Baby Dream/Soñando con Bebe
by Sunny Scribens (ages 0-2)
Recent studies have shown that speaking, reading and singing to children in more than one language is beneficial for brain development. This sweet bilingual board book is a great tool to help caregivers with this. It’s written in both English and Spanish with accompanying black and white photographs of families of different ethnicities. The refrain, “When it’s time for us to rest” accompanies pages of different activities caregivers do to prepare babies for sleep such as cuddling, reading a book, singing a song and tucking them in before turning off the lights. It is a soothing book for both the reader and the child.
Your Name Is a Song
by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow (ages 3-6)
This story follows a girl who is frustrated because no one at school can say her name correctly. Her mom says the name is a song and that some names come from the heart. Her mother shares examples of names and how to pronounce them. By the end of the story, the girl is convinced and has her whole class singing songs from their names. The teacher and classmates learn a valuable lesson and hearing them sing her name with correct pronunciation is music to her ears. A glossary of names is included at the end of the story with pronunciations and an important note to always listen carefully to how a person says their own name. To learn the name of the main character in this book, you’ll have to check it out!
This Is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from Around the World
by Matt Lamothe (grades K-3)
This nonfiction book explores the lives of seven real children from different countries: Italy, Iran, Uganda, India, Peru, Japan and Russia. The reader is first introduced to each child’s name and what country they live in. We then learn facts like who they live with, what they wear to school,
what they eat for lunch, how they spell their name and what they do for fun in the evenings. Photographs of the children and their families are on the last page, followed by a glossary of words the reader might be unfamiliar with, as well as an author’s note on how he was able to write the book. This book is a great introduction to thinking about how people live differently and similarly to each other all over the world. It illustrates that we all do a lot of the same activities but the details of how we do them can be very different.
The Kingdom of Back
by Marie Lu (grades 6 and up)
This middle-grade novel is a magical realism story about the world-famous Mozart family. Before realizing young Wolfgang’s talents, the father focuses most of his energy on Wolfgang’s sister, Nannerl, and thinks she will be famous and make the Mozart family rich. Both children are very imaginative and extraordinary pianists, but as they get older, attention shifts to Wolfgang. One day, a magical boy from another world called the Kingdom of Back appears to the children and makes a deal with Nannerl, who fears being forgotten. Half of this story focuses on the Mozarts’ true lives and the other half on the Kingdom of Back. I enjoyed the historical information at the end of the book about Maria Anna “Nannerl” – she and her brother really did make up a land called the Kingdom of Back.
Tales of the Peculiar
by Ransom Riggs (grades 6 and up)
This fun book is a companion to the Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Each story is part history, part fairy tale and part moral lesson for young peculiars. Footnotes in each chapter add to its charm by adding to the realism. One tale, “The Fork-Tongued Princess,” follows a peculiar who is mistreated by princes and even her father but eventually finds self-acceptance with her only true friend, her handmaiden. Another tale, called “The Locust,” tells the story of an immigrant whose son has a heart so big he can’t help but fall in love easily and feel extreme compassion for animals. Each tale in this book transports the reader to a world of believable fantasy, just as the original series does.
Bookmarks submitted by the Grandview Heights Public Library.
