The Bird King: An Artist’s Notebook by Shaun Tan Looking through this gorgeous (and beautifully reproduced) book is like peeking into the sketchbook and portfolio of Shaun Tan (The Arrival). His working method is to “just start drawing” and the book goes on to show everything from highly detailed doodles to painted storyboards. Most of [...]
Alex the Parrot: No Ordinary Bird by Stephanie Spinner; illustrated by Meilo So Irene Pepperberg bought an African grey parrot in 1977 and called him Alex – short for Avian Learning Experiment. This wonderful book tells the true story of how graduate student Irene taught Alex to speak – actually speak, not just mimic words. [...]
Almost Home by Joan Bauer 12 year-old Sugar Mae Cole is the type of resilient heroine frequently found in Joan Bauer’s novels. Her beloved grandmother has died, her father has abandoned his wife and daughter and the final straw is that Sugar Mae and her mother lose their home. They move to Chicago but that [...]
Bomb: The Race to Build – and Steal – the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin Sheinkin is a master of page-turning narrative nonfiction and this gripping thriller about the race to build the atom bomb is another winner. Drawing on a huge cast of characters and taking us all over the world, Bomb [...]
Create with Maisy by Lucy Cousins One thing I often find frustrating about craft books, especially those for young children, is that the completed projects shown on the page look so much more polished and professional than anything my kids (or I!) could produce. So, in this craft book featuring Maisy Mouse and friends, I [...]
In 1946, Aldous Huxley published Brave New World – a science fiction tale about a society that has erased all individuality and emotion to achieve stability. Dystopias like this have been around for many years in both books and movies, but the popularity of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins has made it a [...]
Bon Appetit! The Delicious Life of Julia Child written and illustrated by Jessie Hartland With words and illustrations as exuberant as Julia Child herself, this lively biography features handwritten captions and cartoon-style pictures that burst with Julia’s lust for food and life itself. Starting with her conventional upbringing and her travels during World War II [...]
All through the school year, we see kids coming in to find nonfiction books for school projects – from a biography of a NASA scientist to information about a Mill Valley landmark. Though some kids also read nonfiction for pleasure, many never venture from our fiction shelves when they’re looking for leisure reading. So I [...]
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