Fresh Picks! November

Can you believe it’s already November?! Here are some new books to cozy up with as the weather gets colder:

Tiny Creatures: The World of Microbes. By Nicola Davies. Illustrated by Emily Sutton. Candlewick Press, 2014.

Image from Amazon

Image from The New York Times

  

Did you know that there are creatures so tiny that millions of them can fit on an ant’s antenna? Using facts such as these to introduce the topic, Davies creatively makes the concept of microbes easily understandable. Tiny Creatures is a simple, concise, and beautifully illustrated look into a microscopic world all around us. With easy-to-relate-to analogies, comparisons, and retro-ish illustrations, Tiny Creatures is a fun, and informative book for learning about our world’s hardest workers. 

Once Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for All the Letters. By Oliver Jeffers. Philomel Books, 2014.

Much more than your average alphabet book! From an Astronaut who’s afraid of heights, a hole that goes on Forever, to an Owl that rides onward on the back of an octopus, Jeffers' humorous and delightful mini-narratives make for a fun, surprising and exciting alphabet experience. 

Quest. By Aaron Becker. Candlewick Press, 2014.

The journey continues! An imaginative, and adventure-packed sequel to the Caldecott Honor book, Journey. This wordless picture book takes readers into a fast-paced, thrilling fantasyland. “Becker creates a visual narrative that is clear enough for children to decipher but complex enough to reward multiple readings.” –School Library Journal  

Sisters. By Raina Telgemeier. Scholastic, 2014.

A companion to Telgemeier’s #1 New York Times bestselling, and award-winning graphic novel, Smile. Telgemeier once again creates a relatable, and funny story for young adults. As Raina heads out for a family road trip from California to Colorado, she experiences an eventful trip with her mother, sister, and younger brother. A great story about families, but especially sisters.

Spirit’s Key. By Edith Cohen. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2014.

 After Spirit's dog, Sky, mysteriously dies, a strange sickness spreads throughout her town killing its people and dogs. Everyone on the island blames the wild dogs, thought to possess dangerous spirits. Everyone except Spirit. A race against time, Spirit must solve the mystery to save the island before it's too late. With themes of belonging, doing what is right, and overcoming loss, Cohn's debut novel is like no other.

Fresh Picks! August

Welcome to the first post in a new monthly series, "Fresh Picks", where we will post about our favorite new books that we have added to the juvenile and young adult collections here at the library. Today we are highlighting some favorite juvenile fiction for a variety of ages that just hit our shelves this month!


Emily's Blue Period by Cathleen Daly Illustrations by Lisa Brown. Roaring Brook Press, 2014.

 Image from http://www.americanchickens.com/emilys-blue-period/.

This longer picture book is a lovely story depicting how young Emily learns to deal with her parent's divorce through art. She channels Picasso upon learning about his work in school, and hence embarks upon her own "blue period", the only color sufficient to depict her sadness over their split. The cathartic quality of creating art is celebrated in this book and makes for a wonderful discussion of divorce with young readers. I enjoyed this book not only because it shows how an artist affected one girl's life positively, but it also shows relateable and realistic situations, such as how helping her father pick out furniture for his new apartment becomes frustrating and emotional. 

Image from http://www.amazon.com.

Mister Bud Wears the Cone by Carter Goodrich. Simon & Schuster, 2014. 

This hilarious picture book will entertain dog-lovers of all ages. If you have ever had a pet dog that had to wear a cone around it's head, you will laugh at this funny and often pathetic tale of Mister Bud's plight. Goodrich's story is pure fun and is perfect for a read-aloud thanks to the childlike musings of Mister Bud's furry companion, Zorro. 







My New Friend Is So Fun! by Mo Willems. Hyperion, 2014. 

Image from http://www.pigeonpresents.com/book-info.aspx?bid=82.

Willems is one of my favorite author/illustrators and basically anything he does is amazing. His new addition to the Elephant and Piggie series is no exception. Elephant and Piggie are the best of friends, just as Snake and Brian the Bat are best friends. But Brian and Piggie are spending time together now and Elephant and Snake are worried their BFFs are going to have too much fun together and ditch them! This book has Willems' signature humor while accurately capturing the panic one may experience when your best friend starts making new friends. A sweet ending will make readers smile.  



Twelve Minutes to Midnight by Christopher Edge. Albert Whitman & Co., 2012.

 Readers who aren't afraid of creepy stories: this book is for you! Set at the end of 

Image from http://fallenstarstories.blogspot.com/2012/03/twelve-minutes-to-midnight-by.html

 the 1800's, young Penelope is an orphan and has taken over the family's bestselling magazine, Penny Dreadful. Penelope's shocking stories are so thrilling and wildly popular, she hires an actor to masquerade as 'Montgomery Flinch', her pen name, to keep her identity a secret to the public. When patients at a local mental institution begin acting strangely every evening, at - you guessed it!- twelve minutes to midnight, the bewildered staff turns to the clueless Montgomery for help. Only Penelope can solve this case that could be right out of the pages of the Penny Dreadful, causing her to lurk in the shadows and risk her own safety. The twists and turns in this book will have you on the edge of your seat until the case is closed!

Fortunately, the Milk

 Can a container of milk save the entire universe? Sounds unlikely, but you never know what is possible when the wonderful Neil Gaiman is in control. If you read his newest children's novel, Fortunately, the Milk, you may be surprised to discover the sort of heroic feats one can accomplish with a container of milk.

The whimsical story begins with a fairly typical uninspiring conundrum, there is no milk for the children to eat their breakfast cereal or for Dad to have with his tea. Mom is out of town for the week on a work trip leaving Dad in charge of the house and family and he has forgotten to pick up more milk. Dad leaves his two children staring at their bowls of dry cereal to quickly pick up some milk. Time goes by, "ages" according to the children, until Dad finally returns home with the milk in hand. The children ask what took him so long, curious whether he was held up chatting with a friend at the market. Indeed, he said hello to a friend, but that was not what held him up. He was held up due to his run-in with various crazed snot aliens obsessed with redecorating the Earth. To escape, he had to use the emergency exit through the space-time continuum door, which only led to more dangerous encounters. Reader, are you enticed yet?!

Upon entering the emergency exit, he is dropped into the ocean only to be scooped up by the Queen of Pirates and her crew. He is saved by a genius stegosaurus in a hot air balloon time machine, or a "Floaty-Ball-Person-Carrier" as Professor Steg calls it. Dad travels through space and time with the amazing dinosaur, clutching his container of milk the entire time. The two of them meet many other raucous, unfriendly characters along the way and eventually must face off with the disgustingly drippy aliens once again. Aliens who are bent on replacing the Earth's trees with plastic pink flamingos I must add.  

The story is a great, short read filled to the brim with hilarious scenes and unlikely creatures (ahem, enter dinosaur police force). I laughed and giggled out loud at many passages and the book is filled with Gaiman's signature humor. The illustrations by Young are equally impressive and lend a further lightheartedness to this slightly absurd story. This is a good middle grade pick for readers who may not be drawn to Gaiman's other wonderful, but significantly darker, tales. Fortunately, the Milk would be a splendid reading option for adventure, fantasy and science fiction fans alike. What better way to spend a rainy October afternoon then traveling through time with a genius stegosaurus in a hot air balloon?


Gaiman, Neil. Fortunately, the Milk. Illustrated by Skottie Young. 114 p. Harper. 2013.