Category: 2024

Posted in 2024, Book Lists, Uncategorized

My 2024 Reading Recommendations

Posted on by beckylevine

I keep track of my reading in The Story Graph app, which–if you haven’t checked it out–is, IMO, much nicer to use that Goodreads. I’m guessing the community is nowhere as big, but since I don’t really use it for social media, that’s not a problem for me.

Anyway, rather than list every book I read in 2024, I’m just going to list some of my favorites, including rereads I binged for multiple books in a series/by an author. (I did a LOT of rereading this year. Not sure why, although I tend to reread for comfort, and you can guess why I might have needed some of that, especially in the Fall.) You can also see my ongoing lists of favorites at Pinterest.

Picture Books

Middle Grade

YA/Adult (I started to separate these two categories, but when I looked at the list, it’s all crossover.)

Rereads (Links go to first book in the series)

Posted in 2024, Picture Books

Animal Protagonists in Picture Books

Posted on by beckylevine

Writing a picture book with an animal protagonist hasn’t exactly been a goal of mine, but I’ve certainly played around with it several times, for various story ideas. While playing, I spent some time wondering about when and why authors choose to put an animal in the starring role. In some books, the text is specific enough that it’s pretty clear the writer made the choice. But I’ve also heard writers talk–almost always in a good way–about getting art back and finding out the illustrator has drawn the main character as an animal.

This year, I finally ended up writing a story with an animal in the lead role. I started out with a human child, but–no matter what perspective I brought to the story–it felt like trying to fit the proverbial round peg into the square hole. I knew what I wanted the story to be about, but every time I tried to write it, I bumped up against all the assumptions, expectations, and baggage that come with being a human child in a human world. Then, in one of those moments we all live for, I saw the story with animals–animals that interact in nature for real and that brought their own comedy to the story. I’m still revising, but this is a manuscript I’ll keep working on until it’s ready. And every version carries the humor and heart that making this choice brought to the first draft.

I’ve added a new board to my Pinterest page, for picture books with animal protagonists. And I thought I’d talk about a few of my favorites here.

The Capybaras (written & illustrated by Alfredo Soderguit) is one of the most artistically and emotionally beautiful books I’ve ever read. It takes on the harsh reality of refugees fleeing from danger in their home countries and the cold, often cruel way they are received by people to whom they turn for safety and support. This is an incredibly important story, but also a BIG story with a LOT of layers to write for children. By choosing to “people” his book with capybaras and chickens, the author was able to take a complex idea and write a story that children can access, understand, and empathize with. (And remind us adults about what really matters.)

Margaret Chiu Greanias’ How this Book Got Red (illustrated by Melissa Iwai), accomplishes a similar result, but with a completely different approach. If you haven’t read Margaret’s book, she writes some of the best humor out there, and her comedy always opens a window for kids to recognize and explore challenges they already live with in their worlds. The top layer of plot shows a red panda being frustrated (and hurt) that all the panda books are about the other kind of panda, but the story layers in the big ideas of representation and self-esteem and being an ally. The book offers a smile or laugh on almost every page, but will also open important conversations between grownups and kids and–more importantly–between kids and kids.

The Bear Must Go On (written by Dev Petty, illustrated by Brandon Todd) puts a shy, self-conscious bear into a scary situation–one that shy, self-conscious kids have to deal with all the time. In the midst of ridiculously chaotic comedy, Bear is the only character in the story who would (very much) rather not get on stage. I believe there are emotions and stories that, when shown with human characters, can hit a bit too close to home for some children to be comfortable with. By making the protagonist a bear, Petty has given children the freedom to root for him, because they are experiencing just enough distance from their own anxiety and fear.

And then there are times when the main character has to do something a child can’t do–either because they would never have the opportunity or because they would get in trouble if they did. In Ryan T. Higgins’ Norman Didn’t Do It! (Yes, he did), Norman’s best friend, Mildred, is a tree. Norman gets so jealous when another tree comes between them that he completely removes that second tree from the equation. Triangles are hard. What child hasn’t wished that a third kid would just go away–that they could make the kid go away? But they pretty much don’t have the power to make this happen and, if they even try, some adult is going to find out. Watching a porcupine dig up a tree; take it far, far away; and then have to think about what they’ve done lets kids play with familiar problems and solutions–good and bad–without risk to themselves.

Posted in 2024, Authors, Book Review

Ruth Stiles Gannett Kahn

Posted on by beckylevine

Or…as you might know her, Ruth Stiles Gannett, the author of MY FATHER’S DRAGON.

I loved this book when I was a child, I loved reading it to my child, and I still pick it up every few years and read it again–just for the joy of it.

I even picked up this toy years ago, because it reminds me so much of the dragon in the story.

There’s a reading “stage” for some children (many children?) when they are ready for a very special kind of book. They may still love picture books–either listening to someone read them or just curling up and spending time with a favorite. They may have started on some beginning readers–with some help or by themselves. But sitting still for someone to read them a novel is still a little tricky, when even one page may have more words than they’re used to, and a lot of pages don’t even have one picture on them.

This is when, I think, episodic books are wonderful. These are books that may have the same page count as one for older children, but don’t ask the child to carry all the pieces of a long story in their head. Instead, each chapter is a story in itself, with things like setting and characterization staying consistent across the entire book.

When my son was young, I couldn’t find many recently published books that had this structure.* So I went back to some of my favorites–Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Homer Price, Amelia Bedelia (short chapters, but lots of word play).

And MY FATHER’S DRAGON. Unlike some of the others, it has an overarching plot that the author touched base with, lightly, at the beginning and end of each chapter, so the child didn’t have to remember that bigger goal. This left them free to focus on the goal of each chapter… typically to get past or away from animals of various scariness. And she handled the scary parts so beautifully. She would show the danger with a sentence or three, then drop the reader right back into Elmer’s ingenuity and resourcefulness, dropping the tension just enough that the child could stop worrying about if Elmer was going to escape and start wondering how he was going to escape. Such good writing.

I had no idea that, until last month, Ruth Stiles Gannett was still alive. She died on June 11th.

Here’s a link to her obituary, if you’d like to read more about her.

*If you have any good episodic books for young children that have been published in the last few years, I’d love to find out about them.