Borders Books has taken time to recommend books for different ages and reading levels for Oakland County Moms. Borders was also kind enough to suggest books for moms. These book recommendations and reviews from Borders make shopping easier!

Picture Books - Baby - Pre-School

On the Day You Were Born By: Debra Fraiser

This charming photo journal invites families to celebrate the arrival of their loved one into the natural world. A star-spangled blue sky, crossed by a swath of sunshine yellow with gold birds, introduces the reader to "the very first day you arrived." Baby's picture and name go right in the middle of all the cheery yellow.

By adding eight photographs and filling in a few details, parents can create a very special journal for their child, rejoicing together in all the natural wonders of the universe. Here is an ideal gift for the new parents with a vibrant connection to nature.

Dear Zoo By: Rod Campbell

Each animal arriving from the zoo as a possible pet fails to suit its prospective owner, until just the right one is found. Movable flaps reveal the contents of each package.

Orange Pear Apple Bear By: Emily Gravett

A plump brown bear adds a humorous touch to this charming book about shapes, colors, and sequence. Five words, four of which appear in the title, make up the entire text. The cuddly-looking bear changes color and shape as he balances, juggles, and eventually eats the three pieces of fruit before loping off. The front endpapers show oranges, green pears, and green apples with rosy tinges in a line leading readers into the simple and appealing story.

Early Reader - Ages 4-8

Every Friday By: Dan Yaccarino

There are few things more rewarding for a child than receiving undivided attention from a parent. Every Friday is a fun and heartwarming celebration of precisely that brand of togetherness, where a father and son's weekly ritual of walking to the local diner for breakfast unfolds in bright, bold swaths of color. On the way, they watch the neighborhood come to life and urge each other on from one delightful distraction to another. Their story packs a powerful nostalgic punch for parents and is sweet inspiration for the whole family to spend time together--whether that means sharing a weekly breakfast or reading a book before bedtime.

Fabian Escapes By: Peter McCarty

readers follow Fabian the cat out the window while Hondo the dog stays home with the baby. Illustrated with pencil on watercolor paper artwork, McCarty's second installment is characterized by the same color schemes, softened shapes, and low light as the first book, and depicts equally likely experiences for a cat on the lam and a dog stuck inside with a toddler.

Tracks In The Snow By: Wong Herbert Yee

A little girl bundled in her red coat, striped scarf, and blue mittens follows mysterious tracks in the snow, wondering who made them. She goes out across the yard, along a frozen pond, over a snowy bridge, and into the woods. Ultimately, the trail leads her home and she realizes that she made the mystery tracks the day before. The gentle, rhyming text makes an ideal read-aloud, and young listeners will chime in on the repeated phrases. The soft-focus, colored-pencil illustrations portray a small Asian girl exploring her safe world, but a world transformed by the fresh snowfall. The child happily makes angels in the snow and slides down a small hill on her adventure. The cozy ending, complete with tea and cookies in a snug, warm kitchen, completes this tender celebration of the season.

Independent Reader - Ages 8-12 

The Spiderwick Chronicles By: Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

It all started with a mysterious letter left at a tiny bookstore for authors Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. Its closing lines: “We just want people to know about this. The stuff that has happened to us could happen to anyone.” Little could they imagine the remarkable adventure that awaited them as they followed Jared, Simon, and Mallory Grace and a strange old book into a world filled with elves, goblins, dwarves, trolls, and a fantastical menagerie of other creatures. The oddest part is in entering that world, they didn’t leave this one!

Five captivating books!
One thrilling adventure!
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Snowbird By: Nancy Yi Fan

Yi Fan's tightly woven story delivers a manifest message promoting peace and freedom. Starring woodland bird characters, the saga pits the tyrannical hawk Turnatt, captor of "slavebirds" whom he shackles and puts to work building his fortress, against the cardinals and blue jays. Though once friendly, these two benign flocks are now at war: Turnatt's soldiers have stolen eggs and food from each flock (the hawk eats a purloined egg daily, believing this will "keep death away"), and have led each camp to believe the other is responsible for the thefts. One of the slavebirds, a robin named Miltin, escapes to tell Aska, a brave young jay, about Turnatt's evil doings and his plan to enslave all the local woodbirds. Blue jays and cardinals join forces to vanquish the despot, a mission that entails several diverting twists, including a search for the necessary elements to summon the Swordbird, the "mystical white bird, the son of the Great Spirit."

SwordQuest By: Nancy Yi Fan

Wind-voice the half-dove, formerly enslaved, is now free, and Maldeor, the one-winged archaeopteryx, hungers for supreme power.
Can Wind-voice and his valiant companions—Ewingerale, the wood-pecker scribe; Stormac, the myna warrior; and Fleydur, the musician eagle—save the future of their world?

Books for Moms

Nineteen Minutes By: Jodi Piccoult

Jodi Picoult's 14th novel, Nineteen Minutes, deals with the truth and consequences of a smalltown high-school shooting. Set in Sterling, New Hampshire, Picoult offers reads a glimpse of what would cause a 17-year-old to wake up one day, load his backpack with four guns, and kill nine students and one teacher in the span of nineteen minutes. As with any Picoult novel, the answers are never black and white, and it is her exceptional ability to blur the lines between right and wrong that make this author such a captivating storyteller.

The Appeal By: John Grisham

After forty-two hours of deliberations that followed seventy-one days of trial that included 530 hours of testimony from four dozen witnesses, and after a lifetime of sitting silently as the lawyers haggled and the judge lectured and the spectators watched like hawks for telltale signs, the jury was ready. Locked away in the jury room, secluded and secure, ten of them proudly signed their names to the verdict while the other two pouted in their corners, detached and miserable in their dissension. There were hugs and smiles and no small measure of self-congratulation because they had survived this little war and could now march proudly back into the arena with a decision they had rescued through sheer determination and the dogged pursuit of compromise. Their ordeal was over; their civic duty complete. They had served above and beyond. They were ready.

PS. I love You By:Cecelia Ahern

PS, I Love You, follows the engaging, witty, and occasionally sappy reawakening of Holly, a young Irish widow who must put her life back together after she loses her husband Gerry to a brain tumor. Ahern, the twentysomething daughter of Ireland's prime minister, has discovered a clever and original twist to the Moving On After Death concept made famous by novelists and screenwriters alike--Gerry has left Holly a series of letters designed to help her face the year ahead and carry on with her life. As the novel takes readers through the seasons (and through Gerry's monthly directives), we watch as Holly finds a new job, takes a holiday to Spain with her girlfriends, and sorts through her beloved husband's belongings. Accompanying Holly throughout the healing process is a cast of friends and family members who add as much to the novel's success as Holly's own tale of survival. In fact, it is these supporting character's mini-dramas that make PS, I Love You more than just another superficial tearjerker with the obligatory episode at a karaoke bar. Ahern shows real talent for capturing the essence of an interaction between friends and foes alike; even if Holly's circle of friends does resemble the gang from Bridget Jones a bit too neatly to ignore (her best friend is even called Sharon).

Atonement By: Ian McEwan

We meet 13-year-old Briony Tallis in the summer of 1935, as she attempts to stage a production of her new drama "The Trials of Arabella" to welcome home her older, idolized brother Leon. But she soon discovers that her cousins, the glamorous Lola and the twin boys Jackson and Pierrot, aren't up to the task, and directorial ambitions are abandoned as more interesting prospects of preoccupation come onto the scene. The charlady's son, Robbie Turner, appears to be forcing Briony's sister Cecilia to strip in the fountain and sends her obscene letters; Leon has brought home a dim chocolate magnate keen for a war to promote his new "Army Ammo" chocolate bar; and upstairs, Briony's migraine-stricken mother Emily keeps tabs on the house from her bed. Soon, secrets emerge that change the lives of everyone present....