After a hard day of swimming, eating s’mores and maybe fishing off the dock with Grandpa, it’s time for the pre-schoolers to hear a story before being tucked in for the night. From a hamster to Beyonce, here are books that entertain and teach.
“Jeannie Houdini: A Hamster’s Tale” by Mary-Ann Stouck, illustrated by Rebecca Evans (Gryphon Press, $17.95). Take one look at the cover of “Jeannie Houdini: A Hamster’s Tale,” and you’ll fall in love with this little fur ball eating a strawberry for breakfast. This sweet story for children 3 and older is another in publisher Emilie Buchwald’s Gryphon Press books celebrating the human-and-animal bond and modeling compassion and empathy for all living beings. The stories teach youngsters about caring for their pets, and this one is especially important because many children have hamsters as friends.
Jeannie Houdini is a hamster chosen as a pet by twin girls, but they soon lose interest. Their little sister, Sophia, is never asked to care for Jeannie, and she feels lonely and left out. When the hamster keeps escaping through a hole in her cage, she ends up in Sophia’s dollhouse, running up and down the stairs. Sophia takes over caring for Jeannie, and neither is lonely and bored anymore. The story stresses that the girls always wash their hands after caring for and petting the hamster because hygiene is so important with small animals. Most of all, it shows that small creatures can become lonely and bored when they are caged and get no attention.
The back of the book includes a page on keeping a pet hamster happy, with tips on caring for the animal, making friends with it, and the importance of cleaning the cage and providing fresh water every day.
Gryphon Press publisher Buchwald is founder and publisher emeritus of Minneapolis-based Milkweed Editions. In fall, Gryphon will publish “McDuff Moves In,” a new edition of the much-loved 1997 book written by Rosemary Wells and illustrated by Susan Effers.
“Goodbye, Friend! Hello, Friend!” by Cori Doerrfeld (Dial Books for Young Readers, $17.99. On sale July 2). In our mobile country, where families move often, youngsters must sometimes say goodbye to best friends. Cori Doerrfeld, Minnesota Book Award winner for “The Rabbit Listened,” shows how to get over parting sadness through elegant text and lively illustrations showing the fun two friends have:
“Goodbye to sitting alone … is hello to sitting together. Goodbye to snowmen … is hello to puddles! Goodbye to only watching … is hello to joining in.”
But the friends’ good times end. A two-page spread shows the girls hugging and crying while furniture is stacked on the lawn:
“But sometimes, when you least expect it, a goodbye comes along that really feels like the end … But no matter what … goodbye to today … is hello to tomorrow … And tomorrow brings a new friend.”
Doerrfeld, who lives in Minneapolis, wrote this book after two of her closest friends moved away.
“The Itty-Bitty Witch” by Trisha Speed Shaskan, illustrated by Xindi Yan (Two Lions, $17.99). Little kids can be mean, especially to a classmate who isn’t exactly like them, and this book shows how painful this is to the child being taunted.
That’s Betty Ann’s problem. She’s the smallest witch in the witch school’s first grade, and when the other kids call her “itty bitty,” she starts to feel itty-bitty inside.
When Betty learns there will be a Halloween race on broomsticks, she practices all kinds of ways to keep up with her classmates, but she keeps failing. Once, she lands on a tombstone and aggravated the resident ghost.
“Betty felt so itty-bitty, she thought she might shrink small enough to disappear.”
Then, Betty figures out she can embrace her lack of stature and it works! She is able to ride through a cave her classmates are too big to navigate. She won the race and “she felt BIG inside.”
Shaskan, who lives in Minneapolis, is the author of more than 40 children’s books, some illustrated by her husband, Stephen.
“Beyonce: Shine Your Light” by Sarah Warren, illustrated by Geneva Bowers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99). Sarah Warren is a Minnesota author and early-childhood education specialist dedicated to bringing multicultural heroes to life in elementary schools where children do not often see themselves reflected in books. And there isn’t a bigger hero than Beyonce.
“Shine Your Light” is an inspiring biography of the superstar, beginning with singing with her girlfriends and learning the business from her parents, who made decisions and paid the bills as she was growing up. But once she was an adult, she made her own decisions: “Beyonce would be in charge of her dream. … She made mistakes; she learned. She grew. She paid the bills. She decided what to sing and how to sing it. … When Beyonce got onstage now, she was herself.”
Geneva Bowers’ illustrations are bold, colorful and filled with movement, reflecting Beyonce’s beauty and the inner light that makes her one of a kind.
