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FICTION
Karen E. Bender, Refund
Angela Flournoy, The Turner House
Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies
Adam Johnson, Fortune Smiles
Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

NONFICTION
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
Sally Mann, Hold Still
Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an Octopus
Carla Power, If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran
Tracy K. Smith, Ordinary Light

POETRY
Ross Gay, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude
Terrance Hayes, How to Be Drawn
Robin Coste Lewis, Voyage of the Sable Venus
Ada Limón, Bright Dead Things
Patrick Phillips, Elegy for a Broken Machine

YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE
Ali Benjamin, The Thing About Jellyfish
Laura Ruby, Bone Gap
Steve Sheinkin, Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War
Neal Shusterman, Challenger Deep
Noelle Stevenson, Nimona… [more]

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The Great Turkey Walk. Kathleen Karr. 1998. 208 pages. [Source: Library]

I enjoyed Kathleen Karr's The Great Turkey Walk so very much! If you're a fan of Richard Peck's historical fiction, you should definitely read this one. It's historical comedy at its best!

Simon Green is the lovable hero of The Great Turkey Walk. After being politely kicked out of school after completing his fourth year in the third grade, he is looking for a purpose, a calling. And it hits him all at once when he's talking to a local turkey farmer. There isn't a market for turkeys in Missouri--that's clear enough--but there IS a market for turkeys out west, in places like Denver, Colorado. Turkeys may be easy to come by here, but, there, it just isn't the case. If Simon can find a way to BUY turkeys cheaply in Missouri and take them where they're needed, he could be RICH. His investor? His former teacher, Miss Rogers, who does indeed want the best for her former student. (He is fifteen or sixteen, I believe. And she knows that he'll never make it through all the grades. He's not even ready for fourth grade work yet.)

Simon doesn't make the journey west alone. And this comedy actually does quite a good job of characterizing them all: his "family" of misfits that come together out of need and stay together out of love.

I loved the narration. I loved the characterization. I loved the humor and the adventure. It was a quick and satisfying read. And there really were turkey walks in the nineteenth century!

© 2015 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Okay, so a dog doesn't sound like that but this one might.  A couple of years ago I painted this resin dog for a street display in Hudson, NY.  I had done a ton of research for a series of ocean creature books and it looks like they all wound up here.  The dogs were later auctioned off to raise funds for the local art council.  I found these pics and thought I'd share them.

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Kwame Alexander has signed a four-book deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers. Arielle Eckstut, of the Levine, Greenberg, Rostan Literary Agency, negotiated the agreement on Alexander’s behalf.

According to the press release, Alexander plans to write a prequel to his 2015 Newbery Medal-winning young adult novel Crossover entitled Rebound. The publication date for this book has been set for Spring 2018.

Alexander also has a new trilogy in the works. The story for this new series will follow “one young boy’s epic quest for freedom after being taken from his home in Ghana, and will cover the Middle Passage, the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, and beyond.”

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Kyla does it again with her "All That Glitters" series. What normally would be a short novella to introduce a character, Ms. Linde creates a world and characters that demand more. Trihn, who we meet in GOLD, is young. A Prodigy and star in her own right. What is the one thing that can ruin a young woman. Of course, it's a guy. Gorgeous, sexy and delightfully sinful, Preston Whitehall has Trihn tied up in knots and falling for him fast.

But Kyla can't make it easy for her characters, nah, she needs to pull the rug out from under them and make them suffer. And I absolutely eat it up! Because this was just a taste of what is to come in the full-length novel (Which should be a clusterfuck of fun!), I cannot wait. A solid four star read for me. Kyla writes fun, she excels at bitchy characters and watching the writing grow with the writer is fun!


K.A. Linde's EMERALDS Release Week Giveaway

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The Archie Comics publishing house and the Madefire technology company have formed a partnership. Together, they have relaunched the Archie Comics app.

It has been made available on iOS devices. Users will be able to access comics and graphic novels from every Archie imprint.

Here’s more from the press release: “While many comic publishers have chosen to keep their buy-as-you-go and ‘unlimited’ digital comics apps separate, the new Archie Comics app forges new ground by merging both—allowing fans to experience the many worlds and adventures of their favorite Archie titles under the convenient roof of one aesthetically pleasing and groundbreaking app. App users will be given the option to utilize the ‘Archie Unlimited’ service, an ‘all you can read’ option available exclusively through the new Archie Comics app.”

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Inside Biosphere 2: Earth Science Under Glass 
[Scientists in the Field]
by Mary Kay Carson; 
photos by Tom Uhlman
Middle School   Houghton   80 pp.
10/15   978-0-544-41664-2   $18.99

Carson takes readers into Biosphere 2, the research facility designed to be a self-sustaining model of Earth’s environments. There’s brief coverage of the innovative engineering and original mission of the facility (complete with photos of the first jumpsuit-clad human “biospherians” who were sealed inside from 1991 to 1993), but the focus is primarily on current research under the direction of scientists at the University of Arizona. The ability to control environmental conditions within the contained rainforest, ocean, and giant soil laboratory allows researchers to investigate questions in earth science — prominently, those related to climate change — on a scale not possible in any other laboratory setting. Biogeochemist Joost van Haren has tinkered with the composition of the rainforest’s atmosphere for twenty years, examining the effects of excess carbon dioxide on the contained atmosphere, soil, and biomass. Hydrologist Luke Pangle built a huge artificial slope to study soil production and erosion. Sustainability coordinator Nate Allen researches the facility itself, examining how this “Model City” can reduce its energy footprint. Educational efforts at Biosphere 2 are also profiled, as the ocean biome is repurposed as a teaching and research lab. Plentiful photos of the researchers, facility, and surrounding environment capture the feel of a busy research center and show the nuts and bolts of maintaining controlled conditions. Uhlman’s photographs take us into back rooms and basements to see the wires, computers, pumps, and pipes that keep the place running. A glossary, index, references (including citations to the research papers produced by Biosphere 2 scientists), and places to read about the original project are appended.

From the November/December 2015 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

The post Review of Inside Biosphere 2 appeared first on The Horn Book.

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One Green Apple
written by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Ted Lewin
(Clarion Books, 2006)

 

One Green Apple tells the story of Farah, who has … Continue reading ... →

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The cover has been unveiled for Justin Cronin’s The City of Mirrors. We’ve embedded the full image for the jacket design above—what do you think?

According to Entertainment Weekly, this book will be the final installment of the Passage trilogy. Ballantine Books has scheduled the publication date for May 24, 2016.

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Mothman Selfie Sheet

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Christine Hayes is the first-time author of Mothman's Curse, illustrated by James K. Hindle (Roaring Brook, 2015). From the promotional copy:

Josie may live in the most haunted town in America, but the only strange thing she ever sees is the parade of oddball customers that comes through her family’s auction house each week. 

But when she and her brothers discover a Polaroid camera that prints pictures of the ghost of local recluse John Goodrich, they are drawn into a mystery dating back over a hundred years. 

A desperate spirit, cursed jewelry, natural disasters, and the horrible specter of Mothman all weave in and out of the puzzle that Josie must solve to break the curse and save her own life.

How do you psyche yourself up to write, to keep writing, and to do the revision necessary to bring your manuscript to a competitive level? What, for you, are the special challenges in achieving this goal? What techniques have worked best and why?

I so envy writers who are able to follow a set routine. That would be the ideal. I’d love to be more productive, more disciplined! But the truth is, while I try to spend time every day writing or revising, I often end up staring at the computer screen, reworking the same passage over and over, or finding jobs to do around the house that could easily wait.

If I go several days without any forward writing progress—and to me that can include blogging or marketing efforts—then I become anxious and unsettled.

Christine's work space

I find I have to set small, measurable goals and break big projects up into bite-size pieces to fool myself into not feeling overwhelmed. I’ll mark a deadline on the calendar, then work backward to determine how much I have to get done each day. Even imaginary deadlines can be valuable motivators!

Then I try to follow through in unconventional ways, mixing up my routine from day to day. I’ll work a few days at home at the kitchen table, another day sitting in the car at the park, another at a local café. On a few occasions when I was facing critical deadlines, I checked into a hotel to sharpen my focus and cut down on distractions.

For first drafts, I get the most done with a notebook and pen, writing things out by hand. Later, as I type what I’ve written, I’m able to self-edit, adding or cutting as needed. It’s an effective way to shape the story early on.

For the next round of revisions I often print out a chapter at a time and use a red pen to mark it up. Sometimes there are only a few usable sentences left per page once the ink dries. It’s tough to watch the word count shrink, but satisfying to see those few sentences that are able to withstand a more intense level of scrutiny.

As far as making a manuscript competitive—polished, professional—I think it’s a dichotomy. You can’t compare your work to others, because you will always feel like you fall short.

Christine's pottery collection

I love the quote, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” I see this with my kids all the time. If I were to give them each a cupcake, they’d be happy for a minute or two, but they would inevitably notice that a sibling has more frosting or less frosting or a better color of frosting or whatever. As adults, we never quite grow out of this.

At the same time, you should be reading every day—books both in and out of your genre, news articles, magazines, something. Not to compare, but to fill your mind with words of all kinds, drinking in what’s beautifully done, learning lessons from work that’s perhaps less polished, clichéd, poorly paced, etc.

Set a high standard for yourself. Maybe six months ago you wrote something and said, “This is my best work.” But then you write something new and when you revisit your earlier work you realize that you’ve grown as a writer. It’s a beautiful and amazing process.

I struggle with procrastination and self-doubt. I also tend to overthink, to tinker with passages too much, but at some point I have to stop fussing and just let go. The gauge for me is feeling like it’s the best I can produce in that moment in time, until my agent or editor gently points out the many ways a piece can be improved!

As a paranormal writer, what first attracted you to that literary tradition? Have you been a long-time paranormal reader? Did a particular book or books inspire you?

I’ve been fascinated with the paranormal since grade school. As a young teen, I would check out stacks of ghost story anthologies from the library. I had mostly given up on kids’ novels at that point. I found it so disappointing when I would choose a book that seemed like it was about a ghostly mystery, only to discover that the “ghost” was a fake, dreamed up by the bad guy to hide some evil plot. I craved books that celebrated the unexplained.

One book I do remember falling in love with was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (FSG, 1963). Though not precisely a paranormal story, it was full of wonder and possibility.

I had the same teacher, Mrs. Tapscott, for both fourth and fifth grades. She read to us every day, and one of the books she read was A Wrinkle in Time. She had this sweet southern voice, and she had no patience for kids who thought they were too cool to listen during reading time.

She also read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (George Allen & Unwin, 1937), The Cay by Theodore Taylor (Avon, 1969), and My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (Dutton, 1959). She was an incredible lady.

I also remember seeing commercials for a series of Time Life books called Mysteries of the Unknown. I wanted so badly to own every volume. A few years ago I found one at a garage sale for a dollar. Of course I snapped it right up! Isn’t it funny, the things we carry with us from childhood?

Outside of books, one specific influence that stands out in my memory is the show “In Search Of,” hosted by Leonard Nimoy in the late 70s/early 80s. Each week they would explore an aspect of the unexplained: the Bermuda Triangle, aliens, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster. I ate it up.

Then, of course, were the slumber parties where we watched movies like "Psycho" and "The Lady in White." It was delicious, that shared feeling of fear: hiding behind our pillows, imagining footsteps outside the window—because in fact we were perfectly safe. We were seeing new facets of the world, exploring what it meant to be brave.

I think spooky books are appealing because they offer adventure, escape—a vicarious experience in a parallel world. They allow kids to view fear through a lens that hopefully makes their real-world problems a little less scary, a little easier to face.

These days I love "M Night Shyamalan" movies and the show "Supernatural." I even watch the occasional episode of "Ghost Hunters." My husband teases me about my “creepy side.” But I’ve never enjoyed slasher movies or anything gory, especially zombies. They give me nightmares!

It’s probably why I write middle grade. I love a good scare, but nothing graphic. I think what you don’t show can be even scarier than spelling out the grisly details. The movie "The Village" comes to mind here. It wasn’t well-received by critics, but it created an almost tangible atmosphere on the screen. It had gorgeous, enticing cinematography, a washed-out color palette with hints of red (“the bad color”), and an epic soundtrack. I thought it was beautifully done.

I’m also fascinated by old things and abandoned places. Every broken-down barn or rusting piece of junk tells a story. You can almost feel the history there as you imagine the ghosts that might be lingering. It’s my go-to source for inspiration.

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What classic novel do dinosaurs love?

Allosaurus in Wonderland

For more terrible puns, click the tag DinoWriMo.

The post DinoWriMo: Literary classics appeared first on The Horn Book.

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Originally conceived as a branded content short film, "Twerkilator " was rejected by the client.

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Suzanne Collins (pictured, via) has composed a letter praising the filmmaking team behind the four Hunger Games movies.

Collins offered several complimentary words in particular for director Francis Lawrence, actress Jennifer Lawrence, and producer Nina Jacobson. She also shared that her personal mission for this young adult trilogy was to tell a story about war for young readers.

Here’s an excerpt from Collins’ letter: “Having spent the last decade in Panem, it’s time to move on to other lands. But before I do, I’d like to say a tremendous thank you to everyone associated with the film franchise. I’m thrilled with how this quartet of films, which I find both faithful to the books and innovative in its own right, has been brought to life on the screen.”

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From "the First in line" now in reprint,  remember to order any of my books before the last of November to get a signed copy: http://mattiasadolfsson.tictail.com/

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A few weeks ago, Scholastic and We Need Diverse Books announced a Special Edition of the Scholastic Reading Club program.

You know what I'm talking about, right? You remember your teacher handing out those book club flyers? You remember poring over the options, deciding which ones you'd get? And then the joy when they arrived!

I was on both ends of that program. As a kid, I got books that way, and as an elementary school teacher, my students got books that way, too.

Like anyone, Scholastic has an uneven track record in terms of the books they publish. Some are great, some are not.

When I saw the first page of the flyer for this collaboration between Scholastic and We Need Diverse Books, my first thought was "Oh no! Not Stone Fox!" That book has stereotypical imagery in it. The stoic Indian in it is violent, too, striking the white kid that is the main character. Even though it all comes out ok in the end, I don't recommend it. Stereotypes are just no good, for anyone.

I've finally gotten a chance to look over the entire flyer and am really glad to see Joseph Bruchac's Eagle Song is in there. I like that book a lot and recommend it. (The flyer also has Bruchac's story about the Trail of Tears, but I haven't read that one yet.)

Don't waste a dollar on Stone Fox. Spend three dollars instead, and get Eagle Song. Danny, the main character, is Mohawk. The setting is present day. His dad is a steelworker. They've moved to a city where Danny feels alone and is teased about his heritage. Like other Native families who find themselves in cities, they seek out a Native community, and find it at the American Indian Community House. Lot of good in this book! I highly recommend it. It was first published in in 1999 by Puffin Books.

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One of the paintings in tomorrow's auction of American Art at Christie's is "Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor."

Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor, 1946, oil, 33 x 63 in.

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Over the years, I've written about children's books that were revised.

A few days ago I compiled links about revised books (some are mine and some are from others who work in children's literature) and inserted them in my post about A Fine Dessert. Today, I'm putting them on a stand-alone page. If you know of other changes, do let me know. This set of links will eventually appear at Teaching for Change.

We are rarely told why these books were changed, and we're rarely told when the change itself is made.  Some changes are no-change, really, because the ideology of the book (writer?) is still there, beneath the words that get changed. Some changes--like the ones in picture books--are significant. All of them are, nonetheless, important to know about.

• Apr 21, 2009. They Were Strong and Good for 1940 by Peter Sieruta at Collecting Children's Books
• Nov 1, 2009. Edit(s) to 1935 edition of Little House on the Prairie by Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children's Literature
• Sep 19, 2010. Censoring Ideology (about Doctor Dolittle) by Philip Nel at Nine Kinds of Pie
• Sep 22, 2010. Social Change and Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Everby Lisa Wade at Sociological Images
• Jan 10, 2011. Changing "Injun" to "Indian" in Tom Sawyer by Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children's Literature
• Apr 3, 2013. Joan Walsh Anglund's The Brave Cowboy by Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children's Literature
• Jan 5, 2014: Travers (author of Mary Poppins): "I Lived with the Indians..." by Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children's Literature
• Oct 1, 2015: Big News about Hoffman's Amazing Grace by Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children's Literature
• Nov 20, 2015. A Beloved Classic: 95% Less Offensive by Elizabeth Bird at School Library Journal
• Nov 11, 2015. Ladybug Girl in Headdress? Gone! by Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children's Literature 
• Nov 13, 2015. Revisions to The Case for Loving by Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children's Literature

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In Houston, We Have a Narrative, consummate storyteller—and Hollywood screenwriter and former scientist and communications expert—Randy Olson, conveys his no-nonsense, results-oriented approach to writing about science, the stuff of some of our greatest plots. On December 1, 2015, at 2PM, Olson will be leading an hour-long, online seminar for the AAAS (the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society). In addition to conveying the fascinating journey of how he left a tenured professorship in marine biology to write for the movies, Olson will let you know why—and, but, therefore—how.

From the AAAS’s description:

He had a single goal — the search for something that might improve the communication of science. He found it in a narrative template he crafted and labeled as “The ABT.” The ABT is adapted from the co-creators of the Emmy and Peabody award-winning animated series, South Park. In a 2011 documentary about the show, they talked about their “Rule of Replacing” which they use for editing scripts. Their rule involves replacing the word “and” with “but” or “therefore.” From this Olson devised his “And, But, Therefore” template (the ABT). This has become the central tool for his new book, “Houston, We Have A Narrative,” his work with individual scientists, and his Story Circles Narrative Training program he has been developing over the past year with NIH and USDA. In this webinar, co-sponsored by the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Geophysical Union/AGU’s Sharing Science program, he will present what he has termed “The ABT Framework” which refers to “the ABT way of thinking.”

You can sign up for the webinar (12/1 at 2PM, EST) here.

To read more about Houston, We Have a Narrative, click here.

 

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Martin Ford won the 2015 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year for The Rise of the Robots. Ford earned a £30,000 (about $45,581.40) prize, and the other shortlisted authors received £10,000 (about $15,193.80).

According to the press release, “the book discusses the impact of accelerating technology on our economic prospects, and whether the future will see broad based prosperity or catastrophic levels of inequality and economic insecurity. The award recognises the book that provides the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues.”

Past award winners include Thomas Piketty (2014), Brad Stone (2013), and Steve Coll (2012). We’ve posted the entire 2015 short list below.

Shortlist for the 2015 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year

The Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of Mass Unemployment by Martin Ford (Oneworld Publications; Basic Books)

Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of Blackberry by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff (Flatiron/Macmillan)

Digital Gold: The Untold Story of Bitcoin by Nathaniel Popper (Allen Lane/Penguin Press; Harper/ HarperCollins)

Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family by Anne-Marie Slaughter (Oneworld Publications; Random House)

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics by Richard Thaler (Allen Lane/Penguin Press; W. W. Norton)

How Music Got Free: What Happens When an Entire Generation Commits the Same Crime? by Stephen Witt (The Bodley Head/Penguin Random House; Viking)

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This is the continuation of the story about the origin of the Germanic word for man. Last week I left off after expressing great doubts about the protoform that connected man and guma and tried to defend the Indo-European girl from an unpronounceable name. As could be expected, in their attempts to discover the origin of man etymologists cast a wide net for words containing m and n.

The post You’ll be a man, my son. Part 2 appeared first on OUPblog.

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age range: 8-12
genre: contemporary fiction with historical flashbacks
Crystal Allen’s website

Please tell us about your book. 

THE LAURA LINE is about Laura Dyson, a thirteen year old, overweight girl who has dreams of being a model…or a major league baseball pitcher.  Because of her weight issues, students make fun of her to the point that Laura begins to believe that she is all of the ugly things her classmates say she is.  It’s not until Laura ventures into an old shack on her grandmother’s farm and finds a ledger filled with documents from the female ancestors in her history, (all of them named Laura)  that she begins to stand up for herself.  Now, Laura Dyson not only knows who she is, but has evidence of all the wonderful things she can become.

What inspired you to write this story?

My mother raised my oldest brother and sister in an extremely small, one-room, family-built house on my grandmother’s farm.  I missed my opportunities to tour this family landmark, but I knew it held valuable history, along with proof of the strength and determination of my mother.  I wanted to honor her, and the house, in some way.

Could you share with readers how you conducted your research or share a few interesting tidbits you learned while researching?

Talking with family members and memories of growing up on my grandmother’s farm in Indiana were the biggest tools I used when writing THE LAURA LINE.  However, while visiting Boston one summer, a replica of the Amistad was docked in the Naval shipyard, and people were encouraged to tour for free!  Since the Amistad was going to make a “cameo” appearance in THE LAURA LINE, I thought this was an excellent opportunity for some research, and the price was perfect!  With camera in hand and money for snacks, I took off to the shipyard, expecting a fun day in the sun.

But that’s not what happened.

Touring that schooner caused such an emotional stir in me, I was completely caught off guard by its affect from the moment I stepped onboard.  I had no personal ties to anyone aboard the Amistad, yet I wept right there at the shipyard as if I did.  To see pencil-drawn portraits of the captives, some as young as seven-years-old, took all of the fun out of my day. I knew the story of the Amistad, but standing downstairs, in the belly of that schooner, put the whole story in my face.  This was no longer a research project.  It was now personal.

Even though the THE LAURA LINE is based on fictional characters, I felt as if I met the first Laura that day. She was real, and she needed me to feel her pain, her fear, her frustration, her hunger, her tears, her anger. I rushed back to the place I was staying and began to empty out everything I had felt that day, whether it was in complete sentences or not.  I will never forget that experience.

What are some special challenges associated with writing historical fiction?

Making sure each Laura was given a talent that existed in her era, and the materials, left by each Laura, were believable.

What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

THE LAURA LINE teaches its readers:

Love yourself.  Love your “Line.”  Live your dreams.

The post Classroom Connections: THE LAURA LINE by Crystal Allen appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

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