Children

From the illustrator of the wonderful Lemony Snicket series comes a tale of a lousy pirate who saves the day. Since every other kid I know has been acting like a certain pirate from the Caribbean lately, I thought this book would be a fitting story to delight any young audience.

Part of the Fact Finders series, my students get a kick out of the information about the Internet, cell phones and Wikis. Heck, I learned a lot reading this book. Since most of the text students face on standardized tests is nonfiction, I try to expose students to as much interesting nonfiction as possible. This book is especially popular with boys.

The sky is falling! This is one of my favorites to read with little kids because they always know more than the silly chicken (reminds me of voters vs. our elected leaders).

This is part of a wonderful series of Bats books by Lies, and his illustrations and rhymes are always a crowd pleaser with kindergarteners. In this episode it takes a librarian’s read alouds to settle the bats down, and the illustrations, as always, are fantastic. Just in time for Halloween.

Written for children with terrific illustrations by Lynne Avril, I think a lot of adults should check out this book to better understand our election process.

Everything Tomie dePaola writes and draws is worth owning. I love this retelling of the tale of the Mexican girl Lucinda who learned that “any gift is beautiful because it is given.”

Okay, I’ll admit: I love Christmas. I do not love what Christmas has become for many Americans: commercialism, bargain hunters pushing one another in department stores and loads of debt. Sometimes a book comes along that reminds all ages of the kindness and joy that Christmas truly represents.

If you are one of the poor souls who still has not yet read this Classic, give yourself an early Christmas gift. This is one of the rare instances where I love the book, and the movie manages to be just as good (if not, better). Beautiful illustrations and a terrific story for all those who believe.

This is the kind of book that I loved when I was a boy, and I see scores of boys flocking around this one to share with their friends. Filled with beautiful illustrations, photographs and even a poster and fold-out diagram (yeah, good luck holding on to those), this book provides tons of interesting facts, tidbits and insights into an extraordinary tragedy that continues to fascinate people 100 years later. I've seen books spend hours looking through this book.

This series is one of my favorite gateways to get kids transitioned to enjoying chapter books. Just Grace is a wonderfully delightful heroine that all can enjoy.

Last, but not least, here’s a children’s picture book that is not French, but it reminded me of some comments I have heard about the French by prominent politicians in the past few weeks: Funny little book with great pictures. It follows the daily life of a garbage truck. Good to read to kids who never change their school uniforms (or teachers who wear too much perfume/cologne).

Holy cow! I recently created a list of books for my friend to get for his fourth grade son, and after writing a few Dan Gutman titles I suddenly realized that I have never included him on a monthly picks list. What can I say – I figured everyone knew about Dan Gutman! He’s certainly one of the best writers to draw boys into books. This book about Satchel Page (one of my personal favorite baseball players) is just one in an awesome series of “baseball card” stories. Boys, and even some girls, DEVOUR these books.

This series is immensely popular with girls interested in presenting fun queries of their friends. Trust me. These books are always popular gifts.

Wonderful children’s biography of the first Asian American to win an Olympic gold medal (in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London). Lee’s inspirational story reveals his ascent from only being allowed to use public pools in southern California once a week to becoming an Olympic diving medalist and doctor. If you ever get a chance to see Sammy Lee interviewed, he is a delight. Among his other accomplishments, he used to be the coach of a diver named “Greg Louganis.”

Bill Grossman has a wonderful sense of humor, and your kids will get a kick out of this alphabet book that should leave Mom and Dad laughing at the rhymes and pictures as much as their kids.