Notable Children's Books

Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington
Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County is a great story of will and determination as our young character tries over and over again to chase and catch her favorite chicken in the farm yard. The young girl has one goal in her life and that is to catch chickens. Her daily routine is always the same, eat breakfast, visit with Big Mama and then set out to catch the chickens even though she has been told not to by Big Mama. There is one chicken in particular that she is fascinated by. She has shiny feathers, and long feet. She spends her time looking for ways to try and trick her so she can be captured but is never successful. She also looks all over the farm trying to find out where she hides and spends her days. One day she finds her sitting on a nest of chicks and eggs in some tall grass. She is just inches away from her and knows that the chicken can be captured, but does not. She tells the mama chicken she is safe, she has a job to do and from that day on she spends her time feeding and caring for all the chickens. She works on protecting them from snakes and weasels. I enjoyed this story it brought back memories of being on the farm with my grandparents and picking eggs and finding her places a hen has gone to lay her eggs.




All I’ll Ever Want Christmas Doll by Patricia C. McKissack
This story takes during the depression on Christmas. Three sisters, Eddy Bernice, Laura Nell and Odessa Mae, were all wondering if Santy Claus would come to see them this year. Laura had wanted a Baby Betty dolls he saw in the newspaper but her sisters told her that would never happen so Laura decided to keep dreaming and wrote a letter to Santy Claus. On Christmas morning they receive a doll to share between the three sisters which of course caused a lot of problems. Neither of them wanted to share so father stepped in and told them to work it out among them selves. Laura told her sisters she was the one who wanted it the most, wrote the letter and never gave up dreaming so she deserved the doll and her sisters agreed. The whole day Laura spent playing with the doll that never really played back; she did not drink tea, laugh or clap at her stories or even sign with her. Laura got mad and decided to leave the doll all alone. Mama told her to invite her sisters inside to share in her tea party, she did and the three or should say the four of them made up and shared the doll. They spent the day singing and playing and all decided that that was the best Christmas ever.




A Good Day by Kevin Henkes
Every character in the story has something that going wrong in their life on this particular day. Bird looses a feather, dog tangles her leash, fox looses mother, squirrel drops her nut in the water but all of a sudden everything turns around for them. Bird will fly higher than ever before, dog frees herself, squirrel finds a bigger nut and mama fox is right behind baby fox so everyone is happy again. When all of a sudden the lost yellow feather falls from the sky and a little girl finds it, puts it in her hair and says “what a good day!” The simplicity of the reading with its predictable text makes it a great book for our early readers. I love the illustrations in the book! They are bright and eye catching with colors that are appropriate for the setting.





Hello, Bumblebee Bat by Darrin Lunde
What a great book for Science. This fiction book on bats is written in such a way that the reader thinks they are reading a story but in fact are getting factual information on bumblebee bats. Bumblebee bat is asked a series of questions such as how small are you, what you look like and eat how do you hear and fly. Bumblebee answers these questions giving some scientific background without the exact vocabulary word. The background illustrations are in a dark blue to stand for the night. I love the inside flat of the book jacket because it teases the reader by giving them some factual information on the bumblebee bat and then ask if they want it know more and if so, open the book and read. It also shows a picture of the bat’s actual size.




Little Rat Makes Music by Monika Bang-Campbell
Little Rat Makes Music is one of the chapter books in a series dedicated to the adventures of Little Rat. Little Rat’s parents loved music. Father had played many different instruments and at one time had been in a band while mother would sing all the time. They would go to concerts in the Community Hall and even in the city. Little Rat fell in love with the sounds of the violin. One afternoon Little Rat began her music lessons with the violin. She hated them! Finally, the day came for them to play their first note. It was not at all like Little Rat had heard or even imagined it would sound like when she played the first time. Practicing at home was something she totally disliked and would even through tantrums when she made a mistake. One day, Mrs.Wingbutton, her teacher, introduced her to a former student, Kitty, began to tutor her. This did not influence the practice time at home but things were getting better. One day Mrs. Wingbutton suggested that Little Rat and Kitty play at the Christmas show; Little Rat agreed and knew she would have to practice. Practice is what she did. When the night of the Christmas concert was magical and Little Rat for the first time truly heard music when she played and she even played with feeling. From that night one she would play the violin because she wanted to