//*// Finalist for the 2022 International Book Awards in Children's Picture Book and Children's Religious categories \\*\\ To: Santa From: Anna My new dad and stepbrother celebrate Christmas, so you're coming to my house for the very first time. And I think you must be REALLY tired of cookies. I'm going to leave you the best Santa treat ever. Anna is excited that Santa will be visiting her house for the first time, and she wants to leave Santa a treat that blends the holidays her new family celebrates: Christmas and Hanukkah. She expresses this idea to her stepbrother, Michael, who insists that Santa doesn't need anything but his sugar cookies. Anna imagines Santa has to be bored with cookies by now and is determined to find a Jewish recipe that he'll enjoy. The catch? It has to be something easy for Santa to grab and go. It can't be matzo ball soup--soup in a sleigh with galloping reindeer will never do. It can't be noodle kugel--imagine that by the handful. What a mess! And as certain as Anna is that Santa would devour tzimmes, she knows he just doesn't have the time to sit and enjoy a hearty stew on Christmas Eve. Anna retreats to her thinking corner to figure out the perfect finger food for Santa, not wanting to disappoint him on his very first visit to her house. In this humorous and endearing picture book, blending both Christmas and Hannukah, a little girl and her stepbrother compete to leave Santa the best treats ever. Latkes for Santa Claus concludes with Anna and Michael's winning recipes, ready for children to replicate for Santa in their own kitchens.

The moms in this book are superheroes. They may not leap over tall buildings, and they may not have super-human speed. But these moms construct buildings, fly planes, and make tanks roll. They do all kinds of things to help create a safer world. These superheroes are moms. Military moms. Hero moms.

Some superheroes wear rocket-propelled boots, drive super-powered cars, and have X-ray vision. But other superheroes wear army boots, drive tanks, and go away for long trips to make the world a safer place. It's a tough job, but superheroes can do it. With Melinda Hardin's simple text and with Bryan Langdo's endearing watercolor-and-pencil illustrations, Hero Dad makes a difficult and tender subject more accessible to children with parents serving far from home.

Tornado Slim is just your regular cowboy...until the day he meets the coyote. The coyote gives Slim his special hat and asks him to deliver a letter to the sheriff of Fire Gulch City. Slim has never been to Fire Gulch City, but he figures he can handle it. As Slim travels from town to town, disaster seems to follow. Pretty soon Slim learns that his new hat is NOT your average cowboy hat. Will Slim ever make it to Fire Gulch City? And what did the wily coyote put down in that letter, anyway? Watercolor illustrations add lively humor to this original tall tale.

"Matt, Bibi, and their dog Riley crawled through the tiny opening first. FWUMP! A secret door suddenly closed behind them . . ."
The Zills family is summoned to Egypt to help find the hidden burial chamber of an ancient pharaoh. But when Matt and Bibi get trapped in the pharaoh's pyramid, they stumble upon an even bigger mystery. With only each other, their dog Riley, and the geometric hieroglyphics on the walls to help them, the twins must use their math skills to locate the burial chamber--and the way out. Luckily, Matt and Bibi know their stuff when it comes to geometric solids, and so will the readers of this adventure in math!

The Gift is, in many ways, the antiAtocha?where Lerner's narrator fails to achieve a profound experience of art, Browning's has an intense intellectual and emotional response to music, dance, and performance. Meaning isn't just accessible to her, it's also movingly conveyed to the reader. Here, art is one of the love stories. This is a book about performance art, yes, but it's also funny and suspenseful. The narrator's friendship with Sami, a musician in Berlin, takes place virtually, and the negotiation of their growing intimacy, as well as the question of who Sami really is, is the tension that propels the book. What's extraordinary about The Gift is the seriousness with which it takes the idea of joy, the idea of offering something, unbidden, to a stranger, the idea of making something purely out of love. It takes some very heady ideas about performance art, Occupy, and gift economies and makes them beautiful. Browning's work as an artist offers a range of opportunities for nontraditional promotion?collaborations with video artists, events at venues like Judson Church, and creative use of the ukulele covers that play such a prominent part in the book, and already live on her soundcloud page.

Meet Marvin. He's a calm and mindful gorilla living in the Great Big City. He is peaceful and composed and enjoys every minute of his day - unlike his thumping, roaring, former Empire State-climbing Grandpa! Readers are introduced to the concept of living mindfully in a creative, practical, and easy-to-apply way. Includes a 'Note to Parents and Caregivers'. Ages 4-8.