What to Read to Your Kids

A rainy long weekend at the river was made sunnier by this buddy read. 💕 (Is there anything more fun than sitting next to a dear friend and cackling over the same paragraphs?!) Maria Semple’s GO GENTLE is an all-over-the-place kind of novel and while I’m not sure it’s entirely successful, it definitely goes down as one of the more unique reading experiences of the year for the way it smashes together genres and juggles themes: it has the sharp social commentary and foray through trauma of a lit fic; that same middle-age wit we first loved in WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE?; a juicy (if somewhat preposterous) art history mystery; a cliff notes-intro to Stoicism by our comedy-writer-turned-philosophy-educator main character aptly named Adora Hazzard; and the sunny happily-ever-after of a rom com.
 
But wait! That still leaves my two favorite parts: 1) a mother-teenage daughter relationship that I found all kinds of relatable and charming (see cackling above) and 2) a deliciously voyeuristic lens through which to view NYC’s Upper West Side elite, especially the physical spaces in which they work and play.
 
Perhaps most fascinating—and ripe for discussion—is the way Semple asks us to think about the teachings of Stoicism against the backdrop of modern life. For as much as our main character strives to do right by the old, white, male philosophers’ teachings that she has remade her life around, she begins to realize that these teachings may actually result in more balance, more wisdom, and more contentment if they make room for another key component: female intuition.
 
May we all strive to move through our days feeling “wide and well.” And may we all find friends who will indulge frequent pauses for reading lines aloud. (😘 )

What a blessing Steve Sheinkin continues to be for middle grade readers who enjoy fast-paced nonfiction! In DIAMOND FEVER! A TRUE CRIME STORY IN THE WILD WEST (ages 9-13), Sheinkin’s gripping prose combines with Jon Chad’s spot art and occasional comics to tell the story of the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872, when an alleged diamond mine near the border of Wyoming and Colorado ignited a frenzy among geologists and investors, prospectors and pirates. Perfect for MONA LISA VANISHES fans, the book will also shine in America 250 displays. (It’s every bit as fun for adults, too; look no further for your next family road trip listen!)

Before science ultimately triumphs over greed and deception, we get a heck of a lens through which to glimpse a unique period in our country’s history, when much of the West had yet to be mapped, the transcontinental railroad was in its early stages, President Grant was racking up speeding infractions on the streets of DC, and Susan B. Anthony was casting her (illegal) vote to launch the Suffrage Movement. Against this backdrop is a story of two ragtag cousins, who wander into an investor’s San Francisco office with a bag of “rough diamonds” and a story of impossible riches. Before long, all walks of people are drawn into the frenzy and massive sums of money are changing hands—before it comes out as one of the greatest hoaxes in US history.
 
It’s a heck of a story, where twists and turns abound, but what’s arguably even more compelling than the historical specifics is the nod to something quintessentially human. What causes our judgment to be clouded? Yes, there were circumstances unique to the time period that made this hoax possible; and yet, our ability to be taken in by misinformation and disinformation, especially where promises of wealth are concerned, is part of the human experience. In fact, the book’s epilogue (followed by an equally excellent Author’s Note with details about Sheinkin’s extensive research for the book, including a trip with his son to the diamond site) draws connections to Bernie Madoff and today’s Internet scams, underscoring just how important these history lessons are!

“So blind we humans are—so blind. To each other and to ourselves, moving through life as though through shadows, putting out a hand in the dark and thinking we have touched someone. And maybe we have, as Artie did with Rhonda Lawrence that day. But mostly we travel through life unsighted, grasping only the smallest details of one another’s selves, including our own. Thinking all the while that we can see.” 💔
 
I’m an Elizabeth Strout completist—I just adore the way her unassuming prose gives us glimpses into the interior life of the everyday—and though her newest, THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY, is not my favorite of hers, it’s an astute testament to the emotional isolation and disconnection that so many of us are experiencing in our country right now. Perhaps because it hits so close to home with today’s uncertainty and divisiveness, it has left me sadder, more haunted even, than her books normally do. But gosh did I love the father-adult son relationship here... 🥰

Are you a Strout fan and have you read this one yet?

Reading 1500+ new picture books a year means that even though my own kids are long out of them, I can still bask in their magic. But every so often a book (or two) comes along and makes me deeply mourn the experience of reading to them, because I know without a shred of doubt that it’s a book (or two) that would have taken up permanent space in their imaginations.
 
I’m BONKERS about these two new imports, which excel at what picture books can do best: they’re visually inventive, relying on the reader to extract as much meaning from the pictures as from the text, they’re a little bit outlandish, they spark conversation by asking as much as they answer, and they revel in the drollest of humor. Bonus: both shine with gorgeous bookmaking (jacketless covers, matte pages, cloth spine on one).
 
First published in France, Lisa Loffredo’s THE FOUNTAIN (ages 3-8)—think Tomie dePaola meets Tomi Ungerer—is about a magical fountain that, one Tuesday morning and for weeks after that, turns up an array of unusual objects, from drums to rocking horses, yarn to bananas, “things with wheels” and “things with a mustache” and “things that wouldn’t fit on this page.” Those who live there—an oddball combo of humans with wings, anthropomorphized animals, and blobby forms with shoes and hats—are delighted, then confused, then changed in ways that underscore community and connection. The fountain is a mystery that’s never solved but readers will have fun trying on repeat, particularly when the art holds so many surprises of its own.
 
You know what kids love reading about? Misguided narcissism. (What’s more relatable in childhood?) Combine that with an erudite toad in tightie whities and it doesn’t get any better. From Germany, with words by Oren Lavie and pictures by Anke Kuhl, TRUMAN TOAD AND THE QUEST FOR THE PERFECT HUG (ages 4-8), stars a toad determined to find the other half to his perfect hug. None of the other animals, from long-necked giraffes to prickly porcupines, initially fit the bill (but golly it’s funny watching him have his go), because he’s missing that essential piece of the puzzle: emotional vulnerability. 🥰 (Also: props for the best Afterward in pb history.)

I hardly need to heap more praise atop Erin Entrada Kelly’s new futuristic middle grade, THE SECOND LIFE OF SNAP (ages 9-13), already critically acclaimed by trades and booksellers alike; but I want to call attention to two very smart things that this novel is doing for today’s discerning young readers. Yes, the story is compelling, as tenacious as it is tender: against the dust-entombed backdrop of an oppressive dystopian society shaped by climate change and the increasing hold of AI, a band of hardscrabble kids who call themselves the Valleycats hang on to hope with the help of a guardian robot they reprogram and name Snap. And yes, EEK is especially skilled at character-driven, heart-expanding storytelling. But there are two ADDITIONAL things I am grateful for here, as we think about meeting today’s readers where they are.

First, the novel does an immense amount of worldbuilding in just 164 pages, with ample white space and short chapters to boot. At a time when one of the greatest obstacles to reading is stamina, story length and page design MATTER. But don’t confuse brevity for barrenness: amidst such careful language, a lot goes unsaid and nothing gets repeated, relying on readers to fill in gaps of knowledge with observation born from organic curiosity.
 
Which brings me to the second. EEK has created a uniquely active experience for middle grade readers, not just along the way but in an intentionally open-ended conclusion. I’m calling it right now: a lot of readers are going to gripe about the abruptness of the ending and the many questions left unanswered. And guess what? I LOVE that. Today’s kids are all too familiar with uncertainty. This story flirts with darkness—this is for your WILD ROBOT fans ready to level up in their thinking about free will and the limits of technology against the expanse of human potential—but it also drops clues that a better future is on its way for the Valleycats. We get only glimpses; our imagination has to fill in the rest, because these aren’t questions with easy answers.

This is a story that will lend itself to conversation, re-readings, read alouds. But, most importantly, it will awaken the imagination. 💕

Happy Mother’s Day from my crew to yours. It has been a rough week for the kid lit community. To all those working hard in a litany of different ways for today’s young readers, I salute you. 💕 And to those missing their own mamas today, extra hugs.

The fast-paced baseball sequences of a Mike Lupica novel combine with the heart and gentle exploration of masculinity in a Dusti Bowling, making Elaine Vickers’ THE SWEET SPOT (ages 9-13) an excellent addition to sports-themed middle grade. I found twelve-year-old Trip’s first-person narration to be infectiously funny, revealing a personality as tender and curious as it is stubborn and prideful. He’s perfectly poised to take readers on a spin around the bases, while simultaneously reckoning with gender stereotypes both at home and in competitive athletics, and thoughtfully pondering the alluring but hard-to-pin-down idea of legacy.

Trip and his team are poised for a summer to win the Little League championships, so when they show up to the first practice and discover their newest draft is a girl, tempers flare. Hasn’t she ever heard of softball?! But right off the mound, Sam turns out to be a force to be reckoned with, even if Trip, the newly crowned team captain, isn’t ready to stand up to the derogatory remarks his teammates continue to make. Trip, as it turns out, isn’t too happy about girls at the moment. His dad, who is also his former baseball coach, has just been deployed, leaving Trip to shoulder the weight of being the “man in the house” among his gaggle of younger sisters, none of whom he’s convinced understand the first thing about him. It doesn’t help that his asparagus-loving, aroma-emitting grandfather, also a Marine, loves to go on about the legacy of the men in the family. Trip barely knows how to be a kid; how can he be sure he’s growing into the kind of adult his dad and grandfather expect him to be, especially with his sisters in the way?

But it turns out Trip has gotten a lot of things wrong, from underestimating the girls and women in his life to seeing baseball as a means to a more glorious end. As Trip faces challenge upon challenge, both at home and on the field, he begins to realize that baseball, the thing he loves to do, is itself a thing of beauty, a thing to be proud of, and a place where he can practice and make mistakes, as he tries to figure out the kind of person he’d like to be.

It’s finally here: a 98-page manifesto—as funny as profound—designed to give adults a framework for understanding what makes good children’s books and what does not. If you are a parent or someone who works with kids, if you harbor dreams of writing for kids or already are, if you review kids’ books or sell kids’ books or wonder what the fuss about GOODNIGHT MOON is, if you were ever a kid yourself, then I *implore* you to read this book.
 
MAKE BELIEVE: ON TELLING STORIES TO CHILDREN is written by Mac Barnett, current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and the author of some of the most beloved children’s books, not just in my family but in most. Mac is a brilliant mind hiding behind a casual, unassuming, easily amused facade and he is here to remind us, in a simple, no-fuss, 100% entertaining way that children’s books are for children and not adults (despite the fact that adults birth them into existence and are often the ones reading them aloud); that children’s books should be given the same study and criticism we devote to other art forms; and that they should be considered FIRST AND FOREMOST as far as they speak to the interior life of a child.

(His hot tip? That maybe as much as “94.7% of kids’ books are crud” and probably not for the reasons you think.)

What does Mac demand and value above all else in picture books? Something as “flexible, unpredictable, sublime, and untamable as the imaginations of the people who read them.”
 
To those who say, it can’t be that hard to write a picture book—it’s only a handful of words on a page!—Mac says spends EIGHT pages dissecting Margaret Wise Brown’s GOODNIGHT MOON, specifically why it lands with kids the way it does. He’s ruthless when it comes to didacticism, a trend among publishers using it as click bait to get purchases, and dismisses the responsibility of books as teachers all together.
 
At a time when we are facing a crisis of literacy, a crisis of attention, a crisis in children (and adults) choosing to read, a crisis of imagination and creativity, it’s imperative that we become finer and more ruthless critiques of the art form where the magic first happens. 🔥

I finished 24 books in April (DNF’d dozens more for Summer Reading Guide vetting). Ranked w/ one sentence reviews:
 
CLASS OF ITS OWN:
 
RULES OF CIVILITY by Amor Towles: love letter to 1930s NYC w/ a modern heroine & delicious social scrutiny; now a forever favorite I can’t wait to reread
 
LOVED:
 
🎧 LONDON FALLING by Patrick Radden Keefe: masterfully executed true crime NF that has me 😳 about London
 
MOTHERS AND OTHER STRANGERS by Corey Ann Haydu: insightful, can’t-look-away portrait of mother-daughter relationships & friendships of early parenting
 
🎧 A HYMN TO LIFE by Gisèle Pelicot: the horrors are cloaked in gorgeous writing (& Emma Thompson’s narration!) & I was so moved by her grace & courage
 
WHERE ELLA WENT by Laurie Morrison (ages 10-14): multimedia middle school mystery that’s pure gold for tweens
 
LIFE ON THE MOON by Matthew Swanson & Robbi Behr (ages 8-12): witty and philosophical modern Phantom Tollbooth
 
THE DELTA CODEX by Deva Fagan (ages 10-14): THE GIVER meets Star Wars’ Tatooine in a gritty post-apocalyptic sci-fi
 
NIGHT OWL: POEMS by Aimee Nezhukumatathil: luminous bedtime reading for Margaret Renkl fans
 
ANNA-JANE AND THE ENDLESS SUMMER by Paige Classey (ages 10-14): summer camp turns survivalist in novel-in-verse perfect for ALONE fans
 
SASHIMI by Dan Santat (ages 6-10, graphic novel): story of a fishboy passing for a schoolkid that’s 🤣 & 🥰
 
REALLY ENJOYED:
 
LAST DAY POOL PARTY by Emma Steinkellner (ages 10-13, graphic novel): LOL social drama at 8th grade grad party
 
THEFT OF THE RUBY LOTUS by Sayantani Dasgupta (ages 8-12): MIXED-UP FILES meets Ponti’s FRAMED in a fun NYC jewel heist
 
THE SWEET SPOT by Elaine Vickers (ages 9-13): great boy protag in a baseball story exploring gender stereotypes
 
FATAL GLITCH: CAMP ZERO by Erin Entrada Kelly & Eliot Schrefer (ages 9-13): unhinged, video game-inspired horror that I can’t WAIT to sell (out 7/21)
 
LIARS SOCIETY: A SECRET ESCAPE by Alyson Ge**er (ages 10-13): best one yet in this boarding school mystery series
 
THE CHISMOSAS ONLY BOOK CLUB by Laekan Zea Kemp (ages 10-14): lots of heart in a character-driven story of 4 besties starting HS (out 5/26)
 
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