Recommended Children's Books

In this regular feature in Reading Today, David Richardson recommends the following children’s books:

• Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills (Schwartz and Wade, 2012), all ages – Rocket collects lots of words but doesn’t know what to do with them until his teacher (a little yellow bird) helps him get started with a story.

• Curious Critters by David FitzSimmons (Wild Iris, 2011), ages 8 and up – This book is packed with information and pictures of all types of animals, and there’s a website with references to state standards. 

• In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz (Dutton, 2012), ages 10 and up – This book weaves various fairy tales into a complex, gruesome, and funny story.

• Little Nelly’s Big Book by Pippa Goodhart, illustrated by Andy Rowland (Bloomsbury, 2012), ages 2 and up – Little Nelly is an elephant who interprets a book’s description of mice to mean she’s a mouse, and she tries to live with a mouse family. 

• Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Extra Credit by Tommy Greenwald (Roaring Brook, 2012), ages 8 and up – Charlie Joe needs extra credit to avoid going to academic summer camp and cooks up a scheme to meet his goal.

• Silent Star: The Story of Deaf Major Leaguer William Hoy by Bill Wise, illustrated by Adam Gustavson (Lee and Low, 2012), ages 8 and up – A picture book about a deaf-mute baseball player in the late 1800s and early 1900s. 

Richardson also recommends these books for older readers: Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin (Tanglewood, 2012), Shadows by Ilsa Bick (Egmont, 2012), No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz (Dial, 2012), and The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore (HarperCollins, 2012). 

“Children’s Literature: What Choice Do I Have?” by David Richardson in Reading Today, April/May 2013 (Vol. 30, #5, p. 39-40), www.reading.org/readingtoday

From the Marshall Memo #486