Bridge to Terabithia
Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep! Listen to the City
The Mean Hyena: A Folktale from Malawi
The Paperboy
Much like Ginger Pye, another Newbery Medal winner, Bridge to Terabithia (story by Katherine...
Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep! Listen to the City (story by Robert Burleigh; pictures by...
“Don’t play a trick on someone unless you want an even bigger trick played...
Thanks to CBB reader and Teacher Ninja Jim Randolph for pointing me to this...
Much like Ginger Pye, another Newbery Medal winner, Bridge to Terabithia (story by Katherine Paterson, pictures by Donna Diamond) is notable for how well it captures childhood, its often confusing emotions, for example, or the slow pace of life for kids. Remember how agonizingly long the school year seemed to be, or the weeks...
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Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep! Listen to the City (story by Robert Burleigh; pictures by Beppe Giacobbe) captures the spirit of the city in ways that will thrill your preschooler. Robert Burleigh’s short but lively rhyming couplets, the onomatopoeia, and Beppe Giacobbe’s stunning illustrations saturate this book with the energy and noise of urban life....
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“Don’t play a trick on someone unless you want an even bigger trick played on you,” says the storyteller at the end of The Mean Hyena (story by Judy Sierra; pictures by Michael Bryant), a beautifully painted retelling of a traditional folktale from Malawi. It’s a lesson many of us may have learned the...
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Thanks to CBB reader and Teacher Ninja Jim Randolph for pointing me to this book. After reading my review of The Snowy Day, he commented that The Paperboy (story and pictures by Dav Pilkey) is another book that, like The Snowy Day, features a character of color without making race a central focus. Clearly,...
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My Daddy is a Pretzel: Yoga for Parents and Kids (story by Baron Baptiste; pictures by Sophie Fatus) is an interesting premise for a book. It uses parent professions to create a meaningful context for introducing children to yoga. A mommy who is a gardener leads us to a demonstration of the tree pose....
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Good picture books are often built around a central, organizing question. The author asks, “What if…?” and then spends 32 pages exploring and answering that question. It’s an effective approach, because it forces a writer to be focused, and picture books are too short to wander. The question at the core of Sneezenesia (story...
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You can feel the turbulence and emotion of the early civil rights movement swirling in the bold brush strokes and rhythmic text of Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation (story by Andrea Davis Pinkney; picturs by Brian Pinkney). Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 after she refused to give...
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Parents everywhere will appreciate the premise of Giddy Up, Cowgirl (story and pictures by Jarrett J. Krosoczka): A mother with errands to do, a cowgirl daughter who wants to help, and a lot of misadventures that result… letters blowing away before the reach the mailbox, eggs falling out of the grocery bag, a trail...
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Parents should know three things about Elijah of Buxton (by Christopher Paul Curtis): (1) It may not be appropriate for children below the age of ten to read on their own; (2) it unfolds slowly, so be prepared to stick with it; and (3) it is one of the best books I’ve read for...
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