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kid stuff @
54 Fairfield St. Watchung Plaza Montclair NJ 07042 973-744-7177 Mon-Wed 10-6 Thu-Fri 10-8 Sat 10-5 Sun 11-4 Of course, we are OPEN 24/7 to browse and shop at www.watchungbooksellers.com
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kids picks, news & reviews
| february 2012
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Dear Fellow Booklovers,
Saturday Storytime is BACK! Start your Saturday off at our fun filled, crafty, storytime. 10:30 on Saturdays. Tomorrow's Storytime is all about being healthy.
Featuring
and
I won't give away the fun craft you will be making.
You'll just have to come.
We know you LOVE us, but now you can even "LIKE" us. Check out our updated Facebook page.
Shop online, pick up at the store. It's the best of both worlds.
Visit our website.
We also have a new member to the watchung booksellers crew. Her name is Liane Freed and it's not surprising that she loves books. Check out her staff picks page to learn more about Liane and what she loves to read.
Thanks for your continued support,
Nicole, Carolyn, Marisela, Margot, Marina, and Liane
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Picture Perfect 
Half-Pint Pete the Pirate
by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
Half-Pint Pete the Pirate sailed half the seven seas, but with only half of a treasure map, he's never found what he's looking for. Until the day he meets Belle - a pirate with half a map of her own. At first, Pete is eager to steal Belle's share, but half a team isn't enough to find the treasure, and Pete soon realizes that working together is much more fun! (ages 4-7)
by Maira Kalman
Abraham Lincoln is one of the first giants of history children are introduced to, and now Maira Kalman brings him to life with her trademark style and enthusiasm. Lincoln's legacy is everywhere - there he is on your penny and five-dollar bill. And we are still the United States because Lincoln helped hold them together.
But who was he, really? The little girl in this book wants to find out. Among the many other things, she discovers our sixteenth president was a man who believed in freedom for all, had a dog named Fido, loved Mozart, apples, and his wife's vanilla cake, and kept his notes in his hat. From his boyhood in a log cabin to his famous presidency and untimely death, Kalman shares Lincoln's remarkable life with young readers in a fresh and exciting way. (ages 5 & up)
The Monster Returns
by Peter McCarty
Jeremy thought he'd seen the last of his monster when he sent him away with a one-way bus ticket. But suddenly there's a knock on the door . . . and the monster has returned!Jeremy tries to decide what to do. Is it possible that the monster is in need of a friend?
Peter McCarty brings his popular monster back in style, with a sequel that will have kids drawing their own little monsters in no time. (ages 3-6)
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Middle Readers Rule!
 
by Marianne Malone
Ruthie and Jack thought that their adventures in the Thorne Rooms were over . . . until miniatures from the rooms start to disappear. Is it the work of the art thief who's on the loose in Chicago? Or has someone else discovered the secret of the Thorne Rooms' magic? Ruthie and Jack's quest to stop the thief takes them from modern day Chicago to 1937 Paris to antebellum South Carolina. But as more items disappear, including the key that allows them to shrink and access the past worlds, what was once just an adventure becomes a life and death race against the clock. Can Ruthie and Jack catch the thief and help the friends they meet on the way before the magic-and the rooms-are destroyed forever? Fans of magic, mystery, and adventure will love this rollicking sequel to Marianne Malone's The Sixty-Eight Rooms. (ages 9-12)
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.
Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he's seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.
Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home-and his own art-through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it's up to Ivan to make it a change for the better. (ages 9-12)
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YA Picks
   
Born Wicked
by Jessica Spotswood
Blessed with a gift...cursed with a secret.
Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they're witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship - or an early grave.
Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word . . . especially after she finds her mother's diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family's destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.
If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren't safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood - not even from each other. (ages 13 & up)
In Darkness
by Nick Lake
"Shorty" is a Haitian boy trapped in the ruins of a hospital when the earth explodes around him. Surrounded by lifeless bodies and growing desperately weak from lack of food and water, death seems imminent. Yet as Shorty waits in darkness for a rescue that may never come, he becomes aware of another presence, one reaching out to him across two hundred years of history. It is the presence of slave and revolutionary leader Toussaint L'Ouverture, whose life was marred by violence, and whose own end came in darkness. What unites a child of the slums with the man who would shake a troubled country out of slavery? Is it the darkness they share . . . or is it hope?
Raw, harrowing, and peopled with vibrant characters, In Darkness is an extraordinary book about the cruelties of man and nature, and the valiant, ongoing struggle for a country's very survival.
(ages 14 & up)
Beneath a Meth Moon
by Jacqueline Woodson
Laurel Daneau has moved on to a new life, in a new town, but inside she's still reeling from the loss of her beloved mother and grandmother after Hurricane Katrina washed away their home. Laurel's new life is going well, with a new best friend, a place on the cheerleading squad and T-Boom, co-captain of the basketball team, for a boyfriend. Yet Laurel is haunted by voices and memories from her past.
When T-Boom introduces Laurel to meth, she immediately falls under its spell, loving the way it erases, even if only briefly, her past. But as she becomes alienated from her friends and family, she becomes a shell of her former self, and longs to be whole again. With help from an artist named Moses and her friend Kaylee, she's able to begin to rewrite her story and start to move on from her addiction. (ages 13 & up)
by Seth Rudetsky
Justin has two goals for sophomore year: to date Chuck, the hottest boy in school, and to become the king of Cool U, the table in the cafeteria where the "in" crowd sits. Unfortunately, he has the wrong look (short, plump, Brillo-pad curls), he has the wrong interests (Broadway, chorus violin), and he has the wrong friends (Spencer, into Eastern religions, and Mary Ann, who doesn't shave her armpits). And Chuck? Well, he's not gay; he's dating Becky, a girl in chorus with whom Justin is friendly. But Justin is determined. In detention one day (because he saw Chuck get it first), Justin comes up with a perfect plan: to allow Becky to continue dating Chuck, whom Becky's dad hates. They will pretend that Becky is dating Justin, whom Becky's dad loves. And when Becky and Justin go out on a fake date, Chuck will meet up with them for a real date with Becky. Chuck's bound to find Justin irresistable, right? What could go wrong? (ages 13 & up)
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kid stuff
book review by Adam Restrick
by Peter Abrahams
If you ask me, this book is about the injustice of landlords raising the rent on houses and apartments. The characters are: Robbie, who can shoot a red-gold beam that only she can see, Ashanti, who can fly, Silas, who is a super genius, Tut-Tut, who has a stutter, and Sheldon Gunn, the landlord. It's up to Robbie, Ashanti, Silas, and, Tut-Tut to stop him before he kicks everybody out of their homes. The kids' powers only work if there is a type of injustice. The activation of the kids' powers results in lots of suspense which makes the book hard to put down. An example is when Ashanti and Robbie escape muggers using Ashanti's flying powers. In conclusion I think this is a great, suspenseful book.
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Beginning Readers
Oddfellow's Orphanageby Emily Winfield Martin
What do an onion-headed boy, a child-sized hedgehog, and a tattooed girl have in common? They are all orphans at Oddfellow's Orphanage! This unusual early chapter book began life as a series of full-color portraits with character descriptions. Author/illustrator Emily Martin has fleshed out the world of Oddfellow's with an episodic story that follows a new orphan, Delia, as she discovers the delights of her new home. From classes in Cryptozoology and Fairy Tale Studies to trips to the circus, from Annual Hair Cutting Day to a sea monster-sighting field trip, things at Oddfellows are anything but ordinary . . . except when it comes to friendships. And in that, Oddfellows is like any other school where children discover what they mean to each other while learning how big the world really is.
(ages 7-10)
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tween blast!
book review
by Grace Barnett
 There Is No Dog
by Meg Rosoff
Bob is a lazy, smelly, messy, obnoxious teenage boy. He leaves his dirty clothes by the end of his bed and cares only for himself. But he's also God. Yup, God. He created sky and land, all the creatures and the humans. And he doesn't care for a single one of them. Except girls of course. The only reason the planet survives is because of Mr. B. Mr. B is Bob's assistant. He reads through piles and piles of prayers and cleans up after Bob. He also looks out for his whales. Then, Bob meets Lucy. Lucy is the most beautiful, amazing girl Bob has ever seen and it's downhill from there.
The book's plot was funny and had an enticing love story thrown into the mix, making it a good read for hopeless romantics and aspiring comedians! At times, it got a bit hard to follow. The story had several narrators and switched between them at random. The ending was interesting and different from what I expected, but was a bit of a let down considering the thrilling plot. Overall the book was good, but I wouldn't read it again. (ages 12 & up)
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| Save 20% |
kid stuff february 2012
Discount applies to the following titles only: Half-Pint Pete the Pirate, Looking for Lincoln, Monster Returns, Stealing Magic, One & Only Ivan, Born Wicked, In Darkness, Beneath A Meth Moon, My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan, Robbie Forester & the Outlaws of Sherwood Street, Oddfellow's Orphanage, There Is No Dog.
All other titles in-store and online receive our customary 10% off.
| Offer Expires: February 18, 2012
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