Booktalks – Page 35 – Booktalking #kidlit

The Wood Queen

The Wood Queen
by Karen Mahoney (Author)

Booktalk: To keep her best friend, Navin, from being killed at the hands of vicious wood elves, Donna Underwood stole the elixir of life. Now she’s facing an alchemist tribunal while her mother lies dying, succumbing to the elven curse that shattered her mind. In desperation, Donna seeks an audience with Aliette, the fierce and manipulative Wood Queen, who offers a deal: if Donna can use her strange and burgeoning powers to help the wood elves, Aliette will free her mother from the curse. Along with Navin and Xan, the half-fey guy she’s falling for, Donna struggles to unlock the secrets of her iron tattoos in time to save her mother’s life. But some secrets are better left untold.

Snippet: And the crows; so many of them. A murder of crows? Circling around and around in an indigo sky, shedding only feathers that look like black petals.
Maybe I’m just having anxiety dreams ahead of the trial. Aunt Paige gets mad when I call it that–my trial–but isn’t that what it is?

Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers

Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers
by Dav Pilkey (Author, Illustrator)
192 pages

Booktalk: Dr. Dilbert Dinkle started his career as an ordinary, everyday evil genius/inventor/bank robber. But when he awakens one day transformed into a walking, talking puddle of pee, he vows to destroy every toilet in town. Will the devious Dr. Dinkle and his conniving cat, Petey, ruin restrooms for the rest of us? Or could this be a job for the death-defying duo of Super Diaper Baby and Diaper Dog?

Snippet:
It took 24 hours
from when he’d begun,
‘Till the Robo-Kitty
Three Thousand was done.

“All I need is a driver.
I need someone mean.
I need someone evil
to run my machine.”

BONUS! See the video!

Bambino and Mr. Twain

Bambino and Mr. Twain
by Priscilla Maltbie (Author) and Daniel Miyares (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Grieving the death of his wife, America’s favorite author and humorist shuts himself up in his Fifth Avenue house and abandons his writing. Only his daughter’s cantankerous cat, Bambino, seems to understand Samuel Clemens and his moods. When the feisty cat disappears, Sam is determined to find him

Snippet: “Everyone wants to meet witty Mark Twain,” the man said. “But tell me, Bambino, would they want to meet sad, old Samuel Clemens?”

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

City Critters: Wildlife in the Urban Jungle

City Critters: Wildlife in the Urban Jungle
by Nicholas Read (Author)

Booktalk: When we think of wild animals, we don’t immediately associate them with the cities we live in. But a closer look soon reveals that we share our urban environment with a great many untamed creatures. Heavily illustrated with color photographs throughout and full of entertaining and informative facts, City Critters examines how and why so many wild animals choose to live in places that, on first glance at least, seem contrary to their needs.

How do those deer, raccoons, squirrels, skunks, coyotes, crows, gulls and geese—not to mention the alligators, eagles, otters and snakes—manage to survive in the big city? What special skills do city critters have that many of their wilderness cousins lack? Why have they developed these skills? And what are our responsibilities in ensuring that these animals can continue to share our city lives?

Snippet: We are in the midst of what scientists call “the sixth great extinction,” meaning this is the sixth time in geological history that huge numbers of animal species have disappeared in a very short period of time. The last one occurred about 65 million years ago when, it’s believed, either an asteroid or a comet struck the Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. This time the extinction can’t be blamed on outside events. It’s our fault and no one else’s.

STEM Friday

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Jinx

Jinx
by J. Torres (Author), Terry Austin and Rick Burchett (Illustrators)

Booktalk: In this new series, Li’l Jinx has now grown up and and is getting ready for her first day of high school. She can’t wait to see her friends—all of the friends she’s hung out with since she was a little girl. There’s no reason for any of them to start acting weird, like, not want to sit with her at lunch, or want to date her or anything…right? It’s not like everything changes in high school…is it?

Snippet:
(As Jinx walks down the hallway, the other students talk about her…)

Hey!
That’s the “tomboy”…
…who wants to join the football team.

Check it out, It’s the grafitti artist…
…who messed up Coach’s sign-up sheet!

…It’s an obvious cry for help..
..I mean look at her!

What is she supposed to be, some kind of feminist?

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Row, Row, Row Your Boat
by Annie Kubler (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Babies act out this nursery rhyme in this interactive board book. (Sheet music on the back cover.)

Snippet:
Row, Row,
Row your boat

Zig and Wikki in The Cow

Zig and Wikki in The Cow
by Nadja Spiegelman (Author) and Trade Loeffler (Illustrator)

Booktalk: When alien pals Zig and Wikki lose their spaceship on Earth, their friendship is definitely in trouble. In order to get home, they must travel underground and through a cow, picking up fun facts about ecology (and picking fights) along the way. This funny science-based easy-reader comic is packed with fast-paced adventure and facts about poop: what more could a young reader want?

Snippet:

WIKKI: And how do you know it’s him?

ZIG: I’d recognize that cute face anywhere.

(close up of a fly’s face)

WIKKI: For someone who’s so cute, he sure looks like he’s eating POOP.

ZIG: REALLY? That can’t be good for him.

Stella Batts: Needs a New Name

Stella Batts: Needs a New Name
by Courtney Sheinmel (Author) and Jennifer Bell (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Meet Stella Batts. She is eight-years old and she loves to write. She loves to write lists; like her favorite things and kids in her class. And she’s writing her autobiography. Stella’s favorite color is yellow and she LOVES fudge. As a matter of fact, there is a special fudge counter at her family’s candy store because fudge is one of her favorite things to eat!

But Stella has just one problem—her name. A boy from her class keeps calling her ‘Smella’ after she trips on their class nature walk. (‘I don’t even want to say what I landed in, it was too gross, so I’m just going to leave out that part.’). So Stella decides there’s really only one thing to do: she has to change her name. After all, how hard can it be to pick a new name? But it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Snippet: I think it would be good to have a name that had a real nickname. Penelope is a way better name–it sounds kind of sing-songy, and Penny is the prefect nickname for it. But Stella isn’t a sing-songy name. It only has two syllables, and it doesn’t have any good nicknames. I got to be the older sister, but Penny got to have the best name.

Watch Me Grow!: A Down-to-Earth Look at Growing Food in the City

Watch Me Grow!: A Down-to-Earth Look at Growing Food in the City
by Deborah Hodge (Author) and Brian Harris (Illustrator)

Booktalk: A city is a great place to grow food. Everywhere you look–front yards, backyards, rooftops, balconies, windowsills–people are planting gardens and growing delicious healthy foods for themselves and others to eat.

Snippet: A seed is a new life, waiting to grow. It can sprout anywhere–even a busy city!

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Secrets of the Garden: Food Chains and the Food Web in Our Backyard

Secrets of the Garden: Food Chains and the Food Web in Our Backyard
by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld (Author) and Priscilla Lamont (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Alice’s family plants a vegetable garden each spring, and this budding naturalist reports all she sees about how the plants grow, what insects come to eat the plants, and what birds and animals come to eat the insects. It’s the food chain, right in her own backyard! (Science concepts are shared by a pair of very knowledgeable chickens!)

Snippet:
Sunshine, fresh air, water and soil
help the seedlings in our garden grow.

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)