Sigh of Relief for Picture Books

It’s the last day of my first week as the new Director of Library Outreach for Junior Library Guild. I’ve spent the week moving into my office space, meeting with key staff to learn more about the company and processed what I’ve heard so that I can apply it to my new job. It would appear it will take more time to learn what I need to know and to determine what my job is really all about.

Thankfully, today the new books came from the warehouse to the marketing area for us to see. I know what to do with new books. READ!! I took the picture book on top (and a few more if you want to know the truth) and settled into my office.

Spike the Mixed-up Monster by Susan Hood and Melissa Sweet is a charming bilingual story about a monster who is really not so scary. In fact, his growl is more like a smile. When a real scary Gila monster arrives at the pond, Spike saves the day. How? You’ll have to read that story for yourself. (January 2013, JLG release date)

Besides that fact that the story is charming and the illustrations are brilliant, there are also three pages of facts about the animals in the back matter. Complete with photographs, we learn about the main characters in the story. For example, Spike is an axolotl, a Mexican salamander. These amazing animals can only be found naturally in two places in the world- Lake Chalco and Lake Xochimilco. Gila monsters hunt with their tongues. Mexican voles have teeth that never stop growing so they have to gnaw to keep their teeth from getting too long. They also eat their body weight in food every 24 hours.

See how much you can learn from a picture book? Where’s my next one? Oh yes, A Rock is Lively… Stay tuned. I’ll be right back.