my favorite books off the top of my head as of Friday morning and subject to change at any point

[boomqueen]

We're making a staff favorites display at work, and they were asking for lists of a few of our favorite books and a brief description of why we love one of them...

But they should know better than to ask librarians for book recs! Once you start, you can't stop.

So...here goes.

In Picture Books:
Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Frankenstein Takes the Cake by Adam Rex
The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
Hooway for Wodney Wat by Helen Lester
I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont
Bartholemew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss
Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
Take Me Out of the Bathtub by Alan Katz

Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich:

One of my favorite picture books all time: Rex's art is great and his sense of humor is hilarious. The picture book is a series of funny poems and stories about famous supernatural characters (like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc.). My absolute favorite parts are the various children's songs the Phantom gets stuck in his head--makes me crack up every time!

In juvenile chapter books:
Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Matilda by Roald Dahl
The Lightning Thief by Percy Jackson
The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L Konigsburg
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Sideways Stories from Wayside School:

My favorite book from childhood! In this mixed-up elementary school, where they accidentally built the school sideways and everything always goes crazy, you never know what you're going to find next. If you love silly books like Captain Underpants or Diary of a Wimpy Kid, look out because this book is even funnier.

In YA fiction:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
My Life as a Rhombus by Varian Johnson
Freak Show by James St. James
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Runaways by Brian K Vaughan
Avalon High by Meg Cabot

Hunger Games:

The book is a well-developed dystopian speculative fiction set in a future where the US has become Panem, a reorganization of the continent into separate and unequal districts, and a cruel annual ritual known as the Hunger Games is held to remind all the lesser colonies of the price of rebellion/dissent.
Katniss, the female protagonist, is completely engrossing and her journey is well-crafted from her familiar impoverished district to the Capitol and then to the Hunger Games arena where she must fight against 23 other teens to survive.
I loved this book and I'm really intrigued to see where this is going as the rest of the trilogy comes out.

In adult fiction:
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Y: the Last Man by Brian K Vaughan
Possession by A.S. Byatt
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Handmaid's Tale:

The Handmaid's Tale portrays a terrifying but entirely possible and very realistic dystopia where religious fundamentalists rule the world and women are confined to prescribed roles without the right to property or education.
One thing that I particularly like about this book is the strength of the narrator's voice: the more the reader learns about the oppressive details of her life, the more hopeful and strong she seems to become. Atwood uses her trademark gorgeous descriptive prose to emphasize the power of small moments of defiance and happiness. She does a wonderful job of showing how quickly the world around us and the way we define ourselves can be overturned, and how our need to survive can make us struggle silently in the face of tyrannical power.

I'd love it if anyone else wanted to do this too. Consider yourself tagged!

Comments

[taragel.livejournal.com]

Ooh Hunger Games...I cannot wait for Catching Fire!! I'm hopeful I can snag a copy at BEA next month!!

I'm too lazy to post my own list, but you should check out Peter Abrahams' Ingrid Hill series. She's a very clever and engaging middle-grade heroine. Good mystery tales.

Also, for adult fiction, I've really been digging Lisa Lutz's Spellman Files series. They feature a really slackery/socially dysfunctional but good-at-her-job PI and her crazy charming PI family including her amazing teenage sister Rae. So good.

[boom-queen.livejournal.com]

I won't be going to any more conferences this year so the likelihood of snagging my own ARC of Catching Fire is low, but hopefully someone else in one of the local libraries will snag one and feel like sharing :)

I'm totally going to check out the Ingrid Hill and Spellman Files series now. Thanks for the recs T!

[sundancekid.livejournal.com]

Your adult fiction list either contains books I love love love or books I clearly need to put on my to-read list.

My picture book list would have to include Bats at the Library, Once I Ate a Pie, Chester (it breaks the fourth wall! who doesn't love a picture book breaking the fourth wall?), Grace for President, and Babar.

[pyrex-11.livejournal.com]

Chester is one of my faves, too. Have you read the new one? It's not as funny, but still good.

[sundancekid.livejournal.com]

I have not, but earlier tonight, I put it and Chester on my list of books to buy for my new library! (Been combing the catalog to get going on spending their money.)

[boom-queen.livejournal.com]

I <3 you and your picture books!!!

[ez-as-pi.livejournal.com]

I love these two:

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L Konigsburg
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

and Handmaid's Tale is quite a book.

[boom-queen.livejournal.com]

Phantom Tollbooth is just such an awesome combination of absurdist humor and word-nerdery. I really love it when people enjoy playing around with language.

[ez-as-pi.livejournal.com]

I used Phantom in the classroom, lots of good mathy type stuff :D

[alasse.livejournal.com]

Awesome choices!!! I LOOOOVE The Handmaid's Tale, I rec it to everyone! And this just made me add a lot more stuff to my book list, hee hee.

[boom-queen.livejournal.com]

I LOOOOVE The Handmaid's Tale, I rec it to everyone!

Me too! The year that I was writing my college thesis (comparing Handmaid's Tale and Jane Eyre) I bought a copy of that book for EVERYONE I knew for Christmas.

Hope you enjoy the other books too :)

[einaphets.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, great list. I've added this to my memories for further review, especially the children's books. I'm always looking for something good to read to my girls. Thanks!

[boom-queen.livejournal.com]

Yay! I hope you guys have fun reading them.

What are some of your girls faves so far?

[chrryblssmninja.livejournal.com]

Sideways Stories!

[boom-queen.livejournal.com]

I love that book so much!

[chrryblssmninja.livejournal.com]

aha great icon

[coppering.livejournal.com]

I love the GRUFFALO! My students (in korea) did it as a play, and it was ADORABLE.

This makes me want to read SO BAD. I love all the juvenile chapter books you chose, I have a very soft spot in my heart for all things juvenile:)