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Another great review just in for Peanut and Fifi have A Ball, Randall de Seve and my new book out at the end of this month. Preorder it
here.
Peanut and Fifi Have a Ball.
In this story about imaginative play, Peanut has a new blue ball. It’s a great ball, and her older sister, Fifi, wants it. But no matter what Fifi suggests they do with it, Peanut refuses. Then Fifi brings an imaginary seal into the equation, along with clothes and pajamas, so that all four can travel the world. Peanut acquiesces, but Fifi doesn’t need the ball anymore to play. End of story? Well, not quite. Much of this book’s charm lies in the spare illustrations of the girls, rendered as broad black strokes in geometric shapes (Fifi is triangular; Peanut is more rounded), and accented by a blue, green, and peach color palette. The backgrounds are plain and the pages creamy, which allow the characters to pop—up until the lovely, fully saturated final spread. When Fifi introduces each imaginary object, it’s effectively rendered in muted colors and bordered with a dotted line. Share with kids who understand what it’s like to have a special toy, a sibling, and a powerful imagination.
— Ann Kelley
Earlier today, Erin wrote to me to ask if I'd seen the list of books in the "Top 10 Westerns for Youth" in the August 2012 issue of Booklist. She had purchased one of the books on the list and is concerned with the depictions of American Indians in it.
Here's my thoughts on Caroline Lawrence's The Case of the Deadly Desperados: Western Mysteries, Book One.
The cover has a blurb from the Times that says it is "rip roaring." In other words, hilariously funny. However, what is funny to one may be something else to another...
The protagonist is known as "Pinky" (short for Pinkerton, the surname of his "original pa"). At the time of the story, Pinky is living with his "Christian ma" and pa in a small town in Nevada in 1862. He is twelve years old.
When Pinky was two, his "original pa" left Pinky and his mother to be a railroad detective. Pinky never saw him again. Later, his "Indian ma" (she was "Lakota, which some people call Sioux") took up with another white guy.
When Pinky was seven, his "Indian ma," the other guy, and Pinky headed west to find Pinky's dad. On the way, their wagon train was attacked by Indians. There was a massacre and Pinky ended up an orphan. Pinky has a medicine bag, given to him by his "Indian ma." It is:
made of buffalo hide & decorated with red & blue beads in a little arrow shape. It was as big as my right hand with the fingers spread out. My Indian ma had given it to me before we set out on the wagon train west.
I had been wearing it around my neck during the massacre but I had not seen it since my foster parents put it in the hiding place under the floorboard.
That was in 1857. When the novel opens, it is 1862. Pinky comes home from school on September 26, and finds his "foster parents lying on the floor in a pool of blood." They'd been scalped and there's a tomahawk in his pa's chest. He runs to his mother, who is still alive. She tells him that white men dressed like Indians had attacked them, and that those men were looking for Pinky's medicine bag. Before she dies, she tells Pinky that the bag holds his destiny. He is to get it and leave before the men come back. Pinky gets the bag, but before he can leave, Pinky hears the killers returning and climbs into the rafters to hide. He uses a "Bush Trick" his "Indian ma" told him about. "If you hide behind a small bush and imagine that you are that bush, they say you become invisible."
The men leave. Pinky, wearing a buckskin outfit that his Ma made for his birthday, crawls through the dirt to wait for the stage coach. As he lies in the dirt, he opens the medicine bag. Inside is his
"Indian ma's" flint knife, a folded up piece of paper, and a brass button "that belonged to my original pa." That paper will turn out to be a letter from his "original pa," and its contents are the reason he is being chased. That "original pa" was named Robert Pinkerton. When Pinky's "Christian ma" learned that Pinky's father was a Pinkerton, she wrote to Allan Pinkerton in Chicago to "ask him if his dead brother had ever fathered a child by a Lakota squaw around the year 1850."
Shall I stop?
Or do you want to know about the part where some schoolyard bullies stop punching Pinky when they see "[t]he rest of his filthy tribe" coming to save him. Or, maybe you want to know about Pinky staring in a mirror and seeing "a grubby Blanket Indian with an expressionless face staring back at me."
This humor doesn't work for me. Kirkus gave it a starred review for its pacing, deadpan humor and appealing protagonist. The reviewer for The New York Times Book Review thinks that Pinky has Asperger's syndrome, or, high functioning autism and that "Any child who's felt like a 'Misfit' or 'Freak of Nature' as P.K. does will identify with his despair and cheer him" (review posted at Amazon in Editorial Reviews). Maybe so, but what will Native children make of Native identity as the vehicle that carries the humor?
Did you note the subtitle says "Book One"? With those starred reviews, there will likely be additional books about Pinky (who is, by the way, is a girl, not a boy). And the contents of that letter? It is a deed to land with silver mines in the mountains of Nevada. The idea of a half-Lakota Pinky encroaching on lands belong to other Indians doesn't work for me. The Case of the Deadly Desperados? Not recommended. -------------------------------------
Update: Saturday, August 25Last night I went over to Goodreads to post my review and see what reviews there were like. I found that Erin had posted her review there. Do
read what she said.
By: Colleen Mondor,
on 7/24/2012
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*Unlike post-Katrina titles that focused on the immediate personal losses suffered by the people of New Orleans, We Shall Not Be Moved shines a spotlight on the years following the hurricane, subsequent levee failure, and the slow rebuilding effort that continued long after national attention shifted elsewhere. Focusing on several specific neighborhoods, including Lakeview and the Lower Ninth Ward, Wooten introduces residents who found themselves forced to organize in order to save their neighborhoods. Crossing geographic and ethnic lines and presenting a thorough survey of the city's damaged areas, Wooten shares the ways in which local and state governments were overwhelmed and the many individuals who stepped up to the plate and effected positive change. Compelling beyond belief, deserving the broadest possible readership, and mandatory reading for urban planners and community organizers, this is a tour de force about one American city and what it means to fight for the survival of your hometown. If you love where you live, you need to know this story of what it has taken to rebuild every flooded block of New Orleans.-- Colleen Mondor
YA/General Interest: An excellent resource for teens researching post-Katrina NOLA and the book for those interested in community organization at work. --Colleen Mondor
In case you missed it, on Pinterest this week we created a booklist of books with Passover themes:
Including, of course, Where on Earth is My Bagel?
Head on over and check it out. Even though Passover’s almost over, themes like freedom and gratitude deserve to be contemplated year-round.
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Have you ever found yourself writing a story and wish you could think of a book that dealt with something you were writing about? Well, I have. So when literacy Consultant Connie Foland showed me her mostly picture book list, I thought it would be something that writers could use, even though it was developed for teachers. These are books that Connie has read, loves and uses in her various workshops.
Different Kinds of Endings
One Word
Cowley, J. Yuk Soup
Crews, D. Night at the Fair
—-Sail Away
Feiffer, J. Bark, George
Hooks, B. Homemade Love
Kalan, R. Rain
Stiles, N. On My Very First Day of School I Met
Swaim, J. The Hound from the Pound
Beginning and End Match/Are Similar
Eaton, M. The Adventures of Max and Pinky
Gray, L. My Mama Had a Dancing Heart
Gray, L. Dear Willie Rudd
Henkes, K. All Alone
London, J. Puddles
Thompson, B. What Cows Do When No One is Looking
The End is in the Illustration
Schwarz, A. Tiny and Hercules
Willems, M. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
—-The Pigeon Wants a Hot Dog
—Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay up Late
Surprise
Bunting, E. The Wednesday Surprise
Twist at the End
Asch, F. Just Like Daddy
Ginsburg, M. The Chick and the Duckling
Mayer, M. Just My Friend and Me
Thinking/Feeling
Brinckloe, J. Fireflies
Juster, N. The Hello, Goodbye Window
Rao, S. My Mother’s Sari
Rylant, C. When I Was Young in the Mountains
Yolen, J. Owl Moon
Lesson Learned
Crews, D. Shortcut
Wishing/Wanting/Problem/Solution
Allen, D. Dancing in the Wings
Asch, F. Happy Birthday, Moon
Banks, K. Max’s Words
Barber, B. Saturday at the New You
Blake, S.
2 Comments on Constance Foland’s Fabulous Categorized Picture Book List, last added: 2/15/2012
By: Laura,
on 8/3/2011
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THE BERLIN BOXING CLUB, by award-winning author Robert Sharenow (My Mother the Cheerleader), has been given THREE STARRED REVIEWS! Here is what everyone is raving about:
“Sharenow delivers a masterful historical novel that examines racism through the eyes of both children and real historical figures.” ~ Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A story with well-drawn, complex characters, gripping history, and intense emotion.” ~ School Library Journal (starred review)
“Readers will be drawn by the sports detail and by the close-up narrative of the daily oppression.” ~ Kirkus (starred review)
Robert Sharenow’s editor, the fabulous Kristin Rens, recently shared with us what it is about the story and Robert’s writing that drew her to the story when she first read it:
It’s hard to talk about just one thing that struck me about BERLIN BOXING CLUB, because when I read the first draft I was struck by something new on almost every page: there’s Rob’s writing, which is eloquent and moving; there’s the way he beautifully marries the political and social upheaval happening around Karl with the life-altering events that take place in his own family; and there’s Karl’s quest to find his own unique talents through boxing and art—a quest to which any teen can relate. Most of all, though, I was struck by the fact that Rob was writing about this place and time from a point of view that I hadn’t seen before: that of a teen boy whose heritage is Jewish, but because his parents haven’t raised him in the Jewish faith, he doesn’t consider himself Jewish. In fact, at the beginning of the story he identifies more with boys in the Hitler Youth than he does with his Jewish classmates. And his struggle to understand why he’s being bullied for a faith that he doesn’t really embrace as his own is absolutely heartrending.
Pick up THE BERLIN BOXING CLUB to see what the buzz is all about! And check out the following links for more info:
Bitter Waters: America's Forgotten Mission to the Dead Sea (starred review)
David Haward Bain (Author)
Booklist
Aug 2011. 384 p. Overlook, hardcover, $30.00. (9781590203521)
The 1840s were a decade of global exploration for the U.S. Navy, whose officers charted the seven seas, plus the Dead Sea. Strangely true, a naval expedition to the Holy Land in 1848 is the tale Bain tells. The idea for it germinated in the mind of Lieutenant William Lynch, who nurtured unrealized ambitions for command, a fascination with travel literature, and aspirations to the writing life. His mission approved, out he went, launching his crew in two rowboats onto the Sea of Galilee and thence down the River Jordan into the Dead Sea. Transported by Roman ruins, Crusader battlements, reputed sites of Jesus’ ministry, and remnants of God’s wrath against Sodom and Gomorrah, Lynch in his journals and published account exulted in the region’s religious nimbus as much as in applying his men to their ostensible cartographic
purpose.
Integrating those aspects of the adventure and Lynch’s wary relations with Bedouin tribes, Bain produces an engrossing narrative of the expedition that richly positions the mission’s incidents within Lynch’s Western perspective on the Near East. Wonderfully realized, Bain’s account will enthrall seekers of history off the beaten path.
By: Laura,
on 5/24/2011
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Don’t listen to us gab about the newest picture book from Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace…check out the three starred reviews for THIS PLUS THAT!
“Teachers could use the book, perhaps paired with Betsy Franco’s picture book Mathematickles! (2003), to introduce math equations or to inspire students to create their own verbal equations. But first, just read this unusual book aloud and let it work its magic.” ~ Booklist (starred review)
“Clever premise + artful execution = sure winner.” ~ Kirkus (starred review)
“Corace’s tidy figures echo with prim grace the gentle theme of the book, that life can be parsed into the simplest terms that recombine to create something joyous.” ~ Bulletin for the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
Check out the adorable book trailer:
And check out these other great reviews:
A Year of Reading
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The BK Club (the Children’s Room at Memorial Hall Library)
By: Laura,
on 3/31/2011
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Who knew that a perfect square could be transformed into so many things? In his stunning follow-up to last year’s MY HEART IS LIKE A ZOO, Michael Hall creates rivers, mountains, and parks out of a single square of paper. The storytime possibilities are limitless: give kids a square of paper and scissors and see what they can create. So often as a librarian, I would create elaborate artwork for the kids to do during storytime but, sometimes, all you need is a single piece of paper.
What’s buzzy about PERFECT SQUARE? It has received FOUR STARRED REVIEWS! Here’s what they’re saying:
“A smart lesson in thinking outside the box (or the square).” ~ Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Memorable for reading aloud and terrific for inspiring creative play with the simplest materials.” ~ Booklist (starred review)
“As its week progresses, the narrative turn of events in the square’s world encourages page-turning to discover the results. What will the square do next? This is a not-to-be-missed adventure for all young readers.” ~ School Library Journal (starred review)
“Young readers will absorb the visual lessons effortlessly and with delight.” ~ Kirkus (starred review)
Here are some more wonderful links for you:
PERFECT SQUARE (ISBN 9780061915130) is available now.
On a walk in the wild, Little Elephant asks her mother about each creature they see: What is it? What is it doing? And can Little Elephant do that, too? "Can I jump like a frog?" she asks on one spread, and the soft-toned, line-and-wash illustrations show the young animal imagining herself leaping from a cliff. (...) Young children will enjoy following Little Elephant's fantasies, depicted in the uncluttered, double-page spreads, all the way to the story's climax, which celebrates what Little Elephant really is, as well as the big, strong creature she will grow up to be. Along with the imaginative silliness, the nurturing parent-child tenderness is the core of the story.
Hazel Rochman
Next month, we're excited to introduce WHO SHOT THE WATER BUFFALO, the debut novel from Ken Babbs. Tom Wolfe is a fan, and so is Booklist--this week has been extra-exciting on the Water Buffalo front! Check out what they've got to say.
"Former U.S. Marine Captain Ken Babbs was a pilot who climbed from the SAMissile-killing skies over Vietnam to the LSDippy hippie highs of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters ... and lived. I know, because I saw him afterward. This book is Babbs, Part One." -Tom Wolfe
BOOKLIST
Issue: March 15, 2011
Who Shot the Water Buffalo?
Babbs, Ken (Author)
Mar 2011. 320 p. Overlook, hardcover, $25.95. (9781590204443).
Babbs sings us an ode to a marine helicopter squadron serving in Vietnam prior to the outbreak of war, when the U.S. was acting as an “advisor.” With pop-cultural quotes and allusions liberally sprinkled amid staccato prose, this first novel may feel to some a cross between Joseph Heller and Hunter S. Thompson.
Part buddy movie, part simple observation, and part existential musing, the novel lets readers see and feel the world it creates as it follows Texan Tom Huckelbee and Ohioan Mike Cochran from flight school through their time in Vietnam. Huckelbee strives to remain sane through Cochran’s unpredictable actions, a grinding schedule of sorties, R and R breaks, base politics, and the loss of flight-school friends. The strain of their circumstances builds to the final, most dangerous mission they fly. Babbs, a U.S. Marine whose service included piloting helicopters in Vietnam, brings eyewitness truth to the table as he pays homage to his fellow marines while showing how valor and duty can be embodied quite differently among one company of men.
— Arlen Bensen
By: Laura,
on 2/24/2011
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The school and library world is a-buzzing with accolades for Thanhha Lai’s debut novel INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN! Check out these reviews…and the shiny stars that accompany them:
“In her not-too-be-missed debut, Lai evokes a distinct time and place and presents a complex, realistic heroine whom readers will recognize, even if they haven’t found themselves in a strange new country.” ~ Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“An incisive portrait of human resilience.” ~ Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Based on Lai’s personal experience, this first novel captures a child-refugee’s struggle with rare honesty.” ~ Booklist (starred review)
“[...] the immediacy of the narrative will appeal to those who do not usually enjoy historical fiction.” ~ School Library Journal (starred review)
“Lai’s spare language captures the sensory disorientation of changing cultures as well as a refugee’s complex emotions and kaleidoscopic loyalties.” ~ The Horn Book
And here is what our teacher and librarian friends are saying:
INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN (ISBN 9780061962783) is on-sale now.
We just got in finished copies of Frances Hill's new novel of the Salem witch trials, DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL, and they look absolutely fantastic. Thrilled to see the book getting some pre-publication praise as well! Deliverance from Evil will be on sale March 3.
BOOKLIST
Issue: February 15, 2011
Deliverance from Evil.
Hill, Frances (Author)
Mar 2011. 320 p. Overlook, hardcover, $25.95. (9781590204702).
Historian Hill utilizes her extensive research on the Salem Witch Trials to bone-chilling effect in this riveting tale of a town spiraling out of control. Hill’s four previous nonfiction books documented the infamous witch hunt and its aftermath, enabling her to lend a sense of immediacy and authenticity to the gripping narrative by stocking it with characters ripped directly out of the pages of history. She knows enough about the real-life perpetrators and victims to build a convincing fictional scenario around them.
The tension ratchets up, and the hysteria mounts after what initially begins as an innocent game becomes something much more sinister. As the Salem community loses control of its collective senses, no one, not even innocent clergyman Reverend George Burroughs, is above suspicion. Astute readers will pick up on alarming parallels to be drawn between the past and the present day.
By: Colleen Mondor,
on 1/14/2010
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A starred review from me:
Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things.
Smith, Rick (author) and Bruce Lourie (author) and others.
Jan. 2010. 336p. illus. Counterpoint, hardcover, $25 (9781582435671). 615.9.
REVIEW. First published January 1, 2010 (Booklist).
This is one scary book. Using a variety of test methods, the authors determined individual “body burdens,” or the toxic chemical load we carry. The innocuous rubber duck, for example, offers a poison soup of phthalates that “permeate the environment and humans.” From other products and food, we also have a collection of chemicals shorthanded as PFCs, PFOAs, PSOSs, and PCBs. None of them are good, and they are everywhere, thanks to Teflon (which drew the largest administrative penalty against a company ever obtained by the EPA), Stainmaster, nonflammable pajamas, tuna (hello, mercury), and, would you believe, antibacterial products. The legacy of our chemically addicted society is not just all around us but also inside us, and it is killing us, as the Teflon case proved. (Workers in West Virginia believed that “having a high-paying job often meant getting sick,” and many were reluctant to sue and possibly scare DuPont away.) Poised between chirpy green-living manuals and dense academic papers, Smith and Bruce Lourie have crafted a true guide for the thinking consumer. If readers don’t change their ways after reading this one, then they never will.
By: Brimful Curiosities,
on 2/25/2010
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The sun managed to shine a few beams down this past week. Such a welcome sight considering that the snowman we built early last December still has not completely melted! It's been a long winter here and we are ready for some warmer, spring weather. Pretty soon those spring garden flowers will add color to the landscape, spreading cheer and happiness. We got a jump on the season with a brand new spring garden themed picture book, just released this week.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, move over. There's a new girl in the garden -- a happy, little daydreamer who envisions chocolate rabbits and jelly bean bushes, and seashell fields. Kevin Henkes sows the seeds of imagination and illustrates with colors of spring in his newest picture book, My Garden
. A barefoot little girl helps her mother in a cheery garden by watering and weeding the plants. All the while, she fantasies about her ideal garden.
"In my garden, the flowers could change color just by my thinking about it -- pink, blue, green purple. Even patterns."
The little girl's vast imagination takes readers beyond the restraints of the world, into a extraordinary place where the flowers never die and where umbrellas conveniently pop out of the ground just as the spring rain begins. Kevin Henkes adds another feather to his brimming hat with this beautiful book. His spectacular, watercolor illustrations overflow the pages with creative page layout. Fanciful images appear as full bleeds and then he takes readers back to reality with smaller spot illustrations. His book presents endless possibilities as a read aloud and spurs the imagination.
When I finished reading
My Garden to my daughter, I asked her what her garden would contain. First she would grow all the toys she wants so that she wouldn't have to visit the store. Her plants would keep growing even in the snow. The garden would be filled with kittens, puppies, and balloons. And one last thing - the garden would take all the garbage away by grabbing it so it would disappear and you wouldn't see it anymore. The imagination truly is a garden where anything is possible.
My Garden by Kevin Henkes. Greenwillow Books (February 2010); 40 pages; ISBN 9780061715174
Book S
This week, we're celebrating our magnificent, marvelous, sometimes mysterious but always magical Earth. We hope you are celebrating Earth Day wherever you are!
Our school and library marketing team recently put together an Earth Day Activity Kit, which you can download to use and distribute at home or in your classroom or library. Some of the titles found in the kit are mentioned below. You can download the entire kit from our teachers and librarians web page - (there's lots of other great material here!), and here is a direct link to the dowloadable kit.
Living Green and Clean Energy are two books in the Sally Ride Science series, (from noted astronaut and environmentalist, Sally Ride). Dedicated to the highlighting the Earth's main resources, each volume describes how we use the energy, water, air, and land, and what can be done to protect them. Packed with full-color photographs and illustrations, this is a series you can't miss!
Into the Sea by Brenda Guiberson examines the fragile life cycle of the sea turtle. Booklist calls it "A perfect choice for primary oceanography or endangered species units, this has a strong-enough story to use as a read-aloud as well."
Brenda has also focused her research on other fascinating creatures...
Ice Bears teaches us all about the life of a polar bear cubs, learning to survive in the arctic. Check out the Ice Bear book page for some great classroom questions, and conversation starters!
By: Colleen Mondor,
on 5/15/2010
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A starred review in the May 1, 2010 issue of Booklist:
Waterman, whose earlier books illuminate the Arctic, strikes an impressive balance between the personal and the political in chronicling his journey down the Colorado River. Quoting those who have traveled its depths before, such as John Wesley Powell and Wallace Stegner, he writes not only about the river’s now-dying power but also the extensive regulations put in place to control and possess it. And yet as much as this is about the river, Waterman also discusses individuals invested in its survival from biologists to the many watermen and -women whose livelihoods come from navigating its length. The misguided playground of Lake Powell proves to be an unsavory stopping point, but the author perseveres in his search for answers. From Vegas to Mexico, he finds waste and ruin and then turns a corner to discover the fruits of hard-won battles for bird sanctuaries and brilliant uses of drip irrigation. Through it all, he ruminates about the choices between life and death for humankind and rivers. An evocative and bold take on a river and what winning the West really means, Waterman’s book epitomizes the best of environmental writing.
May 19: Booklist
Travel back in time through England’s illustrious past with these exciting MacKids historical fiction novels:
The Queen’s Daughter
by Susan Coventry
Joan’s mother is Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most beautiful woman in the world. Her father is Henry II, the king of England and a renowned military leader. She loves them both—so what is she to do when she’s forced to choose between them? As Joan grows up, she begins to understand that her parents’ worldview is warped by their political ambitions, and hers, in turn, has been warped by theirs. Is it too late to figure out whom to trust? And, more importantly, whom to love?
Bewitching Season
by Marissa Doyle
In 1837 London, most young daughters of viscounts pined for handsome, titled husbands, not careers. Shy, studious Persephone Leland, however, would far rather devote herself to her secret magic studies than enter society and look for a suitable husband. But right as the inevitable season for "coming out" is about to begin, Persy and her twin sister discover that their governess in magic has been kidnapped as part of a plot to gain control of the soon-to-be Queen Victoria. Racing through Mayfair ballrooms and royal palaces, the sisters overcome bad millinery, shady royal spinsters, and a mysterious Irish wizard. And along the way, Persy learns that husband hunting isn’t such an odious task after all—if you can find the right prey.
Peril on the Sea
by Michael Cadnum
It’s the summer of 1588, and two unlikely shipmates are traveling on the Vixen, a privateer that will soon be drafted to join a flotilla of English ships bound for a fiery clash with the Spanish Armada. Seventeen-year-old Sherwin is aboard to repay a debt he owes the ship’s roguish captain, and sixteen-year-old Katharine is sailing with them in a desperate bid to save her noble family’s fortune. The fight will be harrowing and bloody, and the unfolding tumult will challenge the character of both Sherwin and Katharine, who are about to discover the deeper meaning of strife and of honor.
King George: What Was His Problem?
by Steve Sheinkin
History doesn’t have to be boring—textbooks make it that way. King George: What Was His Problem? tackles the American Revolution with a storyteller’s eye to plot and character development: John Hancock fixates on salmon, Ben Franklin flirts with the ladies, and Benedict Arnold falls fatefully in love. At the battle of
My editor just sent me this review from Booklist. MY DAY IS OFFICIALLY EXCELLENT!
"Eleven-year-old Allie Jo’s family runs and lives in the legendary, timeworn Meriwether Hotel in Florida , where 13-year-old Chase is a summer guest with his travel-writer father. Although the kids’ first meeting is somewhat contentious, each has encountered the beautiful, mysterious 16-year-old Tara, who is unfamiliar with the modern world, drawn to moonlight swims, and determined to remain hidden from others. When Tara reveals her fantastical story, Allie Jo and Chase decide to help her, but a suspicious stranger’s arrival brings difficult dilemmas as they try to sort out the truth and the right course of action. Allie Jo and Chase are appealing, credibly realistic characters who face both extraordinary events and everyday issues, including resident mean girls. The alternating narratives, including Tara ’s voice, add suspense and depth to this entertaining and intriguing blend of fantasy and reality, myth and mystery, that celebrates friendship and compassion." Booklist
To follow with our American History theme, check out some of these titles from our list!
The Year American Grew Up
America Through the Lens
American Moments
Anne Hutchinson's Way
Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence
Elizabeth Leads the Way
Grierson's Raid
King George: What Was His Problem?
Lincoln Shot
Now & Ben
Rosa
Abraham Lincoln Comes Home by Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Wendell Minor
"Lincoln's funeral train took 13 days between Washington, D.C., and Springfield, Ill., and drew 30 million mourners along the way. Abraham Lincoln Comes Home poignantly imagines a father and son paying their respects on the prairie."—USA Today
"This quiet, lovely book sensitively communicates a sense of the magnitude of loss felt by so many."—Kirkus Reviews
Booth
by C.C. Colbert, illustrated by Tanitoc
From the pen of American historian C.C. Colbert and the brush of French comics master Tanitoc comes a thought-provoking perspective on one of the greatest villains of U.S. history: a killer who was also an actor, a lover, a doubter, and, in his own mind, a patriot.
Lincoln Shot: A President’s Life Remembered
by Barry Denenberg, illustrated by Christopher Bing
“But make room for an impressive volume. It's designed to look like an 1866 newspaper marking the one-year anniversary of Lincoln's assassination on April 14, 1865. It has the feel of headline news . . . archival photos will help young readers feel they’re touching history with all it’s personal drama.” —USA Today
"This well-researched history of the president's assassination is riveting; the text is laid out like a newspaper from 1865 and the results are terrific. This book should be in every child's library, and every school library, everywhere.”
—The Washington Post
Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship
By Nikki Giovanni, illustrated by Bryan Collier
At a time when racial tensions were high and racial equality was not yet established, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass formed a strong bond over shared ideals and worked alongside each other for a common goal. The acclaimed team behind Rosa, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award and a Caldecott Honor book, join forces once more to portray this historic friendship at a unique moment in time.
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One of the programs I wasn't able to attend at ALA was Booklist's Everyone's a Critic: The Future of Book Reviewing program, with Jennifer Hubert Swan of Reading Rants, along with Ron Charles of The Washington Post Book World, Otis Chandler of Good Reads and Jon Fine of Amazon.
Jen has been doing online book reviewing (what we call book blogging) since 1998.
Yes. 1998.
The program is available to listen to at Booklist online, along with the PowerPoint and handout of the panelist's trusted review sources.* Who is one of Jen's review sources? ME. I am so amazed because Jen is the Original Rock Star of online book reviews so, yes, WOW. Thank you, Jen!
This panel talks about traditional print reviewing as well as blogging. Good Reads, Amazon reviews, etc are also discussed. So go and listen!
*Which I have had trouble printing out. Any suggestions?
Amazon Affiliate. If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.
© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
In honor of the day, I thought I'd share with you two French imports we've published in the past year and a half (with more to come!). Leave it to the French to deliver a stylishly designed book that's also fun and interactive!
Enjoy these pop-up books, and their ancillary pieces as well.
ABC-3D
Prepare to be amazed. From the lenticular cover that changes with the angle of your hands all the way to the Z, ABC3D is as much a work of art as it is a pop-up book. Each of the 26 three-dimensional letters move and change before your eyes. C turns into D with a snap. M stands at attention. X becomes Y with a flick of the wrist. And then there's U...Boldly conceived and brilliantly executed with a striking black, red, and white palette, this is a book that readers and art lovers of all ages will treasure for years to come.
And there's more! Marion will publish 10, a counting pop-up book, next Spring.
"As stylish as a pop-up can be. Letters here not only pop up, they move and transform... A-plus for drama and innovation. All ages."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
DISCOVER POPVILLE! Watch a city grow right before your eyes.
Open this ingenious and stylish pop-up book and see houses, apartments, factories, and power lines appear as you turn the page. Stylish retro design and clever paper engineering make this the must-have pop-up book of the year.
We've been thrilled about the great buzz around Susan Hill's new thriller, THE SHADOWS IN THE STREET. In fact, we've already done a roundup post of some of the great praise for this latest Simon Serrallier mystery (click here to read it all, including a great review from Marilyn Stasio in the New York Times!).
But we had to share this starred review from Booklist. Our favorite part--"This is a hugely satisfying, highly entertaining, masterfully written book in which Hill is once again at the top of her game." Wonderful to hear! And don't forget that Deb's Book Blog is giving away all FIVE of Susan's Simon Serrallier mysteries--go here to enter!
Hill once again shines with a book that’s part taut suspense thriller, part classic British procedural, and part modern morality tale with an overlay that is at once heartwarming and terrible. DCS Simon Serrailler has taken some much-needed time off after solving a high-profile, high-pressure case. But he’s called back to work when two local prostitutes are brutally murdered, and his team of detectives is struggling to find a single useful clue to the killer’s identity. But the murders aren’t the only issue Simon has to worry about—his sister, Cat, is still trying to deal with her husband’s tragic death, his father is thinking of heading off to America, and his nephew is showing signs of preteen rebellion. Still, it’s the murders that must be Simon’s top priority, but he continues to hit brick walls at every turn. Fearing he may never solve the case, Simon is nearly ready to give up when the killer reveals himself in a near-tragic event that hits all too close to home. This is a hugely satisfying, highly entertaining, masterfully written book in which Hill is once again at the top of her game. — Emily Melton
As promised, we are working our way through numerous "Rapunzel" picture books in preparation of the upcoming Disney Tangled movie release. Disney's Rapunzel, with her amazingly long hair (70 feet long according to Disney press), is the latest version based on the classic fairy tale.
Like all fairy tales, the story of Rapunzel has been re-told and adapted many times. Although most of us are familiar with the Grimms' Rapunzel, earlier versions of the tale exist, notably Basile's "Petrosinella," and a French variant, "Persinette." (For detailed historical account, reference the online article, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair" by Terri Windling or read the author's note in Paul O. Zelinsky's Rapunzel.) In fact, in the early tales, the main character is named after parsley not rapunzel (a.k.a. rampion).
The story of Rapunzel is far more than a tale about a girl living in a tower with long golden hair who is rescued by a prince. Windling writes that, "at its root this is a story about puberty, sexual desire, and the evils of locking young women away from life and self–determination." Some parents find the text age-inappropriate for young children, as evidenced by a few shocked reactions in online reviews of Rapunzel books. In many versions, while locked in the tower, Rapunzel is secretly wed to her prince and becomes pregnant. In some stories, the sorceress learns of the lovers' secret meetings when Rapunzel remarks on her expanding waistline. In other toned-down versions, readers later learn of her pregnancy when she gives birth to twins while exiled. Some retellings leave out the pregnancy altogether.
The description of the villain also varies, but nearly always she is shown as a scary looking, extremely elderly woman (although not in the film Tangled). In some stories she is a sorceress or a witch and in others she's described as an evil fairy. I was surprised to find that in some stories, like in the Disney film, Rapunzel sometimes refers to her guardian as Mother Gothel, a German term for godmother. My daughter finds the beginning of the story upsetting because the sorceress takes the baby from her parents.
When looking for picture books about Rapunzel, I recommend using Rapunzel book gallery on SurLaLune Fairy Tales as a starting point and searching your library's holdings. Hopefully my brief descriptions below will help parents determine which stories they may want to read to their children. We will continue to update this list as we read more stories.
Classic retellings:
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Some "interesting" information from one of the Amazon reviews: Caroline Lawrence, the author, "grew up when westerns were the kings of television." I grew up then, too, and it's clear in retrospect that perhaps that's nothing to brag about. Ms. Lawrence "has a Western Mysteries website", on which she writes about her research trips and blogs about her visits to schools in the UK where she shares the Wild West to British kids who really aren't that familiar with it." Oh NO! As we've seen with British and European books about Native people and the "OLd West", the general "understandings" there about the North American Old West has been learned from Karl May and -- guess what?-- the same old movies and maybe the TV shows that I saw (or was not allowed to see) in the 1950s. The enthusiastic Amazon review continues, "The Case of the Deadly Desperadoes is a realistic, loving homage to the Old West that only a person growing up in the west and watching westerns on TV could write." I'd add a phrase: "who has remained ignorant about some of the deeper history of the region and clueless about how it might feel to be a Native person reading her words." The Old West of the Hollywood western didn't exist. Why pay homage to a set of illusions? And why put such a book on a "best" list??