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I was saddened to learn of the death of children’s author Georgess McHargue on Monday, July 18th.  It seems that this was a death our community missed and I am sorry for it.  Ms. McHargue penned many a fine children’s novel, but my favorite would have to be Stoneflight, a tale of New York City’s statuary come to life.  According to her obituary, “After working at Golden Press, Georgess became an editor at Doubleday. In her long career as an author, she published 35 books, many are for young adults, some focused on archaeology, mythology and history. She was nominated for a National Book Award for The Beasts of Never, and wrote many reviews over the years for the NY Times Book Review.”  Jane Yolen was a friend of hers and alerted me to her passing.  Thank you, Jane, for letting us know.  She was a brilliant writer.

• Diane Roback, now I doff my hat to you.  The recent PW article on Colorful Characters is a boon to the industry.  I dare say it’s brilliant.  One does wonder how Walter Mayes, who is not old, feels about being included amongst the dead and elderly.  I hope he enjoys it!  Being known as a “colorful character” will keep folks talking about you (and writing about you) for decades to come.

• That’s cool. Zetta Elliott had a chance to interview and profile Jacqueline Woodson in Ms. Magazine’s blog recently.  Good title too: Writing Children’s Books While Black and Feminist.  The part where she’s asked to name “five other black LGBTQ authors of children’s literature” is telling.  I don’t know that I could either.

• Living as we do in an essentially disposable society, Dan Blank’s piece on Preserving Your Legacy: Backing Up Your Digital Media makes for necessary reading.  As someone who has lost countless photos and files through my own negligence, this piece rings true to me.  Particularly the part where Dan says he makes sure that “Once a day, I backup my photo library onto an external hard drive.”  Anthony Horowitz once told me the same thing.  How’s THAT for name dropping, eh eh?

• Jobs!  Jobs in the publishing industry!  Jobs I say!

• And much along the same lines, were you aware that there’s a group out there made up entirely of youngsters who are entering the publishing industry?  At 33 I reserve the right to call twenty-somethings “youngsters”.  I am also allowed to shake my cane at them and use phrases like “whippersnappers” and “hooligans”.  But I digress.  The Children’s Book Council has an Early Career Committee
  11 Comments on Fusenews: Who reviews the reviewers?, last added: 8/2/2011
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  Peter D. Sieruta said, on 8/1/2011 9:06:00 PM
  

  Quick correction: Georgess McHargue got her NBA nomination for THE IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE, not THE BEASTS OF NEVER.

  Colleen said, on 8/2/2011 1:12:00 AM
  

  Wow. Now that I know I was being manipulated by a “band of hippie hammer-lovers” or imperialist loving trains I don’t think I’ll look back on my son’s early childhood the same again. Although honestly, he just loved the trains and talking construction vehicles. Is that sooooo bad???

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 8/2/2011 4:47:00 AM
  

  Good catch, Peter! And bad show, oh obituary writer.

  Colleen, I think you’re in the clear. Unless you son starts colonizing other kids’ sandboxes “for their own good”. Then at least you know who to blame.

  Walter Mayes said, on 8/2/2011 7:34:00 AM
  

  I am absolutely thrilled to be a Colorful Character and honored to be among such greats!

  Genevieve said, on 8/2/2011 8:07:00 AM
  

  Love the Children’s Book Council Harry Potter link! I am totally going to name a local trivia team That’s So Ravenclaw, if the originators wouldn’t mind.
  (And as I’m headed to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios this weekend, I’ll look for a chance to use the phrase.)

  Sharon said, on 8/2/2011 9:34:00 AM
  

  Love the minimalist posters, especially the ones for The Princess and the Pea and The Wizard of Oz (though it was missing ‘home’). Thanks for the link.

  Adam Rex said, on 8/2/2011 11:32:00 AM
  

  Is that Spinelli cover supposed to be about a boy and his older triplet brothers? Or did the illustrator have only the one model and not enough imagination to change somebody’s hair color?

  Carl in Charlotte said, on 8/2/2011 1:16:00 PM
  

  Thanks so much for mentioning my post. I’m thrilled! And that cover is obviously a young Henry Winkler, dreaming of being the Fonz.

  Doret said, on 8/2/2011 1:46:00 PM
  

  Elliott posted the full and unedited interview with Woodson in two parts on her blog. Its a must read if you like the profile in Ms. Magazine

  Carin Siegfried said, on 8/2/2011 6:02:00 PM
  

  Speaking of youngsters to publishing, the AAP has been sponsoring the Young to Publishing Group for 10 years now! I really enjoyed it when I was a newly minted editorial assistant in New York in the early 2000s and hopefully it’s still helpful for other newbies. Check it out at: http://youngtopublishing.com/

  Jen said, on 8/2/2011 7:27:00 PM
  

  You might appreciate today’s drawing lesson on how to draw bunnies: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2011/aug/02/how-to-draw-bunnies-simone-lia
  (and note that Simone Lia, as well as Oliver Jeffers in his post (Same series) on how to draw penguins…. both compare various appendages to sausages). Ah, the UK. Not sure our american illustrators would use the same analogy.

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Top o’ the Tuesday to you, gentle readers!  After a delightful Memorial Day Weekend of doing very little (aside from watching somewhat strangely high statistics for my dinky little Saturday review) I am now working my final week at NYPL before the imminent arrival of a brand new Baby Bird.  So let’s pack in the news items while we may, eh?

First off, big time thanks to everyone who showed up for the BEA Kidlit Drink Night.  We raised excellent money for Reading is Fundamental and Rasco from RIF provided her own sweet thanks as well.  Y’all are sweet and good and I appreciate you thoroughly.

And now the sad news.  I’m sure that some of you may have heard that librarian, blogger, and 2012 debut author Bridget Zinn died of colon cancer at the age of 33.  Tributes to her have been springing up all over the web and Liz at Tea Cozy has created a very impressive rundown on all the best Zinn links.  I was sorry not to have known her better.

• I mentioned everything in my Day of Dialog rundown except the new books coming out.  Until I get around to typing that up, why don’t you head on over to the PW post BEA 2011: A Bountiful Fall for Children’s Books.  I’ve read some of those books, but a lot are unfamiliar to me.  Get a glimpse of what the publishers think will be big (warning: may differ wildly from what librarians think will be big).

• I just can’t stop mentioning Candyland these days.  One minute I’m talking about the Candyland movie.  The next I’m insisting that you head over to The Scop where Jonathan Auxier talks up his favorite board game of all time: The Settlers of Catan. Sounds a bit like Risk except, as Jonathan says, “Risk is Candy Land in wingtips and a smoking jacket — a game of luck pretending to be a game of skill.”  I’m just amazed that no one’s done a Risk movie yet.  I mean, come on!  We’re already shooting most of our films in New Zealand/Australia anyway.  Clearly that’s where you’d have to set it.

• Sounds pretty standard at first.  The online children’s book magazine Books for Keeps puts out a piece called Ten of the Best Dystopian Novels.  You probably are, like myself, expecting them to cover the usual.  Your Eva.  Your Z for Zachariah.  So it was with great pleasure that I noticed the #1 was The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.  Wait . . . oh!  Dystopian.  Not post-apocalyptic.  The other choices are just as fascinating (I always liked The Wind Singer).

• Saying that there is go
  10 Comments on Fusenews: Back to work, everybody!, last added: 6/1/2011
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  Jonathan Auxier said, on 5/30/2011 10:00:00 PM
  

  On the YA vs MG issue: I would say that YA books seem to be a “hotter” market right now in terms of film rights and multi-book deals. (maybe I’m wrong about this — any YA authors care to clue me in?) However, I would agree that MG books might enjoy a cultural edge insofar as they get to be more directly connected to the larger tradition of Children’s Literature. Given the ages of their protagonists, books like TREASURE ISLAND or ANNE OF GREEN GABLES should probably be called YA … and yet the MG crowd claims them.

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 5/31/2011 4:47:00 AM
  

  Yep. That’s a much clearer and concise way of saying what I was attempting. Cheers, Jonathan.

  Elizabeth Fama said, on 5/31/2011 5:13:00 AM
  

  Regarding your hits: as far as I can tell, your blog stats don’t include all the people who read you through their google reader (like me). My g-reader says you have 586 google subscribers.

  Have a comfortable, happy, healthy maternity leave, Betsy!

  Donna McKinnon said, on 5/31/2011 7:07:00 AM
  

  Wow. Thank you so much for the wonderful comments, and the great article (as always.) A pretty awesome way to start a Tuesday morning! All the best, Donna

  Brooke Shirts said, on 5/31/2011 9:46:00 AM
  

  Didn’t Anne Carroll Moore [sp?] write a column called The Third Owl? Ah-ha.

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 5/31/2011 11:11:00 AM
  

  And it’s Brooke for the win!!!

  Carl in Charlotte said, on 5/31/2011 12:24:00 PM
  

  I was glad to see that the stand-alone article mentioned Charlotte’s Imaginon, which I worked at for four years.

  Jennifer Schultz said, on 5/31/2011 1:22:00 PM
  

  Other stand-alone children’s libraries include the Children’s Resource Center located in New Orleans and one of the New Orleans Public Library branches. It’s also a Carnegie library, I believe.

  There’s also the Saucier Children’s Library (Saucier, MS), a branch of the Harrison County (MS) Public Library (located in the Biloxi area).

  Jennifer Schultz said, on 5/31/2011 1:31:00 PM
  

  Speaking of NOPL and Harrison County libraries…these libraries are still in recovery from Hurricane Katrina (6 year anniversary).

  NOPL has exciting plans for their reimaged and reconstructed libraries: http://www.nutrias.org/~nopl/recovery/recovery.htm

  Harrison County is also closing their temporary library in preparation for their new Biloxi library: http://www.harrison.lib.ms.us/

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 6/1/2011 5:19:00 PM
  

  How did I not think of Captain Sweeto until now? I shall hang my head in shame. Delicious gumdrop flavored shame.

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Jeremy swallowed.  He didn’t really believe the thing upstairs was an egg.  But… Tonight he would try to hatch a dragon. – Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville.

At least once in a lifetime, everyone should try to hatch a dragon.  In every life there’s a “thing upstairs,” a possibility that may be (a) mysterious, (b) scary, (c) impossible, (d) not believed in.  Walking up those dark stairs and hatching that impossibility may turn out to be the best thing you ever do.  Dragon eggs await.

Ask yourself:

Is there a dragon egg in my attic? Am I curious enough to find out?  Bold enough to ascend the dark stairs?

Maybe a book?

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Filed under: Author, Book, inspiration, writing Tagged: Eileen Spinelli, Excerpt, Jerry Spinelli, Today I Will

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Hey, all you reader guys, it's Carl and I'm very jazzed to see so many guys writing to us! We have a comment from our new freind Charlie. He's a high-schooler who want to tell us about some of the books he liked:

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I was reading Jerry Spinelli’s new novel, Smiles to Go, and found myself caught by surprise in the second half of the book.It felt like the boat had swerved suddenly, taking a sharp turn to the right, and I wasn't prepared for the unexpected shift in direction.Out of the blue, it seemed, the main character’s sister suffered an injury in a skateboard accident, and the incident forced him to look

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Hi, guys, this is the Great and Powerful CARLMAN. If you remember, a few weeks ago the feuding between Darth Bill and Master Zack got so bad that one of our readers commented on it and I had to COMMAND the two guys to read one book together. It's Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. This story is about someone who tries to get two warring parts of town to come together. Sounded like a good thing for this Sith and Jedi to read. It was one the first books I read when I started working for the library and I never forgot its tremendous emotional punch. This one doesn't have a lot of battles, sword fights, magic, or things that blow up, yet it's still one of the great guy books of all time. Why? Because Jerry Spinelli writes about things that all guys deal with; bullies, taking responsibility, friendship, and facing your fears. It also talks about racism, unthinking hatred, and trying to overcome those things. There's so much that happens to Maniac Magee that you hang on every page to see how he'll handle it. He also does a lot of amazing things that make him a legend in his town. He'll become a legend in your mind too.


He wrote some other good books about being a guy and growing up. One is Wringer, another is Fourth Grade Rats, and the third is Loser. Click on the titles so see reviews. Click here and here to read his biography and here to see a good link about some of his books. And here's a funny incident from his life:

Jerry Spinelli's memoir, Knots in My Yo-Yo String, makes it clear that he has always had a knack for drawing attention to himself. When he was in second grade, he dressed up in a cowboy outfit one day and headed off to school, sporting golden cap pistols and spurs on his boots. It was not Halloween. The teacher noticed his getup, of course, and asked if he "would like to do something for the class." Jerry got up and sang "I Have Spurs that Jingle, Jangle, Jingle."

Shortly thereafter he ceased to be a singing cowboy and decided to become a baseball player. "I played Little League in junior high and high school," Jerry writes. "I only hit two home runs in my career, but I had no equal when it came to standing at shortstop and chattering to my pitcher: 'C'mon, baby, hum the pea.'"

Then, in eleventh grade, Jerry wrote a poem about a high school football game. When it was published in the local newspaper, Jerry knew he had found his calling. He traded in his baseball bat for a pencil and became a writer.

What a guy! And now, Heeeere's Bill and Zack:

Bill's Review:

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli - This was a really cool book to read and I enjoyed it. The basic premise is there is this kid everyone calls Maniac Magee because he performs feats that amaze everyone that lives in town. Maniac Magee is a orphan who is living on his own trying to find his place in the world. The town he lives in is divided in many different ways, between black and white people, poor and rich, kind and cruel, etc. Maniac is constantly on the move meeting all kinds of different people and finding out the wonder that is in each human being. Yet something always seems to happen that makes him run from the people in which he forms bonds of friendship and love. I really liked this book because it showed that bottom line, people are pretty cool if they can just get beyond the superficial. Great Stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zack's thoughts:

Okay, it hurts me to say this but I agree with Bill (ouch, the PAIN!). Maniac Magee is great stuff!!!!!! I know what it is like to move around a lot and that part of the book spoke to me. Going from place to place makes you meet a whole lot of people and it is always surprising to see how different, yet alike, every place and its people are.

The CARLMAN picked an outstanding book for us to read this time. I wonder how Darth Bill is coming along with the Gregor books?! I am currently reading Lightning Thief which I'm sure will make everyone happy (I know, about time!).

Thanks, guys! Ah, but it feels good to restore balance to the Force. Maybe we can all spotlight another author sometime--if those two don't slice each other in half before then!!

The CARLMAN

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Guys! Guys!! Bill! Zack! This is Carl, the one who is to bring balance to the Force! All this bickering has got to stop!!! It's gotten so intense that one of readers has noticed. Here's what Anonymous said:

And have you guys out there read that book? Or any others by Jerry Spinelli? Tell us about them! Do it even before the three of us write our joint post. His books are great!
Or tell us about any other books you like. Do you have any books assigned for school? As long as you have to read them, why not tell us about them? Remember, the beloved Valhalla of our blog is under attack! We need every boy we can to write!

Meanwhile, you Sith and Jedi found some things to agree on, like Capt'n Eli and The 39 Clues, so keep the taunting to a minimum, huh? Even though the Darth Daffy was pretty funny---so was the Sith Spelling---and those hilarious insults!!! Ha, ha, aha ha ha!!! Wooeee!! Ummm, wait a minute, I'm supposed to bring balance to...oh, all right, if you have to jab each other, just keep it down, OK????????

THE CARLMAN HATH SPOKEN!!

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by Jerry Spinelli

The words that I keep coming up with to describe this book are the same words the high schoolers in the story use to describe the main character Stargirl: Different. Goofy. Weird. Different. I'm not quite sure what I think of it. I liked parts and I didn't like parts. But I don't think you were supposed to like all the parts. While reading the book I experienced a variety of emotions: I laughed, scratched my head, felt like crying (but didn't). It was so random and unconventional - sweet and heartbreaking and odd. (There I go again, using the words one would to describe Stargirl herself.)


Who has read the newly released sequel, Love, Stargirl? Would you recommend reading it? I'm not sure if I want to, mainly because it's in Stargirl's voice. And the way the author described her in the first book . . . well, it doesn't seem like a voice one can capture, if that makes sense. But please let me know if you think it's worth it!

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Not all spiritual books for kids are obviously so at first glance. Fiction may help children deal with spiritual questions even better when there is not direct spiritual content. A librarian friend offers three of her multicultural favorites for older kids. Crash, by Jerry Spinelli, documents the growing friendship between a Quaker boy and an agnostic jock. Samir and Yonatan by Daniella Carmi, is a Batchelder Award-winning memoir of a Palestinian childhood. In Iqbal, by Francesco D’Adamo, a fictionalized account of a Pakistani boy sold into slavery, children develop spirituality without any wholesome adult influence. (At PaperTigers, see a review of Susan Kuklan’s Iqbal Masih and the Crusaders Against Child Slavery, a non-fiction account of this tragic but inspiring story.)

Two recent Australian animal picture books are among the many endearing examples of spiritual books for young children. Breakfast with Buddha, by Vashti Farrer and Gaye Chapman, is a first-person account of an ego-filled cat’s encounter with Buddhist monks and his consequent lesson about humility. Samsara Dog, by Helen Manos, beautifully relates the story of a dog’s several lives as he develops the spiritual qualities that finally free him from the cycle of rebirth.

And a Buddhist nun friend from Taiwan highly recommends Kate Decamillo’s The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. “I read it six times,” she said with a smile, “and cried every single time.”

The deep themes of human life are everywhere, for eyes that see. Non-didactic fiction gives children a way to explore large spiritual questions without being “spoon-fed” opinions and views.

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by Jerry Spinelli Random House 2007 Spoilers included, if you care. How sad. When Stargirl was published half a lifetime ago I loved it. I loved her. I even loved the ending which, I have come to discover from others, was not the most universally loved part of that book. No matter, it was and still is, a great little book to me. Immediately afterward I wondered what happened next but knew

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If you write for young people, consider this LJ post a big, fat thank you note (virtual chocolates and ice cream, too). I just finished reading my 7th graders' final exams. I ask them to write an essay reflecting on how they've grown as readers, writers, and human beings this year. Here's a quote from K...

"In the beginning of the year, I didn't like to read at all. But then my teacher showed me all these books that were for me, and I couldn't stop reading."

Books that were for her.  Written just for her.  Or at least it felt that way.  She went on to talk about Sonya Sones, Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Nancy Werlin -- voices that spoke to her over the past ten months. 

And K wasn't the only one who named names as she reflected on books that made a difference this year.  My kids talked about finding themselves in the characters of Pete Hautman, Janet Tashjian, Jack Gantos, Laurie Halse Anderson, Lisa Yee, Sharon Creech, Jerry Spinelli, Wendelin Van Draanen, David Lubar, Cynthia Kadohata, Mal Peet, and Walter Dean Myers.  They wrote about being challenged by M.T. Anderson, Richard Preston, and Markus Zusak.  They wrote fondly about escaping into the worlds of Margaret Peterson Haddix, Christopher Paolini, and JK Rowling.  And they reflected on walking a mile in someone else's shoes as they read Gene Luen Yang, Cynthia Lord, Will Hobbs, Jennifer Roy, and Joseph Bruchac.

I write for kids.  I know that some days, it feels like you're alone with your computer, and even your computer doesn't  like you very much. So I thought I'd share K's reflection on her year of reading.  We all need to realize when we write, we're writing for someone important.  Someone like K, who's waiting for a book that's just for her, just for him.  

If you write for kids, that's the work you're doing every day.  You may never get to read the end-of-the-year essays, but you should know that you make a difference, and you're appreciated.

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Eggs by Jerry Spinelli. Little Brown & Company. $15.99.

You read enough of an author and you begin to get ideas about them. And if that author in question cuts a wide swath about them, the urge to stereotype them is strong. Jerry Spinelli cuts such a swath, yet all I’d read of him until now was a little “Maniac Magee” here and a touch of “Stargirl” there. Books that are nice enough in their own way but that don’t really make my pulse pound any faster. There is a blessing one should bestow upon all authors: May your reviewers have low expectations. Cause honestly, I got a kick out of “Eggs”. I mean, it’s basically “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” for kids. Edward Albee would love this book, I’m sure. And while some people may see that as a deficiency, I’m all for it. You can find plenty of books where a boy and a girl meet and become bestest buddy buddies and skip happily off into a relationship that hasn’t so much as a thimbleful of oomph or excitement to it. Far rarer is the title where the words leap off the page and begin to gnaw on the reader's anklebone. There’s a true streak of anger at the core of “Eggs” which will make it equal parts adored and reviled by its potential readership. Want a book that sparks discussion and red hot emotions? Spinelli delivers.

David found the dead body hidden under a pile of leaves in the woods during an Easter egg hunt. The girl was about thirteen and beautiful, and he told her all his secrets, knowing she’d never tell. So imagine his shock and horror when a couple months later that same girl is sitting in the local storytime, asleep. She is not dead. She is Primrose and once it is made clear that she was never dead in the first place (the gal has a seriously twisted sense of humor) she and David are inseparable. They’ve their own family problems, of course. David’s mom is dead, his father is always away, and he loathes his kindly grandmother for everything she isn’t. Primrose, on the other hand, lives in an abandoned van outside her house. Her mother is an embarrassment to her, believing herself to be a fortune teller who (at this moment in time) will read feet like some people read palms. But with two such violent personalities, it’s only a matter of time before David and Primrose are on the outs. They’ll either fix what’s broken in the other, or be worse off because of their friendship in the end.

First off, I can’t think of better booktalk material. Seriously. Boy sees dead girl in a storyhour? Did someone just spill a whole cup of awesome all over this book? Some books grab you by the throat from page one and don’t let go until you’ve read them cover to cover. This is such a book. It’s not, however, an easy read. You’re constantly on your guard as you go through it. With two such unpredictable characters, Primrose and David are just as likely to slap you as kiss you. Their little pre-adolescent nerves are all ah-jangled and it’s this herky jerky clash of personalities that keeps the book consistently interesting.

The title is also very good at showing the true unattractiveness of desperation. David’s grandmother would do anything for her grandson. If only he’d just throw her a bone. Some kind of thoughtful gesture and all would be well. But the lines are drawn very clearly here. He has decided to hate her because she’s not his mother and she, for her part, doesn’t know how to break through to him. It’s the rare children’s novel, actually, where the main character says that he out-and-out HATES the innocent family member taking care of him. Spinelli sets it up so that you dislike David for what he’s doing to his grandma and, at the same time, you understand where he’s coming from. The woman is a suffocating presence. Her neediness just serves to repel the people she’s trying to befriend. And that you don’t end up detesting David from start to finish is a kind of accomplishment of writing in and of itself.

I also thought that the sheer absurdity of the narrative has a way of sucking you in. Spinelli reveals his characters in fits and starts. Primrose is the kind of person who’d wave at an imaginary car, then not like the imaginary driver’s response and start yelling and spitting. David’s the kind of kid who can weigh down the carrot that his grandmother gives him to eat every day with a kind of heady symbolism, entirely of his own.

There are unanswered questions by the story’s end, I’m afraid. The one that comes to my mind in particular concerns Primrose. The van outside her house where she stays is egged on a regular basis. We never get any specifics about this except when Primrose mentions that the kids who did it “followed” her and that they get their older siblings to drive them over to her van. It’s a mighty odd element to leave unexplained. Otherwise the ending is a strong one. It doesn’t cheat. You don’t get flowers and sunshine and a sudden smattering of scales falling from various characters’ eyes just in time to wrap up the narrative. None of that. It’s a good ending. A strong ending. An earned ending.

The best section in this book comes from the character of Refrigerator John. Night after night the kids take refuge in his home. Looking at them he sums up their relationship nicely: “What brought them together? Sometimes they acting their own ages, sometimes they switched. Sometimes both seemed to be nine, other times thirteen. Both were touchy, ready to squawk over nothing. They constantly crabbed at each other – yet at the same time he might be braiding her hair, or she might be making him lunch. Half the time they left his place snarling, yet the next day there they were, together, knocking on his door.” Good children’s books with complex characters and motives are sometimes a little difficult to locate. “Eggs” at times feels like a bookclub’s dream. You could parse many an action taken and word said in this story without ever quite running out of topics for discussion. A book that is worth reading, at the very least.

On shelves now.

Notes on the Cover: Mm. The old no-title-is-good-title route. Clever work, Spinelli’s an old hand at this technique, what with Stargirl and all. Then again, Stargirl was a completely different publisher than this one. Looks like ye olde Hachette Book Group is looking to make their own titleless mark. I’m a fan of the photo. Very appealing but I do wonder if any kid who is not yet already a Jerry Spinelli fan will feel inclined to pick it up.

Other Reviews By: A Year in Reading, Our Lady of Syntax, Scholarlybrio, Pam's Postings, and a host of others that aren't showing up on Google's blogsearch.

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I’ve been compiling a want-to-read list, some of which are currently available, others which are to be released later this year.

Story of a Girl, by Sara Zarr

I read about this one on another blog, and it looks fascinating.

Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson (now available)

I’ve been a fan of LHS since I read Speak, which I count among my favorites.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (July)

Um, me and everyone else in the world. My friend Debbie (along with her musical group Urban Tapestry) wrote a song about it called Hey JK. It’s worth a look, really.

Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (August 14)

I adored Stargirl., and I was so sad when it ended. Imagine my delight when a sequel was announced! I could hardly contain my squeal.

What’s on your list? And what do you think I should add to mine?

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Today, we have a guest review by Larry Swartz. This weekend, we had our Dublin Literacy Conference. This conference is a teacher conference put on by the Dublin City Schools run by a committee of teachers. We had lots of great speakers--children's authors, professional authors, teachers, and more! It was a great day. Larry Swartz was one of the speakers.



Larry Swartz is an instructor in the Elementary Pre-service Program at OISE/UT and the Principal of Dramatic Arts Additional Qualifications courses at OISE/UT. He is frequently called upon to share his expertise with children's literature, classroom talk, and anti-bullying strategies.

Here is his review of EGGS by Jerry Spinelli.


I’ll start off by saying that I think Jerry Spinelli is one of the best authors for readers 10 – 13 years old. I would say that his books appeal to boys and girls. His characterization is always rich. The problems that he presents in his books connect to his readers because they can easily identify with them (i.e., peer pressure in Wringer, belonging in Loser, outcast in Star Girl, heroism in Maniac Magee). The stories have just enough of an imaginative twist to take readers into an imaginative world that is the stuff of fiction (Does a community exist that forces boys to wring the neck of pigeons?). Milkweed aside, there is a veneer of humour in Spinelli’s novel events, in the dialogue and in character quirks.

A student teacher recently gave me an advance copy of his newest novel EGGS and since I was heading off on a plane, I was thrilled to have a new Spinelli to keep me company. A good read it was. As I was reading, I couldn’t help thinking about the novels that I recently read that featured characters whose parents have died. . Give me a fifth grade class and I would love to organize Literature Circles (when all titles are available in paperback) around THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY, JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE, WING NUT and EGGS, not only because one or more character has a missing parent, but because they get inside the skin and hearts of these kids who are coping with life’s rotten eggs and hoping to make omelets out of life’s dilemmas-large and small.

Take David and Primrose. David lost his mother to a freak accident. His father is often away on business and so the young boy lives with his grandmother. Primrose only knows of her father from a photograph. She lives with a mother whose talent is telling fortunes and whose outlook on life is a little less mature than her daughter’s. David and Primrose are friends, despite an age difference of four years (Primrose is older).

It’s very tempting to use an egg metaphor as a review of this book (hard boiled, scrambled, over easy, poached) but here I’ll pay tribute to the egg carton and offer a dozen reasons for admiring and respecting Spinelli’s new work.

1. Boy and girl protagonists. I’m a bit concerned about boy reads and girl reads. Yes, enjoyed the Newbery winner, but few boys are going to choose this book by the cover, by the title and because of its female protagonist. Spinnelli’s strength is in boy characters, but here he has a friendship between a boy and a girl. How clever too to make Primrose an ‘older’ friend. Without reading the book, can’t you imagine how a character named ‘Primrose’ might behave?

2. 224 pages. 42 chapters. Book is divided into sections (Eggs, The Waving Man,
Nightcrawlers, Painted Windows, Who Cares, Only Children). I like / many kids like short chapters.

3. The “Ha Ha” factor. When David first meets, Primrose’s fortune-telling mother, she predicts his future by reading the soul of his bare foot.

4. The Gross factor. David and Primrose have a tug of war fight over a nightcrawler. Each wants to capture the twelve-inch worm to raise money. Primrose pulled. David pulled - Thp. Each then held six inches of flailing nightcrawler. Gross!

5. A moment to touch-your-heart factor. Memories of David’s dead mother linger throughout. On the day she died in a bad fall, David decided to never break any rules. David believe if he went long enough without breaking a rule. sooner or later his mother would come back and they would together see the sunrise, that she promised they’d see together. In one episode, David clings to Primrose, sobbing.
“I’m not her you, she,” she whispered hoarsely. “I’m only me. Primrose.”
He nodded against her. “I know.”
(Goosebumps.)

6. Great dialogue… “Are we gonna be out all night?”
“Yerp.”
“You don’t even care. Do you?
“Nerp.”

7. This-only-happens-in-books episode. David first meets Primrose during an Easter Egg Hunt. While on his search, he comes across the still body of a girl hidden amongst the leaves. He takes a yellow egg from the mouth of the body and asks, “Are you dead yet?”. The girl does not answer. Later we learn, that the body belonged to Primrose who was just playing a trick on the boy, just like Spinelli was playing a trick on the reader. This is not a murder mystery.

8. A quirky character (or two). Spinelli’s short descriptions of a character paint a wide portrait in a sentence or two. Refrigerator John, “who was neither as tall nor as wide as a refrigerator. “His own right leg had been withered since birth. When he walked, the leg flapped out sideways, as though he were shaking a dog loose. Madame Dufee. Her body was lost in a robe of flowers, birds, and dragons with flaming tongues. Golden hoops you could pitch a baseball through hung from her earlobes.”

9. Two characters, so different, so the same. They plot together. They argue.
“What was with these two? The thirteen year-old girl, the nine year old boy.
What brought them together? Sometimes they acted their own ages, Sometimes
they switched. Sometimes they both seemed to be nine, other times thirteen.
Both were touchy, ready to squawk over nothing.” (note to publisher: Terrific
passage for a book jacket blurb).

10. The omelets-out-of rotten-egg factor. David and Primrose take the bad things
that life offers and learn to make the best of them. They learn from each other.
They need each other. They take care of each other. They’re going to be all
right!

11. A touch of symbolism giving readers lots to think about. Eggs figure into the
plot (early in the book, David goes on an Easter Egg Hunt, vandals splatter eggs
against Primrose’s bedroom window, the sunrise is described as crisp and sharp
and beautiful and smooth as a painted egg.). I would love to ask ten year-olds
what the title makes them think about: Does it tell the truth of the story?Why six
eggs on the cover? How are David and Primrose like eggs? What kind of egg dish might each character be?

12. Great cover. No boys. No girls. Just six eggs resting in a robin’s egg blue carton.

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