The Hottest New Children's Books of the 2011 Holiday Season

SCHOLASTIC PREDICTS THE HOTTEST NEW CHILDREN’S BOOKS OF THE 2011 HOLIDAY SEASON

Children’s Literacy Experts at Scholastic Book Clubs and Book Fairs Offer Recommendations to Help Holiday Shoppers

Get ready for holiday shopping. The children’s book experts from Scholastic Book Clubs and Scholastic Book Fairs have just revealed their picks for what will be the most popular new children’s books for the 2011 holiday season. This go-to list features books for all ages from a variety of authors and publishers to help gift-givers pick the right books for the kids in their lives.


Some of the book picks include new releases and sequels for popular series, such as:

The Heroes of Olympus, Book Two: The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney, and The 39 Clues®: Cahills vs. Vespers Book 2: A King's Ransom by Jude Watson; others are tied to highly anticipated film releases such as War Horse, Hugo, and The Hunger Games, all of which are based on books.



“Parents, grandparents and educators all know the value of giving the gift of reading to kids, but we know they also struggle to compete with the hot new toy, electronic device or video on the market,” stated Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer at Scholastic. “This list was curated by the experts at Scholastic Book Clubs and Book Fairs to help shoppers identify the books that will be sure to delight a child as much as any other favorite gift.”

Scholastic’s Holiday Gift List for Kids:

Picture Books

- 10 Little Caterpillars by Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by Lois Ehlert (Simon & Schuster)
- Can You See What I See? Toyland Express written and illustrated by Walter Wick (Scholastic)
- If You Give a Dog a Donut by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond (HarperCollins)
- The Man in the Moon written and illustrated by William Joyce (Simon & Schuster)
- Pinkalicious: The Princess of Pink Treasury written and illustrated by Victoria Kann (HarperCollins)


Click here for full list



Transitional Readers and Chapter Books

- Clementine and The Family Meeting by Sara Pennypacker, illustrated by Marla Frazee (Disney Hyperion Books)
- Fly Guy: Fly Guy vs. The Flyswatter! by Tedd Arnold (Scholastic)
- Magic Tree House: Dogs in the Dead of Night by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Salvatore Murdocca (Random House)
- Rainbow Magic: Magical Holiday Boxed Set by Daisy Meadows (Scholastic)
- Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers by Dav Pilkey, George Beard, and Harold Hutchins (Scholastic)

Click here for full list



Middle Grade Fiction

- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney (Abrams)
- The Heroes of Olympus, Book Two: The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan (Disney Hyperion Books)
- The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers Book 2: A King's Ransom by Jude Watson (Scholastic)
- War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (Scholastic)
- Wonderstruck written and illustrated by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)

Click here for full list



Young Adult Fiction

- Crossed by Ally Condie (Penguin)
- Inheritance by Christopher Paolini (Random House)
- Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books)
- The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxed Set by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
- The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic)

Click here for full list



Nonfiction

- How Cool Is This: An Up-close, Inside Look at How Things Work (DK Publishing)
- The Hugo Movie Companion: A Behind the Scenes Look at How a Beloved Book Became a Major Motion Picture by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)
- Lego Harry Potter: Building The Magical World (DK Publishing)
- Lego Star Wars Character Encyclopedia (DK Publishing)
- Ripley's Believe It or Not!: Special Edition 2012 (Scholastic)

Click here for full list



These books are available through Scholastic Book Clubs and Scholastic Book Fairs in schools and online at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. When you purchase these or any other books through Book Clubs and Book Fairs you are helping out your child’s school. Teachers are awarded bonus points through Scholastic Book Clubs to purchase books and materials for their classrooms, and schools raise money through their Book Fairs to support the school community. If a title from Scholastic’s holiday gift list is not available through your child’s Scholastic Book Club or Scholastic Book Fair, check with your child’s teacher or visit a book retailer or library.



For the full list please visit http://oomscholasticblog.com/2011/11/we_predict.html.

For more information on Scholastic (SCHL), visit us at mediaroom.scholastic.com.

Rememberance Day

Please take a moment today and remember.

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae
May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Friday 56...Wildefire (65)

Go to page 56 of the book CLOSEST to you (not the coolest, the closest) and find the fifth sentence.

Wildefire by Karsten Knight

Ash stirred her straw in the amaretto.

Theme Thursday (38)

Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event hosted by Reading Between Pages that will be open from one Thursday to the next. Anyone can participate in it. The rules are simple:

• A theme will be posted each week (on Thursdays)
• Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
• Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post
• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)
  Ex: If the theme is KISS; your sentence can have “They kissed so gently” or “Their lips touched each other” or “The smooch was so passionate”

This will give us a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand different writing styles and descriptive approaches adopted by authors.

This week's theme is - FEMALE NAME (any female characters name)

His lips moved and he was so near she could hear the words through the glass. "You weren't supposed to see me before I got in, Kate." He held her gaze ah he showed her the glass cutter in his hand. "But it's all right. I'm almost finished and I like it better this way."

Long After Midnight by Iris Johansen

Wednesday Random Recommendation (66)

I invite and welcome anyone interested in participating to post their own "Random Recommendation" (original post) on their blog and join in the fun! Some books might not be very recent reads, but I hope that just helps these (sometimes forgotten) books earn a spot on your own bookshelf!

The Cursed One by Ronda Thompson
First Published: November 2006
Series: Wild Wulfs of London

Wed and widowed in one day, stunning socialite Amelia Sinclair's honeymoon is anything but typical. Then again, neither is Amelia--rebellious and impulsive, marrying Robert Collingsworth was the one sensible thing she ever did. Now he's dead and she must escape the vicious creatures stalking her--even if it means relying on a stranger. Well, maybe not a complete stranger. Amelia first glimpsed Gabriel Wulf years ago on the busy streets of London; since then he has haunted her dreams. But in the flesh, Gabriel is much more tantalizing than she ever dreamt, and much more complicated…

Gabriel Wulf, the strong one, the sensible one--the family, and the curse that plagues them, are his only priorities; there was little time for women and none for love. Now, he must protect an enticing beauty--and not just from the dangers that prowl the woods around them. Gabriel has secrets, dark ones he's sure Amelia must never know and could never understand. But she has already awakened his heart...and the beast within. Will Amelia be the key to his salvation, or the architect of her own demise?

My Book Boyfriend (43)

My Book Boyfriend is a weekly meme hosted by Missie of The Unread Reader, in which we swoon over boys in books!
(I--as in me, Amy--don't like to use commercial photos, I like to use the authors' descriptions and my imagination.)

Cord Elliot
Book: Remember Summer by Elizabeth Lowell
Series: N/A

He's thirty-five, works for the government on anti-terrorist missions and also protects important government officials. Hidden beneath an impassive expression is a ruthless, sweeping intelligence. His face is angular with ice-blue eyes and sensual lips; his body is hard and warm, quick and dangerous, and his hair is thick and black. Long, lean fingers, strong shoulders and legs, steady hands and six-foot plus in height.

Quotes:

"It's all right," he murmured, smoothing her tangled hair with his palm. He tucked her head against his chest, holding her close without really confining her. Comfort not captivity. "I won't hurt you. And I'm damned sorry I frightened you. You're safe with me, always. I promise you, Raine."

He needed her. The certainty of that need shook him all the way to his soul.

Future Favorites (58)

Future Favorites is an awesome blog feature over at Electrifying Reviews. I post about a book that is yet-to-be-released and that I can't wait to read!

The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff:
Release Date: November 15, 2011 by Razorbill

Everything is made of steel, even the flowers. How can you love anything in a place like this?

Daphne is the half-demon, half-fallen angel daughter of Lucifer and Lilith. Life for her is an endless expanse of time, until her brother Obie is kidnapped - and Daphne realizes she may be partially responsible. Determined to find him, Daphne travels from her home in Pandemonium to the vast streets of Earth, where everything is colder and more terrifying. With the help of the human boy she believes was the last person to see her brother alive, Daphne glimpses into his dreams, discovering clues to Obie's whereabouts. As she delves deeper into her demonic powers, she must navigate the jealousies and alliances of the violent archangels who stand in her way. But she also discovers, unexpectedly, what it means to love and be human in a world where human is the hardest thing to be.

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? (76)

This is a fun weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Books I read last week:
Reckoning by Lili St. Crow
Wyoming Tough by Diana Palmer
Enthralled Anthology



The book I’m reading now:
Mortal Sins:
FBI agent Lily Yu is in North Carolina with her lover and mate Rule Turner, lu nuncio of the Nokolai werewolf clan, where he is to take custody of his son from the boy’s grandmother. It’s a purely personal trip until Rule, in wolf form, finds three bodies in a shallow grave. They carry the stench of DEATH MAGIC, which makes the murders a federal crime. Lily takes charge of the investigation, and soon realizes that nothing adds up—not the motives, not even the accused killer, who’s behind bars when death strikes again.

But murder, however bizarre, is an everyday affair for Lily, who was a homicide cop before being recruited into the FBI’s Magical Crimes Division. A more personal shock arrives in the person of Rule’s son’s mother. Why is she challenging Rule’s long standing plan to bring his son to live among the Nokolai?

But family must take a back seat when the violence escalates, and there’s no rhyme or reason for the killer’s next strike—a killer who may not even be of this world...


Books that spark my interest this week:
Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready
The Vampire and the Virgin by Kerrelyn Sparks
Master of None by Sonya Bateman

Reckoning by Lili St. Crow

Reckoning:
Nobody expected Dru Anderson to survive this long. Not Graves. Not Christophe. Not even Dru. She’s battled killer zombies, jealous djamphirs, and bloodthirsty suckers straight out of her worst nightmares. But now that Dru has bloomed into a fullfledged svetocha—rare, beautiful, and toxic to all vampires—the worst is yet to come. Because getting out alive is going to cost more than she’s ever imagined. And in the end, is survival really worth the sacrifice?

Dru Anderson’s not afraid of the dark.
But she should be.

This was a heart-pounding, incredible finale to the Strange Angels series by Lili St. Crow. It was full of action and non-stop danger. Lili really knows how to make her characters struggle for survival, and I became so immersed with the story that this is a book I would definitely have categorize as "un-put-down-able." There was so much going on throughout this book--escaping the Order, fighting off vampires, reconciling tender hearts and sometimes trusting the wrong person--but I felt it flowed smoothly and quickly. I also found that Dru's internal dialogue, and her memories of her loved ones, gave us more insight to who she truly is, and who she is going to be in the future. Despite there being no definite ending (I know in my heart what happened next), I loved the way Lili completed this series. She kept her readers guessing until the very end, and even then, we get to make our own decisions about what the future may hold for Dru. I would love, love, love to see some sort of spin-off series featuring some of the other characters from these books!

In My Mailbox (81)

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren.

The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa