In the Blue gently explores what it is like for a child to experience the depression of a loved one. In the Blue by Erin Hourigan. Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2022. 40 pages. Reading Level: Picture Books, ages 4-8 Recommended For: Ages 4-8 “My dad is as tall as the sky! And I’m his teeny-tiny sunspot.” A vivacious little girl introduces readers to her dad. As the cover and illustrations quickly show though, there is something wrong. Colors are used to explain the transformation as pages shift from a joyful array of colors to a limited palette. “Right now things for my dad aren’t bright and yellow. They…

15-year-old boys: learning to drive. Wrestling with heavy high school work (10th grade is usually more intense than 9th, in terms of work load). Taking standardized tests with an eye to college. Girlfriend? Part-time job? Who has time to read? When the right book appears, it’s amazing what you can make time for! We’ve got 15 books for 15-year-old boys, but don’t expect any one 15 year old to like them all. After all, part of maturing as a teen and separating from parents is having Opinions. That goes for books and genres, too. But we’ve got a nice mix of genres that include a little something for every type…

At Jersualem’s Gate offers poetic meditations on what people involved in the events leading to Christ’s resurrection might have thought and felt. At Jerusalem’s Gate: Poems of Easter by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by David Frampton. Eerdmans, 2005. 48 pages. Reading Level: Picture Books, ages 8-10 Recommended For: Ages 6 and up At Jerusalem’s Gate begins with the triumphal entry we now call “Palm Sunday.” A free verse poem presents the story from the perspective of an observer. From there, poems move through the Pharisees and Sadducees plotting about Jesus to the Passover, Gethsemane, Jesus’s betrayal, all the way to the cross and finally the resurrection. Much of this book…

Editor’s Note: Are there any animal lovers in the family? Gladys Hunt can recommend nine–count ’em, nine–recommendations for a classic story involving not one, but three, plucky porkers. You Can Do Anything With a Pig      Originally published on the Tumblon website, July 19, 2009 I counted nine different versions of the story of The Three Little Pigs in print today. There may be more that I don’t know about. I’m not sure whether the story needs all this help or whether the artists and storytellers are bursting with creativity and know the basis of a good tale when they hear one. Or whether they are short on original plots The…

Where does music come from and how many ways can you make it? Before Music broadens the reader’s horizons on the origin and creativity of people who can’t help delighting in making interesting sounds and music. Before Music: Where Instruments Come From by Annette Bay Pimentel, illustrated by Madison Safer. Harry N. Abrams, 2022. 88 pages. Reading Level: Picture books, Ages 8-10, ages 10-12 Recommended For: Ages 8-10, ages 10-12 We all have some familiarity with music that comes from a piano, guitar, flute, violin, and numerous other instruments. We also have some sense about the ways music is produced (striking, strumming, blowing, and bowing). But have you ever wondered…

A glorious story of heroism in which a mother’s deep love for her children shines brightly. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien. Aladdin, 1986. 240 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, 10-12 Recommended For: Ages 10-12 There are many famous mothers in literature: Mrs. Alcott, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Weasley, Ma Ingalls, and others. My favorite happens to be the tender, courageous Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with an ordinary concern for feeding her children and finding a way to move them out of danger’s path from their winter home into a safe place for spring. But her youngest son, Timothy, is too ill to be moved…