Our favorite books this September feature some lovable animals and some courageous young adults. These stories about friendship and making good choices will make you laugh, cry and learn life lessons in the process.
Read on to see what books had us hooked this September!
For PreK-K (Ages 3-6):
The Bear Ate Your Sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach
Bear meets sandwich, adventure ensues. The wonderfully told story, spectacular illustrations, and surprise ending make this Julia Sarcone-Roach’s best book to date. You’ll want to share it with your friends (and keep a close eye on your lunch). A sly classic-in-the-making for fans of Jon Klassen, Peter Brown, and Mo Willems.
For 1st & 2nd Grade (Ages 6-8):
My Friend Maggie by Hannah E. Harrison
Paula and Maggie have been friends forever. Paula thinks Maggie is the best—until mean girl Veronica says otherwise. Suddenly, Paula starts to notice that Maggie is big and clumsy, and her clothes are sort of snuggish. Rather than sticking up for Maggie, Paula ignores her old friend and plays with Veronica instead. Luckily, when Veronica turns on Paula, Maggie’s true colors shine through.
For 3rd & 4th grade (Ages 8-10):
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch
Welcome to Hereville, home of the first-ever wisecracking, adventure-loving, sword-wielding Orthodox Jewish heroine. A delightful mix of fantasy, adventure, cultural traditions, and preteen commotion, this fun, quirky graphic novel series will captivate middle-school readers with its exciting visuals and entertaining new heroine.
For 5th & 6th grade (Ages 10-12):
Booked by Kwame Alexander
In this follow-up to the Newbery-winning novel THE CROSSOVER, soccer, family, love, and friendship, take center stage as twelve-year-old Nick learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate Coby, and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read.
Grades 7 & up (Ages 13+):
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, Will Grayson crosses paths with . . . Will Grayson. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, and culminating in epic turns-of-heart and the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high school stage. Told in alternating voices from two YA superstars, this collaborative novel features a double helping of the heart and humor that have won them both legions of fans.
The post Monthly Book List: Our Five Favorite Books for September appeared first on First Book Blog.
This list of “9 Excellent Jewish Kids Books for Hanukkah Gifts and Beyond” was curated by Bianca Schulze.
In our November/December issue, reviewer Shoshana Flax asked Barry Deutsch about the third entry in his graphic novel series about “11-year-old time-traveling Jewish Orthodox babysitter” Mirka. Read the full starred review of Hereville: How Mirka Caught a Fish here.
Shoshana Flax: We hear more about the modern world in this third installment. What do you think the neighbors think of Hereville?
Barry Deutsch: I can honestly say no one’s ever asked me that before! The people in the next town over are pretty suspicious of Hereville. There are a lot of weird rumors flying around, as you’d expect. (The Hereville folks tend to be pretty insular.) But in real life, one of my neighbors has become a big Hereville fan! We sometimes talk about it on the bus.
From the November/December 2015 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.
The post Barry Deutsch on Hereville appeared first on The Horn Book.
Someone on Twitter was looking for suggestions. I rattled off a list…and then copied it to Facebook and thought of more…and I figured I’d throw the titles up here too, for easy access, though of course this is a mere sliver of what I’d put on my ideal Books for Ten-Year-Olds bookshelf. Later, when time permits, I’ll try to come back and add capsule reviews, but today is not that day.
(Um, it goes without saying I recommend my own The Prairie Thief for this age, yes? Because I’m totally saying it anyway. Boys and girls. Ahem.)
• Turtle in Paradise by Jenni Holm
• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
• Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword (and sequel) by Barry Deutsch
• Smile by Raina Telgemeier
• Jane of Lantern Hill (happy sigh) by L.M. Montgomery
the Betsy-Tacy books (obviously)
• The Firelings by Carol Kendall
• The Gammage Cup / The Whisper of Glocken by Carol Kendall
• Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
• By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman
• The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
• The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr
• Rowan of Rin (and sequels) by Emily Rodda
• Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
• The Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall—the first one is my favorite
• Rules by Cynthia Lord
• Bad Island by Doug TenNapel
• Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge
• The Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan
• The Warriors books by Erin Hunter—Rose’s longtime obsession!
Harold Underdown suggested Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale, and I second that—my kids and I loved it (and the related Calamity Jack—both graphic novels); they love all Shannon’s books like CRAZY. Next to Betsy-Tacy and Percy Jackson, the Shannon Hale novels are the most frequently borrowed books by their friends. We basically have a Lovelace/Riordan/Hale lending library going here.
Obviously, I could go on and on here. This truly is a just-off-the-top-of-my-head list. See also my master list of book recommendations.
December already! Impossible.
I’ve been trying to catch up my GoodReads log, but with all these graphic novels I’m reading for Cybils, it’s hard to keep it up to date. November’s list is too long to recreate here, but I’ll call out a few of my favorite reads from the month.
I keep calling this Trollville by accident because of the (perfectly delicious) subtitle: “Yet another troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl.” Middle-grade graphic novel published by Amulet Books. Enchanted Beanie and me. Mirka wants to fight monsters but gets entangled with a foul-tempered talking pig instead. Her sometimes comical, often hair-raising adventures occur in the context of a full, tradition-centered home life. I love books that mingle the small, gritty challenges of daily life with grand, fantastic adventures—but maybe you already knew that about me?
This is the gift to give your 8-12-year-old nephew or niece if you want the Coolest Uncle Ever award. Or Coolest Aunt. Whichever. An aging superhero announces that he is holding auditions for a new sidekick. His pets, who miss his company, decide to try out. His pets? Are a dog, a hamster, and a lizard. That’s right. The hamster is trying out for the superhero sidekick gig. It’s equal parts heartwarming and hilarious. And the art just knocked—my—socks—off.
This book is really special. It’s a memoir in words and pictures. Allen Say recounts the story of his life with poignant candor. At age twelve, he goes to Tokyo to live alone (!) in order to attend a good school. His tiny one-room apartment has everything young Allen needs: solitude and a desk he can draw at. In a move full of gumption, he ap
Howdy, folks. I’m starting off today with a little podcast-related item. Back in the day I tried podcasting for sport. It was fun (I had my own intro music and everything) but after a while it became clear that podcasting is a labor of love best left to the professionals with their prodigious editing skills, like the old Just One More Book site. More recently I’ve contributed reviews to the remarkable Katie Davis Brain Burps About Books (more about that in a sec). Today, however, I am pleased as punch to reveal that I was recently the guest host on the Read It and Weep podcast. They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse: Name a bad children’s book and they would read it and discuss it with me. Well, I gave them the worst I could think of (you can guess what it was) and it was SO bad that they told me they couldn’t do it. Instead, we decided to turn our attention to the good old Triumvirate of Mediocrity (copyright Jane Yolen for the term): The Giving Tree, Rainbow Fish, and Love You Forever. Even if you like one of these, it is physically impossible to love all three. Take a listen to our discussion about the gleesome threesome. Odds are, you’ll never think of them quite the same way again.
- In other podcast news, the aforementioned Katie Davis has managed to compile a Library Love segment of her own podcast that is so o’erfilled with fantastic authors that you know and love that you’ll find yourself throwing fistfuls of money at your nearest library branch within minutes. The full list of participants and the podcast itself can be found here.
- There are many ways in which to take the news that you’ve been nominated for a big award. Barry Deutsch’s? The best. Bar none.
- True credit to Phil Nel. Hard to top a blog post that has the title Vandalizing James Marshall. Rather than discuss cases where folks have drawn bras on Martha (oh, you know it must happen) Phil is referring to the panned and scanned version of Marshall’s The Three Little Pigs in which the images have been truncated or removed altogether. It’s pretty horrific, Phil’s right. Particularly when you consider that this is James Marshall we’re talking about. Shame.
Sometimes I don’t pay proper attention. That&rsqu
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword
By Barry Deutsch
Amulet Books (an imprint of Abrams)
$15.95
ISBN: 978-0-8109-8422-6
Ages 9-12
On shelves November 1, 2010
“Yet another troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl,” says the byline. Well seriously. How was I supposed to pass that up? I’d grabbed a copy of Hereville at an American Library Association conference along with a whole host of other books. I don’t think I even gave it half a glance at the time. Just nabbed, stuffed, and scooted. It was only back in the comfort of my hotel room as I repacked my bags that the byline got my attention. I sat down for a quick look. Twenty minutes later I was still reading, with no intention at all of repacking anything until I was done. In my experience, fantasy novels for children do not like to involve religion in any way, shape, or form. And children’s graphic novels? Puh-leeze. You’re as likely to find a copy of Babymouse wax rhapsodic on the topic of organized religion as you are a copy of Harry Potter. So to read Barry Deutsch’s book is to experience a mild marvel. There is religion, fantasy, knitting, some of the best art I’ve seen since The Secret Science Alliance, and a story that actually makes you sit up and feel something. This is like nothing I’ve ever encountered before, and I think it’s truly remarkable. Without a doubt, this is the best graphic novel of 2010 for kids. Bar none.
Mirka has a dream, but it’s not the kind of thing that gets a lot of support. More than anything else in the entire world she wants to fight dragons. The problem? She’s eleven, a girl, and she lives in the Jewish Orthodox town of Hereville. Still, Mirka gets a bit closer to her dream when she incurs the wrath of a witch’s pig, then does it a good deed, thereby indebting its witch to her. As it turns out, the witch tells Mirka that there is a good sword in the neighborhood, but the only way to get it is to defeat a troll. And when push comes to shove, Mirka’s going to have to use all her smarts and cunning to defeat an enemy that prizes one of the arts she loathes the most.
Think about children’s fantasy novels and religion for a moment. Religion in fantasies for kids tends to skew one of three ways. You can incorporate it and make it the entire point of the novel (Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, the Narnia books of C.S. Lewis, or Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time series which is technically science fiction anyway). You can make up an entirely new religion of your own (as in the novels of Frances Hardinge,
3 Comments on Review of the Day – Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch, last added: 8/17/2010
by Barry Deutsch.
by Dan Santat.
by Allen Say.
One of those polar-bear bookcases is right here in New York! I saw it in the basement of the Crosby Street Hotel on Monday, beneath a polar-bear-shaped mirror as well.
There will also be a special film screening of Library of the Early Mind at The Eric Carle Museum on Friday, April 29th at 6:00 pm. It will be followed by a panel discussion with Jane Yolen and Grace Lin and a reception in the Great Hall. 2 professional development points – and only $5.
The boy in the striped pyjamas?
That fabric site is amazing — they custom-print your fabric of choice? Did you see the Alice in Wonderland fabric? Just need to figure out the best search terms … You could have a wardrobe.
Ooo. Wardrobe. Ooo. Baby wardrobe. The mind boggles.
Chris, you know me way too well.
I don’t usually listen to podcasts but the topic was too much to resist!!!!!
Hilarious and brilliant. Favorite quote (although there were so very many faves) was about LOVE YOU FOREVER: “It’s like a Nicholas Sparks kids book” or something to that effect.
I find that I’m inclined to agree with Mr. Betsy Bird’s GIVING TREE theory. Nobody who has read MR. SHELBY’S ABZ’S could accuse Shel Silverstein of being sentimental about children.
I linked to your post from my post about sharing LOVE YOU FOREVER with my 10yo son. Hope you don’t mind. : )
The Harris Burdick collection is quite good overall, which is hard in a short story collection because so many times the quality is uneven. I blogged about it already–early, but I couldn’t wait! http://booksdogsandfrogs.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/the-chronicles-of-harris-burdick/
Rats! I was going to guess The Boy in the Striped Pajamas too, but someone beat me to it! But I’m glad you reminded me of it — a friend is presenting at a writer’s workshop, and needed ideas for books with intrusive messages/morals as examples of bad writing. Heh heh heh.
Oh, I am sooooo going to have to get a copy of THE CHRONICLES OF HARRIS BURDICK! A friend gave the original to our family after our first son was born, years ago….
I’m both happy and sad to hear about Harris Burdick. In our sixth grade class we write our own HB stories which is my favorite writing of the year. I’m afraid it will lose some magic and originality if there are “real” stories out there–kind of like when the movie version of your favorite book comes out and it’s not like you imagined!