Happy Monday, friends! It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date, and adapted by Kellee at Unleashing Readers and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts with a children’s/YA focus. The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. These weekly roundups are a great way to discover new blogs and bloggers, share some of the titles you’ve been enjoying, and add to your ever-growing to-read list.
When a clumsy armadillo named Lola knocks over a glass pitcher, she sets off a silly chain of events, encountering chaos wherever she goes. But accidents happen-just ask the stoat snarled in spaghetti, the airborne sheep, and the bull who has broken a whole shop’s worth of china. In the tradition of beloved books like The Dot and Beautiful Oops, this charming, hilarious debut from author-illustrator Andrea Tsurumi shows that mistakes don’t have to be the end of the world.
For a child, making a mistake or a messing something up can sometimes feel like the end of the world. Who doesn’t remember wishing that the ground would just swallow us up, or planning to run away to Australia where no one could ever find us? ACCIDENT! uses colourful, whimsical, highly-detailed illustrations to reassure readers that accidents happen, and that they don’t have to mean the end of the world. I particularly appreciate the gentle way in which Tsurumi reminds readers that, while mistakes might not be intentional, we still have a responsibility to do what we can to make things right, including admitting what we’ve done and making amends whenever possible. Kids will love exploring each hilarious spread, which honestly had me and my colleagues giggling with each turn of the page.
Source: Raincoast Books
This book is full of wonderful WORDS and beautiful PICTURES! And it’s EXCITING! And it’s FUNNY! It might be the BEST BOOK EVER-if we could decide whose book it is. Redd and Bloo explore the way a book is made and accidentally build a friendship, too, in this tale told only in dialogue. Travis Foster and Ethan Long offer a hilarious story about the joy of reading, which brings people together in unexpected ways, proving that each book truly belongs to . . . the people who love it.
Fun, fun, fun! Two colourful characters, Redd and Bloo, both have their eyes on the same book. How can they prove whose book it is? While fighting over ownership of a funny, exciting book full of words and pictures, they introduce children to the different parts of a book, while exploring how books are made. The mixed-media illustrations are fantastic, so much fun and just bursting with energy and enthusiasm, just like the young readers who will want to read this silly book again and again, and maybe start making their own exciting and funny books!
Source: Raincoast Books
Slumped on a seat under an oak tree is old Sampson Warrenby, with a bullet through his brain. He is discovered by his niece Mavis, who is just one of ten people in the village in the running for chief suspect, having cause to dislike Warrenby intensely. Only Chief Inspector Hemingway can uncover which of the ten has turned hatred into murder.
I wanted to like this novel, I really did. I love detective novels, especially ones from the so-called “Golden Age” or British murder mysteries. I’ve really enjoyed Heyer’s Regency-era historical fiction, and I started out enjoying this frothy village mystery, until I came across one passage that really stuck in my craw.
The Chief Inspector, Hemmingway, is Heyer’s protagonist and hero. This passage isn’t the only example of his anti-Polish sentiments, and he’s not the only character in the novel to feel this way. Detection Unlimited was published in 1953, and my Polish grandfather, who fought with the Polish Corps of the British Army, was living in Britain at the time. Hemmingway’s comments are unpleasant but not at all unusual, and it’s not hard to see why my grandad eventually changed his “unchristian” name.
That’s my grandfather, Zbigniew Ziolkowski, on the right there. Look how young and handsome he was!
I can’t say I’m a big fan of Heyer’s Inspector Hemmingway, but if you like Golden Age British murder mysteries, I’d suggest you try Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers, or Marjorie Allingham, or for a more contemporary take, try P.D. James or Colin Dexter.
Have a great week, bookish friends!
I loved Accident! I have yet to share it with my class as I am planning on using it with a specific #Classroombookaday theme. But I can’t wait!
It’s so good!! I remember those feelings of “the world is over!!!” so very well.
What a delightful post! I do love the fun in children’s books and how readers can realize that mistakes are not the end of the world.
I like your new look here, too. Thanks for sharing…and for visiting my blog.
It’s such an important message for young readers – if you’re always afraid of making mistakes, how can you take chances and grow, right?
I’ve read Georgette Heyer in the past, had forgotten about her. And I’ve read all the Dorothy Sayers books-so wonderful! Thanks for the picture books, too Jane. Give Me Back My Book looks wonderful.
I’m definitely a bit of a classic mystery nut, I just can’t seem to get enough of them!
I think my niece would love Accident and Give Me Back My Book. She loves books where animals talk and act like people.
Those kinds of books are always popular – kids can relate to small, cuddly animals!
Accident looks like an awesome book! I’m going to look for it! Thanks for sharing!
Wonderful! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
I love Give Me Back My Book! So fun!
It’s hilarious!
Ooh. I want to read the Accident. Come see what I’ve read.
I hope you do – it’s so much fun, and so well illustrated, too!
The illustrations in Accident! remind me of the Richard Scary books.
Heyer’s books were always a hit or miss for me, although I admit to not having read any for close to 30 years!
Yes – I was thinking that, too! So much detail in each illustration.
Accident is a new picture book for me! It would be a great read aloud with an important message, Thank you for sharing!
Absolutely! We can only grow if we’re willing to take chances and make mistakes, and that can be a tough lesson for any of us to learn.
Give Me Back My Book looks wonderful! Looks like something we could use right here at home, too, to playfully make fun of ourselves (big family) attempting to share all the books. I’m envious of bigger cities who get newer books quicker than we do, but I’m sure they’ll come around in the next few months. Thanks for the share. Have a great reading week!
That’s a challenge here in Canada, too – I read all the American blogs and then wait longingly for the books they showcase to finally publish here!
I like GH but more on the Recency Romance side. Thanks for this update. The book is new to me.
I love sharing new books with people!
Give me back my book looks like so much fun! Have a great reading week!
It sure is! Have a great week too!
I like GH’s romances but avoid her mysteries and the super-history oriented ones. And even in the Romances you can trip over problems (anti-Semitism, etc.).
Ugh, yeah, it can be so jarring to be reading through a fluffy romance and them BOOM you come across this offhand remark from some character that’s just terrible. :'(
My daughter absolutely loved Give Me Back My Book! We’ve read it a bunch. I especially like the book worm.