[Repost] March 2014 List: Parents Must Read & Red Mud Top 10 Children’s Books of the Year Voting Opens

Did you enjoy any of the March nom­i­nees? They’re all seri­ous con­tenders! Join the annu­al Top 10 vot­ing and you might even be one of the lucky read­ers to receive a ton of great books! :)Orig­i­nal address:March 2014 List: Par­ents Must Read & Red Mud Top 10 Chil­dren’s Books of the Year Vot­ing Opensauthor:Hong­ni­ba Vil­lageRed Mud Vot­ing Web­site:http://www.hongniba.com.cn/fumubidu

March 2014

Gray Prince (20140301)
Illus­tra­tions by Barb Colvin; Trans­la­tion by Fan Xiaox­ing
Bei­jing Unit­ed Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny 2013
Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:
The Cin­der Prince does­n’t look like a prince. He’s short and thin, with unkempt hair and a face cov­ered in acne. His three old­er broth­ers, on the oth­er hand, are strong, burly, and hairy, and they con­stant­ly tease him about his appear­ance. When­ev­er his broth­ers take their princess girl­friends to the Roy­al Dis­co, the Cin­der Prince is left home to do the laun­dry. Until one Sat­ur­day night, a dusty fairy falls from the chim­ney. Will this change Cin­der Prince’s fate?

Bar­bé Cole is a renowned British chil­dren’s author and illus­tra­tor. She wrote her first book at the age of sev­en. In The Cin­derel­la, Bar­bé Cole con­tin­ues her tra­di­tion of sub­ver­sion, humor, cre­ativ­i­ty, and New Wom­an­hood, pre­sent­ing her thoughts on gen­der in a unique­ly engag­ing way. The book was nom­i­nat­ed for the Kate Green­away Medal.

Suit­able read­ing age: 4 years old and above

Big Hero Willy (20140302)
Text and pho­tos by Antho­ny Browne; trans­la­tion by Poplar
21st Cen­tu­ry Pub­lish­ing House 2013
Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:
Willy looks ordi­nary. He can’t play foot­ball, swim, or win a bicy­cle race. Even going to the movies with Mil­lie makes him laugh. But an unex­pect­ed encounter turns him into a hero!
After read­ing this book, young read­ers will feel that “true courage comes from inner strength.”
Antho­ny Brown, a British sur­re­al­ist painter and mas­ter of pic­ture books, observes and cap­tures the inner worlds of chil­dren, striv­ing to under­stand their true needs. Con­se­quent­ly, chil­dren find emo­tion­al com­fort and joy in his illus­tra­tions. His works have won numer­ous chil­dren’s book awards, includ­ing the Kate Green­away Medal, the Kurt Maschler Prize, the Ger­man Pic­ture Book Award, the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award, the Dutch Sil­ver Pen­cil, and the Amick Award. 

Suit­able read­ing age: 3 to 8 years old

Frog Broth­er and Frog Sis­ter Series 4 Vol­umes (20140303)
Writ­ten by Iwa­mu­ra Kazua­ki (Japan); trans­lat­ed by Peng Yi
Relay Press 2012
Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:
The seem­ing­ly sim­ple text, com­bined with the intrigu­ing child­like moments of every­day life, makes for a fas­ci­nat­ing read­ing that makes one feel the infi­nite beau­ty of life. The unique paint­ing style depicts a thriv­ing nature and the sim­ple, hap­py lives of small ani­mals.

The author, Kazua­ki Iwa­mu­ra, is a renowned Japan­ese pic­ture book mas­ter. This series of books rep­re­sents his rep­re­sen­ta­tive work for young chil­dren, fol­low­ing his “14 Mice Series” and “7 Mice Series.” The series fol­lows his con­sis­tent style, with del­i­cate illus­tra­tions and con­cise text, ensur­ing read­ers are cap­ti­vat­ed and amused.

Suit­able read­ing age: 2 to 6 years old

Dream­Works No. 7 (20140304)
(US) David Wis­ner
Hebei Juve­nile and Chil­dren’s Pub­lish­ing House 2013
Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:
A lit­tle boy stum­bles upon a tiny white cloud atop the Empire State Build­ing. Sit­ting on the cloud, he jour­neys through a sea of mist and moun­tains, only to dis­cov­er a city in the sky—a city dot­ted with giant speak­ers, from which count­less white clouds drift. This, he dis­cov­ers, is the mys­te­ri­ous Dream­Works No. 7… The boy unex­pect­ed­ly embarks on an amaz­ing jour­ney! And it empow­ers the clouds, once seem­ing­ly unable to real­ize their ambi­tions, to trans­form into unimag­in­able mas­ter­pieces!

Author David Wies­ner is an illus­tra­tor who brings joy to peo­ple through imag­i­na­tion! His illus­tra­tions, com­plete­ly devoid of text, pos­sess a pow­er­ful ten­sion and mag­net­ism that cap­ti­vate the read­er! His oth­er word­less pic­ture books include “Hur­ri­cane,” “Crazy Tues­day” and “Mon­ster Night,” both win­ners of the 1992 Calde­cott Medal, “Dream Fac­to­ry 7,” which received a Sil­ver Calde­cott Medal, and “The Three Lit­tle Pigs,” which received a Gold Calde­cott Medal in 2002. In 2007, “Secrets from the Sea” received anoth­er Calde­cott Medal, mak­ing him the undis­put­ed king of word­less pic­ture books.

Suit­able read­ing age: 5 years old and above

Cable Car Maple (20140305)
By Vir­ginia Lee Bur­ton; Trans­lat­ed by Liu Yuqing
New Star Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny 2013
Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:
San Fran­cis­co, a city nes­tled between moun­tains and the sea, is known for its steep, hilly roads, many of which are steep and wind­ing. Rainy days often lead to acci­dents, with peo­ple falling and rid­ing on them. The inven­tion of the cable car in 1873 dra­mat­i­cal­ly improved this sit­u­a­tion. Its unique climb­ing capa­bil­i­ties proved incred­i­bly pop­u­lar and quick­ly gained pop­u­lar­i­ty. How­ev­er, as the city grew and changed, the cen­tu­ry-old cable car was inevitably replaced by trams and bus­es.

Author Vir­ginia Lee Bur­ton uses poet­ic, con­cise, and elo­quent lan­guage, along with beau­ti­ful­ly designed images, to vivid­ly recre­ate the true sto­ry of “Save the Cable Car.” His major pic­ture books include “The Run­away Engine,” “Mike Mul­li­gan and His Steam Shov­el,” “Gar­ri­co, the Mir­a­cle Horse,” “Cad­dy and the Big Snow,” and “The Lit­tle House,” which won the 1943 Calde­cott Medal.

Suit­able read­ing age: 4 years old and above

You are all my favorites (20140306)
Text by Sam Mcbrat­ney (Ire­land); Illus­tra­tions by Ani­ta Jer­am (UK);
Trans­lat­ed by Zhang Xin­gru
Tomor­row Pub­lish­ing House 2012
Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:
Every day, Papa Bear and Mama Bear tell their three lit­tle bears, “You’re the best lit­tle bears in the world.” But one day, the lit­tle bears start to won­der who Papa and Mama love the most. They can’t all be their favorites, right?

The author, Sam McBrat­ney, was orig­i­nal­ly a teacher. When he was writ­ing sto­ries for stu­dents with dyslex­ia, he fell in love with the rich imag­i­na­tion in the sto­ries. He then wrote dozens of chil­dren’s books, such as “Guess How Much I Love You”, which has sold over 18 mil­lion copies world­wide.

Suit­able read­ing age: 2 to 8 years old