Kid Konnection: Isabella Girl on the Go & Class 2K12 Scarlet

Every Saturday, I host a feature called Kid Konnection -- a regular weekend feature about anything related to children's books. This week, I'm going to review a new picture book and share the latest 2K12 book release.

Summary: Isabella is a girl who knows how to make the ordinary extraordinary. A day in the backyard takes Isabella all around the world! From the Great Wall to the Great Pyramids, and from Big Ben to Chichen Itza. From being an artist in Paris to a defender of liberty on the shores of the United States, Isabella tries it all! Join Isabella on her adventure and discover that the far corners of the world are closer than you may think. And being anything you want to be is all about dreaming what's possible. -- Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

ISABELLA GIRL ON THE GO by Jennifer Fosberry and pictures by Mike Litwin is a cute little picture book which shows just how imaginative one little girl can be. In ISABELLA GIRL ON THE GO, Isabella spends the day playing outside in her own backyard. She pretends that every day things like her sandbox are

extraordinary places like the desert and pyramids of Egypt. In just one afternoon, Isabella uses her creativity to visit amazing places all over the world. Isabella ends her playtime back in her own house and realizes that it's the most wonderful place to be.

I thought ISABELLA GIRL ON THE GO was a very fun (and educational) children's book. Kids will appreciate the book, but parents and teachers will too. Isabella explores many famous landmarks including the Pyramids of Giza, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, Chichen Itza, Big Ben, and the Statue of Liberty. There is even a section in the back-of-the-book called “Places That Changed the World” which features descriptions of all the places Isabella visits.

I also want to mention just how cute the illustrations are in this book. They have bright colors and I love how drawings of Isabella is incorporated into her dreams. For example, I thought it was precious that Isabella's face appeared on the Statue of Libery. I think the pictures perfectly complement Isabella's creativity. In addition, I liked the use of bold and italics types as well as some of the whimsical fonts.

ISABELLA GIRL ON THE GO is a followup book to the widely praised MY NAME IS NOT ISABELLA which has been awarded the National Parenting Publications Gold Award, the Gold Moonbeam Children’s Book Award, the Silver ForeWord Book of the Year Award for Picture Books, the Gold Independent Publisher Book Award, and the Amelia Bloomer List. It also shows how fun it is to dream, but in this book, Isabella imagines all the things she can be when she grows up.

Booking Son and I both enjoyed this book and I can't wait to share it with his teacher.

Thanks to the publisher for sending a review copy of this book.



A few weeks ago, I introduced this new feature on Kid Konnection. For those of you who missed it, here's the scoop:

Throughout 2012, I will be featuring many of the authors from the Class of 2K12. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Class of 2K12, it's a group of middle grade and young adult authors who have books being released some time during 2012. You can learn more about the authors and their books here. (And while you are visiting the blog, make sure you sign up for their mailing list. You are going to want to stay informed because there will be many opportunities to win some fantastic prize packs!)

You might notice that I used the word interview in the previous sentence, and that's because I didn't really interview the authors. Rather, I asked each author to do one simple thing:

Describe your book in 200 characters or less.

I asked A.C. Gaughen author of SCARLET to describe her book in just a few words; and here's what she had to say:

Scarlet is a skilled thief, hiding in the shadows of Robin Hood's infamous band, but she has a secret she's spent her life hiding from. A secret only Sir Guy, the man sent to kill Robin Hood, knows.

There is a terrific website devoted to the novel. You will find more about the book including information on Robin Hood, the book trailer, and music written especially for the novel.

*****
Ms. Gaughen been madly in love with writing since she was in kindergarten. Not kidding-some of her earliest memories revolve around books and writing, like reading in front of the class, reading with her mother, and writing a story in first grade that was so funny (it dealt with a gorilla finding someone naked in the shower, and was, sadly, the culmination of her humor writing skills) it got her kicked out of class. Which was also the first and last time for that.

No that's a lie. In third grade she got detention for ripping bark off a tree.

She knows, she's a rebel.

From there, it was a long road. she wrote all through middle school and starting submitting novels (She hopes she still have those very kind, gentle rejection letters somewhere) when she was thirteen. ACK you have no idea how bad those novels looked. All through high school she was writing in a notebook instead of taking class notes (explaining the less than perfect GPA). It was always novels for her-the first time she seriously wrote short stories was at the end of her college career, to get into her graduate program, and it felt awkward and weird.

If you'd like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children's books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, please leave a comment as well as a link below with your name/blog name and the title of the book! Feel free to grab the little button too!