Staff Picks

Jazz for Kids: Sing, Clap, Wiggle, and Shake is a family friendly jazz compilation that will appeal to adults and kids of all ages.  It includes familiar favorites like “Old McDonald” and “The Muffin Man” alongside lesser known delights such as “Rag Mop” and “Doop-Doop-De-Doop.”  It is a great collection to teach children about jazz and a few of its famous musicians such as Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. 

Aldo Zelnick is a fifth grader, an artist, and a collector of words. He keeps track of the events of his life in a journal, where he draws funny cartoons and confesses his innermost thoughts. Each of his journals focuses on a different letter. So far, there are seven books in the series.

They are written by Karla Oceanak, illustrated by Kendra Spanjer, and published by Bailiwick Press. Click the titles below to see each of the Aldo Zelnick books in the library's catalog.

Find them at the Tenley library in the children's fiction section, under J Oceanak.

Wendy Wan Long Sheng’s  The Great Wall of Lucy Wu  is a familiar-feeling story of Lucy, a sixth-grade Chinese American who loves basketball. Lucy is looking forward finally to a perfect year — she’s out from under the shadow of her beautiful and flawless older sister who has gone to college.  She has her own room now and she is looking to find her own identity. 

There comes a point when a lot of little children become princess obsessed. It's like a switch is flipped and suddenly it's all twirly, pretty dresses and fairy godmothers all the time.

While princesses themselves are inherently awesome, it can be hard to find princess books that don't relegate the princesses themselves to the background action. Luckily, we've spent some time around picture books and have come up with a list of 20 stories starring positive, proactive princesses who don't sit around all day waiting for a prince or glass slipper to save them.

Read these book with your princess (or prince) in training and feel good about the messages you're sharing with them.