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I usually begin with a video of myself whenever I’ve a chance, but this week I’m preempting my own face because this video is the coolest thing ever.  By the time I left New York Public Library its Rose Reading Room had already been closed for half a year.  Now you get to see the room in a time lapse video looking cooler than ever.  52,000 books are shelved here in two minutes.  Trust me – you won’t be bored.

This month I hosted one of those fun little interviews I do from time to time on my show Ladybird and Friends. This month the interviewee was Mike Grosso of the new feminist middle grade novel I Am Drums.  He’s great.  The book’s great.  We have fun.  But if you really want to skip to the weird part, be sure to also go to about 28:34.

And just to keep it all in the family, my husband’s book The Secrets of Story is out and available for purchase.  To prep you a bit, Matt’s been creating short interesting videos to highlight some of the ideas in the book.  This one’s about objects.  I’m a fan.  Check it:

You’ve heard of book trailers, surely, but audiobook trailers? This one for Adam Gidwitz’s magnificent The Inquisitor’s Tale will make you a believer. Let’s see more of these in the future!

Meanwhile, over at 100 Scope Notes, Travis Jonker swore that if he ever heard of a children’s book creator on television, he’d watch. Then he heard that Oliver Jeffers was on an Irish talk show called The Late Late Show. So what does he do? He tracks down the Irish video link. That’s dedication, people. That’s chutzpah. And we are the beneficiaries:

N.D. Wilson.  He writes middle grade children’s books.  Good ones too.  Books that get a lot of critical attention.  But apparently that’s not enough for Mr. Wilson. Oh no.  He has to go out and actually write and direct a real as real movie.  It’s called The River Thief and it has a limited national release and is on VOD.  Check out the trailer here if you’re curious:

Fun Fact: The creation of this movie, from concept to end of production, was three weeks. That includes the three days it took to write the script. Here’s a behind the scenes on that, if you’re curious.

Next UP: Not safe for work.  Not really.  But anything that takes the “sexy librarian” stereotype and turns it on its head/tongue is fine by me.

And for the off-topic video, I warn you.  This bad lip-reading will get caught in your head.  This is the earworm to rule all earworms.

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Patrice Barton’s artistic talents were discovered at age three when she was found creating a mural on the wall of her dining room with a pastry brush and a can of Crisco.

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Stay Where You Are & Then Leave will appeal to middle grade readers interested in twentieth century history, life in England during World War I; also anyone who has had to deal with a parent changed by trauma.

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It was with surprise and gratitude that I heard about receiving a Boston Globe–Horn Book honor award. This book was a risk, in that it’s an alphabet book which is a bit over the heads of the people who are most likely to be reading an alphabet book. Instead it’s a book that’s just about the joy of using language and wordplay, with some of the randomness of the workings of my brain thrown in. (It’s also a book for those too embarrassed and too far gone to admit they never learned their ABCs…I know who you are!)

It was a risk to publish a 112-page picture book that was mostly black and white, effectively a collection of short stories that are convoluted and weird…but a risk that was worth it. It is a book I am deeply proud of. Thank you to the judges and to all of the people who were prepared to go down this strange road with me. Without you, we may never have had an Owl and Octopus Problem Solving Agency, a parsnip with identity issues, or the invention of a jelly door—and I for one believe the world is a better place with them in it. Somewhat…

From the January/February 2016 issue of The Horn Book Magazine. For more on the 2015 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, click on the tag BGHB15.

The post Once Upon an Alphabet: Oliver Jeffers’s 2015 BGHB PB Honor Speech appeared first on The Horn Book.

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Take a look at our selection of hot new releases and popular kids' books and let us know which titles and covers catch your eyes. There are so many amazing new kids books coming in 2016!

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Fun stuff.  Looks a lot like Harry Potter to a certain extent (mood, lighting, music, etc.).  It’s the trailer for Roald Dahl’s The BFG.

Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link!

A bit of an older video here.  In my travels recently I discovered that the entirety of the Oliver Jeffers short film version of his book Lost and Found is apparently online.  Bonus!  I never got to see it.  For your viewing pleasure then (and it’s 24 minutes long, FYI):

Shoot. Christmas is over but only now have I learned about this new collection of Walt Kelly’s Fairy Tales.  Well, there’s always next year, I guess.

Cool. I’d heard that there was a children’s theater adaptation of Grace Lin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, but didn’t know it had a little trailer too. Eh, voila.

And for the off-topic video, we’re not entirely off-topic.  After all, Mary Poppins was a children’s book originally.  Ipso facto a flash mob for Dick Van Dyke’s 90th birthday is . . . well it works for me.

 

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Our best selling picture book from our affiliate store is one of our all-time favorite books: Dear Zoo, by Rod Campbell!

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Ooh, the weather outside is ... perfect for snuggling inside with one of these best selling picture books. Snow, by Cynthia Rylant, is this month's best selling picture book from our affiliate store—it's a beautiful book.

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Autumn is a beautiful time for reading. Award-winning Nana in the City, by Lauren Castillo, is this month's best selling picture book from our affiliate store—it's a delightful selection for fall.

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It only takes a couple of beautiful autumn days and the holiday season suddenly feel so much closer. Readers are not wasting time getting into the holiday spirit: this month, our best selling picture book from our affiliate store is the delightful rendition of E.T.A. Hoffmann's Nutcracker, illustrated by Maurice Sendak.

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There must be some kind of magic in the air because we've arrived at Friday again and according to my calculations it's still LAST Friday!

In addition, it has somehow become October!  Who is in charge around here???!!!

This, of course, is a good thing.  October is full of fresh apples (and apple crisp, apple pie, apple cake, apple cider donuts, etc...), beautiful foliage, lovely days and cool nights, Columbus Day (which, if we're honest, is just an excuse for a day off from school and if you're lucky, work because I'm quite sure Columbus didn't actually "discover America" on the second Monday in October :)), the Sheep & Wool Festival (if you happen to live in New York's Hudson Valley), pumpkin carving (which means... you got it... pumpkin pie! :)), miniature candy that doesn't have any calories because it's tiny (seriously, if you can eat it in one bite it doesn't count!), and the Halloweensie Contest!!! (info coming soon!) among other awesomeness.  (And apparently I'm hungry because looking at that list I see a prevalence of dessert items :))  Here's to an awesome October for all!

Today's Perfect Picture Book is also awesome (although not necessarily for dessert :))  I hope you like it!

Title: The Day The Crayons Came Home
Written By: Drew Daywalt
Illustrated By: Oliver Jeffers
Philomel Books, August 2015, Fiction

Suitable For Ages: 5-8

Themes/Topics: concepts (colors), emotions, humor

Opening: "One day, Duncan and his crayons were happily coloring together when a strange stack of postcards arrived for him in the mail..."

Brief Synopsis: Duncan, dedicated colorer that he is, has managed to misplace a number of his crayons, so they write him postcards hoping to return home.

Links To Resources: Optics For Kids (explorations on what makes color); Color Games (see the first two listed - the rest are for other skills); lots of things to color!

Why I Like This Book: Sometimes the first book in a series is good, and the second disappoints.  Not so with this one :)  Full of humor, it is as creative, fun and entertaining as its predecessor, The Day The Crayons Quit (reviewed HERE)  Those crayons might have quit in the past, but they still want to live with Duncan!  (Well, except for Pea Green Crayon knows that NO ONE likes pea green, so he's got a new life plan :).)  Maroon Crayon got left in the couch and sat on by Dad.  Yellow and Orange Crayons had an unfortunate accident that left neither of them wanting to be the color of the sun any more.  Neon Red Crayon is determined to make it home but has a very questionable grasp of geography :)  Even one of Duncan's younger brother's toddler crayons gets in on the action!  You won't want to miss the postcards from the left-behind crayons, or Duncan's usual inspired solution to making them all feel at home!  (And you'll enjoy seeing where some of the postcards are from... places like "Greetings From Under The Couch" or "Hello From The Rug" :))

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF bloggers please be sure to leave your post-specific link in the list below so we can all come visit you and see what wonderful books you've chosen for us this week!

Have a great weekend, everyone!!! :)

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Dreams of Freedom: In Words and Pictures
edited by Janetta Otter-Barry, designed by Judith Escreet, with a Foreword by Michael Morpurgo
(Amnesty International/Frances Lincoln, 2015)

All royalties donated to Amnesty … Continue reading ... →

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The Day the Crayons Came Home

By Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers

For all young readers who relished the reading of “The Day the Crayons Quit” and realized that crayons, like humans, have rich interior lives – and feelings, here is the follow up picture book called, “The Day the Crayons Came Home.”

Those put upon colors are at it again, and as the special seal on the cover conveys, this companion edition to the original crayon complainers, “contains a special Glow in the Dark drawing.” Fun!

Well, a plethora of postcards are heading young Duncan’s way from each of the ill treated crayons that are either flung here or there or left in the lurch.

Maroon is a great fall color featured in fashion mags everywhere, so even Maroon Crayon whose mournful story, of being lost beneath the cushions of the couch, and taped and paper clipped together, should be assuaged from high dudgeon – for a bit! Adding insult to injury, Maroon was even sat upon and broken – hence the tape and paper clip.

And it goes on from there, in a cacophony of crayon calamity, written on a series of post cards mailed to young Duncan, the owner of the crayon cavilers in “The Day the Crayons Quit.”

Woe-be-tide the unsympathetic soul who is not in sync with Turquoise, (another very popular color this summer), whose head is stuck in a less than sweet-smelling sock, and unceremoniously tossed in a dryer. Crayon crisis upon crisis is the order of the day. The crayons feel much wronged and it is up to readers to listen and perhaps, help Duncan find a remedy.

It’s a hoot and a half for kids that may never treat crayons in a cavalier way again. They have lives and feelings as their users do and they are not mere implements at the end of someone’s finger tips to fill inside the lines of a picture or create color at their owner’s whim.

It’s funny, but the more that I think about it, it’s not too much of a stretch from kindness to an inanimate object to kindness to an animate one.

 

Lesson 1 Crayons have feelings that are to be respected, and not to be taken for granted.

 

Lesson 2 So do people.

Good learning arc here!

Young readers and adults will sympathize, and even chuckle, at this host of harried happenings that befall a crayon left behind at a resort. Neon Red is here ignominiously cast aside after being used to color Dad a lobster red after contacting a sunburn.

Orange and Yellow are “melting, melting” akin to that Wicked Witch in “The Wizard of Oz”, but it’s not water that melts them, but a prolonged dose of being left out in the sun.

Burnt Umber! Ah, the very name conjures memories from my own childhood of coloring. And I found myself as worked up as the crayon as he details his being scarfed as a snack – and then upchucked. Kids love the yucky in case you’ve forgotten.

Will this litany of low treatment end with no resolve? Will appreciation of crayons reign again? Might they again be resigned to a mere crayon box? Or is something grander in the works?

For any Baby Boomer parent or grandparent that recalls whiling away an afternoon building a fort from a conglomeration of cardboard shoe boxes, the conclusion of mending hurts by  constructing crayon comfort in condo fashion is very satisfying.

Side deck and rooftop viewing station are included.

This sequel to “The Day the Crayons Quit” makes nice with put upon crayons, and readers of all ages will love it!

 

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This month, our best selling picture book from our affiliate store is the uber entertaining Press Here, by Herve Tullet.

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Following on from the phenomenally brilliant The Day The Crayons Quit comes the sequel. The crayons are back…and they are still not happy. This time around Duncan has to deal with the lost and forgotten crayons. The broken, chewed and melted crayons. And they are all, quite rightly, even more upset! http://www.boomerangbooks.com.au/Day-the-Crayons-Came-Home/Drew-Daywalt/book_9780008124434.htm FREE Shipping. Save […]

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Broken! Lost in the couch! Stuck to a sock! Eaten by a dog! It's one tale of woe after another for Duncan's poor crayons, told through a series of colorful postcards, in this hilarious, inventive story of artful adventure with a sweet surprise at the end. Books mentioned in this post The Day the Crayons [...]

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Following on from the phenomenally brilliant The Day The Crayons Quit comes the sequel. The crayons are back…and they are still not happy. This time around Duncan has to deal with the lost and forgotten crayons. The broken, chewed and melted crayons. And they are all, quite rightly, even more upset! These are the crayons who […]

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The countdown is on for the release of The Day the Crayons Came Home (on sale August 18th 2015), the sequel to the New York Times best selling kids book The Day the Crayons Quit, written by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers.

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This month, our best selling picture book from our affiliate store is the entertaining If You Happen to have a Dinosaur, written by Linda Bailey and illustrated by Colin Jack.

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This month, our best selling picture book from our affiliate store is the gorgeously illustrated Gaston, written by Kelly DiPucchio and pictures by Christian Robinson.

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Exciting news: This month our best selling picture book from our affiliate store is a non-fiction book. Hooray for our smart and engaged readers!

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Dear blog followers, I promised you that I was going to try and expand my interviews beyond the North American borders, so today we are back in the UK with one of their finest picture book illustrators, Sam Zuppardi (well, … Continue reading →

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Heath McKenzie | The Children’s Book Review | May 18, 2015 Heath McKenzie has illustrated numerous picture books and children’s book jackets. He lives with his wife and kids in Melbourne, Australia. Latest published book … My Rules For Being A Pretty Princess You wrote it because … …at the time, my wife and I were expecting our first […]

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This month our best selling picture book from our affiliate store remains the same. It's the gorgeously illustrated Sleep Like a Tiger, written by Mary Lougue and pictures by Pamela Zagarenski.

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