Toddler
Grasshopper And The Ants
by Jerry Pinkney
(Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, April 2015)
Caldecott winner Jerry Pinkney returns to Aesop’s fables to tell the story of the Grasshopper and the Ants. Grasshopper cannot understand why the ants will not join him in playing throughout the seasons, and when winter comes, he has nothing set aside. Stunning illustrations make this re-telling of a traditional tale one that belongs in every home.
Emerging Reader
Silly Shoes: Poems To Make You Smile
by Lawson Gow
(Bright Sky Press, 2014)
Houstonian Lawson Gow shares common childhood moments through his humorous verse. Readers can relate to belly buttons, Superman, and vegetables! Enjoy this book as we celebrate National Poetry Month.
Tweens
Listen, Slowly
by Thanhha Lai
(Harper Collins Books for Young Readers, March 2015)
Mai is a twelve-year-old born and bred California girl of Vietnamese descent. She has been looking forward to a summer spent with her best friend at Laguna Beach but begrudgingly travels with her aging grandmother back to her Vietnamese village to learn what became of her grandfather who was captured during the war. There, she meets her extended family and negotiates culture clashes both poignant and comical in a story of family love and heritage.
Wish Girl
by Nikki Loftin
(Razorbill, February 2015)
When quiet Peter Stone’s family moves from San Antonio to a remote home in the Texas Hill Country, Peter is thrilled to find a quiet valley teeming with the natural world where he can enjoy silence, stillness, solitude and escape menacing local bullies and his own family’s destructive behavior. That is until one day when Annie interrupts his silence. This is a truly beautiful tale of how solitude, silence, nature and art “magically” restore us–especially when shared.
Teen
The Darkest Part of The Forest
by Holly Black
(Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, January 2015)
Usually the bad stuff associated with faeries and monsters only happens to tourists or to some local hooligan who has it coming, so the citizens of Fairfold put milk out, hang herbs, and wear talismans, and essentially live in an uneasy harmony with the other folk. Until one day Hazel wakes up covered in dirt, the same day the townspeople discover that the unbreakable casket has been shattered and the prince is gone!
