QUEENS — Award-winning Kew Gardens children's author David Ezra Stein is hoping to inspire curiosity and independent thinking among kids with his new book, "Ice Boy," scheduled to be released this week.
Stein, who in 2011 received the prestigious Caldecott Medal, explores the adventures of Ice Boy, who lives in the freezer with his parents and siblings and wears large thick socks.
“I didn’t want him to be cold in the freezer,” Stein, 39, quipped.
Ice Boy is told by his parents that in the future he will most likely end up in someone’s drink, “like a respectable cube.”
“But he has a feeling that he wants more out of life,” Stein said.
He leaves the freezer and goes to the beach, takes off his socks and jumps into the ocean, where he turns into Water Boy.
He later turns into Vapor Boy, before becoming Ice Boy again during a hail storm, reconnecting with his family and leading them towards new adventures.
“He is Ice Boy again, but he is not like himself anymore,” Stein said. “He is changed because of all his experience. He has seen the world.”
Stein, a father of two, said he had thought about a character shaped as an ice cube for several years.
He was also somewhat inspired by "The Tiger Rising," a 2001 children's book by Kate DiCamillo, in which a boy opens up emotionally as he encounters new people and experiences in his life.
The book, Stein said, is geared towards children in kindergarten through second grade.
It includes a lot of science, like the water cycle, which serves as learning experience and inspires Ice Boy to “think independently about what he wants to do with his life,” Stein said.
Stein has written more than a dozen books for kids, including “Interrupting Chicken,” about a chicken who constantly interrupts others, and “Leaves,” about a little bear surprised by falling leaves. He is currently working on sequels to both books slated to be released later this year.
“Ice Boy” is scheduled to be released by Candlewick Press on April 11 ($16.99). Stein will be reading his new book on Apr. 15 at Books of Wonder in Manhattan, on Apr. 23 at Stories Bookstore in Brooklyn, on Apr. 28 at Barnes & Noble in Park Slope, on Apr. 29 at McNally-Jackson Books in Manhattan, on May 7 at the Astoria Bookshop and on May 27 during the annual Queens Book Festival Children’s Day.
