Click, Clack, Peep! by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin

Click, Clack, Peep! by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin was published in 2015 and has the same humor and elements of surprise that all the other Click, Clack, Moo books have. The story is written by Doreen Cronin, and Betsy Lewin is the illustrator who draws all the fun pictures. 

In this installment, a new baby is coming to the farm and no one can get any sleep because Baby Duck will not sleep. All Baby Duck does is "Peep, peep, peep." Lewin draws the eyes of the animals looking very tired. Of course Duck figures out a way to get the baby to sleep, but it isn't going to make Farmer Brown happy at all. 

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

The Handmade Alphabet by Laura Rankin

I collect alphabet books, and I found one today that has incredibly beautiful art. The Handmade Alphabet by Laura Rankin was published in 1991 and is a Reading Rainbow book. This wordless book, shows each letter of the alphabet, a hand showing the American Sign Language sign, and one item that begins with that letter of the alphabet.

These pictures would look great in a classroom or in a child's room, not that I can bring myself to cut up a book, but this one might be worth getting one to cut up. I wish this book was sold as posters.

The pictures are even brighter and more beautiful in person. 

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Where My Feet Go by Birgitta Sif

Where My Feet Go by Birgitta Sif was published in 2016. This darling book got two thumbs up from the two grand kids whom I've read it to so far. Vincent and Aria are both four-years-old, and they both laughed at the pictures that show the wonderful imagination of Sif's main character, a fully dressed panda that carries around a little green frog.

This book is a lot of fun and encourages children to use their own imaginations when they play. They especially liked the page that says, "My feet sit very, very quietly while I feed little dinosaurs." The illustration is of the panda feeding birds.

I can't wait to share this one with the other grand kids.

Yes, I am a grandmother with a picture book addiction.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Inhuman by Kat Falls

Inhuman by Kat Falls is the first book in the Fetch series. The second book, Undaunted,  comes out in March of 2019. I'll be buying it for sure.

Inhuman is the story of Lane McEvoy. She lives on the right side of a giant wall that separates her society from the feral zone. Before she was born, a company that was trying to create new species of animals accidentally started a plague when animal viruses attacked the human population and killed millions. Those that survived were changed, and not for the better.

Lane is being blackmailed to save someone she loves, so she has to go into the feral zone to retrieve an item. What she finds in the feral zone is the stuff of nightmares. She loves animals and is a kind person, but her kindness could get her killed.

If you liked Dark Life, you will like this book. Kat  Falls grabs her reader from the start, writes an exciting well paced story, and has characters that are multi-dimensional.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman is a novella that was published in 2016. Backman never lets me down. I've read all but one of his published books and have enjoyed every single word.

This sweet novella is about a grandfather and his grandson. The grandfather is getting older and is suffering from dementia. Noah, the grandson, is trying hard to understand what is happening to his grandpa. They share the love of math, but Noah's father loves music. The grandfather has invited Noah into his brain. This multi-generational story shows the love that encompasses our families even when we are different.

The visual aspect of this story is beautiful. There are simple illustrations, yet the words themselves seem to illustrate the story even more than the pictures that were drawn by Ella Laytham. The illustrations add a gentle touch to this book.

Quotes I liked:

Grandfather - "How do I explain to him that I'm going to be leaving him even before I die?" page 11

In reference to his brain - "It rained for a long time here when your grandma died. I never quite got it back in order after that." page 24.

In reference to Noah, "He's so tall now; his feet are going to reach all the way to the ground soon" (36).

"That's why we get the chance to spoil our grandchildren because by doing that we're apologizing to our children" (66).

"The amount I love you, Noah, the sky will never be that big" (69).

"What can we do for Grandpa? We can walk down the road with him. We can keep him company" (69-71).

I love this book because it is a love letter to a grandfather, a father, and a grandchild. Backman shows tenderness and feelings so well. His characters always seem to come off the page and walk right into your home. May he have a long and prosperous writing career.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins is the first of four books and was published in 2010. The book begins with fifteen-year-old Sophie Mercer, a witch, being exiled to Hex Hall, a reform school for wayward witches, vampires, werewolves, faeries, shapeshifters, and other Prodigium.

I really liked the premise of this story. I found that Hawkins got the teen angst right, and the conversations were realistic. I found the story fun and the friendships good. 

I liked the magic and the consequences students faced. There was just the right amount of tension in the story. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Michelle and I went to a 50% off sale today and she got these books for our NICU babies. Thank you Michelle for helping our project. 

We found a lot of Spanish books today, and we will have delivered 400 books to two different hospital NICUs by the end of this month. 

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Lemons Are Not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Laura Vaccaro Seeger writes great books for children. My grand kids all enjoy her books. Lemons Are Not Red is a fun book with cut outs in each page. The book begins with "Lemons are not RED," with a red lemon showing.

The lemon is a cut out, so when you turn the page, the lemon cut out is now colored yellow with the words, "Lemons are YELLOW. Apples are RED."

Each page shows a different item from nature and keeps the child guessing which item will be shown next. Honestly, you can't go wrong with this author. She knows how to delight young readers - and old ones like me. :)

This would be a great book to send to our NICU babies. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

The Lake House by Kate Morton

We read The Lake House by Kate Morton for our September book club. This book was published in 2015, and is a good mystery. I was kept guessing almost until the end.

In the first chapter, an unknown woman is burying something, something heavier than she'd thought it would be. I thought this character was Alice, and then I thought this character was Eleanor, and then I wondered if it was Nanny Rose, or or maybe Constance. The reader doesn't find out until nearly the end. 

The story travels in time from 1933 to 2003 to 1914 to 2004 and back and forth all through the book. The story is told from several different point of views as the narration follows the different possible suspects. 

Sadie is a current day detective on leave from her job for stepping on toes. She stumbles across a seventy-year-old missing person's case. A baby disappeared, but the reader doesn't know what happened to him. 

I found myself hating one character after the other as I thought they may have killed the missing child. Sadie also has a modern day mystery that plays a role in the story but not in the story of the missing child. 

Kate Morton is a good story teller. This isn't the first book our book club has read by her and it probably won't be the last. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes was published in 2016. Because I hadn't read anything about this book, I thought it would be set in 2001. It is set in current time. 

Deja, the main character, and her family live in a homeless shelter. She has a little brother and sister, a mother, and a father who is always sick, coughing, and it sounds like he has a bad case of PTSD. 

At school, her teacher tells them their essays will all connect with the missing twin towers. Deja doesn't understand why they need to learn about something that happened before she was born. It's old history, and it doesn't matter to her, or so she thinks. 

Deja has her defenses up. The shelter is in the nicest neighborhood she's ever lived in, and at least two of the kids at the school are determined to be her friends. I enjoyed seeing the changes in Deja and her friends. I loved how they helped one another. Every person needs friends like Ben and Sabeen. 

I love this story of friendship and connections and how we are all one family. I liked that the kids were not just white and that the author was realistic in her representations of different cultures. Children need to read about people who look just like them and about people who don't. 

I think this is an important book for children who don't know about 9/11. Know that this book may make them curious enough to do more research and some of what's online about 9/11 isn't for younger readers. 

I listened to the audio version and nearly gave up on it because Deja sounded too angry, unlikable, and full of hate for everybody and everything, but I didn't have any other audio books to listen to that day, so I stuck it out. I may have liked the book more if I had read it, but I loved it anyway. Be warned that if you remember 9/11, this book will make you weep. 

I look forward to reading more of Rhodes' work. She's an excellent author. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.