Children and Teens

2010 Summer Favorites - Early Readers

EARLY READERS

I Am Going! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) (Hardcover)

By Mo Willems, Mo Willems
$8.99
ISBN-13: 9781423119906
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Hyperion, 1/2010

Gerald the elephant is devastated when Piggie announces: “I AM GOING” (HarperCollins, $8.99).  He begs.  He pleads. He accidentally knocks Piggie on his head.  He even threatens to go away himself.  Finally it becomes clear that Piggie’s departure is routine, not final, and, much relieved, Gerald realizes that today is going to be another good day… just like yesterday.  As with the other books in the Elephant and Piggie series, Mo Willems packs a child’s emotional range into an easy-read vocabulary and the two friends’ body language and facial expressions.  Brilliant!  Ages 3-7.  KLP

The Sorely Trying Day (Hardcover)

By Lillian Hoban, Russell Hoban
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9781590173435
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: NYR Children's Collection, 2/2010

When Father returns home at the end of a long day, he finds the cat on top of the grandfather clock, the dog barking and trying to climb after her, his four children “striking one another and speaking unpleasantly in loud, harsh voices,” and Mother saying, “Stop that!”  Everyone has misbehaved, but no one is about to take the blame.  In this reprint of Russell and Lillian Hoban’s 1964 book, Mother and Father try to get to the bottom of THE SORELY TRYING DAY (New York Review Children’s Collection, $14.95) and restore order to their humble home.  Ages 4-8.  HWP

The Bear That Wasn't (Hardcover)

By Frank Tashlin
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9781590173442
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: NYR Children's Collection, 3/2010
Other Editions of this Title
One winter, while Bear hibernates, men come and build a factory on top of his cave.  When spring arrives, Bear steps sleepily into the sunshine to discover his forest gone and the factory all around him.  Right away, the foreman spots him.  "Get back to work!" the foreman yells.  Bear tries and tries to tell the men - and then the other bears! - that he is not "a silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat," but they finally convince him that he is THE BEAR THAT WASN'T (New York Review Children's Collection, $15.95).  Though written in 1946, Frank Tashlin's reissued book still resonates with a modern audience.  Ages 5-9.  DMC