The Hunger Games Trilogy

The Hunger Games (trilogy) Catching Fire, and Mockingjay

By Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Press

I’ll start out with a great big WOW! This series is what YA Lit is all about for me. The books are exciting, smart, not-predictable, humorous, engaging, brutal, romantic, breathtaking, tragic and triumphant, all rolled into one.

The premise is not that far-fetched, actually. Picture a future United States that has collapsed into a world of drought, war and famine. We’ve been renamed Panem and have been divided into a Capitol and 12 districts. The leaders at the Capitol have developed a sort of a sick competition/entertainment between the districts in which a yearly competition pits two youth from each district to have a televised fight to the death, until only one of the competitors survive. The whole thing is televised with state-of-the-art cameras that can zoom into even the most remote locations.

This is not a World Wrestling Federation competition or a gladiator-style fight where they are all placed in a round arena to go at it. These battles take place in the wilderness where competitors can hide, plot, ambush and form alliances. To make it even trickier, the Capitol has the technological abilities to create artificial conditions, animals, insects and similar plagues to either help or harm the fighters. This all makes for an extraordinary plotline that is an exciting, tense and engrossing.

Congratulations to Collins for creating Katniss, an amazing and powerful female lead character. Readers will easily identify with the heroine and root for her through all three volumes of this engrossing series. Librarians…get your teens hooked on this series as soon as possible as there is a major motion picture in the works. Don’t forget to stock up on plenty of copies for your library shelves because the Hunger Games books will soon become even more popular than they are now.

Press Here

Press Here

By Herve Tullet

Chronicle Books

Published 2011

Imagine you are working in the library one day and…SURPRISE…a group of 2nd graders and their teacher pops in thinking today was the day they had scheduled for a school visit. What do you do? What do you grab for an impromptu session?

Well, I have a new favorite guaranteed hit book that has found a permanent spot on my storytime shelf, and it is Press Here by Herve Tullet. Originally published in France, then translated for the US market in 2011, this unique and creative book is storytime gold. Unlike anything you’ve read before, this book features a simple series of colored dots that the reader “controls” by following the commands of the text. Tap the yellow dot on the first page and it magically turns into two dots on the next page. Later on, a page featuring three perfectly aligned rows of different colored dots says to shake the book and see what happens. The next page reveals the dots all askew. Then tip the book to the right and all the dots slide to the right. It is just a bunch of crazy fun that makes the reader feel as though they are controlling the dots.

I’ve tried this book with preschoolers and they loved it and I’ve read it to the 1^st – 5^th graders that come to my Lego Book Club. I’ve even read it to adults and everyone loves it. Add it to your storytime shelf today and you’ll never be left high and dry again for those surprise school visits!

One Moon, Two Cats

One Moon, Two Cats

By Laura Godwin

Illustrations by Yoko Tanaka

Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Published 2011

From a storyteller’s point of view, the only thing this beautiful work of art is missing is an introduction. After the first read of this book, even some adults may not grasp that this book contrasts and compares two cats are in two different places—one in the country, one in the city. When I used this book in preschool storytime this week, I set up the story by talking briefly about how some cats live in town and some live out in the country...but they both like lots of the same things. “Let’s take a look at the things these two cats like that are the same.” With that little introduction, the book was much more meaningful to the listeners.

This is such a visually appealing book. Being a cat lover myself, I would be happy to frame any of these illustrations and hang them on my walls. They are carefully executed in a soft palette of greens, grays and browns that expertly capture the essence of nighttime that felines enjoy so much. Three cheers to Yoko Tanaka!

The text by Laura Godwin is also a work of art. There is not a single word I would add or leave out. The words work like magic to create an aesthetic whole, uniting words, design and illustrations in a soothing, symbiotic relationship. The panoramic paintings on the front and back endpapers are gallery-worthy and worked as excellent visuals to illustrate my introductory concept of town and country.

This is one of the most visually pleasing picture books of the year. Go out and get a copy for you and your favorite cats!

LLama Llama Home With Mama

Llama Llama Home With Mama

By Anna Dewdney

Viking

2011

When you’ve done storytimes for years, you know that not all picture books work well for storytime. One key ingredient that helps draw kids into a book is whether they can relate to the topic. This book deals with how miserable it is to have a bad cold. Ask any child if they have ever been sick and you will always get a lengthy, graphic description of their battle with the flu or a cold. That’s why Dewdney has a hit on her hands with this book. They will easily empathize with the young llama as she deals with the sneezing, stuffy head and yucky sore throat. Add to that the author’s adorable illustrations and hilarious, rhyming text and you have a new, classic addition to the popular Llama Llama series.

Add this one to your storytime shelf today. You may find yourself wishing you would get sick so you could stay home and read this story all day long!

The Little Pea

The Little Pea

By Eric Battut

Sky Pony Press

Published 2011

I do not believe I have ever read a picture book that had a little green pea as the lead character, so kudos to the author for taking that bold step. The composition of this book is equally unique with plenty of white space surrounding the smaller, whimsical illustrations.

The story is easy to understand. A pea hops out of its pod and decides to go find himself. As he observes the world, he tries to emulate the creatures he sees…a peacock, a tiger and an elephant. At this point, the story could have gone one of two ways—the pea could decide he looks silly and conform to the way a pea should look, or the pea could embrace his originality and decide to be different. I’ll let you discover the ending on your own, but I was pleased with the lesson presented at the end.

I admit, I thought this story was a bit iffy to use in a storytime setting but a recent preschool audience proved me wrong. All eyes were on the book as I told the pea’s story and they were equally pleased with the outcome. So cuddle like two peas in a pod and enjoy this original picture book with your favorite sprout!

Ten Little Caterpillars

Ten Little Caterpillars
By Bill Martin Jr.
Illustrated by Lois Ehlert
Beach Lane Books
Published 2011

What can you say about a book by two undisputed giants in the field of children’s literature? It has to be good, right? Well…I have to say this book isn’t my favorite. For starters, the first line of the book starts with, “The first little caterpillar crawled into a bower.” I know a lot of words, but I have to admit, I needed to look up a definition for bower. I had a good guess, but it just is not one of those words you use every day. And I doubt most preschoolers know what it is either. I understand Martin wanted to rhyme with “flower”, but was it absolutely necessary to do it on the very first page?

On the good side, the book is a work of art. Ehlert provides simple, yet intriguing paper cut art against a white background so each page is dramatic and interesting. The main text is bold and brief, but there is some underlying text that is hidden amongst the illustrations that help to identify types of leaves, birds, plants and more. So I could see using this book in one of two ways. I doubt the incredibly simple storyline would hold the interest of a preschool group, but I could imagine using it for a gathering of 2-3 year olds. The storyline is simple enough and the illustrations are bold enough to hold this group from start to finish. And I think it would be a great experience to share this book with a preschooler on a one-on-one basis. This would allow the reader and preschooler to linger over each page, talk about the details of the subtext and allow some dialogic reading to take place.

I’ve seen better from both of these artists and hope the next book they put together has a bit more of a plot to the storyline. Whereas “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?” has an easy-to-learn hook that has kids chanting along, this caterpillar book is sort of stuck in a cocoon.

Zombie in Love

Just an old fashioned Zombie love story…

Review of Zombie in Love

By Kelly DiPucchio

Illustrated by Scott Campbell

Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Published 2011

Mortimer is looking for love. Never mind that he appears to be the only Zombie in his school. He tries his hardest to meet girls by doing things like walking his Zombie dog in the park or offering a diamond ring (with someone else’s finger still attached) to a potential girlfriend. Mortimer even tries to offer the female mail carrier a shiny, red heart…and it’s actually a real heart! It probably doesn't help that everywhere he goes, a group of worms follows him around—oh, and his arm falls off sometimes. But just when Mortimer is about to give up, drop-dead gorgeous Mildred stumbles in and the two have lots in common…they are both Zombies.

The text and illustrations work together wonderfully in this fun little Zombie love story. The writer/illustrator duo do something few teams can successfully accomplish and that is to create a little book that appeals to so many different ages. Adults will revel in the tiny details in the illustrations, providing lots of comic relief that might be missed by the younger readers. The book is smart enough to appeal to the sophisticated humor of teens, and grade school kids will love the crude scenes and celebrate when Mortimer finds his true Zombie love. I would have gladly shared this book with my children when they were in preschool, but it probably would not be appropriate at a public library preschool storytime where certain parents may not approve of the idea of Zombies.

Otherwise, I think it’s a no-brainer to add this Zombie love story to any library collection.