STARTED & FINISHED:

Pilkey, Dav. (1995). The Hallo-wiener. New York: Blue Sky/Scholastic.

[.]




Gomi, Taro. (1983/2001). I lost my dad. Brooklyn, NY: Kane/Miller.

[.]




Meddaugh, Susan. (2005). The witch's walking stick. Boston: Walter Lorraine/Houghton Mifflin.

[Wow! Blown away by this one! I kinda like the "Martha Speaks" books, so I thought I'd give it a try. Plus, it's kinda Halloween-y. Original story with a great wrap up that doesn't cheat at all.]




Kraus, Robert. (1973). How Spider saved Halloween. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Meister, Carl. (2004). Luther's Halloween. New York: Viking/Penguin.

[.]


Mayer, Mercer. (2005). There are monsters everywhere. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[.]


Keats, Ezra Jack. (1981). Regards to the man in the moon. New York: Four Winds/Scholastic.

[.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Shulevitz, Uri. (1969). Rain rain rivers. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

[.]




Slobodkin, Louis. (1959). Trick or treat. New York: Macmillan.

[.]




Ziefert, Harriet. (2001). Murphy meets the treatdmill. Boston: Walter Lorraine/Houghton Mifflin.

[.]




Quackenbush, Robert. (1984). Rickshaw to horror. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

[Was sorting books and this one came through. Now, with a title like Rickshaw to Horror, how could I NOT take it home?? Unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to its promise, but was a fun little mystery all the same. Quackenbush is a fun, distinctive illustrator. Looking for links, I found out that some of these Miss Mallard titles made their way to cartoon translations. Will have to keep an eye out for the DVD.]




Slonim, David. (2005). He came with the couch. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

[Pretty much a letdown. Great concept for a kids book, but poor follow-through with an ending that is so unoriginal. Of COURSE the little guy has ULTRA quick reflexes and throws the couch out the window to save a kid's life. Out of left field, and way overdone.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Salisbury, Graham. (2007). Night of the howling dogs. New York: Wendy Lamb/Random House.

[What a surprisingly quick read. It helped that it was a TOTAL page-turner! I didn't even realize that I was a fan of "survival" lit... I'm reviewing it for ACL, so I'll put up the full review here when I've written it. Here's the review [I submitted it to go on the Distinguished list:

In Hilo, Hawaii, in the winter of 1975, a small troop of boy scouts set out to explore a remote, and little explored, volcanic rock beach. Things start out pretty typical for the camping group, but after a night of traditional Hawaiian spirit tales around the campfire, told by some older men on a fishing trip, and the foreshadowing of Dylan, our narrator, hearing a couple of dogs howling in the middle of the night, all hell breaks loose for the scouting troop. A harrowing natural disaster causes the teenage boys to muster up every bit of courage and stamina they have in them in order to save themselves and help the other scouts. Based on a true story, this deftly paced page-turner is the horrible, yet empowering tale of how kids can come together calmly in a moment of extreme crisis in order to survive even the most extreme situations. For fans, especially boys, of survival fiction, this fictional account of an earthquake and subsequent tsunami also includes sharks, swarms of bees, and limited amounts of drinkable water and supplies while contending with broken bones and bloody cuts in the blazing sun, all taking place on an unstable dried lava terrain that threatens to shatter with each step. Interwoven is the story of how Dylan and the “bad, troubled kid” who comes along on the scouting trip are avoiding the fact that they have had a tense, previous encounter with each other. Also included is an Author’s Note, detailing how the author’s cousin was one of the scouts involved in the actual event and how they visited the site of the tragedy a few years after the fact. This is an exciting, quick read that has the potential to fly off the shelves.]

*

FINISHED:

Clements, Andrew. (2007). No talking. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Really liked everything I've read by Clements so far. He has this way of telling stories that hearkens back to the YA fiction of the '60s and '70s. And it's great to read a book for kids that has kids that challenge adult conventions and end up teaching the adults something, as well as learning themselves. It seems like we're raising a generation of "Unshushables" that might be interested to see what can happen if you stop working your mouth so hard and start listening to your own thoughts. Excellent read.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Keats, Ezra Jack. (1974). Dreams. New York: Viking/Penguin.

[Keats is a master. Hands down. The simple tales and STUNNING illustrations are unbeatable. Quite possibly my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE children's author/illustrator.]


Watt, Melanie. (2006). Scaredy squirrel. Tonawanda, NY: Kids Can Press.

[CUTE AS ALL GET-OUT.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

McNaughton, Colin. (2004,2005). Once upon an ordinary school day. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux.

[Satoshi Kitamura's illustrations are what initially drew me to this one. Black ink smudgy outlines with light watercolors inside. The story, of an inspirational new teacher, kept me reading. I tried a similar tactic (having kids listen to music and then draw/write down how it made them feel) with some 1st graders once and it kinda worked! If only this kind of activity could be explored in all classrooms - but, in this day of "No child left behind" (yeah, right!) and standardized tests, creativity is thrown out the window. THIS is why I bailed on teaching and am now doing the librarian thing.]


Lender, Ian. (2005). An undone fairy tale. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[This one was a bit of a let down. Cute premise: the illustrations to the story aren't quite done yet, so an aside guy keeps urging the reader not to turn the page. In the end, corners are cut and the story is altered to make up for the changes. In the end, it came off as a bit forced and silly. Kind of reminded me a bit of the Grover book where he doesn't want you to turn the page because there's a monster at the end...]

STARTED:
Clements, Andrew. (2007). No talking. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Reading for ACL, to see if I think it is OUTSTANDING. So far, it's pretty great.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Narahashi, Keiko. (1987). I have a friend. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books/Macmillan.

[I got this one because of the great watercolor illustrations. How great would it be to read it during a storytime and then have kids explore their own shadows?]


Banyai, Istvan. (1997). REM: Rapid eye movement. New York: Viking/:Penguin.

[A bit of a letdown, this one. I really enjoyed Zoom and its sequel, but this one just fell a bit flat, and felt a bit forced to me. I'm still a big fan of the wordless picture book genre, though.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Shulevitz, Uri. (1993). The secret room. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux.

[Another folktale from Shulevitz. Not necessarily my favorite of his, but there's still that lyricism and wit there.]


Hurd, Clement. (1941/2005). The merry chase. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

[If I haven't said it before, Chronicle Books rules. From their layouts and graphics, to their publishing choices, they just rock. The fact that they brought this old classic back from the grave shows how dedicated they are to the art of the book. And, reading the notes on this book, I discovered that Clement Hurd is Thatcher Hurd's father. Learning something new all the time...]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Shulevitz, Uri. (2006). So sleepy story. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux.

[.]


Emberley, Ed. (1975). The wizard of Op. Boston: Little Brown & Co.

[.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Shulevitz, Uri. (1978). The treasure. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux.

[.]


Reichert, Amy. (2005). While mama had a quick little chat. New York: Richard Jackson/Atheneum.

[.]


Rex, Adam. (2006). Tree-ring circus. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc.

[.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Stevenson, James. (2002). The castaway. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[Eh. Just kind of nonsensical.]


Piatti, Celestino. (1967). The happy owls. New York: Atheneum.

[The illustrations for this one are just stunning. So cool. Thick black outlined blocks of color.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Shulevitz, Uri. (1974). Dawn New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

[I'm beginning to believe that this man cannot do any wrong. Just a poetic sense of language, and a distinctive, graphic visual style.]


Waber, Bernard. (1971). Nobody is perfick. [Boston]: Houghton Mifflin.

[Cute stuff. Several little vignettes highlighted by simple line drawing illustrations. FUNNY. Brian says he knows it from childhood.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Perry, Sarah. (1995). If... Venice, CA: Children's Library Press.

[.]


Slobodkina, Esphyr. (1967). Circus caps for sale. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]


Shulevitz, Uri. (1998). Snow. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

[I LOVE this book. Just fantastic! The same guy wrote one of my other favorite kids books, "One Monday Morning". This is going to be my Christmas book purchase this year.]

*

FINISHED:

Wilkinson, Carole. (2005, 2007). Garden of the purple dragon. New York : Hyperion.

[Good stuff. Really enjoyable...]

STARTED:

Spinelli, Jerry. (2007). Love, Stargirl. New York : Alfred A. Knopf.

[Reading so that I can review it for ACL...]

*