Browse by Tags

• Book of the Week: Sex & Gender Issue Special

  Yoon, the star of Hyun Young Lee's new book Something for School, is a sweet little girl whose first day of kindergarten goes horribly wrong when she's mistaken for a boy. In a panic, Yoon looks for something in her house to distinguish her as a girl, and finally settles on her older sister's flowery headband, which hides her short hair. She has a fantastic day in her new femme gear -- but when Yoon's sister wants her stuff back, will her friends be confused all over again? Read More... Posted Aug 08 2008, 10:15 AM by editors with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: school, Korean, children's books, books, kindergarten, book of the week, picture books, sex and gender issue, something for school, first day

• Book of the Week: Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly

  It's not easy being the youngest of several children; by default, you'll always be compared to your older brothers and sisters. In Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly by Alan Madison (Author) and Kevin Hawkes (Illustrator), our heroine takes extreme measures to differentiate herself from her sisters, until she finds something to call her own: a butterfly. Read More... Posted Jul 18 2008, 10:33 AM by editors with | with no comments Filed under: children's books, books, book of the week, picture books, velma gratch adn the way cool butterfly, velma gratch, way cool butterfly

• Book of the Week: Dream Destinations

  Given the recession, you've probably put that Icelandic vacation on hold for a while. But if you're content to be an armchair traveler, you'll get a lot of mileage out of Life Magazine's new book, Dream Destinations: 100 of the World's Best Vacations. You may have flipped through a coffee table book like this as a kid visiting your grandparents -- and although they've since gone out of vogue, the big beautiful photos of exotic locales still appeal to children. Compare Wyoming's snake river, glowing orange at sunset, to the clear blue waters of Cook's Bay in Moorea, or imagine life in the sheep-scattered hills of Snowdonia. Even if you're as broke as we are at the moment, it doesn't hurt to dream -- or to help your kids realize there's a world outside their hometown. -- Gwynne Watkins Dream Destinations (Life) is available for $19.77 on Amazon. Book of the Week appears every other Friday. Sometimes every Friday. We’re fickle like that. Posted Jul 11 2008, 12:30 PM by editors with | with no comments Filed under: children's books, books, Life Magazine, book of the week, recession, dream destinations

• I Threw a Baby Shower and I Only Got Books

  Sound good to you? Maybe you can join the trend of throwing book-themed baby showers, as mentioned in The Seattle Times. The concept is simple, and not entirely new: Throw a baby shower but insist that only picture books can be given as gifts. Read More... Posted Jun 23 2008, 09:02 AM by Jen Chaney with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, books, baby showers, picture books, moon, Good Night, themed showers, The Very Hungry Caterpillar

• Book of the Week: Daddy Hug

  The world is made up of all kinds of dads -- busy, strong, slimy, wobbly -- and the new book Daddy Hug celebrates all of them. With charming, vivid illustrations of animal dads and their children, Daddy Hug goes through a litany of daddies that makes for a fantastic read-aloud. To wit, here's the text of a double-page spread with an otter dad on one side and a moose dad on the other: Daddy squeak, Daddy chirp Daddy hiccup, Daddy burp! Yeah, it's not Proust, but it's much more fun at bedtime. Read More... Posted Jun 13 2008, 10:05 AM by editors with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, books, dads, fathers, reading, animals, father's day, kids' books, book of the week, picture books, daddy hug

• 'Go to Sleep, Little Hellion' and Other Books They Should Publish

  Kids books (except the ones she reads to her daughter) are usually quite benign and G-rated.   And other than anything written by Mo Willems they sometimes suffer from eternal repetition, which is why it's fun to imagine what would happen if any of the following titles made it to your local children's bookstore. Read More... Posted Jun 04 2008, 07:11 PM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with no comments Filed under: children's books, children's books for adults, silly children's books

• Book of the Week, with Video!: Me Hungry

  In The Happiest Toddler on the Block, parenting expert Harvey Karp compares toddlers to caveman. In Jeremy Tankard's new picture book, Me Hungry!, the toddler is literally a caveman. And a hilarious one, at that. Read More... Posted May 23 2008, 10:07 AM by editors with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, books, toddlers, kids' books, book of the week, cavemen, picture books, caveman, me hungry, harvey karp, jeremy tankard

• Gay Guinea Pigs Wed in New Children's Book

  Well it's been a week since gay marriage became legal in California, and since it might become illegal again in a few short months, wedding bells are going to start ringing 24/7 in the Golden State come June 16.  My guess is that many of you (even those who aren't personal friends of Ellen and Portia) will be attending a hitching or two this summer and might be looking for a way to talk about the event with your kids.   Have I got a book for you. Read More... Posted May 22 2008, 05:01 PM by Erin White with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, lesbian and gay families, uncle bobby's wedding, Sarah Brannen, guinea pigs

• Book of the Week: Mary Had a Little Lamp

  Kids get attached to some weird things. When my brother was little, his favorite toy was a neon-green toothbrush holder: his "lightsaber." And our blogger Kori's daughter was once obsessed with a sweet potato she named Ryan. That unique kind of object love is the inspiration for the delightful new book Mary Had a Little Lamp (Bloomsbury, 2008).  Read More... Posted May 09 2008, 10:01 AM by editors with | with no comments Filed under: children, children's books, books, kids' books, book of the week, picture books, mary had a little lamp

• The Sophistication of Children’s Literature

  How much does it matter what kids are reading, so long as they’re caught up in a book instead of spending hours with their GameBoy? Can children’s literature be too sophisticated? An article in the Boston Globe about the huge success of Diary of a Wimpy Kid—a comic book about an average boy living through middle school hell—got me to wondering about how we judge children’s literature. Because parts of the book are available on funbrain.com and because it’s a comic, Diary of a Wimpy Kid attracted some unlikely readers. Read More... Posted Apr 09 2008, 11:00 AM by Hannah Tennant-Moore with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, comic books, young adult fiction, jeff kinney, diary of a wimpy kid

• Pigeon Book Contest Winner Is a Dumb Kid

  So the Pigeon Wants a Puppy. Seems pretty tame if you ask me. Why not a lion? Or a saxophone? Or maybe a handful of gourmet bird seed? It could have had more pop is all I'm sayin'. Mo Willems, author of such children's book greats as Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny and Time to Pee! held a contest to see who could finish off the title of his latest creation, Pigeon Wants a ....   Read More... Posted Apr 02 2008, 12:04 PM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with no comments Filed under: children's books, mo willems, pigeon wants a puppy

• Book of the Week: Can You Guess the Twist Ending?

  Let’s play a guessing game – I’m thinking of something that is round like a ball. Your guess is “ball,” right? You’re totally wrong. Round Like a Ball is an expanded version of this game, with each family member making a guess in response to clues, until the round object is revealed to be . . . (spoiler alert!) . . .  Read More... Posted Mar 14 2008, 10:00 AM by editors with | with no comments Filed under: children's books, books, books for children, earth day, book of the week, green, round like a ball

• Book of the Week: More Quirky Ducks for Your Kid's Library

  What is it with children’s book writers and quirky ducks? In the last few years, we’ve seen gay ducks, assembly-line ducks, political ducks, unwelcome-houseguest ducks, and feuding ducks, to name just a few. I suppose this tradition goes back as far as duck-in-drag Jemima Puddle-Duck and outsider-duck The Ugly Duckling, so we’ll probably be seeing those wacky ducks in our kids’ books for decades to come. With that in mind, here’s a brand new one that’s worth a look: The Duck Who Played Kazoo. Read More... Posted Feb 29 2008, 10:05 AM by editors with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, books, books for children, book of the week, quirky ducks, the duck who played the kazoo

• Book of the Week: Creepy in a Good Way

  The press materials for The Girl In the Castle Inside the Museum predictably describe the book as “whimsical.” But there’s a dark side to whimsy, a Roald Dahl/Neil Gaiman/Tim Burton side that kids and adults alike are drawn towards. That’s what The Girl Inside... so effectively captures, thanks to Nicole Ceccoli’s incredible illustrations. Ceccoli is an Italian painter whose work often depicts haunting, vaguely menacing childlike worlds. Read More... Posted Feb 15 2008, 12:16 PM by editors with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, books, books for children, book of the week, the girl in the castle inside the museum, nicoletta ceccoli

• Book of the Week: The "Zen Shorts" Sequel

  Zen Ties is Jon J. Muth’s eagerly awaited follow-up to Zen Shorts, the 2005 book about a giant panda who imparts Buddhist lessons to neighborhood children. Reading Zen Ties, I was happy to spend more time with Stillwater and meet his little panda nephew Koo. But I did find myself wishing that this second book was a little more like the first. Read More... Posted Feb 01 2008, 10:05 AM by editors with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, books, books for children, book of the week, zen shorts, zen ties

• Book of the Week: Now with Talking Fetus!

  Okay, generally I find children's books about pregnancy vaguely creepy, in a pro-life-propaganda sort of way. We've gotten a bunch in the office these past few months, most of which show frighteningly happy little fetuses doing adorable things in the womb and it just seems wrong. But then this week, Ma! There's Nothing to Do Here! showed up on my desk and I totally fell for it. Read More... Posted Jan 25 2008, 10:15 AM by editors with | with no comments Filed under: pregnancy, children's books, books, books for children, book of the week

• Huffing and Puffing and Blowing Your Common Sense Down

  Which one of the following recent PC-driven revisions to classic children’s stories and nursery rhymes is true: A rewrite of the Three Little Pigs called The Three Cowboy Builders being called offensive to Muslims and insulting to builders, Baa Baa Black Sheep being changed to Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep to satisfy race relations, the “Seven Dwarfs” removed from the title of Snow White to avoid offending the vertically challenged or the ending of Humpty Dumpty being rewritten to avoid upsetting sensitive children? Read More... Posted Jan 24 2008, 01:03 PM by makeitadouble with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, political correctness, pc, 3 little pigs, kid's books

• Book of the Week: When Randolph Turned Rotten

  Randolph is the beaver protagonist in When Randolph Turned Rotten (Knopf, 2007) who enjoys sneakily gnawing on seesaws and spending every day with his best friend Ivy, the Canadian goose. These two buddies are roommates in a big city apartment who play together, read together and eat together. But when the mail comes one day with good news for Ivy and bad for Randolph, it dramatically changes their dynamic.   Randolph didn’t mean to have his insides turn rotten and develop mad hands and mad feet, but when he wasn’t invited to the ‘All-Girl Sleepover Birthday Party’ he just felt so alone. And that’s when he decided it would be best to ensure Ivy didn’t have any fun either. . . Read More... Posted Jan 18 2008, 10:00 AM by editors with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, books, book of the week, book, when randolph turned rotten

• Where the Tame Things Are: Children’s Books Censored

  One of our oldest son’s favorite books when he was younger, which was read to him a Guinness Book record 1,097,653 times in one calendar year, was called “Eight Silly Monkeys”. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? It begins, “Eight silly monkeys sitting sedately on the floor. One got up and walked out the door. Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, “I’m not sure what I can do for you Mrs. Monkey. Walking out the door really isn’t a medical issue.” OK, so maybe the book didn’t read exactly like that but it might someday if certain publishers who have taken to censoring children’s books have anything to do with it. Editors stricken with an acute strain of the PC bug are taking the heavy red pen of censorship to children’s books due to concerns of health and safety. Read More... Posted Nov 24 2007, 10:04 AM by makeitadouble with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, censorship, political correctness, publishers

• Inclusive Children's Books: Let's Keep it Interesting, People

  A few days ago my daughter checked out Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy from the library.  It’s one of those books with an ever-so-slightly androgynous looking father who can be re-christened Mommy, thus transforming an otherwise innocent and sparkly tale into a radical lesbian feminist text or, at the very least, a story about a family constellation that shines the way my daughter’s does.The only problem with renaming characters is that the act of reading the edited story requires a certain level of attentiveness (i.e. you can’t read aloud while also ordering shoes on-line).  Read More... Posted Nov 20 2007, 10:24 AM by Erin White with | with no comments Filed under: children's books, lesbian and gay families

• Book of the Week: We Belong Together

  Todd Parr’s children’s books have always promoted a message of love and acceptance of the non-traditional among us, while celebrating the strange and wonderful things that make each child, animal and adult special. Parr’s newest book, We Belong Together: A Book About Adoption and Families (Little, Brown, 2007) exemplifies his mission.  Just in time for National Adoption Month, We Belong Together illustrates, in bold primary colors, the many different types of blended families that come about through adoption and celebrates the pursuit of creating a loving home. Reading We Belong Together with your children is designed to empower by showing the value of even the littlest family member:   We belong together because . . . you needed someone to read to you and we had stories to share. Now we all have someone to make us laugh. Read More... Posted Nov 01 2007, 10:15 AM by aprilpeveteaux with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: adoption, children's books, book of the week, Todd Parr, National Adoption Month, We Belong Together

• Book of the Week: Four Legs Bad, Two Legs Good!

  D.B. Johnson likes to sneak classic literature into your child’s diet like food processed broccoli, and his new tale, Four Legs Bad, Two Legs Good! (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) is an ambitious exploration of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Amazingly, Johnson’s depiction of No-Man Farm won’t make you look over your shoulder when visiting the petting zoo, like the original did. In this children’s tale, Johnson introduces Farmer Orvie, the pig who is in charge and (also like in the original) taking advantage of his position. Read More... Posted Oct 18 2007, 12:18 PM by aprilpeveteaux with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, book of the week, Two Legs Good, Animal Farm, Four Legs Bad, DB Johnson

• Material Girl Straddles Two Worlds (at Least)

  Oh to be as multi-faceted (seeming) as Madonna, who now authors books in the adult and children's sections of your local bookstore.  The Material Girl has tried everything, marriage, running, pilates, yoga, having a child with a personal trainer, mysticism and Kabbtalah.  So it was no real surprise that her attention shifted to writing children's books (especially after getting married and settling down)... Madonna has seemingly grown up, but her books tell the real story.... Inside the sweet children's authoress, mother, and wife still lurks the heart of the Marilyn Monroe lookalike who used to eat meat (among other things)... Read More... Posted Sep 13 2007, 07:13 PM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Sex, children's books, Madonna, english roses

• Madeleine L'Engle Was My Hero

  I still remember the delight with which I first read Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time." For one thing, protagonist Meg Murry's last name was suspiciously similar to my own, and although I didn't have an intransigent little brother named Charles Wallace, I could have been part of that family, couldn't I? The science, the mystery, the genius, the precociousness, I mean, I had it all! I was reading about my life! Well, close anyway. But it was that kind of storytelling, that kind of originality and creativity, that made Madeleine L'Engle's books loved by so many children and adults alike. Read More... Posted Sep 08 2007, 11:35 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: children's books, books, authors, fantasy, science fiction, Madeleine L'Engel

• Children's Books Online: Classic Lit from the Public Domain

  One of the first things that made me think the internet might be good for something other than porn was the birth of sites like Project Gutenberg and Bartleby, where public domain works of literature were transcribed and presented for online perusal or download. Talk about a great way to get through the dark hours of a night shift during the mid-1990's! Now that all of us geeks have had babies, the internet's keeping up with the times. The Rosetta Project's Children's Books Online is a gorgeous repository of classic children's picture books of the sort our grandparents would have read, neatly scanned for your enjoyment. Read More... Posted Aug 11 2007, 11:03 AM by Patti with | with no comments Filed under: children's books, children's literature, books for children, rosetta project, children's books online