June Jam makes Best Books list for 2012!

The Children’s Book Committee at the Bank Street College of Education strives to guide librarians, educators, parents, grandparents and other interested adults to the best books for children published each year. The all-volunteer committee includes educators, librarians, authors, parents and psychologists who share a passion for and expertise in the world of children’s literature. Young reviewers from all over the country, ages 2–18, read and evaluate many of the books as well.

I was delighted to learn that they selected June Jam in the Adventure and Mystery category for readers aged five to nine.

My niece and nephew helped me out by posing for me for June Jam.

June Jam is the sixth book in The Calendar Mystery series. The series features a mystery for every month of the year. We started with January Joker and February Friend, hit our stride with March Mischief, got through Spring of last year with April Adventure and May Magic. June Jam was published last March, and that brings us up to July Jitters and August Acrobat, which came out this past summer.

Ron Roy is writing The Calendar Mysteries as a follow up to his hit series The A to Z Mysteries, which I also illustrated. The main characters in The Calendar Mysteries, (Bradley, Brian, Nate and Lucy), are the younger siblings and cousin of the three main characters in the The A to Z Mysteries (Dink Josh and Ruth Rose).

I finished September Sneakers and am currently working on the illustrations for October Ogre. The A to Z series was based on the alphabet; this one is based on the calendar. Both were, and are, fun while they lasted, but what I need is a series that’s based on numbers so I won’t need to worry about it coming to an end!

For complete of Bank Street's picks, see http://bankstreet.edu/center-childrens-literature/childrens-book-committee/best-books-year/best-books-year-2012/