Weirdly, I did not get a single Halloween book for October, but I did have some Holiday ones. It is a bit early for those, it seems to me that everyone is rushing about yelling: The Season of Gifting is Near! Which it is indeed.
I ordered this list from Early Readers toward Middle Grade, there is a little bit of everything, enjoy!
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh! by Mo Willems (Author)
This is a charming book that takes a peek around expectations and wants, revisiting some familiar places for kids (like the tantrum in the classic Don’t let the Pigeon Drive the Bus) but then, it gently veers towards things that might help change the Pigeons’ mind. I love that it can always change his mind (given the right situation). In this case, getting near Santa’s sleigh is like getting near a puppy… not what he expected!
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh! is on sale since September 5th, 2023
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Pages: 40
EAN/UPC: 9781454952770
Now for some games with words and sounds:
Good Morning, My Deer! by Melanie Amon (Author); Sophie Beer (Illustrator)
Banjo is such a cute deer, he listens to some words (as they are pronounced and not as they are written down), and the drawings reflect those mistakes in a funny and memorable way.
When mom paints her nails, she does so using paint on the nailed wall, or they use pears for shoes and pick up bags of flour from the field. It is an absurd and clever narrative, and the mistaken words sit at the back covers, cleverly hidden inside the drawings. It could really be used as a prompt starter for a game on words and what they mean, especially for little kids who are building up their vocabulary or are learning to read.
Good Morning, My Deer! is on sale since October 3, 2023
Published by Scribble Us
Hardcover | Pages: 32
ISBN: 9781957363493
This book talks about family and friendships:
Lucky Me by Lawrence Schimel (Author); Juan Camilo Mayorga (Illustrator)
This is an interesting take on what a friend’s house and one’s own house look like by comparison. Sanjay, Bruno’s friend, has a pet iguana and doesn’t have to share his room, as he is an only child. Bruno has to share with his brother Mateo, who
is visually impaired and walks about with a nice dog called Rocco who helps him get around. Mateo has many labilities, he can keep reading after dark by using just his fingers, and Bruno feels Mateo is pretty lucky to get a dog and to know how to read Braille.
Bruno himself feels lucky too, he has his friend Sanjay and loves his brothers ‘ adventure stories, his spatial ability, and the simple fact that a good life involves friends and family.
Bruno’s home is a bit different, but he wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Lucky Me is on sale since September 26, 2023
Published Orca Book Publishers
Hardcover | Pages: 32
ISBN: 9781459837386
Now, increasing the number of pages comes some wishful thinking:
The Wishing Machine by Jonathan Hillman (Author) Nadia Alam (Illustrator)
Sam loves going to the laundromat with his mom, it’s a comfortable routine, one where he gets to see some familiar faces and feel the warmth of gently drying clean clothes. He is worried, though, because they can’t afford rent anymore, and they might have to move away to his grandpa’s trailer.
So he makes a wish, willing to stay home, hoping for a bit of magic. Maybe if they hope with all their might, they can turn a washing machine into a wishing machine!
Coping with change is hard, and magical thinking is a bit part of the process of dealing with it, this is a gentle book that carefully offers a bit of hope.
The Wishing Machine is on sale since October 17, 2023.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 40
EAN/UPC: 9781665922302
This is not a picture book per se, but it is one everyone should have, I remember mine distinctly, reading about my rights when I was a kid was eye-opening:
Small Places, Close to Home: A Child’s Declaration of Rights: Inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Deborah Hopkinson (Author); Kate Gardiner (Illustrator)
The rights of children — and of all living things — begin in small places, close to home. Eleanor Roosevelt said that before drafting the most pivotal document one could imagine: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed on December 10, 1948. When you think that only 75 years have passed since this communal decision, some of the current conflicts look different: we are just learning how to be humans, together, in this tiny and increasingly scorching planet.
This poetic adaptation shows small places: backyards and parks, schools and houses, wherever and however we move through this world, filled with imaginary boundaries, we should know we have rights, and it is up to us to enforce them and allow other, those different from me, to have them too.
We all deserve to live free,
to feel safe,
to belong,
to learn,
to dream.
Small Places, Close to Home is on sale since October 3, 2023.
Publisher: Balzer & Bray/Harperteen
Hardcover Pages: 40 pages
EAN/UPC: 9780063092587
And now for another Christmas book, this is a kind of middle-grade holiday comic, featuring a very anxious squirrel:
Scaredy Squirrel Gets Festive: (A Graphic Novel) by Melanie Watt (Author)
Melanie is on to something with this perfectionist squirrel who gets anxious about the holidays: should everything be perfect?
Planning, decorating, gift-wrapping, hosting… it felt to me like kids can understand the anxiety from a certain type of mom or parent, and that sometimes small details can cause a lot of stress…
Scaredy has some friends who will jolly along and might be a bit sarcastic at times, but ultimately, they are there for him. The important thing is to celebrate together, after all.
Scaredy Squirrel Gets Festive: (A Graphic Novel) is on sale since October 03, 2023.
Publisher: Random House Graphic
Hardcover Pages: 88 pages
EAN/UPC: 9780593307618
Another graphic novel that caught my eye is this adaptation of a very interesting novel, now firmly going into middle grade and even Young Adult:
Watership Down: The Graphic Novel by Richard Adams (Author); James Sturm (Adapted by); Joe Sutphin (Illustrator)
I think that this is the most important book about war that was ever written. When I read it, as a part of my personal quest of reading Classics and Carnegie medals, I was amazed by the symbolic meaning that seeps throughout the book. Surely the person who wrote it had experienced the Second World War, and that is indeed the case: Watership Down was written by English author Richard Adams, and published first in London in 1972.
It might be set in Hampshire in southern England, and be about rabbits, but ultimately it is about premonition, fear, bravery, poetry, and conflict.
Bunnies, turns out, are bloody creatures who fight for their warren are are constantly in danger. If they had a culture, as Adams imagined them to have, they would have art proverbs, and mythology as well. This graphic adaptation follows the same plot as the novel: the rabbits, led by Hazel and Fiver, a very nervous and sensitive rabbit, escape the destruction of their warren and seek a place to establish a new home (the hill of Watership Down), encountering perils, temptations and competition along the way.
It is sensitive material and recommended for kids who can handle all the symbolic meaning of it, perhaps 10 or 12 years and up.
Wikipedia tells me that in his autobiography, The Day Gone By, “Adams wrote that he based Watership Down and the stories in it on his experiences during Operation Market Garden, the Battle of Arnhem, in 1944. The character of Hazel, the leader of the group of rabbits, was modeled on Adams’ commanding officer, Major John Gifford. He gave the warrior Bigwig the personality of Captain Desmond Kavanagh, who is buried at the Airborne Cemetery in Oosterbeek, The Netherlands” (Source: Wikipedia).
Watershipdown: The Graphic Novel is on sale since October 17, 2023.
Publisher: Ten Speed Graphic
Hardcover Pages: 384 pages
EAN/UPC: 9781984857194
Finally, a mystery novel with two smart kid detectives:
The A&A Detective Agency: The Fairfleet Affair by K. H. Saxton (Author)
The Fairfleet Trust has some vast interest in mystery: the Fairfleet Institute comprises more than three museums and archives, and they are known for curating all aspects of human history.
When Dr. Alistair Fairfleet, the institute’s eccentric chairman, disappears on the first day of Alex and Asha’s summer vacation, they receive a letter written by the missing millionaire himself inviting them to a game involving complicated clues and puzzles.
You see, twelve-year-old friends Alex Foster and Asha Singh of the A&A Detective Agency trust Dr. Alistair, especially because he trusts them in return.
There are clues hidden away everywhere, grumpy adults to be interrogated, art forgeries, archaeological crimes, and, most importantly, Fairfleet family secrets.
Will they find Dr. Alistair before it’s too late?
The A&A Detective Agency: The Fairfleet Affair is on sale since September 19, 2023.
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Hardcover Pages: 272 pages
EAN/UPC: 9781454950127
