Doreen Cronin
Latest Release
Mama in the Moon
by Doreen Cronin Illustrated by Brian Cronin
Baby sloth lives high up in the trees with his mama, where he loves to sleep between her and the moon. But one night he tumbles from her arms to land in a soft patch of leaves far below.
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"I'll be there soon," Mama sloth calls down to him. But sloths never get anywhere soon.
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Luckily Mama knows just how to reassure him while he waits, using his senses of sight, sound, smell and touch.
*A Junior Library Guild Gold Star selection
Books/Activities
If you're Click Clacking...
My fellow Americans,
It is our pleasure, our honor, our duty as citizens to present to you Duck for President. Here is a duck who began in a humble pond. Who worked his way to farmer. To governor. And now, perhaps, to the highest office in the land.
Some say, if he walks like a duck and talks like a duck, he is a duck.
We say, if he walks like a duck and talks like a duck, he will be the next president of the United States of America.
Thank you for your vote.
Farmer Brown has a problem. His cows like to type. All day long he hears:
Click, clack, moo.
Click, clack, moo.
Click, clack, moo.
But Farmer Brown’s problems REALLY begin when his cows start leaving him notes! Come join the fun as a bunch of literate cows turn Farmer Brown’s farm upside-down!
Farmer Brown does not like Halloween. So he draws the shades, puts on his footy pajamas, and climbs into bed.
But do you think the barnyard animals have any respect for a man in footy pajamas? No, they do not. For them, the Halloween party has just begun. And we all know these critters far prefer tricks over treats.
There are big surprises in store for Farmer Brown!
Click Clack Boo! Activities
If you're buggin'...
If you're solving mysteries...
Chicken Squad Activities
If you're looking for a friend:
By the author of Click, Clack, Moo and the illustrator of The Lost House, here is an utterly endearing story about venturing out of your comfort zone and overcoming anxiety to help a friend.
Lawrence stays close to home because “out there” is too big and loud. Sophia stays high up in the tree branches because “down there” is too dark and dangerous. When they meet and become friends, they find ways to enjoy each other’s company without leaving their own safe spots . . . until a storm comes, and both are so worried about the other that they are finally able to take a huge, scary leap into the unknown. Together they feel brave, and the future is suddenly a lot more interesting.
If you're ready to move your body...
Or if you're ready for something a
little more serious...
Cyclone
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Ages 9-13
Publisher's Weekly
*STARRED REVIEW*
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A trip to Coney Island to ride the Cyclone roller coaster ends in tragedy for 12-year-old Nora and her 13-year-old cousin, Riley. Moments after their ride, Riley has a stroke and is rushed to the hospital, leading to the discovery of an undiagnosed heart condition. Nora is certain that the Cyclone (and her blackmailing Riley into riding it) led the blood clot in Riley’s heart to dislodge, causing the stroke. As Riley works to regain her verbal and motor skills, Nora faces her haunting choices and Riley’s difficult new reality. Footnotes in Nora’s voice provide commentary and relevant information (they frequently explain medical terms) in accessible, friendly language. Nora’s reaction to Riley’s stroke and recovery is exceedingly believable—she’s supportive, frustrated, angry, and scared—as is the way she reckons with her guilt and her anger at Riley, caused by an argument they had just before the accident. Moreover, Cronin (the Chicken Squad series) smartly uses the girls’ mothers, who are sisters, to provide another mirror for the complexity of female relationships that Nora is just beginning to understand.
Kirkus:
Twelve-year-old Nora has been dying to ride the old Cyclone rollercoaster at Coney Island with her cousin Riley, but tragedy strikes when Riley collapses after getting off the coaster. She’s had a stroke, a result of an undetected heart problem, and now Nora and her family are spending most of their time at the hospital following Riley’s slow and uncertain progress. Nora tries to be Riley’s staunch support, but she’s frightened of two things: Riley’s injured state, and the fact that Riley only rode the coaster because Nora blackmailed her into it. While the medical details (frequently footnoted with explanation) give the story an air of case study, Nora’s narration is real and heartfelt as she negotiates her worry, her guilt, and her family’s sometimes challenging dynamic; it’s believable that the adults aren’t always cool under pressure either, and it’s gratifying that Riley, even in recovery, gets to be a significant character and not just a catalyst (her language-impaired variant of the f-bomb is frequent and sincere). Cronin writes with laudatory accessibility of an unavoidably tough experience; Nora’s and Riley’s sketches add visual appeal as well as featuring in Riley’s recovery. DS
Booklist:
Cronin, famous for solving cow communication problems with a typewriter in Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (2000) and sequels, offers her debut middle-grade novel illuminating human communication problems. Nora, 12, blackmails her cousin Riley, 13, into riding with her on the Cyclone, the Coney Island amusement park’s legendary roller coaster—and as soon as Riley steps off, she collapses from a stroke and is hospitalized, partially paralyzed and nearly unable to speak. In the waiting room, Nora meets Jack, a caring young teen, who says his younger brother is in the ICU with leukemia—although, sadly, he’s not telling the full story. Riley’s hospital stay drags on, including ample medical detail, and Nora’s and Riley’s mothers’ other sister arrives, ballooning the already-substantial tension. As Riley begins to talk a bit, most of her words are, astonishingly, in Spanish, dredged up from her middle school language lessons; only her Latina roommate, Sophia, is able to understand her. (Sophia and some hospital staff aside, the characters all appear to be white.) It’s only time, learning to listen, and a bit of emerging maturity that help Nora resolve these many communication problems, discovering poignant, hidden-in-plain-sight truths along the way. Her honest first-person (and thoroughly footnoted) voice believably moves from defensive and guilt-ridden to perceptive and empathetic as her understanding grows. A sensitive exploration of the high costs of failing to really connect with those around us. (Fiction. 10-14)
