Children's Books discussion

I learned about Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale. So many people said they loved it that I read it to ds and loved it, too. I normally never would have touched it with a ten foot pole because I can't stand cockroaches. But it is a great book!

Kirei wrote: "I learned about Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale. So many people said they loved it that I read it to ds and loved it, too. I normally never would have touched it ..."

It was the same for me. Another picture book that I loved and which I would never have heard about if not for the picture book club is She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!. I know there are many others, but this one stands out for me because I love birds and the story and the illustrations (especially of the birds) were marvelous.

What a great thread, Kirei!

I've been introduced to so many great books through this club! One that comes immediately to mind, The Root Cellar--I didn't even know about Janet Lunn being such a beloved Canadian author and I ended up loving the novel and probably would not have come across it (or felt it was my cup of tea) if it hadn't been for the group! :-)

Oh, I'm sure I'm up to at least 100 picture books, the above mentioned included.

For novels, now one of my favorite all time books: Wild Things by Clay Carmichael

and I also appreciate that I've found The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, The Root Cellar by Janet Lunn, and I'm sure several others as well.

My favorite book that I've read because of this group that I wouldn't have otherwise is The Crow-Girl: The Children of Crow Cove. I'm very happy right now because over the weekend my sister gave me an Advance Readers Copy of the third book in the series, Tink: The Children of Crow Cove.

Abigail wrote: I don't suppose, when you are done...? ;)

Yes, I believe that can be negotiated!

Emily wrote: "My favorite book that I've read because of this group that I wouldn't have otherwise is The Crow-Girl: The Children of Crow Cove. I'm very happy right now because over the weekend my..."

Oh, that is so cool!! Happy Reading!! I also loved The Crow-Girl: The Children of Crow Cove and I recently managed to locate a copy of Eidi: The Children of Crow Cove. And, without the group, I would never have been aware of these books. It's funny, but I've also become aware of some excellent recent German children's books through Goodreads and this group, like The City of Dreaming Books, Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher, which was listed in the International Books Master Reading List. And, the books go on and on, there are many, many others.

Mine would be Fletcher and the Falling Leaves and Boris and Bella I absolutely love these books and the illustrations are just wonderful. So glad they were chosen to read.

I love this group too, although my to-read list is growing like crazy, but I'm not complaining. I've discovered a lot of really amazing picture books due to the picture book club, not only the books we end up reading, I've discovered some absolute gems simply by doing research and nominating titles (even when they were not picked, I often ended up getting them out of the library and reading them). That is how I discovered both Brave Jack and the Unicorn and Qu'Appelle (totally wonderful and recommendable).

Gundula wrote: "I've discovered a lot of really amazing picture books due to the picture book club, not only the books we end up reading, I've discovered some absolute gems simply by doing research and nominating titles (even when they were not picked, I often ended up getting them out of the library and reading them)"

For me, too! I find so many great ones just from looking up books I want to nominate and seeing those others nominate. It's always so hard to choose only the five/six each month and I tend to read more ;-) I'm so happy others feel the same way and are finding so many good books as a result of everyone's stellar recommendations.

I do the same with our fiction clubs and the Newbery club. For example, I read Younguncle Comes to Town even though it wasn't our official India selection for the Int'l Book Club and I absolutely loved it!

I am not good at remembering (or noting) how I learned about books, but I know I got lots of terrific ideas from here. Younguncle is definitely one of them.

In fact, I've since read a short sf story by Vandana Singh, and bought a couple of her adult novellas from Aqueduct Press (along with a couple of other books from their catalog - which is very unlike me because I love getting books from the library and secondhand).

We read a lot of books, but often it's just a random grab at the library - whatever catches our eye or happens to be displayed. But because of this forum, our to-read list is growing and growing. We've really enjoyed the books mentioned here and we've discovered so many terrific stories we might never have found.

For me (and my son) it would be the Porteur de Masques and the whole series.

There have been others too I just have to remember.

I bought Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch and loved it. It is also available at http://www.storylineonline.net/ but the experience of watching it and reading it are totally different.

January's Sparrow. I finished reading this book to my grandson's 3rd grade class today. It is a wonderful story about courageous people coming together to do the right thing, not just the "legal" thing, in slavery times. There were so many exciting twists and turns in the story, and the boys enjoyed guessing ahead about the behavior of some of the characters. It was also great to have a story about a family that was able to remain in tact while escaping from slavery with two strong parents. Excellent!

Sounds wonderful, Wilhelmina! Would you mind posting about this over on our "Black History Month" General Discussion thread, too? It sounds like a perfect book to go along with our theme this month.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...

Abigail, January's Sparrow is so special. One of her best books, and you know that says a lot coming from me! It is big. Maybe you should read in during the weekend? ETA: Or get a bigger tote bag. ;-)