Carnival of Children’s Literature – March

Welcome to the March 2012 edition of the Carnival of Children’s Literature!

March started off with Dr. Seuss’s Birthday and the release of The Lorax. I loved seeing everyone excited about Seuss, reading, and the environment this month because of that.  I, myself, received free tickets to The Lorax and took my son to see his first ever movie. While I still prefer the book and the 1972 animated special, I have to admit the movie was better than I expected. I hope many families were inspired to buy the actual book or check it out at the library.

More importantly, March is Women’s History month! There’s no doubting that when you see the fantastic lineup of reviews this month either. Yet, we still have a nice bit of variety outside of Seuss and women’s history. I put a number of new titles on our MUST READ list and I think you will too after hopping through these posts.

Early Literacy

• Carrie from Making Lemonade shared 5 Tips for Reluctant Readers on the Mainline Parent magazine.
• Rasco from RIF gives us a roundup of children’s literacy and reading news  from February including the sad news of Jan Berenstain’s death.

Fiction

• Kate, the Book Aunt, stumbles upon a copy of Fly By Night by Randall Jarrell and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Inspired, she discusses other book treasures from poet Randall Jarrell and illustrator Maurice Sendak.
• Camille from A Curious Thing reviewed Tumtum and Nutmeg by Emily Bearn – one of her favorite read aloud bedtime stories.
• Over at Boys Rule Boys Read! Iron Guy Carl clowns around by reviewing 3 joke books. I have just one question for Carl, what do you call cheese that doesn’t belong to you? NACHO CHEESE! HAhahaaha!
• Jeff of NC Teacher Stuff shares a review of You Choose by Pippa Goodhart as well as some activity ideas that would work well with the book.
• In honour of International Women’s Day, Polly from The Little Wooden Horse shares Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield with her sons and us.
• Jen of Perogies & Gyoza reviews of a picture book loosely based on real-life sisters Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell, called Virginia Wolf by Kyo Maclear.
• Can’t forget March Madness! Anastasia celebrates by sharing 5 great basketball books for beginning readers on her blog Booktalking.
• Louise from A Strong Belief in Wicker gives us a review of the 1960 Newbery Honor book, My Side of the Mountain.
• Jen Robinson shares a review of Starters, a new post-apocalypse dystopia for young adults, by Lissa Price over at Growing Bookworms.
• Mary Ann from Great Kid Books shares a new favorite for beginning readers: Penny and her Song, by Kevin Henkes.

Poetry

• Greg announces the 2012 edition of 30 Poets/30 Days, a celebration of children’s poetry that takes place annually at GottaBook.
• Margo from The Fourth Musketeer shares a new picture book about the poet Emily Dickingson and her dog, called Emily and Carlo  by Marty Rhodes Figley.

Nonfiction

• Roberta from Wrapped in Foil shares a great book to celebrate Women’s History Month: Migrant Mother: How a Photograph Defined the great Depression by Don Pardo
• Tricia The Miss Rumphius Effect gives us an inspirational line up  of books about 20th century women scientists.
• Heidi Geo Librarian shares a list of compelling list of historical non-fiction chapter books. From Hitler, to American Revolutionary War, to the great Blizzard of 1888 you’re sure to learn something new with these books.
• April posted about Kathleen Krull’s Hilary Rodman Clinton: Dreams Taking Flight in honor of women’s history month at Teaching Authors. She also shares a poem about Helen Keller with a poetry exercise called “Quote Unquote.”
• Tammy Apple With Many Seeds introduces us to Canada’s biggest maritime disaster with her review of  Into the Mist: the story of the Empress of Ireland by Anne Renaud.
• Shirley SimplyScience Blog presents Meltdown! by Fred Bortz, a new book that talks about the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan and explores our choices of power source.
• For Women’s History Month, Kathy features Cornelia Hahn Oberlander & the Art of the Possible posted at Turning the Pages. Cornelia was a landscape architect and survivor of the Holocaust.
• Over at KidLit Celebrates Women’s History (Yes, a whole children’s literature blog dedicated to women’s history!) celebrate the Girl Scouts’ 100-year anniversary with A Place at the Campfire by author, Shana Corey.
• Shelf-employed offers a review of the forthcoming book, Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World.
• At the Jean Little Library, Jennifer presents a review of Get Outside: The Kids’ Guide to Fun in the Outdoors by Jane Drake and Ann Love
• Kerry from Books & Pirouettes brings the entertainment to our carnival with a list of dance books and tries to convince us in just 100 words why we should check out Capoeira by George Ancona.

Illustration

• Over at Design of a the Picture Book, Carter looks at the graphic design element of line and how it’s used in The King’s 6th Finger.
• Bears are at the carnival this month with a review of I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen along with a happy critique of the illustrations at the Literary Lunchbox.

Interviews

• Lisa from Adventures in Writing & Publishing interviews Ruth Tenzer Feldman, author of the newly released Blue Thread.
• On her blog, A Thousand Wrongs, Laurisa interviews Anne Nesbet, author of middle-grade reader, The Cabinet of Earths.

Book Projects

• Lynne Plourde at LynnPlourde.com shows us how to help students write dialog by adding speech bubbles to wordless books. She even suggests a few books to try with your first speech bubble writing activity.
• Jeanette at SpeakWell, ReadWell posted about World Read Aloud Day and the fun had at her school as they celebrated.
• Jane the blogger and illustrator behind Robby Robin’s Journey posts a children’s story she wrote and illustrated about a family of Robins called A New Baby at Robby’s House.
• Jodie presents Texts for Modeling Comprehension Strategies posted at Growing Book By Book.
• Pammy Pam gives us a list of activity ideas to celebrate Dr. Seuss and The Lorax on her blog, An Unconventional Librarian.
• Mindy Proper Noun Blog gives us a list of books and activities related to simple addition for pre-schoolers.
• Jennifer hosted a Seuss-A-Palooza at Jersey Family Fun and rounded up a bunch of posts across the web featuring Dr. Seuss in one way or another this month.
• Finally, what’s a carnival without a little bit of sugar overload!? Zoe from Playing by the book shares a gallery of Edible Books that were submitted to the Edible Book Festival this year.

I hope everyone had fun at this month’s Carnival of Children’s Literature. Join the fun again in April over at A Curious Thing!