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Your books like to Trick or Treat as much as kids!
New Deadline for the Little Peeps Awards and Gertrude Warner Awards is October 31st!
We’ve heard that the beginning of the school year has been busier than expected! With that in mind, both Little Peeps and the Gertrude Warner Awards have had their submission dates extended until the end of October! Just remember to submit before you take anyone out to Trick or Treat!
Thank you to all who have submitted to the Little Peeps and Gertrude Warner Awards so far, and thank you to those who let us know they needed more time!
To Celebrate Spooky Season, here are some of our favorite books with spooky stories or themes of bravery!
Victoria and the Big, Brave Breath
By Andrea Vaughan and Illustrated by Ryan Feltman
Little Peeps Grand Prize Winner
Andrea Vaughan’s Victoria and the Big Brave Breath is a beautifully illustrated children’s book, written to ease conversations about anxiety and worry with a child.
This story teaches children how to calm their nerves by focusing on their breath, using a clever onomatopoeia to help. Vaughn’s book is a timely must-read!
Victoria and the Big, Brave Breath starts with a little girl named Victoria recognizing that she is often worried. She lists examples (trying new foods, going to the doctor, playing in the park) of her anxieties. Physically-speaking, Victoria’s hands sweat, her knees shake and her tummy hurts when her feelings appear. Her teddy bear best friend Baxter has a suggestion for her to ease these unfamiliar (and uncomfortable) feelings.
The friendship that the bear and the girl share is sweet and endearing, as if the bear is an allegory for a friend or family member.
A Tall Tale About Dachshunds in Costumes
By Kizzie Jones and Illustrated by Scott Ward
A unique fairytale by author Kizzie Jones, A Tall Tale About Dachshunds in Costumes: How MORE Dogs Came to Be adds the third book her series that began with How Dachshunds Came to Be: A Tall Tale about a Short Long Dog, followed by the award-winning title, A Tall Tale about a Dachshund and a Pelican: How a Friendship Came to Be.
This tall tale begins on the beach one autumn day where a big storm is fast approaching a girl and her dogs, stopping their play and forcing them to retreat indoors. The next day the girl and the dogs decide to go clean up the debris left by the storm, and it is not long before they see what sort of costumes they can create with the various kinds of debris scattered along the beach.
The dressed-up dogs ask the girl if she would be upset if they stayed dressed up. The girl wonders if the dogs would change on the inside as well. they reply,
“We’d be changed and transformed—we’d be diff’rent outside. Yet, inside, our hearts are still caring and kind.”
That night the girl sends her wish to the ocean for the dogs to become the dogs they costumed themselves to be and goes to sleep hoping her wish will be granted.
Henry Castlewaite and the Portrait of Doom
By Richard Groseclose
When 11-year-old orphan Henry Castlewaite is delivered to his new foster family in tiny, rural Terwilliger Tennessee, the only sure thing is he is back in the town where he grew up, but that’s about it. After a terrible accident, Henry is suffering from amnesia and doesn’t remember that he’s a wizard, no matter how many times his chaperone from the Castle Family Trust tells him that this is so.
But Henry is a wizard who doesn’t remember anything about his powers or his past, only that he will see his best friend Gwendolyn on the school bus in the morning. It is also clear that while Henry may not remember much about Terwilliger, the residents of the little town remember a lot about him. Especially his new family, where the other boys tease him unmercifully and the local gossip girls haven’t decided whether they have crushes on him or want to vilify him at every turn.
He even has mortal enemies he does not recall. But he also has another friend, Ben, who seems to come from an even stranger background than Henry. And who appears to have amnesia as well.
Vampire Boy
By Aric Cushing
Gertrude Warner 1st Place Winner
Full of fun and quirky characters, author Aric Cushing invites readers to join him in a world where Halloween never ends. The tale begins with the prophesied birth of the white-haired Alex Vambarey, who draws the attention of a darkling vampire named The Deleter.
After being saved by all the citizens of Hillock Green, the plot then shoots forward to the eve of Alex’s departure to school. He is an adventurous boy who takes this new chapter in his life in stride, and after saying goodbye to his parents, Alex begins the rather long journey to school. There he meets a whole cast of absurd characters and makes fast friends who help him solve the school riddle.
Creative influences such as any of the Tim Burton films show up strongly in the book’s visual imagery, most notably when Alex travels through a tree and descends a terrifying staircase. Even though the inspiration of Tim Burton is strong, Cushing still creates a unique land of Halloween.
The Supernatural Pet Sitter
By Diane Moat
Gertrude Warner 1st Place Winner
A talented and creative author, Diane Moat, presents a magical world hidden within a New England town where Witches, Warlocks, and Gnomes live together peacefully. That is until one day, something strange happens to the Familiars in the neighborhood. Someone or something had taken the magic from Frank the parrot a month previously, and now the same thing has happened to the tortoise King Arthur.
This is where Pepper Neely, pet sitter of the supernatural, comes in. Gnomes are magical people who can connect with supernatural creatures. Pepper has a unique aptness with her connection to animals, and she quickly became the neighborhood pet-sitter. With the help of her best friend and witch-in-training Luna, the two go against the well-meaning wishes of their parents to get to the bottom of what is happening to the Familiars. As usual, that is easier said than done when the Witches and Gnomes start to clash over the danger at hand. Pepper also discovers an ability that will change the meaning of what it is to be a Gnome.
Even with this extension, remember…
