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“One night, my 3-year-old asked me if she could sleep in my bed. I told her no. She said, “That’s not fair! Why does Daddy get to sleep in your bed?” READ MORE
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Summer reading Cool books to read at home or while on vacation (For ages 2-5) Cowlick Written by Christin Ditchfield; illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw (Golden Books, hardcover, 40 pages, $14.99) How does it happen that a boy goes to bed at night with perfectly normal hair, only to wake up with a mysterious and almost irreversible case of bed head? In this delightful rhyming book, illustrated with whimsical oil paintings, we find out that the culprit is a nighttime-visiting cow who bestows cowlicks upon sleeping children. Kids will get a laugh out of the fanciful tale; it would also be a good book for budding readers to attempt with its rhyming words and easy text. (For ages 4-8) Smash! Mash! Crash! There Goes the Trash! Written by Barbara Odanaka; illustrated by Wil Hillenbrand (Margaret K. McElderry Books, hardcover, 32 pages, $15.95) What kid isn’t fascinated by garbage trucks? The roaring, grinding sounds, the loud stops and starts, the grabbing of the trash bins – it’s all quite a show, which Barbara Odanaka, a Laguna Beach-based author, captures perfectly. The rich rhyming text will appeal to young readers – and is the perfect read-aloud material. The striking illustrations, done in bold, rich hues, are rendered in ink and egg tempera, giving them deeply saturated colors. When Giants Come to Play Written by Andrea Beaty; illustrated by Kevin Hawkes (Abrams Books for Young Readers, hardcover, 32 pages, $16.95) The perfect way to spend a summer day for Anna is to spend it with her two friends – who just happen to be giants. They play hide-and-seek; they run across the meadow; and they gather flowers in the garden. A very benign pair of giants indeed. This is a lovely, simple tale of a young girl’s imagination. The illustrations, created using charcoal pencils and acrylics, are charming – filled with rich detail and lots of funny expressions on the giants’ faces. Michael’s Golden Rules Written by Deloris Jordan with Roslyn M. Jordan; illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 32 pages, $16.99) Basketball legend Michael Jordan explains in the introduction to this enjoyable book, written by his mother and sister, his first love as a child was baseball. His childhood friend Jonathan was constantly making mistakes and blunders on the field, so Michael’s uncle tells them about his 10 golden rules of baseball, things such as: know the game; know your opponent; be a team player; practice, practice practice. Michael and Jonathan take the advice to heart and follow the rules, and when it comes to a crucial playoff game, the advice becomes even more relevant. This is a nice story about sportsmanship, told in a way that will be easily understood by children. The illustrations, done in oil, are full of motion and expression. Stealing Home – Jackie Robinson: Against the Odds Written by Robert Burleigh; illustrated by Mike Wimmer (Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 32 pages, $16.99) Poetic verse accompanies facts on each page of this striking book about Jackie Robinson’s complicated, often difficult, but ultimately triumphant life. The poetic verse focuses on Robinson’s speedy base-running and the duel between pitcher and batter. Each of the fact boxes, written on an image of a baseball card, lays out the details of Robinson’s early life in Pasadena, as a multisports star at UCLA, and his breaking of baseball’s color barrier. The illustrations, done in oil, are simply beautiful, and bring a striking richness and expressiveness to each page. Mama, I’ll Give You the World Written by Roni Schotter; illustrated by S. Saelig Gallagher (Schwartz & Wade, hardcover, 40 pages, $16.95) Every day after school, Luisa goes to the beauty parlor where her mother works. Luisa does her schoolwork while her beautiful mom works on the customers’ hair. Luisa looks longingly at the photos of her mother dancing, back “when Dad was around.” With her mom’s birthday coming up, Luisa wants to do something special for her – and conspires with her mother’s customers to come up with the best birthday gift ever. The touching story is accompanied by beautiful illustrations done in oil, which capture the quirky clientele as well as the love between mother and daughter. The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians Written by Carla Morris; illustrated by Brad Sneed (Peachtree Publishing, hardcover, 32 pages, $16.95) Every day after school, Melvin would go to the library. He read about everything and anything, and his best friends were the three librarians at the reference desk. No matter the challenge or the specific category in his quest for knowledge, Melvin’s friends, the librarians, would come through for him. But what will happen when Melvin goes away to college? This is a delightful book, with wonderful illustrations by Brad Sneed that give real dimension and personality to its characters. Every child who has felt comforted and comfortable surrounded by books in a library will be able to relate to Melvin – and maybe those who aren’t so comfortable might get inspired to spend a little more time there. (For ages 6-10) Sweet Land of Liberty Written by Deborah Hopkinson; illustrated by Leonard Jenkins (Peachtree Publishing, hardcover, 32 pages, $16.95) When Oscar Chapman learned in 1939 that singer Marian Anderson was not being allowed to sing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., he wondered what he could do to help. He was the assistant secretary of the interior under President Franklin Roosevelt, but he had spent his childhood in the Deep South, and had seen discrimination of the worst kind. In fact, he was expelled from school as a child merely for buying a picture of Abraham Lincoln to hang on the schoolhouse wall. Chapman came up with the idea of having Anderson sing at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, and set the government wheels in motion. In a historic concert on Easter Sunday of 1939, 75,000 people heard Anderson sing. The book takes an obscure figure from history, and shows how a childhood experience caused him to undertake a historic cause. The art, done in mixed media, has a dreamlike impressionist quality, with lots of pastels and chalk lines. |
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