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Cindy: As I write this, Lynn is winging her way to The American Library Association Midwinter Meetings in Dallas…propelled as much by excitement and nerves as she is by Delta Airlines. Her 2012 Newbery Award deliberations start tomorrow and I am left behind to work for two more days before I can leave town and [...]

Lynn: “Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock,” is a rhyme most of us know from childhood.  Even in today’s too-busy-to-read-world at least some nursery rhymes are passed along to children.  Nursery rhymes have never been as much fun though as in Nursery Rhyme Comics:  50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists (Roaring [...]

Cindy: Not at my house, it’s not. The tree is up (but not decorated) and nothing is hung by the chimney with care. I’m a little behind in my holiday decorating this year. Fortunately, there are Christmas books to add some holiday cheer to my home and for us to recommend for your collections or [...]

Cindy: “Most folks my age and complexion don’t speak much about the past. Sometimes it’s just too hard to talk about…So it’s important that you pay attention, honey, because I’m only going to tell you this story but once.” Fortunately for us, the story has been captured in a gorgeous book so we can read [...]

Cindy: I was excited and a little nervous when I heard there was to be a new Shel Silverstein collection. Post-humous publications often disappoint, but this one is successful. Every Thing On It (Harper 2011) has over 130 poems with his trademark line drawings, selected by his family from his archives and published her for [...]

Lynn: Mo Willems is a national treasure.  He is a gladsome spark of brilliance for parents and grandparents of preschoolers/ beginning readers everywhere – providing that miracle of miracles:  books that can be read/listened to a zillion times without driving the grown-up screaming from the room.  Mr. Willems – thank you!  As the grandparent of [...]

Cindy: I collect rocks everywhere I travel (a habit from my grandmother) and I am partial to ones with holes in them, but this collection in If Rocks Could Sing: A Discovered Alphabet (Tricycle Press 2011) really ROCKS. Instead of collecting seashells on her Florida beaches, McGuirk slowly built an alphabet collection of rocks A-Z. [...]

Cindy: Does anyone have a bottle of india ink I may borrow? Margaret Peot has me fired up to get creative with her intriguing book Inkblot: Drip, Splat, and Squish Your Way to Creativity (Boyds Mills 2011). She lays out the process for creating inkblot designs and then transforming them into works of art by [...]

Cindy: With March Madness upon us, I was excited to find All Access: Your Behind-the-Scenes Pass to Sports, Stars, Locker Rooms, and More! (Time 2010) on display at my local public library. I knew I had to take it home when I flipped it open to find Shaquille O’Neal’s ginormous hand reproduced on a cellophane [...]

Cindy: If you didn’t get enough haiku with our recent post about Guyku, then have we got a treat for you in Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku (Henry Holt 2011). The story opens with cats in separate cages in an animal shelter: Gypsy on my left. Pumpkin, my right. Together, we are [...]