea.  Rather than report the fact, they decide to pull a Summer of the Gypsy Moths and bury the body themselves, telling no one.  Of course, that does still mean that her killer is out there.  Now tell me you’re not intrigued.

First Second

Julia’s House for Lost Creatures by Ben Hatke

I know that you already love his Zita the Spacegirl graphic novels, but that series just wrapped up.  So what’s the next step for Mr. Hatke?  How about picture books?  Because this book has been available through Netgalley, some of my librarians have already read it and they are BIG time fans.  In this story Julia opens up her house to a range of odd creatures, and then must domesticate them (read: Get them to do their chores).  For some reason, this felt like a good companion to this year’s The Midnight Library by Kazuno Kohara.  And it definitely reminded me of that old Cartoon Network show Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends.

Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in Poetry and Comics, edited by Chris Duffy

A far cry from Nursery Rhyme Comics, eh Duffy?  So this would be the second YA title to grace my round-up.  I wouldn’t necessarily mention it except that I love all the books that Duffy edits and this ties in so well with all the WWI units we’re hearing about this year.  Taking real poetry written by WWI soldiers in the trenches (called “trench poetry”) each poem is accompanied by a different cartoonist’s work.  A quick warning that this is being marketing for adults, but it has definite YA crossover potential.  FYI.

And that is that!  Many thanks to Macmillan for the lovely preview.  And thanks to you all for reading.

Lest we grow complacent in our maternity leave, I’ve quite a few librarian previews just ah-waiting postings.  And what better way to begin than with Lerner Books here?  Everyone’s favorite Minnesotan publisher came to town in the guise of Lindsay Matvick.  We ate pizza.  We talked shop.  We heard about what Lerner has on offer and what we can expect this coming fall.  So hold on to your hats, folks.  This is one of those previews that just get better and better the deeper you go.

First off . . .

Why Is the Statue of Liberty Green? by Martha E.H. Rustad

Good old, Cloverleaf Books.  The faithful series on nonfiction topics we do indeed get questions about.  In this particular case we’re discussing the “Our American Symbols” series.  Covering everything from the Lincoln Memorial to The Star-Spangled Banner, the books cover the basics (“Why are there stripes on the American Flag?”, etc.) and then fill their rears with backmatter (there’s gotta be a better way of saying that).  In the case of the flag, for example, there are projects for students on how to design your own flag.  That sort of stuff.  Keen.

Helper Robots by Nancy Furstinger

I took one look at this cover and thought to myself, “Help me do what exactly?”  This is one of the books in the “Robots Everywhere!” series, coming out with Lightning Bolt Books.  It’s not the first robot series out there, but it may well be the first one that gets any kind of reviews.  Each book covers different types of real world robots.  Robots you use in the home, robots you use in space, robots that help us with the weather, etc.  Turns out the robot on the cover of this particular book is a robot that diffuses bombs.  Okay.  That’s something I might actually need help with.

What Are Nonfiction Genres? by Valerie Bodden

Awwwwww, yeah.  Kicking it back literary genre style.  So this would be the “Name That Text Type” series, and it’s pretty self-explanatory, all things considered.  Each book tackles a different genre with written examples of the text type and guidelines on how to write in that particular genre.  I picked the Nonfiction Genre book as the one to present here because I like the genre types included: Persuasive, Memoir, How-To, and Biography.  We CERTAINLY get those requests in the library.  Particularly the “How-To”.  More on that later.

What’s So Great About New York? by Ann Malaspina

In spite of what it might look like, this isn’t yet another state book series.  Each title is about a state, sure, but unlike the Enchantment With the World books, or their equivalents, these books take a travel guide approach.  Each one discusses what there is to actually DO in the states in question.  Which, let’s face it, could be really useful for some kids.  The series also uses infographics and will highlight Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. in addition to the usual 50 states.  It’s called the “Our Great States” series and there will be eighteen to begin this season.

Finding Out About Nuclear Energy by Matt Doeden

Two Words: Opposing. Viewpoints. You and I both know that in the world of CCSS, those little words carry a great big weight.  Finding books that actually contain said opposing viewpoints can also be tricky.  In this series (the “What Are Energy Sources?” series) kids read about the pros and cons about everything from Hydropower and Solar energy to Geothermal and Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas.  The series covers what companies want to do vs. what the government wants them to do.  We got into a whole discussion of BISAC codes at this point and how one would go about putting information about opposing viewpoints into the records when we got to this series.  Librarian shop talk.  It’s all the rage.

Economics Through Infographics by Karen Latchana Kenney

For this “Super Social Studies Infographics” series I could have gone with US History or World Geography as various topics, but I suspect that Economics appealed to me the most because that’s the book that I myself would want to read.  Having already done the “Super Science Infographics” series, Lerner wanted to tackle some of the trickier topics in the social studies world.  So expect lots of geography and history.

Your Head Shape Reveals Your Personality by Christine Zuchora-Walske

This would be the “Science Gets It Wrong” series.  To make their case, the books build on the scientific method to cover everything from whether or not your handwriting can predict your personality (spoiler alert: it can’t) to whether or not bulls get mad when they see the color red (they don’t).  They’re myth busting books.  Best of all the books show that science is not just black and white and it certainly isn’t always right.

Plan a Sleepover Party by Stephanie Watson

Remember the What Are Nonfiction Genres? book when I was cooing over its discussion of How To books?  Well, consider this a full-fledged How To series.  “Party Time”, for so the series is called, show kids how to host everything from a birthday or outdoor party to a holiday or sleepover shindig.  I wondered at first if they’d be read more by adults than kids, but they’ve certainly got some good kid-friendly elements to them.  Recipes that kids could actually do.  Sample playlists.  So there you go.

Playing Pro Basketball by Martin Gitlin

Lots of kids play with the notion of what it would be like to be a famous sports star.  But this “Playing Pro Sports” series is the first I’ve seen that covers what that would actually entail.  From training to diets to superstitions and interviews, it’s actually a good job skills book.  And lord knows we can’t keep our job opportunity titles on the shelves.  They’re saying this is for grades 4-8, and each was vetted by former pro athletes.  So far they just cover football, basketball, baseball, and hockey.  I have my fingers crossed for WNBA one of these days.

Movies and TV Top Tens by Sandy Donovan

Let’s say you wanted to make a series that could take on a certain aspect of The Guinness Book of World Records in some fashion.  One method might be to do what the “Entertainment’s Top 10″ series is trying here.  Each book covers different top ten lists in a different area of the entertainment industry.  So you’ve got music and theater, sports, technology, and movies and TV.  Based on facts with verifiable data, the books are loaded with history too, apparently.

A Timeline History of Early American Indian Peoples by Diane Marczely Gimpel

This year I’ve been having a heckuva time with a big chunk of the biographies being written for kids.  Because you know what a lot of schools require that these books eschew?  Timelines.  Sometimes it feels like no one cares about timelines anymore.  Well, in the “Timeline Trackers” series, we get to see history in a big old line.  Loads of primary sources are on these pages (another CCSS requirement) and I was much intrigued by the first volume which focuses entirely on Early American Indian Peoples and nothing else.  About bloody time too.

Get a Job Making Stuff to Sell by Ryan Jacobson

I always feel a bit bad for kids who want to make money these days.  Lemonade stands will only get you so far and paper routes are going the way of the dinosaur.  Add in the fact that I live in a city where serious faced ten-year-olds would approach my reference desk asking for books about Wall Street and this series will find a happy home here.  It’s the “You’re in Business” series and it’s for kids under the age of 16 who want jobs.  Entrepreneurs, if you will.  Covering everything from making homemade soap to crafting cell phone covers, the books also give you information on how to fill out a job application, and things like that.

The Case of the Vanishing Little Brown Bats by Sandra Markle

You thrilled to The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs.  You were awed by The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees.  Now it’s time to learn about “white nose syndrome”, which sounds like a disease out of a horror film more than anything else.  Bats, as it happens, are integral to our ecosystem and this book shows what scientists are currently doing to save those little brown bats that are disappearing like mad.  Bees get all the attention, but bats are just as important.

When Lunch Fights Back: Wickedly Clever Animal Defenses by Rebecca L. Johnson

Remember Zombie Makers?  The book that was guaranteed to give you nightmares as it systematically cataloged the parasites, insects, molds and more that were capable of turning living organisms into zombies?  Well, author Rebecca L. Johnson is back and she brought along some defense mechanisms.  Not for the squeamish, this book shows that sometimes the key to survival can be pretty darn weird.  Meet frogs that poke their bones through their skin to make claws and termites that blow themselves up for the greater good.  Great photographs too, though you may not want to look at them right after eating.

Ghost Walls by Sally M. Walker

One thing I like about the Lerner info sheets is that they take a special amount of time to include the Dewey Decimal Numbers with their books.  This one?  975.  Sally Walker has been behind books like Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland so digging up the past is nothing new to her.  In the case of this particular book, Sally concentrates on a building that sat silent for two centuries.  In its day the homestead was privy to a range of different travelers and stories.  Now researchers are going back to it to unlock its secrets.  Or, as the book puts it, “coaxing history from the crumbling walls.”

Ghostly Evidence: Exploring the Paranormal by Kelly Milner Halls

Librarians, back me up on this one.  When it comes to middle grade nonfiction about ghosts we have next to nothing to offer.  So when I saw this book by the woman who brought us books on Sasquatch and aliens, I knew we were onto something good.  With a great deal of fun research, Halls gives us the science behind “the hunt”.  Ghost hunt, that is.  The book takes a scientific approach and includes lots of interviews with firsthand accounts.  It’s not just stories, though.  There’s also lots of backmatter and even a listing of haunted places to visit.  Now THERE’S a summer vacation trip worth recounting!

Arctic Thaw by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson

We’re getting into the middle school and YA titles now, which I usually eschew.  But these are so friggin’ cool I couldn’t help but include them!  First off, this little puppy.  There are lots of climate change books out there.  Now how many can you think of off the top of your head that discuss the shipping lanes that are now opening up thanks to our warming world?  This book examines the indigenous groups, countries, and companies all vying for this space.  The book also focuses on what is happening and what should be done, though it avoids becoming overtly political.

Chernobyl’s Wild Kingdom by Rebecca L. Johnson

If you’ve been watching the news stories then you probably know already that it’s been twenty-five years since the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  The area was turned into a 1,100 square mile Exclusion Zone and no humans can live there.  But animals?  Thanks to the lack of humans the place has turned back into its natural state.  And what’s weird is that the animals appear to be surviving just fine in the radiation.  Consider this as a brilliant nonfiction tie-in to all that dystopian fiction out there.  You want to see a post-apocalyptic world for yourself?  Behold.

Fad Mania! by Cynthia Overbeck Bix

Tell me that isn’t one of the greatest covers of all time.  Plus this is such a good idea for a book.  The title discusses different American fads as they have appeared over the last few years.  Everything from old timey fads like dance marathons to current ones like flash mobs.  Basically the book works to put current fads in perspective.  It examines when fads increase and the role of economics.  Plus, with the rise of the internet we’re seeing more and more of them.

Girls vs. Guys by Michael J. Rosen

“Developmental plasticity”.  Say it soft and it’s almost like praying.  That’s the buzzword (buzzphrase?) I took away with me when I learned about this book. Called the YA take on Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, the book looks at the differences between the genders.  Written in a Q&A format, it examines how environment, nutrition, sleep, and sensory stimulation shape your personality.  And for the record, “developmental plasticity” refers to “the way that environment and experience can entwine to alter genetically determined gender behavior.”  Learn something new every day, doncha?

Remaking the John by Francesca Davis DiPiazza

Fun Fact: November 19th is World Toilet Day.  Put it on your calendar right now, and I’ll wait to continue until you are done.  Okay, ready?  So in this book we get all the poop on poop (which is a line from a different poop-related book for kids).  Telling us that as of right now 40% of the world’s population doesn’t have proper sanitation, the book ropes the global sanitation crises into a look at the history of human waste.  You get the down low on what it was like in the past, as well as what it’s like for some folks today.  Best of all, it mentioned that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had a challenge to Reinvent the Toilet for those nations and communities that need ‘em.

Saturday Night Live by Arie Kaplan

Now there’s a thought.  Teens like TV.  Why not take something with history, like Saturday Night Live, and give kids the 411 on it?  Coming out in tandem with the 40th anniversary of the show, the book covers the highs, lows, and controversies of the last-night comedy show.

Transgender Lives by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

First off, you can’t really get the cover from this image.  It’s reflective foil that, when you look at it, shows your own face.  Cool, right?  Well, since the publication of Susan Kuklin’s Beyond Magenta, we’ve started seeing an increased comfort in YA fare on the transgendered.  In this particular case, author Kirstin Cronn-Mills was working on this for quite a few years.  The book introduces seven different people, discussing their lives and stories.

Up for Sale by Alison Marie Behnke

Probably the toughest book on the list.  As you can see, it’s a book on contemporary human trafficking, but not a single kind of trafficking situation.  No, it hits on all the different aspects of trafficking, even the human organ trade.  At the same time author Behnke talks readers through the legal reforms and advocacy being done on behalf of the victims.  Since a significant number of people trafficked are teens, this makes for a perfect YA nonfiction tie-in.

Sometimes You Barf by Nancy Carlson

“Here’s the deal: Sometimes you barf . . . But it’s okay.  You get better!”  For kids that have barfed in public, there’s really not a book for their plight.  Nancy Carlson has therefore managed to come up with a topic that everyone needs in their libraries but that, to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever asked for before.  Excellent.

Santa Clauses by Bob Raczka

Think of it as a literary advent calendar.  Starting with December 1st, the book systematically does one poem for each day, counting down to Christmas itself.  The poems themselves are haikus (this is Bob Raczka we’re talking about, after all) and the art by Chuck Groenink is really rather remarkable.  I don’t know how nobody thought of this before, but I’m happy it’s finally going to happen.

Dear Wandering Wildebeest by Irene Latham

More poetry, thank goodness.  Not like we see a bunch of it in a given year.  In this book the entire ecosystem of a watering hole is looked at with poetry and facts.  The poetry yields poems with titles like “Triptych for a Thirsty Giraffe”.  The facts discuss what’s actually going on in each spread.

Who Was Here? by Mia Posada

Here in New York we don’t get much call for teaching our kids about animal tracks.  In other parts of the country, though, it’s a given.  In this book, all the prints are rendered in actual size.  From camels to moose to kangaroos, you get a global look at animal tracks from all over the world.

BirdCatDog by Lee Nordling

If poetry is rare this year then comics are even rarer.  So imagine my relief when I saw this graphic novel.  A wordless graphic novel at that.  Each page allows you to read the three stories (of the bird, cat, and dog) together or separately, as you prefer.  I don’t know this Meritxell Bosch of which they speak.  All I know is that in my next life I want to come back as someone named Meritxell.  If there’s a cooler first name out there, I haven’t heard of it.

I Remember Beirut by Zeina Abirached

If anyone remembers A Game of Swallows, then they should be mighty excited to read this follow-up to the award winning book.  Born in Lebanon in 1981, A Game of Swallows chronicled one family’s escape.  In this prequel of sorts, you see what was going on outside the walls of their home.  Lots of little details are included, like Zeina going out to collect shrapnel with her brother for fun.

Fat & Bones by Larissa Theule

I’ve actually read this one!  Partly just to see whether or not it really is YA or if it could fit in a middle grade library.  And after reading it . . . yeah, I guess YA is the right place for it.  It’s not that the content is anything too terrible.  It’s just a mature little book.  A middle school library could probably hold onto it without difficulty.  Told as slightly supernatural short stories, the book makes for a fun quick read.  The art brings to mind Stephen Gammell and his Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.  Seems to me Adam S. Doyle was the guy they should have called when they had those puppies re-illustrated.

Knockout Games by G. Neri

Finally, we have ourselves a G. Neri.  I wish he’d do more middle grade, but since he has a picture book coming out this year (a bio of Johnny Cash, no less) I guess I can’t complain.  This book plays off of that relatively recent news story about teen randomly knocking out strangers in something they call “knockout games”.  But the games aren’t new and Neri’s been working on this book for years.  Heck, in the back of the book there’s even a note from a St. Louis librarian attesting to the validity of this story.  In this tale a girl would be filmmaker is contacted by the leader of a gang.  He wants her to film his exploits and as she does the book takes on a kind of Man Bites Dog turn.  Definitely YA.

And that’s all she wrote!  Thanks to Lindsay and the good folks at Lerner for giving me a peek at the wares.  Cheers!

*sniff sniff*

Smell that?  That’s the smell of Fall 2014, my friends.  Yes yes, I know you thought we’ve only just turned the corner into spring, but we’ve no time for that now.  The future is where it’s at, babies!  And right now the future is all about the fall/winter/spring books.  Such was my thinking when sitting down at the latest Little, Brown & Co. librarian preview.  After informing my unfortunate table that my pregnant self was going to drink ALL the water placed there so they should be warned (and I would’ve gotten away with it too had it not been for those meddling / remarkably attentive waiters too) we got ready for a day of books, editors, and super secret special guests.  Oh, and peanut butter cookies.  For some reason they were serving the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever eaten in my life.  No idea what was in those things.  Crack cocaine would be my best bet.

By the way, before I begin with my recap, a word to the wise.  If you are an author or illustrator and you ever say something nice about your publishing company or editor, be warned that it is entirely possible that this information will be recited loud and wide at a librarian preview in New York City for the various assembled librarians to hear and digest. Just FYI.

And we’re off!

Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar by Keith Richards, illustrated by Theodora Richards

First off, a celebrity picture book that by all rights shouldn’t work.  And yet . . . okay, let’s face facts.  Nine times out of ten when a celebrity suddenly decides to write a picture book for children it’s awful.  That’s just how the universe works.  The subpar words are paired alongside a decent illustrator who needs to make some quick cash and then loads and loads of the doggone books sell.  We’ve seen it a million times before.  And even worse?  When the celebrity walks in with a friend and wants THEM to do the art (see: I Am a Rainbow by Dolly Parton).  So what are we supposed to do when the enterprise actually works?

Here’s what happened.  Keith Richards wanted to write a picture book.  Sounds ludicrous, right?  And worse, he wanted his own daughter to do the art.  So you’re thinking about the train wreck this will be and then you see the book.  Editor Megan Tingley pointed out that Little, Brown isn’t exactly a celebrity picture book publisher but that this book actually appealed to them for a number of reasons.  As Theodora (the daughter) has “the inside track on all things Keith” she was uniquely positioned to work with him.  The book itself is actually just based on his own life and story, so it’s not one of those didactic slogs through “lessons” and “morality”.  Just a small, still story about a boy and his grandfather and finding something he loved.  And the craziest thing is that the art is good.  I mean really good.  Like this Theodora Richards person should be doing other books without her father involved good.  Whodathunkit?

Diamond Boy by Michael Williams

Generally speaking I sort of eschew YA recaps in this previews, since that’s not really my bag.  I will make the occasional exception here and there, however, and this book fits the bill.  Much of that has to do with the book jacket itself.  With art from illustrator Edel Rodriguez, it reminds me of nothing so much as one of those old timey paperback mystery novels where innocuous objects form skulls.  This particular book was written by the Managing Director of the Capetown Opera.  Williams, however, is also a human rights activist, and this book looks closely at the blood diamond industry.  Keep an eye peeled for it, then.

The Nuts: Bedtime at the Nut House by Eric Litwin, illustrated by Scott Magoon

Switching gears possibly as far as those gears can conceivably be switched, we come across a familiar name.  Which is to say, the name “Eric Litwin” will certainly be ringing bells for a few of you out there.  Does the name “Pete the Cat” mean anything to you?  Well, then you know Litwin.  Having moved on from the sneakered kitty (the illustrator seems to be the one behind the books these days) rhymesmith Litwin finds himself at a brand new publishing house with a brand new series under his belt.  Apparently selling 1.8 millions copies of Pete can’t keep a good man down.  Much like Pete, this book has an accompanying song that you can download.  In the tale Mama Nut wants to get the little nuts off to bed.  Their thoughts on the matter are not all that positive, though.  As editor Connie Hsu put it at one point, “Nuts are the new legume.”  I’m not entirely certain what that means but I liked it as a capper.  Multitalented Scott Magoon is behind the art as well, so that’s nice.  He’s good people.

Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was getting the world to regularly pronounce the name Psudonymous Bosch.  So I don’t have a book jacket for this particular title, and that is because the one that you’ll find online right now isn’t the final.  In fact, with its 9/16/14 release date, I don’t think it has a final jacket at all.  Ah well.  The important thing to know is that Bosch, the fellow behind that massively successful Secret Series, has started a new series entirely.  In this book 13-year-old Clay is given an assignment to fill a journal with information on Shakespeare’s classic play The Tempest.  Clay’s magician brother disappeared years ago, causing Clay to hate the stuff.  Then, somewhere in the course of his adventures, he’s sent to a discipline camp on an island with an active volcano, an abandoned mansion, and multiple llamas (each kid gets his or her own).  Add in the fact that one kid’s a kleptomaniac, another an anarchist, and another a gambler and you get a sense of the book.  The meets?  “A middle grade LOST meets The Tempest with some Lord of the Flies.”  Nice.

The Truth About Twinkie Pie by Kat Yeh

First of all, just take in that cover for a moment.  That is a pie made entirely out of Twinkies.  And depending on how you view the immortal apocalyptic-defying food (question: Is there a YA dystopian novel out there anywhere where they devour Twinkies?) that’s either a good or a bad thing.  The image, for the record, is by the author herself.  This little book actually isn’t due onto shelves until February 10, 2015, but no harm in letting you know about it a touch early.  In this story two sisters live together in a trailer park.  When one of them wins a million dollar recipe contest it’s time for them to reinvent themselves.  I think editor Alvina Ling described this book as being about “food that pretends it’s something it’s not,” which is a great line in and of itself.

A Perfectly Messed-Up Story by Patrick McDonnell

Anyone who saw my recent review of The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires knows that I’ve a weakness for books that acknowledge the beauty of clutter, mess, and messing up.  Well, Patrick McDonnell is back and he’s tackling the same dang thing it seems, though his focus is a bit more on helping kids move beyond mere frustration.  After having wowed the world with Me . . . Jane he scales back his seriousness with something a little more along the lines of his Krazy Kat influences.  With mixed-media (!) we watch as a jelly and peanut butter sandwich’s remains start to “destroy” a character’s story.  Think “Duck Amuck”.  The trick to the book is of course the fact that by the end the character has learned that it’s okay if your story is a bit messed up.  For my part, I’m pretty sure this book is going to be embraced by librarians doing introductory welcome to the library readings for kids on how to treat their books.  McDonnell may be talking about ideas like the use of frustration, but for we the librarians the lesson is clear: Don’t Eat When You Read!

Pirate, Viking & Scientist by Jared Chapman

So, y’know.  Right there.  Awesome.  The premise of this little picture book is so charming that one is inclined to just love it on sight.  Drawn in a kind of Brian Biggs-type style (or Hanna-Barbera, if you prefer) the plot follows a little boy scientist and his two best buddies.  One is a pirate and one is a viking.  You would think the three would be besties for all time, but it turns out that the viking LOATHES the pirate and the pirate simply cannot STAND the viking.  The scientist, true to his nature, sets up a series of scientific experiences to prove that these two can become friends.  So, basically, this is a book about utilizing the scientific method.  A lot of hypotheses go down in the course of this story and there’s even a little Venn diagram on the title page and graph paper used in the backgrounds.  We’re always looking for fictional scientific tie-ins in our picture books.  Seems to me like this is an excellent case of problem solved!

Kenny Wright, Superhero by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Cory Thomas

Promoting a James Patterson book is sort of a moot point.  It’s like watching a Coca-Cola commercial.  You half wonder why anyone bothers since the product is so ubiquitous.  But since we’ve just seen the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign take off like wildfire, I can’t help but think it’s a good thing when hugely popular authors write books starring African-American boys like Kenny here.  Filled with comic panel sequences, the book concerns young Kenny Wright and his dreams of transforming himself into the superhero Stainless Steel.  Patterson, for the record, has another work of fiction coming out just prior to Kenny (who isn’t on shelves until March 16, 2015) called House of Robots: My Brother the Robot.  That book stars a boy who appears to have the name Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez.  A Latino boy character?  Could be the case.

If You Find This by Matthew Baker

“Goonies meets Holes” (which I briefly misheard as “Grease meets Holes” so somebody get on THAT book stat).  With the recent announcement that there really and truly is going to be a Goonies 2 there’s really never been a better time to invoke its name in the cause of children’s literature.  Basically what we’re looking at here is a big adventure story without any magic but plenty of smuggler’s tunnels to make up for the fact.  Nicolas’s dad has lost his job so the family must leave their current house.  Which wouldn’t be a huge problem except that Nicholas’s dead brother’s tree, planted in his memory, is currently in the backyard.  Meanwhile, the boy’s now senile grandfather is saying he buried some priceless heirlooms and made a map of where to find them.  So really, when you think about it, what choice does Nicholas have except to break his grandpa out of a nursing home with his two best friends?  In an interesting twist, musical dynamic notations appear throughout the text above certain words, reflecting how Nicholas sees the world.  These may or may not prove distracting to readers.  It’ll be interesting to see the kid reactions to this, but don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.  This book isn’t slated for release until March 17, 2015.

The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Shane W. Evans

And now the book that I am most excited to read next.  Because, quite frankly, Sudanese children’s literature isn’t exactly cropping up on my shelves every day.  In this book our heroine, Amira, is growing up in war-torn Sudan.  She loves her sheep and her dad but when she and the family are forced to flee she ends up in a refugee champ.  The trauma of the event causes her to lose her voice, but with the help of some paper and a pencil she’s improves.  Inspired by true stories, Ms. Pinkney interviewed countless Sudanese refugees to get Amira’s voice right.  It’s a verse novel well.  As for the art by Shane W. Evans, it’s mostly spot illustrations, which is a form that’s new to him.  The greatest selling point in some ways is the fact that the book is capable of making the horrors of war accessible to young readers.  And as editor Kate Sullivan said of the art, Shane was her first, second, and third choice.

The Map to Everywhere by Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis

You must forgive me for not recognizing Ms. Ryan’s name at first.  When you work almost exclusively in the world of children’s literature, the big YA names sort of pass you by at times.  When folks started mentioning that this book was by a married team where we’ve all heard of the wife but maybe not so much the husband, I just assumed she was a celebrity of some sort.  Took me a while to realize we were talking about the woman behind The Forest of Hands and Teeth.  Now I was initially very excited to see this book because the art is clearly by one of my favorite new illustrators, one Mr. Todd Harris.  Those of you who have seen his work on The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom and its subsequent sequels will understand my cheer.  In this dual perspective book, a girl gets caught up in something called The Pirate Stream.  Meeting an orphan by the name of Finn, the two form a bond.  You see, usually no one can remember meeting Finn five minutes after they’ve done so.  The girl, it seems, is an exception.  On the ship The Enterprising Kraken (which is a GREAT name right there) all the girl wants is to get home and all Finn wants is his mom.  So really, it’s just natural that they’d pair with a crazy wizard and a sailor.  They described it as Terry Pratchettesque and future installments are indeed in the works.

Love, Lucy by April Lindner

I won’t say much about this YA novel except for this fact: It’s an update of E.M. Forester’s A Room With a View.  What more do you need to know?

Finally, all that was left was to reveal the super secret guest of the day.  You never really know with a Little, Brown preview whom you might get at any given time.  Sometimes it’s someone local like a Peter Brown and sometimes it’s someone from overseas like Darren Shan.  In this case, we had a guest who was not local in the least.  One that turned down a Creative Director job at Google to continue doing what he loves most – making children’s books.  You hear that and you suddenly realize who it might be.  I’ve only ever known one person to turn down Google and that was none other than the inestimable Dan Santat.  And sure as shooting, twas he!  In town, he was, to celebrate his latest picture book Beekle.  From him we heard that the book is almost a kind of metaphor for the birth of Santat’s own son.  At the same time, the book really would work well for those kids going to a new school, wondering if they’ll find the right person to be their friend.  I hadn’t looked at the book in that way before, but it made a lot of sense when I did.

In other news, it appears that Mr. Santat is working on a book right now called Are We There Yet? about a kid so bored on a road trip that he actually manages to make time go backwards.  Love that idea.

And in case you missed Beekle’s trailer, here it is for your viewing pleasure:

That’s all she wrote, folks.  Thanks to the good folks of Little, Brown for hosting us.

This is it! We’ve officially begun!  Here is, without a doubt, the very first Librarian Preview of the Fall 2014 season.  I’m so thrilled to be presenting it in its full unaltered glory.  Chronicle Books, that plucky little Californian publisher, has really made a name for itself in the past few years.  And now, with their very first (can you believe it?!) Caldecott Honor, it seems like their star is on the rise.  All the more reason to see what wares they’re hocking.  After all, if Candlewick rules the Beautiful Picture Book World of the East Coast, Chronicle rules the West.

But before we begin, let’s look at a little book they have coming out of their adult division:

Goodnight, Darth Vader by Jeffrey Brown

How do androids go to sleep?  How do wookies?  Ewoks?  Whatever the heck Admiral Ackbar is?  It was bound to occur. With the phenomenal success of Darth Vader and Son (to say nothing of Vader’s Little Princess) it didn’t take long for a play on the old Goodnight Moon trope.  Jeffrey Brown, for the record, is to be commended.  Can anyone else truly say they have two Star Wars related book series out with two different publishers for the trade book set?  Nay.  I’m just sad the adult book division of my library lays claim to these.  I would have bought this one anyway as juv.

Mix It Up by Herve Tullet

Awwwwwwwww, yeah!!  It’s exactly what you think it is.  The one.  The only.  The SEQUEL TO PRESS HERE!!!!!!!!  Could such a thing be possible?  Could such a thing even work?  It could if said sequel were to go the logical next step.  This book?  It’s all about mixing colors together.  You can kind of tell from the cover that inside it’s huge fun.  Kids can squish pages together to make new colors.  They can tip the pages so that the colors run together into new hues.  It’s the same feel as Press Here but with amazing educational applications.  My kid is really into color mixing right now but all we have for her is Mouse Paint by Ellen Walsh, Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri, and The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown.  Time to shake things up a little (literally).

The Bear’s Sea Escape by Benjamin Chaud

Remember The Bear’s Song, which was released last year?  It was sort of Where’s Waldo with very French bears.  Well the whole story built to an ending wherein the bear and his cub decide to hibernate after discovering the bee hives on the top of the Paris Opera House.  In the sequel, the Paris Opera House’s roof turns out not to be the most ideal place to sleep.  The bears move into a department store but next thing you know the baby has been mistaken for a toy and the papa has to follow him once more.  The energy in these books makes me feel as though I’d like to see them animated into little French shorts for the enjoyment of the masses.  Wouldn’t that be awesome?  It could happen.

Telephone by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jen Corace

A Mac Barnett book at Chronicle?  Well, considering the fact that his girlfriend works there, it just makes good sense.  Mac’s back, baby, and this time he’s been paired with none other than the woman behind the art in those wildly successful Amy Krouse Rosenthal books Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Little Oink.  This is actually a pretty strong year for Ms. Corace.  Her other book I Hatched by Jill Esbaum only goes to show that she is in a SERIOUS bird phase right now.  Barnett’s book is fine and feathered and a play on the old telephone game.  It’s not the first book to go this route (the lovely Pass It On by Marylyn Sadler did it a couple years ago) but Barnett’s has a different tone and, quite frankly, a different gag at the end.  I also like how each bird hears a message that pertains to his or her own interests.  Just consider this whole enterprise a metaphor for hearing what you want to hear.

Planes Go by Steve Light

And SPEAKING of illustrators who are having good years, can we talk a bit about Steve Light?  Because here we have a guy producing crazy beautiful books with Candlewick like Have You Seen My Dragon? on the one hand, and then turning around to continue his incredibly popular “Go” series.  If you haven’t seen Trains Go, Trucks Go, or Diggers Go then you don’t know your board books.  The man specializes in readaloud board books, for crying out loud.  And nobody does it better.  When I saw that the next one was a plane book I had to ask if boats were next.  Ask and thou shalt receive.  Boats are on the roster for 2015.

Bonjour, Camille by Felipe Cano, illustrated by Laia Aguilar

Meet the Spanish Eloise.  That’s the only way I can accurately describe what it is that you’re seeing here.  Written by a Spaniard and illustrated by a Spaniard, the book is a gentle series of absurdities, each and every one logical to the petite young heroine.  Decked out in a top hat, black striped shirt, and black tutu (tell me that isn’t one of the more iconic visions I could conjure up), Camille is what Amelie might have been like as a child.  I’m seeing definite Urban Outfitters potential here.  In fact, it might even make a good graduation book, what with its wacky go-against-the-grain advice and all.

Flora and the Penguin by Molly Idle

And here it is!  The answer to your prayers.  Prayers you may not even have known you had.  As a sequel to the 2014 Caldecott Honor Book Flora and the Flamingo, Idle’s latest follows up its long and lanky avian from Book #1 with a cheery, squat, dumpling of a little fellow.  And like its predecessor, there are flaps to lift that advance the plot and show off the pair’s dance moves.  It would pair beautifully well with Kristi Valiant’s fellow dancing penguin book Penguin Cha-Cha, come to think of it.  Interestingly, this book is not the only sequel to a 2014 Caldecott Honor out this year.  Also keep an eye peeled for Aaron Becker’s Quest (the sequel to Journey) later in the fall.  Oh, and word on the street has it that the next Flora book might involve a peacock.  Squee!

In This Book by Fani Marceau, illustrated by Joelle Jolivet

Librarians get a lot of requests for “concept books”. Trouble is, folks never just come out and call them that.  They as for opposite books or color books or shape books, and that’s fine.  It’s when their requests get a bit more esoteric that you’re in trouble.  Imagine sitting at your reference desk one day and a well meaning soul comes up to you and asks for “books that deal with the concept of in and out”.  Don’t laugh, it’s happened and it’s a devil of a request to meet.  Now, at least, we’ve something we can hand over.  The fabulous French team of Marceau and Jolivet have paired together to create a truly beautiful variety of “in”s.  Now when I saw that illustrator Jolivet was involved I got a tad bit nervous.  Jolivet is best associated, to my mind, with these gorgeous but enormous picture books like Zoo-ology and Almost Everything.  They’re gorgeous but they don’t fit on my shelves.  In This Book, by contrast, will come in at a sweet 9 1/2″ X 11″.  In (ha ha) teresting.

Flashlight by Lizi Boyd

I wracked my brain and came up with nothing.  Maybe you’ll fare better.  Can you think of a single solitary book in which a kid walks around with a flashlight seeing the cool things that come out at night?  Boyd was the person behind that lovely little Inside Outside last year (a book that garnered no less than four starred reviews).  I liked it a lot but always felt that it suffered from its color scheme.  The color brown may get the literary credit, but certain types of people avoid it like the plague.  Flashlight suffers no such problem as it follows a boy outside at night with a helpful flashlight aiding him.  Eventually the nighttime creatures want to get a look at him too, so they point the flashlight back in his direction in their curiosity.  Cute concept.  Never seen it done before.

The Memory of an Elephant by Sophie Strady, illustrated by Jean-Francois Martin

This one may be a bit special.  Nothing wrong with special books.  They keep things interesting and amuse the children of hipsters nationwide.  But you have to keep an open mind sometimes when you read them.  In this tale, a well dressed elephant writes an encyclopedia inspired by his daily life.  The book will, on occasion, show an encyclopedic spread from his book while also explaining what those items are.  For his part, I haven’t seen a pachyderm this dapper since Babar (spats and all).  The clothes on the animals are extraordinary and the modern furniture quite a riot.  Seriously, you have everything from the butterfly stool to the tulip table in the backgrounds here.  It is not, I should note, by any means the first children’s book to take on well-designed furniture (Goldilocks and the Three Bears: A Tale Moderne comes immediately to mind) but it may be the most attractive to the eye.

Lowriders in Space by Cathy Camper, illustrated by Raul the Third

You have undoubtedly heard my cries of complaint when it comes to the sheer derth of Latino books for kids on our shelves.  And graphic novels?  Don’t even get me started.  Aside from the Luz books (Luz Sees the Light, etc.) they are few and far between.  All the more reason I’m excited by Lowriders in Space.  I mean, the title says it all.  It’s a GN that happens to include some science and Latino culture all in one fell swoop.  Not exactly the most common of critters.  Looking at the art I was immediately drawn to the fact that though it’s clearly done in a particular style, there is just the faintest hint of Astroboy about it.  I should also note that Raul the Third, the illustrator, will apparently be speaking at SLJ’s Day of Dialog this year.  Don’t miss him!

Rhyme Schemer by K.A. Holt

Yesterday I wrote up a Poetry Month post on different rhyme schemes and poetic forms that you might not have heard of.  While typing it up I was tempted to include some info about this here little middle grade verse novel.  The premise is that a bully, one without any real problems in his life to justify his bullying, uses poetry to bully other kids.  Then the tables are turned and the bullier becomes the bully-ee.  Curious?  So am I.  This one’s moving to the top of my To Be Read Shelf and fast.

The Categorical Universe of Candice Phee by Barry Jonsberg

Pity the Australian import in America.  Unless your name is “Shaun Tan” or “Markus Zusak” you’re unlikely to be particularly well known here in the States.  Even if your book happens to win the Children’s Peace Literature Award, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and the Golden Inky Award, it may not be a household name here yet.  Naturally Barry Jonsberg’s book won those very things and now he is poised to take America by storm.  In this tale a girl on the autism spectrum sets out to make everyone in her life happy.  Along the way the book utilizes a trope that I enjoy very much.  Paired with a penpal in the States who has never written back to her, Candice merrily writes off letters in the course of the novel to them anyway.  I love that.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Cookbook and Cookie Cutters Kit  by Lara Starr

Okay. Admittedly this isn’t the kind of thing the libraries out there should be looking at.  I mean, it comes with its own cookie cutter.  Hard to top that.  But I just had to mention it, and not just because Lara Starr of Chronicle herself did the recipes.  I just like that something like this helped to inspire a book like this one.  That and the fact that I really want to eat that caterpillar’s head.  A lot.  Nom nom nom.

Creature Baby Animals and Creature Sounds by Andrew Zuckerman

Boy, remember when Creature ABC came out all those years ago?  I loved that book so much that I held onto it tightly in the event that I someday had kids of my own.  That was a wise move, but it’s taken a long time for my kid to be ready for that book.  Now two new board books seek to solve that very problem.  They’re eye-catching.  They’re beautiful.  Basically, they’re some of the best animal photography I’ve ever seen.  No mean feat.

The Ultimate Construction Site Book by Anne-Sophie Baumann, illustrated by Didier Balicevic

I view the coming of this book with a mixture of longing and fear.  Longing because when Baumann and Balicevic produced their previous book, The Ultimate Book of Vehicles, this past spring my daughter became enamored of its tabs and doors and other movable elements.  Yet to read the whole book cover to cover can take forever, so I sometimes have to put it judiciously in places where she won’t see it before bedtime.  Such is her all encompassing love.  To discover that the next book is nothing but construction . . . well that’s just a treat.

Nocturne by Traer Scott

I’m on a real photography kick these days.  And have you noticed that the number of children’s books featuring photographs has increased tenfold over the last few years?  Apparently a lot of this has to do with the fact that thanks to digital photography, costs are down.  Traer Scott was hitherto unknown to me before I saw this book, but now I’m a huge fan.  The concept is great too.  Scott photographs nocturnal animals against these deep rich backgrounds.  They just pop into the foreground.  It’s almost as if their portraits were being taken.  As if you needed another way to make some of these critters even more cute than they were before.

You’re Awesome Journal

This isn’t anything to do with children’s books.  I just needed somewhere to put a note to remind myself to buy this for a family member once it’s been published (not until September. . . arg!!).  So, note to self: Purchase this item (ISBN: 978-1-4521-3660-8) when the time is right.  Because, after all, it made me laugh out loud and few blank journals in this world do that.

A million thanks to the kind and gracious Lara Star for entertaining me.  Looks like a great line-up for the coming year.