Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes

Finding good books for toddlers can be a difficult task. Finding good books for toddler that mom and dad don't mind looking at one hundred times can be an even more difficult task. Little White Rabbit is one book that actually meets the criteria. Henkes's text is short and simple, gentle and repetitive-perfect for a toddler's short attention span. But the illustrations are what really makes this story enjoyable. Little Rabbit hops along throughout the story wondering what it would be like to be green, tall, a rock, and to fly. Each illustration of Little Rabbit wondering takes up two full pages of sweet, detailed, and somewhat humorous pictures. Little White Rabbit makes for a very enchanting read that I almost enjoy more to the babies I share it with. Because it features a rabbit, it would be a good choice for an Easter or spring story. You can find Little White Rabbit at the Greenwood Public Library in our new Juvenile Picture books under Henkes.

Buster on the Farm

Buster Baxter, of Arthur fame, has his own series of early readers called Postcards from Buster. In this series, Buster visits several places and sends tales of his adventures via postcard to his friend Arthur. Buster on the Farm chronicles Buster’s visit to a farm in Indiana. On his friend’s Lauren’s farm, Buster rides a tractor, gathers eggs, milks cows, bales hay, goes to a county fair. The book contains a glossary to explain some more difficult words for beginning readers and has a page with a few facts about the state of Indiana. Buster’s blog on PBS further describes his visit to Lauren’s farm in Knox, Indiana and the Indiana State fair. You can find his blog at http://pbskids.org/buster/blog/in_knox_bl.html. Buster on the Farm is located in the juvenile easy reader section of the Greenwood Public Library under Brown.

The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang by Amy Ignatow

There have been many books published lately that try to appeal to fans of the diary-centered Wimpy Kid fans. Unfortunately, many of these books are not nearly as good as Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and only get checked out a few times before heading to the library booksale. But, occasionally, a wonderful diary-centered book will make it to the market that is unique, fun, and (dare I say it) even better than the Wimpy Kid series. The Popularity Papers is one of those books.

Kydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang are best friends that have decided that they are not nearly popular enough, and they want to figure out how to maintain popularity when they start middle school next year. This leads to the development of the Popularity Papers, a shared diary that chronicles their observations of the popular kids and their attempts to copy them to achieve popularity. Like Greg Heffley in Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the girls make many silly and unproductive attempts at popularity. But their strong friendship is what ultimately pulls them through, as they come to the realization that their real friends are the coolest people you know.

On a side note, Julie Graham-Chang was adopted by two gay dads, Daddy and Papa Dad. Papa Dad adds a lot of humor to the story with his antics, and was probably my favorite character in the story. It is probably because of this relationship that this book was one of ten to make the American Library Association's Rainbow List of 2011.

You can find The Popularity Papers in Greenwood Public Library's new fiction section, under J Ignatow. The sequel, The Popularity Papers: Book Two: The Long-Distance Dispatch Between Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang, should be available at the library soon.

Big Bouffant by Kate Hosford

This was such an adorable and hilarious book about fashion and self-expression. When Annabelle enters the classroom for the first day, she becomes frustrated when she sees that all the girls are wearing the same boring hairstyle. She wants something different, and when she goes home, she sees the perfect solution in an old hairstyle of her grandma's, the bouffant. This book radiates with bright colors and is fashionably fabulous enough to attract Fancy Nancy fans. The simple rhyming text makes it a great pick for storytime, and the humor will draw in parents as well as preschoolers. I would definitely buy it for my library.

Today's Review: Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck

Of course, the title of Richard Peck's book is what drew me to it. Like every working person, I like to see my profession glorified by the written word. However, I kept reading this book because of its gentle humor and unique subtle details. The novel follows along the life of PeeWee, a tomboy who works with her brother Jake at an auto shop outside of Brownsburg, Indiana. PeeWee is swept up into town chaos when four Butler students step in to fill the role of public librarian, a post left open when the previous town librarian died near the card catalog. The librarians recruit PeeWee as a volunteer and encourage her in her nontraditional automobile repair and racing pursuits. A great pick in general, but especially for those familiar with the Indianapolis area and the love of racing that surrounds the city. Here Lies the Librarian can be found in the Juvenile Fiction section at GPL under Peck.