Two Charming Picture Books – and a Special Display!

I stopped by school yesterday to look at the mail and see if any boxes had arrived. Late summer boxes are the best!  Each of them contains new books for the year ahead and as I take each one out, I’m usually thinking about the student who will want to read it first – or how much our younger students will enjoy hearing the story during library visits.

Among many treasures were two stand-outs:

Ninja! by Arree Chung is the funny story of a little boy on an important mission: to capture his sister’s milk and cookies. Chung uses panels – comic book style – to follow the adventures of the Ninja who faces obstacles around his house, including his napping father, to accomplish his task. Of course, his sister is not too happy when her brother drinks the milk from her “sacred cup!”  For a ninja-themed story time, pair this book with Nighttime Ninja by Barbara DaCosta and Ed Young – the story of another stealthy ninja on a similar mission.

The Midnight Library by Kazuno Kohara is going to be hard to check-out. I want to put it on display in the library and look at it every day! The story of a library open only at night, this is one of my favorites of 2014 – the perfect book to read in your pajamas. The librarian in charge of this magical place, the “little librarian,” is assisted by three owls. Together they help the library’s animal patrons find just the right book to send them into dreamland, but one night things get a bit challenging – a hole in the roof, a wolf who reads a sad story, and a very noisy “band” of squirrels.  But the little librarian solves all of the troubles, and along with her nocturnal friends, makes sure everyone has a happy ending. The Midnight Library is a cozy and happy book – the perfect little book about books.

One more picture….

 

For readers who live on the South Shore….I hope you can visit Buttonwood Books and Toys over the next few days and check out the summer reading display by two Inly students. I was happy to see that they included Grace Lin’s  Dumpling Days – their summer reading book!

And, finally, a word about the teddy bear at the top of this post. Last week we went to the Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmouth, Rhode Island – the oldest topiary garden in the United States. It’s awesome to stand in the garden and be surrounded by big green (and harmless) animals including a giraffe, a unicorn, an elephant, and my favorite – the teddy bear. For more information, here’s the link:

http://www.newportmansions.org/explore/green-animals-topiary-garden