December 2015

What I want for Hanukkah

The holidays are about all sorts of things --- celebrating your culture and religion, getting together with family and friends, and having an excuse to eat as many latkes and gingerbread men as humanly possible. And what’s that pesky thing I forgot? Oh right --- presents!

While giving and receiving is a lovely tradition, I’m not going to pretend it’s a calm one…as the clock ticks toward December 13th (the last night of Hanukkah) and the 24th (Christmas Eve), you can find more and more harried people running through the street (or the mall), glasses askew, shopping bags waving around wildly and smacking passersby in the head.

At Kidsreads, we’ll try to do our part to prevent injuries (and stress) with a quick gift-giving roundup! First, we direct you to some “best of the year” lists to guide your book shopping. But what if you have a voracious reader in your life, someone who already has shelves and shelves filled with the latest and greatest middle grade books? Then just look to the second part of the opener, where bookish accessories run the show (as the result of some of the most fun research I’ve conducted in quite some time)!

Books Themselves --- The Best of the Best:

Kidsreads Reviewers Picks: Why not turn to our trusty reviewers for advice? They ranked their top five favorites of the year in our special feature.

The New York Times – It’s a name that never goes out of style. The children’s books editor at the Times selected her favorite picture books, middle grade novels and YA books, and it’s a diverse, high quality list.

Publishers Weekly --- One of the premier book review publications, this is another highly trustworthy source.

EarlyWord’s Roundup – The team at EarlyWord --- a website that helps librarians keep up to date on all of the hottest titles coming out --- did something slightly amazing. They compiled all of the titles mentioned in children's book-themed best-of lists (everywhere from Amazon to The New York Times to the National Book Awards finalists) into one Excel sheet. The books are organized by number of list appearances, meaning that a book that shows up on nine lists will be far above a book that shows up on one list. Talk about comprehensive!

Literary Accessories --- For Those Whose Shelves are Already Overflowing

Bookends: Do the bookworms in your life have so many tomes that they're constantly threatening to topple over and break a desk lamp? Get them some adorable bookends! I love these giraffe ones from Knob Creek Metal Arts, a shop on Esty. And since the Venn diagram of book people and grammar people overlaps quite a bit, I bet they'll like this awesome bracket-shaped pair, too.

Posters: Sure, your kids' shelves might be clear indications that they're literary lovers, but what about their walls? There are tons of fun book posters out there. FolioCreations makes a super cool series of library card art prints of classic books. Literary quotes also make great posters, like this lovely one sharing J. R. R. Tolkien’s famous line, “not all who wander are lost.” A great piece of wisdom to wake up to every day, don't you think?

All Things Wearable: Why should your kids limit their bookish pride to their bedrooms? Help them show off their literary leanings with some wearable gadgets. First off, if they have cellphones, check out this list of 20 great bookish cases. Some are title-specific and some replicate a library or even a leather book itself! Or you can go with something from Litographs, a company that makes totes, t-shirts and even temporary tattoos with cool nods to books across all sorts of genres, including children's titles and Shakespeare's plays. I’m a big fan of their THE SECRET GARDEN print myself. And then, of course, there’s book-themed jewelry! This “meet me at the library” pendant will guarantee they meet a like-minded new friend, and these cuff bracelets with quotes from writers will leave them both looking cool and feeling motivated.

A few more things to tick off your list, which you can read more about later in this newsletter:

1) Take a moment and enter our Kidsreads.com Holiday Bundle of Cheer Contest, which closes next Thursday. It's a great way to win some fabulous books for your child! We also have info about our Teenreads and 20SomethingReads Contests.

2) Have a teen in your house, or know a teen? Then have them nominate their favorite books for the Teen Choice Book Awards!

3) Our Bookreporter.com Holiday Cheer Contests have four more days left on them. See details below on entering.

4) Our Bookreporter.com Holiday Author Blogs are back for an 8th season. On weekdays, authors are sharing their stories about book giving and receiving.

5) Our Bookreporter.com End-of-the-Year Contest where you can win 33(!) of Carol Fitzgerald's "Bets On" titles is now live!

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter, and happy holidays! We'll see you next year!

--- Shara Zaval (Shara@bookreporter.com)

At Kidsreads.com, we're kicking off the holiday season with our first Holiday Bundle of Cheer Contest and Feature. We are spotlighting some amazing books. Five lucky readers will win a copy of each of the featured titles, along with some incredibly festive goodies.

This year's featured titles include:

ANIMAL GROUPS by Jill Esbaum and Frans Lanting
BALANCE KEEPERS, Book 1: The Fires of Calderon by Lindsay Cummings
BRIDGET WILDER: Spy-in-Training by Jonathan Bernstein
CURIOSITY HOUSE: The Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver and H. C. Chester
EDIBLE SCIENCE: Experiments You Can Eat by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen
ELLIE'S STORY by W. Bruce Cameron
EXTREME PLANET by National Geographic Explorer Carsten Peter
THE KEEPERS: The Box and the Dragonfly by Ted Sanders
MR. PUFFBALL: Stunt Cat to the Stars by Constance Lombardo
THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL #3: The Last Ever After by Soman Chainani
TODHUNTER MOON, Book One: PathFinder by Angie Sage
WHEN FISH GOT FEET, WHEN BUGS WERE BIG, AND WHEN DINOS DAWNED: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life on Earth by Hannah Bonner

Fill out the form by Thursday, December 17th at noon ET to be one of five lucky winners.

You may remember us talking about this book a few months ago, when we gave you the chance to win an early copy of this quirky, adventuresome illustrated novel that follows the adventures of a 12-year-old bellhop and tell us what you thought. It's now in stores!

We're thrilled that our readers fell in love with WARREN THE 13TH --- Joey from Davie, FL called it "a really interesting, not-moving-from-your-seat-until-you-are-done read" and Emily from White Plains, NY said "I am not sure which I loved more --- the story or the incredible illustrations."

Want to read all of the readers' comments? Click here!

You can also:

Click here to learn more about the book.
Click here to read an excerpt from the book.
Click here to read the full feature.

 

What's better than a book (and no, we don't mean ice cream)? It's a whole series of books! At Kidsreads.com, we know that a lot of you are all about series. Once you find characters, topics or a fictional world you love, you don't have to leave --- you can just move from one adventure to another to another.

That's why we've decided to give our series feature a major makeover! We've updated the feature so that you'll find nearly 200 fantastic middle grade series, both modern and classic. We also chose to include several major picture book series, and readers from 0-12 will find something in here that appeals to them.

You can find series organized by age and alphabetically, learn the premise of each series and, most importantly, see which book comes after the one you just finished!

We'll also be including periodic "series updates" in our Kidsreads newsletter, so you'll know if we added a new series we think you should check out. So go check it out --- we know you'll love it!
 

Whether you're two or 82, there is nothing quite like the perfect picture book to ring in the holidays, and luckily for us, there are plenty of great ones to choose from this year!

We culled from all of the Christmas, Hanukkah and general winter books coming out this year and selected the best of the best. Whether you're a fan of toys going on a grand snowy adventure (in TOYS MEET SNOW), experiencing the holiday sights in NYC through the eyes of a German Jewish immigrant in 1938 (OSKAR AND THE EIGHT BLESSINGS) or cheering for a little pig struggling to come up with a homemade Christmas gift for her family (A HOMEMADE TOGETHER CHRISTMAS), you're sure to find something on this list that will get you in the holiday spirit.
 

In association with the Children’s Book Council (CBC) and Every Child a Reader (ECAR), Teenreads.com is giving teens a very special opportunity for their voices to be heard by telling us up to 15 of their favorite books of 2015. The five titles that receive the most votes will serve as the finalists for the CBC’s 2015 Teen Choice Book of the Year. Cool, no? Send your teenage children to this link so they can get voting!
 

End-of-the-Year Contest 2015: We are thrilled to announce a very special contest featuring Carol Fitzgerald’s Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2015. One Grand Prize winner will receive all 33 books, while 11 other winners will receive a selection of three of these titles. Click here to see the titles and to enter the contest!

Holiday Cheer 2015: Bookreporter.com kicks off the holiday season in style with our Holiday Cheer Contests and Feature. This year’s Holiday Cheer titles include books that you want to give and get, as well as a “hot” 2016 title or two. The contests start at noon ET on select days in November and December, and run for just 24 hours, so you will have to check the site to see what is being featured. As always, we’ll be sending our special Holiday Cheer newsletter on the days when there are contests. Click here to sign up for these email alerts.

Holiday Author Blogs: For the eighth consecutive year, Bookreporter.com brought back its Holiday Author Blog feature, where it shares new blog posts from authors every weekday from December 1st through Christmas Eve! Authors include Paula McLain, Chris Bohjalian, Melanie Benjamin and more. Click here to read their blog posts!

Teenreads.com Bundle of Cheer Contest: If you have teens or simply love YA yourself, we're having a great holiday contest on Teenreads. Five lucky readers will win a copy of six YA titles to curl up with this holiday season, along with some incredibly festive goodies. Click here to see the titles and enter the contest, or pass this on to a teen you know and love!

20SomethingReads.com Bundle of Cheer Contest: Yup, 20somethings get one too! If you have a 20something in your life, tell them to enter, or you can enter and get them an incredible gift this holiday season!

New! A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A COMPLETE AND TOTAL GENIUS by Stacey Matson (Children's Fiction, Friendship, Humor)
Arthur Bean, soon-to-be a rich and famous author, has set two goals for himself: to win the school writing contest and to win the heart of his secret crush, Kennedy. But his life has had some major twists and turns lately, and the recent loss of his mother definitely complicates things. --- Reviewed by Aimee Rogers.

New! THE ROSEMARY SPELL by Virginia Zimmerman (Children's Fiction, Adventure, Mystery)
Thirteen-year-old Rosemary and her best friend Adam search for the words to lift a spell that causes people to disappear and be erased from memory, but they, too, fall under the spell. Their struggle to bring someone back even as they forget her is a suspenseful race against time. --- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman.

New! THE ODDS OF GETTING EVEN by Sheila Turnage (Children's Fiction, Humor, Mystery)
For everyone who's already fallen for Mo and Dale, and for anyone who's new to Tupelo Landing, THE ODDS OF GETTING EVEN is a heartwarming story that perfectly blends mystery and action with more serious themes about family and fathers, all without ever losing its sense of humor. --- Reviewed by Aimee Rogers.