Books My Children Read

2012 Geisel Award Winner is Tales for Very Picky Eaters

2012-01-24T21:50:00.001-06:00

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On Monday, January 23rd, the American Library Association announced the winner and honors books of the 2012 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award. This is the third of a series of posts on this year's ALA award winning children's books. The first post was on the 2012 Newbery Medal Winner and the second post was on the 2012 Caldecott Medal Winner.

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award is given annually to the author(s) and / or illustrator(s) with the most outstanding contribution of beginner reading books in American Literature. Mr. Geisel, also knows as Dr. Seuss, is most noteably known for creating easy to read books such as The Cat and the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham.

The 2012 Geisel Award winner is Tales for Very Picky Eaters written and illustrated by Josh Schneider.

In 2012, there were three Geisel honors books: I Broke My Trunk by Mo Willems (an elephant and piggie book), I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen, and See Me Run by Paul Meisel.

There are many other Children's Book Awards given throughout the year in the United States. Most are given through the first half of the year.

The 2012 Geisel Award Winner was originally published on Books My Children Read blog.

The 2012 Caldecott Medal Winner is A Ball for Daisy

2012-01-23T17:51:00.002-06:00

On Monday, January 23rd, the American Library Association announced the winner and honors books of the 2012 Caldecott Medal. This is the second of a series of posts on this year's ALA award winning children's books. The first was on the 2012 Newbery Medal Winner.

The Caldecott Medal is given annually to the illustrator with the best american published picture book. Randolph Caldecott was a 19th century illustrator of childrens books.

The 2012 Caldecott Medal winner is A Ball for Daisy illustrated and written by Chris Raschka

In 2012, there were three Caldecott honors books: Blackout illustrated and written by John Rocco, Grandpa Green illustrated and written by Lane Smith, and Me...Jane illustrated and written by Patrick McDonnell

There are many Children's Book Awards given throughout the year in the United States. Most are given through the first half of the year.

The 2012 Caldecott Medal Winner was originally published on Books My Children Read blog.

The 2012 Newbery Medal Winner is Dead End in Norvelt

2012-01-23T13:36:00.000-06:00

This week I will be posting all of the American Library Association winners and honors books. The first post in this series is the 2012 Newbery Medal Winner.

The Newbery Medal is named after John Newbery, an eighteenth century English bookseller. The Newbery Medal, first awarded in 1922, encourages original children's books and innovation in the area of Children's literature.

The 2012 Newbery Medal Winner is Dead End in Norvelt written by Jack Gantos.

There were two 2012 Newbery Honors books, Breaking Stalin's Nose written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin and Inside Out and Back Again written by Thanhha Lai.

There are many Children's Book Awards given throughout the year in the United States. Most are given through the first half of the year.

The 2012 Newbery Medal Winner was originally published on Books My Children Read blog.

Great Children's Authors from England

2011-10-07T23:13:00.001-05:00

As many of you know, I write a lot on Squidoo, and one of my fellow lensmasters, Poddys, wrote a lens about a famous author from England, Enid Blyton. The lens was honored today with a designation on Squidoo called Lens of the Day. This got me to thinking about what other british authors do I know of and don't know they are from England.

After a little research, I was able to find out some of my favorite children's authors are from England. Roald Dahl who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Chronicles of Narnia author C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame, Paddington Bear creator Michael Bond, and one of my favorite children's Christmas Books, the Christmas Bear, was written and illustrated by Henrietta and Paul Stickland.

I'm sure there are more, but for now, I am going down memory lane with some of the books and authors on this list, which takes me to the time I spent in London. I loved reading the Paddington Bear books.

2011 Christopher Book Awards for Young Children

2011-09-06T23:22:00.000-05:00

On April 6, 2011, the 62nd annual Christopher Awards were announced. The Christopher Award winners are in four categories, TV & Cable, Feature Films, Books for Adults, and Books for Young Children. Being this blog is about books for my children, we are going to focus on the Books for Young Children winners.

There are four book categories for the Christopher Awards in 2011: Preschoolers, Readers age 6-8, Readers age 8-10, and Readers age 10-12. The winners are:

Preschooler - Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion by Mo Willems. Mo Willems had another book, We Are in A Book, that was a 2011 Theodor Seuss Geisel honors book.

Readers Age 6-8 - Would You Still Love Me If by Wendy LaGuardia and illustrated by Patricia Keeler

Readers Age 8-10 - Brother Jerome and the Angels in the Bakery by Father Dominic Garramone and illustrated by Richard Bernal. Father Garramone is a PBS cooking host.

Readers Age 10-12 - Lafayette and the American Revolution by Russell Freedman

The Christophers is a non-profit organization founded by Father James Keller in 1945 to promote the better side of human life. Children's books are fiction and non-fiction books that encourage young readers to utilize their best instincts.

2011 Jane Addams Children's Book Awards

2011-08-17T21:44:00.000-05:00

On April 28, 2011, the Jane Addams Peace Association announced the 2011 Jane Addams Children's Book Awards. The national committee picks books for this award that get children into thinking about peace, justice, world community, and / or race equality.

The Jane Addams Book for Younger Children Winner is Emma’s Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty, written by Linda Glaser and the Jane Addams Book for Older Children Winner is

A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park.

This year's honors books are Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey with Gwen Strauss and illustrated by Floyd Cooper, Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down (also 2011 Flora Stieglitz Straus Award Winner) by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney, The Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes, and Birmingham Sunday by Larry Dane Brimner.

The awards will be presented on October 21, 2011 in New York City. Visit the Jane Addams website for more information.

The following website has more Award Winning Children's Books.

American Bookseller Association announce Indies Choice Book Awards and E.B. White Read Aloud Awards

2011-04-19T21:58:00.000-05:00

The ABA, American Bookseller Association, announced their winners and honor award recipients for 2011. The Indies are chosen by independent booksellers nationwide and the winner for Young Adults is Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly.

The E.B. White awards were previously administered by the ABC, Association of Booksellers for Children, however, in 2010 the ABA and ABC merged and the E.B. White Awards replaced the Indies categories for middle reader and picture book. The E.B. White Read-Aloud award for the middle reader category is The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. The E.B. White Read-Aloud award for the picture book category is Children Make Terrible pets by Peter Brown. Peter Brown was also honored as the 2010 Childrens Choice Illustrator of the Year.

One of my families favorite books was inducted into the Picture Book Hall of Fame this year The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. I give this book to each of my nieces and nephews as its been one read in my house for the last ten years. Three other books were also inducted in 2011, Corduroy by Don Freeman, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton, and The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

Congratulations to these award winning children's books.

Bank Street College Announces 2011 Children's Book Awards

2011-03-05T00:12:00.000-06:00

Bank Street College recently announced the 2011 children's book awards for fiction, non fiction, and poetry. The 2011 Josette Frank Award Winning book for fiction was awarded to Out of My Mind, by Sharon M. Draper, the 2011 Flora Stieglitz Straus Award Winning book for non fiction was awarded to Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by Brian Pinkney, and the 2011 Claudia Lewis Award winning book for poetry was awarded to Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys by Bob Raczka and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds.

Congratulations to these fabulous books.

2nd Graders are Neat

2011-03-02T21:50:00.000-06:00

My second grader came to me last night and started talking about all the books she has been reading. She knows I keep a running list of the books she reads on Squidoo via my lens on books 2nd graders read and started sharing with me all the books I hadn't put on that webpage. As she started listing off all the different books like Mr Putter and Tabby, various A to Z Mysteries, Junie B. Jones books, and other various books dealing with animals, I realized I hadn't been keeping up with the different books she has been reading.

After we finished, we had listed 31 books, and she was proud of herself as she went to bed. As I finish this post, I realize that just by sitting there and listening, I have helped give her a love for reading which will help with the rest of her life.

2011 Golden Kite Award Winning Books

2011-03-01T21:27:00.000-06:00

On February 23, 2011, the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) announced the winners of the 2011 Golden Kite Awards and the Golden Kite Honor Recipients. Congratulations to this year's winners.

2011 Winner: Turtle in Paradise
2011 Honors: Big Red Lollipop, The Good The Bad and The Barbie, and A Pocketful of Posies

2011 Caldecott Medal and Newbery Medal Awarded

2011-01-10T19:12:00.000-06:00

On January 10th, 2011, the American Library Association announced the 2011 award winning children's books, including the 2011 Randolph Caldecott Medal winner, “A Sick Day for Amos McGee,” illustrated by Erin E. Stead and written by Philip C. Stead and the 2011 John Newbery Medal Winner, “Moon over Manifest,” written by Clare Vanderpool.

The American Library Association also handed out the following awards and medals:

Alex Awards
Andrew Carnegie Medal
Coretta Scott King Book Awards
Coretta Scott King - Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement
Laura Ingalls Wilder Award
Margaret A. Edwards Award
May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture
Michael L. Printz Award
Mildred L. Batchelder Award
Odyssey Award
Pura Belpré Awards
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal
Schneider Family Book Award
Stonewall Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award
Theodore Seuss Geisel Award
William C. Morris Award
YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults

You can see all the 2011 award winning and honors books in the ALA press release here: http://ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pr.cfm?id=6048

A complete list of 2011 award winning books is available at 2011 Award Winning Childrens Books and last year's 2010 award winning books are available at 2010 Award Winning Children's Books.

Books Read the Week of November 29th, 2010

2010-12-05T20:22:00.001-06:00

Here are the books my children read the week of November 29th, 2010.

My 2nd grade daughter read

My 4th Grade Son Read

My 7th Grade Daughter Read, School Spirit, but doesn't remember the author. The book was about students trying to save their school after the school board scheduled the school to be shut down.

My 9th Grade Daugther Re-Read, Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, by J.K. Rowling. We had gone to the movies to see the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and she was feeling nostalgic and decided to reread the first book.

Books Read the Week of November 21, 2010

2010-11-28T18:29:00.000-06:00

My children read the following books this week.

My 2nd grade daughter read The School Skeleton (A to Z Mysteries), Vacation Under the Volcano, Pirates Past Noon (Magic Tree House) and Junie B Jones and her Big Fat Mouth.

My 4th grade son read the following book

My 7th grade daughter is reading The Mailbox.

My 9th grade daughter is currently reading the Maze Runner by James Dashner

Back to School is Upon Us

2010-08-29T21:17:00.000-05:00

My kids went back to school last week. With the summer sports season over, it was a nice break in August without much to do, and not much running around.

After the first week of school it was nice to see the kids all relaxing with books again. I most admit, the house was a bit quieter than normal this week.

Here's what everyone was reading this week:

Ninth Grader - Released on August 23rd, 2010 - Mockingjay (third book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins
Seventh Grader - The 39 Clues Book 6 - In Too Deep by Jude Watson
Fourth Grader - Bone, Volume 1 - Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith
Second Grader - Sabertooth by Patrick O'Brien

I can't wait to see what they read the rest of the year. I know my 7th graders is already looking forward to The 39 Clues Book 10 which is being released on August 31st, 2010.

2010 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards

2010-06-13T22:07:00.000-05:00

On June 8, 2010 the 2010 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winners and honor books were announced. Books eligible for the 2010 Horn Book Awards are all children's books and young adult books published in the United States between June 2009 and May 2010 and, unlike the Caldecott Medal, the winner can be from any country.

The 2010 Horn Book winners are:

Fiction and Poetry 2010 Horn Book Winner - When You Reach Meby Rebecca Stead. This is the 3rd honor for When You Reach Me as it also received the 2010 Indies Choice Book Award for Middle Readers and the 2010 John Newbery Medal Winner.

Non-fiction 2010 Horn Book Winner - Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don’t You Grow Weary by Elizabeth Partridge

Picture Book 2010 Horn Book Winner - I Know Here by Laurel Croza, illustrated by Matt James

In addition to winners, the Horn Book can present up to two honors books in each category. The 2010 Horn Book Honors Books are

Fiction and Poetry 2010 Horn Book Honors Books - The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan, illustrated by Peter Sís and A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner.

Non-fiction 2010 Horn Book Honors Books - Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pictures by Menno Metselaar and Ruud van der Rol and Smile by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic/Graphix)

Picture Book 2010 Horn Book Honors Books - It’s a Secret! by John Burningham and The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

Congratulations to all 2010 Boston Globe-Horn Book honorees.

For more great award winning children's books check out the page, Award Winning Children's Books

Children Book Series for Summer Reading

2010-06-10T14:51:00.003-05:00

Kids have a lot of time during the summer. I like to encourage my kids to read during the summer months, when they can't play outside with friends because we're on vacation, it's raining, or we are at a siblings baseball game.

Series books provide a great way to encourage your children to read multiple books over the summer by introducing them to multiple books that continue to build on the same character. I know I couldn't wait for the next Harry Potter book to come out or to read another Hardy Boys book. Here's a list of book series by grade level that can encourage your kids to read as well.

Kindergarten Book Series - Dinofours by Steve Metzger
1st Grade Book Series - Junie B Jones by Barbara Park
2nd Grade Book Series - The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids by Macia Jones and Debbie Dadey
3rd Grade Book Series - Hardy Boys Series by Franklin Dixon and Nancy Drew Series by Carolyn Keene
4th Grade Book Series - Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
5th Grade Book Series - Harry Potter by JK Rowling
6th Grade Book Series - The 39 Clues by various authors
7th Grade Book Series - The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
8th Grade Book Series - Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
9th Grade Book Series - Maximum Ride by James Patterson

Finding Age Appropriate Kids Books

2010-05-15T23:46:00.001-05:00

One of the hardest things to do is to find age appropriate books for your children. I have four kids and over the past two years they have been in eight different grades from kindergarten to 8th grade.

As a way to keep track of what books they read, I've created some web pages that I'm sharing with everyone. I hope your kids enjoy some of the same books my kids have and you share some of your kids favorites as well.

Visit these pages to find your age appropriate children's books:

Books for Kindergarteners
Books for First Graders
Books for Second Graders
Books for Third Graders
Books for Fourth Graders
Books for Fifth Graders
Books for Sixth Graders
Books for Seventh Graders
Books for Eighth Graders

2010 Children's Choice Book Awards Winners

2010-05-12T21:00:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to the 2010 Children's Choice Book Award Winners. The Children's Choice Book Awards are voted on by children and awarded on May 11th, during Children's Book Week. This year's winners are:

Kindergarten to 2nd Grade Book of the Year
LuLu the Big Little Chick, written and illustrated by Paulette Bogan

3rd Grade to 4th Grade Book of the Year
Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute, written and illustrated by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

5th Grade to 6th Grade Book of the Year
Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life, written and illustrated by Rachel Renee Russell

Teen Choice Book of the Year
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Author of the Year
James Patterson for Max

Illustrator of the Year
Peter Brown for The Curious Garden

For more great award winning children's books check out Past Winners of the Children's Choice Book Awards and Award Winning Children's Books

Past winners of the Children's Choice Book Awards

2010-05-10T21:29:00.000-05:00

The Children's Choice Book Awards started in 2008 as part of Children's Book Week. The awards are the only nationally kid selected book awards. The awards are handed out in six categories, Kindergarten to 2nd Grade Book of the Year, 3rd to 4th Grade Book of the Year, 5th to 6th Grade Book of the Year, Teen Book of the Year, Illustrator of the Year, and Author of the Year. Past winners include classics like The Pigeon Wants A Puppy by Mo Willems, Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyers, Olivia Helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows by J.K. Rowling.

The 2010 Children's Choice Book Awards will be handed out at the gala in New York, tomorrow, May 11th.

To see more of the past winners, visit the page the Children's Choice Book Awards page I am currently maintaining.

Note: The Books My Children Read blog and the pages recommended on this post are not affiliated with the Children's Choice Book Awards.

Children's Book Week - May 10-16

2010-05-09T01:34:00.001-05:00

National Book Week began in 1919 and this year marks the the 91st observance of National Book Week. Official book week events will be hosted in 10 cities across the United States this year including Atlanta GA, Chicago IL, Houston TX, Minneapolis MN, New York NY, San Jose CA, St Louis MO, St Paul MN, Sebastopol CA, and Webster Groves MO. Local Events

On Tuesday, May 11th, the Children's Choice Book Awards Gala will be held in New York City during which this year's Children's Choice Book Awards will be announced. The Children's Choice Book Awards is the only national child-chosen book award.

"A great nation is a reading nation" is a quote by Frederick Melcher, the editor of Publishers Weekly, who along with Anne Carroll Moore, the Superintendent of Children's Works at the New York Public Library, and Franklin Matthiews started National Book week. Franklin Matthiews who in 1913, while acting as the librarian for the Boy Scouts of American began touring the country to promote higher standards in children's books. In 1916 the Boy Scouts partnered with the American Book Association and the American Library Association in sponsoring Good Book Week.

Thank you to everyone who promotes children's books and for making book week a great time of the year. We look forward to learning the winners of the 2010 Children's Choice Book Awards and we salute Franklin Matthiews for starting this grand tradition.

The Christopher Awards

2010-05-08T00:26:00.000-05:00

The Christopher Awards were presented in New York on April 15th, 2010. The awards were established by Father James Keller in 1945, who believed that every individual has the power and responsibility to change the world for the better. The Christopher awards are in four media categories; feature films, TV & Cable, books for young people, and books for adults. The awards encourage audiences and readers to use their best instincts on behalf of others, "affirm the highest values of the human spirit".

The Christopher award is a bronze medallion, 4 inches in diameter and is depicted on the right.

This year's winners in the books for young people are:
Preschool - Ten Days and Nine Nights: An Adoption Story, by Yumi Heo
Ages 6-8 - Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine & a Miracle, by Major Brian Dennis, Kirby Larson & Mary Nethery
Ages 8-10 - Most Loved in All the World, by Tonya Cherie Hegamin, illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera
Ages 10-12 - Extra Credit, by Andrew Clements, illustrated by Mark Elliott
Young Adult - A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean, by Tori Murden McClure

Visit 2010 Award Winning Children's Books for more great books.

Books for 3rd Grade Boys

2010-03-02T20:05:00.004-06:00

This is my fourth post in a series based on books for different grade levels. Today I am writing about books for 3rd grade boys. The three previous posts were about books for 2nd Graders, 1st Graders, and Kingergarteners.

My son reads completely differently than my daughters, and I'm not sure if its the grade or the gender as I don't remember my two oldest daughters reading like this. My son is in an exploratory stage with his reading. He reads a lot of different books, and if he doesn't like one, he doesn't finish it. On the other hand, he tends to explore a lot of different types of books: sports, mysteries, humor, and even some non-fiction.

Some of the series he has been reading include, In the Land of the Lawn Weenies series by David Lubar, the Goosebumps series and the Ghosts of Fear Street series by R L Stine, Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald Sobol, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. See all of these and more and my page Books for 3rd Graders.

Books for 2nd graders

2010-02-22T21:16:00.003-06:00

I must admit, that I started creating web pages for my kids books at the end of last year, which is when my son was in 2nd grade. Boys, for whatever reason don't read as many books as girls do. My Books for 2nd Graders page is a bit sparce and I'm looking for some ideas for when my daughter goes into 2nd grade next year.

But if you have a 2nd grade boy, here's some of the books my son was reading. Any of the Star Wars books. I don't think he read them, but like the fact that he had them on his bookshelf. The Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey, My Weird School Series by Dan Gutman, and the Stink books by Megan McDonald.

There's definately a boys take to this list of second grade books.

Books my 1st grader reads

2010-02-18T19:12:00.000-06:00

Yesterday's post I talked about the books my kids read in Kindergarten. I'm writing this series to give parents ideas of some good books to read.

Today, I'm going to talk about Books for 1st graders. 1st grade is an interesting year for young readers, as they start to explore on their own books they like and books they want to read. First graders are usually introduced to their first chapter books, which they love, as it makes them feel like their older brothers and sisters.

One of my children's favorite chapter books are The Bailey School Kids by Debbie Dadey and Marcia T. Jones. The Bailey School Kids books helps develop the imagination of children with wonderful titles like Dragons Don't Cook Pizza, Ninjas Don't Bake Pumpkin Pie, and Robots Don't Catch Chicken Pox.

I've created a web page to highlight Great Books for 1st Graders. Other titles you will find there include, the Junie B Jones series by Barbara Park, Froggy Books by Jonathon London, and the Ghostville Elementary series by Debbie Dadey and Marcia T. Jones.

Help the group out by posting your favorite book for first graders and always remember, Reading is Fun.

Great books for Kindergarteners

2010-02-17T20:36:00.000-06:00

I began this blog to write about books my children read. Today, I am going to start a series on books that my children have read during a particular school year. As I have four children, they read a lot of books, and my goal is to capture the books they are reading and share it with you.

I no longer have a child in kindergarten as my youngest is now in 1st grade. When in kindergarten, it was important for us to read to our kids every day. As part of that process, we encouraged our kids to read books to us. As such, the books had to be easy to read.

Dinofours Books by Steve Metzger and illustrated by Hans Wilhelm are great as the characters are dinosaurs in pre-school. They tackle subjects about school and life including Fire Drills, Class Trips, and all the major holidays. The characters are fun with unique personalities. A great set of books to start with.

Some other great series include Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold, Dr Seuss books, Biscuit books by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, and Clifford books by Norman Bridwell. I have captured a lot of these books on the following webpage, Books for Kindergarteners

One of our favorite author's is Jan Brett. Her books are beautifully written with illustrations that just pop. The Mitten, The Hat, Town Mouse Country Mouse, and Gingerbread Baby are great for kindergarteners as they're learning to read.

Let us know your favorite author or books for Kindergarteners. Keep reading, as everyone knows, Reading is Fun.