4 BOOKS FRee! - Junior Library Guild

*NEW* Panda & Polar Bear
written and illustrated by Matthew J. Baek
K GROUP (GRADES PreK–K) • Reviews: PW
Panda bears and polar bears live side by side in two
different—and separate—climates. A little polar bear
becomes curious and slips off his icy ledge down into
a patch of soft mud. He emerges looking a lot like
the little panda bear who arrives and quickly becomes
his friend. After a swim, the polar bear is all white
again and tells the panda bear about his world of
snow. Together, they find a way to share each other’s
homes and remain friends. Full-color watercolor
illustrations.
Isbn: 9780803733596 • Dewey: e • 9 7/16" x 10 1/2" • 32 pp
aR level: 2.5 • aR Points: 0.5
JLG: $13.25 • Dial: $16.99 • JlG Month: seP 2009
Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day
by Kate McMullan • illustrated by R. W. Alley
E GROUP (GRADES 1–3) • Reviews: BCCB, BL, H, SLJH
Wagner is having a bad day. He oversleeps and has
to rush to school. He falls for his friend Pearl’s April
Fools’ joke—and his teacher’s (and the librarian’s).
Just when he thinks he’s catching on, he finds out
that the math test isn’t a joke. It’s for real! Then Pearl
chooses someone else as a partner for a dance contest,
and she’s not kidding around. It is one unfunny day
for Wagner—until he comes up with a way to get the
last laugh. Pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations.
Isbn: 9780803730854 • Dewey: e • 6" x 9" • 40 pp
aR level: 2.1 • aR Points: 0.5 • sRC level: 1.5 • sRC Points: 1 • lexile: 210l
JLG: $9.00 • Dial: $14.99 • JlG Month: MaR 2009
The Pencil u
by Allan Ahlberg • illustrated by Bruce Ingman
P GROUP (GRADES K–1)
Reviews: BCCB, HH, HGs, K, PWH, SLJ, WC
“Once there was a pencil, a lonely little pencil, and
nothing else.” One day, that little pencil begins
to draw—first a boy, then a dog, then a cat—and
an entire world slowly emerges. But the pencil’s
drawings have complaints: “This hat looks silly,”
one person says; “My ears are too big,” says another.
So the pencil adds . . . an eraser. Soon, however, the
eraser is rubbing out everything in sight—and the
pencil, to save its world, must figure out how to erase
the eraser. Full-color art.
Isbn: 9780763638948 • Dewey: e • 10 5/8" x 9 7/16" • 40 pp
aR level: 3.1 • aR Points: 0.5 • sRC level: 2.2 • sRC Points: 1 • lexile: 540l
JLG: $9.00 • Candlewick: $16.99 • JlG Month: seP 2008
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street u
by Jeanne Birdsall
A GROUP (GRADES 3–5)
Reviews: BLH, H, HGs, K, PWH, SLJH
It has been four years and four months since the
Penderwick girls’ mother died. Aunt Claire says it’s
time for Daddy to start dating. Daddy doesn’t seem
so sure, and Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty are
positive it can only mean disaster. They come up with
the Save-Daddy Plan, a scheme to make their father’s
dating experiences so horrible that he’ll never date
again (and they’ll never end up with a stepmother).
Library edition with trade jacket added.
Isbn: 9780375940903 • Dewey: f • 5 5/8" x 8 1/4" • 320 pp
aR level: 5.3 • aR Points: 10 • sRC level: 5.5 • sRC Points: 17 • lexile: 850l
JLG: $9.00 • Knopf: $18.99 • JlG Month: JUn 2008
A Penguin Story
written and illustrated by Antoinette Portis
P GROUP (GRADES K–1)
Reviews: BL, CL, H, K, PW, SLJH, WC
All her life, Edna the Penguin has seen only three
colors. “‘There is white ice for sliding,’ says Edna.
‘There is black night for seeing stars. There is blue sea
for hunting fish. But there must be something else.’”
None of the other penguins share Edna’s curiosity,
so she sets off alone to find that something else. She
walks and walks and walks, and one tumble and an
“OOF!” later, she finds it: a color so new, so different,
that she feels compelled to show it to her friends.
Full-color art.
Isbn: 9780061456893 • Dewey: e • 10" x 8" • 40 pp
aR level: 1.4 • aR Points: 0.5 • sRC level: 1.5 • sRC Points: 1 • lexile: 220l
JLG: $9.00 • HarperCollins: $17.89 • JlG Month: MaR 2009
*NEW* Pharaoh’s Boat
written and illustrated by David Weitzman
NE GROUP (GRADES 2–6) • Reviews: BLH, H, KH, SLJH
In 1954, workers digging at the base of the Great
Pyramid at Giza made a surprising discovery. Kamel
el Mallakh, the supervising Egyptologist, recalled,
“I smelled incense. . . . I smelled time, I smelled
centuries, I smelled history. And then I was sure the
boat was there.” Ancient Egyptians had built it to
carry the Pharaoh Cheops to the afterlife. Fortyfive
hundred years later, reconstructing Pharoah’s
boat became an incredible puzzle. Afterword.
Acknowledgments. Full-color illustrations.
Isbn: 9780547053417 • Dewey: 932/.012 • 11" x 9" • 48 pp
aR level: 7.4 • aR Points: 1
JLG: $13.25 • Houghton Mifflin: $17.00 • JlG Month: aUG 2009
“Both ship and story are a mastery
of precise craftsmanship.”
—Kirkus ReviewsH
Pictures from Our Vacation u
written and illustrated by Lynn Rae Perkins
I GROUP (GRADES 2–4)
Reviews: BCCB, BLH, CL, HH, HGs, KH, PW, SLJH
“The tiny cameras took tiny pictures that shot out
right away. We could watch the pictures appear, then
peel off the backs. . . . Our mom gave us notebooks
to stick them in.” A brother and sister try to
document their trip to the family farm, but when
they look at their photographs—of the back of
Dad’s head, a green hill, sitting in a chair in the
rain—they realize the photos didn’t really capture
their whole vacation. What about how it felt to roll
down the hill or to listen to all those family stories?
Full-color illustrations. A 2008 Charlotte Zolotow
Honor Book.
Isbn: 9780060850982 • Dewey: e • 9" x 11" • 40 pp
aR level: 3.5 • aR Points: 0.5 • sRC level: 3.5 • sRC Points: 2 • lexile: aD650l
JLG: $9.00 • Greenwillow: $17.89 • JlG Month: JUn 2007
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