In the last 48 hours I have read:

The Magic Mirror by Susan Hill Long;   (fairy tale style fantasy, pretty good) 3 1/2 stars

The Black Dragon : Mysterium #1 by Julian Sedgwick;  (rock 'em, sock 'em, fast-paced underworld crime novel set in Hong Kong to be continued, of course.) 3 stars

The Storyteller by Aaron Starmer; (last of what may be a psychological thriller trilogy, or it may be a study in mental illness, or alternative fiction.  This entry is good enough to read to the very end but I don't need to know what went before.) 3 stars

Swing Sideways by Nanci Turner Stevenson.  (friendship/family relationship novel.  I just finished this one and am tempted to say more.  Tragedy rears it's ugly tissue wielding head at the end.  Sigh.) 3 stars

Earlier this week, I finished As Brave as You by Jason Reynolds( No one has a terminal illness in this book.  YAY!!!!!  Two city boys spend the summer at the family farm with their dad's parents.  Family stuff, brother stuff, city boys in the country stuff and growing up stuff.) 3 1/2 stars

Mayday by Karen Harrington.  (Uncle dies.  Family flies to funeral.  Mom and son are in airplane accident.  Granddad is sick.  There you have it.)  3 1/2 stars

Oh and a little cozy mystery novella and I started an Aunt Dimity novel that I never read. 

My eyes hurt.

But let me say this.  I have decided that I will fight the urge to give any book that deals with C.A.N.C.E.R. more than 3 1/2 stars.  As a survivor, I am well and truly tired of books that use cancer to manipulate their readers.  The book better have me prostrate on the floor weeping; or feeling so uplifted I want to sing before I will give it 4 or 5 stars.  But, that's just me.

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I LOVE Winnie the Pooh - the REAL Winnie the Pooh.  I have read the books too many times to count and Milne's poems are the only ones that I can recite reliably.

And now I love Wookiee the Chew, an illustrative meme by artist James Hance.   When you visit Hance's website, you will see he likes to re-imagine EVERYTHING as Star Wars.  Why not?  Star Wars is as close to a religion as some people get.

Hance wrote a book about Wookiee the Chew and his friends and the website for that book is here .

I can't share any of the images - copyright and all that  - but when you see them, you will understand my infatuation.

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Sam Maggs has written a fun collected biography (as we call them in the library trade) about women in science, medicine, innovation, espionage and adventure titled - wait for it - Wonder Women.

Maggs writing style is up-to-the minute and whip smart.  I'm only one third through this book and my mind is totally boggled.  Without flipping another page, I would give this book 5 stars.  Maggs searched long and hard and found women heroes from Asia, Europe and the Americas, of all colors and persuasions.  Her mini-bios between segments - Maggs arranges the books by the various disciplines cited above - give peeks into the lives of other accomplished women.  Maggs also includes interviews with women professionals who work in those disciplines.

Anyway, I am so excited by this book's content and writing style that I couldn't wait to tell you all about it.  Thanks to Sam and to Quirk Books for offering this title.  Not out til October!  You can pre-order it here  (This is not an affiliate link.  I just don't like Amazon all that much.), or order from your favorite bookseller.  Don't let ME tell you what to do.

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Tomorrow, the little girl starts kindergarten.  This will reduce our little girl time to 2 or 3 hours a day.  Am I happy?  Actually, um, no.  She has a lot of playing left.  And I am not all that enamored of our public education system.  

Still, she is ready.  But who will play with me during those extra hours? 

Everybody else keeps growing up!!!

In The Secret of Goldenrod, Trina is almost 11 and entering fifth grade and her father is so embarrassing.  They are off to refurbish Goldenrod, a stately home in the middle of nowhere, that has been empty for almost a century.  Unlike their other jobs that kept them busy for a month or two, Goldenrod will take a whole year and Trina will have finally time to make friends.  She hopes her mother will stop gallivanting around the world and finally return to the family. 

Then she sees the old house in a field of yellow weeds, and the house doesn't want them there.

A hidden room, a forgotten dollhouse and its tiny doll, a nasty schoolmate and a small town with secrets add up to a great story.

Author Jane O'Reilly sets this up as a convincing haunted house story, but with the discovery of the dollhouse things begin to change.   The last few chapters are the best as they pull everything together and give a happy ending that is also unexpected.

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Have I been gone that long?

I picked up three more hours at the library for which I work.  I have done a smattering of storytelling engagements. - but enough to keep me busy and distracted.  I have read.  A lot.  Mostly eBooks.  Because actually budging to go to a library once I get home is just too much work.

So...The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill.    The writing in this book swept me well into the fray.  There is a village.  Every year, that village leaves the newest baby deep in the forest as a sacrifice? gift? to the evil wicked awful witch.

And there is a forest wherein dwells an old witch, a swamp monster whose importance can only be imagined and a dragon who never seems to grow older.

The witch gathers up each child, - always wondering why the villagers leave the infants there but never wondering for very long, - and carries the infant to the other side of the forest where loving adoptive parents wait.  The witch feeds each child on starlight.

Meanwhile, in the village there is grieving and sadness and someone who feeds on both.

One day,  the witch falls asleep and the infant in her arms feeds on moonlight... and everything is changed.  

This is a novel about oppression and parenthood - which really are NOT the same thing.  The witch finds parenting her moonfed child harder than she could imagine.   The novel is also about questioning the status quo and about powerful people who are parasites.  And the novel is about pain.

The novel is also a bit more complicated than I wanted it to be.  It all fits together nicely in the end. 

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I wrote this post a month ago.  More storytelling stuff has happened.  More books have been read and more wizard stories have been acted out.  I am NOT just twiddling my thumbs... 

If you pay attention, you will note that I posted over a month ago.  Well, it has been quite the month.  Personal stuff:
1.  Son and his family moved home; bought a house; son got new job; found a day care for the little one; lived in our apartment for two long, eventful and adorable weeks.
2. Nope.  No.  #1 is quite enough.

 Storytelling stuff:
1.  Group performance in Woodbury NJ. Thanks to good tellerfriend, Ingrid Bohn,
for driving
2.  Arts Day at Thos. Jefferson Elementary.  So much fun!

Reading:
1.  The Princess in Black books by Shannon Hale; many other picture books; and "A Chinese Fairy Tale" from the Junior Classics - all of these out loud.
2. Some Charlotte MacLeod Sarah Kelling/ Max Bittersohn mysteries.  It is wonderful to revisit old favorites as if I never read them at all.  Memory loss has an upside.
3.  Wishing Day by Lauren Myracle.  Just closed the book half an hour ago.  Lovely writing.  Thoughtful look at the confusion of young teenager hood and the pull to always believe in magic.  The book mirrors how I feel after having the little girl here from early morning until bedtime and then, poof!.  Honestly, I don't know what to do with myself or what is real anymore.


Writing:
Well, we play a lot of make believe, the little girl and I.  I tell her stories that pop into my head and if she likes them, we act them out - over and over and over again.

There has been a rash of foolish wizards turning fairies into flowers and animals because they love animals and flowers and have no idea how those things occur in the REAL world.  We have reached chapter 13 or 14. I am sure I missed one or two when I wrote them down.  The last chapter was the best.  Tell you more later.

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Sorry for my absence.  Here's a book trailer to apologize.

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Today was a Rube Goldberg day.  Instead of moving in an orderly fashion from one task to the next, I started one task, noticed something that led me to another task.  Wait!  Here's how it all worked out.

I wanted to tape the baseboard in my office so I could prime the walls (1). 
But I had to hang up two jackets (2) which made me open the closet door.
Then I remembered that I needed to fit a large bin into that closet, so I had to reorganize the floor space (3).
The bed linens that I keep on the closet shelf needed reorganizing(4), so I did that.
By then, I had several items that had to be moved to the attic. (5)
That done, I returned to the office to finish taping the baseboard. (1a).  But some plaster was loosened in the process.  So I had to clean and spackle that section (6).
Remember that large bin?  There was a smaller bin on top of it full of books that needed to be shelved(7).
While looking for space for those books, I found an old steno pad.

Ahhh!
On the steno pad were notes for a story titled "Rupert & Ivy".  The notes were fairly detailed, including three questions and rhyming answers.   Did I write these notes?  Or was I describing something I read?  Oh, to have a young memory once again!

I searched for Rupert & Ivy online but nothing came up.  And Rupert is one of my all time favorite character names.  And the ending was very vague in a "to-be-continued" sort of way.  I wrote it.

That steno pad had another story scrap -  dialogue between a brother and sister left on a new England island for the summer.

It isn't a steno pad at all.  It is a treasure chest with pieces of my memory within.  This is why I have notebooks and binders piled around me.  I might find three questions with the answers in rhyme.

BTW, I got the baseboard taped.  Maybe I'll prime the walls tomorrow - if I don't unearth another treasure.

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A Study in Charlotte  by Brittany Cavallaro   Jamie Watson gets a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a boarding school not far from his estranged father's home in Connecticut.  Charlotte Holmes is also a student there.  Jamie has followed Charlotte's exploits since they were both kids.  Jamie's father knows EVERYTHING about the Holmes family. 
When someone tries to frame Jamie and Charlotte for the murder of a Sherringford student, their families' generations long connection is reignited.  Charlotte shares her famous forebear's skills at observation and his deductive reasoning AND his skill on the violin.  Alas, that is not all she has in common with great-great-great-whatever Sherlock. 
The crimes that she and Watson - also a great-great-great-whatever of Dr. John Watson - investigate reference some of Holmes' most famous cases.  Holmes and Watson are in serious danger here.  Explosions, poisons, muggings, chases, - THIS is the beginning of a beautiful book series.

Honestly, what would modern mystery fiction do without Holmes and Watson?

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Emily is just one of FOUR awesome children's authors at the KU Children's lit Conference

 This is the latest that I have ever gone in finishing my KU Children's Literature Conference booklist.  I am embarrassed at the lateness.  But it IS done - except for the inevitable addendum or addenda.  Maybe I'll skip those this year.  And you can find it here.

You can find the KUCLC's website here, too.  Show up early (7:30 to 8:30 am) on Saturday if you haven't pre-registered.  The cost is ONLY $50 for a day of children's book fantasticality!  This year Kutztown hosts Daniel Kirk, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Emily Arnold McCully and Jonathan Bean.

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Please, love this clever book trailer about How This Book Was Made  by Mac Barnett and Adam Rex was made.

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I just discovered The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale with illustrations by LeUyen Pham!  I'm in extreme LIKE!!!  This series for our youngest chapter book readers is funny and feeds into the princess-mania that makes some grandmothers - those who came of age in the 1960s, for instance - break out in rashes.  Princess Magnolia is dimply, pink and perfect UNTIL the kingdom's goats are threatened by MONSTERS.  And then, she and her unicorn, Frimplepants, transform into an amazing duo of monster repelling powers.  I love the name Frimplepants.  Just saying.

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I just read a review of the book Withering-by-Sea by Judith Rossell and put it on my to-read list. (That list is so long, I will need a prolonged convalescence to ever get through it all - or possibly a life of leisure.)  And then I find this!!!

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It's Monday.  It's raining.  So, here's a book trailer from Owl Books in Canada.

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1. The Astounding Broccoli Boy by Frank Cottrell Boyce was sooo good.  But the author's note at the end was almost as good as the book!

Rory Rooney has been thrown off the bus by Tommy-Lee ever day.  Still, when Tommy-Lee has an extreme allergic reaction from eating Rory's lunch - without Rory's permission, I might add - and Tommy-Lee is taken away in an ambulance, everyone blames Rory!!!  Tommy-Lee's friends throw Rory into a stream and when he stands up, Rory is completely green.  Now, it's his turn to be carried off to the hospital.

But Rory is prepared.  His favorite bedtime story is his mother's book, Don't Be Scared. Be Prepared.  Rory's mom is all about being prepared.

Rory is in the isolation ward at the hospital.  But he's not alone.  Oh, no.... he and his roommate are in for astounding adventures of the superhero-ish sort.  As London squirms in the grasp of the Killer Kitten virus, two - or is it more? - green children prepare to Save The World.

 Need a break from whatever ails you?  This book will help.

2. For another look at lunacy, we have Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky. 

Four Fans of the Ruperts - a boy band - somehow end up with one of the Ruperts, tied up in their hotel room.  Fangirl fantasy come true!!  Squeeee, or whatever.  His phone alone is a treasure trove of awesomely...oh no, what's this??  And when the narrator comes clean about the whole event, who will pay the price of the long night's misadventures?

The lunacy in Moldavsky's book is creepy.  I ended up skimming the book because:
1.  The teens are unbelievably shallow, narcissistic and cruel.

2.  It's a little too mean to be funny, I think.

That said, I am NOT a teenage girl.  It is way too long since I screamed over a boy band.  Back then,  social media was a phone with a long cord and my Mom's kitchen timer.  So, what do I know?  Right?  Definitely for teens.  And the fans on Goodreads like it a lot.  Dark humor, they say.

3. The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks.   In a medieval city in the Orient, Kaidu is learning to fight.  The city has changed hands so often, that its natives call it the Nameless City.  Kaidu is part of the conqueror's army.  When he ventures into the city, he meets a girl who calls herself Rat.  They don't trust each other but Rat shows Kaidu things about the City that he can't learn behind the fort's walls.  When a threat comes from inside the fort walls, Kaidu and Rat must work together as a team.

This graphic novel moves so seamlessly that I didn't notice the lack of words.  Actually, as I type this, I realize that since reading this book, action scenes in text books take so long.  No wonder graphic novels are so hot.  Thanks, Faith Erin Hicks, for furthering my understanding of this genre.

4.  An Inheritance of Ashes by Leah Bobet. This book had to be read, word for word.  The struggle between Halfrida and her sister, Marthe, and their fight to keep their farm needs to be explained.  An artist might be able to show the pain, anger, stubbornness and pride on each young woman's face but Bobet's words made this stew of emotions all too real to me.  Insert these women into a war ravaged countryside, with a missing husband, and strange unearthly beings and you get a fantasy that speaks volumes about how people do and do not get along.

There is the mystery soldier who asks for somewhere to stay; the unearthly creatures; the aftermath of a war against the Wicked God; the search for a missing hero; Marthe's pining for her husband; Hallie's secret-keeping and her fear.  Also a fledgling romance and three cheers for scientific method and investigation. (Sentence fragment, I know.  Deal.) There's some heavy stuff going on in this book.   I liked it!

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The book is so much better - truly.  The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands.

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I finished You Were Here by Cori McCarthy the other night and it was so satisfying!  Told in alternating voices, this is a story of grief and stubbornness and the need to put the past to rest.  Serious stuff!  McCarthy's mix of characters, words and graphics spins this book right along. 
          I worried at first that this would just be another "dead family member" book.  Then it morphed into a book about meeting unrealistic expectations and then it turned into a graphic novel and the whole time this group of five teens are fighting, musing, obsessing, and engaging in risky behavior - lots and lots of risky, perilous, dare-devil behavior.  (Definitely Teen Readers!)

So read it.  It is emotionally manipulating, but most good books are.  And the resolution is realistic and, as I mentioned before, satisfying.

The Wrinkled Crown by Anne Nesbet is a wrinkled book.  Linny lives in Lourka where no trail is a straight line - or even the same from trip to trip.  Here stories can change reality.   When Linny breaks the most sacred taboo in the hills, her best friend and tether-twin, Sayra, is the one who pays the price.
Linny takes her forbidden lourka - a stringed musical instrument - and runs away to the Plains to find a cure for Sayra's fading away illness. 
Linny and her friend, Edmund, are caught up in a civil struggle between a faction that believes everything should be mapped, straight, smooth and mechanical - and a faction that honors magic and wrinkles of all sorts.
 I ended up skimming and, alas, skipping.  If I had more time I may have enjoyed the arguments and adventures and authoritarian quasi-villains.  The book is as wrinkled as its title.  But it is a solid beginning of a new magical trilogy(?) or series.  (Grades 5 through 7, though younger readers with skills and stamina will enjoy this book.)

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Teaching faith and values to pre-schoolers is not always easy.  So, books like this one are helpful for extolling the wonderfulness of the world - and the Maker.  And the trailer is pretty just the way it is.

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The Kutztown University Children's Literature Conference looms larger and larger in my sight.  So, I am reading, reading, reading, reading like a mad woman - who reads a lot.   Once again, I am reviewing books for kids in grades 5 and up.  And I have read very few of the "hot" new YA titles.  I am not all that into the "hot" topics of paranormality, sexual awakening, and personal torment.  That's ok.  When I finally pick those books up, I am sucked in almost as much as teen readers are.

Is this not the loveliest KUCLC poster ever?  I think so.

What this means, is that I will not review books on this site - much - for the next three or four weeks.  but I will LIST what I have read.

Beetle Boy by M. G. Leonard
Trash Mountain by Jane Yolen
Nick and Tesla's Solar-Powered Showdown by Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith

And because I deserve to read adult books once in awhile, Malice at the Palace by Rhys Bowen.

Sign up for KU's Children's Literature Conference TODAY!!

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1.  Battle of the Kids Books begins tomorrow.  I did not get to read the two contenders in this first match up but I predict... nothing.  Check back later.

2.  Here are the books I have read in the last two - or so - weeks.
     Grayling's Song by Karen Cushman
    It Ain't So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
    The Art of Not Breathing by Sarah Alexander
    The Museum of Heartbreak by Meg Leder 
   Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes
   Look Out for the Fitzgerald-Trouts  by Esta Spalding
   
Also, Strangeways to Oldham by Andrea Fraser - but that is an adult murder mystery.  Still, I read it and it was a good old fashioned "cottage" mystery with adult tricycles, a stolid butler and a hilarious cast of characters.

All of these books - except for the murder mystery - are e-galleys. Sorry, you can't read them yet.  I enjoyed them all.  They are a mix of styles and genres - some fun, some suspenseful, some heartbreaking.  I will review several, if not all, in future posts.

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It is once again time for a bunch of bloggers over at School Library Journal to pit THEIR favorite children or teen books against one another.   The books might be chosen from floods of suggestions and maybe they are but, when all is said and done, three people make up the list of contenders.

 I have reasons for pointing this out.
Reason #1:  I have only read two books on this year's list.  I think that is my lowest count so far.
Reason #2: At least, two totally awesome books did not make this list and I am thunderstruck.
Reason #3:  I did not know this.  I thought that the books were chosen from the floods and floods of book suggestions.

I usually enjoy following this battle - even when I don't read every single title on the list.  And here is a link to the action. I linked you to the list of The Contenders but if you look to the right, you will see "the brackets".  It all starts on March 7th, with one book I haven't read going up against another book I haven't read.  Oh well.  Stop with the whining already.  Perhaps, by then, I will have read them BOTH.

As I age, I continue to wonder who decides what books should be published for children.  I wonder about a lot of things.  For instance:
1. Why do people put all their stuff on Facebook?
2.  How many reruns of Rockford Files can one person watch in a row?
3. Doesn't anyone stay in one place anymore? (apologies to C. King)

But just what criteria publishers use to choose the books that get published - this is a quandary.

Here are MY criteria for a good kid's book.
1.  Simple - ish.  As the kids get older the simplicity can fade.
2.  Makes the kid think.
3. Takes the kid somewhere they have never been - not necessarily geographically
4. Teaches the kid something
5. Funny at least part of the time
6. Makes the kid feel like part of a bigger world

Current? Well, sure, but that changes in a wink!
Diverse?  Yes.   This is not a shopping list, though.
STEAM, STEM, CORE, ???? Don't work so hard.
Difficult subjects??  Anything that makes a person suffer is a difficult subject.  Asking a three year old to hop on one foot before he is able to can make him cry!  See what I mean?

I am venting here.  I will stop now.  And go back to wondering what to do with a 4 year old princess for a week - besides reading.

READ MORE BOOKS!

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In the meantime, any other ghostly problems have landed on the Lockwood doorstep and Lockwood wants to hire an assistant.  George has no opinion.  Lucy wants things to stay the same.

So, what happens when the assistant is hired in Lucy's absence?  And then there is the case of the bloody footprints and its aftermath.  Lucy is tempted to enter the forbidden room.  And the Haunted Skull gives a running sarcastic commentary on everything Lucy does.

Expect specters.  Expect odd behavior on the part of the non-talented adults.  Expect hanging threads that need to be followed up.  Well, I can't tell you what else to expect because honestly, if I were a little more superstitious, I may NEVER have gotten to sleep.

Just one question for you; have you ever gone into an older department store and felt, hmmm, I don't know, a presence from the past?  Yeah, me, too.

The Hollow Boy by Jonathan Stroud.  Read it, preferably in the daylight.

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Princesses everywhere.

I am not the most girly type of woman.   But even I wanted to be a princess when I was little.  I did not want to be an actual princess, who has to learn to be diplomatic, attend boring meetings, discuss policy with councilors, and put up with the attentions of not necessarily handsome princes.  I wanted to be a fairy tale princess - beautiful, cosseted, rich and talented.

So, to celebrate Princesses everywhere on this Carnival Tuesday, here is a list of my favorite princess books:

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch.  A dragon destroys everything - including a princess' wardrobe AND kidnaps a handsome prince.  Dressed in a paper bag, our princess hunts down the evil lizard. (Picture Book)

The Magic Fishbone by Charles Dickens.   Alicia manages the castle and the little princes and princesses quite well with just her cleverness.  The magic fishbone in her apron pocket must be saved for just the right wish. Happy ending, everyone!!! (Short story suitable for ages 4 through 10, and for adults who like Dickens)

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale.   Miri and the other girls in her mountain village must learn how to be princesses because one of them will marry the prince.  Also - bandits try to kidnap them and they have to protect themselves.  Bad guys; jealousy; mean teachers; resourcefulness! (Middle grade through teen)

Hmmm, there are many, many more princess books around then are dreamt of in your philosophies, dear Horatio.  But here is just one more.

I am going to add I am Princess X by Cherie Priest because the story is a bit incredible but the combination of graphics and text and the suspense, clues, and sleuthing add up to a roller coaster ride of a book. (Teen - action-adventure, violent crimes, risk taking)

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