New Titles

Greetings!

This week I am in the midst of the fall book fair from Scholastic and my library is full of cases of new books. What a wonderful thing for a librarian! I have found some wonderful titles that I would like to share with you. These are not in any order, just listing them as I find them.

The Sandwich Swap by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah with Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Tricia Tusa. $16.99 hardcover. Which is better for lunch? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a hummus and pita sandwich? Lily and Salma are best friends but the sandwiches they each bring look strange to the other. An argument turns into a food fight which turns into a school-wide international foods picnic. This is a good story to help teach diversity and tolerance for the customs of others.

Pierre the Penguin: A True Story by Jean Marzollo, illustrated by Laura Regan. $4.99 paperback. There is a penguin at the San Francisco California Academy of Sciences museum who skipped molting for a few years. His feathers grew brittle and broke off leaving him nearly featherless. Without feathers, he was too cold and would not get in the water. The aquatic biologist worked with the vet and others and to make a tiny wetsuit for Pierre so he would be warm enough. Soon his feathers did grow back and he recovered. Questions and answers are at the back of the book along with a website to view the penguins online via a webcam. I have visited this and seen the penguins and also saw pictures of Pierre. Very cool! No pun intended.

Little Pink Pup by Johanna Kerby. $$16.99 hardcover. On Johanna’s family’s farm, a pig had a litter of piglets one of which was premature. They brought him inside and one of the dachshunds became mother to the piglet. She had one puppy of her own, plus being foster mom to other puppies. She took care of the pink piglet aptly named “Pink” until he was old enough to return to the barn. Photographs of the animals are the illustrations.

Friends: True Stories of Extraordinary Animal Friendships by Catherine Thimmesh. $16.99 hardcover. One page shows a photograph of an unusual animal friendship while a short paragraph tells the story of the two friends. One picture shows a darling baby macaque that had been abandoned hugging a white pigeon and the story behind it.

With the Might of Angels by Andrea Davis Pinkney. $12.99 hardcover. This is the newest of the Dear America series telling the story of what it was like for a young black girl to attend an all-white school in Hadley, Virginia in 1954 after the court rules in favor of desegration due to Brown vs. Board of Education. If your school does not have any of these Dear America books, you might take a look at them to see if this is something you would like to begin adding to your library. They are all written in diary format about an event in history. This is a good way to introduce history or to supplement a unit.

If your school has a Scholastic Book Fair, you will find these books there. If you don’t have a fair, consider a trip to a Scholastic warehouse or attend a book fair at the local public school.

Hope you a have a great week.
Audrey