Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

I thought this was a cute little happily ever after story. 

Christian, the commoner, (is he really?) is in love with Princess Marigold. He was raised by a troll and now wishes to pursue the girl of his dreams. But you know royalty-wicked queens, arranged marriages...good luck Christian!

Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse

Look at it one way and it's a duck. 

Look at it another way and it's a bunny.

Click here to watch a cute video about the book. 

What do you think it is?

Horrid Henry by Francesca Simon

Bestselling British series arrives in the U.S. 

In the first book, Horrid Henry, four short chapters follow Henry as he tries to have a perfect day, and upstages his brother, Perfect Peter. Each book has four stories geared to grades 2-4. Because the chapters are short and easy to read, they will appeal to early readers as well as reluctant readers and all readers in-between.

Most stories end with "the jokes on you" type of conclusion. The stories include interestingly named characters like:

Moody Margaret

Weepy William

Lazy Linda

Beefy Bert

Prissy Polly

Other titles in the series include:

Horrid Henry Tricks the Tooth Fairy

Horrid Henry's Stinkbomb

Horrid Henry and the Mega-Mean Time Machine

My own children found the books to be enjoyable and humorous. I will be adding them to my 4th grade classroom library.

Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Princess Ben has some magic, romance and adventure. For me, that makes a great story. I really enjoyed this book. I loved all the fairy tale quality of it. Plus, Princess Ben is not a skinny chick or a wimp. You go girl!

I also enjoyed the writing. Here's a part from when she was dancing and her shoes were hurting her feet.

With time my toes began to throb in their little prisons and I depleted completely my store of innocuous and winning pleasantries. 

"little prisons"--I LOVE that! It's great in children's books when I, as an adult, have to look up words- like innocuous.

If you want to read a review about it, click here.

Gail Carson Levine's Blog

Two weeks ago, author Gail Carson Levine started a blog. YIPEE!! 

She said that she is planning on posting once a week and that it is probably going to be about writing. She is currently about in the middle of writing a mystery. She has never written a mystery before and says that she is confused about everything. Here is what she wrote regarding that: 

"My only certainty is that writing is magical and if I muddle along, tossing in this and that, the pieces will settle into place, little by little."

I am very excited to follow her blog posts. She also has some writing prompts/exercises as well. What a great resource! 

If you haven't already read her nonfiction book Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly then you have missed out on a great book about writing all aspects of fiction, written for young writers. (Although I think it would benefit any writer.)

Don't you love Shel Silverstein's Poems?

I have fond memories of Shel Silverstein's poems from my 5th and 6th grade years. In my copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends I wrote, "Deanna bought this book with her own money." I can still recite some of his poems I had to memorize back then in school. 

I was visiting his website recently and was reminded of what a creative and fun guy he was. It's a great site and worth the visit. A lot of great resources, including a pdf of the poem Eight Balloons - a book to draw and play with. 

It was 10 years ago this month that he died of a heart attack. 

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I finally read this first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. The series is a New York Times bestseller. Rick Riordan is also the author of the popular 39 Clues series. 

I really enjoyed the book. Great for boys as well as girls. Lots of adventure and monsters. It got me really excited about Greek mythology. Which, by the way, I haven't been excited about since grade school. One of my elementary teachers had a big poster of Greek mythology creatures hung up in the classroom. Every so often we would sit down on the carpet in front of him and he would point to a figure on the poster and tell us the story of it. I don't remember much at all from that class, but I do remember how much I enjoyed hearing those stories.