New children's book releases from Feb. 28 Louisiana Book News

I met Rosemary Smith when she took my novel writing class at UL's Potpourri and she shared her wonderful ideas for a novel. But then, there was this children's book inside her, she also told me, one featuring a lizard named Lizzie who learns the lesson of listening to her parents the hard way, when she wonders off and finds danger lurking on the other side of her wall.

Smith decided to go forth with her children's book idea and a publisher found Lizzie an adorable character — who wouldn't? Lizard Tales: Lizzie Takes a Walk on the Wild Side (Strategic Book Publishing) is now in print and a sweet tale for young children, one that's lovingly illustrated. Find a copy and bring Lizzie home. Your kids will thank you for it.

Smith is a retired realtor, entrepreneur and multi-media technician.

            Pelican Publishing of New Orleans has several new children's books out this month, one by award-winning Louisiana children's musician and storyteller, Johnette Downing. Continuing her success with Today is Monday in Louisiana, Downing has published Today is Monday in Texas, substituting chicken-fried steak and chili for gumbo. The is complemented by the collage-style illustrations by Deborah Ousley Kadair.

Other children's books by Pelican this spring include Stonewall Jackson's Black Sunday School by Rickey E. Pittman, illustrated by Lynn Hosegood, concerning Jackson's time spent teaching black citizens at his Sunday school in Virginia; Way Out West on My Little Pony by Jan Peck, illustrated by Herb Leonhard, which will delight young girls who loves horses and The Emperor's Army: A Mathematical Adventure by Virginia Walton Pilegard, illustrated by Adrian Tans, which uses the Chinese historic terra cotta militia as both a story and a math lesson.

New releases reviewed by Lynn Castille

What little boy can resist a title like The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear by David Bruins and Hilary Leung ($16.95 Kids Can Press)? But don't let the title fool you, the story is not about a bear who is a ninja cowboy, but instead about three very different friends, each with their own strengths. As the story progresses two friends challenge each other to see who is "better," leaving the third friend to decide. Arguments ensue and no agreement can be made on who is the "best." Instead an agreement is reached that they are all special and unique, no one had to be the best! This book includes directions to play "Ninja Cowboy Bear" the game. (Voted two thumbs up by grandsons Blaize and Brent.)

            No Babysitters Allowed by Amber Stewart tells the tale of Hopscotch rabbit and his stuffed rabbit Rabbity ($16.99 Bloomsbury Children's Books). This story is written to help young ones overcome their fear of separation anxiety on babysitter night. Building a "no babysitter fort" Hopscotch decides he'd rather hide in his fort after mom and dad go out than paint pictures and make cars with his babysitter, Mrs. Honeybunch. However, when Mrs. Honeybunch sits down to read to Rabbity, Hopscotch decides she reads his stories "all wrong." Hopscotch abandons his fort to help read his stories, make a car and paint a picture. When mom and dad return to tell Hopscotch good night, he sleepily tells them it's okay if Mrs. Honeybunch comes back "to play." Maybe having a babysitter isn't so bad after all. Amber Stewart, who lives in England, is also the author of Rabbit Ears. (Voted two thumbs up by grandsons Blaize and Brent.)

Edward and the Eureka Lucky Wish Company by Barbara Todd and illustrated by cartoonist Patricia Storms ($16.95 Kids Can Press) tells the tale of Edward, a boy whose greatest wish is to fly. Beautifully illustrated by Storms, this book will surely delight the dreamer in your family. At a park Edward discovers a "wish booth" and a ticket good for "three wishes." Much mayhem ensues. In this laugh out loud story kids learn to be careful of what they wish for! Fun, Fun, Fun! (Another two thumbs up from grandsons Blaize and Brent.)

Stanley's Beauty Contest by Linda Bailey ($17.95 Kids Can Press). Stanley tries to be a good dog because he knows what he is supposed to and not supposed to do, but it's really hard! When his people gussy him up and bring Stanley to the park, he knows something is up. But he never suspects he's been entered in a beauty contest for dogs! Also in the contest are his dog friends: Alice, Nutsy and Gassy Jack (don't ask!) All his dog friends look good and smell good, like raspberry and peppermint. Stanley tries his best to be the fastest dog in the race, the best in the dog tricks and lastly, the most beautiful in the beauty contest. But to no avail. Stanley does not win any of the prize cookies. And when Stanley sneaks over to the prize table to just have "a sniff" of the last prize cookie, he accidentally knocks over the table, which causes a huge dog pile of whoofing and tail wagging dogs. It's the most fun the dogs have all day. In the end, Stanley doesn't care that he didn't win any prizes, because he loves his people and his life as an ordinary dog. Stanley's Beauty Contest joins a long line of other Stanley books. (Another two thumbs up from Blaize and Brent--a really fun read for the kids who love dogs.)

Fall 2009 Releases

Louisiana author and storyteller Dianne de Las Casas explains how and when chickens decided to eat roaches instead of being their friend in Madame Poulet and Monsieur Roach by Pelican Publishing of New Orleans. The book is illustrated by Marita Gentry, a South Louisiana artist, and there's a French dictionary in the back.

Another Louisiana storyteller and children's musician Johnette Downing offers her take on why crawfish like to hide beneath the earth's surface in Why the Crawfish Lives in the Mud, another Pelican title.

When New Orleans schools were ordered integrated in1960, kindergartner Ruby Bridges attended William Frantz Elementary, an all-white Ninth Ward school. Many white parents took their kids out in protest, leaving Bridges alone with her teacher. Bridges tells the tale in Scholastic's second-level reader titled Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story.

            Acadiana artist George Rodrigue uses his popular creation, the Blue Dog, as he asks Are You Blue Dog's Friend? The book is full of both Blue Dog paintings, and a few of Rodrigue's earlier works, as Rodrigue answers the question with lots of whimsical text.

Walter Anderson of Ocean Springs, Miss., was an eccentric artist who sometimes lived off a nearby remote island to capture its nature for his work. Many people worried about his sanity, and he sometimes lived away from family for weeks, but he created a magnificent legacy. The Secret World of Walter Anderson by Hester Bass, beautifully illustrated by E.B. Lewis explains Anderson's story, plus offers biographical data on the artist in the back.

Keith McGowan, who spent time in New Orleans, offers a modern-day retelling of Hansel and Gretel in The Witch's Guide to Cooking with Children, with illustrations by Yoko Tanaka. Take the title literally and you'll get the gist of the story. Two children move to a new town and discover their neighbor's taste for children may be one involving salt and pepper.

Lynn Castille of Lafayette offers this review of Sarah Boone-A Lowcountry Girl, a young reader book by Pelican Publishing written by Michelle Adams and illustrated by New Orleans native Jane Brewster.

“This book centers around 11-year-old Sarah Boone’s life in 1780 on her Lowcountry plantation in South Carolina. Adams does a good job describing everyday life for a young girl in pre-revolutionary America and readers will quickly realize that life in 1780 was not that different than a young girl’s life today: school, chores, sibling rivalry and finding a best friend. Sarah’s best friend comes to her as Rose, a slave girl recently brought to Boone Hall, the family’s plantation.

“The story and pictures are sure to delight any young reader. As the story concludes Sarah learns the lesson that it’s family and friends who truly matter the most in the end.”

Rebecca Brown doesn’t know why her father has hauled her off to New Orleans to live with an eccentric old friend and her daughter. She’d rather stay in New York City or travel to China with her father on business. But since New Orleans is her hometown, her dad insists it’s the best place for Rebecca to be.

As you might imagine, this doesn’t turn out to be the case in the haunting YA novel Ruined by Paula Morris. Rebecca must attend a snotty private school in the Garden District where most of the students hail from old-line families who belong to Carnival krewes, such as Septimus, one of the finest. She doesn’t understand the caste system in place and only a few girls are friendly to her.

“Rebecca tried to look interested, but talk of masked old men and debutante balls made her feel even more out of place here,” Morris writes. “She didn’t even know things like this still went on in America, and she couldn’t really visualize them. All she could think of was Zorro and maybe the Ku Klux Klan dropping into a Jane Austin novel.”

Rebecca lives in a dilapidated shotgun across from Lafayette Cemetery but her schoolmates inhabit the mansions surrounding both. Following a group of rich kids into the cemetery one night, partly to eye Anton, a handsome boy who’s the talk of the school, Rebecca discovers an unlikely friend. Only Lisette is not of this world.

Ruined follows several plotlines, Lisette’s murder 150 years before and her modern haunting of Rebecca, mysterious happenings surrounding the rich families of the Garden District and a budding friendship with Anton. Entwined is her fortune-telling aunt, Carnival season and a decades-old curse.

Morris may hail from New Zealand but she captures the old-line Carnival traditions with its snobbish class-structure like a native, although New Orleanians may not approve of her take on uptown society. It will be interesting to see how the city reacts to this modern ghost story. Regardless, ages 12 and up will no doubt appreciate this underdog tale.

—Cheré Coen (Aug. 9 Daily Advertiser)

‘Two Bobbies’ wins Teachers’ award

Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship and Survival, co-authored by Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery and illustrated by Jean Cassels of New Orleans, has been chosen as a 2009 IRA Teachers’ Choice winner. The children’s book follows the true story of an unlikely dog and cat who survive the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by sticking together. The book has also been named a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People 2009 by the National Council for the Social Studies and the Children’s Book Council, a Junior Library Guild Premier Selection and an Indie Next List: Top Ten Books of the Season. Two Bobbies was profiled on NPR’s All Things Considered and placed on the New York Humane Society recommended reading list. For a review of the book, see below.

State Library reveals Readers’ Choice Awards 

Elementary and middle grade students throughout Louisiana have chosen two books as winners of the 2009 Louisiana Young Readers’ Choice Award, to be given away at the Louisiana Book Festival in October. The Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine was the top choice of third, fourth and fifth graders and Secrets of My Hollywood Life by Jen Calonita was the winner from middle school students in grades six, seven and eight. The Louisiana Young Readers’ Choice Award, now in its 10th year, is a reading enrichment program of the State Library of Louisiana. Previous winners include Alligator Sue by Lafayette’s Sharon Arms Doucet. 

Veteran children’s author Ed Emberly, a Caldecott medalist, teams up with his daughter, Rebecca Emberly, also a best-selling children’s author and illustrator, and his musician granddaughter Adrian Emberly in There Was An Old Monster! Based on the traditional song of the woman who swallowed the fly, this fun, vividly illustrated book employs creative lyrics and a surprise ending that will delight young children. Readers can also download the tune from the publisher’s Web site. On another note, Rebecca Emberly visited southwest Louisiana in 2007 to visit schoolchildren affected by Hurricane Rita.

Gloria Teles Pushker has penned a few chapter books revolving around Toby Belfer, a young Jewish child of the South, all published by Pelican Publishing of New Orleans. Coauthoring with Mel Tarman, Pushker takes Toby to the Museum for the Remembrance of Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes in Israel to learn about those who assisted Jews during World War II in her latest, Toby Belfer Learns about Heroes and Martyrs.  The book is illustrated by Emile Henriquez, a faculty member of the New Orleans Art Institute who teaches art at UNO.

Kids love big trucks and machinery but explaining how they work can be a difficult task. William Low offers beautiful watercolors of various machines, then gently shows how they work with fold-out flaps in Machines Go to Work. For instance, the cement truck gets a flat, but the tow truck is able to haul it away. When the tow truck’s battery dies, can the “little pickup give it a boost?” the author asks. “Yes, it can!” I have to admit, viewing that little truck doing big duty impressed even me! It’s a sweet book tackling a large subject in a fun, simple way and young children of both genders should enjoying reading it.

And since it’s summer, when children are at your heels asking for things to do, don’t miss What Can You Do with an Old Red Shoe? by Anna Alter, an activity book that explains how to reuse old items into fun craft projects. Flip flops, old T-shirt and berry baskets live new lives, plus that old shoe? A cool cover for a potted plant.

Don’t Lick the Dog: Making Friend with Dogs by Wendy Wahman offers a rhyming book that’s fun and whimsical but also teaches a good lesson. Through Wahman’s vibrant illustrations readers will learn the proper way to approach dogs, how to pet them and place food in your hands. Her ending says it all: “If they could talk, these dogs would say, ‘We wish all kids behaved this way!’”

            Two sweet board books for those who love the natural world are Little Chick by Amy Hest and The Cuckoo’s Haiku and Other Birding Poems by Michael J. Rosen. In Little Chick, a young chicken has trouble growing a carrot, flying a kite and wanting to capture a star, but Old Auntie offers sage advice that helps Little Chick figure things out. In The Cuckoo’s Haiku, Rosen breaks up the year into seasons and then introduces readers to a variety of birds, each with its own rhyme, pertinent information such as song and habitat and beautiful illustrations by Stan Fellows. As sophisticated as the latter sounds, both books will resonate with young readers, making them want to venture outside.

            Young dancers should check out The Girl Who Wanted to Dance by Amy Ehrlich, a tale of a girl estranged from her mother who longs to dance, and A Young Dancer: The Life of an Ailey Student by Valerie Gladstone, an exploration of a 13-year-old Alvin Ailey dancer. Ehrlich’s tale follows a young girl whose heart tells her to dance although her father frowns on the idea. She hears music one night, heads through the forest and finds gypsies dancing, one of which is her mother. In A Young Dancer, we meet Iman Bright of New York and experience her days of private school and professional dance training through the expressive photos of José Ivey.

            Fun books for all, but especially if you want to lure boys to reading, are the new Toon Books, a series of hardback comic books that tell fun stories to ages 4 to 8. Take the delightful Stinky, for instance, by Eleanor Davis, a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book. Stinky Seymour is a happy creature living in the swamp, glad to be free of kids who take baths. When Nick wonders into the woods, Stinky tries to get rid of him but his tactics all backfire. In the end, Stinky finds boys to be worthy of friendship. There are several books in the innovative series, sure to capture all interests.

Holiday books 2007