Colors, Math Curses, and Holes

FOR YOUNG READERS:

I have a cousin who is a media specialist (school librarian) in Texas who recommended this book to me.  She said it is the most sought after book in her library: The Black Book of Colors by Rosana Faría.  Imagine trying to describe color to a blind person and you have the concept behind this wonderful book.  Every page is solid black.  There is not a single color shown.  But what there IS, is braille text and raised pictures, and brilliant effort on the part of Faría to evoke the other senses: 
Thomas says that yellow tastes like mustard but is soft as a baby chick's feathers. 
Red is sour like unripe strawberries and sweet as watermelon.  It hurts when he finds it on his scraped knee. Young readers will try to muscle their way to be closest to the book so they can run their fingers over the delicately raised illustrations on the black pages.

FOR MIDDLE READERS:

Math Curse by authors Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith is just plain fun!  Although it is a picture book, I listed it for middle grades because the reader will need enough math background to understand the humor in the book.  On Monday, the math teacher (Mrs. Fibonacci) points out that almost anything can be looked at as a math problem.  On Tuesday, our main character starts to see everything in his life as a math problem, hence the "curse".  It's full of fun facts, and fun problems.  Kids may recognize the artwork; Scieszka also wrote The Stinky Cheese Man with Smith as a contributor.

FOR ADVANCED READERS:

 One of many books by Louis Sachar, Holes was made into a movie in 2003, starring Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, and Shia LaBeouf.  It tells the story of Stanley Yelnats, a boy who is wrongfully convicted of theft and sent to a detention camp in the middle of the desert.  There, he and other boys are made to dig holes all day long but not told why.  Is it a form of punishment?  Are they looking for something?  Readers will delight when they realize Sachar has woven his characters together in some very unexpected ways (we all want that in a good book, don't we?) and will enjoy uncovering the reason the boys are digging the holes.  Winner of the 1999 Newberry Medal, it's worth the read for both adults and kids.