The Wall in the Middle of the Book

A wall is built in the middle of a book (yes, the one you’re reading!) and a little knight thinks that he’s on the “safe side” of the wall.  Little does he know that what lurks on the other side is not as dangerous or menacing as he thinks.  In fact, the knight might just need help from the other side because he’s oblivious to the crocodile and the looming, swelling sea of water about to consume his clueless self on his side of the wall.  Like so much of Jon’s work, this book is clever, funny and thought-provoking, and is for everyone, small and tall.

The Wall in the Middle of the Book was written and illustrated by Jon Agee and published by Dial Books.

House: First Words Board Books

This set of board books is another favorite of ours published this year.  It’s a mid-century modern take on early vocabulary for babies and toddlers and its five board books contain pictures of  everyday objects found all over the house.  It’s for cool kids — and their parents — and might just be another one going on our gifting list this year. For a preview of one of the books, click here and scroll right.

House: First Words Board Books was illustrated by Michael Slack and published by Chronicle Books.

Little Lit Book Series: Humor

Humor is the theme for #littlelitbookseries this month.

Agile tree-dwelling rodents are the stars in Mo Willems’ nutty new early reader series, Unlimited Squirrels.  In the inaugural book of the series, Zoom Squirrel loses a tooth, but not just any tooth…it’s a baby.  Hysteria ensues as a scurry of squirrels mounts a search for Zoom’s baby tooth.  At a substantial 96 pages, the fun doesn’t stop with a squirrelly adventure — there is more hilarity to be had in pages of acorn-y jokes, quirky quizzes and everything readers ever wanted to know about teeth.  Fur real!

Be sure to stop by @littlelitbookseries for more funny books throughout the month and check out the others being shared today with the hashtag #littlelitbookseries on Instagram.

Recordmania: Atlas of the Incredible

Record highs, lows and everything in between — the smallest, biggest, lightest, heaviest, slowest, fastest, shortest, longest, quietest, loudest, coldest and hottest in the categories of dinosaurs, animals, humans, architecture, technologist, astronomy, nature and sports.

A few stats that astonished us — the tallest tree is a giant sequoia in California called “Hyperion” which measures 379.4 feet and is six hundred years old.  A jackfruit in India weighed in as the heaviest fruit ever at 66 pounds.  One of the loudest sounds in nature named “the bloop” by scientists is the enormous crashing sound that chunks of ice make when they break off a glacier.  The hottest place on earth — the Lut Desert in Iran — is “a vast, salty expanse, swept by violent winds” where the highest temperature recorded was 159.2 F.

Lots to learn and lots to marvel at in this compendium of extremes.

Recordmania: Atlas of the Incredible was written by Emmanuelle Figureras, illustrated by Sarah Tavernier and Alexandre Verhille of L’Atelier Cartographik and published by Little Gestalten.

Wonderfall

A book of word play and quick, clever poems to make you fall in love with the wonders of fall and its sublime colors, cold crisp air and crunchy leaves underfoot.  Click here and scroll through to see some other books we’re reading in the next few weeks.  Happy almost first day of October.

Wonderfall was written and illustrated by Michael Hall and published by Scholastic.