new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: contemporary Jewish characters in childrens books, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 3 of 3
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: contemporary Jewish characters in childrens books in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
By:
Betsy Bird,
on 12/7/2010
Blog:
A Fuse #8 Production
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Uncategorized,
Dr. Seuss,
star wars,
advent calendars,
book drives,
Fusenews,
New Blog Alerts,
Best Books of 2010,
contemporary Jewish characters in children's books,
Triumvirate of Mediocrity,
Jewish children's books,
movie news,
Add a tag
Boy, I picked the wrong week to go about putting off my regular Fusenews. What we’ve got here is a veritable fusey newsy pile-up. I shall endeavor to separate the wheat from the chaff, but no guarantees it’ll actually work. Let us see what all I’m able to pack in for today then:
Lucky ducks! New York Public Library has just released the 100 Books for Reading and Sharing list for 2010. I participated a bit this year, so you’re certain to find my favorites on there. Of course it was a committee so the results may hold some surprises as well . . .
- Tis also the season for booklists! And not just any booklists. Jewish booklists! Two entirely different sources came to my attention recently. First up, my favorite historical children’s literature blog (favorite blog that looks at historical fiction and non-fiction for kids, that is) The Fourth Musketeer just came up with a list of My Top Books for the Eight Nights of Hanukkah. My library is pretty depleted of Hanukkah books at the moment (no surprise there considering the timing) but even so I can see from Margo’s list that we’ve some gaps in our collection. I mean, there’s a Paschkis Hanukkah book out there and we didn’t buy it? This shall not stand.
- And into the Best Books of 2010 category comes Marjorie Ingall, who recently posted on Tablet Magazine the year’s best Jewish picture books and the year’s best Jewish books for older kids. Great lists all around. In terms of picture books I included The Rooster Prince of Breslov by Ann Redisch Stampler on my own Magnificent Books of 2010 list, but I wish I’d seen that fabulous looking Zishe the Strongman by Robert Rubinstein too. On the chapter books side I’m ashamed to say I’ve read only two of the books listed, though Hereville by Barry Deutsch also made it to my magnificent books list. Love that title. Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the links.
By:
Betsy Bird,
on 12/7/2010
Blog:
A Fuse #8 Production
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
star wars,
advent calendars,
book drives,
Fusenews,
New Blog Alerts,
Best Books of 2010,
contemporary Jewish characters in children's books,
Triumvirate of Mediocrity,
Jewish children's books,
Uncategorized,
movie news,
Dr. Seuss,
Add a tag
Boy, I picked the wrong week to go about putting off my regular Fusenews. What we’ve got here is a veritable fusey newsy pile-up. I shall endeavor to separate the wheat from the chaff, but no guarantees it’ll actually work. Let us see what all I’m able to pack in for today then:
Lucky ducks! New York Public Library has just released the 100 Books for Reading and Sharing list for 2010. I participated a bit this year, so you’re certain to find my favorites on there. Of course it was a committee so the results may hold some surprises as well . . .
- Tis also the season for booklists! And not just any booklists. Jewish booklists! Two entirely different sources came to my attention recently. First up, my favorite historical children’s literature blog (favorite blog that looks at historical fiction and non-fiction for kids, that is) The Fourth Musketeer just came up with a list of My Top Books for the Eight Nights of Hanukkah. My library is pretty depleted of Hanukkah books at the moment (no surprise there considering the timing) but even so I can see from Margo’s list that we’ve some gaps in our collection. I mean, there’s a Paschkis Hanukkah book out there and we didn’t buy it? This shall not stand.
- And into the Best Books of 2010 category comes Marjorie Ingall, who recently posted on Tablet Magazine the year’s best Jewish picture books and the year’s best Jewish books for older kids. Great lists all around. In terms of picture books I included The Rooster Prince of Breslov by Ann Redisch Stampler on my own Magnificent Books of 2010 list, but I wish I’d seen that fabulous looking Zishe the Strongman by Robert Rubinstein too. On the chapter books side I’m ashamed to say I’ve read only two of the books listed, though Hereville by Barry Deutsch also made it to my magnificent books list. Love that title. Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the links.
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword
By Barry Deutsch
Amulet Books (an imprint of Abrams)
$15.95
ISBN: 978-0-8109-8422-6
Ages 9-12
On shelves November 1, 2010
“Yet another troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl,” says the byline. Well seriously. How was I supposed to pass that up? I’d grabbed a copy of Hereville at an American Library Association conference along with a whole host of other books. I don’t think I even gave it half a glance at the time. Just nabbed, stuffed, and scooted. It was only back in the comfort of my hotel room as I repacked my bags that the byline got my attention. I sat down for a quick look. Twenty minutes later I was still reading, with no intention at all of repacking anything until I was done. In my experience, fantasy novels for children do not like to involve religion in any way, shape, or form. And children’s graphic novels? Puh-leeze. You’re as likely to find a copy of Babymouse wax rhapsodic on the topic of organized religion as you are a copy of Harry Potter. So to read Barry Deutsch’s book is to experience a mild marvel. There is religion, fantasy, knitting, some of the best art I’ve seen since The Secret Science Alliance, and a story that actually makes you sit up and feel something. This is like nothing I’ve ever encountered before, and I think it’s truly remarkable. Without a doubt, this is the best graphic novel of 2010 for kids. Bar none.
Mirka has a dream, but it’s not the kind of thing that gets a lot of support. More than anything else in the entire world she wants to fight dragons. The problem? She’s eleven, a girl, and she lives in the Jewish Orthodox town of Hereville. Still, Mirka gets a bit closer to her dream when she incurs the wrath of a witch’s pig, then does it a good deed, thereby indebting its witch to her. As it turns out, the witch tells Mirka that there is a good sword in the neighborhood, but the only way to get it is to defeat a troll. And when push comes to shove, Mirka’s going to have to use all her smarts and cunning to defeat an enemy that prizes one of the arts she loathes the most.
Think about children’s fantasy novels and religion for a moment. Religion in fantasies for kids tends to skew one of three ways. You can incorporate it and make it the entire point of the novel (Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, the Narnia books of C.S. Lewis, or Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time series which is technically science fiction anyway). You can make up an entirely new religion of your own (as in the novels of Frances Hardinge,
3 Comments on Review of the Day – Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch, last added: 8/17/2010
Boy, I picked the wrong week to go about putting off my regular Fusenews. What we’ve got here is a veritable fusey newsy pile-up. I shall endeavor to separate the wheat from the chaff, but no guarantees it’ll actually work. Let us see what all I’m able to pack in for today then:
The Guardian recently revealed a list of what it called The 10 best illustrated children’s books. PW Children’s Bookshelf called this list “quirky”. That’s one word for it. We would also have accepted “freaky deaky”, “positively peculiar”, and “quoi?” Or maybe that just applies to the first selection. After all, it’s hard to fault a list that includes The Magic Pudding AND Shaun Tan in one fell swoop. Thanks to
10 Comments on Fusenews: If it has Jeffrey Tambor in it, it’s gotta be good!, last added: 12/8/2010
I am thrilled to find The Rooster Prince of Breslov on your list, and on Marjorie Ingall’s as well. Much appreciated! Ann
As a non-native born New Yorker, I honestly didn’t know there was a difference. So there’s a Long Island City vs. plain old Long Island? That seems unfair. I call mistrial.
There’s a 4-volume hardcover bound edition of The Clockwork Girl on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0980920418/sr=1-1/qid=1291816037/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1291816037&sr=1-1&seller=
I thought that the new The Taking Tree by Shrill Travesty was wonderful… this cartoon seems to agree.
Thanks for the links to the Jewish books list. I was happy to see The Year of Goodbyes on the list for older children. I was fortunate enough to review it for School Library Journal, and I don’t think enough attention was paid to this book.
For a few years running (when daughter was between 9 and 12 or so) we reread out loud The Christmas Mystery in the evening during December. It was great (and a somewhat confusing book so it kept us engaged). There was much shouting of “To Bethlehem, to Bethlehem” during the month as that repeated phrase was used as an audience participation technique. Unfortunately with high school schedules got too busy and we had to abandon this tradition.
Oh, Fuse, I get an F in reading comprehension. I thought your Magnificent 100 was the NYPL’s, which I already had. Duh. My apologies. Onto CS’s big “best of” list the Mag1 goes.
LOVE the duck cartoon!
Clockwork Girl is bound?!! Must purchase for library.
And Susan, no worries. My Magnificent 100 is certainly the list of books I WISH NYPL had selected as their own. The format is the same (Poetry, Fairy Tales, etc.) and there’s plenty of overlap (particularly in the aforementioned Fairy Tales) but mine is tapered more to my own tastes.
I’m no native New Yorker either so no excuse:) (I have read about the museum before and know it is just across the river in Queens.)