Young Readers

LET'S TAKE note of the excellent -- and lucky -- young readers who recently have won prizes in the Howard County Library's summer reading game.Young adults Max Seifert, Iris Shin, Jennifer Pirnat, Mariam Keramat, Michael Woo, Maranatha Satchell, Katie Northken, Camille Sileun, Daniel Steciak, Jenna Ebert and Kellsy Berge all won prizes in the contest last week.The contest entries are short slips of paper describing the books that entrants have read in the program.There's still time to sign up. And students can get library prizes as well as school credit for books read.

Almost everyone likes animals at least a little, but there's that handful who are born "animal people." So says Jennifer Keats Curtis. They pull over for wounded pigeons. They take in orphaned cats. They're the ones the neighbors stop by to visit if a stray mutt comes calling. It doesn't mean they know what they're doing. "So many people want to help animals, but honestly, a good heart isn't enough," says Curtis, a veteran journalist and children's author whose fourth illustrated book, "Baby Owl's Rescue," debuts under the Sylvan Dell insignia next month.

An interview with Barb Langridge, facilitator for the We're Bookin' children's book club at the central library. What ages are appropriate for this group? Kids ages 9 to 12. We had a couple of parents come to the first meeting, just to see what the group was about. We have a great group of young readers, very intelligent, very insightful, very spirited. How do you keep the kids interested in coming every month? One thing is that we give them free food, and they love it. It's like coming to a party.

A Kitten Tale by Eric Rohmann Knopf Books for Young Readers / $15.99 / ages 4-8 It's hot and sticky outside, so reading this book about four kittens in the snow might make you wish for winter. Three playful kittens are fearful about the impending snow, and one can't wait to play in it. A beautifully illustrated story about curiosity and overcoming fear is a winner any time of the year. A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee Harcourt / $16 / ages 4-8 A tongue-in-cheek story about summertime fun based on Frazee's son's adventures with his best pal as they stay at his grandparents' house and go to nature camp.

Peeps Scott Westerfeld If You Decide to Go to the Moon Faith McNulty, ill. by Steven Kellogg Scholastic / ages 4-8 If you decide to go to the moon, and you're a second-grader or younger, this is your travel guide. The familiarity of Steven Kellogg's illustrating style matches the lift-off world, which appears to be just on the other side of a green field nearby to anywhere and anyone. And for astronauts young enough to want games and books and peanut butter, that familiarity is comforting.

On page 371 of his hyped-up media novel "Turn of the Century" (Random House, 659 pages, $24.95), Kurt Andersen describes a self-conscious, dispirited, middle-aged married couple glumly meeting on a cloudy afternoon. "[The wife] gives a minimal one-shouldered shrug, lighting her Marlboro and squinting down the street toward the bright disk of sun behind the clouds. In her twenties, [she] gave up reading short stories. Right now she remembers why. They all felt just like this moment." Readers of "literary" short stories, and "literary" novels for that matter, know exactly what kind of work Andersen is describing -- a subset of well-crafted fiction that dwells on moments of tiny defeat, spinning glum observations into sham epiphanies.

Richard Peck writes stories about strong, older characters who try to teach youngsters life lessons. You've got to wonder if he isn't a model himself for his protagonists. The 67-year-old has been writing children's books for nearly half his life. He is a wellspring of historical anecdotes and old-fashioned values. And his year-round school visits are, he says, his purpose in life. Having recently won the Newbery, the most prestigious award in children's literature, he's secured his place in libraries and schools everywhere -- but something else drives him still.

PETER BRADFORD'S van is nearing The End, and what better way to say goodbye than to have his students paint it the colors of the rainbow?That's what they did Thursday afternoon in the dreary parking lot of Harlem Park Elementary School, where Bradford teaches fourth grade.He is also West Baltimore's itinerant librarian.Once or twice a week year-round, Bradford stocks his 11-year-old van with donated children's books. Then he cruises the corners of Harlem Park and surrounding neighborhoods in search of young readers.

Publisher donates books for children ages 5 to 8 BALTIMORE - Volunteer Central, a referral service that links volunteers and organizations throughout Central Maryland, has received the first installment of 36,000 new books donated by Scholastic Books for area children ages 5 to 8 through the Neighbor Cares program. Baltimore Reads and the Ripken Learning Center, local literacy organizations, will house the books, which are to be distributed during the next three years. Nationally, Scholastic is donating 1 million books for young readers.

Sponsors of dyslexia tutorial meet children who benefit STEVENSON - Eight young people who are receiving one-on-one tutoring through the Baltimore-based Dyslexia Tutoring Program's "Sponsor A Child" project recently met with the sponsors, who provide $2,500 each for the services, at the organization's annual community recognition event. The group, formerly known as MADAY Inc., provides diagnostic screening, free tutoring and mentoring services for low-income young people and adults with dyslexia, and tutored more than 150 students last year.

Anita Rozenel, a music teacher at Hernwood Elementary School, is the founder of Kids Helping Hopkins, an organization that brings Maryland students together to raise money, write cards and notes, and donate books, crafts and toys to the patients of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Rozenel founded the organization in 1993 after one of her kindergarten pupils died of cancer. "Richard Scarry's Best First Book Ever!" / by Richard Scarry / Random House Books for Young Readers / 48 pages / $13.99 I was taking a children's literature course when I read this book.

Grace Sullivan, 8, has read all six Harry Potter books, and she plans to devour the seventh as soon as it comes out. She has theories about what might happen. "I think that Dumbledore will not be dead, actually," said Grace, who was wearing a black felt cape left over from Halloween, when she went trick-or-treating as Harry's good friend, Hermione. Her mother has an even more radical theory. "My mom thinks that Neville is the chosen one, actually," she said. Grace, who is entering third grade at St. Louis School in Clarksville, was one of about 15 youngsters in a weeklong Harry Potter camp at Howard Community College last week.

Gregor and the Marks of Secret Suzanne Collins Masterpieces Up Close Western Painting from the 14th to 20th Centuries Claire d'Harcourt Chronicle / $22.99 / Ages 10-14 This book is not designed as a run-up-your-SAT-score primer. Claire d'Harcourt makes intriguing fun out of art history's material. There are 10 or so questions, on 21 images, asking readers to notice and read the small details. The answers - and some are quite tentative and preliminary - don't come until later, so there's no open-and-shut feeling of art-history-as-flash-cards.

Museum Trip Barbara Lehman Just Listen Sarah Dessen Viking / $17.99 / Ages 13-16 For many teenagers, your music-listening choices and the CDs you burn for friends show who you are. Sarah Dessen gets right to the heart of music, families and teenage identity. She begins the book quoting Robert Frost - "The best way out is always through" - and creates a stage on which that truth appears. Annabel is the youngest of three daughters, all of whom model because their mother enjoys that world.

Dreamhunter Elizabeth Knox Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship Isabella and Craig Hatkoff and Dr. Paula Kahumbu; photos by Peter Greste Scholastic / $16.99 / Ages 8-12 Photos of a baby hippo, orphaned by the December 2004 tsunami, who took up company with a 130-year-old giant tortoise caught the attention of many. What's likable about this book is that it's not syrupy but looks closely at how animals adapt to difficult situations. Owen the hippo was part of a pod living freely, near the eastern Kenyan coast, and Mzee the tortoise lived in an animal reserve north of that.

The Shadow Thieves Anne Ursu Ptolemy's Gate Jonathan Stroud Miramax/Hyperion / $17.95 / Ages 12-15 The final book in a series is often the most difficult to bring off. Jonathan Stroud is successful, largely because, from the beginning in The Bartimaeus Trilogy, he created a character, the genie Bartimaeus, whose witty overview and curmudgeonly interactions with the central characters are believable. Bartimaeus narrates some chapters, and we learn his history from the times of Ptolemy in much detail.

Anita Rozenel, a music teacher at Hernwood Elementary School, is the founder of Kids Helping Hopkins, an organization that brings Maryland students together to raise money, write cards and notes, and donate books, crafts and toys to the patients of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Rozenel founded the organization in 1993 after one of her kindergarten pupils died of cancer. "Richard Scarry's Best First Book Ever!" / by Richard Scarry / Random House Books for Young Readers / 48 pages / $13.99 I was taking a children's literature course when I read this book.

The Baltimore Blast soccer team is kicking in support to encourage reading.At Saturday's game against the Philadelphia Kixx, the Blast will accept donated books for young readers and distribute fliers promoting its "Booklist Challenge."Students taking the "Challenge" will read for three hours, alone or with their parents. In exchange, they will receive free tickets to the Blast's Dec. 18 game, also against the Kixx, and be recognized at halftime.The fliers will be distributed and books collected by Maryland Sings, a teen group that has toured Europe and performed at the White House.

In My Heart Molly Bang For You Are a Kenyan Child Kelly Cunnane, art by Ana Juan Atheneum / $16.95 / Ages 5-7 For any children, this book suggests, there's often a pull between the chore they're supposed to be doing and the fun they'd rather be having. This little boy is supposed to be watching grandfather's cows, but he sees many other possibilities for the day, expressively rendered in Ana Juan's pictures, like visiting the village shops, chasing monkeys, having an afternoon snack that's a bug plucked from the air (no transfats there)

After signing in and picking out a book at the east Columbia library, 8-year-old Gabriella Gipson settles in with her reading partner, Dylan. Dylan is a 7-year-old Corgie. Gabriella is one of 38 Howard County third-graders who participate each Saturday morning in Dogs Educating and Assisting Readers (DEAR), a 10-week program run by Fidos for Freedom in collaboration with the Howard County Library. It targets improving the confidence and reading skills of pupils such as Gabriella who read for 45 minutes each week to one of Fidos for Freedom's therapy dogs.