“The Kids’ Picture Show” is an educational channel on YouTube for toddlers, preschoolers and even kindergarteners. It shows retro pixelated images of a variety of things sorted by type and with accompanying labels. Now, there are board books with the same pixel-heavy and labeled images: “Vehicles” and “Animals.”
Jump right in to “Kingdom of the Blind” by Louise Penny even though it’s the eleventh in this series about Armand Gamache, a detective in Québec who has risen through the ranks although is he currently suspended. In this story, he is appointed as a liquidator, or executor, of the will of a woman he does not know. In fact, the two others appointed as liquidators, one of whom he does know, also do not know the deceased who chose them.
“Love á la Mode” by Stephanie Kate Strohm is a delightful story of two young wanna-be chefs who win a year in Paris studying cooking at the école (school) of a famous chef. The story is told in alternating chapters narrated by the two main characters.
Get ready for a set of new superheroes. And super bad guys. “Villain” by Michael Grant has them all.
Former debutante Jennifer Lynn Barnes shares with readers the trials and tribulations of what goes into being a society deb and living the life of the rich and famous. In “Little White Lies,” protagonist Sawyer Taft goes from fixing cars and taking care of her mother to living with her grandmother and participating in nine months of preparation to be a debutante — in return for half a million dollars.
In “The Perfect Candidate,” debut author Peter Stone uses Washington, DC as the perfect backdrop for a young high school graduate from rural California who becomes enmeshed in a murder mystery. The story is actually a thriller as Cameron Carter, the small town Congressional intern to charismatic Congressman Billy Beck, discovers that the Congressman he admires might be guilty of murder to keep a scandal from ruining his career.
With “An Anonymous Girl,” Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen have created a novel that entices the reader into the dual narrative to a point when the reader can’t stop reading to find out how it all ends. Which of the women narrating their story will come out on top?
It’s not too late to get books for the children on your shopping list. And there are many great children’s books available for every age and every interest. There’s a plethora of wonderful picture books for children who love to read or listen to books.
“Children of Jubilee” is the third in the brilliant “Children of Exile” trilogy by adored children’s author Margaret Peterson Haddix. It’s the culmination of a series of books that, like many of her books, explore the themes of prejudice and children and how sometimes, children can see through the prejudices that adults have fallen prey to.
“Deck the Hounds” by David Rosenfelt is the newest mystery in the brilliant “Andy Carpenter” series, and it’s perfect for reading during the holiday season. It’s also perfect for reading after the holiday season since in the story, the holiday season lasts until late into winter.
“Now You See Her” by Lisa Leighton and Laura Stropki is a young adult novel based on an improbable occurrence. Two high school girls, one driving through a rainstorm and the other running into the street to avoid a kidnapper, switch bodies.
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