Whoopi Joins the Book Party

Whoopi is a book lover/fanatic/ critic and has come to the book party with her latest recommendations. She says: "What I’m going to do during the course of the next few months is just hip you to some books I’m reading — some of the kids’ books, some of the adult books that I’ve decided that I want to get into …" So herewith, her children’s book recommendations. 

It’s that time of year again. School is starting up and kids are going to be reading all kinds of things. So I’m just going to tell you about a couple of really good kids’ books I think you’ll enjoy for your children – books that are safe and won’t freak them out, but are really adventuresome. Some are for little, little kids and some are for middle-sized kids and some are for the tweens. So let’s start with the little, little kids. I’m a big fan of teaching kids with cards, like the flash cards we used to have. Scholastic has put out some fabulous ones called Dr. Seuss Beginner Concept Cards: Opposites. And, really, they’re giving you a good idea, or giving your little flasher, as I’ll call them, a good idea of what opposites are. You’ll see the cat in the hat with the hat on, and then another card with the cat in the hat with the hat off, and then you’ll see the pup and the pup is on a seesaw and pup is up and pup is down. For the two- to three-year-old set, this is a really great fun box to deal with because it’s got all kinds of fun pictures in that Dr. Seuss style. So I’m a big fan of these because I think anything you can do to give kids a hand up is always going to work out.

If kids are a little bit older, you can handle the Captain Underpants collection, by Dav Pilkey. Captain Underpants is a superhero who flies around in his underwear and has all kinds of great adventures. They’ve finally put a collector’s edition together called The Adventures of Captain Underpants and it has one of those groovy things you would get in a Cracker Jacks box. (Remember those rings where you would flash them back and forth and they would show you different pictures?) Well, that’s what’s on the cover of this. I have to tell you I love Captain Underpants because he’s just silly. It’s a fun-filled special edition of the bestselling book that started the craze for all things preshrunk and cottony. You’ll get to meet Captain Underpants because he’s faster than the speeding waistband, more powerful than boxer shorts and able to leap up tall buildings without getting a wedgie. And, as you know, eight-year-olds think wedgies are hilarious, as do I, which should tell you a lot about me. But this is a really fun collection; it’s got great pictures in it and things that you will really enjoy. You can read this with your kids because it’s in kids’ taste. If you’re looking for little Jack Sprat it’s not going to work, but if you’re looking to engage your younger children to read, this is the perfect book to start them on. Captain Underpants: It’s just lots of fun and they give you a bonus CD inside when you get the collector’s edition.

I also love the Gregor series by Suzanne Collins, also published by Scholastic. I do a lot of reading from Scholastic because, basically, they’re around the corner from my house so whenever I go looking for tween novels or anything having to do with kids and reading, I spend a lot of time at Scholastic. They’re not the only folks out there who do children’s books but they’re pretty consistent, and I can vouch for them because I read them a lot. The first book in the Gregor series is called Gregor the Overlander and it’s for the eight- to 12-year-olds. Eleven-year-old Gregor follows his little sister through a grate in the laundry room of their New York City apartment building and he ends up in another place — he’s in the Underland, which is underneath the city of New York. It’s really interesting and fun. There are all kinds of giant things which adults get really squeamish about, but it’s really, really well-done and it turns out that there’s a lot of conflict going on under there. Gregor is really looking for his little sister who fell through the grate and it’s a huge wonderful adventure. There are giant spiders and friendly flying bats, and giant cockroaches who are taking care of business, and the rats — they’re kind of questionable, very shady — but it’s a great read. And I have to tell you: There are several books in the collection and I loved each and every one of them. I even recommend them for adults who are looking for a great adventure novel. They’re fun, they’re short and the print is big if you’re of a certain age. But kids really get a kick out of it. They get a kick out of these books in a different way than adults do because you have to not be so squeamish when you start reading this if you’re a grown-up. But kids really have taken to this and every kid I’ve given the Gregor series to has really dug it. So I’m recommending Gregor the Overlander as a first to get your feet wet and to get yourself in there.