Sniff by Matthew Van Fleet (Board Book $9.99)We’ve utterly adored Matthew Van Fleet’s other heavy-duty interactive books for babies and toddlers–modern classics like Tails and Alphabet. Now, just in time for the sniffling season, Van Fleet has graced us with another adorable animal pop-up–SNIFF! Touch toucan’s smooth beak nose and koala’s leathery one! Pull tabs waggle elephant’s trunk and wiggle door mouse’s whiskers. My favorite page provides an opportunity to help Papa Bear’s big brown nose snore up and down as he snoozes and nuzzles his cubs! Follow your nose to fun!
Lester’s Dreadful Sweaters by K.G. Campbell (Picture Book $16.95)
After losing her cottage to a ravenous alligator, Cousin Clara moves in to Lester’s house, and begins to ruin his life despite all her good intentions! Cousin Clara turns out to be the world’s most industrious knitter, and to have a particular affinity for Lester-sized sweaters in the most ATROCIOUS hues! The garish and oddly-structured garments are festooned with extra sleeves, bobbles, ruffles and myriad other unnamable accessories! Lester’s parents insist on politeness; Lester is forced to wear the disastrous sweaters TO SCHOOL! Will Aunt Clara be able to find an appreciative audience for her art? Will Lester be allowed to don the tasteful green bow-tie and button down that make him feel himself? A perfectly goofy fall book on the perils of LAYERING!
Cecil by Matthea Harvey, Illustrated by Giselle Potter (Picture Book $17.99)
One of our all-time favorite poets has teamed up with one of our all-time favorite illustrators to bring readers a tale of unlikely friendship between a baby glacier and the somewhat curmudgeonly only daughter of a topiary gardener and a tiara designer! Ruby (the human) meets Cecil (the glacier) on a family excursion to Norway and is NOT impressed but her parents are intent on adoption. Cecil eats pebbles! Cecil is always scooting home with bubble gum and lottery tickets melted into her bottom. Only after Ruby comes shockingly close to losing Cecil to warm rain does she acknowledge the depths of her affection for this lovely soft-serve-shaped ice pup! Harvey’s word-whimsy and absurdity are the perfect platform for Potter’s ever-quirky paintings!
The Second Life of Abigail Walker by Frances Rourk Dowell (Middle Reader $16.99)After a mystical encounter with a mysterious fox, Abigail Walker begins to grow courage! Abby secedes from the “Medium Girls”– a clique kept in check by the dumb and despotic Kristin, whose favorite past-time seems to be bashing Abby’s weight and exacerbating the disordered eating and body image issues Abby struggles with throughout the story. Abby finds new, true friends in fellow loners Anoop, Jafar and Maryls at school, and in Anders–a “good-weird,” home-schooled neighborhood boy whose family is facing a sad secret with grace. Abby and her new crew undertake a massive research project on the creatures Lewis & Clark encountered during their great trek, and help a veteran suffering from PTSD begin to feel peace. An important, complicated middle-reader that faces some of today’s biggest issues head on! Dowell’s chapters depicting the life of the fox are absolutely breathtaking!
