Recommended for Kids

These recommendations appear in the Sunday edition
of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

• Sunday, August 29
  Ages 2 to 6 - Whoo goes There? by Jennifer A. Ericsson.
  Owl waits and watches for just the right animal for his dinner.
  Ages 10 to 14 - The Reinvention of Moxie Roosevelt by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel.
  On her first day of boarding school, a thirteen-year-old girl who feels boring and invisible decides to change her personality to match her unusual name.
  

• Sunday, August 15
  Ages 3 to 6 - Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas.
  A ladybug invites the reader to play a game of "let's pretend."
  Ages 7 to 11 - Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka.
  Michael K. is teamed with two very strange students on his first day in fifth grade, and while he gradually comes to believe they are aliens who need his help, he has trouble convincing anyone else of the truth.
  

• Sunday, August 8
  Ages 3 to 5 - Captain Small Pig by Martin Waddell.
  Small Pig, accompanied by his friends Old Goat and Turkey, spends an enjoyable day in a little red boat on Blue Lake.
  Ages 12 and up - The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman.
  Elizabeth, a page at the New-York Circulating Material Repository, gains access to the Grimm Collection of magical objects and is drawn into a series of frightening adventures involving mythical creatures and stolen goods.
  

• Sunday, August 1
  Ages 4 to 7 - Shark vs. Train by Chris Barto.
  Two toys, a shark and a train, set out to see who will win a variety of competitions, from roasting marshmallows, which the train is great at, to going off the high-dive, where the shark excels.
  Ages 10 to 14 - 13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison.
  Bedeviled by evil fairies that only she can see, thirteen-year-old Tanya is sent to stay with her cold and distant grandmother at Elvesden Manor, where she and the caretaker's son solve a disturbing mystery that leads them to the discovery that Tanya's life is in danger.
  

• Sunday, July 25
  Ages 3 to 6 - What If? by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.
  A beach ball floating in the ocean becomes the focus of possible scenarios when seals find it and begin to play.
  Ages 8 to 12 – Keeper by Kathi Appelt.
  On the night when mermaids are said to gather on a sandbar, ten-year-old Keeper sets out in a small boat with her dog and a seagull, determined to find the mother who abandoned her and whom she believes is a mermaid.

• Sunday, July 18
  Ages 4 to 7 - The Inside Tree by Linda Smith.
  When Mr. Potter decides to bring both his dog and a tree inside to share his cozy house, there are unexpected repercussions.
  Ages 8 to 12 - Smells like Dog by Suzanne Selfors.
  When Homer Pudding's explorer-uncle dies and leaves him a droopy dog with a mysterious coin hidden on its collar, the dog leads him to the conniving head of the Natural History Museum, who tries to steal the coin and take Homer's place in a secret society of adventurers.

• Sunday, July 11
  Ages 5 to 9 - Here Comes the Garbage Barge! by Jonah Winter
  In the spring of 1987, the town of Islip, New York, with no place for its 3,168 tons of garbage, loads it on a barge that sets out on a 162-day journey along the East Coast, around the Gulf of Mexico, down to Belize, and back again, in search of a place willing to accept and dispose of its very smelly cargo.
  Ages 10 to 13 - Countdown by Deborah Wiles.
  11-year-old Franny, who lives near Washington, D.C. in the 1960’s, copes with unrest in her family and fear induced by the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as squabbles with her best friend over a boy they both like.
  

• Sunday, July 4
  Ages 5 to 7 - Paddywack by Stephanie Spinner.
  Paddywack is a spunky pony who jumps, trots, and walks beautifully, as long as his rider remembers his treats.
  Ages 9 to 12 - Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm.
  When ten-year-old Turtle travels from New Jersey to Key West in 1935, she moves in with family she has never met, including her Aunt Minnie, Uncle Vernon and her boy cousins who run a baby-sitting service known as the Diaper Gang.
  

• Sunday, June 27
  Ages 3 to 6 - The Fox and the Hen by Eric Battut.
  Henrietta Hen, not realizing how important her first egg is, trades it to Red Fox for a tasty worm and then relies on the help of the other farm animals to get her egg back.
  Ages 7 to 10 - Word After Word After Word by Patricia MacLachlan.
  A visiting author teaches five friends about the power of words and writing.
  

• Sunday, June 20
  Ages 3 to 6 - A Beach Tail by Karen Lynn Williams.
  When his father tells him not to leave the lion he is drawing on the beach, a little boy starts making a very, very long tail--and a trail to follow back.
  Ages 10 to 13 - Kyle's Island by Sally Derby.
  Kyle, who is spending the summer of 1974 with his family at their cabin on a Michigan lake, fumes at his parents because their separation is forcing his mother to sell the cabin while he also strives to be a better brother and explores the lake’s mysterious island on his own.
  

• Sunday, June 13
  Ages 3 to 7 - LMNO Peas by Keith Baker.
  Busy little peas introduce their favorite occupations, from astronaut to zoologist.
  Ages 10 and up - Palace Beautiful by Sarah DeFord Williams.
  When thirteen-year-old Sadie moves into her grandmother’s house in Salt Lake City, she, her sister and their friend Bella find a journal in the attic written by a young girl during the influenza epidemic of 1918.
  

• Sunday, June 6
  Ages 3 to 7 - The Everything Machine by Matt Novak.
  When the Everything Machine stops doing all of their work, the citizens of the planet Quirk have to figure out how to do things for themselves.
  Ages 10 to 14 - The Song of the Whales by Uri Orlev.
  As Mikha'el helps his parents care for his elderly grandfather in Jerusalem, Grandpa teaches Mikha'el to use the gift they share of making other people's dreams sweeter.

• Sunday, May 30
  Ages 3 to 7 - My Garden by Kevin Henkes.
  After helping her mother weed, water, and chase the rabbits from their garden, a young girl imagines her dream garden complete with jellybean bushes, chocolate rabbits, and tomatoes the size of beach balls.
  Ages 12 and up - City of Spies by Susan Kim.
  Evelyn, who has been sent to New York to live with her aunt in 1942, and her friend Tony uncover a deadly plot being carried out by Nazi spies, right in their neighborhood.
  

• Sunday, May 23
  Ages 2 to 5 - Little Chick by Amy Hest.
  Under the loving guidance of her wise Old-Auntie, Little Chick learns some important life lessons.
  Ages 10 and up - Out of my Mind by Sharon M. Draper.
  Considered by many to be mentally retarded, a brilliant, impatient fifth-grader with cerebral palsy discovers a technological device that will allow her to speak for the first time.
  

• Sunday. May 16
  Ages 3 to 6 – Cool Cat by Nonny Hogrogian.
  With a little help from his friends and a box of art supplies, Cool Cat transforms his drab surroundings into a lush scene of flowers, greenery and blue sky – the perfect place for a cat nap.
  Ages 8 to 12 - The Birthday Ball by Lois Lowry.
  When a bored Princess Patricia Priscilla makes her chambermaid switch identities with her so she can attend the village school, her attitude changes and she plans a new way to celebrate her sixteenth birthday.
  

• Sunday, May 9
  Ages 5 to 8 - The Boys by Jeff Newman.
  A shy boy, seeking the courage to play baseball with the other children in a park, is coaxed out of his shell by some "old timers" sitting nearby who, in turn, discover they are still in the game.
  Ages 10 and up - The Year of Goodbyes: a True Story of Friendship, Family and Farewells by Debbie Levy.
  An autograph book which belonged to the author’s mother and was signed by her friends when she was a twelve-year old in Germany in 1938 is the basis for this true story.
  

• Sunday May 2
  Ages 9 to 12 - Star in the Forest by Laura Resau.
  After eleven-year-old Zitlally's father is deported to Mexico, she takes refuge in her trailer park's forest of rusted car parts, where she befriends a spunky neighbor and finds a stray dog that she nurses back to health.
  Ages 7 to 13 - One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia.
  In the summer of 1968, after traveling to California to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother is resentful of their visit and sends them to a nearby day camp.
  

• Sunday, April 25
  Ages 3 to 6 - The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky.
  When a mysterious sound sends the whole forest running away in fear, only the littlest rabbit is courageous enough to discover what really happened.
  Ages 8 and up – Sharing the Seasons: a Book of Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins.
  48 poems by various children’s authors focus on the 4 seasons.
  

• Sunday, April 18
  Ages 3 to 6 - The Super Hungry Dinosaur by Martin Waddell.
  When a super hungry dinosaur charges into the backyard and wants to eat Hal and his little dog Billy, they take action to subdue him.
  Ages 8 to 12 - Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell.
  Isabelle Bean opens a closet door and falls into a parallel universe where the children believe that she is the witch they have feared for years and she has finally come to devour them.
  

• Sunday, April 11
  Ages 3 to 5 - A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na.
  While other animals sleep at night, some quietly and others noisily, some alone and others huddled together, a wide-eyed owl watches.
  Ages 5 to 8 - Once upon a Twice by Denise Doyen.
  Jam Boy, a foolish mouse full of furry overconfidence, refuses to listen to the advice of his elders and nearly reaches his “early dead a-sleep” in an encounter with a snake.
  

• Sunday, April 4
  Ages 3 to 7 - The Easter Egg by Jan Brett.
  Hoppi the bunny wants to win the egg-decorating contest, but while everyone else is working on their decorations, he finds himself guarding an egg that has fallen from a robin's nest.
  Ages 4 to 7 - Hey, Rabbit! by Sergio Ruzzier.
  Rabbit’s suitcase contains a vast array of items, each of them perfect for his friends.
  
  

• Sunday, March 28
  Ages 6 and up - Mirror Mirror: a Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer.
  The poems in this book have one meaning when read down the page and a different meaning when the same poem is read in the opposite direction.
  Ages 10 and up - Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean by Sarah Stewart Taylor.
  Grace, an aspiring young journalist, is excited when Amelia Earhart arrives in her town of Trepassey, Newfoundland, on June 4, 1928.
  
  

• Sunday, March 21
  Ages 3 to 6 - Bear Flies High by Michael Rosen.
  Bear usually spends his days on the beach, singing and watching birds, but when he leaves to visit a carnival, his dream of flying may just come true.
  Ages 8 to 12 - Ratfink by Marcia Thornton Jones.
  Logan vows to turn over a new leaf so his parents will let him have a pet, but when a competitive new girl arrives at school and his grandfather moves into the basement of Logan's house, doing the right thing becomes harder than ever.
  
  
• Sunday, March 14
  Ages 3 to 6 - When the World is Ready for Bed by Gillian Shields.
  A family of rabbits prepares for a good night’s rest by cleaning up toys, brushing teeth, talking about the events of the day, and sharing a book.
  Ages 9 to 12 - The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood.
  Fifteen-year-old Penelope, a recent graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, is hired as governess to three young children who have been raised by wolves and must teach them to behave in a civilized manner.
  
  
• Sunday, March 7
  Ages 3 to 6 - Night Lights by Susan Gal.
  While preparing for bedtime, a little girl and her dog note all the different kinds of lights that brighten up the night, from headlights to moonlight.
  Ages 10 to 14 - The Adventures of Jack Lime by James Leck.
  Jack, a teenage sleuth with narcolepsy, comes to the aid of his friends whenever they have a problem.