I think we've finally broken the back of winter-the first green buds breaking through in my garden! This book is perfect for spring. It's about a boy who makes friends with plants, even though he's misunderstood. This book has super fun illustrations. And one detail I love - great end pages!

The details in the writing are wonderful, and the illustrations are amazing. I appreciated the back matter about the writer and illustrator who both immigrated as children from Vietnam.

This is a stunningly beautiful book. A little boy and his dad go fishing early in the morning to catch food for the family. While they're fishing, the dad tells the boy about when he was young in Vietnam.

Now this is a really cool book. Not quite a picture book, not quite a novel, more like a graphic novel all about Pi. Who would have thought that a math book could be this much fun! You get a lot of information but really silly jokes, too. And the illustrations - fabulous! I love the color palette.

No, I’ll have to check that out. Thanks!

While you're waiting for Lark and the Missing Diary to come out, here are some other fun books I've read recently that feature birds.

This is really sweet story, told in the way of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. In the story, a little boy makes a call and a gorilla picks up. They share their secrets and lives. The pictures are fabulous. I love the little details in each one. You can spend a while just looking at them.

This is an adorable book. A little boy wants a dog, but he lives in a pet-free apartment building. He puts on his thinking cap and figures out a way around it! I don't want to give away the surprise ending, but you'll love it.

@rebeccalangstongeorge @kidsbookswithheart

This is an old one, but a sweet one. My favorite part is that bears give hugs if sounding out words is hard. Because it is! I remember when my kids struggled to sound out words. But books can take you to new places, maybe with a bear. 😊

The author does a great job of weaving in how Mizzy feels about people making her feel less than, and how she gets around it. And of course, how she solves the mystery. I listened to the book on tape. The voice actor is Poppy Mae Barrett who has Down Syndrome herself. Check it out.

This is a fun mystery -- how did Great Aunt Jane really die, and could the killer be in the family! You don't often get a murder mystery for middle grade. Our detective is 12-year-old Mizzy, who also has Down Syndrome.

My February newsletter is up. You can find a link in my bio.

susandrew.substack.com/p/family-sto...

What stories do you tell time after time?

This is really a love poem to reading. My favorite lines: "Don’t rush through: your eyes need time to taste. Your soul needs room to bloom." The illustrations are fabulous, too--collage! I would buy the book just for the illustrations even if I wasn't so enamored by the poetry.

An interesting side theme in this story is how not making decisions is a decision itself.

What would you do if you found a valuable painting at a flea market? That's the story of Edwin, who found a Picasso under a poster he bought. And became an overnight sensation. The twists and turns in this story are fun, and you learn a lot about the famous artist, too.

Read with your friends. Play a game of trying to keep a straight face while you read it. Count how many ways the people in your group laugh. So many ways to have fun with this one!

I need this one today because I'm feeling tired and draggy. This cold, cold winter is getting to me. This book is the perfect antidote to the blahs! I love the bold, colorful illustrations.

I love Millie Fleur and I hope we see more books about her! In this one, she plants a garden full of wonderfully strange plants that the people in town don't appreciate. I love the puns - Colonel Stick-in-the-Mud is a favorite. The illustrations and the color scheme of the book are so great, too.

It's a cold one again today! Perfect for reading, art projects, and hot chocolate by the fire. Check out the activity pages that go with my picture book. susandrewwrites.com/resources/
@harborlanebooks @everimaginebooks @butterbee_illustrates

#coloringpages #colddayfun #picturebooks

This month I talk about success - how it looks to me, and what I'm doing to chase it. You can link to my Substack in my bio.

#querying #writerslife #justkeepgoing #success
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This book is special. It’s about the Pack Horse Librarians & told by Cal who can’t read and doesn’t understand why anyone would waste their time on books. But his sister teaches him how and of course he loves it. It's a lyrical book, almost like a long poem. I loved it. Wonderful pictures too.

This book is hard to classify. An 8th grader finds out she has a time portal type thing -- a wormhole, in her school locker. She's able to connect with other girls (now grown women) who have had the same locker. They work together to piece together the secrets of the locker.

And for those of you from Los Angeles, there's incredible descriptions of life in Topanga in the 1970s.

Attention Adrenaline Junkies - this book doesn't quit from the first page. An 11 yo boy who lives through a small plane crash during a blizzard. Plus play by play of happier times when he's winning ski races and surfing. I was stressed out during this whole book, loving every minute of it.

These are all doable goals. I have to focus. I admit to getting stuck on some minor detail and letting it derail me. I start a new book and then I'm lost for hours. I find a shiny new project to work on that pulls me away. Have you set any goals for January? Let's check in at the end of the month.

This is a fun, interactive book. Two boys and all kinds of things get literally lost in a book until a librarian comes to the rescue. I love that it's a librarian!

I'm realizing one of the reasons I'm finding fun books late is that I'm limited to audio books on my library app. I love to listen to books on my commute. I'm going to have to read actual books to get the new ones. :) Which is because I love to read!

Here's another series that I'm late to the party on. I love John Grisham's adult legal books, and this middle grade book is just as good. And it's read by John Boy Walton! The Walton's was my favorite show when I was a little kid. I even had a Walton's lunchbox.

I hate when that happens!

Thanks. It'll be coming to my critique group soon.