Happy Children's Book Week!

Check it out at the Children's Book Council.

I'm still not sure how I'm going to celebrate this year. But I just love knowing it's that time of year.

I'll think on it while I'm at the Mets' game tonight, since I'll be the only person there who doesn't really give a hoot for baseball. Then, perhaps, a celebratory post sometime tonight.

Children's Book Week - Children's Book Drives

Children's Book Week is May 10 -16th, but this quote from PW's Events post inspired me to start celebrating early:

"In St. Louis, the CBC's partner is Onesto Trattoria, which will hold a week-long children's book drive."

Though I'm nowhere near St. Louis, I think donating books to children is a great way to celebrate Children's Book Week. Donating gently used (with love) books to local libraries, shelters, schools and youth centers is a great way to get involved. Here are some other organizations that accept donations:

International Alliance for the Advancement of Children I've been donating boxes upon boxes of books for Haiti to this organization. A wonderful co-worker of mine traveled to Haiti just weeks after the earthquakes to help build a library for the families displaced by the tragedy.

Tuck's R.U.S.H. for Literacy donate money to help buy new books for children in need. 97% of your donation goes towards the All Stars Helping Kids charity of your choice.

Reach out and Read has a variety of ideas on how you can help spread literacy across the nation.

Reader to Reader donate books or money to help distribute books to libraries and schools in need.

The Lisa Libraries distributes NEW books to organizations that work with children in poor and under-served communities. My publishing house constantly donates our advance overstock to The Lisa Libraries - we know the books will get redistributed where they are needed most!

First Book donate money to buy brand new books for children in need.

Goddard Riverside Community Center donate money or donate books that Goddard sells at their annual Book Fair to raise additional funds for their various programs.

Please post other organizations and/or ideas in the comments!

Children's Book Week: 5th-6th

5th – 6th:

The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snickett: Though I obviously wasn’t reading these when I was in fifth grade, I would have been had such an unfortunate series existed. It’s one of those brilliant series that transcends all age groups. They are witty and complex enough for an adult, yet simple and entertaining enough for a young child.

Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret, by Judy Blume: So. Your mother was either too afraid to give you the ‘you’re going to sprout breasts, grow hair in unlikely places and bleed between your legs’ speech so she threw this book at you and ran, or she gave it to you but used too many gardening references that you had to go out and pick up this book on your own. Either way, you were a pre-pubescent girl. And you read this.

Though, for me this book was a little misleading. I was pretty sure my period would come quite quietly, displayed as a teeny tiny red dot on my panties. This wasn’t the case at all. I also wish I hadn’t done so many of those “We must” exercises…


Harry Potter Series, by J.K. Rowling: Who else sells over 100 million copies of a book because she is somehow relatable to YA readers as well as Grandpas and Grandmas? I love books that have the ability to sell themselves to readers - that spark enjoyment of the story and a hunger for the words.

At the bookstore I once worked at, we had midnight Harry Potter release parties. The first one I ever worked was for the release of The Goblet of Fire. At this point, I worked in the café section of the store. We all dressed up in black, wore witchy hats and some of us wore Potter glasses, and other carried wands. The party was UTTER INSANITY! About a million Potters, Grangers and Weasleys showed up. A few McGonagills, a Hagrid here and there, and this guy in a complete wizard costume, with a creepy plastic mask head. He rode in on a motorcycle. Which was incredibly hilarious. The line for café snaked around the entire store. I didn’t see the end of it until 2 in the morning. TWO in the morning! These are people, parents, out with their kids! For Harry Potter! At two in the morning!!

But seriously. You know by five am we all already read the book. Right, you guys?

Everyone keeps hoping for another Harry Potter. And by that I mean, not a book 8, but a really good book, by another extremely brilliant author who has the ability to bring together such a diverse crowd that eats snacks until 2am. I’m not sure we’re going to experience something like that again in our lifetime. Which is what makes Pottermania a true phenom.


My Top Pick:

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi

I read this book about once a year. It was probably the first book that gave my system a true shock. A polite and proper young lady defies expectation and preserves her dignity by casting aside her upbringing and becoming one kick ass chick. Charlotte Doyle inspired me then. She continues to inspire me.

Find these books and more in the From Infants to Young Adults Bookstore! 

Children's Book Week: 3rd-4th

I’m not sure that I have as much to say about these books as I did the younger group. I wonder why that is? Actually, it seems like quite an important observation (maybe?). That getting children excited about books at a very early age is essential to developing life-long readers. My parents started reading to me from the moment I came out of the womb. They say that even then, I hung on their every word. Is this small action on the part of my mother and father the reason that I’m in publishing now? The reason I devour any book I can get my hands on?

3rd and 4th Grade Picks:


Chocolate Fever, by Robert Kimmel Smith

Ralph S. Mouse, by Beverly Cleary – Beverly seems to dominate my Top Five, and rightly so!

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume – I know I read this book before fourth grade, a fact which excited me very much when I was a kid. Mostly because I thought you had to be in fourth grade to be able to read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Thus developed my severe reading superiority complex. Book snob in the making.

Ramona Quimby, Age 8, by Beverly Cleary – Who didn’t love stubborn little Ramona and her oh-so-cool older sister, Beezus? There was, and always is, a little bit of Ramona Quimby (age 8!) in all of us!

My Top Pick:

Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White

I remember the reason I read this book. The movie was going to be on TV. Commercials were announcing it like it was going to be a major event. Maybe back then it was. But my mother told me that I absolutely could not watch the movie until I read the book. Impetus! You know, these are the things I should thank my mother for on Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving – every day.

I read the book, loved it, and then she bought me the movie. Thanks, Mom!

Find these books and more in the From Infants to Young Adults Bookstore! 

Children's Book Week: K-2

As I twittered, it’s the Children’s Book Council Children’s Book Week, a celebration dating back to 1919. The CBC has just posted the winners of The Children’s Book Awards on their website. The categories are as follows:

Kindergarten to 2nd grade
3rd grade to 4th grade
5th grade to 6th grade
Teen Choice
Author
Illustrator

And, of course, I thought I’d join in on the fun. I mean, you guys can’t have a party without expecting me to crash it. Especially when the party involves children’s books. So here I am, digging through my many years of reading experience to give you my own top choices every day this week, and they might just be extremely old school.

Kicking it off, Kindergarten to 2nd Grade:

The Jolly Postman, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg: Renting this book from our elementary school library was, quite literally, a fight to the death. And it was a fight I lost. Over and over again. The book was never available to take out, and the kid who was lucky enough to get their grubby paws on the book usually wouldn’t even let you look at it. It was the elements that drew us in and around this famous picture book. The letters that we could pull out of the envelopes and read, as though we were spying on our favorite fairy tale characters.

Years later, in college actually, I lamented often on how I was never able to check this book out of my library. For my birthday that year, my roommate bought me the picture book and now I don’t have to share it with anybody!

Really, one could say this isn’t truly my favorite book from this time period, as I doubt I ever actually read it then. However, I remember it. I remember wanting to read it so badly, I’d give anything for it. And I obviously cared so deeply about not having read it that my college roommate bought me a copy and I, from time to time, still take it off my shelf and read all of the Jolly Postman’s letters. And Children’s Book Week should be about celebrating books that give kids the desire to read. Even if that desire results in a fight on the playground.




The Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton: I spoke about this book briefly in my previous post. I think it’s probably the first book to make me feel something, to connect me to the world through its universal themes, emotions, and stunning illustrations.







Real Mother Goose: Every child needs a collection of Nursery Rhymes. This just happens to be the collection that I grew up with and loved. The illustrations are wonderful and classic. My sister, brother and I loved our paperback edition to pieces. This past Christmas, I purchased gorgeous hardcover editions from Barnes & Noble, inscribed and gave one to each of my siblings. My brother was really too young to remember, plus he always hated getting, and I quote, “stinking books” for Christmas, so he thought I was referencing a Mother Goose computer game we used to play as kids. “Uh, thanks.” But, my sister cried.

Babysitter’s Little Sister, by Ann M. Martin: The Babysitter’s Club was a HUGE deal when I was in elementary school. However, partly because I was too young and partly because my mother monitored, somewhat, what I read, I wasn’t able to start reading The Babysitter’s Club books until the fourth grade. Thankfully, there was Babysitter’s Little Sister, part of the Little Apple Books series which made up most of my early chapter book reading.

By the way, I was Mary Ann. And I remember constantly referencing something about “faucets” when it came to describing how much Mary Ann cried. Though I wasn’t much of a crier. And I wasn’t very shy either. But I was Mary Ann. Which Babysitter were you? (C’mon, you know you played!)

And my Top Pick for my favorite Children’s Book in the Kindergarten to 2nd grade Category:

Elmer, by David McKee

Okay, so I didn’t even know about Elmer until last year, but I’m completely obsessed with him. And it isn’t even the first title that is my favorite, but rather the character in general. I’ve started collecting all of the books and almost have them all, including the  Pop-Up Book , Matching Cards and Baby Record Book . I’ll probably soon purchase the Lunchbox and the Tea Set, and I’ve got a small AND large Elmer Doll sitting on my desk. Just to complete the obsessive streak, I’m creating a crochet pattern to make my very own Elmer blanket.

Elmer is adorable. He’s bright, cheery, and always suffers some ordeal that makes him stronger, smarter, and brighter in the end. An oddly colored elephant among a herd of gray, Elmer teaches children the importance of being different and the strength it takes to be yourself.

My poor, first born forced to love Elmer child!

Find these books and more in the From Infants to Young Adults Bookstore!