16 Best Kids' Books of Fall 2012
Looking for gifts for your little bookworm? Our children's book expert found the best, new picture books and chapter books of the season, just right for grandkids age 1 and up.
Now that the grandkids are back in school, it's the perfect time to beef up their bookshelves. Kids who already read for pleasure will love exploring the selections from these reviewer-approved reading lists. And what better way to encourage reluctant readers than by plying them with a few instant classics?
Click on the collections below to find the best, new fall books of 2012, courtesy of our children's book expert, Sloane Tanen.
8 Great Picture Books
Looking for new books to read with your young grandchildren? This season's top-reviewed picture books boast colorful illustrations, whimsical stories, and a dose of wit that adults will appreciate.
Recommended for kids ages 1 to 14
8 Engaging Chapter Books & Novels
Fall isn't just the season for new text books and loose-leaf — it also offers a treasure trove of entertaining, relatable chapter books for elementary- through teen-age kids.
Recommended for kids age 8 and up
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Comments
Got a little ones who likes trucks?
Our books are new and we're getting lots of buzz. OOIDA (one of biggest rruck-driver associations) just named Grandpa and the Truck books to their "Cool Gifts" in Landline mag, going out to 200,000 truckers and their families, and we're the first-ever stories about a big rig driver (of 30 years' experience) for little ones.
We're the product of a 30-year, cross-country truck driver and his published author wife (her work's been in Wall St. Journal, Providence Journal, among others.) Now, as a team, they bring their books to the public.
Test-driven on their own 3 little grandkids who always clamored for another "Grandpa and the Truck" story, they tell the tales of drivers of the big rigs and their exciting experiences (hear excerpts of the stories on the site.) Each book is comprised of two beautifully-illustrated stories, Lesson as focus, Question pages, Trucker Tersm (fun!) and Maps (so kids learn geography.)
Please check us out at http://www.grandpaandthetruck.com
Bran new book just published on grandparent divorce. This important guide on how to tell grandchildren about their grandparents’ divorce and is written by a professional counselor who has first-hand experience when her parents announced they were getting divorced.
http://www.revitalizecounselingservices.com/p/when-grandparents-divorce.html
Have you seen Damien and the Dragon Kite? I talked with the author today at our Saturday Market and bought the book. It is simple, lesson driven and beautiful beyond are reason. I loved it. Read about it here:
http://www.retireinstyleblog.com/2012/09/childrens-books-damien-and-dragon-kite.html#.UF4z3mhfVa8
What an awesome collection of books! Since my granddolls are still little, I looked mostly at the ones for young children, but they all seem very engaging.
I can't help but caution grandparents to check with the parents b4 presenting any book that is very unusual, though parents may have priorities and concerns that they feel trump "originality"). Especially if it includes aspects that might scare some young children. It's not unusual, IMO, for parents to quietly confiscate and put away or discard books that they don't think are appropriate for their kids - I did it, myself, once or twice, as a young mom. It's different, of course, if you have custody of the child.
Regardless, this seems like a great collection of books! With Christmas not far away, I'm already considering a few of them as gifts. :- )