Lona recommends: Maddi’s Fridge by Lois Brandt
Genre: Realistic fiction
Reading level: Elementary school
Summary: Sofia learns that her friend Maddi can’t afford groceries, and tries to figure out a way to help her deal with food insecurity.
Lona says: If I was still teaching, I would use this for first grade and do a whole unit with this!
This title is available at Foster Public Library.
Cathy recommends: Winter’s Gift by Jane Monroe Donovan
Genre: Picture book
Reading Level: Preschool
Summary: A man living alone rescues a horse in distress.
Cathy says: It’s a feel-good story. Fit for Christmas, for anyone who loves horses, for anyone who wonders why they help others, and for compassion for the elderly.
This title is available at Tyler Free Library.
Cathy recommends: Penguin and Pinecone by Salina Yoon
Genre: Picture book
Reading Level: Preschool
Summary: Friendships can spring up at any time, but what happens when one friend moves away?
Cathy says: It’s a sweet story of caring and dealing with physical separation of two friends. It also looks at the affects of the passage of time on each of the friends.
This title is available at Tyler Free Library.
Cathy recommends: Marvelous Marvin by E. J. Finocchio, D.V.M.
Genre: “Canine autobiography”
Reading level: School-age readers
Summary: The true story of an unwanted dog as he tells of his journey to become an official greeter for the RISPCA.
Cathy says: This book gives children insight as to the minds of dogs, instilling knowledge of canines and hopefully, compassion for those animals who are not physically perfect. Dr. Finocchio was the director of the RISPCA when he wrote the book.
This title is available at Tyler Free Library.
Cathy recommends: Do Fish Sleep? by Jens Raschke, illustrated by Jens Rassmus
Genre: Fiction
Reading Level: Early chapter book
Summary: One child’s journey through her changing feelings about her little brother, who has leukemia.
Cathy says: Simple language dealing with a complicated and highly emotional situation.
This title is available at Tyler Free Library.
Cathy recommends: Stop and Smell the Cookies by Gibson Frazier
Genre: Picture book
Reading level: Age 4-8
Summary: A young boy suffers from lack of impulse control and learns to deal with it.
Cathy says: Many young children act out inappropriately from time to time. This sweet book gives children a positive way to control the impulses.
This title is available at Tyler Free Library.
Audrey recommends: The Blue House by Phoebe Wahl
Genre: Picture book
Reading level: Age 4-8
Summary: Leo and his dad are forced to move out of their beloved neighborhood when the cranes come to knock it down.
Audrey says: There’s nothing more difficult than going through a huge unexpected life transition. I love the way Leo’s single-parent household channels their big emotions into music and art. Not to mention, Wahl’s illustrations are beautiful. Her intricate paintings are littered with little Easter eggs to favorite albums and musicians, plus a cat hiding on every spread. You can easily find yourself lingering on a single image for several minutes.
This title is available at Tyler Free Library.
Cathy recommends: Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming
Genre: Fact-based fiction
Reading Level: Picture book
Summary: One well-meaning child benefits an entire town in a foreign country.
Cathy says: This book left me with a smile on my face. A child who joined USA’s Children’s Aid Society after WWII devastated parts of Europe sends a bar of soap, a pair of socks, and a bar of chocolate to a child in a small town in Holland. As the needs of these townspeople become known to the Indiana town, the generosity blossoms, as does the Dutch child and her community. How can a poor town repay such kindness? They do so in a clever way. The author’s mother is the little girl from Indiana.
This title is available at Tyler Free Library.
Audrey recommends: Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith
Genre: Graphic novel
Reading Level: 8+
Summary: The epic hero Beowulf is reimagined as a five-year-old fighter guarding her candy and toy hoard from the gloom of grown-ups.
Audrey says: As someone who studied Old English extensively in undergrad, I was honor-bound to check out this charming new adaptation about a kindergarten Beowulf and a gloomy grown-up Grendel. I was not expecting how faithful it would be to the original. As I stood in front of the shelf reading the first few pages, I immediately picked up on the period-accurate alliteration and the creative kennings. Weinersmith even adapts the seemingly tangential anecdotes thrown into the poem, even when he could have excluded them for narrative consistency. It brought me so much joy.
If you’re familiar with the original, you’ll get a chuckle out of the clever adaptation choices. But if you’re not a die-hard Beowulf fan like me, the story stands on its own as a tale of kids who are fighting the pressure to grow up too fast. Old English poetry was written for the ear, rather than the eye. That means it’s extremely fun to read aloud, with the high density of stressed syllables and the satisfying cadence of repeated sounds. The verse is bolstered by absurd illustrations from French comic artist Boulet. This is a great book if you want an easy entry into Old English, or a hilarious read-aloud for kids.
Audrey recommends: The Painting, dir. Jean-Francois Laguionie
Genre: Animated film
Recommended Age: 10+
Summary: The characters within a painting rebel against the artist who drew them and learn how to create their own identities.
Audrey says: I first saw this movie as part of a film festival, before it had an English dub, and I was blown away by the artistry and narrative brilliance. Revisiting a decade later, it’s just as dazzling as the first time. The film imagines a world where characters in a painting are divided into social classes depending on how complete they are. The fully-finished Alldunns believe that the artist designed them to be superior to the thinly-outlined Sketchies in the background. A group of outcasts search for their painter to find out if their destiny really is determined by a big bearded man in the sky. The unique animation style is the perfect way to tell this story of free will and self-expression, and the genre-defying plot twist at the very end is one of my most memorable moments in cinema.
This title is available on Kanopy in English or the original French. Click here to log in to Kanopy using your Libraries of Foster card.
