DOOBY DOOBY MOO by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2006) When farm animals make their way into a picture book, you can usually be certain that good fun’s ahead. When those animals happen to be the notorious Duck, Sheep, and Cows from Cronin and Lewin’s CLICK, CLACK, MOO: Cows That Type, you can be assured… Read more »
Doreen Cronin
A Chicken Squad, in The Middle of Nowhere, on Planet Kindergarten
Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie T. Lamana (Chronicle Books, 2014) Armani Curtis is turning ten and it’s huge deal, with a big cake, and a certain wrapped box. Then Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans and the Lower Nines and everything, everything changes. This moving story of courage and, ultimately, survival in the face of… Read more »
Librarians Corner: Books to Make You Laugh
Humor. It’s more than joke books. Humor is also very individualized. Some of us have more sensitive funny bones than others and see humor in the oddest places while others don’t recognize humor unless it hits us over the head. Humor also comes from many sources. Some authors recall funny incidents from their own childhood… Read more »
The Anatomy of a Mystery – The Legend of Diamond Lil
Doreen Cronin’s The Legend of Diamond Lil: A J.J. Tully Mystery is a tale of intrigue, deception, and – well – chickens. It is a marvelously tangled web of solid clues, red herrings, and everything in between, one that is interesting enough that child readers will be willing to return to the text for some… Read more »
Welcome to ReaderKidZ, March 2012
Whodunit? Readers of all ages love a good mystery. Whether it’s the fun of figuring out who the culprit is as the story goes along, or seeing the bad guy get his just deserts, there are few things more satisfying than a good mystery. Luckily for children on all reading levels, the selection of mysteries… Read more »
Giggles Galore
There’s nothing quite like a laugh shared between a parent and her child, a teacher and his students, or a librarian and a class of eager listeners. This week’s Book Room features funny books that will have kids and adults laughing out loud. What’s more? Each of these books structure their stories in non-traditional ways…. Read more »
Funny Books Rule! Why Kids Love Them
I was so pleased that Jack Gantos’s DEAD END IN NORVELT won the Newbery medal this year. Because it’s funny! Humor doesn’t always get the respect and prizes it deserves. Newberys have gone to humorous books only a couple of times in the last fifty years, mainly since 1999*. We tend to assume that if… Read more »
