New Crayons: Books In The Mail

Feel free to give me a virtual smack upside the head. I'm late. Someone drop me an email, better yet join me by blogging about your new crayons (books in the mail) and we can keep this party on schedule. We need a cool icon, too. Any volunteers to make us a button? Below are new colors in my box. Leave us a link if you got books you want to brag about.

First, thanks to Don Tate, illustrator and team member at The Brown Bookshelf. I won a book illustrated Don's, Ron's Big Mission by Corinne Nadine. Do read the review at Muddy Puddle Musings. Don was gracious enough to also send The Legend of the Valentine by Katherine Grace Bond which he illustrated. The former is an early look at the life of Ron McNair. If you're not familiar with BBS, I strongly encouraged you to check those folks out. They do a fantastic job connecting all readers with books by African Americans.

If you haven't visited Doret at the HappyNappy Bookseller, you are denying yourself a great resource for children and YA reviews. I picked up two of Doret's previously reviewed titles: The Making of Dr. Truelove by Derrick Barnes, a 2006 ALA quick pick for reluctant readers which describes the majority of community of readers, and Rattlebone by Maxine Claire. Doret writes, Rattlebone is 1950’s Kansas City. It’s 11 interrelated short stories about the Wilson family and their neighbors.

From Paperback Swap, I got A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith, The Other Side, a collection of poems by Angela Johnson and iCarly:I Wanna Stay! a huge request title for our library. I got a brand new, hardcover edition of The Prisoner's Wife by Asha Bandele. This book has been on my wish list and tbr forever. This memoir according to one reviewer, is [a] new, fresh perspective has been presented by Asha Bandele. It is the poetic voice of a spouse, a companion of the prison sentence and of the offender.

What did you get in the mail?