Miss Brooks Loves Books (And I Don't) by Barbara Bottner and illustrated by Michael Emberly is a brand new book about a little girl and her librarian who is annoyingly (to the girl) enthusiastic about books. What you'll love about this book is the rough illustrations that show a spunky little girl with messy hair and a hat half covering her face, a chunky matter-of-fact mother in paint splattered overalls and the fact that even this unusual little girl can find a book that she loves on her terms, about a character that also doesn't fit the norm.

How to Clean Your Room in 10 Easy Steps by Jennifer LaRue Huget and Edward Koren
If you don't like books that could give your kids bad ideas then you'll want to skip this one or save it for kids young enough that they will groan along with you in all the wrong ways that the character cleans her room up. You wil recognize the illustration style by Edward Koren from his New Yorker cartoons. Even though this book describes a child's somewhat counterproductive aproach to room cleaning, hey I'd take even that.

Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel was my son's favorite book from first grade this year. Bad kitty is an alphabet book gone awry. The book actually goes through the alphabet four times. First with all the healthy things Bad Kitty refuses to eat, then all the bad things Bad Kitty does. Then we go through all the foods that Bad Kitty likes and all the good things she does once she eats the things she likes. I'm not sure what lesson your kids will get from this book, but you both will love it along the way, especially the naughty bits. If you like Bad Kitty, you'll love the whole Bad Kitty Series.

(Nick Bruel will make an appearance at Children's Book Day this weekend!)

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