A Patchwork of Books is having a great picture book giveaway. Check it out, plus all the other cool stuff on her blog.

Savvy by Ingrid Law

This book is a 2009 Newbery Honor book. Just read it and you'll know why. 

For generations, the Beaumont family has harbored a magical secret. They each possess a "savvy" - a special supernatural power that strikes when they turn thirteen. Grandpa Bomba moves mountains, her older brothers create hurricanes and spark electricity, and now it's the eve of Mib's big day.

This well written book is about growing up, friendships, romance, family, lies, secrets and finding your true savvy. 

What is your savvy?  Hmmm....

On March 2, the National Education Association is calling for every child to be reading in the company of a caring adult. 

Get ready for Read Across America Day (the birthday of Dr. Suess) by getting a free digital download of The Cat in the Hat. Go to www.kidthing.org/nea to download your copy. It's available for any teacher of any grade, including preschool, as well as librarians.

Click on their calendar of free books to see what's available. You can also download Hop on Pop, Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hears a Who! and a Certificate of Achievement. FREE is GOOD!

For many other great ideas for celebrating this wonderful day, check out these sites:

 NEA

Apples for the Teacher

Abc Teach

A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee

This book is a 2009 Caledcott Honor book. It's a picture book with super cool pictures and a cute and funny story to go with it. 

When James and Eamon go to a week of Nature Camp and stay at Eamon's grandparents' house, it turns out that their free time spent staying inside, eating waffles, and playing video games is way more interesting than nature. But sometimes things work out best when they don't go exactly as planned.

In the morning, Bill took the boys to Nature Camp. The road was long and curvy. James and Eamon learned a lot of new vocabulary words while Bill drove.

On the way back that afternoon, James and Eamon described their first Nature Camp day to Bill.

"I thought you are supposed to walk on a hike."

"Yeah, not stand and look at some flower for an hour."

Of course, you must see the pictures that go with the text. A very enjoyable book!

Masterpiece by Elise Broach

Marvin is a beetle who lives under the kitchen sink of a family who has an eleven-year-old son named James. James gets a pen-and-ink set for his birthday and Marvin ends up drawing an incredible miniature picture. James gets all the credit of course since nobody knows he is now friends with a beetle who can't verbally communicate with him. 

Although this is an unlikely friendship, they make it work. They find ways to communicate which ends up solving the big mystery of stolen art. 

I was pleasantly surprised that I was so involved in a book that had a beetle as a main character. Sometimes those animal books end up being really full of some good stuff.

I very much enjoyed this fast-paced mystery about art, forgery, lies and most of all friendship.

Waking Beauty by Leah Wilcox

I loved this picture book. I read it to my class and they were cracking up. What a cute story!

Everyone knows Sleeping Beauty has to be woken with a kiss, except Prince Charming. Every time the fairies watching over her try to tell him, he interrupts with his ideas of how to wake her. Eventually he gets the message, and his reaction is priceless: "One hundred years of morning breath Wow! That could be the kiss of death." 

This is a rhyming book filled with puns and fun.

When the Sergeant Came Marching Home by Don Lemna

In 1947 when his father returns from the war, a ten-year-old boy and his family move from the Montana town where they had been living to an old, run-down farm in the middle of nowhere, where they work hard trying to make ends meet.

This book is a story kind of story. By that I mean that it just tells a nice story about the main character boy, his brother, and their parents and their life together. There wasn't a big plot, no mystery to solve or major adventure. It was just a nice story. 

There was also some great writing. Here are some favorite phrases I enjoyed reading.

"I was anxiety with shoes on."

"...verbally caressing all the wonderful conveniences it contained..."

"After the meal was finished, and Pat and I were thoroughly exhausted from dog paddling in a sticky slough of good manners, we moved into the living room."

Wonderful words! This novel is a quick read with 215 pages.