MotherReader

Today is the last day to nominate a book for the Cybil Awards, the book award from the blogging community. Hopefully this award will hit somewhere between the fancy-schmancy Newbery/Caldecott/Printz awards and the popular-purchase Quills. You don’t have to be a blogger to nominate a title, so look at the lists and see if your favorite books are there. If not, add your voice. I’ll be a final judge for picture books, so I’m keeping an eye on that list myself.

Speaking of lists of picture books, it’s time again for...

What Came To My Library.

• Snow Is My Favorite and My Best, by Lauren Child
  I don’t even need to read this book to know that I’ll take it home. I LOVE Charlie and Lola books, even ones based on the shows (more on that later).


• Chickens to the Rescue, by John Himmelman
  As things around the farm go wrong, the chickens rush in to make things right — with crazy results. Simple text will make this book fun to share with my beginning reader. Plus chickens are funny.


• Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble, by Judy Schachner
  Liked the first Skippyjon Jones. Didn’t like the second. But my kids liked both. I’ll give this one a chance.


• I Am A Ballerina, by Valerie Coulman
  My seven-year-old takes ballet, so I’m a sucker for ballerina books. What sets this book apart for me is that the ballerina is Asian — and so is my daughter’s best friend and ballet partner. It looks like a sweet book.


• The Shivers in the Fridge, by Fran Manushkin
  There’s a little family that is living in the fridge. Why? We don’t know — until the end. Worth another read at home.


• Sally’s Snow Adventure, by Stephen Huneck
  The Sally books do nothing for me personally. This one is cute enough with a story about Sally going skiing, getting lost, and being found by the rescue dogs. I do like the picture of the dachshund standing upright on skis. Dachshunds are funny.


• Oops, by Arthur Geisert
  In this wordless picture book, a little pig in a pig family spills his milk, causing a chain reaction that eventually destroys the house. Didn’t like the idea when I first heard about it, not crazy about it now.


• Grumpy Gloria, by Anna Dewdney
  Gloria the dog loves her child companion, but when she ignores Gloria for a new toy, Gloria gets grumpy. The older kids try to cheer her up — in some ways that you wouldn’t wish on any dog — but nothing will do until her best friend comes back to play with her. Cute with particular appeal to the younger kids, given the main character and the simple, large text.


• Can I Bring My Pterodactyl to School, Ms. Johnson? by Lois Grambling
  Uneven story of a kid who wants to bring his dinosaur to school. He hopes to set him on bullies on the playground (which makes the kid seem young) and have him help the school band for homecoming (what elementary schools have homecoming?). Bugged me.


• Steal Back the Mona Lisa, by Meghan McCarthy
  Funny story of a kid who travels to France from New York on a secret spy mission, with all the required secret agent gear. Looks like fun.


• The Gingerbread Girl, by Lisa Campbell Ernst
  The old couple makes a girl hoping that she won’t run away, but she does. But while she was baking, she overheard the story of her brother, so she won’t make the same mistakes. She runs away, lassos the fox, and ends up coming home and teaching everyone to bake gingerbread kids. Then why run away in the first place? Plot holes in picture books aren’t pretty.


• Once Upon A Banana, by Jennifer Armstrong and illustrated by David Small
  I’m not usually a fan of wordless books, but I read a good review about this one and at first glance, it looks like I’d like it. I’ll take it home for a closer look.

So, not a bad crop of picture books. I took home seven for a closer look, and released five to the wild (along with another five Maisy/Arthur/Dora books I didn’t need to review). With any luck, I’ll be back later in the week with fuller reviews for some of the keepers. But I’m not making any promises.