         Staff Picks Julia's
Picks
The Daydreamer Did you know Ian McEwan wrote a book for kids? Well, he did. It's eerie and fantastic and, like any book written by someone who really knows what he's doing, it can be enjoyed by those of us who are no longer technically kids. If you've ever wondered what it'd be like to trade places with your cat... Or what you would do if you found a jar of invisibility cream in your kitchen drawer...
This is one of my most favorite books in the world. It's about facing your fears when something really important is at stake - like your mom! - but mostly I love it because it cracks me up. And that ugly 70's palette is just right.
I love this book. Francisco X. Stork has done an incredible job. He really gets how strongly and clearly young people feel about right and wrong, justice and inequality - even when they are faced with a world that would tell them it's really not that easy. Perhaps it's not, but Marcelo has the courage to address right and wrong and their accompanying uncertainties. This is a gripping book strung between characters whom you will feel strongly for.
Katie loves the kittens sooooo much. She's enthusiastic and excited and exuberant and scares them all away. Oh man, Katie, I know how you feel! And I bet young readers will, too. Not to mention John Himmelman has drawn some of the most expressive animals since Rosemary Wells. Hooray!
Whether you're a fan of Christmas or not, I can't imagine a better present than a disappearing bag. Yes, you heard me - a disappearing bag! And Rosemary Wells' illustrations are as expressive as ever. Delightful.
Ninth grade year in the life of T.C. Keller (Red Sox fan & strategist behind the recreation of Manzanar's baseball field), & Augie Hwong (Broadway aficionado and soccer star), self-proclaimed brothers since age six, & new girl Ale Perez (ambassador's daughter with an activist streak & a killer voice) unfolds through their journal entries, emails, instant messages and theater reviews. T.C.'s falling for Ale, Ale's trying not to fall for T.C., & Augie, much to his own surprise and the supportive 'well, of course' of those around him, is falling for his teammate, Andy. Musical Theater, political organizing, baseball, sign language, friendship & love, and it'll make you laugh out loud. Unbelievable that all this wonderfulness could convene in one place? Perhaps, but who cares when it's so funny & endearing.
Just the ticket when you're feeling glum. Short, sweet and silly. And paired with William Steig's always wonderful illustrarions. "Pete's a pizza" -- say that five times fast.
Perhaps I will stop to catch my breath next time I read from this collection.
This time around I kept saying 'That's the last, I'll put this down for today.'
Then I'd read the opening sentence of the next story and get pulled right
back in. Hempel's stories are one incredible sentence strung to the next,
strung to the next. She writes with attention to the spaces between people.
Sometimes her stories are sad, some feel lonesome, but there's hope in there,
too and her words will catch your breath.
James Marshall is my favorite. He's just goofy and irreverent and right on point about most things he chooses to address whether that's friendship (The George and Martha books), school (The Miss Nelson books), good old absurdity (The Stupids), or finding the perfect job. Whether Fox manages this or not, you'll have to read to find out. This is one in a series of books about Fox and the gang that are written with those who are just learning to read in mind, but are hilarious fare for the rest of us too because Marshall takes the restricted word choice available in early reader books and tells the most pithy stories you could hope to find!
Oh! I didn't know that anyone else saw the same kinds of wonder in the world that I do. Try these twenty stories-spring, summer, winter and round and round and round again, and each season something that comes as a surprise, but, with a moment, wasn't unexpected. I know those are synonyms, but Italo Calvino is amazing like that. To be read over and over if you like in all the in between moments.
Jonathan Swift and Einstein get together and read Flatland out loud to each other over tea. That's because it's a lucid description of the first, second, third...nth dimensions and a sly piece of social commentary aimed at Abbott's Victorian society, yet still relevant, with some minor adjustments to our contemporary world. Whimsical satire!
This book is marvelous and has been for going on forty years now. John Burningham
builds his story with a rhythmical repetition that is just as much fun for
the reader as it is for the audience. Also, I like how Mr. Gumpy responds
when things don't go quite as planned.
I carried this book around like a little jewel in my pocket for two days. I read it when I wasn't walking and sometimes when I was. DiCamillo writes the most enthralling kind of magic—that which could actually happen. I hope I find a tiger in the woods someday, too. |
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Harry
and the Terrible Whatzit 
Marcelo in the Real World
Morris's
Disappearing Bag 
My
Most Excellent Year 
Pete's
a Pizza 
Collected
Stories 
Fox
on the Job 
Marcovaldo,
or The seasons in the city 
Flatland:
A Romance of Many Dimensions 
