TitleTales

Potty Training Books for Toddlers: Aaron Butts
(Cataloger - Custom Cataloging)

Juvenile & YA Special Topics—07/23/10
Watching my toddler respond to books has been very exciting. When she first began to walk she did not have the attention span to listen to me read. In her infancy I enjoyed the warmth of reading aloud classic picture books while she drank her bottle. As a young walker her books became objects to open, close and toss, but I didn’t have to wait long until she shouted the words “doggies,” “hat” and “shooss” as she turned pages. She has imitated characters by banging on a drum and wearing a swim diaper on her head.

Her enthusiasm has led to me to make selections for the challenge of toilet training. Maybe she will sit and sit and sit like Prudence in Alona Frankel’s Once Upon a Potty. Many toilet training books follow the story of a child going through the process. Karen Katz’s A Potty for Me! emphasizes patience and positivity. Some include elements which could stand alone from the toilet training process like the humor of The Princess and the Potty by Wendy Cheyette Lewison. Toilet trainers may enjoy titles featuring well-known characters like Grover in Parker Sawyer’s Potty Time. Heidi Murkoff’s What to Expect When You Use the Potty provides captivating illustrations and answers to questions curious kids might ask. These titles may help my toddler get out of diapers and on to new challenges and new books as quickly as she moved from throwing books to looking at them.

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Welcome the Jewish New Year by:
Kathryn Lynip

Adult Special Topics—07/23/10
The Jewish high holidays are in the beginning of September this year so I have been keeping an eye out for titles that might be of special interest to Jewish readers. Several years ago I worked in a book store in an area that had a large Jewish population, and we always had to order in extra Joan Nathan cookbooks before Passover and have gift books on hand for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are not gift giving holidays, but are instead a time of reflection and repentance. I think it is a great time to think on how the Jewish diaspora has enriched my community for people of all religions and ethnicities. I recently picked up a book due to be released this fall called The Heavens Are Empty by Avron Bendavid-Val. He tells of the shtetl of Trochenbrod which was a vibrant farming community that was unique because it was inhabited and governed entirely by Jews. It stood as a remarkable self-sufficient town in Ukraine for a hundred years before being utterly wiped out by the Nazis in 1942. For a much lighter and humorous fare there is Baxter, The Pig Who Wanted To Be Kosher, a new picture book to be published this fall about a pig who desperately wants to go to Shabbat dinner because he hears someone at the bus stop describing the candlelight and singing. He is told he cannot go because he is not kosher so he does everything he can think of to try to become kosher so he can attend. And of course, I have to mention the newest cookbook by Joan Nathan. Quiches, Kugels, And Couscous will be out this November. L’Shanah Tovah!

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Interview: Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier

Which is better, the zombie or the unicorn? In the Zombie vs. Unicorns anthology, due in September and edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (unicorn and zombie, respectively), strong arguments are made for both sides in the form of short stories. Half of the stories portray the strengths—for good and evil—of unicorns and half show the good side of zombies. Contributors include many best-selling teen authors, including Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, Maureen Johnson, Meg Cabot, Scott Westerfeld and Margo Lanagan.

This anthology will have everyone asking: Team Zombie or Team Unicorn?

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BWI: Can you tell us how the contributors to this anthology were decided upon?

HB: Justine and I had a massive brainstorming session—and we talked a lot about who we thought secretly loved unicorns and who secretly loved zombies. And then we asked people if they would consider submitting to our side. That worked out extremely well, especially for me, who swiped Garth Nix for Team Unicorn!

JL: HAH! Putting together Team Zombie was no problem at all, but Team Unicorn was tricky. For instance, Meg Cabot is pro-Zombie; we had to beg her to switch sides for the sake of the anthology.

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