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How You Got So Smart by David Milgrim

From infant to child, you have a come a long, long way!  This book reveals just how you got as smart as you are.  You watched and listened.  Chewed on things.  Explored and asked lots of questions.  You investigated, made friends, and were very brave.  Each and every step taught you something, and that is what made you so very smart.  This jolly book takes a humorous but sincere look at how babies grow into amazing children every day.

Milgrim’s success with this book is in its tone.  It is funny but really honest and truthful about what makes each of us smart.  The best part is that it is about normal children, who all grow in their own way, who all explore, who all invent.  Every child will see themselves here and relate effortlessly to the book.  Milgrim’s illustrations add to the humor.  They also bring the necessary bright colors and charm. 

Perfect spring reading for classes of children who are advancing to the next grade.  This reminds everyone that they are special and smart.  Appropriate for ages 4-7, older as a treat read-aloud around graduation time.

Reviewed from library copy.

This Means War! by Ellen Wittlinger. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. April 2010. Reviewed from Advance Reviewer Copy from publisher. Middle grade.

The Plot: Juliet, ten, has lost her best friend, Lowell. Why? Because Juliet is a girl. Six years of friendship mean nothing, now that Lowell is friends with Tommy and Mike. Boys do boy stuff, she is told, and girls do girl stuff.

GO. AWAY. is the message.

Patsy, Juliet's new friend, isn't afraid of anything. Or anyone. One thing leads to another, and suddenly the boys and girls are challenging each other to see who is better, faster, stronger, braver. No matter the risk. No matter who gets hurt.

The Good: This fifth grade battle of the sexes plays out in October 1962, against the backdrop of Cuban Missile Crisis. Wittlinger lets the reader connect their own dots about the motivations and fears of the various kids and parents. For example, Patsy. Patsy adores her father, but he prefers spending quality time with his son, Patsy's younger brother. Patsy loves her father, is interested in what he is interested he, but he cannot see how a girl would be interested in mechanics and airplanes. Patsy never says that the reason she is driven to best the boys in the challenge is to prove something to herself and her father. Juliet never connects those dots, either. Instead, Wittlinger respects the reader, letting them make this connection.

While this would be a good "fiction and nonfiction" match up with Almost Astronauts by Tanya Lee Stone, This Means War is about more than sexism and feminism in the early 1960s.

Yes, Juliet is frustrated at the boys who start drawing lines about what boys like and girls like. Yes, Juliet doesn't see the appeal of giggling over boys, like her older sister Caroline or two girls in school, Annette and Linda. Yes, Patsy's dad echoes these thoughts.

But, Patsy dreams of being a pilot (and, as we know from Almost Astronauts, it wasn't an impossible dream). Other adults voice the belief that it's about what people like, not boys versus girls. And (spoiler alert!), by the end of This Means War, the two groups of boys and girls have gotten to know each other and become one group of friends. Also? This Means War is not critical of those boys who happen to like go carts or those girls who like to dance and giggle about boys. Oh, at the start, Juliet in her unhappiness is critical of Lowell's new friends and of her default friends, Annette and Linda. This changes by the end of the book.

This Means War is not just about the war between two groups of fifth graders; it's the war against prejudices, against fear of change, against the unknown, against oneself. Juliet's parents are at war, with progress and each other. They own a small family grocery store and are losing business to the new supermarkets; money is a frequent topic of argument. Her father is fru

Since I write mostly for kids and teens, I find myself observing their world and also revisiting my own life during that time period.

I stumbled upon The Childhood Belief Site - I Used to Believe. It’s fun site that has a list of things people believed when they were kids. My favorite section is the Nature section. Growing up in the country, I was always outside and with my vivid imagination and limited kid knowledge, I came up with some beliefs that are funny now that I’m an adult.

Here are just a few things that I actually believed when I was a kid:

• Ice cream came from clouds. Strawberry ice cream came from sunsets and chocolate ice cream came from storms.
• Each brick along my grandmother’s sidewalk was a tiny apartment where ants lived with their families.
• Butterflies came from flowers and that was the reason they hung around them so much — they were talking to their friends.
• I thought of leaves as hair for trees. In the fall, when leaves changed colors, I always thought it was hair dye job. And since the leaves always fell out, a bad hair dye job.

And those were just a few things that I remember. I’m sure I could think of more. Did you have any weird and/or funny things that you believed as a kid?

Only a Witch Can Fly by Alison McGhee, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo. Feiwel & Friends, 2009. Review copy supplied by publisher. Picture book.

The Plot: A young witch desperately wants to fly.

The Good: This story of learning to fly is written as a sestina. The repartition both lulls the reader and reassures the reader, while cheering on the young witch in her goal: flight. This also makes it a great read aloud; there is something about poetry that just works better when read.

On the surface, this is a story of try, try again, similar to stories of learning how to ride a bike or swim. But, this is flight. Something so much more than just riding or swimming; flying is about growing up and leaving childhood behind, it's about not accepting limitations, and it's about freedom.

Here is the young witch, finally flying, and its words that could cheer and encourage anyone: "Hold tight to your broom
and float past the stars,
and turn to the heavens and soar.
For only a witch can fly past the moon.
Only a witch can fly."

And I read those final words and thought, "and we are all witches."

Let me tell you, that photo of the cover doesn't give the actual cover justice. The moon is a soft, light butter yellow that matches the font of the title and it just makes you go "oooohhhh... I must pick this up. I must touch this cover." The colors throughout the book are warm: black, brown, orange, green. Yoo shares details about her art at an interview with Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. And the young witch has striped stockings. I so, so want those types of stockings but alas, at my age cannot carry off that look.



The Poetry Friday round-up is at Becky's Book Reviews.


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© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy

So I posted a few photos on Facebook on Saturday, never realizing it would cause a problem.

No, they weren't that kind of photo! We had our clothes on, it was all quite innocent. It was a photo of me and my husband with one of my childhood friends. We had just helped her move into her new apartment in Tucson and the three of us sat on the bottom step and took a photo together. Seeing it reminded me of happy times and I thought she would feel the same. Boy was I wrong!

please... please... please remove that photo of me on your website .... I'd really appreciate it!!!!!!!! I do not like photos of me - especially from the past on anyone's site - PLEASE!!!!! take down IMMEDIATELY. Any photos of me – and our past PLEASE KEEP PRIVATE AND PERSONAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Believe it or not, I don't spend all my time on the internet =) So I didn't see her URGENT message until Sunday. But while I was cooking dinner for my family on Saturday evening, the phone rang.

"Sherrie? It's ____________ ______________. PLEASE take down that photo you posted of me on Facebook."

No hello, no how ya doin' or I've missed you. I was surprised. I didn't know what to say. But apparently my silence spoke volumes.

"You're upset?" She sounded amazed.

"Well, yeah I'm upset. I haven't heard from you in years and now the only thing you're calling me for is to say you don't like the photo I posted of us on Facebook?"

"I have to protect my image. I don't like old photos of myself and I can't have them floating around out there."

I should probably explain here that my "friend" is on TV. She's a newscaster on a Los Angeles channel. And she dates the weatherman. So I'm sure that when she goes out, some people recognize her. She's not like Katie Couric famous, but people kinda know her around L.A. So not to be mean, but we aren't talking about major stardom here. And since we've known each other since she was 12 and I was 14, I've got WAY worse pictures I could post of her. I wasn't trying to infringe on her image or exploit her or anything. It was just a photo that reminded me of a good time with a good friend. My mistake.

I fought back tears and tried to control my voice as I spoke to her. It wasn't just that she yelled at me. It wasn't even the fact that she was obviously in the throes of some overblown superiority complex.

I thought of us at summer camp singing "The Little Green Frog" and acting like total dorks. I remembered sleepovers and sailing, going to the mall and flirting with strangers, driving through Beverly Hills acting like we ruled the world. I'd visited her in Miami when her career started to grow, listened to her cry when her mother died. We hadn't been as close the last few years, but we'd always been able to pick up where we left off. Up until now.

Who was this person on the phone telling me to keep our past private? Why was she suddenly ashamed to be associated with me? Or was she worried that people might realize she had her nose fixed and her hair isn't naturally blonde? No one in L.A. is a natural blonde. Who cares?

I felt like a part of me died as I listened to her going on and on about her hair and her image. I wanted to be 14 again or 20 or anywhere but here, listening to her voice and realizing how different we'd become.

This is another finished piece for the growing up show. I'm hoping it's quite obviously a scene from a girls sleepover, an event that many girls experience while on their path growing up.

Growing Up Show Painting Links 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 (#5 is still a progress picture - will upload the final soon!)

On another news worthy note, a book I started illustrating for Tony Potter Publishing late last summer that was put on hold is now back in full force. Apparently there was some interest shown when they took the mock-up to the Bologna Book Fair this year. This will most likely be the last project I can fit into my schedule before I take maternity leave (unless something little and lovely comes into the picture). I'm hoping to finish all client work by May 15th so I don't end up with deadlines and a newborn at the same time. I hope this leaves me with some time to complete a series of paintings for the baby's room!

Here's a photo of myself working on painting #5 for the Growing Up show. It features my grandfather after his stroke and heart surgery. While my family gathered to support his efforts to recover, his heart was not in it and he died within a month. This scene was initially created to depict death as a part of growing up but I decided instead to focus on the aspects of family support, frustration and love. The scene depicted is truly appropriate for the gallery space, being in a hospital, where patients can take the time to wander in with their families.

I started this painting with many thumbnail sketches and searched for appropriate references, including searching my own diaries and sketchbooks from the time. I'll continue to photograph the painting in many stages and share the progress here.

Julia Gillian is accomplished at many things including the art of papier mache mask making, spreading her gum across her top teeth, and knowing exactly what her dog Bigfoot is thinking. She is still trying to master the claw machine at her Minneapolis neighbourhood hardware store. She has been trying for 3 years to get the meerkat perched inside. Julia Gillian is also good at the Art of Knowing. For example, in the morning, she's knows exactly when her mother will butter her toast, and what plate she will put her toast on.

But this summer, her Art of Knowing is letting her in on the fact that things change. Her parents haven't been taking her for picnics, or really spending any time with her at all. They are busy taking double load grad school courses. And they keep sending her out for walks in the 9 block area she is allowed in her neighbourhood. That's not exactly fun. She still has her green book to finish and she is just certain that it is going to have a sad ending. She tries talking to her babysitter and neighbour Enzo about everything, but Enzo is a woman of few words. Thank goodness Julia Gillian can put on her raccoon mask when she needs a bit more courage to head out the door.

Alison McGhee has written a sweet "moment in time" story about Julia Gillian's summer. She is growing up, and fighting parts of it. Black and white illustrations by Drazen Kozjan perfectly compliment the story. Julia Gillian is a great read for fans of Ivy and Bean, Clementine, and those who have outgrown Amber Brown.

Evaline Ness Antonio Frasconi, Helen Borten, William Wondriska