Following the success of I'm Trying to Love Spiders, Bethany Barton migrates away from an arachnid's web and drops into a hive for her latest nonfiction picture book, Give Bees a Chance.
​Readers meet the narrator and "Best Buddy" Edgar. This twosome shares a love for many cool things such as dinosaurs, board games, and honey. However, the unnamed friend is shocked to discover that Edgar does not like bees. It becomes apparent that the basis of Edgar's fear is the bee's stinger.
​Now it's up to his friend to allay these fears by pointing out many fascinating facts about bees including: history (ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics of bees), anatomy (five eyes, including two compound eyes), and honey production (bees barfing honey into a honeycomb cell).

Honey Nut Cheerios have a website with information and activities, including the video "A Future Without Bees."

Whole Foods Market initiated "Give Bees a Chance." This informative video shares information on bumblebees.

Burt's Bees campaign to "Help Bring Back the Bees" includes a social media post-a-selfie campaign.

​What is a mistake?

• A slip of the pen?
• An unintended blob of ink?
• Misjudging the size of a shape?

And what are the results of a mistake?

• Erasure?
• Crumpled paper in the trash?
• Giving up?

What Do You Do with an Idea?

The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes

My Pen

Andrew Drew and Drew

Big Foot. Zombies. Werewolves. Loch Ness Monster.
Fascinating subjects for young readers. Kids can't seem to get enough of this stuff. Libraries constantly search for titles about these popular topics to include in the children's collection.
That's the brilliance behind this new nonfiction series from Little Bee Books. With 128 pages, kid-friendly trim size, plenty of images, and large accessible font; this series offers an appealing introduction to nonfiction. These subjects are particularly enticing for those who think that they don't like nonfiction.

In July 1933 George Spicer and his wife were traveling on a road adjacent to the Loch (Lake) Ness in Scotland. Mrs. Spicer suddenly exclaimed, "What on earth is that?!" She and her husband watched in astonishment as an "extraordinary form of an animal" lumbered in front of their vehicle. He recounted his sighting to the local newspaper, which set off a fervor that built to a fever pitch as locals and curiosity seekers descended on the Loch. Many were convinced that they had seen the beast. In the intervening years, various expeditions have been organized: everything from an investigation by United Kingdom's Daily Mail, underwater photography, to intensive sonar technology.
The author parses the legends of monsters, reports of sightings, and latest scientific research on the subject.

I'm still keeping one eye open for the "buarach-bhaio" AKA the wizard shackle. This is a nine-eyed eel reported to be found lurking in shallow water, twisting around the victim's ankles, dragging its prey underwater.  Following capture of an unsuspecting human, the monster sucks out the victim's blood.  Then the ingested blood spurts from the eel's nine eye sockets. Use that little factoid in a booktalk and The Loch Ness Monster will have a request list as long as Nessie's tail!

Big Foot (Behind the Legend) 

Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods 

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Kathryn Lasky brings the story of these incredible young women to life in the historical novel Night Witches: A Novel of World War Two. At an early age, both Valya and her older sister Tatyana were taught by to fly by their father, head of a flight training program near Stalingrad. Flying was bred into her bones. "To fly is to slip the cords of earth and join the sky." When the Germans invaded Russia, her familiar life is gone: her father is declared missing and her grandmother dead. Tatyana volunteers to join the Russian female aviation regiment. Then Valya's world completely shatters when she witnesses her mother's death at the hands of a sniper.
With nothing left and very little hope, Valya becomes determined to find her sister and to join her "Up there...In the sky, with them. With the witches and my sister." She receives help from an unlikely source and manages to find her way to Tatyana's regiment. Over time Valya proves herself to her superiors and becomes a valuable asset in this military operation.​

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn is one of those classic children's books that will always endure and will endear generations of young readers. Chester Raccoon and the Almost Perfect Sleepover is a continuation of this series. Chester sets forth for his first overday, the equivalent of a sleepover for nocturnal animals. Mama escorts her son to the home of his friend Pepper Opossum. Spoiler alert: you will see the kissing hand when she says goodbye to her youngster. Hanging out (literally) with friends Opossum, Squirrel, Badger, and Skunk; throwing darts furnished by Porcupine; and eating grubs and slugs makes the day fun. When it's time to curl up and sleep in the cozy hollow, Chester begins to miss home. Adult animals accept his anxiety and help him return to familiar surroundings. 
Like a kiss on the hand, this reassuring tale acknowledges a child's fears and offers a reasonable solution to the dilemma.
Barbara L. Gibson's illustrations and expressive animal faces bring warmth and delight to the tale. Take a look at the eyes. Raccoons have never looked more winsome.

​Attention all of you would-be wranglers: Grab your boots, your hat and that most essential piece of gear: your lariat. Get ready to join Lexie, the "best wrangler west of the Mississippi." Her skill with words is unmatched. She can lasso an ear of corn and a loaf of bread to create cornbread. She can grow trees of words from a tiny root word.  She can even stir up a pot of letters to make several tasty new words. It is not surprising that this word wrangler is the "best in the west."