May 2014

Why do we need bookstores? Perusing aisles in search of one book, we often stumble across something even better. That was the case with this extraordinary look at the impact of plans, sketches and drawings from cave paintings to the iPod. This one will wrap you up like a mother hugging a long-lost child.

Stein is one of the funniest women writers out there. With summer vacation quickly approaching, a lot of parents will get a kick out of this hilarious diatribe.

This book has it all if you are lazy and want to impress people. It’s a photographer’s collection of her photos (pictures are good – yes!), it’s accompanied by short stories and observations (short is good – yes!) and it was written by a French woman (French literature makes you look worldly and introspective – yes!). It’s a trifecta! Better yet, it has a sequel.

I am a “lazy reader,” and I often tend to read children’s and young-adult versions of biographies before I settle on a longer, adult version. This book does a terrific job of introducing students to America’s first African-American Supreme Court justice.

Written for girls, this book is relatable for any small town teens who are bored and/or feel like outsiders. I’m a guy, and I sped through this very well-written novel.

Great female protagonist in this thrilling time travel tale of a girl who discovers that the life she thinks she leads in the 1840s is really a tourist attraction for 1996.

One of the best ways I know to attract adolescents to reading is by feeding them graphic novels, and none other than Neil Gaiman says it best about this book: “a masterpiece of YA literature and comics.”

Any book that makes vocabulary for kids earns raves from me. This is an entertaining and informative story that teaches kids how to find clues into meanings based on word affixes and roots.

Life is how you perceive it, and this wonderful book with terrific illustrations by R. Gregory Christie shows kids how to turn negatives into positives. A really good family read aloud.

A baby board book that I had to check out simply because of its irresistible title. Appropriate for any city-folk parents, with fun illustrations by Nathalie Dion.