Fall Reading List

Within our larger "farm" unit, here are some of the themes we've loosely followed:

• Apples
• Leaves
• Wind
• Pumpkins
• Corn
• Turning Cold
• Getting Ready for Winter

The last few themes on the list will be our focus during November. I'm still collecting those titles, but here are most of the books we've read thus far, from our own collection and the library.

• It’s Fall- Linda Glaser
• Story of the Wind Children- Sibylle Von Olfers
• Flower Fairies of the Autumn- Cicely Mary Barker
  
• Autumn- Gerda Muller
• Apple Pie That Papa Baked- Lauren Thompson
• Fall is Not Easy- Marty Kelley
• Ten Red Apples- Pat Hutchins
• Johnny Appleseed- Reeve Lindbergh
• Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf- Lois Ehlert
• Leaf Man- Lois Ehlert
• The Busy Little Squirrel- Nancy Tafuri
• The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin- Beatrix Potter
• Animals in the Fall- Gail Saunders-Smith
• Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree- Gail Gibbons
  
• Apple Farmer Annie- Monica Wellington
  
• An Apple Pie for Dinner- Susan VanHecke
• How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World- Marjorie Priceman
  
• Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden- George Levenson
• Pumpkin- Barrie Watts
• Pumpkins- Ken Robbins
• Cranberries: Fruit of the Bogs- Diane L. Burns
• Apples- Jacqueline Farmer
  
• Corn- Gail Gibbons
  
• Apples- Gail Gibbons
• The Apple Pie Tree- Zoe Hall
  
• Our Farm: Four Seasons with Five Kids on One Family's Farm- Michael J. Rosen
• Mousekin's Golden House- Edna Miller
• Apple Cider Making Days- Ann Purmell
  
• The Scarecrow's Dance- Jane Yolen
  
• Old Bear- Kevin Henkes
• A Bunny for All Seasons- Janet Schulman
  
• Time to Sleep- Denise Fleming
  
• Has Winter Come?- Wendy Watson
  
• Three Pebbles and a Song- Eileen Spinelli
• When Winter Comes- Nancy Van Laan
• Too Many Pumpkins- Linda White
• The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything- Linda Williams
• The Pumpkin Patch Parable- Liz Curtis Higgs
• The Biggest Pumpkin Ever- Steven Kroll
• Pumpkin, Pumpkin- Jeanne Titherington
• A Tree for All Seasons- Robin Bernard
• Fresh Fall Leaves- Betsy Franco
• Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie- Jill Esbaum
• Apples for Everyone- Jill Esbaum
  

On the Farm

We've spent the past month or so down on the farm! We started using Winterpromise's I'm Ready to Learn preschool program this fall. The first unit is all about the farm and one of our activities is creating this farm mural piece by piece.

Here are some of the books we read during our unit:

The milk makers- Gail Gibbons
Farm Tales- Little Golden Book Collection
Farming- Gail Gibbons
Wake Up, Farm!- Alvin R. Tresselt
Farm Morning- David M. McPhail
Farmer Brown Goes Round and Round- Teri. Sloat
Market Day- Carol Foskett Cordsen
Horses- Elsa Posell
Farm Animals- Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
Find It on the Farm- Dee Phillips
Chicks & Chickens- Gail Gibbons
Our Farm : Four Seasons with Five Kids on One Family's Farm- Michael J. Rosen
The Scarecrow's Dance- Jane Yolen
Corn- Gail Gibbons
Wake Up, Big Barn- Suzanne Chitwood
Big Red Barn- Margaret Wise Brown

2008 Youth Media Awards

On Monday morning at 7:45 AM, I watched the live webcast from ALA Midwinter to hear the announcements of this year's Association for Library Service to Children Media Awards. I took as many notes as I could as fast as possible. I missed a few authors/illustrators, but I managed to get every title!

My favorite part of January is hearing the which books have awarded the Caldecott and Newbery Medals, even though I'm no longer as "in the loop" with children's literature as I used to be. (For new readers, until my son was born I was a school librarian.)

I wanted to post this right after I watched the webcast, but I haven't had a chance until now. For those of you with young children or who just love children's and young adult literature, here are some of the highlights:

John Newbery Medal:
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz

Newbery Honor Books:
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

Randolph Caldecott Medal:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Caldecott Honor Books:
Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine
First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems

2009 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer
Walter Dean Myers

Mildred L. Batchelder Award
VIZ Media, publisher of Brave Story, by Miyuki Miyabe, translated from the Japanese by Alexander O. Smith

Batchelder Honor Books
Milkweed Editions, publisher of The Cat: Or, How I Lost Eternity, by Jutta Richter, illustrated by Rotraut Susanne Berner, and translated from the German by Anna Brailovsky
Phaidon Press, publisher of Nicholas and the Gang, written by René Goscinny, illustrated by Jacques Sempé, and translated from the French by Anthea Bell

Pura Belpré Author Award
The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Sean Qualls

Belpré Author Honor Books
Frida: ¡Viva la vida! Long Live Life! by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand
Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale, retold by Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrated by Michael Austin
Los Gatos Black on Halloween, written by Marisa Montes, illustrated by Yuyi Morales

Pura Belpré Illustrator Award
Los Gatos Black on Halloween, illustrated by Yuyi Morales, written by Marisa Montes, illustrated by Yuyi Morales, written by Marisa Montes

Belpré Illustrator Honor Books
My Name Is Gabito: The Life of Gabriel García Márquez/Me llamo Gabito: la vida de Gabriel García Márquez, illustrated by Raúl Colón, written by Monica Brown
My Colors, My World/Mis colores, mi mundo, written and illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez

Andrew Carnegie Medal
Kevin Lafferty, producer, John Davis, executive producer, and Amy Palmer Robertson and Danielle Sterling, co-producers, of Jump In: Freestyle Edition

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award
There Is a Bird on Your Head! by Mo Willems

Geisel Honor Books
First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Hello, Bumblebee Bat, written by Darrin Lunde, illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne
Jazz Baby, written by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
Vulture View, written by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Steve Jenkins

Odyssey Award
Jazz, Live Oak Media

Odyssey Honor Audiobooks
Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy, Listen & Live Audio
Dooby Dooby Moo, Weston Woods/Scholastic
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Listening Library
Skulduggery Pleasant, HarperCollins Audio
Treasure Island, Listening Library

Sibert Medal
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís
Lightship by Brian Floca
Nic Bishop Spiders by Nic Bishop

More information about the awards can be found here.

If this doesn't make you smile....

...then nothing will and it's a lost cause.

Did it work?

Attention Boynton Fans!

While browsing in Borders on Wednesday, Sidekick and I were delighted, nay ECSTATIC, to find the latest release from Sandra Boynton, Blue Moo. It's a collection of "jukebox hits from way back never" that will be enjoyed by all.



I'm sorry to sound like a studio announcer, but not too sorry, because we simply can't get enough of Sandra Boynton's books, especially her musical collections. This one includes "Your Personal Penguin," which is the book and song that started it all for us way back in January, though "The Uninvited Parade" might be my favorite on this CD. Moo, Baa, La La La is another one of our daily (hourly) reads, and we always listen to her other three albums too! It's hard to resist when artists such as B.B. King, Patti LuPone, and Allison Krauss are doing the singing!


You can listen to samples from this and her other musical collaborations with Michael Ford here.

Madeleine L’Engle, Children’s Writer, Is Dead

Read the article from the New York Times.

Although I'm not actually a big fan, and there are many of her books I haven't read, I will say this lady was quite the author!