Publications about books for children and young adults
Bailey at the Museum by Harry Bliss; illus. by the author Primary Scholastic 32 pp. 9/12 978-0-545-23345-3 $16.99 In his second adventure, the irrepressible titular hound from Bailey (rev. 11/11) — the only dog in Mrs. Smith’s class — is excited about the field trip to the Museum of Natural History. Though his classmates are [...]
Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey by Gary Golio; illus. by Rudy Gutierrez Intermediate, Middle School Clarion 48 pp. 10/12 978-0-547-23994-1 $17.99 There have been other picture books about gifted jazz musician and composer John Coltrane that have focused on his music or his childhood, but this one dares to take on the complexity of [...]
Pinned by Sharon G. Flake Middle School, High School Scholastic 231 pp. 10/12 978-0-545-05718-9 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-0-545-46984-5 $17.99 Ninth-grader Autumn is great at some things — wrestling, for one; cooking, for another. Reading is not one of her skills, due in part to multiple moves during her early childhood and parents who also don’t [...]
The McElderry Book of Mother Goose: Revered and Rare Rhymes compiled by Petra Mathers; illus. by the compiler Primary, Intermediate McElderry 96 pp. 8/12 978-0-689-85605-1 $21.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4424-5314-2 $12.99 Not since Leonard Marcus’s Mother Goose’s Little Misfortunes (rev. 11/90) has there been such a delightfully idiosyncratic selection. Drawn mostly from the canonical Opies (see [...]
Nighttime Ninja by Barbara DaCosta; illus. by Ed Young Preschool Little, Brown 32 pp. 9/12 978-0-316-20384-5 $16.99 Silently, in the dark of night, a ninja creeps through a house. While the family sleeps, he stealthily embarks on his mission. “Hand over hand, the ninja climbed and clambered. Step by step, he balanced and leapt.” It’s [...]
Dodger by Terry Pratchett Middle School Harper/HarperCollins 360 pp. 10/12 978-0-06-200949-4 $17.99 Library ed. 978-0-06-200950-0 $18.89 e-book ed. 978-0-06-219015-4 $9.99 Who would have the skill, the sensibility, and the sass to put Charles Dickens into a novel and then proceed to write that novel in full-octane Dickensian style? Terry Pratchett, of course. Like his namesake [...]
Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by Robert Byrd; illus. by the author Intermediate Dial 40 pp. 9/12 978-0-8037-3749-5 $17.99 With a jacket showing Benjamin Franklin as a cross between a mad scientist and a superhero standing amid wild lightning bolts and surrounded by all manner of electrical devices, this book [...]
Trick or Treat by Leo Landry; illus. by the author Preschool, Primary Houghton 32 pp. 8/12 978-0-547-24969-8 $12.99 Landry’s cheery watercolor and pencil illustrations and calm palette signal that this Halloween story is more treat than trick; together, the straightforward text and simple compositions build suspense and inject humor [...]
Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole; illus. by the author Primary Scholastic 40 pp. 11/12 978-0-545-39997-5 $16.99 This wordless picture book opens with a calm scene: a quilt hangs over a rural split-rail fence. A young girl enters the scene on the next double-page spread, leading a cow and watching a [...]
What Came from the Stars by Gary D. Schmidt Middle School Clarion 293 pp. 9/12 978-0-547-61213-3 $16.99 g Schmidt brings high heroic fantasy and contemporary realism together in this novel of a bereaved family. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, Tommy grieves for his mother, who died eight [...]
