Marilyn Singer, Compiled by, Marilyn Singer, Author Scholastic $16.95 (208p) ISBN 978-0-590-36031-9
In her first short story anthology, Singer (All We Need to Say) brings together works by 11 distinguished authors, including M.E. Kerr, Rita Williams-Garcia, Norma Fox Mazer and Singer herself. Thematically related by their emphasis on learning to...
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Marilyn Singer, Author , illus. by Frané Lessac. HarperTrophy $5.95 (, $5.95 ISBN ) ISBN 978-0-06-443528-4
Of this companion to Nine O'Clock Lullaby, which describes the weather in various countries around the world, PW
said, "No matter the time of year, youngsters will be eager to take this informative tour." Ages 4-8. (Jan.)
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Marilyn Singer, Author Hyperion Books $15.95 (153p) ISBN 978-1-56282-583-6
Wheel and his friends are going to host the best Fourth of July carnival ever--if they don't kill each other first. Wheel demands that everyone practice difficult tasks constantly, even in the hot summer sun. Desite his best friend Tag's warnings,...
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Marilyn Singer, Author HarperCollins Publishers $11.5 (181p) ISBN 978-0-06-025621-0
In this funny, touching sequel to Tarantulas on the Brain, 10-year-old Lizzie Silver can't accept that her latest obsession, Robin Hood, is make-believe or that her best friend Tessa is leaving her for music school. Though Lizzie tries hard to learn
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Marilyn Singer, Author Atheneum Books $14.95 (219p) ISBN 978-0-689-31619-7
At 12, Miranda has been told often enough that she has an active imagination. Yet when she is yanked out of her bedroom one evening in the company of a snake-goddess named Naja and a human-size feline named Bastable, she knows this is no ordinary...
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Marilyn Singer, Author Henry Holt & Company $11.95 (79p) ISBN 978-0-03-005747-2
According to Samantha Spayed, percipient dog detective, ""When it comes to books there's sometimes more between the covers than just the pages.'' As usual, Sam is right. From the double pun of its title to its irresistible end, this new Sam Spayed...
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Marilyn Singer, Author Scholastic $12.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-590-42173-7
This love story of a 17-year-old pianist, Storm, and a 28-year-old psychic, Jocelyn, is told from the boy's point of view. Storm is one of the walking wounded--his absent father is an alcoholic, his mother is a floozy, and his girlfriend has just...
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Marilyn Singer, Author Henry Holt & Company $17 (168p) ISBN 978-0-8050-6268-7
Singer (Deal with a Ghost) serves up an energetic but predictable male Cinderella story, with a supernatural twist. Ever since his mother's supposed death, 11-year-old Solomon Yanish has lived with his hard-edged stepmother, ""Old Staircase,"" and...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Ken Robbins, Illustrator Atheneum Books $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-82492-0
In Fireflies at Midnight by Marilyn Singer, a summer day unfolds through the voices of various animals, from a robin at dawn (""Up cheerup I'm up/ Let me be first to greet the light""), to a bat (""I hear/ I see/ the night""), to a mole the...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Carll Cneut, Illustrator , illus. by Carll Cneut. Clarion $16 (32p) ISBN 978-0-618-60703-7
A baby sleeps in a red stroller, oblivious to the incessant cacophony of city sounds (“Seven cans bashing, eight dogs barking, nine phones ringing, ten horns beeping”). But when “one small bird, for goodness sake, chirpity-chirps, &
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Gary Drake, Illustrator Henry Holt & Company $15.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8050-3004-4
``Suppertime they fill/ the room to bursting/ all the Morgans,'' but at night, the 13 members of this extended family ``say good night and grow still/ to drift or run/ to swim or fly/ to Dreamland.'' In separate poems, Singer (Please Don't Squeeze...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Lee Wildish, Knopf, $7.99 (24p) ISBN 978-0-375-86710-1
In this greeting card–sized book, animals express their fondness for one another in rhyming couplets. Two bucktoothed horses exchange gazes in side-by-side stables: "Nose to nose, hip to hip,/ ours is a stable relationship." In another, chameleons...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Josee Massee, Illustrator , illus. by Josée Masse. Dutton $16.99 (0p) ISBN 978-0-525-47901-7
Singer uses “reverso” poems, a form of her creation, to show that there are two sides to every fairy tale (the poems can be read backward and forward). On each page, two poems appear, one an inversion of the other with minor changes in...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Kristi Valiant. Dial, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8037-4021-1
Singer (Miss Muffet, or What Came After) taps into the rhythms of the cha-cha, conga, waltz, and other dances in more than a dozen upbeat poems. “No fumbling, no bumbling,/ my pops is tops at tumbling./ He’s elastic, so fantastic./ Papa’s so...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, John Manders, Illustrator , illus. by John Manders. Clarion $15 (32p) ISBN 978-0-618-12044-4
"The moon is big. The moon is bright. A frog bar-rums on a quiet night." But the moonlit woods are actually far from idyllic. With each succeeding spread, Singer (Didi and Daddy on the Promenade) and Manders (Dirt Boy) add cumulatively...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Kathleen Habbley. S&S/Atheneum, $12.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-7931-9
Newcomer Habbley brings 1960s cartoon–style spreads bursting with color and action to Singer's (Mirror, Mirror) direct, telegraphic lines: "Dog sharing/ Dog daring/ Dog in a chase/ Dog in disgrace./Brilliant dog that loves to herd,/ Famous dog that...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Ed Young. Chronicle, $16.99 (44p) ISBN 978-1-4521-0120-0
Singer (A Stick Is an Excellent Thing) approaches zoology from a literary standpoint in 14 idiosyncratic poems, with cut-and-torn-paper imagery by Young (The House Baba Built). Each spread features one species and the bizarre conditions in which it...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Meilo So, Illustrator Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers $14.95 (48p) ISBN 978-0-375-81094-7
""Sometimes I'm in the mood for mud When my toes have tasted too many sidewalks. In the park or by the river I choose ooze,"" writes Marilyn Singer in ""Mud,"" one of several environmentally-themed offerings in Footprints on the Roof: Poems...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Meilo So, Illustrator Alfred A. Knopf $14.95 (41p) ISBN 978-0-375-82376-3
Popular characters and subjects return in companion volumes and new series installments. Marilyn Singer and Meilo So team up again in How to Cross a Pond: Poems About Water, a companion to Footprints on the Roof: Poems About the Earth. Singer's ...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Meilo So, Illustrator Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers $15.95 (48p) ISBN 978-0-375-82912-3
If Footprints on the Roof contemplated the earth and environment, this companion volume, Central Heating: Poems About Fire and Warmth by Marilyn Singer, illus. by Meilo So, explores all aspects of fire. From fire's very nature (""Fire has...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by David Litchfield. Clarion, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-547-90566-2
It’s possible to turn a four-line nursery rhyme into an elaborate period verse drama—Singer (Echo Echo) proves it, framing this elegant makeover as a theatrical production, complete with stage directions and musical numbers. Mrs. Muffet wants...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by LeUyen Pham. Clarion, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-547-12493-3
On a hot summer day, children revel in the joys of free outdoor play, with no computer screens or electrical outlets in sight. One poem echoes the rhythm of a jump rope (“In the town/ town/ town/ there are noises all around”), while a girl in a park
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by John Hendrix. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99 (56p) ISBN 978-1-4231-7100-3
This ambitious rhyming look at America’s commander in chief is, like the presidencies themselves, a mixture of hits and misses. Singer’s (Follow Follow) attempt both to be breezy and to give a sense of historical sweep can lead to a few awkward...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, R. W. Alley, Illustrator Atheneum Books $14.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-02-782883-2
In a series of jaunty poems, Singer (Turtle in July) sets forth the idiosyncrasies and cheerful activities that characterize the large family reunion held in Small Park. Like the musicians in Aunt Dena's ``family band,'' the child narrator's...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Linda Saport, Illustrator , illus. by Linda Saport. Clarion $16 (48p) ISBN 978-0-618-08340-4
Despite the striking full-bleed art and the author's enthusiasm for her subject, this collection of poems about crows may not fly with the target audience. For starters, youngsters may have trouble reading the poems, printed as they are in thin...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Hiroe Nakata, Illustrator , illus. by Hiroe Nakata. Dutton $15.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-525-47939-0
What is more fun to buy than a pair of shoes (except, of course, a pair of picture books)?
Shoe Bop!
Marilyn Singer
, illus. by Hiroe Nakata. Dutton
, $15.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-525-47939-0
Singer (City Lullaby
) and Nakata (Don’t Step on the...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Ted Rand, Illustrator Atheneum Books $15 (1p) ISBN 978-0-689-31755-2
A versatile and prolific author of picture books (The Maiden on the Moor, reviewed below) as well as fantasy novels (Horsemaster), Singer meshes elements of these two genres in this overly elaborate tale. Bold, clever Mariana, the daughter of a lord,
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Troy Howell, Illustrator Morrow Junior Books $15 (1p) ISBN 978-0-688-08674-9
Embroidering upon a medieval English verse, Singer (The Painted Fan; The Golden Heart of Winter) turns out a finely wrought fairy tale. Two shepherd brothers, the elder married and prosperous, the younger alone and poor, find a dark-haired maiden...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Alexandra Boiger. Clarion, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-547-33004-4
Tallulah, the aspiring ballerina whose tutu tunnel vision led to a meltdown in Tallulah’s Tutu, is as determined as ever to achieve her dancing dream. But when her brother, Beckett, who does nothing but pick his nose and goof off in ballet class,...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Alexandra Boiger. Clarion, $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-547-48223-1
In Tallulah’s first outing, she was desperate for a tutu; now, like all young ballerinas, she dreams of getting her first pair of toe shoes and dancing en pointe. Trying to speed the process along, she snags a discarded pair that belonged to an...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Alexandra Boiger, Clarion, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-547-17353-5
Tallulah starts her lessons at the barre with visions of a much-coveted tutu dancing in her head. But when class after class goes by and all her teacher has to offer is, "Good job," Tallulah finally loses it. "That's not fair!" she cries, stamping...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Alexandra Boiger. Clarion, $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-547-84557-9
Budding ballerina Tallulah is over the moon when she learns that she will be a mouse in The Nutcracker. Even though there are 11 other mice in the production, and it’s not exactly glamorous to dress as a mouse, Tallulah takes her role seriously (she
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Marilyn Singer, Author, S. D. Schindler, Illustrator, Marilyn Singer, Illustrator Scholastic $14.95 (80p) ISBN 978-0-590-76339-4
This chapter book takes the third-person point-of-view of eight-year-old Josie, who, after overhearing her parents' money worries as the birth of a new sibling approaches, decides to help them out. As Josie struggles to be as ""helpful"" as her...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Cat Bowman Smith, Illustrator Henry Holt & Company $15.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8050-1828-8
A working sheepdog becomes a fish out of water when he moves from the farm to the city. Chester loved spending his days rounding up sheep on the Wippenhoopers' farm, and the calm quiet of country evenings there. But when the Wippenhoopers trade...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Marie-Louise Gay, Illustrator Clarion Books $14 (32p) ISBN 978-0-618-04640-9
Singer (On the Same Day in March) sets her upbeat tale on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, a walkway that borders the East River and offers a prime view of the lower Manhattan skyline. On a Sunday morning, frisky Didi and her (possibly single) father
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Robert Rayevsky, Illustrator Morrow Junior Books $14.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-688-07717-4
An elderly smithy sends his three sons on a quest, promising to name as his heir whoever brings back the most valuable object. Wasting no time, the sons--two loutish older ones and a dreamy younger one named ``Half'' by his brothers--set out. The ``s
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Frane Lessac, Illustrator HarperCollins Publishers $14.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-025647-0
A series of bright vignettes provides an ingenious response to children's curiosity about what youngsters in other parts of the world are doing while they themselves are going to bed. Armchair travelers can espy their counterparts dancing at a late-n
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Frane Lessac, Illustrator HarperCollins $15.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-028187-8
In this companion volume to their Nine O'Clock Lullaby, Singer and Lessac embark on a meteorological trip around the globe, pointing out the drastically different weather conditions that can occur in various places, all on the same day. From the...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Julia Cairns. Lee & Low, $19.95 (48p) ISBN 978-1-60060-364-8
Singer's sparkling verses celebrate the majesty of the moon as experienced in settings around the world, each distinctly conveyed in Cairns's perceptive watercolors. A "Broadway Moon" peers between skyscrapers as a girl, "an audience of one/ watches
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Gris Grimly, Illustrator , illus. by Gris Grimly. Hyperion $14.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7868-0520-4
To the rollicking beat of Singer's (The Circus Lunicus) absurd poems, children trail an undead docent through a "monster museum" where the exhibits are wax replicas... or are they? The visitors see Frankenstein's creation ("I'
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Gris Grimly, Illustrator Hyperion Books $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7868-1877-8
A devilish collection of rhymes, Creature Carnival by Marilyn Singer, illus. by Gris Grimly, the pair behind Monster Museum, leads readers through a festival of mythological proportions, with attractions such as the Sphinx (""If she's lyin'/ like
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Clement Oubrerie, Illustrator Henry Holt & Company $15.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8050-3277-2
Singer and Oubrerie (It's Hard to Read a Map with a Beagle on Your Lap) pour a litter of animal rhymes and pictures-some catchy, some otherwise-into this volume. The entries commence with the eponymous poem (``Be fonder of your anaconda/ That's what
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Clement Oubrerie, Illustrator, Clement Oubrerie, Photographer Henry Holt & Company $15.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8050-2201-8
This unfocused volume celebrates dogs of all shapes and sizes with limericks, rhyming couplets and other sing-song verses. The title phrase, which constitutes an entire poem (and the sole reference to a beagle), serves as the jumping-off point for...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Brian Biggs. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-7868-3825-7
In this amusing but overwrought tale with an extraterrestrial twist, Larry the Liar has his work cut out for him when he calls attention to an alien ship’s splash landing in Malarkey Lake. Who will believe the rantings of the kid who told his...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Josée Masse. Dial, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8037-3992-5
Arachne, Icarus, Midas, and—as the title suggests—Narcissus are among the renowned Greek figures who feature in Singer and Masse’s third collection of “reverso” poems, which are intended to be read both forward and backward. “Wondrous!/ How/ life-/li
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Josée Masse. Dial, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8037-3769-3
Singer and Masse’s companion to Mirror Mirror (a PW Best Book in 2010) is just as inspired as its predecessor. Iconic fairy tale characters speak through poems that can be read backward and forward, resulting in drastically different meanings....
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Deborah Kogan Ray, Illustrator MacMillan Publishing Company $14.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-02-782882-5
Although many of her poems about the sky are fairly predictable, Singer ( Turtle in July ) redeems herself with flashes of memorable wit and occasionally vivid language. Twilight, for example, is the ``hour of the bat / when the sky turns the color /
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Tom Newsom, Illustrator, Jeffrey Lindberg, Illustrator HarperCollins Publishers $3.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-06-440353-5
Told in a lively, first-person narrative, Emma's dilemma involves characters ranging from dazzling classmate Marguerite Perrier (``even her name is pretty'') to the President of the U.S. (``he made me lose my best friend''). Ages 7-10. (Feb.)
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Wenhai Ma, Illustrator Morrow Junior Books $15 (1p) ISBN 978-0-688-11742-9
``When the imperial houses of Li and Chen would not stop fighting,'' begins this exquisitely told tale, ``it was easy for Lord Shang to march in and set himself up as ruler.'' When cruel Lord Shang discovers that his bride-to-be, the peasant girl...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Lorna Clark, Photographer Atheneum Books $15 (0p) ISBN 978-0-689-80667-4
Printed on creamy pages and decorated sparsely with black-and-white photographs, this unusual collection features verses, paired by topic and events, written in the voices of two middle-graders named Tanya and Sophie. For example, Sophie expresses...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Noah Z. Jones. Clarion, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-547-43559-6
B-list superheroes try to rustle up work in this collection of poems that, unfortunately, isn’t as entertaining as its premise suggests. Readers first hear from disaster-prone Blunder Woman, who “began this agency/ for superheroes just like me:/...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Miki Sakamoto. Dial, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8037-3715-0
In lively and often humorous poems that range from rhymed couplets to haiku, Singer describes different days of the year from a dog’s point of view. Though a dog doesn’t understand what “Valentine” means, some things are clear: “She hugs me, gives...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Jerry Pinkney, Illustrator, Jerry Oinkney, Illustrator MacMillan Publishing Company $14.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-02-782881-8
From the ``January deer so swift and light'' to the November beaver chanting ``Mud, more mud, add mud, good mud . . . ,'' this collection of nature poems progresses through the year. Singer divides the year with four seasonal poems featuring the...
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Judith Glasser, Illustrator, Judy Glasser, Illustrator HarperTrophy $3.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-06-440207-1
Brothers Sam and Dave Bean star in two zany mysteries. Ages 8-12. (October)
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Marilyn Singer, Author, Ruth Rosner, Illustrator HarperCollins Publishers $12.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-025846-7
This year, Minnie's birthday falls on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Her father says it will be special, but Minnie's not so sure: How special could it be on such a serious day? Arnold, her brother, teases her by saying that she'll have to spend...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Dana Wulfekotte. Rocky Pond, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-5933-2469-1
A light-skinned family decides to observe every holiday in the Jewish calendar—“the ones we know well,/ the ones we do not,” announces Singer’s speaker. As Wulfekotte’s digitally colored pencil illustrations portray celebrations, starting with Rosh...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Marjorie Priceman. Dial, $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-735227-90-3
Singer weaves the language of cooking with witty and poignant observations of the world in this collection of inventive recipes for sentiments and ideas. Expressed in both free verse and rhyme, poems in myriad forms invite readers into the state of...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Susan L. Roth. Lee & Low, $20.95 (48p) ISBN 978-1-62014-162-5
Fittingly taking the shape of a calendar, this graceful grouping of more than a dozen poems showcases new year celebrations, both secular and religious, from across the globe and throughout the year. Lines from “Smashing the Pots,” about the Kemetic
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Jana Christy. WordSong, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-62979-169-2
Singer’s genial poems focus on childhood milestones: learning left from right, visiting the beach for the first time, performing in a ballet or piano recital, or attending a first “big-kid party.” In a poem divided into three parts, a girl gradually
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Edwin Fotheringham. Dial, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-593-32472-1
This breezy animal biography opens in the British household of the writer Charles Dickens, whose raven Grip teases his children, chasing them around the house. Singer deftly contextualizes Dickens’s literary fame and his typically Victorian taste in
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Ryan McAmis. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4847-8999-5
Singer commemorates a menagerie that’s furry, feathered, and even scaly, all of them “witnesses to history” who kept company with, and occasionally provided consternation for, U.S. presidents and their families. Beginning with George Washington’s...
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Marilyn Singer, illus. by Alette Straathof. Words & Pictures, $18.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7112-5737-5
In a series of couplets, Singer presents the way various animals—including garter snakes, peacocks, and dance flies—court each other, compared to humans’ dating particularities. “Whales make music/ when they woo,” reads one verso page portraying two
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