Gitchi Gumee
By Anne Margaret Lewis
Mackinac Island Press
Amazon, all ages
If you grew up in Minnesota, Longfellow’s rolling rhythm is a permanent part of your brain: “By the shores of Gitche Gumee / By the shining Big-Sea-Water….” Michigan writer Anne Margaret Lewis has made the great lake from The Song of Hiawatha a major character in her latest children’s book: a stern and demanding teacher of the young man, Oshikinawe. Lewis paints a remarkable picture of the lake in rhythm and rhyme (though not in Longfellow’s famous trochees), but Kathleen Chaney-Fritz’s lush oil paintings nearly steal the show.
Please Do Not Open This Book!
By Jon Stone
Random House Children’s Books
Amazon, ages 3-7
It’s been 35 years since the bestseller The Monster at the End of this Book first delighted children. To celebrate, the anniversary edition adds new interactive features for even more giggles. As each page is turned, Grover begs the reader to stop reading the book because there is a monster on the last page. Many parents will smile as they remember just who that monster is, and children will learn that not all monsters are scary.
Mommy?
By Maurice Sendak
Scholastic Inc.
Amazon, ages 4-8
The beloved author of Where the Wild Things Are has once again created a book that will both surprise and fascinate readers. The pop-up illustrations capture the escapades of a young boy searching for his mother. Along the way, he surprises goblins, mummies, werewolves, and even Frankenstein’s monster – all of whom become victims of his funny, innocent pranks.
Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars
By Tracy Mack and Michael Citrin
Orchard Books/Scholastic Inc.
Amazon, ages 9-12
This new mystery series is a wonderful rendition of the classic Sherlock Holmes’ tales. The first “casebook” – The Fall of the Amazing Walendas – features the young boys of the Baker Street Irregulars as they try to solve a murder at a circus. Their investigations reveal even more sinister crimes that need to be solved before more harm is done. The book incorporates a wonderful array of political elements, geography, and history – all rolled into a mystery that will keep your reader coming back for more.
Endymion Spring
By Matthew Skelton
Knopf Delacorte Dell
Amazon, ages 12 and up
Called “The Da Vinci Code for kids,” Endymion Spring weaves a dramatic tale full of cryptic messages, secretive scholars, and a magical book set in both present-day Oxford and in 15th-century Germany. A young boy finds a mysterious blank book on the dusty shelves of a library at Oxford. Gradually, he discovers that the book possesses a magic all its own as words begin to appear on the book’s pages. The descriptive prose draws in the reader for a nail-biting page-turner from beginning to end.
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