In this issue:

Children's Book Week

John Steptoe Award for New Talent

HCPL Children's Staff

New Children's Books and Audio

Children's Book Week is being celebrated May 12-18, 2008.  Through Children's Book Week, the Children's Book Council encourages young people and their caregivers to spread the joy of reading by spending some time with a book each day. 

Children are invited to vote for their favorite books in the Children's Choice Book Awards as part of this year's Children's Book Week.  Voting is sponsored by the Children's Book Council.

Kids' Voting Page

The John Steptoe Award for New

Talent is given to a black author and a

black illustrator beginning his/her

career.  It is awarded annually by the

Coretta Scott King Task Force of the

Social Responsabilities Round Table of

the American Library Association. The

award was established to affirm new

talent and to offer visibility to

excellence in writing and/or illustration

which otherwise might be formally

unacknowledged within a given year.

John Steptoe Award Winners

Ms. D

Donatta Clarke is the Children's Librarian at the Katy Branch Library.  She has been with Harris County for 1 year.

What do you like to read?

I read everything, including children's, teen, and adult books.  I tend to go in cycles reading different adult genres.  Currently I'm into reading mysteries, especially psychological thrillers.

What was your favorite book when you were a kid?

Heidi by Johanna Spyri was my favorite book.  I also read all of The Bobbsey Twins and Trixie Belden series.  One year my dad bought us a set of encyclopedias and I spent the summer reading them.  Since we didn't have the Internet at that time, I surfed the encyclopedias instead of surfing the net.

What are your hobbies?

Of course, I love to read, but I also like to garden, ride my bike and work jigsaw puzzles.  My favorite puzzles are those that are pictures of fine art, especially modern art like Picasso's and Kandinsky's paintings.

What was the funniest thing that happened to you as a kid?

I loved riding my bike even then and decided I wanted to be a stunt rider.  I made up all sorts of tricks to do on my bike.  My best feat was to go really fast, then stand up on the seat on one leg with the other leg out and one arm out.  One day I had an audience of my brother and sister and several neighborhood children.  Things didn't go well and I lost my balance and fell, scraping my entire kneecap.  I still have scars.  That was the end of my stunt riding.  This doesn't exactly qualify as a funny thing, but my brother and sister still talk about it.

What do you like best about your job?

I love the variety of my job, every day is different.  One hour I'm playing with babies in story time and the next hour I'm on the reference desk.  I also enjoy helping people find the books and information they need.  By answering reference questions, you can learn something new every day.

Anything else you want to share about yourself?

Before moving to Katy, I lived in Victoria, Texas.  I was the Children's Librarian there for 14 years.  It's taken some adjusting, but I'm getting used to big city life.

Elizabeth Alalou and Ali Alalou.  The Butter Man

While Nora waits for the couscous her father is cooking to be finished, he tells her a story about his youth in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

Mary Amato.  The Chicken of the Family

When her older sisters tease her into believing that she is actually a chicken, Henrietta runs off to a farm to be among her own kind.

Bonny Becker.  A Visitor for Bear

Bear's efforts to keep out visitors to his house are undermined by a very persistent mouse.

Cathryn Falwell.  Scoot!

Six silent turtles sit still as stones on a log, as energetic movement by the other animals in the pond happens all around them.

Emily Gravett.  Monkey and Me

A young girl and her stuffed monkey love playing together and imitating different types of animals.

James Mayhew.  Where's My Hug?

Jake tries to track down his mother's hug after she gives it to his father, who gives it to the cat, who gives it to a witch, and so on.

Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross.  Cottonball Colin

Afraid that her smallest child, Colin, will be hurt if he goes outside or plays, a mother mouse insists that he sit quietly indoors until his grandmother suggests wrapping him in cotton wool, which proves to be effective, but in a most unexpected way.

Sallie Wolf.  Truck Stuck

Illustrations and simple rhyming text tell the story of a big truck that gets stuck under a bridge.

Wade Cooper.  Farm Animals

Spend a fact-filled day on a farm in this nonfiction easy reader! Children learn about horses, pigs, cows, geese, sheep, and more. The text is written in easy-to-read rhymes and is illustrated with irresistible photographs.

Alison Inches.  Super Spies

Pablo stars as a super spy in this exciting reader based on a special episode slated to air on Nick Jr. in September. Featuring rebus icons, this book tells the story of how Agent Secret goes up against the evil Lady in Pink.

Catherine Lukas. Trouble on the Train

Can the cowboys save the train from the bandits?

Jane O'Connor.  Fancy Nancy at the Museum

Although excited at the prospect of a fancy class trip to the art museum, the bumpy bus ride to get there leaves Nancy feeling anything but fancy.

Gail Herman.  The Big Bad Blizzard

The Mystery, Inc. gang is going skiing, but when Scooby and Shaggy sneak off to look for food, they get caught in a blizzard! Then, YIKES! Snow Monsters start chasing them. It's a scary snow-storm mystery for Scooby and the gang.

Christine Ricci.  Dora and the Rainbow Kite Festival

Based on the Dora the Exporer series.

Sandra Belton.  The Tallest Tree

When a group of young African-American children learn about Paul Robeson from one of the neighborhood "elders," they decide to reclaim the town theater in order to celebrate Robeson's life.

Jody Feldman.  The Golly-Whopper Games

Twelve-year-old Gil Goodson competes against thousands of other children at extraordinary puzzles, stunts, and more in hopes of a fresh start for his family, which has been ostracized since his father was falsely accused of embezzling from Golly Toy and Game Company.

Diana G. Gallagher.  Camp Can't:  The Complicated Life of

Claudia Cristina Cortez  Thirteen-year-old Claudia wants to prove that she should be a junior counselor at Blue River Camp next year, but first she must face mean girls, the boy she has a crush on, a seven-year-old rascal she often babysits, her own bad luck, and a challenging swimming test.

Lisa Graff.  The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower

After her supposed best friend implicates her in a cheating and blackmail scam, twelve-year-old Bernie loses her private school scholarship but, with the help of a new friend, spends the summer using her knowledge of magic and sleight-of-hand both to earn the $9,000 in tuition money and to get revenge.

Ronald Kidd.  Teddy Roosevelt and the Treasure of Ursa

Major   President Theodore Roosevelt's children search for clues to a hidden treasure in the White House.

Jeff Kinney.  Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Greg Heffley tells about his summer vacation and his attempts to steer clear of trouble when he returns to middle school and tries to keep his older brother Rodrick from telling everyone about Greg's most humiliating experience of the summer.

Barbara O'Connor.  Greetings from Nowhere

In North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains, a troubled boy and his mother, a happy family seeking adventure, a man and his lonely daughter, and the widow who must sell the run-down motel that has been her home for decades, meet and are transformed by their shared experiences.

Deborah Sherman.  The Triple Chocolate Brownie Genius

Michael's days as a happy underachiever are over when he accidentally eats a nanochip loaded with information and becomes his own worst nightmare: a know-it-all, held up as an example by his teachers, and hated by everyone in the student body. What has happened to the old Michael? Is the underachiever gone for good.

Sarah Weeks.  Oggie Cooder

Quirky fourth-grader Oggie Cooder goes from being shunned to everyone's best friend when his uncanny ability to chew slices of cheese into the shapes of states wins him a slot on a popular television talent show, but he soon learns the perils of being a celebrity--and having a neighbor girl as his manager.

Jim Arnosky.  The Brook Book

Learn about water, rocks, aquatic insects, fish, amphibians, environmental issues, and more.

Nic Bishop.  Frogs

Nic Bishop's photographs show all different kinds of frogs, big ones, very tiny ones, frogs with beautiful colors of skin, and one frog you can see inside of.

Sneed B. Collard III.  Teeth

Describes the functions, structures, and number of animal's teeth.

Robert Gardner.  Sound Projects with a Music Lab You Can

Build   Introduces information on sound through a variety of related experiments using a musical lab that the reader can build.

David Hochman and Ruth Kennison.  The Potty Train

Time to say good-bye to diapers and take the journey to Underpants Station.

Kathy Ross.  Crafts for Kids Who Are Learning About

Dinosaurs   Crafts for kids who are learning about dinosaurs.

Michael P. Spradlin.  Texas Rangers:  Legendary Lawmen

History of the legendary Texas Rangers.

Christine Taylor-Butler.  The Food Pyramid

A book about surprising true facts that will shock and amaze you about the food pyramid.

Virginia Lee Burton.  The Little House

The little house: A country house is unhappy when the city, with all its buildings and traffic, grows up around her.

Harry Allard.  Miss Nelson is Missing

The kids in Room 207 take advantage of their teacher's good nature until she disappears and they are faced with a vile substitute.

Patricia Reilly Giff.  Eleven

When Sam, who can barely read, discovers an old newspaper clipping just before his eleventh birthday, it brings forth memories from his past, and, with the help of a new friend at school and the castle they are building for a school project, his questions are eventually answered.

Disneymania 5

Music stars sing Disney songs their way.

Patrick Carman.  Atherton

Edgar, an eleven-year-old orphan, finds a book that reveals significant secrets about Atherton, the strictly divided world on which he lives, even as geological changes threaten to shift the power structure that allows an elite few to live off the labor of others.