readertotz: June 2016

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Rude Cakes: Rowboat Watkins

Sometimes a special book comes across my path, and I LOVE IT! I share it with everyone, hold it close, tuck it on my shelf, and treasure it. And later I realize I NEVER TOLD READERTOTZ ABOUT IT!

Call me a rude cake, but Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins was my tip-top favorite book of 2015. Rowboat Watkins, a former Sendak Fellow, offers a surprising, original, and oh-so-humorous picture book to our readertotz. He illustrates the difference between rude and polite with Cakes and Giant Cyclopses. Yes, cyclopses.

Rowboat was a 2016, Ezra Jack Keats, New Illustrator Honor Award Winner. Here's what others have had to say:

"The zaniest picture book premise of the year."--Boston Globe
"A truly surreal story, crammed with hilarious details and gently laced with an important lesson."--School Library Journal, starred review
"Hilarious and full of surprises. Pure picture book genius!"-Antoinette Portis, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Not a Box

I'm so glad the genius was seen. I cannot wait for more from Rowboat. More, more, more!

Rude Cakes
by Rowboat Watkins
Chronicle Books, 2015

Monday, June 27, 2016

Hello, World! Solar System: Jill McDonald

I love bringing nonfiction to our totz! Introduce our place in space with Hello, World! Solar System by Jill McDonald. With mixed media illustrations, the reader hops from planet to planet gaining a few facts for each along the way.

"We live on a planet called
EARTH.
From space it looks like
a swirled blue marble.
*Earth is the third planet from the sun."

I look forward to seeing more from the Hello, World! series. Bravo, Doubleday for raising the bar for board books. Hello, nature and science!

Note: Pluto is included. Yay!

Hello, World! Solar System
by Jill McDonald
Doubleday, 2016