Recent Reading Recommendations

Clearly I need to post about what we’re reading a little bit more frequently, because this list got a lot longer than I had anticipated!  It felt like I haven’t been reading as much as I usually am, but I guess maybe that’s not true after all, because I didn’t even list everything I’ve been reading.  Here are some of my favorite picks from the last few months:

Children’s Picture Books

• Herman’s Vacation by Tom Percival.  This is a really cute story about how different characters relax and vacation in different ways, and it’s a tale of sacrificial friendship.  The Banana and Mr. TOF loved it.
• Here Comes Valentine Cat by Deborah Underwood.  I’m a big fan of this cat with an enormous personality.  I also like Tooth Fairy Cat by the same author.  I love Cat’s terrific signs and the voice of the never seen narrator.
• Don’t Squish the Sasquatch by Kent Redeker and Don’t Splash  the Sasquatch.  Pure silliness at it’s finest.  These were both big hits around  here.
• A Hungry Lion and a Dwindling Assortment of Animals by Lucy Ruth Cummins.  This is one of my very favorite recently published children’s picture books.  It’s exactly my style.  I could read it over and over and over.
• How to Find Gold by Lucy Ruth Cummins.  Mr. TOF loved this book.
• Big Friends by Linda Sarah.  Because I have kids who love to make things with cardboard boxes, this story made me smile big.  I also love how the main character struggles with “losing” his best friend only to find that really, he can have two bests friends.
• Lion, Tiger and Bear:  Tag!  You’re It! by Ethan Long.  I’m a person who hates to be interrupted when I’m in the middle of something that I’m working hard on, so I could totally relate to Lion’s predicament.
• Let’s Go to the Hardware Store by Anne Rockwell.  I loved that this book was about visiting a hardware store.  Mr. TOF loves to go to the hardware store with Dr. Peds, and it was really great to see how the store in the book reminded us of our local little neighborhood hardware store.
• Don’t Throw to Mo! by David Adler.  This book won an award for emergent literature for the beginning reader.  It totally deserves that award (I can’t quite think of the name of that award right now, and I’m to lazy to look it up.”  My little sports fan adored this book, which was sophisticated enough to read out loud to him, but is easily within the grasp of an early reader.  We loved the plot.
• The Typewriter by Bill Thomson.  I loved the illustrations in this almost wordless picture book.
• The Dragon’s Toothache by Annie Besant.  Mr. TOF really enjoyed this one!
• Jack’s Worry by Sam Zuppardi.  Truly this is one of my favorite picture books ever.  A little boy feels anxious about his trumpet concert, and his “worry monster” just keeps growing and growing.  There are so many applications for this story, and it would be a great jumping off story for a conversation about anxiety and worry with a child.
• Salad Pie by Wendy Booydegraaff.  I used to love to “cook” with leaves, grass, and wilting vegetables discarded from my grandma’s garden when I was little.  I loved to see these characters doing the same thing.
• Princess Pigsty by Cornelia Funke.  This is a humorous story about a princess with a strong and determined personality.
• Nerdy Birdy by Aaron Reynolds.  We loved this one!  I think it’s my love for all people who are just a little quirky, a bit geeky, nerdy, and the bird in this story was just my kind of character.  There are many levels to the message in this book, and not only is it just plain fun to read, but it can really spark some great conversations about what it means to fit in, not fit in, and peer pressure.
• Spork by Kyo Maclear.  Not quite spoon.  Not quite fork.  Spork struggles with what his role is and never quite fits in, until the perfect job comes his way.
• Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson.  Mr. TOF strongly recommends this story.

Children’s Chapter Books:  Younger Kids

• Detective Gordon:  A Complicated Case  by Uif Nisson.  The illustrations are adorable and the story is charming.  It’s a perfect read aloud, and I love the use of color on the pages.
• Lola Levine is Not Mean by Monica Brown along with Lola Levine Drama Queen and Lola Levine Ballet Scheme.  Mr. TOF and I have really been enjoying these Lola stories this summer.  Lola is a soccer player who gets into all sorts of adventures.  I love that the protagonist is a girl who plays soccer.  Mr. TOF loves that she plays soccer.   These stories are short read alouds, and have a diverse, multicultural element in them that is rare for early chapter books.
• Two Times the Fun by Beverly Clearly.  This is a collection of three stories about a set of twins.  We actually have the first story in illustrated picture book format, and we enjoyed seeing how the different illustrators approached the same story.  It was really fun to read two more stories about the adventures of the twins.  It was a great read aloud.
• Waylon!  One Awesome Thing by Sara Pennypacker.  I love Sara Pennypacker.  We all have enjoyed the Clementine books.  Although this story is about Waylon, a classmate of Clementine, some of the characters in the Clementine books appear in this story as well.  I’m always excited to find strong realistic fiction with well rounded boy protagonists for this age group.
• Jasper John Dooley:  Lost and Found by Caroline Anderson.  We really enjoyed Jasper John Dooley, and we are excited to explore some of the other books about this character.  This is also a great story with a boy as the main character.
• Ruffleclaw by Cornelia Funke.  Wonderful!  We loved this one!
• Fancy Nancy, Nancy Clancy:  Star of the Stage and Screen by Jane O’Connor.  We have enjoyed almost all of the Nancy Clancy books.  They are well done.
• Francine Poulet Meets the Ghost Raccoon by Kate DiCamillo.  Hooray!  More adventures on Deckawoo Drive!  This one is fantastic.

Children’s Chapter Books:  Older Kids

• Summer and Bird by Katherine Catcall.  This is a magical fantasy about two sisters who enter another dimension to try to find their lost parents.
• Muddle Earth by Paul Stewart.  Mr. SP and I really enjoy British children’s literature, and he highly recommended this book to me.  It took me awhile to get around to reading it, but I could see why he was always bursting out in laughter when he was reading it.  It’s a hilarious and creative parody on Lord of the Rings.
• Book of Dares for Lost Friends by Jane Kelley.  This is a great story about friendships and how they can change in middle school.
• How to Speak Dolphin by Ginny Rorby.   This is a great story about a girl whose sibling has autism.  It’s especially great for a reader in third through fifth grade.
• The Grunts in Trouble   by Philip Ardagh.  Earlier this year we were on a Grunts reading spree. The Grunts are quite something!  We highly recommend this one, as well as all of the other Grunts books.  They are sometimes a bit hard to find because they are British.
• Umbrella Summer by Lisa Graff.  This is a terrific story about grief, healing, and friendship, and would be particularly appealing to a third or fourth grader.  The Banana really enjoyed this one.

Children’s Nonfiction

• Lives of the Musicians:  Good Times, Bad Times and What the Neighbors Thought by Kathleen Krull.   This author made music history come alive!  It was so fun to see my kidlets reading this, and I actually learned quite a bit about a few composers as well.  I had this on my reading list for a bit to check out for a resource, and lo and behold it showed up at the used library book sale.  Hooray for me.

Young Adult Books

• The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord.  YaYa did not care for this book at all.  I thought it was worth reading, but it’s not my favorite piece of young adult literature.
• The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz.  This book has won some awards, and I believe it is worth reading.  Sometimes I felt a bit frustrated with the main character, and sometimes her “voice” as she told the story irritated me, but there are a lot of positive things about this book, and it’s a nice work of historical fiction that has a lot of interesting themes.

Nonfiction Books

• For the Love by Jen Hatmaker.  I had heard so much about this book that I just finally decided to read it.  It happens to be my first Jen Hatmaker book, and it wasn’t what I expected, but I really did enjoy it  There were a lot of things brought up in the book that I’m still mulling over in my head.  I really appreciated her viewpoints, and I loved the book was almost in an essay format, which I wasn’t expecting.  It was a terrific book to take along to places like swimming lessons or soccer practice because it was easy to stop and start and yet very thought provoking.
• Glensheen by Tony Deerskins.  This book is full of beautiful photographs of Glensheen mansion, and it gives a great overview of the Condgon family and the history of the mansion.  I think it fills a great need for a book for visitors to the mansion who want to read more about the Congdon family, and about the architecture and furnishings in the house and on the grounds.
• The Whole Brain Child by Daniel Siegel.  This presents a lot of information about brain development in an accessible and practical way for parents and teachers to apply what they know about how the kids’ brains work in how they interact with students or their own children.
• Rival Gardens:  New and Selected Poems by Connie Wanek.  Connie Wanek is my favorite local poet, and maybe my favorite poet ever.  I was so excited to read these new poems and review some of my favorites from her other books.
• Bonfire by Connie Wanek.  I found this treasure at the library book sale.  Yay me!  I had so much fun reading these poems.
• The Dark Honey:  New and Used Poems by Ellie Schoenfeld.  Here’s another poetry book by a local poet.  I enjoyed it.

Grown Up Fiction 

• The Dovekeepers by Alice Hofmann.  I had this book on my to read list for quite some time, and TADA!  It also appeared at the library used book sale.  I snatched it right up and found it to be a fantastic read.  I learned so much history and was so taken in by the story.  Alice Hofmann has always been an author I’ve really enjoyed, and this is a great novel.
• Summer Cars by Connie Wanek.  Set here in Duluth, this is a collection of little short stories about car owners.  It’s a fun, short summer read.  I got my copy at the library here.  It might be hard to find if you are not local.
• The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom.  This plot was riveting.  I strongly recommend this novel, although you should be prepared for a lot of tragedy.
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.  This is probably my favorite grown up fiction that I’ve read for a long time!  What a work of literature!  I couldn’t stop turning pages and read the whole thing in one sitting.  One long sitting.  This book has gotten a lot of attention, and I wasn’t sure if it would live up to my expectations.  It exceeded any expectation I had.  I strongly recommend this book.