May 10 kicks of Childrens Book Week! Its sort of always Childrens Book Week at BookCourt, but we will welcome any excuse to celebrate great kids books.
One fun thing you can do to celebrate Childrens Book Week is to vote in the Childrens Choice Book Awards. Students in all grades can cast votes for books appropriate for their grade level, and teachers, librarians, and (lucky for us) booksellers can cast votes for the whole pool. Here are our picks:
Kindergarten-2nd grade:
The Odd Egg is a beautifully illustrated, adorable, quick little story that recalls classics like Steven Kelloggs Mysterious Tadpole and other tales of mistaken pre-identity. Emily Gravett is relatively new to the picture book scene, but her delicate drawings and paintings and brisk writing style are carving her a comfortable, welcome niche on our shelves.
3rd-4th grade:
Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange and illustrated by Kadir Nelson is a beautiful biography of the civil rights wife and leader, and Oceanology by Ferdinand Zoticus is a popular choice among middle grade boys in the store, but we cant resist voting for The Book That Eats People, especially when you pair it with Oliver Jefferss The Incredible Book Eating Boy and watch them fight to the death (or just read them).
5th-6th grade:
By a landslide, our favorite book on the 5-6th grade list is Moonshot by local author Brian Floca. Its a poetic and exciting retelling of Apollo 11ths flight alongside Flocas stunning illustrations. The book isnt just great for older kids, though. Many toddlers and early-elementary-aged kids have become Moonshot fans. The text is mutli-layered and can be enjoyed at several different stages in readers development and the illustrations are gorgeous for readers of any age.
Teens:
Its hard to talk about great Young Adult literature these days without mentioning Suzanne Collinss Hunger Games trilogy. The exciting, fast-paced, sometimes terrifying post-apocalyptic world of Katniss Everdeen and her family has been wildly popular with both teens and adults and does what a lot of teen literature has a hard time doing: attracting both male and female readers. Collinss themes of individuality, family and romantic love, and government power arent new to literature by any means, but she presents them in such a remarkably readable package that we have to cast our vote for the second book in the trilogy, Catching Fire in the teen category.
Author of the Year (all ages):
We might have to cast our vote for Suzanne Collins, for reasons stated above, but were pretty sure that if we put it do a vote of BookCourt kid readers, Rick Riordian and his Percy Jackson series would win hands down (with Jack Kinney and his Wimpy Kid books in second). Exciting tales of Greek gods in New York is hard to argue with.
Illustrator of the Year (all ages):
We think both BookCourt employees and families will agree that local author and illustrator Peter Brown is the obvious choice in this list. His Curious Garden is delightfully detailed and celebrates a new New York favorite, the High Line. The book has hopped on and off the BookCourt best seller list since its release, and were sure it hasnt made its last appearance yet.
Check back all week for more celebrations of Childrens Book Week!