Diane Stanley, , illus. by G. Brian Karas. . Picture Puffin, $6.99 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-698-11962-8
In what PW
called "an equally charming sequel," an unmarried sheriff labors to be a good parent to little Sweetness and her seven fellow orphan "siblings" whom he adopted in Saving Sweetness. Here, the orphan octet urges him to find a mate. Ages 5-up. (Oct.)
According to the flap copy, Karas's (Home on the Bayou: A Cowboy's Story) own elementary-school experience with a difficult art project inspired this Continue reading »
THROW YOUR TOOTH ON THE ROOF: Tooth Traditions from Around the World
Selby B. Beeler
Children from countries on each continent explain what they do when they lose a tooth, including throwing their teeth on the roof. PW
called this volume Continue reading »
PW
called this tale of a girl named Sweetness, who runs away from her orphanage and finds Western-style adventure, "sweet and worth saving." Ages 4-8. Continue reading »
A clever cross between a greeting card and a novelty book, this card-stock paperback extends a heartfelt wintertime invitation to readers to snuggle and giggle together. The repeated refrain is Continue reading »
This onomatopoeic romp opens calmly, with a hopeful gardener planting a vegetable patch behind his brownstone house. Bright green leaves sprout from the rich soil. " 'Yum! Yum! Continue reading »
"I am the Atlantic Ocean," announces the watery narrator of this artistically intriguing but sometimes confusing book. The first-person narrative enumerates facts ("The sun/ so many Continue reading »
A girl exhibits healthy self-esteem in Appelt's (Bats Around the Clock) celebratory ode. "Nobody whistles the way I do/ Nobody chews the way I chew/ Continue reading »
An onomatopoeic text and multimedia artwork convey the exuberant experience of going through the car wash, from the "whish, whish" of the "foamy sea" as viewed through the Continue reading »
Readers need not be bilingual to enjoy this tale about the potty predicaments of traveling youngsters. While on a Sunday drive with her parents, the narrator—a girl in her white-dress Continue reading »
Mummies dance—and play croquet—in this cheeky countdown primer starring 10 well-bandaged ancestors from the pharaonic age. Although they start out in a dark tomb, "wrapped up in Continue reading »
Poor Hubert Clumpty is by turns annoyed, chagrined, infuriated and begrudgingly charmed by Barb'ra in this blithe celebration of the torments of young love, which originated as a recording by Continue reading »
One-sided sibling resentment, rather than mutual sibling rivalry, drives this prickly picture book by the late author Danziger. As the grumpy title implies, five-year-old Jonathon resents his Continue reading »
Insect buddies Ant and Honey Bee think they've come up with an ingenious joint costume for Cricket's dress-up party: a washer and dryer, complete with sound effects ("Blub! Blub!" Continue reading »
For Robert, the young hero of this expert and empathic comedy of manners,an invitation to a fancy family party has its pros and cons. Being allowed to stay up way past "pajama time," Continue reading »
In this endearing story from the team behind I Like Where I Am
, a boy named Tommy fails to show up at the barn one morning to deliver his daily dose of treats Continue reading »
Fleming and Karas bring back the three bunnies that made Mr. McGreely's life so difficult in Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!
This time it's winter, and Continue reading »
Issa's elegant haiku and Karas's poignant illustrations guide readers through the seasons, symbolized by the changing branches of a cherry blossom tree. The translations of 18 works from Continue reading »
At first glance, Big Bad Bunny seems like a creature that haunts the dreams of sleeping children: Fearlessly crossing “mucky swamps” and “rushing streams” (“Big Bad Continue reading »
You don’t have to be a genius to realize that babies are just lazy,” complains the peeved, thoroughly cosmopolitan young heroine at the start of Orlean’s first children’s Continue reading »
The creators of Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! celebrate storytelling with a sparkling specimen of that very thing. Too poor to buy a birthday gift for the princess, Jack decides to make her a cake. He Continue reading »
Switching on the Moon: A Very First Book of Bedtime Poems
Following up on Here's a Little Poem, Yolen and Peters's 60-poem anthology reveals the many faces of nighttime through the words of these collaborators as well as poets that include Tennyson, Plath, Continue reading »
Minters ""updates the classic with singular flair,"" said PW; Karas's ""collages, wild patterns and funky fashions mimic music videos and build up the snazzy urban setting."" Ages 4-up. Continue reading »
Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World
Selby Beeler
In Beeler's first book, children from familiar and remote countries on each continent explain what they do when they lose a tooth. The Tooth Fairy surfaces on several occasions; but for kids from a Continue reading »
In the amiable Saving Sweetness, Stanley and Karas introduced a clumsy and golden-hearted sheriff who adopts little Sweetness and her seven fellow orphans. In this equally charming sequel, the Continue reading »
Eating Well! When You Just Can't Eat the Way You Used to Cookbook
Jane Weston Wilson
This ""over 50 cookbook,'' a welcome creation, takes the dietary burdens that come with aging and neatly turns them to the reader's advantage. Looking on every problem as an opportunity, Wilson, a Continue reading »
Uncluttered, airy spreads and a relaxed rural setting contribute to the charm of this thoroughly cozy book. As a boy awakens to sunlight pouring through an unshaded window, an unseen narrator Continue reading »
Karas's strong signature style adds punch to Rattigan's ( Dumpling Soup ) sweet but befuddling tale. On his birthday Truman receives a mail-order ``ant farm'' from his Aunt Fran. But homonyms, for Continue reading »
""When the sky was young and the world just a dream, when the stars were still learning their names, a spider named Nobb came floating through the Air, at the end of a long, soft thread."" So begins Continue reading »
Karas (Home on the Bayou) foreshadows the imminent arrival of the wind in a ""tidy town"" right from the dedication page, where newspapers fly, heads are unhatted and a girl chases after her jump Continue reading »
The heroine of this fractured fairy tale lives in a high-rise apartment building, listens to a Walkman and is wooed by a guitar-toting prince. Karas's stylish artwork contributes a quirky twist to Continue reading »
Night after night, Bebe dreams that green trolls arrive in a flying saucer, climb in her window and try to devour her. At the dinner table, Bebe's brother, Walter, teases her about her fears (""I'm Continue reading »
Karas's (Home on the Bayou) animated illustrations save the day for Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Cash's first children's book, told in unaccomplished rhyming text. Penelope Jane is a tiny Continue reading »
The High-Rise Private Eyes #5: The Case of the Sleepy Sloth
Cynthia Rylant
Bunny Brown and Jack Jones help Ramon find his missing lawn chair in The Case of the Sleepy Sloth by Cynthia Rylant, illus. by G. Brian Karas, the fifth title in the High-Rise Private Eyes series. Continue reading »
Two new titles playfully present the ups and downs of classroom life through poems. Put Your Eyes Up Here and Other School Poems by Kalli Dakos, illus. by G. Brian Karas, finds narrator Penny Continue reading »
Pulver's In this ebullient tale, Pulver ( Mrs. Toggle's Zipper ) ebullient tale fetchingly portrays the love and genuine friendship between a daughter and a mother who aren't afraid to act silly Continue reading »
This ethereal bedtime book features a flock of children who float out of their bedroom windows and up into the night sky; a luscious, poetic text (``The day is a flower . . . there are petals of soft Continue reading »
Inventive use of type and collages made from ``odds 'n' ends'' vivifies debut author Frank's quirky fantasy romp. Alvy, the quiet boy who sits in the back of the classroom, has a knack for inventing Continue reading »
This ultracool version of the fairy tale, set in Manhattan, updates the classic with singular flair. Taking current family trends into account, debut picture-book author Minters casts no aspersions Continue reading »
This tale of a Western vacation-complete with horses, nights under the stars, and romance-may be a bit too lovey-dovey for young 'uns, but the art is A-OK. When Miss Pace, a teacher, heads west for Continue reading »
Colorful idiom characterizes this witty Western adventure, narrated by an amiable but bumbling sheriff. When ""the ittiest, bittiest orphan, little Sweetness"" runs away from the local orphanage and Continue reading »
The High-Rise Private Eyes #1: The Case of the Missing Monkey
Cynthia Rylant
Rylant (Missing May; the Henry and Mudge series) delivers two snappy stories full of humor, action and tenderness in the debut titles of this beginning-reader series. From a high-rise ""deep in the Continue reading »
In this emotionally authentic tale of an unhappy new kid in town, Karas (Young Zeus) pictures the boy?unnamed at first?punting a box off his front stoop, then grumpily taking his mother?s advice to Continue reading »
Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money
Emily Jenkins
Pauline and her little brother, John-John, are convinced that a stand selling ?Lemonade and limeade?and also lemon-limeade!? will go over big, even in the middle of a bitter winter. Mom and Dad think Continue reading »
Mr. Tiffin and his loquacious students take a field trip to an apple orchard in this companion to How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? (2007). Before Farmer Hills (who is, refreshingly, a woman) gives a Continue reading »
In toe-tapping, jazz-chant verse, author, bookseller, and PW blogger Bluemle (How Do You Wokka-Wokka?) writes about the way a sudden thunderstorm ?makes friends/ of strangers.? At the story?s start, Continue reading »
In this follow-up to Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! and Tippy-Tippy-Tippy, Hide!, Mr. McGreely has had it with his ?bunny problems,? so he packs up and heads to the beach. Naturally, the bunnies come along Continue reading »
Karas (On Earth) juxtaposes a steadily growing oak tree with the changing landscape around it in this engaging tale of transformation and constancy. It opens with a Native American boy Continue reading »
Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla
Katherine Applegate
In this poignant picture book, Applegate streamlines the story told in her Newbery-winning novel, The One and Only Ivan, about an African gorilla captured by poachers and caged in a Washington State Continue reading »
In a pensive story about how human perceptions of whales have evolved, modern-day scenes narrated by an African-American girl, whose family conducts whale-watching expeditions, appear alongside Continue reading »
Last seen in The Apple Orchard Riddle, Mr. Tiffin and his class are back to celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day, which includes the chance to recite their poetry in an assembly starring a poet named Continue reading »
Karas (A Poem in Your Pocket) hints at the structure of this picture book through its title: the first half follows the activity at three farms as vegetables are harvested, cheese is made, and Continue reading »
From collecting snow globes to inventing palindromes, unusual passions and interests abound among humans young and old. The hero of Kleber?s debut, a brown-skinned boy named Joey, is obsessed with Continue reading »
Sierra returns to the subject of Wild About Books and Born to Read with another exuberant celebration of reading, this time focusing on the joys of a good read-aloud session. As the Continue reading »
A Hat for Mrs. Goldman: A Story About Knitting and Love
Michelle Edwards
Sophia notices that Mrs. Goldman knits hats for everyone in the neighborhood and never thinks of herself. ?Where?s your hat?? Sophia asks when they?re out on an icy day walking Mrs. Goldman?s dog. ?I Continue reading »
Even children who live in dense urban environments can become small-scale farmers; all they need, Root (One North Star) explains, is ?soil and sunshine,/ some water, a seed.? A neglected Continue reading »
Stanley reveals yet another dimension of her talents in her second novel (after A Time Apart), here serving up a witty story that manages to be both light and Continue reading »
This debut in the Time Traveling Twins series finds the duo on the Oregon Trail in 1843. "Stanley serves up a lively blend of fact and fiction, shoehorning in information on everything from Continue reading »
PW
called this tale of a girl named Sweetness, who runs away from her orphanage and finds Western-style adventure, "sweet and worth saving." Ages 4-8. Continue reading »
"Appealing to the audience's intelligence and imagination, this book stimulates an interest in both its particular subject, Joan of Arc, and history in general," said Continue reading »
This miller's daughter can't imagine why anyone would want to marry the money-loving king, and proposes marriage to the short little man who has saved her life. In a starred review, Continue reading »
In a panoramic telling of Michelangelo's life story, the author "brings to bear an uncanny ability to clarify and compress dense and tricky historical matter, scrupulous attention to Continue reading »
In Stanley's (Rumplestiltskin's Daughter) witty re-creation of a familiar tale, she characterizes Goldilocks as a wide-eyed, golden-haired heroine who Continue reading »
Stanley (Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter
) once again cleverly contorts a familiar tale, here focusing not on Jack but on the giant from whom he purloins a Continue reading »
When the Time-Traveling Twins visit Grandma, her magic hat whisks them to Plymouth Plantation in the fall of 1621. As with the series' previous titles, the narrative moves the action forward Continue reading »
Stanley (A Time Apart
) refashions Cinderella into a tale of intrigue set during the Middle Ages. The story unfolds from multiple points of view but focuses on Continue reading »
Stanley (Saladin: Noble Prince of Islam
) here focuses on Greek mythology's Pygmalion, introducing for the sculptor a female best friend, Jane, with Continue reading »
Reassembling the cast of The Mysterious Matter of I.M. Fine
, Stanley delivers another humorous and thoroughly enjoyable mystery, this time set at a Continue reading »
Mozart: The Wonder Child: A Puppet Play in Three Acts
Diane Stanley
Inspired by the Salzberg Marionette Theatre, Stanley (Joan of Arc
) frames this engaging and well-paced biography of Mozart as a three-act puppet play. Continue reading »
Against a backdrop of war by terrorism, with suicide bombers successfully destroying refineries and wreaking havoc with the U.S. power grid, the Brightman family battles the forces of prejudice, Continue reading »
Stanley blazes a new path for herself in this effervescent revisionist fairy tale, and the results are as stunning as her best picture-book biographies (Leonardo da Vinci; Bard of Avon). Here she Continue reading »
""This peerless author/artist team makes the captivating... Cleopatra seem astoundingly real,"" said PW in a starred review. Ages 7-up. Continue reading »
""These seasoned raconteurs...neatly piece together the puzzle of Shakespeare's life,"" said PW in a starred review, praising the ""stunning, intricate"" paintings. Ages 6-up. Continue reading »
In the amiable Saving Sweetness, Stanley and Karas introduced a clumsy and golden-hearted sheriff who adopts little Sweetness and her seven fellow orphans. In this equally charming sequel, the Continue reading »
There is no one like Stanley (Leonardo da Vinci; Joan of Arc) for picture-book biography--she brings to the genre an uncanny ability to clarify and compress dense and tricky historical matter, Continue reading »
Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth I of England
Diane Stanley, Peter Vennema
Once again available from the husband-and-wife team behind Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare, here is another biography from the Elizabethan Age: Good Queen Bess: The Story of Continue reading »
Fifth-grader Franny sees a connection between a sudden fad and writer I.M. Fine's latest Chillers book. ""Superior entertainment, this work should engage both ambitious readers and diehard fans Continue reading »
An amazing accomplishment, Stanley's new book excels her admired Conversation Club, Birdsong Lullaby et al., in idea and execution. Dear friends Cleo and Lucy, country cats, grow apart when a Continue reading »
Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth I of England
Diane Stanley
The authors of Shaka, King of the Zulus vivify another colorful character as they recount the life and times of Elizabeth I, queen of England from 1558 until her death in 1603. They portray their Continue reading »
Mary Ann can't do anything wrongespecially after finding a good-luck pencil. She works all the math problems right and draws pictures that everyone admires. When her teacher assigns a homework Continue reading »
When shy Peter Fieldmouse is invited to join his new neighborhood's Conversation Club, he is frazzled by the incessant chatter and starts his own organization--a listening club. Ages 4-7. Continue reading »
Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great Expectations
Diane Stanley
As in their previous collaborations ( Good Queen Bess ; Bard of Avon ), Stanley and Vennema bring to life another vital historical figure in their newest, spirited volume. Stanley's typically Continue reading »
In this compact, informative biography, Stanley and Vennema return to the 16th-century England they portrayed so deftly in Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth of England . These seasoned Continue reading »
Stanley and Nolan lure readers with this playful puzzle. Rusty, an art student who comes to the city art museum to copy the works of Dutch masters, realizes that a kitchen maid in one painting and a Continue reading »
The dazzling Egyptian queen proves a fertile subject for Stanley and Vennema, who have produced notable biographies of Queen Elizabeth, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and others. Here they make Continue reading »
As the expression goes, ``Everything old is new again,'' and two publishers are taking that adage literally for a pair of May releases. In the case of James and the Rain, British artist Reg Continue reading »
Stanley bases this riveting tale on Daniel Hall's own account of the four-year journey that took him from his hometown of New Bedford, Mass., to the wilds of Siberia. In 1856, just days before his Continue reading »
Adding this Renaissance genius to the illustrious lineup of individuals whose lives she and Peter Vennema have chronicled, among them Cleopatra, Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare, Stanley Continue reading »
Figures from different paintings hanging in a museum fall in love; ""Stanley's supple storytelling admits a fresh, romantic grasp of the possibilities of art and imagination,"" said PW. Ages 5-8. Continue reading »
Stanley's retelling of this classic Italian folktale, which predates the Brothers Grimm version, comes to life with stylish paintings. Ages 4-8. Continue reading »
Stanley (Leonardo da Vinci) orchestrates the complexities of history into a gripping, unusually challenging story in this exemplary biography. As much a portrait of an age as of a person, her work Continue reading »
In her first novel, consummate picture-book biographer Stanley (Joan of Arc) proves she is virtually as adept at creating fictional characters as she is at chronicling the lives of real people. Her Continue reading »
Stanley (Peter the Great) launches a new historical picture book series about the Time Traveling Twins--red-haired brother and sister Lenny and Liz. Left with Grandma while their parents vacation in Continue reading »
Diane Stanley's Time-Traveling Twins head for a second adventure in Joining the Boston Tea Party, illus. by Holly Berry. The date is 1773, and Liz, Lenny and Grandma hear Sam Adams speak and join Continue reading »
Captain Whiz-Bang is not only the story of Annie's champion cat but also a wise and loving introduction to the inevitable changes that come with the passage of time. As ""winter turns to spring,'' we Continue reading »
Stanley displays her versatility and talent in yet another artful and meticulously executed book. The story of Omar, a poor Persian farmer, the book contains a series of full-page intricately Continue reading »
This blithesome tale of canine ingenuity offers midwinter warmth to those who begin thinking of island getaways even before the first snowflakes fall. While blizzard-like conditions prevail, scruffy Continue reading »
Moe the dog gave his friend Arlene a faux beach in Stanley and Primavera's infectiously upbeat Moe the Dog in Tropical Paradise; now it's Arlene's turn to surprise Moe. This time, the shaggy brown Continue reading »
Author and illustrator of numerous acclaimed picture-book biographies (Cleopatra; The Bard of Avon), Stanley turns her talents to preserving a more personal history, the experiences of a friend of Continue reading »
Colorful idiom characterizes this witty Western adventure, narrated by an amiable but bumbling sheriff. When ""the ittiest, bittiest orphan, little Sweetness"" runs away from the local orphanage and Continue reading »
Moe the mutt and his springer spaniel sidekick devise a cure for the midwinter blues. ""This happy-go-lucky narrative suggests that life can indeed be a beach,"" said PW's starred review. Ages 4-8. Continue reading »
""This riveting tale is based on a 15-year-old's own account of the four-year journey that took him from his home in Massachusetts to Siberia in 1856. The meticulous art steeped in period detail Continue reading »
A versatile and inventive raconteur, Stanley (Bella at Midnight) nimbly weaves intrigue and fantasy into this richly layered story set in medieval times. Sent to work as a scullery maid at the Continue reading »
On the day of Prince Alexos?s birth, the gods decree that he is destined for greatness, catalyzing a life of hardship as the prince attempts to fulfill this prophecy. An outsider among his peers, Continue reading »
Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science: The First Computer Programmer
Diane Stanley, Jessie Hartland
Stanley (Mozart: The Wonder Child) delivers a breezy but insightful overview of the curiosity and determination that drove Ada Lovelace (1815?1852) to pursue her intellectual passions, Continue reading »
Stanley (The Chosen Prince) deftly infuses magic and mystery into this uplifting story about friendship and second chances. After the death of fifth-grader Joplin Danforth?s estranged Continue reading »
When 12-year-old Max?s mother doesn?t come home to their New York City apartment, instead leaving a cryptic message about helping an old friend, Max?s family is thrown into disarray, suddenly missing Continue reading »
Lemonade in Winter is the latest picture book to feature artwork by G. Brian Karas, who over the course of his three-decade career has illustrated close to 100 books. Karas Continue reading »
A “The House That Jack Built” narrative structure gives a night of stargazing galactic dimensions in this expansive picture book. As the sun sets, a child cuddles on a blanket Continue reading »
Mushrooms provide an unconventional and earthy through line for this cozy bedtime book. Rhyming lines open with a simple introduction to different types of fungi (“This is a Continue reading »
Ogle pays clear-eyed tribute to his maternal abuela while covering heavy topics such as child abuse, financial precarity, and racism in this searing verse memoir, a standalone Continue reading »
Ireland (Dread Nation) delivers a knockout punch in this fantastical steampunk take on the Great Depression, in which the U.S. rebuilds after a magical blight throws the country Continue reading »