Here are some books to let your little ones know that you love them.
“Happy Valentine’s Day Mouse” by Laura Numeroff
Mouse from Numeroff’s classic “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” is making Valentine’s cards for all of his friends! In board book format, each page is dedicated to why Mouse loves each of his friends.
“Llama Llama I Love You” by Anna Dewdney
‘Llama Llama valentines. Cupids, lace, and heart designs. Make a card for every friend. Some to give…and some to send.’ Perfect for your budding reader to follow along with the fun rhyme!
“Pete the Cat: Valentine’s Day is Cool” by Kimberly James Dean
Pete the Cat doesn’t think Valentine’s Day is very cool until he starts making cards for everyone he knows—then he starts to have fun! Your valentines don’t have to be Martha Stewart worthy for your friends to like them. What’s even better is that this book has Valentine’s Day cards included for your child to give to his or her friends.
“Hug Machine” by Scott Campbell
A little boy who calls himself “the Hug Machine” hugs everyone and everything: bears, turtles, trees, family and friends. To the porcupine who asks, “What about me? I am so spiky. No one ever hugs me.” Our hugging hero says, “They are missing out!” Even the prickliest of friends will be warmed by a hug (and this book) this Valentine’s Day.
The Very Fairy Princess Follows Her Heart by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton
Geraldine’s favorite day is Valentine’s Day because she can use “TONS of glitter, sequins, and feathers” to make valentines for her friends. When she takes her daddy’s work folder to school instead of her folder filled with the valentines she worked so hard to create, her day is sure to be ruined! But very fairy princesses always know what to do in a sticky situation, and she improvises. Julie Andrews’s writing and storytelling is practically perfect in every way.
This February, the American Library Association (ALA) announced the top books, video and audio books for children and young adults – including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery and Printz awards – at its Midwinter Meeting in Chicago. These 2015 awards are chosen from books that were published in 2014.
Some of these were our OZ First Editions Club picks in 2014, which mean that we have signed copies! Get them while they last.
Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children:
The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, illustrated by Dan Santat, is the 2015 Caldecott Medal winner. The book was written by Dan Santat and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Beekle lives in a world of “imaginary friends” waiting to be chosen by their human counterpart. When nobody chooses Beekle, he sets off on an adventure to the real world, which is a scary place where nobody seems to notice him. Finally, a little girl does notice him, and they become best friends. Illustrated in bright colors when Beekle is happy, and darker colors when he is feeling sad or afraid, Santat’s illustrations really convey a child’s worries of finding a new friend, and the happiness that follows when you know they are the one. In the end, Beekle really isn’t imaginary, but unimaginary, just like any other child looking for friendship.
“Her face was friendly and familiar, and there was something about her that felt just right.”
Sam & Dave Dig a Hole, illustrated by Jon Klassen, written by Mac Barnett and published by Candlewick Press, is a 2015 Caldecott Honor Book.
If you have been following Lemuria and OZ, you know that we are over-the-moon about this book. A November 2014 OZ F.E.C. book, Sam & Dave are brothers who start digging a hole in their backyard looking for treasure. Armed with shovels and animal crackers and chocolate milk in their pockets, they dig and dig…and dig some more, but never seem to find the treasure, but they DO find adventure in their own backyard. Where do they end up at the bottom of the hole? That’s for you to find out.
John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature: The Crossover, written by Kwame Alexander, is the 2015 Newbery Medal winner. The book is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Basketball and poetry aren’t two things you normally put together, but this middle grade novel in verse does just that. It is comparable to Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog meets Christopher Curtis’ The Watsons Go to Birmingham meets Walter Dean Myers’ Slam. Twelve-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health. Kwame Alexander was also awarded a Coretta Scott King Honor for “The Crossover.”
Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults:
Brown Girl Dreaming, written by Jacqueline Woodson, is the King Author Book winner. The book is published by Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.
This book was an OZ First Editions Club Pick for December 2014. It is also National Book Award Winner for Young Adults as well as a Newbery Honor Winner. (Have I convinced you to join the club yet?)
What a beautiful book! It is also autobiographical, as Woodson writes about her experience growing up in the South in the 1960s. What started out as an explanation of why she became a writer, she realized that she couldn’t separate that from her own experiences with her family as a child. This book is wonderful advocate for loving books, reading, and writing. Signed first editions available here.
Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:
I’ll Give You the Sun, written by Jandy Nelson, is the 2015 Printz Award winner. The book is published by Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, a Penguin Random House Company.
Just look at that cover. If that doesn’t convince you to pick it up, then perhaps this blurb will: the author of the highly acclaimed The Sky Is Everywhere presents a story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal told from different points in time, and in separate voices, by artists Jude and her twin brother Noah.
There are so many other wonderful books that won awards, so if you’d like to see the complete list, click this link.
As February rolls around, I never remember what happens if the groundhog sees its shadow. Will spring be early or late? Reading “Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox” reminded me that if the groundhog sees his shadow, he returns underground for six more weeks of winter. Here are two books about groundhogs and other creatures that are excited for the arrival of spring.
“Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox” by Susan Blackaby, illustrated by Carmen Segovia
“On the second day of February, a groundhog named Brownie woke up.” So begins the tail of Brownie, a little groundhog who wears a red scarf. When Brownie goes outside, she sees her shadow: “I was afraid of that,” said Brownie. “Shadows mean more winter, and more winter means waiting. Wait, wait, wait.” Brownie stomped her foot. “Phooey!” A prolonged winter is the least of Brownie’s worries, as a fox waits patiently for his next meal — groundhog. He pounces, knocking Brownie into the snow. “Hold still,” he said. “I’m trying to eat you for breakfast.” However, Brownie has a few tricks up her sleeve: “Don’t be silly,” said Brownie, wiggling free. “You’re too late for breakfast.” February Fox really wants to eat Brownie, but she is smarter and cleverer than he is, giving him different tasks to find evidence that spring is around the corner. In the end, all it takes is sharing some cinnamon toast and hot cocoa for the pair to become friends—the fox’s breakfast of groundhog all forgotten.
Like this book? You’ll also enjoy “Brownie Groundhog and the Wintry Surprise.”
“Finding Spring” by Carin Berger
Maurice is a little bear who is so excited for spring to arrive, that he skips out on the entire hibernation process. “I wish it was spring right now,” Maurice told Mama. “Waiting is hard,” she said. “Right now it is time to sleep.” Once Mama falls asleep, Maurice declares, “I will go find spring!” and wanders through the woods, running into squirrels, rabbits, and robins who are all preparing for winter. Maurice finds spring, or so he thinks. By the time he returns to his cave, spring (a snowball) has melted. Carin Berger’s illustrations reveal the magic of the seasons, and young readers will delight in following Maurice’s adventures, eventually finding true spring at the end of the book.
On Christmas Eve, 1956, a little bear sat alone on a shelf in the London department store, Selfridges, one of the dregs of the Christmas toys. Thankfully for him (and us, now in 2015), a BBC cameraman named Michael Bond was doing some last-minute Christmas shopping. He took pity on the bear and gave it to his wife as a gift.
Bond named the little bear Paddington after Paddington Station, and as he says, “I wrote some stories about the bear, more for fun that with the idea of having them published. After 10 days, I found that I had a book on my hands.”
On Oct. 13, 1958, William Collins & Sons (now HarperCollins) published “A Bear Called Paddington,” illustrated by Peggy Fortnum. And by 1965, the Paddington book business was booming, and Bond quit his job at BBC to write.
If you have not been hit with the Paddington craze, now is the time. The new movie was delightful — Nicole Kidman as the sinister taxidermist is just scary enough for kids, and Hugh Bonneville of “Downton Abbey” makes a laugh-out-loud funny Mr. Brown. In the recesses of your memory, you might remember the bright red hat and the blue duffel coat.
Here’s the gist of the story for those of you who have a faint recollection of a bear in a red hat and blue duffel coat who likes orange marmalade. Paddington has impeccable manners and hails from “Darkest Peru,” actually having been modeled after the endangered Andean spectacled bear.
Paddington’s Aunt Lucy sends him to London with a tag around his neck that says “Please look after this bear. Thank you.” The Browns find Paddington underneath the lost-and-found sign in Paddington Station and take him home to 32 Windsor Gardens (an address which does not actually exist, but is an amalgamation of two addresses Bond was familiar with).
Along with the two Brown children, Jonathan and Judy, and the tough housekeeper, Mrs. Bird, Paddington fits right in despite flooding the bathroom and an insatiable appetite for orange marmalade sandwiches.
Now illustrated by R.W. Alley, you and your child can read about Paddington in one of the many stories about him, such as the recently released “Love from Paddington,” or “Paddington Bear in the Garden,” “More About Paddington” (out Feb. 24), and “Paddington at the Beach.”
Last week we announced the Long Lists for Fiction and Non-Fiction. Today we’re happy to share with you our picks for the best picture books and young literature (middle grade and young adult) from 2014.
Picture Books:
11 books were submitted for contention in the Picture Books category.
