Countries appoint many Ambassadors, hundreds of them typically, to represent themselves to other nations, international organizations and global programs.
But did you know that we also have a National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature? Meet Gene Luen Yang. Read more…An Ambassador of a different kind
Does the name Ken Jennings ring a bell? The trivia genius who famously won 74 consecutive Jeopardy games in 2004, making quiz-show history? Jennings is clearly a walking encyclopedia, but his true talent may lie in encouraging kids to embrace curiosity through the books he has written after his Jeopardy reign. His excellent nonfiction series for kids take on topics – Dinosaurs, Greek Mythology, Outer Space, etc. – and explore related facts, trivia and anecdotes in a thoroughly enjoyable way. Read more…Geniuses in the house!
Title: Where the Sidewalk Ends – recited, sung and shouted by Shel Silverstein
Author: Shel Silverstein
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Shel Silverstein
Length: 6hrs 15min
Age Group: 6+
Hearing poetry read out aloud is something altogether different from reading it in a book. But to hear poetry in the poet’s own voice is an experience not to be missed. Read more…Audiobook review: Where the Sidewalk Ends
I have to confess I had no idea myself until we picked out this awesome audiobook for a listen and checked out the cover. Read more…What do Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and 007 have in common?
It’s a happy and familiar story: Boy meets bot, boy befriends bot…they become best pals, rescue each other from peril, and live happily, chasing adventure ever after.
Simple though it may sound, this theme has been spun into some great books for boys at all reading levels. Read more…Boys and their bots
Title: Big Hero 6 Junior Novelization (Disney’s Big Hero 6)
Author: Irene Trimble
Narrator: MacLeod Andrews
Length: 2h 18m
Format: Audiobook
Age group: 8+
Fourteen-year old Hiro Hamada is brilliant but wastes all his time hustling at ‘bot fights in dark alleys instead of focusing on his future. He worships Tadashi, his older brother, who rescues him from scrapes and encourages him to think bigger. Everything changes when Hiro loses his big brother in a terrible accident at a famous robotics lab where Tadashi was developing a health-care robot named Baymax. Heartbroken, Hiro teams up with Baymax and with 5 of Tadashi’s friends when he realizes that the explosion at the lab may not have been an accident at all.
You may be surprised to hear about Big Hero 6, the audiobook! The movie was of course a huge hit and no doubt your kids, like mine, saw it when it was released. But the audiobook is really well written and read with a beautifully resonant voice by MacLeod Andrews. Read more…Audiobook review: Big Hero 6
Title: Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot
Author: Dav Pilkey
Illustrator: Dan Santat
Format: Book series (9 books)
Age group: 5+
Poor Squeakyville! This town and its mousey inhabitants seem perpetually on the hit-list of some mad scientist or colony-craving alien. Luckily for Squeakyville, one of its littlest residents – boy-mouse Ricky Ricotta – has teamed up with his best buddy, The Mighty Robot, to hold chaos at bay. From facing down school bullies, to combatting all manner of mutants from around the planetary system, Ricky and his Robot embark on 9, action-packed adventures. Read more…Book review: Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot
This is perhaps most truly said of pop-up books, where the very act of turning a page mobilizes the mechanisms that get the book’s key characters and details leaping out at you, seemingly magically. With their hidden engineering and their vivid, 3-D imagery, pop-ups can entrance the most book-detesting kiddo. Especially because the latest pop-up book creators are taking their art and science to a whole new level. Read more…The magic begins when you open a book…
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