Another delightful recommendation from my good friend Dr. M., who loved it so much that she read it to me over the phone, despite much of the charm of the book being in the illustrations.
Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude written and illustrated Kevin O’Malley. Illustrated by Carol Heyer. Illustrated by Scott Goto. Two children, a girl and a boy, are assigned to give a school report on their favorite fairy tale. Only as they couldn’t agree on a favorite fairy tale, they decide instead to write their own. The girl starts, telling a romantic tale of a sweet and beautiful princess whose beloved unicorn ponies are tragically being kidnapped by a giant. Then the boy interrupts, having a cool motorcycle dude come and battle the giant every night while the princess spins golden thread for him in payment. Then the girl interrupts again, incensed at her princess’s new role. Princess Tenderheart now goes to the gym to pump iron and becomes Princess Warrior, so she can rescue her ponies herself. From here, the interruptions from one side and the other become more and more frequent, until the children find a story and characters that they can both enjoy. The story is funny to start with, and the illustration really make it. O’Malley draws the two children in a fairly realistic cartoon style with pen and ink. Heyer illustrates the girl’s story in oil paintings that look like a mash-up of Beautiful Fairy Tale book and Barbie-level cheesy girl appeal. Goto illustrates the boy’s story in bright, vigorous pastels where the motorcycle dude and his motorcycle vye for space with the hideous giant and exploding volcanoes. This book was a hit with everyone who saw it, including adults, my son and his K-1 class, and my two-year-old.
Cross-posted to http://library-mama.dreamwidth.org and http://sapphireone.livejournal.com .
Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah. Illustrated by 
Hooray for Hanukkah by 
Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah by 
Hanukkah: A Counting Book by 
Entwined by 
Snow in Summer by 
All Wound Up by 
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins. Read by Paul Boehmer This was the first big book by Collins, much more famous now for The Hunger Games, which I haven’t yet read. The boy and I listened to this together. Gregor, aged 11 or 12, lives in New York City with his mother, grandmother, little sister, and baby sister, Boots, aged 2. His father disappeared a couple of years ago, leaving Gregor in charge of the family while his mother is at work. He’s serious about his responsibility, but an unbidden counter inside him keeps track of each day that his father has been gone. One day, he takes Boots down to the laundry room of their apartment building with him. While he’s busy with the washer, she explores the room. A large air vent has a loose cover – and soon Gregor is following Boots as a very strong draft pulls them down. There, two giant talking roaches take them to the humans of the Underland. This is a world of very pale-skinned, purple-eyed humans, who have been making a life in the Underland for the past 500 years, since their kingdom was founded by the Earl of Sandwich. Also in the Underland are the giant rideable bats, who form life partnerships with the humans similar to Pernese dragons, though later in life. Bats and humans together navigate their way among sometimes neutral, sometimes hostile giant cockroaches, spiders, and most dangerously, rats. All of these are human-sized or larger and can talk with humans. Gregor soon learns that he can’t just go back home, and that even if he could, his father is being held captive by the rats. One of the senior royalty of the Underland is convinced that Gregor is the Warrior foretold in a prophecy by the Earl of Sandwich. The prophecy foretells dangerous times for the Underworld, and says that a Warrior will come and ask for help with a Quest. It specifies the make-up of the party that should go on the quest and even how many of them will survive it. Although he himself doesn’t believe that he could be a Warrior, Gregor is persuaded to try to convince the Council to support him, if only because he knows he needs the help to find his father. Approval is given in large part because the rats are marching on the city in force. But the Quest will not be easy. The party includes Princess Luxa and Henry, both Underworld royalty a few years older than Gregor who look down on him; Gregor and Boots (mostly carried in a baby backpack on Gregor’s back) and Luxa and Henry’s bats. For the Quest to succeed, they must also find two Crawlers, two Spinners and one rat to join the party. Meanwhile, the rats are attacking the Underworld’s main human city. Everyone on the quest has to hope both that the quest will be successful and that the prophecy is right that completing Gregor’s quest will save the Underworld as well. Gregor especially grows as a character over the course of the story. He starts out a sympathetic character, caring so sweetly for his little sister, but must learn diplomacy and leadership along the way. It’s not exactly clear from Collins’s description, but it sounds like Gregor and his family might be African-American, which would make him a rare minority fantasy hero. Paul Boehmer’s narration, while perfectly expressive, is oddly precise – not quite British, but more carefully enunciated than standard American English and certainly nothing hinting at a regional or ethnic American accent. This is an exciting story with strong characters and a well-drawn setting. I should perhaps note that there isn’t any magic; the fantasy part seems to end with the existence of the Underworld and its giant inhabitants. I’m not sure it’s one of my forever-favorites, but I’d certainly recommend it to kids looking for an exciting series where it’s up to the kids to save the world. 
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Read by Wil Wheaton. It’s a dark, dystopian future. The Recession never ended, and the ongoing energy crisis has ended the era of easy travel. Most people are unemployed, living in large stacks of trailers just outside the city. Life in the real world is so grim that the vast majority of people spend all their time logged into the Oasis, an immersive on-line alternate reality. Getting on to the Oasis and its main planet are free; it sustains itself and a large portion of the overall economy by charging for on-line goods and travel to its millions of other planets. The Oasis was imagined and designed by a hard-core socially impaired geek by the name of James Halliday. When he dies without heirs, he sends out to all the millions of Oasis users an invitation to participate in a treasure hunt for three keys leading to the location of an Easter egg hidden in the game. Our hero is one Wade Watts, an orphan living in the trailer stacks who is attending his senior year of high school in the Oasis. He’s named his avatar Parzival after the Arthurian grail-seeker and is determined to find the egg himself. In addition to all the time he spends in the Oasis, he’s devoted himself to mastering the 1980s arcade, computer and role-playing games, movies and movies that were formative during Halliday’s teen years. Geek children of the 1980s, this book is for you. There are multiple clues and puzzles which you might be able to figure out before Wade if you are familiar with the right movie or game, and even if you don’t, the trivia lessons are fun. 
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by 
How to Knit a Heart Back Home by 
alibrarymama 