Winnie the Pooh

There is a new Winnie the Pooh book out, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, by David Benedictus.  I haven’t read it but I paged through it and enjoyed the illustrations.  We also have the audio version on order read by Jim Dale, the narrator of the Harry Potter audiobooks.  Speaking of audiobooks, we just received a fantastic audio version of the original Pooh stories called The Collected Stories of Winnie-the-Pooh.  Narrators include Stephen Fry and Judi Dench, and it sounds like a delightful listen.  A new book that I found reminiscent of Pooh is The Squirrel’s Birthday and Other Parties by Dutch author, Toon Tellegen.  I’m not one to try and predict a Batchelder winner, but I wouldn’t be surprised if The Squirrel’s Birthday got a nod from the committee (if it is eligible,)  come January.

The Composer is Dead

Don’t waste your time reading this book….because the CD that comes with it of Lemony Snicket reading it accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony is BRILLIANT!!  When I looked at this picture book in the warehouse the other day, it didn’t grab me like I was hoping a new Lemony Snicket book would.  But when it came across my desk today and I noticed that there was an audio version narrated by Mr Snicket himself, well I had to take a listen.

The composer is dead and the Lemony Snicket-esque Inspector interviews the instruments of the orchestra to get to the bottom of the murder.  It’s  a who’s who of the instruments of the orchestra with musical accompaniment.  This is a great intro to these instruments and the parts  they play in the the orchestra.  The murder mystery is quite cleverly solved at the end.

Illustrations by Carson Ellis and music composed by Nathaniel Stookey

Noel Streatfeild books

Ballet Shoes, the film starring Emma Watson, (of Harry Potter fame,) based on the Noel Streatfeild book of the same name, will be released on DVD September 8th. In anticipation, I’ve plumped up our Noel Streatfeild holdings by purchasing the books: Ballet Shoes, Party Shoes, and Dancing Shoes; and the audiobooks: Ballet Shoes, Dancing Shoes and Theater Shoes on CD.

Martha Speaks on PBS

“Starting September 1, Susan Meddaugh’s talking dog Martha will head to the small screen with the debut of Martha Speaks, an animated series to air on PBS KIDS.” (Publishers Weekly, 8/21/08.)  In anticipation, I’m ordering copies of Martha Speaks with audio CDs.

For more on the series, including games and print-outs visit the site:  http://pbskids.org/martha/

Brisingr and Breaking Dawn on CD

I have just ordered each branch at least one copy of Brisingr and Breaking Dawn on CD. I’ve also ordered additional copies of Twilight and Eclipse on CD. The Stephenie Meyer books are not available on Playaway at this time, and neither is Brisingr. I’ll watch for these titles to become available in that popular format.