If you have been following the blog lately, you have seen our three new bookmarks. Well, Oz finally gets a revamped bookmark, and I am so excited about it I could squeal! Here it is:

And, since you really need a book to go with your new swanky bookmark, here are some new releases that have found a place in my heart:

Archie and the Pirates by Marc Rosenthal is an adorable story about Archie the monkey. Released last October, this whimsical picture book follows Archie as he wakes up from a good night’s sleep on a ship only to find that his bed has fallen off the ship in the night and he is now on a island in the middle of nowhere. Archie makes the best of his situation, building a home that looks a lot like something the Swiss Family Robinson would have built and making friends with the native animals. Life is good for this little monkey until pirates land on his little oasis and capture the tiger that lives on the island, one of Archie’s new-found friends. With the help of the rest of the animals, Archie devises a plan to trick the pirates into believing that they are surrounded by the native people by drawing faces on coconuts and yelling at the top of their lungs. Thankfully, his plan works and Archie succeeds in rescuing the tiger and scaring the pirates off the island. The illustrations are bright and active enough to keep your child interested without being too busy, and the story is just adorable!  [Hardback; $16.99; age: 3-5]

I just finished reading When You Meet a Bear on Broadway by Amy Hest for STORYTIME on this grey SATURDAY MORNING AT 10 and it was a hugh hit! When you meet a bear on Broadway you must help him find his momma. Looking  uptown and downtown, boys and girls alike will love helping this little bear find his way home. [Hardback; $16.99; age: 2-5]

Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta by Jarrett J. Krosoczka is the third book in the Lunch Lady Series. This creative graphic novel series is all about the lunch lady at school who is actually an undercover spy. It’s James Bond meet Lunch Lady and it is hilarious. The drawings are comical and the gadgets that the lunch lady have cracked me up. She has a communication devise disguised as a hamburger and to use it she opens the hamburger and sticks her head in between the two sides so that she when she is having these serious conversations about evil running amok, she has her head inside a hamburger. Nothing is what it seems in this installment of Lunch Lady. The great thing about this series is that they don’t have to be read in any kind of order! For the kid who just read all of the Wimpy Kid books, this is a great place to start. [Paperback; $5.99; age: 7-10; grade: 3rd-5th]

Do you like nature stories with a mix of folk lore? If so, Kathryn Lasky has written the book for you. A wolf pup is born with a deformed foot, and according to wolf pack rules, he must be abandoned to die. This is a special wolf pup, he survives and will engage you in delighted chuckles, tears, and a sense of peace as you look forward to another book. (ages 8-12)

Usually, I have trouble looking at anything in Oz besides Teen and Young Adult books. But lately, my favorites seem to be for the younger crowd…

A Book of Sleep is a gorgeously illustrated book from Korean illustrator Il Sung Na. This simple story all about how different animals sleep is perfectly brought to life with Na’s almost collage-like drawings. His drawings have a textured look to them and are all outlined in charcoal. Each page can spawn great conversation with your little one not only about animals and sleep, but about drawing their own animals. (age: ageless!)

The Zoo I Drew is another great book about animals. With a bright red corrugated cover, this book is sure to grab a child’s attention before he or she even opens it. It’s what first drew me to the book. When I opened it, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book talked about animals starting with the letter A and ending with Z. Not only are the colors in this book amazing, the rhyming and use of big alphabet letter makes this book great for learning and fun. (age: 3-5 years old)

And for anyone who has ever wanted to run away to the forest, but was quite scared of lions and tigers and bears (oh my!), Ferocious Wild Beasts! by Chris Wormell is the book for you. The little boy in the story was never supposed to go into the woods. His mother warned him him of the ferocious wild beasts! So when a bear notices the lost little boy, he inquires how he can help. The little boy in turn warns the bear of the ferocious wild beasts, completely scaring the large bear. The bear decides they should journey on together. As they try to find the boy’s way home, they continue to meet friends (or as the mother would call them “beasts”) who are just as scared of these ferocious wild beasts in the woods. In the end, the only thing that scares everyone is the ferocious wild Mother! This book is hilarious and the watercolors are bright and lively, perfectly matching the lively imagination behind this book. (age: 3-5 years old)

For those readers who are just learning, The Doll Shop Downstairs by Yona Zeldis McDonough is the most charming early chapter book I have read in quite some time. Set during WW2 in New York, Anna is the middle daughter of two Russian immigrants who own a doll repair shop. When Germany declares war on Russia and the United States issues a trade embargo on German goods, the family business begins to fail because most doll parts come from Germany. To help the family, Anna comes up with the idea to make dolls to sell in the shop. When a buyer from F.A.O. Swartz buys the dolls to sell in the stores, the family is saved. This story is not only spun well, but is based around the meager beginnings of the Madame Alexander doll company. (grade: 3rd-4th grade)

Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland is for a little bit older crowd, but adorable still. Polly is a twelve year old girl obsessed with the romantics of Jane Austin books. She believes that she was born for the days when chivalry was expected and people had “bosom friends.” However, she will have to settle for twenty-first century New Jersey. When she is tasked with delivering baked goods for her parents’ bakery, she decides she must help all lovers, young and old, find each other – whether they want to or not! Absolutely adorable for the fifth or six grade girl in your life. (grade: 5th-7th grade)

When I think back on my childhood, often it is books that anchor events in my mind. “Oh, my dad read that to me when I was three,” or “In kindergarten, that was my favorite book all year.” Books have always been there for me. And while everyone was read Goodnight Moon, Mother Goose, and Where the Wild Things Are as a child, I haven’t heard many say they were read Tacky the Penguin.

Yes, such a book does exist and to tell you the truth, I consider it a lost classic. This book about a penguin that doesn’t quite fit in struck a chord with my brothers and me. Tacky is a bother to all the straight laced penguins, but when hunters come to capture the penguins, it is Tacky and his unpenguin-like ways that save the day. My dad would sing the song that Tacky sings in a cool, unrhymic way:

How many toes does a fish have?
And how many wings on a cow?
I wonder, yup, I wonder.

and he would sing the hunters’ song in a gruff voice, almost scary voice:

We’re gonna catch some pretty penguins,
And we’ll march ’em with a switch,
And we’ll sell ’em for a dollar,
And get rich, rich, RICH!

I still love this book, and if you come in, I might even show it to you!

Come catch up on your childhood at Lemuria.