Summer’s Bliss
Beach House by Deanna Caswell Illustrated by Amy June Bates $16.99, chroniclekids.com
Beach House is a heart-warming tale brought to life through poetic language and captivating imagery. This is the third picture book by Collierville mom Deanna Caswell, who is known for writing about her sustainable life on her blog, Little House in the Suburbs. A book by the same name was published in 2012. Unlike Caswell’s first two books (First Ballet and Train Trip), this new picture book celebrates a family’s love for the ocean, as they spend summer vacation at the beach house. The story, which uses short, funny verses and clever word play, is adequately supported by charming illustrations. Children can easily relate to a day at the beach slowly unfolding with a multitude of ways of enjoying the sea. It’s perfect read-aloud book that will delight young listeners. — Meena Viswanathan
High-Seas Adventure
The Chronicles of the Black Tulip Vol. 1: The Vanishing Island by Barry Wolverton | illustrated by Dave Stevenson $16.99, Booksellers at Laurelwood
Local children’s author Barry Wolverton has written his first book in a new adventure trilogy for middle-grade readers. The Chronicles of the Black Tulip Vol. 1: The Vanishing Island was released in September. At his book signing at The Booksellers at Laurelwood, Wolverton read before the standing-room-only crowd that turned out to celebrate. “I get lots of fulfillment out of the act of writing a book,” he says. “Fiction is the ultimate expression for your imagination.” Wolverton’s adventure spans oceans and cultures, bringing together the folklore of East and West. Readers journey back to Britannia in 1599, the Age of Discovery, where 12-year-old Bren Owen is enticed by sailors’ tales of faraway lands. The young boy is hungry to set sail but after several failed attempts at stowing away on sailing ships, he instead meets a dying sailor who gives him a gift that contains a hidden message. He sets out to crack the code and pursue a fabled lost treasure. What ensues can be violent and scary at times, but exciting, too. What was Wolverton’s inspiration? “Animal fantasies were my first love — Uncle Wiggily, The Jungle Book, The Mouse and the Motorcycle — and then adventure fantasies, like those of Piers Anthony and Edgar Rice Burroughs, rekindled my love of reading when I was a bit older. In The Vanishing Island, I wanted to take a classic adventure story like Treasure Island and put my own spin on it. It’s both an adventure novel and detective novel with a different thrust than your typical sea-faring adventure.” — Stephanie Painter