April is National Jazz Month.   Here are some books children and their loved ones may enjoy reading together:

The Candystore Man, written by Jonathan London, and illustrated by Kevin O'Malley
In the 1950's, the Candystore Man plays saxophone and sells candy and other treats to the neighborhood children and teens.  If you look closely, you will see a newspaper with the heading "Charlie 'Bird' Parker Dead at Age 35."

Jazz Baby, written by Carole Boston Weatherford, and illustrated by Laura Freeman
Young children play a variety of musical instruments, dance, and have fun.

Jazzmatazz!, written by Stephanie Calmenson, and illustrated by Bruce Degen
A baby notices a mouse start to play jazz music on the piano.  Dog soon starts to accompany Mouse with his dog bones and bowl.  Who else will join the jam session?

Jazzy Miz Mozetta, written by Brenda C. Roberts, and illustrated by Frank Morrison
One evening, Miz Mozetta dresses up in a snazzy red outfit and takes a walk.   While walking, she thinks about dancing again.  What will happen next?

Lookin' for Bird in the Big City, written by Robert Burleigh, and illustrated by Marek Los
A teenage trumpet player looks for Charlie "Bird" Parker, a famous saxophonist.   This story is inspired by the famous trumpet player Miles Davis.

Rent Party Jazz, written by William Miller, and illustrated by Charlotte Riley-Webb
Sonny goes to school, works part time, lives in New Orleans in the 1930's.   When Sonny's mom loses her job, Sonny learns about a special way to help out.

Rum-a-Tum-Tum, written by Angela Shelf Medearis, and illustrated by James Ransome
A girl who lives in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the early 1900's observes street vendors selling their goods with poetic and jazzy words.  Whom will she see next?

The Harry Potter series has been chosen by the children at Almaden as their favorite.  In the past month or so, we had our own election of sorts, and we have just tallied our results.  The numbers are in: Harry Potter received 14 votes out of the 120 titles entered.   Children were asked to nominate their favorite titles: some nominated up to 5 titles.  Of the top five, the other titles are: Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, Hunger Games, Swindle, and Geronimo Stilton.  Only one title is a single title, Swindle, by Gordon Korman.  Here is the run down:

Harry Potter           14

Percy Jackson          12

Hunger Games       10

Swindle                      8

Geronimo Stilton      7 

Happy Reading!  If you haven't tried one of these titles, perhaps you may be enticed to try one, since so many children have read them and can attest to their quality.  One caveat: Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Lightning Thief)  and The Hunger Games are considered teen titles in other words for 6th, 7th and 8th graders.

Love to spy? Then check out the following spy titles at your library today! Be entertained as characters go on exciting adventures to infiltrate their enemies and see how secret agents handle the challenges of going incognito to accomplish challenging missions.

Spy Guides

Spy Technology by Ron Fridell

Top Secret: Shady Tales of Spies and Spying by Laura Buller

Spies & Detectives by Hazel Poole

For more recommendations, please see a librarian at your library.

Pandora Gets Jealous by Carolyn Hennesy is the beginning of a  fun series for tweens and teens that love books based on Greek mythology. It will even appeal to Percy Jackson fans! Our heroine is Pandora Artheneus Andromaeche Helena (or Pandy, for short). She is the thirteen year old daughter of Prometheus (who is famous for stealing fire from Zeus and giving it to mortals). Pandy brings a mysterious box to school that Zeus had given her Father. Pandy accidentally unleashes seven kinds of misery into the world. Zeus gives her six months to collect all the evils. The trouble and adventures Pandy gets into with her friends, Alcie and Iole, keeps the action moving and the tone, fun. 

Pandora continues her adventures in Pandora Gets Vain, Pandora Gets Lazy, Pandora Gets Heart, and Pandora gets Angry.

So, your dad’s a genius, and you have a math learning disability.  He thinks you should be an engineer, and you think:  “what about ‘math learning disability’ don’t you understand?”    And now he wants to pack you off to rural Pennsylvania (isn’t that where that groundhog lives?) to stay with elderly relatives you’ve never met--Poppy and Moo (Moo?  Seriously?) while he goes to Romania to teach for six weeks.  You’re supposed to help Poppy with an engineering project called the “Artesian Screw”  (“good training for an engineer”, Dad says) and  in your spare time do the tons of math problems he sends along with you.  Not your idea of summer fun.  But you go (what choice do you have?), you meet your crazy relatives and their possibly even crazier neighbors, and to your immense surprise your summer turns out not half bad. 

That’s 14 year old Mike Frost’s life in a nutshell.  You’ll be entertained by his adventures in Do Over, Pennsylvania;  maybe you’ll even laugh out loud.  And you’ll certainly cheer for him as he learns the absolute value of Mike.

If you're anything like me, the cover image of a children's book is what draws you in.  As I was searching for new books to read to my son, I came across the book "You will be my friend!" by Peter Brown. 

It's a story about Lucy, a young bear, who tries to make friends with several different forest creatures with sometimes disasterous results.  While definitely a children's book, I got a good chuckle out of the silly situations Lucy gets herself into.  The illustrations are great too!

We own a few other titles by Peter Brown, check them out here. 

While San Jose Public Library doesn't own this one, "Children make terrible pets" is another favorite of mine by Peter Brown.  Never fear!  If you want to give it a read, you can always request a copy through our Link+ system!