We’re presenting a “gentle hug” award to Bob Graham for OSCAR’S HALF BIRTHDAY. Mum and Dad decide it’s a perfect day for a picnic to celebrate Oscar’s six month milestone. Big sister Millie, wearing coat hanger fairy wings on her back and a dinosaur puppet on her hand, pushes all the buttons on the elevator. Their walk to the park takes them through an urban landscape. A bevy of admiring strangers exclaim over Oscar and join in singing “Happy Birthday” to the “half-birthday boy” as “the sun shines through his ears, lighting them up like little lanterns.” The day ends on a perfect note with Mum and Dad dancing, and a reminder that the next birthday celebration will be for Millie’s fourth. We’d love to be there. (Ages 3–5, $16.99) 

The trio of illustrators responsible for ONCE UPON A COOL MOTORCYCLE DUDE must have had as much fun creating this innovative picture book as we have had reading it. Kevin O’Malley’s story begins with a boy and girl whose library project is to pick out and retell a favorite fairy tale. The problem is they can’t agree so they decide to make one up instead. The girl starts off the collaborative storytelling effort with a beautiful princess whose ponies are being taken away by a terrible giant until only one remains. All she can do is cry and spin straw into gold thread. At this point, the boy jumps into the story and introduces the “cool motorcycle dude” who offers to guard the last remaining pony for the all the gold. The two storytellers bat the plotline back and forth until an almost “happily ever after” is accomplished. As the narrators shift, so does the art. Carol Heyer paints pastel, lusciously classical, deliberately over the top “fairytaleness” while Scott Goto powers in with bold images drenched in dense color. It’s entertaining to see the lively artwork develop to reflect the storyline. (Ages 6–10, $16.95)

Melissa Sweet dresses up an old classic fairytale in a bright new coat. Little Carmine is off on her bicycle to visit Granny. Forgetting warnings not to dilly-dally through the woods, Carmine gets sidetracked by the beautiful day. She simply must make a painting of it for her Granny. Of course there is the requisite mischievous wolf and the drama at Granny’s. And a happy ending. CARMINE; A Little More Red is a cheeky and colorful romp with quirky asides that include an alphabet of sorts as Sweet highlights a word on each page that is defined in the context of the story. Even her endpapers add dimension to the book, particularly her display of shades of red with their yummy names like vermillion and magenta. You can read it straight through but it’s hard not to get sidetracked looking at all the funny bits of painted and patched artwork.
(Ages 4–9+, $16.00) 

Recently I was scolded by a friend for something I failed to do a year ago, but had subsequently remedied (or so I thought). Luckily I had just read ZEN SHORTS by Jon Muth so I shared with her one of the teachings in this thoughtful picture book. Muth’s book is really three stories or meditations woven into a larger story. Stillwater, a panda, is Karl, Addy and Michael’s new neighbor. In turn, each child goes to visit him and to each he tells a special story that has “no goal, but … challenge[s] us to reexamine our habits, desires, concepts, and fears.” The pictures are gentle watercolors, with a serenity that matches the text. This is a book for quiet times, or to create them. (Ages 5+++, $16.95)

For years, MOTHER, MOTHER, I WANT ANOTHER was a reliable story time favorite. And then Maria Polushkin Robbins’s quirky read-aloud (originally published in 1978) became unavailable. So it was happy news to find an old favorite reissued with bright new illustrations by Jon Goodell. He captures the spirit of this amusing tale of bedtime miscommunication between a mother mouse and her baby. When mother mouse tucks baby mouse in with a goodnight kiss, he asks for “another, Mother.” If only she had read the book first she would have recognized the comma in its proper place. Mis-hearing the request, she goes in search of “another mother” for her baby. Other animals are willing to help out until finally, the thoroughly well-attended but slightly frustrated baby makes itself understood. (Ages 2-7, $14.95) 

We called on Amy Schwartz’s BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING; A Little Artist Learns About Life to encourage stalled-out perfectionist kids. We all know children (and grownups) who want to do something so spectacularly perfect first time out, that they have a hard time getting started. Sara, faced with that dilemma, gets lots of advice from her well-meaning family, but still her canvas remains blank. Her mother’s quiet reassurance finally moves her from the “enormous” to the manageable “specific.” Originally published in 1983, Schwartz has re-illustrated this new edition perfect for reading aloud or reading alone.
(Ages 5–8, $15.99)

In our textbooks on Medieval History we are told of the late Thirteenth Century travels of the adventurous Venetian named Marco Polo. Rarely however, is any mention made of a man named Benjamin who left his home in Northern Spain in 1159, over one hundred years before Polo’s journey, to fulfill a life-long dream to see Jerusalem and “as many of the places mentioned in the Bible as possible.” Now we can read of his adventures in Uri Shulevitz’s THE TRAVELS OF BENJAMIN OF TUDELA; Through Three Continents in the Twelfth Century. Shulevitz’s goal was to tell a story for young readers that would give them a picture of life and the hardships of travel in medieval times. He successfully recreates the sea voyages, landscapes and architecture of ancient days through a first person narrative and marvelously detailed illustrations.  (Ages 7+++, $17.00) 

Eight hundred years later, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong took another challenging voyage and lived to tell of it. REACHING FOR THE MOON gives young readers a personal account of Aldrin’s childhood and his early career in the Air Force. When he learned about the astronaut program he went back to school to learn more about aeronautics and astronautics. He says that the first time he applied to become an astronaut, he was turned down. It’s valuable for kids to understand that heroes like Aldrin are people who do not give up and have worked hard to accomplish goals. Accompanying Aldrin’s straightforward text are stunning paintings by Wendell Minor. (Ages 6–9, $15.99)

Perhaps your children’s best introduction to Erica Silverman’s biography of the early years of the beloved Yiddish writer, Sholom Aleichem, would be to see “Fiddler on the Roof.” Then sit down together and read SHOLOM’S TREASURE; How Sholom Aleichem Became a Writer. He did not have the easiest of lives. He was one of twelve children living in a small Russian village in the mid-1800’s. When his mother died in a cholera epidemic, the new step-mother made things even more difficult. What saved Sholom was his extraordinary sense of humor. Once he became captivated by reading a book belonging to his father, he was inspired to record his own keen observations of human foibles. Silverman, in an afterword, tells us that in his lifetime he penned more than six thousand stories, essays, plays, and novels. Mordecai Gerstein’s paintings reflect not only the hard-scrabble existence of nineteenth century Eastern European life, but also the lively humor that made it bearable.
(Ages 6–11, $16.00)