Library Column for April 7, 2023

@ Your Library

Happy April! It has been a while since we talked about new junior room books. Help  your child finish the school year strongly and prepare them for summer reading. It is never too early or too late to start a reading habit. Reading every day is a very good way to keep the brain healthy and working properly.

Wibble Wobble Boom! By Mary Ann Rodman with illustrations by Holly Sterling is a delightful tale of expectations and the reality of learning. Claire is so excited to begin ice skating. She is sure it won’t be long until she is on TV.  The Polar Bear in the Garden by Richard Jones is a sweet story of a friendship between a boy and the bear he finds in his garden. Brooke Hartman and Anna Sussbauer have written a fun tale in which they tell the reader to stop turning pages and to Watch Out for the Lion! Will a lion appear? Borrow this fun picture book to discover who is lurking inside. A book that serves as a marvelous conversation starter is Big and Small and In-Between by Carter Higgins and Daniel Miyares. The book is full of beautiful images of big things like ‘the sun and its shine’, in-between things like ‘your tooth when it wiggles and waggles but isn’t all the way in or all the way out’ and small things like ‘the baby blue promise in a robin’s nest.’

April is National Poetry month and poems are wonderful to share. Rhymes, imagery, and oh so much more help young children explore the world through language. Ready for Spaghetti by Michael Rosen with illustrations by Polly Dunbar is full of ‘funny poems for funny kids.’ Begin at the beginning for a wake-up poem and end with a good night poem and all the fun in-between.

Everyone already knows I love non-fiction books, especially kids non-fiction and so here are four delightful books to share. The Search for Sasquatch by Laura Krantz explores the gap between science and myth. David Macaulay has drawn another marvelous book in Mammoth Math: Everything you Need to Know about Numbers as demonstrated by mammoths. Move from counting to number know-how to puzzles, maps, shapes, quantity and size and end up with data for a wide-ranging exploration of numbers. Why Humans Build Up? by Gregor Craigie with illustrations by Kathleen Fu explores the rise of towers, temples and skyscrapers.  Annette Bay Pimentel and Madison Safer have created a wonderful look at where instruments come from in Before Music.

And here are a few novels to explore. Lily’s Mountain by Hannah Moderow is a moving story of an Alaskan adventure on Denali. Frances Greenslade in Green Mountain Academy is another moving tale of loss, courage and starting over. J.R. Silver Writes Her World by Melissa Dassori deals with the power of words and includes a pinch of magic. Can a teacher be too perfect, too good? Read The Superteacher Project by Gordon Korman to find out.

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