This playfully irreverent alphabet book is sure to be a hit with pre-readers and early readers. Instead of the “A is for Apple” approach, the author focuses on actions, and silly ones at that. For example, the book kicks off…
Author: petermarino
Peter is an English professor at SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury, New York where he teaches writing, speech, and the occasional literature class. He won the SUNY Chancellor's Award in 2006 for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity. His first young adult novel, Dough Boy, about a fat and self-conscious but very funny high school sophomore, was published by Holiday House in October 2005 and is now available in paperback. It was nominated for the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults in 2006. His latest young adult novel, also with Holiday House, is Magic and Misery, about a teenage girl trying to balance her life with her best gay friend and her new boyfriend. It has been nominated for the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults in 2009 and is on Booklist’s Top 10 Romance Fiction for Youth and was placed on the ALA Round Table Rainbow Books Bibliography.. He is finishing up three (yes three) new novels for young readers. Peter’s full-length play, The Grandma Show, co-authored with Tom Ecobelli, has had productions all over the country. His ten-minute play “Ralph Smith of Schenectady, New York...” has been produced in the 9th Annual New York City 15 Minute Play Festival, the Samuel French 2003 Short Play Festival, and SlamBoston! 2005. Another one-act, “The Good Samaritan,” won first place in SlamBoston! 2006.
Bat Citizens: Defending the Ninjas of the Night by Rob Laidlaw
As a fan of bats myself, I’m always happy to see a book that not only educates young people about them and tries to protect and preserve them. And their protectors are kids from around the world, called “Bat…
Mayanito’s New Friends by Tato Laviera; illustrations by Gabhor Utomo
Another imaginative romp from one of our regular favorites, Arte Publico (Pinata Books imprint). Through Prince (later King) Mayanito, early readers and listeners of any age will get adventures and thrills that children can truly appreciate. Mayanito is lonely at…
Who Belongs Here?: An American Story (2nd Edition) by Margy Burns Knight and Anne Sibley O’Brien (Illustrator)
The cover illustration of this book is not particularly strong, but the good news is it’s not representative of the beautiful illustrations within. Originally published in 2003 (in the wake of our then-national nightmare), Who Belongs Here? was reprinted in…
Agua, Aguita
The premise of Agua, Aguita is simple (though not simplistic), the story of water told from the point of view of a single drop. I can’t speak for the Spanish or Nahuat translations of this book, but Jorge Tetl Argueta…
Home Sweet Home by Mia Cassany
Home Sweet Home will steer young readers away from their own conceptions of how people live around the world. We see the interior designs of some of the homes, but illustrator Paula Blumen always shows the exteriors, to give them…
From Far Away by Robert Munsch & Saoussan Askar ; illustrated by Rebecca Green
Victims of war (Lebanon, in this case) are not always fatalities. In this basic story, the narrator (based on the real-life Saoussan Askar) has been traumatized by endless violence in her native country, and upon immigrating to the West,…
Come On In, America: The United States in World War I by Linda Barrett Osborne
Although the title is somewhat misleading (and actually a little odd), Come on In, America is a very thoughtful and thorough examination of the Geo-political and cultural aspects of World War I, a conflict that, at one hundred years old,…
My Favorite Animal: Dolphins by Victoria Marcos
Pre-readers will love the striking photography in this book about our fellow mammals. While it left me wanting to know more, I think it’s probably just right for the earliest of learners. They will come to know a few types…
Poetry for Kids: Walt Whitman, ed. by Karen Karbiener, illustrated by Kate Evans
I came across Moondance Press‘s Poetry for Kids series, which includes Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and even Shakespeare in addition to this title. I was unfamiliar with this concept of using adult poetry as a source for children’s reading (target…