New Books

Greetings to you all!
I heard from a number of you that you are interested in some good books to get for your libraries. I have a few brand new titles on my cart just waiting for me to process them, so I pulled off some to share. Most of these are picture books. I hope we can get the idea out of our students’ heads that picture books are only for little kids. This is not true and anyone who actually reads a book to a child will know that the vocabulary is much too high for them to read themselves. When you assign book reports this year or have some research project, consider requiring one of the books be a picture book. Many libraries call them “Everybody Books” rather than “Easy Books”.

Here are a few “Everybody Books” for you.

Wonder Horse by Emily Arnold McCully. The story is based on the life of a real horse who learned to spell, make change from a cash register and more. The subtitle is The True Story of the World’s Smartest Horse. Don’t forget to read the author’s note at the back to the students.

Emma’s Poem by Linda Glaser. Emma Lazarus wrote the poem ‘The New Colossus’ which is engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. This is the story of her writing the famous poem for the statue. There is a little about the statue itself, but mostly concerns the poem.

How to Clean a Hippopotamus by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. It has come to the point for me that if Steve Jenkins writes a book, I want it. Check out his other books, too, but this one is so interesting. This deals with unusual partnerships between animals.

POP! The Invention of Bubble Gum by Meghan McCarthy. The title says it all. This will be really POPular with your students.

Here Comes the Garbage Barge! By Jonah Winter. Did you know that before recycling became an enforced practice, Long Island’s landfills were too full to take any more garbage. They put some of the overflow on a barge and sent it to dumping ground in the South. Unfortunately for Long Island, no one would take the trash. This brought national attention to the problem of too much trash. One really interesting item to note is that the art in the book is made from recycled trash.

The Village Garage by G. Brian Karas. A simple story about a garage in a small town and the work they do in each season. They rake and suck up leaves, sweep the streets, patch the roads, paint new road stripes, scrape the snowy roads, and then start all over again.

Titanicat by Marty Crisp. One reporter learned that there had been a cat on the Titanic that had given birth to a litter of kittens. A ship’s cat is a lucky omen. The reporter learned of an Irishman who claimed he had been crewing on the Titanic and had been assigned to care for the cat. When the cat got off the ship in Southampton, the young man became superstitious and also left the ship. The author gives her research sources for this book so you can check them out. The paintings are glorious and the story is wonderful.

Insect Detective by Steve Voake. This is a great introduction to insects and some information about where they live and how to find them.

The Buffalo are Back by Jean Craighead George. Jean gives some history about the buffalo and how they nearly disappeared from the Great Plains. Today there are buffalo that are protected. This is the story of how they were saved.

I hope you found something that you might like. Have a good week. If you are new to this email list, check out my blog where I post each email each week. You can find older posts and see what kinds of information I have given in the past. Sdalibrarian.blogspot.com


Audrey