May 20, 2008 All right. So what are those things sitting in the beloved and well worn laps of our elephant and tiger chairs? Our old friends don't look like the sort of creatures that would need decorative battle shields. Well, there are some interactive children's books that just don't quite carry over without being demonstrated, opened up and put into practice. This is certainly true for for Frances Barry's new Fold Out and Find Out books, Little Green Frogs and Big Yellow Sunflower. The books start out as a simple hexagon, and as each charming page is opened up a new shape begins to form until voila, look to your right! If amazing young children isn't a worthwhile activity what is? Here they are! Our weekly picks for the two best: two hardcover, two paperback, and two children's books. The very best new arrivals to leap out of the box and onto our shelves this week. Call or email us if you want more information on any of these titles, or to have us hold you a copy. Or stop in and check them out in person. We'd love to see you. Thanks as always for sharing your reading with us!   Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors By Bryson, Bill 2008/03 - Broadway Books 9780767922692 - Hardcover List Price $22.00 - Your Price: $17.60 Availability: Available   Preorder Title Back Order It's impossible not to like someone who makes delightful reference books. According to Bryson, this "book is intended as a quick, concise guide to the problems of English spelling and usage most commonly encountered by writers and editors." And indeed, answers to questions such as "What did Belize use to be called? Doesn't Calcutta have a new name now? (It does-Kolkata.)", are to be found in its pages. As with his earlier Dictionary of Troublesome Words, this new Bryson effort is as much fun to flip and wade around in as it will be useful in moments of genuine need. ...More   Adam the King By Lewis, Jeffrey 2008/05 - Other Press 9781590512845 - Hardcover List Price $21.95 - Your Price: $17.56 Availability: Available   Preorder Title Back Order This is an interesting and ambitious book set in fictional Clements Cove, Maine. It's author splits his time between Castine and Los Angeles. Richard Russo likes this one. "Jeffrey Lewis's Adam the King, with its echoes of The Great Gatsby, is such a fine novel. I read it in a single sitting, set the book down and said, "Yes.'" Thus far Aileen and I have both flipped through the book and said, "Maybe." Lewis' tale promises to explore both Maine's social fabric, and two complex lives. From the vantage point of a quick once over this is definitely a book worthy of a closer look. ...More   Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution By Swanson, James L. Weinberg, Daniel 2008/06 - Harper Perennial 9780061237621 - Trade Paper List Price $19.95 - Your Price: $15.96 Availability: Available   Preorder Title Back Order This extremely strong photographic history, though produced as an extension of Swanson's Manhunt, stands entirely on it's own. As the topic attracted such extraordinary focus, the photographic record is rich indeed. ...More   The Summer Book By Jansson, Tove Teal, Thomas Davis, Kathryn 2008/05 - New York Review of Books 9781590172681 - Trade Paper List Price $14.00 - Your Price: $11.20 Availability: Available   Preorder Title Back Order Not ever reading Tove Jansson would be like not ever trying ice cream. Jansson, who died in 2001 at 86, is Finland's national literary treasure. For those of us already under her spell, this reprint of The Summer Book, is a very happy event indeed. Her unique sensibility, which has made the Moomin books so beloved, is everywhere evident here. As Ali Smith once said of The Summer Book, Jansson's "writing is all magical deception, her sentences simple and loaded; the novel reads like looking through clear water and seeing, suddenly, the depth."...More   Little Green Frogs By Barry, Frances 2008/03 - Candlewick Press (MA) 9780763637255 - Hardcover List Price $5.99 - Your Price: $4.79 Availability: Available   Preorder Title Back Order These Fold Out and Find Out books are a striking combination of form and function. Whether from seed to flower, or from egg, to tadpole, to frog, children will be enthralled to open out these superb interactive books....More   On the Farm By Elliott, David Meade, Holly 2008/03 - Candlewick Press (MA) 9780763633226 - Hardcover List Price $16.99 - Your Price: $13.59 Availability: Available   Preorder Title Back Order This is an absolutely exquisite picture book. Holly Meade's blend of woodcuts and watercolors work perfectly with David Elliot's excellent farmyard verse. The Rooster Crows and struts He's got feathers! He's got guts! Oh, the rooster struts and crows. What's he thinking? No one knows....More