Reading Roundup 2011

By the Numbers
Picture Books: 360
Early Readers: 14

Sources
Review Copies: 1
Swapped: 2
Library: everything else

Standouts
Writing: Selected in February Cooking With Henry and Elliebelly by Carolyn Parkhurst, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
"I'd so watch this brother-and-sister cooking show, with pirate hats! The sibling-ness rings true without descending into annoying schlurp, and the fact that it's a boy who wants to play pretend cooking makes my neo-feminist soul sing."
Illustration: Selected in May: Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudi by Rachel Victoria Rodriguez, illustrated by Julie Paschkis
"Just the book for your budding architect. Paschkis takes the lines and shapes that influenced Gaudi's most famous buildings and works them into her illustrations. The minute I closed the book, I had to hit the Internet see if Gaudi's work really was that wild . . . and what do you know, it was! (Side note: Okay, I've totally decided I have an illustrator-crush on Julie Paschkis. I loooooove her work.)"
Overall: Selected in May and April! I Know the River Loves Me/Yo Se Que El Rio Me Ama by Maya Christina Gonzalez
Somehow, I picked this one as an overall standout two months in a row. "Side-by-side English and Spanish versions of the same poem sing the praises of a river that a little girl loves, and the swirling, flowing illustrations bring both river and girl to life."

All the roundups for 2011