2024 Gift Guide Kicks Off: Novelty & Nonfiction Books
November 21, 2024 Comments Off on 2024 Gift Guide Kicks Off: Novelty & Nonfiction Books
It’s that time of year again, and I’m excited to kick off my Kids & Teens Holiday Gift Guide! This year’s guide will have five installments (Novelty & Nonfiction, Picture Books, Short Chapter Books, Elementary Books, and Books for Tweens & Young Teens), with over 65 recommendations for ages 2-15. As always, the focus is on books that published this fall, so you can be sure the young readers in your life won’t already have them. Every year, in preparation for this guide, I read hundreds of books with the aim of finding something for every kind of reader (and every kind of gift giver). This year, my amazing colleagues helped me vet what to read, particularly in the elementary and teen spaces.
We begin, as we do every year, with the showstoppers: these are the novelty or nonfiction books with mega gift appeal. Readers are born in browsable books like these: the fact that you don’t have to read them from cover to cover—you can flip through and pause wherever you fancy—puts readers in the driver’s seat of their own experience. At a time when we are seeing an unprecedented decline in kids reading for fun, owing largely to a decline in stamina, we should be embracing books whose very format is inviting, not intimidating. Reading is reading and nonfiction and novelty books prove that again and again.
If you’re inclined to purchase, I hope you’ll consider supporting my work as the buyer for Old Town Books, a delightful indie in Alexandria, VA, which this fall got a gorgeous new space for kids and teens (now you know the reason why I’m quieter on this blog than I used to be). If you can come in person, I promise you’ll feel like you’ve stepped into the magic of storytelling. If you can’t, I hope you’ll still let us ship you books. And if you don’t choose either of those routes, I hope you’ll support an indie bookstore near you, because bookstores will only remain places of discovery, passion, and expertise in our communities so long as we support them with our wallets. Thank you, kindly.
« Read the rest of this entry »2021 Gift Guide: A Seek-and-Find Trifecta
November 4, 2021 § 1 Comment
Last week, I launched the Gift Guide with My Favorite Picture Book of the Year. Next week, before moving onto other ages, I’ll do a round-up of a dozen more picture books perfect for gifting. But today, I want to call attention to three 2021 picture books that would make terrific gifts on their own or together. You know I can’t resist a bundling, and each of these treasure troves gives new meaning to the seek-and-find trope, a genre in need of updating before this year came along.
Every parent knows kids love nothing more than treasure hunts. But raise your hand if you’ve ever hidden a Where’s Waldo? book. Or a Richard Scarry book. Or any of those with dizzying pictures that have your child hunched over the page in your lap, scrunching up their eyes to look for a red-striped shirt or a tiny gold bug or any number of things, until it seems possible you’ve missed bedtime all together and it’s now morning again.
What if a child could get their seek-and-find fix in books that were cleverly crafted and delightfully fun to read aloud? What if these books featured art that was easy on our (tired) eyes? Wouldn’t that alone be worth welcoming the Holiday Season with open arms?
« Read the rest of this entry »Counting Mania
June 14, 2014 Comments Off on Counting Mania
My three year old is a counting fool. She counts the little green squares on her napkins (thank you, Target); she counts the steps up to her room; she counts everyone’s matches in our endless rounds of Go Fish. “I’m out of breath of counting!” she exclaimed the other day, after numerous laps around the house counting from 1 to 50. So, it only stands to follow that she would also want to read counting books, an especially robust subject matter in the world of children’s picture books (see my complete list of favorites at the end).
Emily’s current obsession is Steve Light’s new Have You Seen My Dragon? (Ages 2-5), which I knew would be a hit the instant I felt the green metallic foil dragon on the front (ooooooh, ahhhhhh). While most counting books can’t pretend to “teach” counting (with the exception of Anno’s Counting Book, the single best presentation of counting for children that I’ve ever seen), the good ones present clever ways to practice counting and to develop the finger control that goes along with it. « Read the rest of this entry »
Quiet Time Was Never So Quiet
June 10, 2012 § 5 Comments
Let’s face it: there are times when you can’t submit to the chants of “Read to me! Read to me!” Perhaps you’ve just had a second baby and you’re looking for something to occupy the first. Maybe you’ve got a preschooler who is starting to give up her nap, but you’re still (desperately) hoping to institute Quiet Time. Or maybe your child is not quite reading but wants to feel like he is.
Whatever your motive, there is hope: it is possible to get your non-reader to engage in quiet, independent time with books. Of course, there are some books that are more likely to succeed than others. And, as a bonus, these also tend to be the books that bore you to tears if you do have to read them aloud. You know the type: books whose illustrations are jam-packed with detail; books whose pages your child wants to pour over at such length that it seems like you’ll be stuck in his room reading to him forever. Take yourself out of the equation, and these books become—not your worst enemy—but your greatest asset.
What to Read to Your Kids 