Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same! by Grace Lin

Grace Lin follows up her 2010 Newbery Honor for Where the Mountains Meet the Moon with a 2011 Geisel Honor for Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same, showing she can write excellent books for beginning readers as well as novels for the older ones.

Ling and Ting face the same problem as many identical twins. Everyone thinks they are exactly the same, but they always insist, “We are not exactly the same.” Even the barber says so when they go for their haircuts. But Ling sits still for her haircut while Ting fidgets. When hair falls on her nose …

“AHH-CHOOO!” goes Ting. SNIP go the scissors.

If people thought they looked the same before their haircuts, they’ll make no mistake now that Ting has a chunk missing. Right in the front.

The book is divided into six short stories about Ling and Ting, and after the first one, Ting is always missing that chunk of hair. Next, Ling attempts a card trick. Then the sisters make their own dumplings, proving again that they are not exactly the same when one sister makes dump-Lings, while the other makes dump-Tings. Not even their chopstick ability is the same.

It’s when Ting goes to the library that the fun really starts. Ting’s fairy tale book reminds her of something important: her card from Ling’s card trick back in the second story. The final story, entitled “Mixed Up,” then brings in parts of all the previous stories, as Ting makes up a story about two twin girls. Ling is sure she knows this story, and readers will be too, but Ting’s version will have readers laughing right up to the end.

Beginning readers - and the grown-ups who read with them - will love Ling and Ting. Fans of Bink and Gollie, Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa, and Fly Guy will add Ling and Ting to their pile of favorites, and they’ll be watching for more Ling and Ting books in the future. (And so will I.)

We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems

Elephant and Piggie have shared the spotlight in twelve books prior to the release of We Are in a Book! (and more to come). Twelve stories featuring birds on heads and party invitations, dancing and throwing and sneezing and flying, and new toys, new friends, and new surprises. Now finally, in lucky book number thirteen, Gerald and Piggie realize that the spotlight is on them.

Piggie: Someone is looking at us.

Gerald: Who is looking at us? A monster?

Piggie: No. It is … a reader! A reader is reading us!

Piggie explains how books and speech bubbles and words work, and the two friends revel in the incomparable coolness of being in a book. Then Piggie wants to have a little fun with the reader - and with Gerald. Piggie decides that the ultimate in hilarity would be to make the reader say a word.  That word?

“Banana.”

See? You’re giggling already. Piggie was right. But when Gerald learns that books have endings, he panics. He doesn’t want the book to end. Thankfully, Piggie has the perfect solution, a solution satisfying to Gerald, Piggie, and readers. One that causes Piggie to say:

Once again Mo Willems has created a laugh-out-loud funny book featuring two beloved characters. (I hope they’re tight with Pigeon, or he might be getting jealous.) Young readers will enjoy seeing how characters react - and interact - with the person holding the book.

If Elephant and Piggie books have been a hit in your home or classroom, We Are in a Book! will be equally welcomed and eagerly read by all their fans. If Elephant and Piggie books have NOT been a hit in your home or classroom, what are you waiting for? That can only mean you don’t have them yet!

2011 Geisel Award - Some Initial Thoughts

The Newbery and Caldecott Awards might get the lion's share of the attention when ALA announces its awards, but the Geisel Award for "the most distinguished American book for beginning readers" is one that Help Readers Love Reading anticipates just as much each year.  And in 2011 the Geisel Medal and Honor books are...

Geisel Honor Books

We Are In a Book by Mo Willems - This is the only Elephant and Piggie book not in my personal collection. This will soon be rectified.  It's not that I didn't think it was worthy of inclusion in the collection or anything, I just ... well ... ah, heck.  I forgot.  By the way, how long should an author dominate an award (see here and here) before his name is added to the award?  That's 3 of 4 years!  The Mo Geisel Award?  The Geisel Mo-mento?

Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same by Grace Lin - A Newbery Honor in 2010 and a Geisel Honor in 2011 for Grace Lin.  If Ling and Ting is as good as Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, then this award is well deserved. 

Geisel Medal Winner

Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo and Allison McGee - Can't wait to announce this one to the second and third graders who heard Bink and Gollie read aloud earlier this year.  They loved it and will be thrilled to know that the grown-ups loved it too.