Our five favorite books for the month of December feature caterpillars, pigs (both large and guinea), and several incredible heroines. All make perfect holiday gifts and can be found on the First Book Marketplace.
PreK-1st (Ages 2-6)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar / La oruga muy hambrienta written and illustrated by Eric Carle
One of the most popular books on the First Book Marketplace is back after a brief hibernation in its cocoon. Eric Carle’s unique illustrations are as charming as they were 40 years ago, but now even more students can count along as our hungry friend eats its way through fruit, junk food, and leaves in this Spanish-English bilingual board book. No matter how many times your students flip through each page, they will stay hungry for more (with minimal risk of stomachaches).
Grades 1-3 (Ages 6-9)
Mercy Watson to the Rescue written by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Chris Van Dusen
As it turns out, the floorboards in the Watson household are not strong enough to support a grown man, a grown woman, and a hefty pig named Mercy all sleeping in the same bed. With a BOOM and a CRACK, all three Watsons wake up to find the bed teetering over a hole, but it’s Mercy to the Rescue! Or is it? Actually, no. Mercy has snuffled her way over to their elderly neighbors, the Lincoln Sisters, in search of sugar cookies. Luckily, Mercy’s actions still might get somebody to call the Fire Department for help. With delightful illustrations and loveable characters, this Advanced Reader is sure to make any student feel all “warm and buttery-toasty inside” as they cheer along this porcine-wonder.
Grades 2-4 (Ages 8-10)
Hamster and Cheese (Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye Series #1) written by Colleen AF Venable and illustrated by Stephanie Yue
Zounds! Somebody has been stealing Mr. Venezi’s sandwiches from the counter of his pet shop. He suspects the hamsters are the culprits and threatens to send them all away if his sandwich is stolen again, prompting the exceptionally excitable Hamisher the hamster to enlist the help of Detective Sasspants, Guinea P.I.(g). But how is this reluctant pet shop Private Eye supposed to solve a mystery when the hamsters sleep through the crime, the fish are too distracted by their reflections, and Gerry, the most suspicious slithery suspect, won’t cooperate? Jump into this hilarious graphic novel to find out and test your own detective skills along the way.
Grades 5-6 (Ages 10-12)
The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis
In 1936, the town of Gary, Indiana, was held fast in the grip of the Great Depression, homelessness, and the ever-present scourge of racism – however, it was also home to a loving family of four uniquely talented people. Readers are given a window into this world through the eyes of the earnest, book-brilliant, and fiercely loyal protagonist Deza, the youngest member of the Malone family. With a father in search of a job and a brother in pursuit of his dream, Deza soon finds her tight-knit family torn apart. She will need every ounce of her unflappable optimism to hold her loved ones together, so they can continue, undaunted, on their journey to that place they call Wonderful.
Grades 7+ (Ages 13+)
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Code Name Verity is the ultimate story of friendship and sacrifice, following the stories told by two heroines caught behind enemy lines in Nazi occupied France. Feverishly gripping and expertly plotted, this award-winning novel will make you gasp, cry, and want to go find your best friend and hug him or her right away. Whether told under the influence of horrendous torture or guiltily crammed in the lines of a pilot’s note book, you won’t be able to stop reading these confessions until you reach the stunning conclusion.
The post Our Favorite Books for December appeared first on First Book Blog.
Get ready to load up those new kindles with some fantastic ebooks that will be specially priced at $.99 from December 26th through December 29th. Loads of authors in various genres are joining in on this holiday sale. Click the logo above to check out the main page for this sale and start downloading today.
Our children’s holiday story, The Christmas Owl, will be reduced to $.99 during this sale. An Amazon best selling children’s story, The Christmas Owl , is sure to become a holiday classic. A Barred owl becomes injured and must ask others for help. He promises to give back to those who have a generous heart and he is true to his word. This colorful tale told in verse is vividly illustrated to capture the attention of children aged eight and under.
with her blue topaz hair, complete with a white poinsettia and some tiny little snowflakes. she is the mermaid for the month of....august? no. july? nah. DECEMBER!!! my FAVORITE month of the year!!!
love her. just sayin'....;)
with all of this 90 degree weather ahead of us (yuck!), Wynter makes me think of cold December days and snowflakes. lots of them! :)
little garnet haired Claret.
FOR SALE HERE:
Claret is the next mermaid to join my series of mythical little beauties. and, the first finished painting since my third neck fusion surgery, 6 wks ago. hard to believe it's been 6 weeks already. hoping the neck brace comes off this week, as painting with it on hasn't been exactly the most comfortable of experiences. but hey, no complaints, as long as the hand works :)
working on December's mermaid next (my favorite month of all)....appropriately named Wynter, based on the gorgeous gemstone, blue topaz.
a peek of Wynter can be found in the pics below. really looking forward to painting her....:)
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| © the enchanted easel 2013 |
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| © the enchanted easel 2013 |
Fading Amber: The cambion chronicles #3 by Jaime Reed; K’Teen Dafina 26 December
This is the only book by an MG or POC author of color I could find for December. Please, mentions others in the comment section.
In all of 2011, I located 108 books by authors of color while in 2011 there were 150.
Filed under:
Diversity Issues,
Me Being Me,
New Books Tagged:
authors of color,
December,
Jaime Reed,
New Books 
My Christmas card for 2011 in print. Cards always seem to look better when grouped, yes?
I did this as a drawing first, then as a vector illustration and now finally as an acrylic paintings on canvas!
http://www.imagekind.com/Santas-Trippin-acrylic_art?IMID=645281d1-4846-4ae7-9b43-eba25dcfc764
'Tis the Season, and many of us are celebrating by giving away things that readers love, including books. Use the entry form below to enter my giveaway for a signed copy of "The Canticle Kingdom" and use the list to link to other blogs.
Please also consider submitting to the Christmas anthology I'm putting together. All you have to do is submit a family friendly story in any genre that is based on a Christmas song. Please send all entried to
[email protected]. All proceeds will be donated to the National Down Syndrome Society.
Have a wonderful and blessed holiday season.
<a href="http://rafl.es/enable-js">You need javascript enabled to see this giveaway</a>.
Download your December desktop calendar and start your holiday count down! Click the image to see full size then Save As…. Happy December!
So I began my December posts yesterday admonishing myself for being a serial procrastinator, and what is the first thing I declare as a love interest of 2009...
Twitter. I do irony.
Seriously though. Twitter can be a time suck and yes it has gobbled up quite a few of my hours, but if you use it sensibly (ie like the 2010 me is going to use it) then it can be a valuable resource. I've made new friends via twitter, I've seen links to markets looking for stories, and found it to be a great marketing tool during the heady month of Olive Lemon. And now that you can create lists of your most favourite tweeple (a much nicer word than twits, despite the latter being appropriate for me and most others), so you don't have to run down your list of everyone you're following when you first log on for the day. Not that you should ever actually log on for an entire day. No, even I wouldn't do that.
Go on, sign up now and twitter with me during 2010. We can declare all our most wonderful sales, awards, and what colour pj's we're wearing.
I thought I'd fill my blog this December with some of the things I've loved about 2009 and some aspirations for 2010. I swear Longfellow wrote the below about me...
There was a little girl, who had a little curlRight in the middle of her forehead,And when she was good, she was very, very good,But when she was bad she was horrid....If I'd worked as hard as I've procrastinated during 2009, my wrists wouldn't sting so much because I've just slapped them hard. Sort of. Okay, not at all. Feeling a brave sort of gal, I opened up my diary and read the entry for January 1st, you know the one with all the goals. Erm, bad me. It is impossible to have a story accepted by a market if you don't send them anything and throwing all your eggs at one basket is only going to leave you smelling rotten. Seriously,
Clarkesworld must be sick of my submissions and
Fantasy & Science Fiction must be feeling very left out. Still I believe God loves a trier, and Neil Clarke is close to God for us writers. And who doesn't worship at the altar of Ellen Datlow.
I hope you all enjoy December as much as I intend to and repeat after me, "We are going to cut our swath through 2010."
ANOTHER FISH STORY
by
Gregory K.
I caught myself a fish today.
It's almost four feet long.
It's green and red with shiny scales.
Its teeth are mighty strong.
I wish this fish could talk to em.
That really would be cool.
And I know what I'd ask it first,
"How'd you get in my pool????"
(I'm posting an original poem-a-day through April in celebration of National Poetry Month. Links to this and other poems here on GottaBook (and there are lots of others, because poetry is NOT just for April) are collected over on the right of the blog under the headline "The Poems".)
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I don’t know if it counts, because it’s a set of short stories, not a novel, but I released Die Trying in November from my own press, AllTheColorsOfLove.
Hi Barbara!
I have a few self published titles listed, but not many. I think as I become aware of more of them, I’ll keep a separate listing of self published titles as a way to indicate how many authors of color are not finding success with traditional publishes.
Good luck with you new release!
I tried searching and can’t find anything else. Just one though! :O