Hedgehog needs a hug by Jen Betton

There are a lot of picture books that set out to be cute but end up just being creepy, mainly featuring animals or kids basically stalking or harassing others under the name of “crushes” or “cuteness”. I was very impressed then that Betton manages to write a sweet, gentle book about physical affection while still respecting personal boundaries and sending a clear message of consent.

Hedgehog wakes up on day feeling very blue. He’s sure he’ll feel better if only he can get a hug, so he sets out to find one. He asks Rabbit, but she’s got a cold and scampers into her burrow. Raccoon pleads garbage breath and disappears into his log; Turtle doesn’t even wake up. Fox is the only one willing to give him a huge, but she’s got an ulterior motive - and Hedgehog doesn’t feel bad about giving her a mouthful of spikes, even if he’s still blue and longing for a hug. Finally, Hedgehog meets a friend who also wants a hug: Skunk. Will he take a chance and give her a hug?

Hedgehog is careful to ask permission of every creature, and even though he’s sad and disappointed that they won’t give him a hug, he doesn’t get mad or blame them for being afraid of his prickles. He doesn’t accept a hug from Fox, no matter how much he wants one, because he knows she doesn’t really care about him, she just wants to eat him!

The lush mixed media illustrations - watercolor, pastel, and colored pencil - are delightful. Glowing green forests with smudged in plants and soft yellow shafts of light are the background for Hedgehog’s quest. He is a sweet little creature, with a spiny brown back, soft cream front, and pink nose, ears, and paws. Splashes of color - the rich red of Fox’s coat, dark blue and green shadows as Hedgehog crouches under a bush, and rich green-brown of Turtle’s shell - shine through the story

Verdict: A truly lovely and beautifully written debut picture book. I look forward to many more titles from Betton and strongly recommend this one for use in storytimes or one-on-one reading.

ISBN: 9781524737122; Published 2018 by G. P. Putnam/Penguin; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library

What do they do with all that poo? By Jane Kurtz, illustrated by Allison Black

The science of poop seems to have been a popular theme in 2017 and of course it’s still garnering interest. Kids are interested in poop. This is just a thing.

This latest book on the odoriferous subject combines humor and science to present the science of poop to the youngest readers. In rhyming text, the story starts out with a series of animals and their digestive remains. “Giraffe poop looks like marbles as it drops a long, long way./Panda poop is full of bamboo. Pandas eat and poop all day.” After showing the poop of a number of animals, from bats to penguins, sloths to lions, the book pauses for a full spread asking “So what do zoos do with all of that poo?” The second half of the picture book is dedicated to where all that poop goes. Zookeepers, scientists, truck drivers, and gardeners, all in a variety of races and genders, shovel, compost, recycle, and dispose of all that poop. The book ends on a humorous note, with monkeys tossing their poop at the reader.

Each page, in addition to its simple, rhyming text in bold lettering has a longer paragraph in smaller text offering more information. So the main text reads “A wombat’s poo is cube-shaped, so it isn’t very roly.” While the longer text explains that wombats are territorial and how their droppings help them mark their territories. This is a format I have found very accessible to a wide range of audiences and readers and I’m always thrilled when I see the double levels of text like this.

The art is created in bright, bold digital images. The wombat is a rich golden brown, surrounded by a frame of her own square poop and set against a grass-green background. The scene of the mailman delivering poop samples to the scientists looks almost like a scene from a Little Golden Book, with bright, sharp images and lots of square and round packages and containers. This is echoed in the round and square poop samples as well. One of my favorite images shows worms working their way through the ground in a cut-away, underground scene. The top has a bright blue sky and some stylized zucchini plants while the bottom shows a rich mixture of compost, with smiling pink worms working their way through their tunnels, leaving behind little, round brown poos.

The only drawback is some confusion in the final scene. Indeterminate monkeys (with tails) are shown throwing poop and the additional paragraph explains that chimpanzees with the best-aimed poop are “the smartest and most sociable”, suggesting poop-throwing as a step towards using tools. Chimpanzees are apes, not monkeys, and don’t have tails. Also, I’m pretty sure they do use tools. Despite this quibble, it’s overall a well-researched and fun book, age-appropriate and not too gross despite its chosen subject.

Verdict: A delightful and informative choice for a poop-themed storytime (go on, I dare you!), classroom use, or hilarious one-on-one reading. Recommended.

ISBN: 9781481479868; Published June 19, 2018 by Beach Lane Books; Review copy provided by Blue Slip Media; Donated to the library

Cybils Nonfiction History

This is just for me. Our new social media guru/literacy evangelist (who once upon a time was chair of the easy reader/early chapter category), Terry Doherty, is making all sorts of coolness happen this year, including a Goodreads group for Cybils. I'm working on adding our finalists and winners to the bookshelf and it's hard to do for nonfiction because the category has shifted over the years. So I made myself a timeline and in case you're as obsessive about data (and clueless about time math) I thought you might enjoy it.

2006 - Cybils begins

• Fiona Bayrock is the first category organizer for Non-Fiction Picture Books  - Winner - Egg is quiet.
• 2007 - Lightship by Floca
• 2008 - Frogs by Nic Bishop 
• 2009 - Day-Glo brothers by Barton (I joined Cybils as a panelist for easy readers/early chapters - I'd forgotten that! I thought I'd started in nonfiction!)
• 2010 - Extraordinary Mark Twain (I was on Picture books that year, which explains why a biography won lol lol)
• 2011 - I feel better with a frog in my throat by Carlyn Beccia (this was the year I joined nonfiction as a panelist! I remember Fiona was an awesome organizer)

2012 - I take over as Nonfiction Picture Book Chair

• What a year this was! I met many amazing panelists who would continue to be involved with Cybils and was even pleased that a biography, Mrs. Harkness and the Panda, won! (They were some Very Persuasive panelists and judges!)

2013 - category changes to Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction

• I realized that this category didn't necessarily work well as a format (like graphic novels or easy readers) and switched to audience instead. We still only had one winner, like Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction (it was Fantasy back then!) and the winner this year was Look up! Bird-watching in your own backyard by Cate.
• 2014 winner - Feathers by Melissa Stewart
• 2015 winner - I, Fly by Bridget Heos

2016 - category split - Elementary and Juvenile Nonfiction

• Changing from format to audience had worked well, but I felt the middle grade titles were getting neglected in favor of the younger, elementary titles. I had originally intended to just split what I already had, but the teen nonfiction category was interested in splitting also and I gave them the middle grade name, taking "juvenile" for my upper grades.
• Elementary winner - Giant squid by Fleming
• Juvenile winner - Some writer! by Melissa Sweet

2017 - Category name returns to Elementary and Middle Grade Nonfiction

• A new organizer had taken over the teen nonfiction and graciously returned the middle grade notation to me, as we discussed what changes we wanted to make for the coming year. I (hope) this will be the way things go for quite a while!
• Elementary winner - Hatching chicks in room 6 by Caroline Arnold
• Middle Grade winner - Two truths and a lie by Laurie Ann Thompson and Ammi-Joan Paquette (fun trivia fact - Laurie has been on nonfiction panels in the past!)

This week at the library; or, Now it begins again

My dahlias are doing pretty well!

Happenings this week

• Monday - closed
• Tuesday - no programs
• Wednesday - no programs
• Thursday
• Outreach - OPtions open house
• Bookaneers
• Friday
• Outreach - 4th grade book tasting

School started on Tuesday and it was a day of beginnings for us as well - new aide and teen services intern also started on Tuesday. The parking lot is fully under construction. Finishing summer reports and planning for outreach visits, training new staff, and other stuff. I am not even going to think about the state I left my desk in. It's bad.

(partial) list of all the books I took to fourth grade
Updated booktalking cards for all grades

Monster Mayhem by Christopher Eliopoulos

I really disliked the first book in this series, Cosmic Commandos, because of how unpleasant the characters were. However, fortunately you don't need to read the first book to follow this second title because I really enjoyed this one!

Zoe, a robots genius, loves to watch classic monster movies and hang out with the robot she created. Her parents would like her to make some "real" friends, but the one time she tried, way back in elementary school, it was all a fake. The girl was just pretending to be her friend. Devastated, Zoe refuses to reach out again and isolates herself in her new, high-tech school for gifted kids. Her parents are busy with her triplet brothers and Zoe is all alone, just the way she wants it. But one day, frustrated by her parents and teachers trying to urge her to make friends and secretly lonely, she picks up a ring, wishes the monsters in her movies were real and that night, in the midst of a storm... a real kaiju (monster) shows up at her window! She's finally got a friend, exactly the one she wanted.

But things get complicated fast - her new friend Chomp has got family and friends of his own and they're very, very hungry. Can Zoe save the city and her friend on her own? And if she can't, will she be willing to not only ask for help but also trust other people and kids?

Zoe, a short black girl with a riot of black curls, stomps through the story in her signature blue overalls and goggles. She would like to have friends, but is too scared to reach out and determined to do everything on her own, without the help of well-meaning adults and the kids she doesn't trust to be sincere in wanting to spend time with her. Her parents are worried about her, but exhausted and preoccupied dealing with rambunctious toddler triplets, shown exuberantly flinging food, dashing through the house naked, and generally created chaos. It's refreshing to see a black girl who is not only interested in but excels in science and technology. Zoe doesn't need a helpful (white) friend to teach her social skills; she's got a kaiju monster and a disaster on her hands that forces her to befriend some of the other kids in school who have already learned to work together; she eventually teams up with her teachers, Mr. Nakajima and Ms. Mahnken, and four kids from school, two white boys and a dark-skinned boy and girl. But in the end, she might need even more help - from her parents?

Verdict: This is full of monsters, robots, exciting action, lots of color, a nice environmental twist, and some heart-felt moments of learning to ask for help and open up to friends, even when it might be scary or painful. Sure to be a hit with HiLo fans and kids who love monsters and robots.

ISBN: 9780735231245; Published 2018 by Dial/Penguin; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library

Warren & Dragon: 100 Friends by Ariel Bernstein, illustrated by Mike Malbrough

Warren has a problem. Actually, Warren has a lot of problems. The shy 2nd grader has moved to a new town, is starting 2nd grade in a new school, and has no friends except his toy Dragon. Warren doesn't think he needs any friends besides Dragon, even though his Hobbes-like dragon friend gets him into trouble. But his sister Ellie, popular and outgoing, has challenged him to make 100 new friends. Can Warren make one new friend, let alone one hundred?

Light pencil drawings show a worried white boy, his bouncy blond twin, and a snarky, pudgy dragon with a long tongue and a penchant for marshmallows and trouble. Warren slowly becomes friends with the new neighbors, a very different family from their previous neighbor, Ms. Reilly, "an older white woman who didn't have any kids." The new family is black, has two moms, a teen son, a baby girl, and a boy named Michael. Their parents would like Michael and Warren to be friends, but Warren doesn't want to be friends with a little kid - Michael is a whole year younger than him, starting 1st grade.

After some disastrous events at school, when Warren takes Dragon's advice and fails to make any friends, he eventually realizes he needs to make some compromises to make friends - and maybe Michael isn't so little after all.

While it's nice to see the diversity offered by Michael and his family, it would have been even nicer to see the minority kid as the main character and not, yet again, the sidekick. The story is told completely from Warren's perspective and his often humorous narration shows his imaginative inner life contrasting with his lack of self-confidence both at school and at home. Several blurbs and reviews compare this to Calvin and Hobbes and while the basic idea is the same - a stuffed toy that is "real" only to the boy who plays with him - the execution is worlds apart. Warren is young, not old, for his age and definitely lacks Calvin's gleeful mischief. He's more like the overly anxious and worried Alvin Ho than the gung-ho Calvin.

Verdict: A mildly humorous addition if you need more beginning chapter books, but not a necessary purchase.

ISBN: 9780425288443; Published 2018 by Penguin; Review copy provided by the publisher

Read, Read, Read, said the Baby: Noah's Park: Snack Time by Sam Williams

I've only seen Sam Williams as an illustrator, but his cute, sweet illustrations are very attractive so I was interested in picking up this board book series when I happened upon it. "Noah's Park" features a handful of cute little animals in various activities at, you guessed it, a park.

There are six characters; a pink-faced piglet, puppy, bear, golden-furred... other bear? I can't decide what that one is. A panda and a fluffy-looking purple snail (yes, it's a fluffy snail. Williams makes it cute, trust me).

The opening spread has a layout of the park on the left and a gatefold on the right. The front of the page shows the characters and then folds out to show them all lining up for a boat ride. They put on their "safety vests", collect their lunch boxes, and sail away. There's a scene of feeding ducks, lunch under a striped awning that looks a little like a carousel, and a trip back in the boat.

The simple text narrates the events, "Time to go home. Let's clean up and sing a good-bye tune." and the pictures are very cute. There's not much to the plot, but this isn't unusual in a board book.

Verdict: A cheerful and colorful addition to your board book collection. Not a necessary purchase, but a good filler.

ISBN: 9781481442633; Published 2016 by Little Simon; Borrowed from another library in the consortium; Purchased for the library

Don’t eat that! By Drew Sheneman

The author of Nope! Returns with another laugh-out-loud adventure, featuring a hapless bear and bossy camper. Released into the woods, a zoo bear yawns and scratches, little knowing what is in store for him. Meanwhile, Gertie, a small blonde dressed in generic scout clothes, is out watching birds and making bad jokes. Then Gertie sees the bear…

He’s trying to eat a rock.

Clearly, there is something wrong.

Loudly and enthusiastically (with a few bad jokes) Gertie sets out on her new task, looking forward to earning her Wildlife Buddy Merit Badge. Unfortunately, this bear is really clueless! Even Gertie can’t help him! Or can she? It will take a lot of understanding and some compromise on both sides before they find something for the bear to eat.

Cartoon panels follow the goofy storytline, with plenty of disgusted, helpless, and annoyed expressions on the faces of both bear and Gertie as they try to negotiate the woods.

Verdict: A funny story that will click with older preschoolers and younger elementary students, especially if they’re learning about what bears eat.

ISBN: 9781101997291; Published 2018 by Viking/Penguin; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library

Belle's Journey by Rob Bierregaard, illustrated by Kate Garchinsky

This is the first children's book written by scientist Rob Bierregaard, but it's an excellent effort, not dumbing down the material nor making it too fanciful. After an introduction, explaining his work with ospreys, Bierregaard (Dr. B.) tells the story of a young osprey named Belle. After her parents' mate and raise their brood, Belle is tagged by Dr. B. and a colleague with a transmitter. Some local children become interested and follow along on her journey as she slowly explores her world on the coast in Martha's Vineyard and then sets out on her long journey - all the way down to South America. After many adventures, some imagined, some real, Belle arrives at her destination and spends the next few seasons maturing. Finally, she returns to her birthplace and Dr. B. imagines the new family she will raise.

Garchinsky's watercolor and crayon illustrations add color and depth to the story, while expanding the imaginative aspect of the tale. Although Dr. B. did not personally see all the events of Belle's journey, as he explains in the introduction, these are things that many migrating ospreys encounter and Belle might be likely to have experienced. The real-life Belle had not yet mated, but the imagined courtship and nest-building is typical of ospreys.

The back matter includes a discussion of the anatomy and behavior of ospreys, recommendations for dealing with injured wildlife, and more resources to find out about ospreys and other birds.

Verdict: This reminded me somewhat of narrative nonfiction of my youth, following a single animal through a cycle of their life. However, it's thoroughly modern in that it refrains from anthropomorphizing Belle and Bierregaard is clear about which parts of the journey apply to the "real" Belle, which are extrapolated from her transmitter, and which are actual events that happened to her. Readers who enjoy narratives and also have a strong interest in animals will be interested in picking up this book. Hand to fans of Jean Craighead George and Jim Arnosky.

ISBN: 9781580897921; Published 2018 by Charlesbridge; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

This week at the library; or, Taking a break

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

No programs or outreach this week. I only have about six hours on the information desk, although many staff are gone on vacation or at outreach for the county fair so I expected (and was not disappointed) to be interrupted frequently.

Projects for this week
 - finishing staff scheduling through December
 - planning upcoming programs and outreach
 - working through nonfiction inventory list, claims-lost list, figuring out if there is actually any budget left (there isn't)
 - supervising the last aide standing in repairing the depredations of summer and a week of volunteers shelving
 - researching grants for a Little Free Library in a low-income area outside of town. Mostly trying to find out who to ask about zoning. (didn't actually get to this)
 - school newsletter, contacting teachers, following up on various discussions
 - refilling, cleaning, and redoing maker kits and storytime kits
 - placing holds, sorting, and packing hundreds of books for the start of school

It's all worth it when I can help teachers get the year started with their classrooms looking like this!
Our schools have AWESOME libraries, but of course they are crazy busy, esp. since they teach classes
pretty much all day. So I'm happy to supplement! This school just had their library redone and I'm guessing it's
not ready for browsing yet, so I filled in!