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We're Falling for These Kid Lit Fall Reads

We are always happy to support small businesses and bookstores are one of our favorite small businesses.  Our favorite local bookstore has had to change a few things since the pandemic began, most notably the number of customers allowed in the store at one time.  We kinda like it.  It's like having the bookstore all to ourselves.  A giant world of books to call our very own. 😁

Looking for some great gift ideas?  Check out these book and gift ideas at your local bookstore or order online now to ensure delivery in time for holiday gift giving.

Glass, concrete, windows, walls, roofs, and more—create your own metropolitan masterpiece. 
Build a Skyscraper (Pavilion Children's Books; September 2020; ISBN: 978-1843654742; Ages 3-5; Set $19.69; 64 pages) by Paul Farrell is the second in a new series of graphic-designed cards that turn the image of a skyscraper into a work of art. 
This pack contains 64 cards (4 x 2¾ inches) in a variety of graphic designs and bold, eye-catching colors. Clever paper engineering allows you to slot the cards together, building up and out in whichever way you like! Also included is a short 8-page booklet, with descriptions of the key elements of a skyscraper and suggestions of how to build your masterpiece. You can go traditional or get abstract and construct your own crazy high-rise! Educational, creative, mindful, and fun for the whole family. The sky’s the limit! 

Our Thoughts:  We had fun creating with these.  We made it a game for the entire family on Family Game Night and it was fun for the three boys and the little old lady, and confession Hubby and I really enjoyed playing with the kiddos.  These cards get the creative juices flowing and you'll laugh and be surprised at the skyscrapers you create.  This is also ideal for solitary play.

The fabulous illustrator David Roberts has joined forces with his author sister, Lynn, to produce a humorous, stylish and empowering retelling of three classic fairy tales -- Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel -- in David Roberts' Delightfully Different Fairy Tales (Pavilion Children's Books; October 2020; ISBN: 978-1843654759; Ages 3-6; Hardcover $19.95; 90 pages). 
A treasury of fairy tales with a difference – feminist, spunky and set in different decades of the 20th century, with funky clothes and recognizable settings. 

This special collection includes a 1950s sci-fi nerd Sleeping Beauty who pricks her finger on a record player, in a story populated entirely with women and girls (no princes needed here!), a 1970s Rapunzel who lives in a tower block and whose friend plays in a rock band, a 1920s Cinderella with flapper girls, a fashion-conscious fairy godmother, and a night in an art deco ballroom. 

These are all deliciously, delightfully different takes on the fairy tales we all know in a gorgeous hardback gift book with lots of period detail—it will be treasured for years to come.     

Our Thoughts:  We LOVE this book!  It's full of just enough snark and it's something totally unexpected.  The retelling of classic fairy tales is fun and worth checking out.  The book is full of lots of laugh out loud moments.

From the creator of The Boxtrolls comes a haunting, beautifully told, and stunningly illustrated Santa Claus origin story: The Three Wishes (Pavilion Children's Books; November 2020; ISBN: 978-1843653868; Ages 4-8; Hardcover $19.95; 48 pages) by Alan Snow. 
A young boy is herding his family’s reindeer when the boy is drawn into a mysterious cave. The cave is the holder of eternal summer, looked after by three strange characters: a wooden creature, a bird, and a fish. Once entered, the cave cannot be left without time in the outside world standing still. In his sadness at not being able to leave, the boy is granted three wishes and chooses freedom, happiness, and time. He is told that they will all be granted—eventually. 

 After the first year of working hard in the summer cave, the boy is allowed to see his family in the outside world. Time stands still as he visits his parents, and he leaves gifts behind to show that he has visited. As the years go by, this annual visit continues, and he begins to call on not only his parents but more and more other families…and Christmas traditions, as we know them, start to be created. 

 A new Christmas classic to read again and again, beautifully written and illustrated by Alan Snow, author of Here be Monsters!, the novel behind the Academy-nominated 2014 film The Boxtrolls. 

Our Thoughts:  We have a tradition of reading Christmas stories each year and I am so glad we received this book to add to our collection.  It's a wonderful story, a timeless tale that will tug at your heartstrings and fill you and your little one with the joy of Christmas.  The illustrations are exquisite and the story is well written.

Challenge Everything: An Extinction Rebellion Youth Guide to Saving the Planet (Pavilion Children's Books; September 2020; ISBN: 978-1843654643; Ages 12-17; Paperback $9.95; 144 pages) by Blue Sandford is a timely new book from a teenage environmental activist who has been called the "British Greta Thunberg" and named one of "the UK’s most impressive young activists" by The Times. 
Time is running out to prevent ecological collapse. The main concern of many young people is climate change and how to combat it, and Challenge Everything offers them a purpose–what to do, when to do it and why to do it. 

This manifesto is the only official handbook from Extinction Rebellion Youth -- a global movement of hundreds of thousands of passionate activists from all walks of life, including splinter groups for young people, like XR Youth, XR Families and XR Kids -- and will help you to change your life and the world for the better. Written by Blue Sandford, the 17-year-old coordinator of Extinction Rebellion Youth London who has left school to dedicate her life to preventing climate change, this book will ask you to challenge everything–challenge government (protest and take peaceful action where necessary), challenge business (decide who you want to support, decide who you want to boycott), and above all to challenge yourself–how can you change your life to make a difference. 

Filled with stories, essays, slogans and inspiring illustrations, this book will cover consuming, actioning, boycotting, campaigning, striking, questioning, rewilding and reconnecting with our planet. It will help the reader to change their mindset, become independent, question everything, and challenge themselves.

Our Thoughts:  This is a POWERFUL book!  Our children want to make a difference but like us they may not know where to start, Blue to the rescue.  I love how Blue breaks down ways to challenge big business, the government and ends with ways for the reader to challenge themselves.  Oh and a confession, I was totally unaware of the term XR until diving into this book.  
Which of these books would you pick for your kid?

Comments

Joline said…
Books are the best gifts. My niece loves to read. She has tons of books and got her very own bookcase as an early Christmas present. She is over the moon.
Pam said…
I'd pick the new fairy tales ones even though they all look good. I love books with spunky heroines!
AiringMyLaundry said…
These look like some fabulous books for kids! I always loved getting books as gifts.
melissa said…
Books are a great gift for kids and for kids the Challenge everything book seems so thought provoking. I will consider any of these for my nephews.
These all look like great book options! My girls don't have any of these, so I'll have to check them out.
Bri said…
Books are always great gifts! I always tell people to get books for my girls instead of cards on their birthday!
Simply Tasheena said…
These sound like amazing reads, I have to look into getting them for my nephews.
Beth said…
My kids always loved getting books for gifts. I think they would have enjoyed all of these books when they were younger.
Gervin Khan said…
Great lists of books to read and I am sure my kids will enjoy it.
Gervin Khan said…
Great lists of books to read and I am sure my kids will enjoy it.
Books are really the best gift!
Nikki Wayne said…
Thanks for this list. Now I got some idea on what to buy for my nieces.
Lynndee said…
Those would be great gifts to give to kids. Sounds like fun books. -LYNNDEE
Kathy said…
I actually have all of these books as well. They're wonderful too. The skyscraper one is a favorite of ours.
Ruth I said…
I always want new books. Love this list! I would want to give those as gifts as well.
Nyxie said…
Wonderful ideas. I wish my nieces were book readers because there are so many here that would be so educational and entertaining.
Delightfully different tales sounds like a book my kids would enjoy. It's nice to see a new slant.
Gust si Aroma said…
Thanks for sharing these books. It's so important to read for a kid that's why I love buying books!
Kita Bryant said…
My niece would love to check these out. She just reads so much!
Swathi said…
Sounds like great list of books to read. I will check it out in library.

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