Please give a warm welcome to my librarian/blogger extraordinaire/Mom Friend The Fourth Musketeer! She graciously agreed to guest post on her her favorite books of 2011. I really, really wanted her list because she’s an expert in children’s and young adult historical fiction, and selfishly, I wanted this list for myself and my kids! We will work our way through it in 2012! How about you? What is your favorite historical fiction picture book, chapter book or young adult book?
Category: Best Books for Kids
Best picture books, chapter books, young adult books, graphic novels and non fiction for kids.
How To: Create a Great Kids’ Book Club (Activity and Book Suggestions)
Some ideas on how to set up a book club for your child with examples of successful book club meetings.
The Penderwicks and Science of Dark Matter
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street brings up research on Dark Matter. Here’s more information on Dark Matter to draw out the scientist in your child.
Top 10: Books That Teach Kids Compassion (ages 2-14)
Learning about our differences can be a powerful way for children to see from another person’s point of view. I encourage all parents to introduce some of these books or others like these to their children and use these stories as a reference when children bring up differences in school, particularly with special needs classmates. Because how great would it be if it were OUR child who can reach out like MacKenzie in The Friendship Puzzle?! The Friendship Puzzle and My Brother Charlie are a particularly powerful combination for anyone who has a sibling or classmate with autism and would be a great pair of books for any child starting kindergarten.
6th Grade Girl Reviews Middle Grade Chapter Books
Please welcome my Mom Friend and yoga teacher’s daughter Ajani who is a voracious reader, reading secretly in bed with a flashlight under the covers, way past her bedtime. She reviews four books that she borrowed from me this past summer and returns them to me along with her book reviews. Thanks Ajani!
Chapter Books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
My middle child, and her entire third grade class it seems, loved Roald Dahl. She worked her way through most of his books before moving on to new authors. There is something about quirky characters, children who are single parented or orphaned, and a seemingly impossible challenge that is central to a Dahl book. These books that those qualities plus that je ne sais qois of a select group of unusual children who, as fate would have it, must find a way to work together in order to do something monumentally important. It’s nice to see more books in the spirit of Roald Dahl!
Best Children’s Books about Kids with Disabilities
The Schneider Family Book Awards honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. I really like how these books let kids walk in the shoes of another and I find the themes of “trying to fit in versus accepting themselves and their family members” to be universal for all children.