Some fun commentary on the maps of my favorite childhood places.
In personal news, my son finished a book yesterday and then told his dad he should read it, because it was really good! Our work here is done. Except for the part where he reads the book. That's almost done, since it was pretty short.
The book was one of the "Zack Files" series by Dan Greenburg, which I find amusingly meta, because while I was pregnant, I read Greenburg's Confessions of a Pregnant Father, which was about the birth of his son, Zack.
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This is a blog for the staff of "Notes from the Windowsill," to talk about children's books and what we're reading.
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Partially thrilled, partially wondering if it can possibly work as well as the print book.
Falcon's Dragon by Luli Gray is free today for the Kindle but probably won't be for long. This is two books in one: I don't think I ever read book 2 and I can't seem to dig up my review for book 1, but I remember thinking highly of it. The blurbs from review journals would seem to support that opinion.
I just discovered that Sylvia Louise Engdahl's out of print YA books (and some new adult titles) are available as ebooks. They're at all the major sellers, but if you buy them from Smashwords they're DRM free, available in all formats, and reasonably priced.
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Celebrate Hanukkah by Deborah Heiligman. National Geographic, 2008 (1-4263-0293-0) $6.95 pb
Aside from a short mention of how astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman spun the dreidel in zero gravity -- "it spins forever!" -- the most notable feature of this nonfiction book is the color photographs, which show Jewish children and Hanukkah celebrations all over the world. How fascinating to see Jews celebrating in India, Uganda and Rome. The text is simple and a little dull; surprisingly, the most interesting sections are in the collected information at the end, which includes a map of where the photos were taken, a glossary of terms, insights into the holiday from a Rabbi, a bibliography for further reading and a photo of Hoffman with his space traveling dreidel. A good basic introduction. (3-6)
(© 2011 Wendy E. Betts
FTC disclosure: Review copy provided by the publisher. This blog is completely independent, but I receive a small percentage if books are purchased from Powells Boks via this site.
... but I still find it kind of odd that netGalley lists Phillip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe under "Romance."
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So my husband and I just happened to be in the New York Public Library (!) and were checking out their 100 year exhibit. I'd been looking at the few exhibits related to children's books, when my husband nudged me towards a case in the middle of the room I must have walked past without noticing three or four times.
And there they were. Scuffed, worn, dirty, grey... loved. Pooh, Tigger, Kanga. Truly tiny Piglet. Eeyore. (No Owl, Rabbit or Roo -- poor Kanga!) I'd known there were there, but I'd completely forgotten.
Museums and libraries are amazing things.
(This explains why no Roo, but did Owl and Rabbit never actually exist?)
Whiny Tea Partiers feel threatened by Jane Yolen
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First the good news: a good deal on an ebook bundle of Diane Duane's "Young Wizards" series. See Books on the Knob for details.
Now the bad news: Duane will be updating the series. (The ebooks on sale are the originals.) I suppose there are some good arguments for doing this, but I hate it. Children who can only read the latest, most modern stories will have no problem at all finding what they like. Not all children need to be pandered to; some like to have their imaginations and outlook stretched. My life would have been much sadder without the "dated" books of E. Nesbit, Lousia May Alcott, Edward Eager, Frieda Friedman, Elizabeth Enright. My son is enjoying some of those books right now, 30+ years later.
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My husband was buying some books for a birthday present today (the Wayside stories, you know you want to know) and a certain picture book was prominently featured on the counter. After the purchases were concluded, he discovered our son had picked it up and was reading it. He asked what he thought, to which our son said, "I don't understand what kind of person would tell someone to go to sleep that way."
My husband explained that sometimes when kids won't go to sleep, parents get very frustrated and feel at the edge of their ropes, and told a few choice stories from the past.
To which our son replied, "Well now I feel guilty!"
So to everyone who worried about actual kids reading this book... it's a good thing!
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Belinda has just left the first nastygram for Gem and my son asked, "Shouldn't she have left a nicer note?"
I was so pleased to have him recognize that, and how fascinating to see him trying to navigate the world of interactions... I didn't think of that at all when I chose this book, but it's really quite emotionally complex. What better place to learn about people than children's books? It's where I learned.
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I've been thinking that I haven't been making the best choices for read-alouds; the books I loved to read to myself don't always translate. So tonight I put my mind to finding a book that would sound wonderful and came up with Little Plum by Rumer Godden. I remember how fond I was of the unique way Godden wrote sentences, blending narrative and dialog.
It's going great; my son is responding so well to the cadence and the language. At one point he said he could just tell he was going to like this book. Since he had me read for a solid hour, I'd say so.
An unexpected journey for The Magic Schoolbus.
I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb. Razorbill, (9781595143549) $8.99 pb
This is a hard book to critique, since I’m not the intended audience. It’s very creative, original and funny, which adults can appreciate, but also often gross and offensive, which not so much. Perhaps we're better off giving this to the kids and sticking to Evil Overmom. I did appreciate its cleverness, however.
Our narrator is Oliver, the school fat boy, whom everyone thinks is mentally slow. Little do they know that he’s really an evil genius putting on an amazing front, is fabulously wealthy and unbelievably powerful, and runs everything at their school. Anyone who tries to mess with him is rewarded with flatulence caused by a drug he invented, and he goes about his day enjoying the secret root beer/chocolate milk water fountain he had installed, and the toilet kept stocked with malted milk balls.
Although he admits to being fond of his "shapeless, witless mass of mousy hair, belly fat and boobs" mother ("Do I love her? Am I capable of love? A question even I can't answer) -- Oliver utterly despises his father. But the subtext tells a different story, of a boy desperate for his dad’s approval. When he decides to show up his father by winning the election for class president, he puts forth all his brilliance and tremendous power. But Oliver, being pure evil, doesn't realize how much "humans and their idiotic emotions" could foul up his plans. Emotions are the "only things in this world I can't control." Including, inevitably, his own.
The fantasy world -- or is it? -- is skillfully maintained, and anyone who’s ever been picked on in school will find it hard to resist the fantastical ways in which Oliver expresses his resentments and gets his revenge. I was very curious about how the story would resolve: would we ever find out if this is truth? Would Oliver ever admit to telling a story? I won't say how it ends, except that it was both consistent with the book's internal logic, and satisfying.
Photographs illustrate the story, but I didn’t feel they added much, and you won’t miss anything if you listen to the audio version (which is very well done, albeit tiresome at times. So much venom spewing can be painful to listen to.) I listened to audio for the first part of the book, then switched to an ebook. (Which I don't recommend, because there are numerous comic footnotes and those are a pain in eformat.) (Suggested age range: 13 & up)
© 2011 Wendy E. Betts
FTC disclosure: Both review copies provided by the public library. This blog is completely independent, but I receive a small percentage if you order books from Powell's via this site.
My finish line post.
Time spent reading or listening to audio book: 23 hours, 1 minute
Time spent blogging: 1 hour, 43 minutes
Time spent networking: 51 minutes
Total time: 25 hours and 35 minutes
Number of complete books read: 7
Number of books I decided not to finish: 3 (plus several I only read a very short amount of)
Books not completed during the challenge: 3, including the audio book
Number of books that made me laugh: 4
Number of books that made me cry: 2
Favorite book: oh, so hard to decide. But I think I'll go with Cosmic.
Total time reading was about the same as last year, but I spent much less time blogging than usual. Generally I write full reviews, this year I just wasn't that into it, despite how awesome the books were. I read fewer books than last year, but I think most of them were longer and/or denser.
I decided to keep things very simple this year, minimal recordkeeping and plenty of breaks. The reward was a very easy feeling challenge -- low stress, low eyestrain, and the only time I really felt tired was when I read til 2 a.m last night. On the plus side, I loved the books I was reading! Aside from my "If I read one more first person narrative my head will explode" breakdown, I don't think I've ever enjoyed the reading in a challenge more. On the minus side... well, it felt less like a real challenge somehow. What's a book challenge if it doesn't exhaust you out of your mind?
Anyway, it's been great fun, as always. I love being part of this wacky community every year.
I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb
I was attracted by the outrageous title and cover of this book, but at first it seemed like a terrible choice for audio: listening to someone who is sarcastic and angry nonstop, no matter how well the voice is done, is really tiresome and unpleasant. With more characters introduced, it's started to grow on me and is sometimes very funny. I still think I'd prefer to read the rest in print, however. Apparently there are comic illustrations, too.
It's about an evil genius who hides behind a pose of idiocy -- think baby Stewie from the show "Family Guy," which is pretty much how the audiobook narrator portrays him, sans the accent. The book is entirely from his point of view so it's impossible to know yet whether this reality is going to turn out to be true or a complete fantasy. But considering he has the power to make water fountains dispense both chocolate milk and root beer and plans to ban the song "Jingle Bell Rock," it might not be so bad if it were true.
listening: 2 hour, 12 m
blogging: 14 m
I'll add my stats later, because I probably won't finish this book tonight and -- I hope -- will sleep too late to do any more reading for the challenge tomorrow.
It's traditional for me to read an autism book during the challenge and a nonfiction break seemed like a good idea. This is very interesting, though I'm not sure I'm taking everything in. I was very struck by how vulnerable children who can't yet be immunized are when immunization rates fall. It's not just an individual risk we're taking for our own children.
183 out of 311
Reading: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Blogging: 8 minutes
Networking: 3 minutes
And now this is why you don't finish books that are boring you. Because you could be reading Cosmic instead.
This was a recommendation from animouse to my husband, who tried it and didn't get into it. Which is a freakin' tragedy and I'm going to lean on him until he reads it. If the ending doesn't make him cry, nothing will. And if he doesn't laugh about a million times while reading it... well, I don't even know.
This is a love letter to dads, in the form of a story narrated by Liam, a 12 year old kid who's so big and scruffy, he's constantly mistaken for an adult. When he gets the chance to have an awesome adventure, for which he has to pretend to be a dad, it's too good to pass up. Liam is probably too young to have read Kurt Vonnegut, who warned us, "we are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be," but he learns the truth of those words. And he learns what it means to be a dad, which sometimes involves doing the hard thing.
It sounds like a book adults will love more than kids, but it's so incredibly funny, I can't imagine anyone not loving it. Except apparently my possibly certifiable husband. * (12 & up)
314 pages
Reading: 2 hours, 26 minutes
Blogging: 10 minutes
Networking: 3 minutes
I don't think I've ever had so many DNFs in a book challenge before, but I don't have the patience I once did. Too many books in this world I want to read to waste time on ones I'm not enjoying. This seemed derivative and the narrator's voice too bland.
pages: 60 out of 310
Reading: 35 minutes
Blogging: 5 minutes
Networking: 12 minutes
Old Photographs by Sherie Posesorski. Second Story, 2010 (978-1-897187-78-4)
A book about a girl who loves Agatha Christie mysteries, how could I resist that? Sadly, the Christie theme turned out to be pretty light (though that's considerably better than getting it all wrong!) But it was an interesting story.
Phoebe is having a lonely summer. Her best friend Yuri is away, and her recently married mother expects--insists--that she live a fairy-tale life full of the "right kind" of friends. So Phoebe pretends to be off to pool parties, when really she's just biking around town and stalking the adorably nerdy Colin.
When Phoebe comes across an elderly woman having a garage sale, who seems bewildered and frightened, she feels a need to help her. Her unexpected friendship with Mrs. Tomblin will lead to a mystery to solve, a budding romance with Colin, and some important changes in her relationship with her mother, who has been trying to block all memories of her working-class past that might cast a blemish on her new wealthy life.
The mystery of who robbed Mrs. Tomblin is not particularly enthralling, but the family issues really made this book for me, as Phoebe struggles with how her mother tries to erase their past -- including Phoebe's much loved relatives. I liked the strong, athletic and warm-hearted Phoebe, who's a lot smarter than she thinks she is -- especially about what's really important to people. The mild romance and the friendship between Phoebe and Yuri are warmly drawn. Everything comes together a little too sweetly and perfectly at the end, but overall this was a pleasant book, and just a little unexpected. (12 & up)
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy.
215 pages
Reading: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Blogging: 16 minutes
Networking: 2 minutes
White Cat by Holly Black. Simon & Schuster, 2010.
Another totally awesome book! Or perhaps, just because I don't read YA that often anymore, everything seems fresh and wonderful to me? And everyone else is going, oh not that same old tired story again.
Not that it's completely original. The plot is reminiscent of Diana Wynne Jones: an alternate universe very much like ours except for the existance of magic (feared and known as curse work,) with a protagnoist who's the one person in his family who isn't a curse "worker." In this world, laws against workers create organized crime, with curses as a metaphor for drugs, prostitution and so on. (Runaway workers kicked out by their families are preyed on the underworld; liberals are fighting against laws forcing people to take a test to reveal whether they're workers.)
I thought the world building was delightfully clever, with so many aspects of society and history shaped by curse work. Australia, for example, has no laws against curse working "because it was founded by curse workers [...] who'd been sent to a penal colony."
The narrator is seventeen-year-old Cassel, the non-worker from a family of workers, criminals and grifters. Cassel has conned his way into a prep school, where he desperately tries to pass for normal. (Not so desperately that he doesn't make book for all the other students, however.) But the painful secrets of his past and his family are about to catch up with him, in a big way.
Lies, betrayal, and a narrator constantly fighting his own nature make for a gut-wrenching read. I can't wait for the sequel. * (14 & up)
310 pages
Reading: 3 hours, 25 minutes
Blogging: 2 minutes
Networking: 12 minutes
I tried an ebook freebie I had, a supposed sequel to Sense and Sensibilty called Eliza's Daughter... and guess what? Joan Aiken seems to have gotten Austen mixed up with Charlotte Bronte, because the beginning reads more like Jane Eyre or Vilette than anything Austen ever wrote.
Reading: 1 minute
Blogging: 2 minutes
Except for one graphic novel, every book in my pile is first person! I never plan this thoroughly enough. Quick, someone tell me something I might be able to download from the library onto my ereader!
My current book (Will Grayson, Will Grayson) and Chime both have what is presumably the same font, with very distinctive and distracting fat exclamation points. Punctuation should not make itself so obvious.
I decided I needed a break from YA, so picked up the book I'd been in the middle of before the challenge started. This is the second in the "Aurora Teagarden" mysteries and I found it pretty disappointing. Blah mystery, blah personal stuff. Hope the next is better, or I might wash my hands of the series.
pages: 147-168 (21 pages)
Reading: 12 minutes
Blogging: 3 minutes
Networking: 2 minutes
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I was reading a book of bedtime poems with my ten year old, and it was funny how many had the same theme of that book, although expressed in much gentler terms. We started to have fun recognizing the "Go the BEEP to sleep" poems.
Oooo, which book?