If you're in the mood for some good kid-style fun, check out The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. Some of the ideas within the book seem a little ripped off and unoriginal, but the adventures the children go on in each book are still undeniably fun.
What's even more undeniably fun is the way I got my hands on these books! In late April, I exhibited with my company, Maupin House, at the International Reading Association conference in Chicago. If you're not familiar with the annual IRA conference, it's a gigantic trade show for educators. They come from all over the world (but primarily the U.S.) for professional development, lectures, interactive sessions and presentations, books and teacher resources, and, of course, a good time!
The big (publishing) dogs are always at IRA -- that is, Scholastic; Little, Brown and Company; Random House; Disney; and Walker; among independent publishers and many others. The big guys always provide pre-pub books, or ARCs as they are more commonly known, which stands for Advance Reading Copy. These are uncorrected versions of books that are planned for press in the upcoming months. It's kind of cool because you get to read something that's not available to anyone else yet -- an insider's perk!
At the end of the conference, many publishers would rather give away they're regular for-sale books than pay to have them shipped back to their warehouse and that's how I got two of the five Spiderwick Chronicles. A co-worker is really into children's lit and owned the rest so she let me borrow the ones I didn't get for free. (When all was said and done, I went home with about thirty free books total, including ARCs and for-sale books the publishers just gave away. SCORE!)
The books are super cute, and I'd have to say the presentation (that is, the cover, binding, paper, etc.) is half the charm. They look darn good on a book shelf. These are ideal books for bedtime reading to a child of second- or third-grade level and are definitely appropriate for fourth and fifth graders to read independently. I say check 'em out!
Next on the reading list: Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent.
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