VOLUME 3, NUMBER 1 OCTOBER OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009 jlgmonthly Books! When I arrived at our Ohio office on a recent visit, I saw 8 1/2" x 11" cover images for all 180 of our fall titles displayed on the walls. Wow! I had a hard time concentrating on saying my hellos. Next, I ducked into the warehouse. The books were stacked ready for shipping in aisle after aisle, and the warehouse staff was busy packing Susan Marston, JLG Editorial Director boxes and wrapping towers of them in plastic. It was thrilling to see the work we do at our desks in New York transformed into something so concrete. Thanks to those hardworking warehouse folks, you have now received some of those 180 titles as well as this first issue of our second year (!) of JLG Monthly. In response to member feedback, we’ve streamlined the components of each page—from the summaries and reviews to the curriculum indications—and added companion titles. I’d like to direct your attention to a few of the outstanding titles, but which should those be? Should I discuss the seasonally appropriate and hunger-inducing Applesauce Season or the amazing sequels to Al Capone Does My Shirts, The Hunger Games, and The Knife of Never Letting Go? Should I describe The 3-2-3 Detective Agency in The Disappearance of Dave Warthog in the new elementary graphic novel level (GE) or The Story of Snow in the new elementary science level (SCE)? It’s too hard to decide! I think I’ll just let you peruse and linger as you wish. INSIDE THIS ISSUE: October Books....................................................................................................... 2 JLG News & Notes ................................................................................................. 32 November Books .................................................................................................. 34 Index of October and November Books ........................................................... 64 December Forthcoming Titles ............................................................................ 64 Junior Library Guild 7858 Industrial Parkway www.juniorlibraryguild.com • 866.205.0570 Plain City, OH 43064 PS PRIMARY SpANISH • GRADES K–3 OCTOBER The Big, Big Wall / No puedo bajar by Reginald Howard • illustrated by Ariane Dewey and José Aruego translated by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy Houghton Mifflin • ISBN: 9780547255477 • Dewey: E • 28 pp • 6" x 8 1/2" Scheduled Month: October 2009 “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. He did not want to have a big fall. / Humpty Dumpty se subió a un muro. Pero no podía bajar.” Can Humpty Dumpty’s friends help him get down without hurting himself? Activity. Tips to help a child become a reader. Full- color illustrations. JLG’S REVIEWERS SAY: Ariane Dewey lives in New York City and often works with artist José Aruego. He • A fun story which emphasizes how friends can help conquer fears. draws the illustrations, and she colors them. Ms. Dewey says color, more than shapes or • Cute illustrations portray Humpty and his friends in an endearing way. sounds, tells her about the world around • Simple text and repetition are appropriate for beginning readers. her. Her favorite kind of paint is school poster paint. • Large font size aids readability. www.ariane-dewey.com • The play on the tale of Humpty Dumpty—and therefore on reader expectations— José Aruego grew up in the adds weight to the story. Philippines, where he liked to read comic books and draw cartoon animals. Today he still draws, and he sometimes giggles while he’s drawing animals, because they look so funny. Together, Ms. Dewey and Mr. Aruego have created illustrations for more than sixty-five books. Alma Flor Ada was born in Camaguey, Cuba, and eventually moved to Peru, where she was a teacher. Today she writes and translates children’s books and is an advocate for the rights of children to be educated in their home language. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Humpty Dumpty Climbs Again by Dave Horowitz Help! by Holly Keller My Friends / Mis amigos by Taro Gomi CURRICULUM InDICATIonS Book type: Bilingual early reader. Genre: Fiction. Summary: Humpty Dumpty’s friends help him avoid a big, big fall. Main characters: Humpty Dumpty and his friends: a mouse, a rabbit, and a pig. Curriculum areas: Language arts. Spanish. Topics: Humpty Dumpty. Stories in Rhyme. Fear. Heights. Falling. Friends. Teamwork. Available at Sensitive areas: None. juniorlibraryguild.com 2 jlgmonthly • OCTOBER/NovEMBER 2009 866.205.0570 OCT OBER GRADES PreK–K • KINDERGARTEn K Little Mouse Gets Ready written and illustrated by Jeff Smith TOON • ISBN: 9781935179016 • Dewey: 741.5'973 • 32 pp • 9" x 6" Scheduled Month: October 2009 Little Mouse gets dressed all by himself. He pulls on his underpants, fastens the snap on his pants, carefully puts on his shoes, and precisely lines up the buttons on his shirt. Finally, he’s ready to go. Unfortunately, he hasn’t realized one very important thing. Full-color illustrations. JLG’S REVIEWERS SAY: Jeff Smith says, “The seeds for the Little • Accessible, uncluttered cartoon-style illustrations. Mouse character go back to my childhood, • Amusing details, such as the underpants adapted around the age of five for a mouse tail. or so, the same time I came up with my other • Straightforward and instructive for toddlers and cartoon characters, preschoolers learning to dress themselves. the Bone cousins. • The ending will have readers laughing out loud. The Little Mouse I drew back then was a happy-go-lucky youngster who had a lot of imagination and liked to explore. He also had a bright red vest. You’ll see he hasn’t changed much. “When I was asked by Françoise Mouly, the publisher of Toon BookS, to write (and draw) a children’s comic for very young readers, I began to think back to when I was that age, learning to get dressed, and how ritualized it is. I remembered all the rules one has to follow, like left shoe, right shoe, and getting the tags in the back. I also recalled the difficulty little fingers have when trying to manipulate buttons, zippers, and shoelaces (now thankfully replaced on smaller shoes with Velcro!). “The rest of Little Mouse’s tale is just some of my normal cartooning nonsense. Hope you enjoy it!” YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Pip & Squeak by Ian Schoenherr Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems Luke on the Loose by Harry Bliss CURRICULUM InDICATIonS Book type: Early graphic novel. Curriculum areas: Language arts. Genre: Humorous fiction. Topics: Mice. Clothing and dress. Humor. Summary: Little Mouse gets dressed to Completing tasks in a sequence. go to the barn with his mother, brothers, Sensitive areas: None. and sisters. Main characters: Little Mouse and Mama. Available at juniorlibraryguild.com www.juniorlibraryguild.com OCTOBER/NovEMBER 2009 • jlgmonthly P PRIMARY • GRADES K–1 OCTOBER jlgguides Once Upon a Twice by Denise Doyen • illustrated by Barry Moser Random House • ISBN: 9780375956126 • Dewey: E • 32 pp • 10" x 10" Scheduled Month: October 2009 “Danger’s lurking in the lettuce, / ’Tween the celery, stalkers get us! / Open moonlight is a menace. / Trust in shadows—disappear.” A mouse named Jam thinks he is too clever to bother heeding the warnings of his elders. He goes looking for adventure—but is he too confident for his own good? Full-color illustrations. JLG’S REVIEWERS SAY: • The wordplay and rhymes make this book stand out. Denise Doyen directed children’s television for Disney and then took some time off to • The poetry scans well and contains such raise sons, Paul and Max. “But I’m a writer at skillfully composed lines as “In the middle heart,” she says, “so when my boys hit that of the nice, / The moon was on the rice / age when they pretend they don’t have And the Mice were scoutaprowl. .” mothers, I went back to school to study writing for children.” • Wonderfully striking, atmospheric artwork. Ms. Doyen lives in Pacific Palisades, California, with her sons, • The story’s meaning will not be lost on her husband, Michael, and a view younger children, despite an inventive and of the sea. Once Upon a Twice is her unique vocabulary. first book. Barry Moser calls Once Upon a Twice “a delight.” He also says that the book, with its moon character, seemed made for him. “All my life I have been fascinated with the moon,” Mr. Moser explains, “and have made lots and lots of pictures of it. I never tire of watching its passing phases and its seeming playfulness among clouds as it makes its way across the starry sky.” YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Trouble by Jane Kurtz CURRICULUM InDICATIonS Shark and Lobster’s Amazing Undersea Adventure Book type: Picture book. by Viviane Schwarz Genre: Poetry. Summary: A cautionary tale featuring mice, written in nonsense verse. Main characters: Jam, a brazen young mouse; eldermice. Curriculum areas: Language arts. Topics: Mice. Stories in rhyme. Wordplay. Rules. Cautionary tale. Children’s poetry. Elders. Overconfidence. Sensitive areas: None. Available at Activity Guide available from JLG juniorlibraryguild.com jlgmonthly • OCTOBER/NovEMBER 2009 866.205.0570 OCT OBER GRADES K–1 • PRIMARy P+ Applesauce Season by Eden Ross Lipson • illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein Roaring Brook • ISBN: 9781596432161 • 40 pp • 8 1/2" x 11" Scheduled Month: October 2009 A young boy lives in the city, but that doesn’t prevent him from enjoying “applesauce season” right after school starts. His family buys six pounds of apples, “because that’s just how much our saucepot holds.” Using at least three kinds of apples in each pot “for real flavor,” their applesauce is different every week. Recipe. Full-color illustrations. JLG’S REVIEWERS SAY: • A young boy’s excitement about making Eden Ross Lipson wrote, “I’ve made applesauce turns into a reverence for a family applesauce all my adult life for myself. And tradition that spans three generations. if I made it for myself, the added pleasure • The pleasing contrast between life in the city has been to share the task and the result with children.” Her recipe is in the back of and the freshness of the produce at a farmers’ the book.