Review Round-Up: Books for Beginning Readers, August 2015

As August comes to a close, it's time for another round-up of easy reader and chapter book reviews from around the blogs! If I have missed your review, please comment below, and I will gladly add it to the list. (Also, if you love books for beginning readers, please consider applying for the Easy Reader/Early Chapter Book category of the Cybils Awards. Newbies and veterans welcome!)

Easy Readers 

Becky's Book Reviews continues to review Dr. Seuss books every Saturday. Three recent posts focused on books for beginning readers: Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now?, In a People House, and The Shape of Me and Other Stuff.

Family Bookshelf also shines a weekly spotlight on some of the older titles that still appeal to today's beginning readers with the #TBT Book Review. This month, one of the featured books was a perfect back to school title, Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia. 

Also focusing on back to school is Great Kid Books, with a review of The First Day of School from the Robin Hill School series by Margaret McNamara. 

Books4Your Kids.com published two reviews of easy readers this month: The Meanest Birthday Girl by Geisel Award winning author Josh Schneider and A Pig, a Fox, and a Box by Jonathan Fenske. Another pig-themed title, What This Story Needs is a Pig in a Wig, was reviewed by Sal's Fiction Addiction, Literary Hoots, and Kids Book a Day.

Finally, rounding out the easy reader list this month are three reviews of books in graphic format. Jean Little Library's Small Readers feature included posts about The Boulder Brothers: Meet Mo and Jo and Mr. Ball: An Egg-Cellent Adventure and Kids Book a Day reviewed Benjamin Bear in Brain Storms. 

Chapter Books

Ellen Potter's new Piper Green series continued to be popular among bloggers this month. Reviews appeared at Jean Little Library, Books4YourKids.com, Randomly Reading, and Ms. Yingling Reads.

Dory and the Real True Friend, another popular title from last month, got some more attention as well, from Geo Librarian, A Bookshelf Monstrosity, and Kids Book a Day.

Kids Book a Day also reviewed the first book in the new Backyard Witch series, entitled Sadie's Story, which was also one of the six chapter books I reviewed here at Story Time Secrets. The others were Pool Party Puzzler by Carolyn Keene, Lost in NYC by Nadja Spiegelman, Lulu and the Hamster in the Night by Hilary McKay, Merlin by Cynthia Lord, and Francine Poulet Meets the Ghost Raccoon by Kate DiCamillo.

Other chapter book reviews posted in August are listed below: 

• Digby O'Day in the Fast Lane by Shirley Hughes, reviewed by Literary Hoots
• DK Adventures: Horse Club by Patricia J. Murphy, reviewed by Jean Little Library
• Game Time, Mallory by Laurie Friedman, reviewed by One Great Book
• Ivy and Bean series by Annie Barrows, reviewed by The Family Bookshelf
• Owl Diaries: Eva Sees A Ghost by Rebecca Elliott, reviewed by Becky's Book Reviews
• Phoebe G. Green: Lunch Will Never Be the Same by Veera Hiranandani, reviewed by One Great Book
• Ranger in Time series by Kate Messner, reviewed by Redeemed Reader

Read last month's review round-up here.

Early Literacy in Everyday Places: The Zoo

One of our favorite warm weather activities is visiting the zoo! Engage your kids with the zoo experience and practice early literacy skills at the same time with these simple activities.

• Sing a song as you travel to the zoo. Channel your kids' excitement about going to the zoo by singing a cheerful song in the car on the way there. Some suggestions:
• The Keeper at the Zoo
• Going to the Zoo by Raffi
• Say Hello to the Animals
• Practice making the sounds of the animals you see. Often, kids learn animal sounds before they learn to say the names of the animals themselves. What better location to practice than in a place where you're surrounded by animals all day long? (For suggestions on sounds to make for some of the trickier animals, try Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Eric Carle. For animals that don't make a particular sound, you can act out their movements instead.) 
• Use signs and maps to find your child’s favorite animals. The zoo is a great place to practice map skills, and to begin to understand the importance of signs. Many zoo maps use icons and symbols in addition to words, making it easy for even pre-readers to locate the animals they want to see most. Using a map is also a great way to prioritize your zoo trip, as it is rare that you would be able to see everything in one visit. 
• Try to see an animal for each letter of the alphabet. Keep your kids engaged throughout your visit by making it into a game. Keep a list of the animals you see, and aim to find one for each letter of the alphabet. (If finding 26 animals is too daunting, you might also try finding one for each vowel, letter of your last name, or letter of your children's first names.)  
• Narrate the animals’ behavior. Animals do lots of interesting things that we don't always talk about in everyday conversation. Give your kids a vocabulary boost by describing what the animals are up to, then ask them for their observations, too. 

5 Things I Love About Judging the Cybils

Today is the day! The official call for 2015 Cybils judges has been announced! I'm very excited to be returning as the organizer for easy readers and early chapter books, and I am looking forward to working with a great group of judges this season.

For those who don't know, the Cybils are the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards, given annually in a whole host of categories to kids' books that have both high literary merit and great kid appeal. There are two judging phases. Beginning in October, round one judges read every nominated book in their category, and then present a short list in January. Between New Year's Day and Valentine's Day, round two judges read every book on their category's short list and choose the winner. (To serve as judge, you must be a blogger who meets the eligibility requirements.)

With the exception of 2013 (when I was a brand-new mom), I have participated in Cybils every year since I started blogging, and I look forward to it at the end of every summer. Today, in the hopes of inspiring potential judges to submit their applications ASAP, I want to share with you just five of the many reasons I love judging the Cybils.

• Connecting with the blogging community. Blogging, like any type of writing, can be very isolating if you are not connected to a network. Cybils has helped me discover not just other book bloggers, but other book bloggers who are interested in the same very specific types of books that I prefer to read and review. I still follow many of the bloggers with whom I have connected through Cybils, and each year, I find new blogs to add to my RSS subscriptions. Cybils is a great opportunity for new and experienced bloggers to branch out, make friends, and enrich the blogging experience.
• Deep discussions. Chances are, if you blog about books, you like to talk about books. But how often do you have the opportunity in your everyday life to engage in deep conversation about what makes a great book work? During Cybils season, judges have these conversations on an ongoing basis, from their preliminary discussions about the judging criteria, to those final decision-making moments at the end of each round. Not only have these discussions helped me to look at books in new ways, they have also made me much more skilled at expressing and defending my own point of view. 
• Having a reason to look forward to Fall and Winter. I love summer, and it is a disappointment every year to see the weather turn cold, the daylight grow short, and the winter coats come out of the closet. Knowing that Cybils will run from October to February makes the transition into this time of year seem much more bearable. 
• The thrill of the hunt. There is nothing I love more than tracking down a long list of titles to read. I use Cybils as an excuse to visit as many different local libraries and bookstores as I can, in the hopes of finding and reading all those obscure and hard-to-find nominees. Review copies are nice, too, but there is something so satisfying (at least for my librarian's soul) about finding each book on my own. 
• Professional development. As a stay-at-home mom, I really enjoy professional projects that can help me stay connected to the fields of librarianship and children's literature without requiring me to travel for conferences or take on a part-time job. Cybils is the ideal way to participate because I can do the reading during nap time, write reviews on the weekends, and save the discussions for the evenings when my daughter is in bed. No matter how many books I read in a given year, there are always new ones I learn about come Cybils time, and sometimes these previously unknown titles end up becoming new favorites! 

Have I convinced you to apply? Click here for the application. Good luck and happy Cybils! 

16 Picture Books About Writing

The books on this list are all about writing! They are organized into four categories: What Writers Do (books about authorship and types of writing), Writing Your Name (books about kids learning to write their own names), Creative Writing (stories about the creative process of writing a story or essay), and Writing Implements (books starring pens and pencils as characters.)

What Writers Do

• Written Anything Good Lately? by Susan Allen and Jane Lindaman, illustrated by Vicky Enright
  This alphabet book provides young readers with a great foundation in the many different types of writing they can do, from telling their autobiographies to giving directions to their houses. 
• Author: A True Story by Helen Lester
  In this light-hearted picture book biography Helen Lester traces her writing career from the scribbles of toddlerhood through her struggle with "mirror writing" in school, and on toward adulthood, where she is the creator of beloved stories such as Hooway for Wodney Wat and Tacky the Penguin. 
• If You Were a Writer by Joan Lowery Nixon, illustrated by Bruce Degen
  In this fictional story, Melia wants to be an author just like her mother. Though this book could use some modernizing (few authors, aside from possibly Kevin Henkes, work with typewriters these days), but the advice to show rather than tell and the family's enjoyment of words and wordplay still makes it a worthwhile read. 
• What Do Authors Do? by Eileen Christelow
  This non-fiction picture book tells what writers do, from the beginning brainstorming stages of a story, all the way up through the publication phase. The informational text is accompanied by a fictional narrative told in comic book panels, in which two authors are inspired to write a story by a funny interaction between their pets.  

Writing Your Name

• Yoko Writes Her Name by Rosemary Wells
  Yoko, a young Japanese cat, writes her name perfectly in Japanese, but she is teased by her classmates, who believe she is just scribbling and therefore won't be allowed to graduate from kindergarten. 
• The Day of Ahmed’s Secret by Florence Parry Heide and Judith Heide Gilliland, illustrated by Ted Lewin
  Ahmed hides the happy secret of his newfound ability all day while he travels the streets of Cairo delivering fuel to help his family earn money.
• Write on, Carlos! by Stuart J. Murphy
  In this book from the I See I Learn series, Carlos wants to learn to write his name like his friends can. As Carlos's mother helps him identify each of the letters of his name, readers are also shown the letters on an alphabet strip at the bottom of the page, which reinforces their own letter knowledge. 
• My Name is Yoon by Helen Recorvits, illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska
  When Yoon and her family move to the U.S. from Korea, it takes her a little while to accept how her name is written in English, and to want to write it herself. 

Creative Writing

• Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills
  Rocket the dog wants to tell a story of his own, but finds himself dealing with writer's block until his friend the yellow bird encourages him to go out and gain some life experience. 
• Poppy’s Best Paper by Susan Eaddy, illustrated by Rosalinde Bonnet
  A young rabbit named Poppy thinks she wants to be a writer when she grows up, but when it comes time to write papers for school, she becomes overconfident and rushes through her work. Finally, after getting into trouble for outbursts at school and at home, she finds a topic she is passionate about and hands in her very best paper. (I recently received a digital ARC of this book from Charlesbridge Publishing via NetGalley.) 
• Arthur Writes a Story by Marc Brown
  When Arthur is given an assignment to write a story, he worries that the topic he chooses will be boring in comparison to what his classmates decide to write about. 
• Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk
  Sam, a mouse who lives in a library, begins to write and illustrate his own stories and leave them for the kids who use the library to find. 

Writing Implements

• The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg, illustrated by Bruce Ingman
  A pencil begins to draw, and soon a whole world is born. Unfortunately, all the people and creatures created by the pencil soon begin to complain, and before too long, the pencil feels compelled to draw an eraser to rub them all out! 
• The Obstinate Pen by Frank W. Dormer
  Horace's Uncle Flood knows just what he wants to write with his pen, but the pen has a mind of its own and instead writes silly insults directed at Uncle Flood himself! 
• The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens, illustrated by Susan Stevens Crummel
  The little red pen has lots of homework to correct, but neither the stapler, nor the eraser, nor the pushpin will help her in this school-centered retelling of The Little Red Hen. 
• Little Red Writing by Joan Holub, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
  A little red pencil must make her way through the writing process while avoiding the Wolf 3000 pencil sharpener in this clever retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.