Handbook Update - Every year I think I see all the best books, and then there are more!   Listed below are some new books that were omitted from my 2007 workshop handbook that you definitely won’t want to miss.   Be sure to add them to your list of good books to consider.

Books —

• ARE YOU QUITE POLITE?
• by Alan Katz. Illus. by David Catrow.
• McElderry, 2006 32p. (0-689-86970-3)
• Silly dilly manners songs set to popular tunes that remind readers of appropriate ways to behave around others.

• CHICKENS TO THE RESCUE
• by John Himmelman.
• Holt, 2006 32p. (0-8050-7951-3)
• At the Greenstalk Farm, all problems are resolved by the chickens, unless it’s Sunday; that’s when the pigs help out.

• THE GREEN GLASS SEA
• by Ellen Klages.
• Viking, 2006 321p. (0-670-06134-4)
• Dewey lives with her father in Los Alamos where he is working on the Manhattan Project during World War II. No one realizes how much the “gadget” is about to change life forever.

• GREAT BIG GUINEA PIGS
• by Susan L. Roth.
• Bloomsberry, 2006 32p. (1-58234-724-7)
• Mom tells her son a bedtime story about his 1500 pound ancestors in this book that bookends factual information (Mom reads the New York Times on the floor of her cage) with a fictional story.

• MOM AND DAD ARE PALINDROMES
• by Mark Shulman. Illus. by Adam McCauley.
• Chronicle, 2006 28p. (0-8118-4328-9)
• More than 101 palindromes, words spelled the same way from left-to-right and right- to-left, can be found in the story and pictures in this book.

• MOSES: WHEN HARRIET TUBMAN LED HER PEOPLE TO FREEDOM
• by Carole Boston Weatherford. Illus. by Kadir Nelson.
• Jump at the Sun / Hyperion Books for Children, 2006 41p. (0-7868-5175-9)
• A fictionalized account of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery for freedom in Philadelphia, where she turns her talents to leading others along the Underground Railroad, with special emphasis on her religious beliefs.

• ONE GREEN APPLE
• by Eve Bunting. Illus. by Ted Lewin.
• Clarion, 2006 32p. (0-618-43477-31)
• While on a school field trip to an orchard to make cider, a young Muslim immigrant named Farah gains self-confidence when the green apple she picks perfectly complements the other students' red apples.

• PART OF ME
• by Kimberly Willis Holt.
• Holt, 2006 208p. (0-8050-6360-9)
• The connections between four generations of a Louisiana family and their connections to books.

• PUNISHED
• by David Lubar.
• Darby Creek, 2006 96p. (1-58196-042-5)
• A mysterious man punishes Logan and Ben for their misbehavior in the library by making them speak only in puns.

• SCAREDY SQUIRREL
• by Melanie Watt. Illus. by David Catrow.
• Kids Can, 2006 32p. (1-55337-959-4)
• Scaredy Squirrel is afraid to leave his nut tree, but when he is finally forced out of his home, he discovers some interesting things about the great unknown.

• 17 THINGS I’M NOT ALLOWED TO DO ANYMORE
• by Jenny Offill. Illus. by Nancy Carpenter.
• Random / Schwartz & Wade, 2006 32p. (0-375-93596-7)
• A bright young girl lists all the great ideas she’s ever had and the various ways they’ve gotten her into trouble.

• VICTORY
• by Susan Cooper
• McElderry, 2006 194p. (1-41691-477-3)
• Molly, upset by her family's move from London to the U.S., is strangely drawn to an old book about the life of Admiral Lord Nelson. She soon finds her life intertwined with that of Sam,a boy her age who served with Nelson aboard the HMS "Victory" a century earlier.