BOOK MARKED
All Wrapped Up
Hint, hint! These books
make great presents
COMPILED BY THE BALTIMORE COUNTY PUBLIC
LIBRARY’S COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT STAFF
This year brought us some great
reads that would also make for
wonderful gifts. Check out this list.

BOARD/TODDLER The second in the Unlimited Squirrels
series fi nds a masked Mystery Reader help-
‘I Am a Baby’
ing his fellow squirrels sound out words and
by Katherine Madeline Allen
gain confi dence in their decoding skills. In
Babies will be engaged in this rollicking
addition to the rollicking adventure, read-
read-aloud, as they view pictures of diverse
ers will devour the extras, including jokes,
infants and everyday objects.

quizzes and squirrely facts.

‘Flip Flap Find! Counting 1, 2, 3’
by Violet Peto
Bright illustrations and simple text teach
toddlers to count from one to 10 while they
guess what will hatch from the egg.

PICTURE BOOKS
‘Saturday’ by Oge Mora
Ava loves spending Saturday with her
mother; it is their special day. However,
this Saturday does not go as planned. In
the end, it is Ava who reminds her mother
that spending the day together is the most
important thing.

‘Another’ by Christian Robinson
‘Star Wars: The Rise
of Skywalker’
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” opens in
theaters in December, and young fans will
cherish this guidebook. Filled with facts
about characters, new planets and scary
monsters and villains, kids will get lost in
this eye-catching book packed with pictures
from the movie. Get ready to learn every-
thing you ever needed to know about Rey,
Poe and Finn and their thrilling adventures
in a galaxy far, far away!
MIDDLE READERS
‘The Complete Baking
Book for Young Chefs’
from America’s Test Kitchen
America’s Test Kitchen brings its rigor-
ous testing and methodical approach to
kids baking. Recipes were thoroughly
tested by more than 5,000 kids to get
them just right for cooks of all skill lev-
els. Recipes are included for breakfast,
breads, pizzas, cookies, cupcakes and more
YOUNG READERS
and include easy-to-follow, step-by-step
‘Who Is the Mystery Reader?’
photos and instructions as well as informa-
by Mo Willems
tion on technique and the science behind
Gift givers can’t go wrong with Mo Willems, baking. Perfect for young foodies and
and his newest is another slam-dunk winner. aspiring chefs.

In her bedroom at night, a young girl fol-
lows her cat into another dimension. This
topsy-turvy world has other children play-
ing with their “twin.” Is this just a dream or
another world?
38 Washington FAMILY NOVEMBER 2019



Happy
BOOK Birthday,
MARKED Madeleine L’Engle!
Each month, we
celebrate a birthday of
literary signifi cance.

‘Tech Lab: Brilliant Builds
for Smart Makers’
by Jack Challoner
Engage budding scientists and engineers,
as they experiment, invent and test tech-
nology, electronics and mechanics at home.

Simple steps with clear photographs take
readers through building each project with
low-cost and readily available materials.

Fact-fi lled panels explain the science behind
each project and also provide a real-world
example of its usage.

YOUNG ADULT
‘Obviously: Stories
from My Timeline’
by Akilah Hughes
The comedian and YouTube sensation
arrives with her debut book, a memoir of
sorts, fi lled with hilarious, punchy anec-
dotes. Hughes describes her childhood and
teenage years in small-town Kentucky, com-
plete with stories of family, friends and how
she coped with food issues and anxiety. Her
arrival in New York City and the transition
to big-city life brought additional pressures,
particularly as a woman of color in the
entertainment industry. Perfect for teens
looking for inspiration from someone who
beat the odds.

‘Mooncakes’ by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu
This beautifully illustrated graphic novel
features two Chinese-American protago-
nists: Nova, a small-town witch, and Tam,
a werewolf. Nova’s hearing impairment
doesn’t stop her adventurous spirit, and
when she goes on a quest to fi nd Tam in the
forest, they encounter a dangerous horse
that has been demon-possessed. Nova and
her hilarious grandmothers rescue Tam and
welcome him into the New England book-
store they own and operate, where romantic
sparks quickly fl y. Sweet and quickly bound-
ing between fantasy and reality, this is a sure
bet for fans of both shojo manga and “The
Prince and the Dressmaker.” ■
“Just because we
don’t understand
doesn’t mean that the
explanation doesn’t
exist.” This is the
wisdom that Charles
Murry tells Meg in
the classic novel,
“A Wrinkle in Time,” the adventurous,
kid-enchanting story written by
Madeleine L’Engle. The story centers
on Meg Murry as she travels through
time and space to find her missing
scientist father.

The book was first published in 1962
and has received the Newbery Medal,
the Sequoyah Book Award and the
Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. It is the
first book in the Time Quintet series.

For generations, preteens and young
adults have delighted in the story, and
the book is so popular it became a
successful movie — twice. The first
film came out in 2003 and the second,
most current one in 2018.

L’Engle based the Murray family on
her own science and magic-intrigued
relatives. She grew up in the Upper
East Side of Manhattan and earned
her degree in English from Smith
College, nurturing her own love for
writing stories. “I’ve been a writer ever
since I could hold a pencil,” she told
Humanities magazine in an interview.

L’Engle continued her
passion for writing until
her death in September
2007. She wrote more
than 60 books and her
final work was “The
Joys of Love,” published
in 2008.

WashingtonFAMILY.com 39