Hello, Kid Lit friends!
I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season! In case you’re still looking for book recommendations to gift to the young (or young at heart!) readers in your life, check out our two gift guides, one for middle grade readers and one for picture books.
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As for new releases, there are only a couple that I know about: one picture book and one middle grade book. *Please note that all book descriptions come from Goodreads.
Stewart’s Best Pen by Stephien W. Martin, illustrated by Karl Newsom Edwards
Stewart may be a boy, and Craig may be a pen, but they are definitely best friends. The kind of friends who do everything together, who rely on each other, and who feel lost without each other . . . which is why it’s a catastrophe when Craig disappears! How can Stewart be a best friend if his best buddy is missing? The answer is certain to please anyone who’s ever had a favorite writing implement or a best friend.
Survival Tails: Endurance in Antarctica by Katrina Charman
Sled dog Samson wants nothing more than to be part of Ernest Shackleton’s historic voyage to Antarctica. He wants to feel the snow under his paws and the wind on his face as he races across the ice fields, and most of all he wants to help his humans find eternal glory as they chart the continent. His fellow sled dog, Bummer, just wants to get through the voyage in one piece. Why would he want to face down a dangerous, icy wasteland when he could stay inside his kennel, warm and safe?
How about some backlist book recommendations?
Backlist books refer to books that have been published more than one year earlier. I love giving backlist book recommendations because there are so many great books that sometimes get overshadowed by newer releases. Check these out!
Backlist Picture Book Recommendation: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
A young boy, lying awake one Christmas Eve, is welcomed aboard a magical trip to the North Pole . . . Through dark forests, over tall mountains, and across a desert of ice, the Polar Express makes its way to the city atop the world, where the boy will make his Christmas wish.
Backlist Middle Grade Book Recommendation: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She’s had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. But when the sisters arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with their mother, Cecile is nothing like they imagined. While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.
Backlist Nonfiction Book Recommendation: The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever by H. Joseph Hopkins, illustrated by Jill McElmurry
Katherine Olivia Sessions never thought she’d live in a place without trees. After all, Kate grew up among the towering pines and redwoods of Northern California. But after becoming the first woman to graduate from the University of California with a degree in science, she took a job as a teacher far south in the dry desert town of San Diego. Where there were almost no trees.
Kate decided that San Diego needed trees more than anything else. So this trailblazing young woman singlehandedly started a massive movement that transformed the town into the green, garden-filled oasis it is today. Now, more than 100 years after Kate first arrived in San Diego, her gorgeous gardens and parks can be found all over the city.
That’s it for me – I have to get back to reading! Stay tuned to next Sunday’s newsletter because I have the amazing Vashti Harrison, author and illustrator of Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History and Little Dreamers: Visionary Women Around the World, on the newsletter (squee!). And FYI, Book Riot is on holiday from December 25 to January 1, so no newsletters will be going out on 12/25, 12/30, or 1/1.
I would love to know what you are reading this week! Find me on Twitter at @KarinaYanGlaser, on Instagram at @KarinaIsReadingAndWriting, or email me at karina@bookriot.com.
Until next week!
Karina
It is my youngest daughter’s ninth birthday today, so I bought her books (surprise!). She loves The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich, so I got her the rest of the series, The Game of Silence, The Porcupine Year, Chickadee, and Makoons.
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