Book Buzz

chopsticks

by jessica anthony and rodrigo corral
$19.99
ages 16+

are you looking for something beautiful, intriguing, and a bit mysterious to while away the winter hours?  well, this is it.  a scrapbook record of a first romance between glory, a concert pianist, and frank, a boy from argentina, this 272-page novel is told through drawings, photographs, notes, letters, snippets of phone calls, and various other ephemera.  a feast for the eyes and the heart, this title is a treasure for your teenager – or even for yourself.

julianna

dumpling days

by grace lin
$15.99
ages 8+

we love all the grace lin books.  ling and ting: not exactly the same is one of our favorites because they are twins and so are we.  we love this series about Pacy and her family.  in the first book, the year of the dog, she discovers her true talent, writing and illustrating books.  In the year of the rat, the second book, pacy’s best friend melody moves away.  pacy thinks the world will end, but she realizes that they can still be best friends even though they are so far apart, and she can make some new ones too.  now finally the third one is out.  pacy and her family go to taiwan for a month in the summer.  pacy would rather go to disneyworld.  it’s hard being away from home for so long and not speaking the language.  but she gets to eat lots of dumplings and she learns a lot about her family and what’s important.

lotti and grace

who’s like me?

words by nicola davies
pictures by marc boutavant
$9.99
ages 3+

when my reading ones were wee ones, they were mesmerized by dora and diego.  why? I wondered.   I think I know now – it’s all in the eyes.  big and deep and unblinking – peepers with power, i think!  I was recently at a children’s boutique in paris that had french illustrator marc boutavant’s saucer-size-eyed creatures painted all over the walls of the book section.  you should have seen the number of little french fries fleeing the toys and flocking to the books!  what does that mean for this book?  well, compelling look-into-my-eyes lift-the-flaps coupled with the words of a passionate documenter of animal activities, british naturalist nicola davies, makes for a combination that will woo your wee ones into learning about the animal world.

(and just listen to nicola talk about her love of nature below. she approaches animals with such child-like wonder that we can’t help but becoming interested and inspired as well.)

jenesse

looking at lincoln

by maira kalman
$17.99
ages 5+

disclaimer…i am a huge maira kalman fan.  so when i saw the galley of this book, i just hugged it before reading a single word.  doni, our wonderful penquin publisher rep, let me keep it.  she figured it would be easier to get another than to pry this one out of my hands.  fortunately for everyone, it is a wonderful, fresh and soulful look at this man who continues to fascinate us.  she gets you to think about lincoln not just as the president, but as a son, a husband and a dad.  her conversational style, bits of humor, and rich illustrations make this a story you want to read over and over.

this book is based on an entry in an online column maira did for the new york times.  the year-long column was published as a book, and the pursuit of happiness, and we hear that there are more children’s books to come out of it.  check out the original entry below…

jill

the mighty miss malone

by christopher paul curtis
$15.99
ages 9+