Question:
A mom in the children’s room asked for “light reading” for her 5th
grade son who is home sick. He likes 39 Clues, but we didn’t have the
next in the series. I gave him Chomp by Carl Hiassen, and we looked for Louis Sachar but didn’t have any he hadn’t already read. Other
suggestions?
Answer:
You've come up with excellent suggestions already, you smart cookie! Might I suggest the dastardly delicious Who Could That be at This Hour
by Lemony Snicket. Somehow a little Snicket is just the ticket when one
is home sick in bed especially for a mystery fan. Do check this previous post.
It's a fair bet you
will find some Big Nate books on the shelf and those go down pretty easy. Lastly I would give Tunnels by Roderick Gordon a whirl as well.
We begin this new year with a bright, blank, new page. Thinking about keeping lists and diaries and journals made me immediately think of one of my all time favorite chapter books, Time Stops for No Mouse by Michael Hoeye.
Hermux Tantamoq (pronounced more along the lines of "hair-mew", rather than "her-mux"), is a mouse and watchmaker. His quiet life changes forever when he meets a daredevil aviatrix named Ms. Linka Perflinger. Hermux has a pet ladybug named "Terfle" and dear friend named "Mirrin" who gifts him a sketchbook. Hermux decides to use the sketchbook to keep lists of things he's grateful for. A mouse after my own heart. This is his first entry;
Thank you for friendship most of all. Thank you for cuff links. And for singing larks dressed up like carnival moths. Thank you for dark theaters. For mousetraps even. Thank you for Terfle. For cotton sheets and soft pillows and apple juice. And cheese.
I hope you'll check this lovely read-aloud out. You know, Hermux even has his own website. I guess they must make teeny tiny mouse-paw sized computer keyboards somewhere.
I hope you'll start a list of all the books you want to read and all the things you're grateful for. Like having your very own library card.
Thank you for surprises, for adventure. Thank you for nice mice like Blanda Nergup, for intrigue, for rascals like Nock Noddem, for skeptical policemen. Thank you for elevators and trolleys and newspapers. Thank you for friendly neighbors. For rules to follow and rules to break. And thank you in advance for a good night's sleep.
This is my great-niece, she's six now and we call her "KK". Resplendent in her pilgrim attire, KK shared with me her check lists at our family's recent Thanksgiving gala.
KK generously crafted this list for "Nonnie", her grandmother, to keep Nonnie on track. I appreciate KK's fine attention to detail.
But I like this list the best. I'm enchanted by her hieroglyphics accompanying each task. But most of all I love her reminder to herself to "go to sleep", "have sweet dreams", and "wake up".
In fact, this reminds me of another wonderful book illustrated by the aforementioned talented Melissa Sweet called:
Click me!
But as we consider all kinds of lists this holiday, I think one of the most meaningful is a gratitude list. I'm grateful for YOU Dear Reader. I hope 2014 is filled with sweet dreams and happy wake-ups for you.
I have little friend named Hermux who also keeps a gratitude list. We'll talk about his next.
Happy Holidays and 1 trillion hugs and kisses- Miss Kitty.
Indulge me, Dear Reader, for my annual surprise that we are in fact celebrating our third Thanksgiving together on Miss Kitty Presents.
Image courtesy of The New Yorker Magazine
Like most fanciful readers, I love any distorted reality where one might catch behemoth oddities floating past one's window. Remember when we read Tuesday and June 29, 1999 together at storytime!
I give great thanks for the wealth of incredible illustrators our young readers can feast on this Thanksgiving. One of my most beloved illustrators is the incredible Melissa Sweet. You must look at her website!
How sweetly Sweet tells the true story of Tony Sarg, the genius behind Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade balloons.
Balloons over Broadway. Melissa Sweet
Here's a little sneak preview just to get you in the mood.
Maybe you can design your OWN balloon characters (be patient for the pdf download) and have a little parade in your bedroom for your fishes to watch! I think if your fishies watched your puppets from inside their fish tank it would look the same for them as it does for us.
I hope your Thanksgiving is wonderful. Maybe you'll spot a kitty floating outside your window. Be sure and say "Hello Kitty!"
October greetings dear reader. It's been quite the mystery of late for your Miss Kitty; wondering where our library's Halloween books were spirited off to in the night. Thankfully the mystery has been *solved just in time for All Hallow's Read.
All Hallow’s Read is a Hallowe’en tradition. It’s simply that in the
week of Hallowe’en, or on the night itself, you give someone a scary
book. Here is the handsome and talented Mr. Neil Gaiman describing the event:
{click on image..if you dare}
I absolutely adore all the John Bellairs mysteries. It's not often you find a genuinely spooky but not too-scary mystery series wrapped in the warmth of a Norman Rockwell-esque small town atmosphere.
And of course, we must not forget Neil Gaiman's own Newbery Award winner, The Graveyard Book.
Sigh, I guess you should click through...
But fear not brave friends, here's a great list from Harper's Collins that has excellent choices for all ages. Perish the thought that Halloween should not include candy, but I hope you get a reading treat or two in your pillowcase as well. Honestly, I think the entire month of October should be All Hallow's Read.
{Click on the image for a full size and eminently more readable pdf of this}
So dear reader, I bid you a spectacular All Hallow's Eve. And I'll share with you *who* stole Halloween at our library. Gremlins. They didn't actually steal the books; just hid them from Miss Kitty for a bit. No candy for them in their pillowcases but they will get a bedtime story. About good gremlin manners. Manners matter, even if you're a gremlin.
These are my good buds, Mr. B, Mr. J, and Miss S. Long-time library kids (well, they haven't been on the planet all that long) and faithful friends.
Generally speaking I am not one of the those wild librarians who advocate the desecration of library furniture. But I do have a soft spot for the many kids who ask me to keep track of their growth.
This posse in general never visits without asking to be measured.
It is sweet to see all the kids who start out as infants and gradually grow up and over the Biography shelves. Soon after to be seen loitering around the Teen shelves. Sigh...
So here we are, another summer wrapping up. Soon it'll be time to buy new back-to-school clothes a few inches longer and a shoe size larger. But we still have time to get in a few good stories about things that grow.
Here are a few of my favorites. Click on each cover to whisk you away to the catalog. See you in the kid's room where I'll measure you, no matter how big or little you are.
