Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Books I want to read (now)

Today our local Beachside Bookshop presented a terrific selection of books at a District Teacher-Librarian Conference.  Here are few that caught my eye and that I would like to read over the coming weeks.

A Good Day for Climbing Trees by Jaco Jacobs
This appeals to be because it is about activism, it is a translated book (originally in Afrikaans) and for the simple reason I do like the cover.



Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead
Everyone seems to be talking about this book - seeming to sigh with happiness. It must be special because these two writers are at the top of their game. Rebecca Stead is the author of the Newberry winner When you Reach me along with Liar and Spy which is a book I adored. Wendy Mass is the author of the intriguing series that began with 11 Birthdays along with many other titles which I also need to explore.


Among the picture books they shared was this gem Leaf by Sandra Dieckmann. This is her first book. Kirkus gave this book a Star review and said "Dieckmann beautifully weaves together some of today’s most difficult themes into a deceptively simple tale."  Danica from Beachside also made particular mention of the publisher of Leaf - Flying Eye Books and clicking on their site has given a whole new set of books to explore.





The Infamous Ratsos by Kara LaReau - she is also the author of books about the Bland Sisters. Kirkus says this is "A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers." The sticker you can see on the front shows this book was an Honor book in the Theordor Seuss Geisel award in 2017.




Coming later in the year a new book illustrated by the very talented Cheryl Orsini called The Magic Bookshop by Natalie Jane Prior. This is a larger format illustrated book which looks delightful. You could dip into my review of Boat of Stars also by Natalie.



Elliot Perlman is a award winning Australian writer for adults. You may have seen the television adaption of his story Seven Types of Ambiguity. The Adventures of Catvinkle is his first book for younger readers. 



Finally one more book which is recommended for children who have read and been moved by books such as Wonder and Out of my mind.  The new title is  Lenny's Book of everything by Karen Foxlee. I think this will be a book for mature readers in Grade 6 and beyond. The plot sounds a little like Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick but I cannot confirm this until I read it and it is not due for publication until very late this year. I am excited to see an endorsement on the cover by Anna Fienberg.



2 comments:

kinderbooks said...

Well I can see you'll need to borrow quite a lot next term. We have Leaf and many other Flying Eye Books. I was sure you'd read Ratsos.

Momo said...

Yes I have read Ratsos. What a memory you have. I think I need to make a list of publishers to follow. I had not heard of Flying Eye.