This year BEA was going to be different for us. We would be stepping away from our fantasy roots over at Bookspotcentral and focusing on books for the kids. In that search we would be looking at chapter books, board books, all kinds of books from kids of the reading age. What you can find below are the books that stood out for us, and our kids after we returned home from a day of walking and reading around the Javits Center in NYC. What I did find interesting this year is that for that 6 to 14 age range, sports books were a very hot topic. We saw multiple companies with kids fiction books with a single sport background from football and soccer to tennis and cricket with Lorimer (distributed by Orca) having just a ton of sports in their line. Fred Bowen Sports Story Series by Peachtree Publishers also looked promising. Now on to our picks in no particular order.
The Janitors Series by Tyler Whitesides and published by Shadow Mountain looks AWESOME. While book one is already out, the second book is due in September 2012 and the buzz around the series was staggering. So many people were coming up to the Shadow Mountain booth to comment on the series. Janitors rocketed to the top of our want to read list, and we are so looking forward to getting started. I mean janitors that have to keep the schools safe from magic beings? That is a win and seems like a great read for the kids.
Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers written by Dav Pilkey and published by Scholastic Inc. was a book my kids wanted me to get a copy of if possible as they love the series. We secured one of the last copies at Book Expo and my kids were quite happy. In this book, we get to go back in time to the days of kindergarten, and Captain Underpants does not even exist yet!
Now while they were in no particular order, that is not to say that I didn’t have my favorite publishers of the show. Capstone for young readers had so much awesome packed into the booth, I did not even know where to start. I was glad to be able to talk to their publicity people to make sure we can start talking about them on the site. We stopped to hear all about the Tony Hawk’s 900 Revolution Series and stayed to learn more about Zeke Meeks and Hocus Pocus Hotel among many other books. Tony Hawk is a fan favorite for our younger boy and a series about the skater is an easy sell for the kids. Zeke Meeks looks to be a fun read like some of those other chapter books, but more fun and age appropriate. Troll Hunters is my sort of novel and something great to get the kids interested in fantasy books. Hocus Pocus Hotel looked like so much fun I have already started to read it and the kids will have to wait until I finish, I mean who can put down a book about a cool hotel and magicians. Capstone is going to be a house favorite publisher if my boys have anything to say about it.
Little Patriot Press had Liberty Lee’s Tail of Independence written by Peter and Cheryl Barnes where a mouse teaches the kids all about the history of our country in an illustrated book. My older son LOVES to learn about the United States and he loved this book. The other fun thing they do is hide a picture of an eagle in each illustration for the kids to find. At the end of the book they also have some additional resources and information.
Summer Fit Learning Books, from Monekyfeather Books, were also something every parent should be looking at for the summer to keep their kid engaged and learning, while having fun and staying in shape. Expect a full review as some copies arrive at our house.
So there you have it, some of the books that we thought our kids would like from Book Expo America 2012
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