Hi, everyone! This is Kelly Herold, organizer for the Picture Book (Fiction) category. I also am on the nominating committee for the Middle Grade Fiction award and have been reading, reading, reading. Here’s a review of a new title I’ve read recently: Toys Go Out.
Toys Go Out, by Emily Jenkins and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, is one of those increasingly rare books–Middle Grade fiction aimed at the younger reader. Perfect for the six-to ten-year-old audience (and even younger, if read aloud), Toys Go Out: Being the Adventures of a Knowledgeable Stingray, a Toughy Little Buffalo, and Someone Called Plastic tells what happens amongst the toys when no one is watching.
As the subtitle indicates, the movers and shakers in Little Girl’s world are a stingray, a buffalo, and "someone called plastic." The first episode, "In the Backpack, Where it is Very Dark," finds the three friends (and rivals for Little Girl’s affections) bouncing along in a backpack. They’re afraid: Will they be thrown away? Are they going on a scary trip? Why does it smell so badly in the backpack? Fortunately they’re the starring attraction at Show-and-Tell, their status as Little Girl’s favorites confirmed.
Over the course of Toys Go Out, Stingray, Buffalo, and Plastic discover who they are and why each of them has a specific role in Little Girl’s life….
Continue reading the review here.