And Then It's Spring by Julie Fogliano and Erin Stead

First you have brown,
all around you have brown
then there are seeds and a wish for rain…

These are the first lines of this wonderful, new children’s picture book. They speak to me so intensely right now - I Am Ready for Spring! But this lovely story reminds me that there is brown and then there is rain and then there is a “hopeful, very possible sort of brown.” That’s the brown we have right now, with the first hints of green. If you know a child itching for a sunny day, or an adult who could use a sweet reminder that there are better days to come (that even brown holds promise!), this is the book for you.
I am also a sucker for a cut-away of underground with roots and burrowing animals and insects. This book has a great one. The illustrator is a previous Caldecott winner.

Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron

Jean Patrick Nkuba just wants to run for as long, and as fast, as he possibly can. His greatest dream is to represent Rwanda in the Olympics. But Jean Patrick is a Tutsi and his story takes place in the years leading up to and just after the 1994 Tutsi genocide. We first meet him in 1984 when he is living a life sheltered from the politics of the day on the campus of the school where his father teaches and later in a Tutsi village. The Hutu-Tutsi conflict slowly creeps into Jean Patrick’s life as his running takes him away from the village and into the cities of Rwanda. He finds love and friendship and inches ever closer to his Olympic dream.
There is violence and heartache in this novel (there has to be, given the time), but Benaron manages to show the pain with enough joy mixed in that the story never becomes too depressing. This is the first book I read in 2012 and my reading year is off to a great start.

Making a Friend by Alison McGhee and Marc Rosenthal

This is a sweet, touching story that is so much more than a winter holiday book. It starts with a boy thinking of all the joys of a snowy day. He makes a snowman who becomes a good friend while the weather stays cold. When the winter ends, the snowman begins to melt until one day he’s gone. The boy looks for him and discovers that the snowman is in the water and the rain and everything around him. I loved the simple, compelling illustrations and spare, thoughtful text. This book has a beautiful message for anyone who is missing a loved one – What you love will always be with you.

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

This is a simple, silly picture book with wonderful illustrations. It follows a bear who has lost his hat. He asks the various animals he encounters if they’ve seen his hat, but they say they haven’t. He’s not the most observant bear. This book is almost a combination of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and Are You My Mother. I know, that’s hard to imagine, but it is fantastic fun. We’ve carried greeting cards by the author/illustrator, and they’re so sweet and compelling we have a hard time keeping them in stock.
Also, did the bear eat that rabbit? Oh my.

The Man in the Moon by William Joyce

William Joyce is one of my favorite illustrators and this is one of the most beautiful children's picture books that I’ve seen. The imagery is so rich and unique that I found myself just staring at the pages – imagine what a kid will do! The story is sweet and compelling as well. As a baby, The Man in the Moon (called MiM for short) is hidden away so that the King of Nightmares can’t find him. He grows up watching over the dreams of the child on Earth and eventually becomes the first of The Guardians of Childhood. That’s also the name of the series this book launches. All of the books involve classic fairytale figures – from the man in the moon to Santa and the Easter Bunny. There will also be a string of chapter books beginning with St. Nicholas of the North (coming out in November) and a movie next year. I’m not a fan of big movie tie-in stuff that’s just trying to sell, sell, sell, but this book is really exceptional. I’m excited to see the rest.

Among the Wonderful by Stacy Carlson

In 1842 New York City, P.T. Barnum opened his American Museum. It was part zoo, part freak show, part natural history museum, part theater, part restaurant, part… you get the picture. Among the Wonderful imagines the lives of two of its employees – Ana Swift, Giantess, and Emile Guillaudeu, Taxidermist. They are very different people, holding very different places in the Museum, but both are searching for their place in the world. I was impressed that that search never becomes a cliché and that the Museum never turns into a catalog of freaks.
I loved this book. I was completely captivated by the two main characters, the Museum, and all the strange and wonderful people involved in it. The only thing I wished for at the end was a companion book full of the real details about the Museum so that I would have known right away how well-researched the story was. Not surprisingly, the truth is even stranger than this great historical fiction.

The Call by Yannick Murphy

I loved Yannick Murphy’s novel, Signed Mata Hari, so much that I picked up The Call without any idea what it was about. It’s very different, but equally wonderful. The “narrator” is a rural veterinarian going through life’s trials with his wife and three kids. He ponders life, his son is injured, his own health is questionable, his wife is a little frustrated, and there are lights in the sky above his house. But his story is not told in traditional paragraphs, rather as a sort of list of prompts and answers (alternate title could have been An Ode to the Colon). Here’s the opening as an example:
     “Call: A cow with her dead calf half-born.
     Action: Put on boots and pulled dead calf out while standing in a field of mud.”
Call, Action, What the Wife Made for Dinner, and What the Children Say, are repeated often, but there’s also What the Spaceman Said and What the House Says at Night, among many others. Murphy is a strange and different writer in the best possible way. It’s amazing that she manages to tell such a complete and fascinating story in this strange style. I loved this book. It will be on my top ten for the year. Take a risk – it’s in softcover!