Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin/Robert Byrd/

A picture-book biography of a fascinating Founding Father.  A true Renaissance man, Benjamin Franklin was the first American celebrity. In pictures and text, master artist Robert Byrd documents Franklin's numerous and diverse accomplishments, from framing the Constitution to creating bifocals.   Listed as an ALA Notable Children's Book for 2013.

Twelve Kinds of Ice/Ellen Bryan Obed/64 pages

Twelve Kinds of Ice was a quick, short read, but with beautiful writing.  Until now, I thought that ice was just ice.  I have a new appreciation now of the different types of ice that Ellen Obed grew up with in Maine.  Starting with the first ice, which is a thin layer that forms in the water bucket and ending with the perfect ice skating ice, Obed defines many types of ice that make up the winter months in her neighborhood.  With each arrival of new ice, the children of the area eagerly anticipate the next with text explaining, it's not just ice, it's a new adventure with each layer.  Each description was so lyrical, it made me want to visit Maine in the winter, just so I can experience all twelve kinds of ice.

Three Times Lucky/Sheila Turnage/312 pages

Rising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, NC, where everyone's business is fair game and no secret is sacred. She washed ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she's been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to find her "upstream mother," she's found a home with the Colonel--a café owner with a forgotten past of his own--and Miss Lana, the fabulous café hostess. She will protect those she loves with every bit of her strong will and tough attitude. So when a lawman comes to town asking about a murder, Mo and her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, set out to uncover the truth in hopes of saving the only family Mo has ever known.

Three Times Lucky was a great quick read.  It was named one of the Newbery Honor books for 2013 and was a contestant in the 2013 SLJ Battle of the Books.

The Mighty Mars Rover: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity/Elizabeth Rusch/75 pages

On June 10, 2003, a little rover named Spirit blasted off on a rocket headed for Mars. On July 7, 2003, a twin rover named Opportunity soared through the solar system with the same mission: to find out if Mars ever had water that could have supported life.A thrilling addition to the acclaimed Scientists in the Field series, The Mighty Mars Rovers tells the greatest space robot adventure of all time through the eyes—and heart—of Steven Squyres, professor of astronomy at Cornell University and lead scientist on the mission.

The Mighty Mars Rover: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity was listed in ALA Notable Books for Children in 2012 and was named one of the Top Ten Science and Health Books for Youth 2012 (Booklist)

Other Half of My Heart / Sundee T. Frazier 296 p.

Bahni Turpin performs this audiobook superbly. What fun to listen to all the characters.
Minny and Keira King are biracial twins. Minny resembles her father--white; while Keira her African American mother. Grandmother Johnson enters them into the Miss Black Pearl Preteen of America. Grandmother is a serious-minded former teacher who dictates how they are to look and to perform. There Minny learns how life treats Keira back their hometown in the Pacific Northwest. Sundee Frazier demonstrates that tension and unfairness still exist between the races. The scene with the dog and its spit will make you LOL. And the trick they play on Grandmother Johnson backfires.

2012 Notable Children's Recordings

Thunder over Kandahar / Sharon E. McKay 260 p.

Fourteen-year old Yasmine only knows Britain when she and her Western educated academic Afghan parents return to Afghanistan. Rather naively they ignore their country's customs. After Yasmine's mother is brutally attacked for travelling out-of-doors without a male family member, they flee to their grandfather's country home. There Tamanna and Yasmine become best friends "sisters of the heart". Thrilled they attend a near by school for boys and girls. The Taliban burn down the school and threaten the teacher and students with death. The village believes this Western educated family to be spies. With Tamanna facing an arranged marriage to an older man and Yasmine and family targets of the Taliban, the girls must flee unaccompanied. They face land minds, suicide bombers, Taliban bands.
This emphasizes how hard life is in Afghanistan, especial for women.

2012 Notable Children's Recordings

Unforgotten Coat / Frank Cottrell Boyce 42 p.

Sarah Coomes narrates with story of two boys, immigrants from Mongolia. Julie becomes their "good guide" through the soccer, British slang, school dress-down days. The brothers are fleeing a demon who makes you vanish. They takes different ways home every night. They have piqued her interest in Mongolia, so she studies up. Though Julie tries to learn where they live, she fails until her mother helps when Julie needs to return a coat. A very telling happening occurs when Julie cannot get anyone to answer the door. Finally after pounding and pounding, a brother appears to take the coat. Julie sees fear in everyone's face. Poignantly, one brother calls to say goodbye when the authorites find them and send them back to Mongolia.

Young Fredle / Cynthia Voigt 224 p.

What a fun listen. Wendy Carter is delightful as narrator. With Sadie the dog, you could just see just how energetic and excited Sadie is. Young Fredle, a house mouse, has spent his entire life in the cosy nest in the house. There are kitchen mice, basement mice, field mice, each with their own separate foraging areas and cultures. Fredle knows about mouse traps and Patches the cat. When he finds himself outside he's in a new world. He copes as he finds new food sources. He learns about the out-of-doors. Imagine never seeing flowers, the moon, and colors. And those wet missiles falling from the sky...what are those. He makes friends with a field mouse and with Sadie. Being trucked back to a racoon den in an ice cream carton almost cost him his life. He learns all kinds of things like ramps are good to eat. Even with all this, he wants to go home. There he questions the rules and the loss of freedom.

2012 Notable Children's Recordings

How they Croaked / Georgia Bragg 184 p.

Georgia Bragg tells the "awful ends of the awfully famous" with panache and humor. In chronological order, the deaths of 17 world figures including King Tut, Christopher Columbus, Henry VIII, Mozart, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein are described. King Tut’s illustrated how the Egyptians prepared mummies. A short biography tells of the importance of the person. Then comes the gore, rooted in medicine and science, about how each died. Medical practices were rather horrific. Some may find this disturbing. Kevin O’Malley’s cartoon illustrations complement Bragg’s approach to the subject.

2012 Notable Children's Books

Tall Story / Candy Gourlay 298 p.

Andi's 16 year old half brother is finally getting to join his family in England. His aunt and uncle, in the Philippines, kept a big secret...Bernardo is an eight-foot giant. Bernardo is delighted to join his family in England yet feels a loyalty to his village where he is viewed as the new Bernardo Carpio--protector from earthquakes. Told in alternating chapters, Andi dreams of being the point guard on her school's basketball team. Bernardo experiences great pain, seizures, and guilt when a earthquake destroys his village.

2012 Notable Children's Books

Monster Calls / Patrick Ness 205 p.

Patrick Ness writes this tale about a young boy and a monster from the final story of idea Siobhan Dowd. A monster takes the form of a giant yew tree and comes walking at 12:07 a.m. to tell three ambiguous tales to Connor and gives the command that Connor is tell the fourth tale and that is one that that “will tell me your truth”. Thirteen Connor’s beloved mom is running out of treatment options for her breast cancer. Connor is being bullied at school. He has alienated his friend. His father lives in the U.S. with a new wife and baby. What he most dearly wants is his mother to survive. Ness captures Connor’s emotional rollercoaster ride as he learns to accept his mother’s death. A memorable story.

2012 Notable Children's Books

Flyaway / Lucy Christopher 328 p.

Thirteen year old Isla and her father have a deep bond with wild swans that migrate from Iceland each year. On the trip to see them returning, her father collapses with a heart attack. Isla is plunged into dealing with her father's health crisis, his estranged crusty grandfather, and social isolation when her best friend moves away. At the hospital she finds solace in a friendship with an optimistic leukemia victim of her own age. Helping her develop swan wings for a school art project so engages her grandfather that she sees an entirely different side of him. She vows to help her father, Harry, and a lone swan. Christopher wonderfully weaves this story about nature, coming of age, family in crisis, and friendship.

2012 Notable Children's Books

Cloudy with a Chance of Boys / Megan McDonald 260 p.

Stevie Reel is a novice when it comes to boys. Then comes the new boy in her earth science class who calls her at home! They end up partners in a science project. Older sister Alex is not much help. She's busy trying to get her first kiss from fellow thespian Scott Towel. Youngest sister is just not into boys she'd rather kiss her frog. McDonald expertly interweaves Shakespeare into the story and Jenna Lamia delivers wonderful lines.
Humorous chick lit-like, character-driven story for pre-teens.


2012 Notable Children's Recordings

Lost & Found / Shaun Tan 128 p.

Lost & Found is three independent short stories. The Red Tree shows a young girl going through a depressing day -- her feelings move from solitary individual to despair and depression to a bright spot. Watch for the red leaf on every illustration. The Lost Thing explores finding a comfortable home for a most usual friend. The Rabbits retells the story of a colonizing species that overwhelms the indigenous gentle population.


The storylines are serious and thought-provoking complimented by vivid, mesmerizing, and attention-grabbing illustrations. A work to return to capture more meaning.

Tan adapted The Lost Thing into an Oscar-winning animated short



2012 Notable Children's Books

Ghetto Cowboy / Greg Neri 218 p.

Suddenly, Coltrane finds himself dumped in a rough neighborhood in north Philadelphia. At her wits end, his mother has turned him over to his father, a man he has never met, when he ditches school for an entire month. This Detroit pre-teen is surprised to see a horse. Harp, his father, sets him to work in the stable-- a job Cole vows to do until he can get back to his mother. His father runs this stable full of retired racehorses which acts as a safe haven for the neighborhood kids. Everyone who works gets to ride a horse. Cole sees his father in a new light as he struggles to keep the stable open.

Based on a true story of inner-city horsemen in north Philadelphia.

2012 Notable Children's Recordings

Okay for Now / Gary Schmidt 360 p.

Doug Swieteck moves to "The Dump" in Marysville, New York where his father has found employment. He is saved by weekly visits to the public library where the librarian is teaching him to draw using the Audubon’s Birds of America as models. Doug keeps many secrets as he lives down the thug reputation of his middle brother. His father’s abuse is so realistic that you feel for Doug and his family. Doug uses what he learns from the bird prints as he moves from edgy to more open to life in Marysville. Schmidt amazingly integrates baseball, gym teachers, principals, theatrical escapades, and timely preoccupations like the Moon landing and the Vietnam War. This realistic story will resonate with you. And you will want to cry at times.

Return of Doug Swieteck who first appeared in Gary D. Schmidt's Newbery Honor book: The Wednesday Wars.

2012 Notable Children's Recordings

Operation Yes / Sara Holmes 234 p.

First year teacher, Miss Loupe, begins the new school year by taping off an space for improvisational acting exercises for her sixth-grade students at an Air Force base school. Bo Whaley, and his newly arrived cousin Gari end up in Miss Loupe’s class. The class reluctantly tries improv. Miss Loupe wins over the class so well that by the time she experiences a personal tragedy they work together to raise money utilizing their newly developed improv skills. Operation Yes draws national attention to the wounded soldiers from Iran and Afghanistan.


2012 Notable Children's Books

Hidden / Helen Frost 147 p.

Fourteen year-old Wren and Darra recognize each other when they meet face-to-face for the first time at summer camp. First Wren tells of their shared experience of her kidnapping from six years ago. For Wren, the hours drag on as she searches for a way out of Darra’s father’s garage. Darra is the only one who guesses that Wren is hidden in the garage. She leaves food and water. Each was profoundly influenced by the Wren’s kidnapping. Darra’s abusive father ends up in prison. At camp, they ignore each other until their Lifesaving exercise has them in an intense underwater encounter. Helen Frost makes use of poetic forms to tell each girl’s story. Wren’s is through free-verse with Darra’s a new form invented for this book. To get more of Darra’s story, read the last word of each of the long sentences.


2012 Notable Children's Books

Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem / Rosalyn Schanzer 144 p.

Tells the story of the victims, the accused witches, the politicians, the judges, and officials of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Two children have fits, mutter strange gibberish and experience frightful contortions of their backs, necks, and arms. The fits do not respond to anything so locals begin to be accused of being witches. When the accused insist they are innocent, they are put in jail. Families would provide food and other necessities. Some accused asked to be sold as indentured servants in order to pay their bill. The number of accused grew and grew. One minister was brought a great distance to be tried and hung. Ultimately, many were convicted and hung. The rest of the accused were left in poverty. Schanzer enhances the story with actual courtroom testimony. She also describes several possible theories of causes. “What Happened Next” concludes the story of the primary players.

2012 Notable Children's Books

Moon over Manifest / Clare Vanderpool 351 p.

Abilene Tucker arrives at Manifest, Kansas for the summer of 1936.  Her father has put her on the train, sending her to an old friend, Pastor Shady Howard, while he works a railroad job.   She wants to learn more about her father.  She discovers a cigar box filled with old letters and mementos from 1918. She and her new friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, read about a spy known as The Rattler.  This sparks their spy investigation.  Vanderpool artfully interweaves stories about 1936 and 1918.   Miss Sadie, a "diviner" slowly leads her through the story of Ned and Jinx.  Wonderfully enriched with historically details about World War I, the 1918 flu epidemic, and life in Manifest.

2012 Notable Children's Books