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Title: Yuhi: Ceres Vol 2 Author: Yu Watase

May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Review:

I have mixed feelings about the second volume of Ceres.  On one hand, I love the legend of the Celestial Maiden.  Ceres is tormented with rage and longs for revenge against the man who stole her feathered robes, prohibiting her from returning to heaven.  Worse, he violated her, and she bore his children, trapped in an ugly place she couldn’t escape from.  Now, fate has caused both Ceres and Mikage to both be reincarnated as the twins Aya and Aki.  This has never happened before, and she’s obsessed with winning her vengeance.  Every time she sees Aki, Ceres wrestles control away from Aya and attacks him, even though he has no memories of his previous life.  I find this storyline so compelling.  For centuries, Ceres’s thirst for revenge has kept her trapped, reborn over and over into the Mikage family, only to be discovered and killed during the ritual as her host body turned sixteen.  When I think about how angry I would be after being thwarted time and time again, I am surprised that she hasn’t done more damage to the Mikages and their property as yet.  I would have gone absolutely ballistic, leaving the surviving Mikages to deal with harried property insurance adjustors.

Aya, though, is grating on my nerves.  Is it really wise to chase after Toya in not much more than her underwear, leaving her defenseless when her evil cousin Kagami gets his paws on her?  Ugh, ugh, ugh!  I would not feel like I was in a position of power in enemy territory while dressed in my panties and a bra.  Ugh!  That’s like the nightmare where you forgot to put your clothes on before rushing off to school.  And to so ardently declare her love for Toya, a guy she just met, and a guy who works for the people who are trying to kill her?  Aya, while Yuhi isn’t as interesting, he is a lot safer, so maybe you should go for him instead?  He is more than capable of protecting you, and he can cook!  Take him instead!

I was a little bored with this volume.  Whenever Ceres made an appearance or Kagami had page time, I was all interested again.  Ceres is fascinating because she reveals little tidbits of her history every time she manifests, and Kagami – ah, Kagami.  He is just so evil and conniving that you can’t help but like, even admire him, just a little bit.  He sees an opportunity for the Mikage family to gain immense power, and he’s going to seize it.  With both Aki and Aya in his control, there is nothing he can’t do, once he figures out how to tame Ceres and her incredible power. 

The second volume of Ceres was both irritating and compelling.  Aya drives me nuts, but legend of the Celestial Maidens kept me turning the pages.

Grade:  C+

Review copy purchased from Amazon

This week we have illustrator Alik Arzoumanian.  She received my BFA in Illustration from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston in 2004.   The first children’s book she illustrated was “Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur! A Palestinian Folktale” , a retold folktale by Margaret Read MacDonald and published by Marshall Cavendish Children.  The book received an ALA  Notable Book Award in 2007.

She has also illustrated “So Many Houses” written by Hester Bass and published by Scholastic Library Publishing.  “Grateful Animals” by Sona Zeitlian, and “Where are you Little Frog?”, written by Kayleigh Rhatigan and was published by Lark Books.  Her illustrations have appeared in “Christmas Carols” and “Christmas Songs” published by Ladybird Books. Her most recent work appeared in Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Children of God Storybook Bible, that was published in July 2010 by Lux Verbi.

Here is Alik:  I was commissioned by Lux Verbi, a publisher in South Africa, to illustrate three stories in the Children of God Storybook Bible, retold by Desmond Tutu. The one I am presenting here is called “Naboth’s Vineyard”, and it tells the story of a King called Ahab and his wife Jezebel who have Naboth killed in order to take his vineyard. Prophet Elijah is sent to punish King Ahab for what he has done, but Ahab is truly sorry so he is forgiven.

Sketchbook 1, 2, 3 I first created the characters in the story. Visualizing them first helps me understand the narrative better, and results in more successful thumbnails, because instead of generic figures, I have characters I can rely on to bring the story to life.

For this story, I researched historic middle eastern costumes and looked at illustrations of King Ahab and Jezebel for inspiration. I also wanted King Ahab to look not so kingly and a little embarrassed.

Thumbnails 1, 2, 3, 4 The next step was to come up with a composition that would convey the whole narrative at once. The various s

Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, illustrated by Raúl Colón,
Alicia Alonso: Prima Ballerina
Marshall Cavendish, 2011.

Ages 10+

Alicia Alonso, the latest in a series of portraits of Latin figures by award-winning author and poet Carmen Bernier-Grand, is written in lyrical free verse, a style that particularly suits the dramatic life of this beloved Cuban dancer.

Alonso’s long career has been marked by many difficulties. Already a highly regarded dancer in Cuba, she and her young fiancé, also a dancer, immigrated to New York in 1937, when Alicia was 15 and pregnant. She resumed ballet as soon as her daughter was born. In a field known to destroy bodies and careers early in life, Alonso continued dancing until she was in her seventies, despite diminishing vision from a detached retina that led eventually to blindness.

Bernier-Grand tells the story in touching word-sketches of key moments in Alonso’s life: selection for the role of Swanilda in Coppélia; romance with Fernando Alonso, her eventual husband; parental disapproval of ballet as a career; separation from her daughter during her U.S. tours; learning Giselle while blind and hospitalized by using her fingers as her feet; ballet shoes stuck to her feet with dried blood; eventual refusal to dance in Cuba while Batista was in power.

“She counts steps, etches the stage in her mind.
Spotlights of different colors warn her
she is too near the orchestra pit.
She moves, a paintbrush on canvas…
She imagines an axis
and pirouettes across her own inner stage.”

Raúl Colón’s stylized pastel illustrations poignantly evoke ballet’s beauty and Alonso’s suffering, despite which she has had one of the longest, most esteemed careers in ballet history. Vision in one eye was partially restored in 1972. Alonso, who founded the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, still choreographs dances at age 92.

Back matter includes a detailed biographical narrative of Alonso’s life; lists of some of the ballets she has danced and choreographed and awards she has won; a glossary; an extensive bibliography of sources and websites; and notes on the text. While the simple story of the ballerina’s life will appeal even to very young children, the reference material is rich enough for an older child to use for a research project. In the process of understanding a woman artist’s life struggles, young readers will also learn much about U.S.-Cuban relations.

Charlotte Richardson
February 2012

I wanted to share with you the response Margery Cuyler had to my post on Thursday about the sale of their fiction list to Amazon. The press release left me wondering what was going on. I was concerned about Margery and everyone else at Marshall Cavendish, so I was happy to hear from Margery. Here is what she had to say:

Hi Kathy,

The press release has created some confusion, it seems. It’s only the children’s division that’s being sold to Amazon, and I’m remaining as publisher and we will not only continue to publish fiction, but we will continue to publish THE BEST FICTION EVER, as well as children’s books for all ages. The rest of the company — not the children’s list which is going to Amazon — will be delving further into educational product. So no worries!

You know I’d never desert my first love in the whole world — beautiful children’s books! And my staff and I are continuing the business in our offices in Tarrytown, NY. This is all great news for us, and I’m excited about what Amazon can bring to our list with its fabulous distribution and varied digital devices.

Love,

Margery

Thanks Margery for clearing this up. Another thing that surprized me last week was the news about Stacy Cantor Abrams is leaving Bloomsbury’s Walker Children’s Books unit to oversee all acquisitions at romance publisher Entangled on January 3. The Children’s Book Industry has suffered a lost by having Stacy leave children’s editing. Maybe she’ll return somewhere down the road and our paths will cross again. We do wish Stacy lots of luck with her new endeavor.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Marshall Cavendish just announced yesterday that Amazon Publishing is buying the Marshall Cavendish Children's Book group. I'm not sure what to think about it yet, but I hope it ends up being a good thing for my 2 picture books that will be coming out fall 2012 from Marshall Cavendish. Here's a link to the press release about it. http://www.marshallcavendish.us/marshallcavendish-us/news/AmazonCCB.xml

Amazon gets on the kids’ book bandwagon (buying rights to 450 Marshall Cavendish titles, but it doesn’t plan to stop there and hopes to acquire many more children’s stories. Amazon says it sees the children’s book segment as... Read the rest of this post

Alicia Alonso: Prima Ballerina
By Carmen T. Bernier-Grand
Illustrated by Raul Colon
Marshall Cavendish
$19.99
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5562-2
Ages 8-11
On shelves now

When I was a kid I took a fair amount of ballet. I liked it. Kept me on my toes (yuk yuk yuk). I retain fond memories of that time in my life, but don’t be fooled. I’m just as likely to groan when I see a children’s biography of a ballerina as anyone. “Not another one!” I’ll kvetch. Never mind that ballerina bios don’t exactly stuff my shelves to overflowing. Never mind that when artists like Raul Colon are involved the end result is going to be magic. Never mind that author Carmen T. Bernier-Grand has attempted to sate my unquenchable thirst for original biographies of people never covered in the children’s sphere before. It was only when my fellow librarians repeated the phrase, “No. Really. It’s incredibly good” to me in about thirty different ways that I finally picked the dang thing and cracked it open. Fun Fact: It’s incredibly good. Who knew? [Aside from all those children's librarians, of course.] From the pen of Ms. Bernier-Grand comes a biography that tells the balanced, nuanced story of a woman pursuing the art form she loves in the face of personal tragedies, political upheavals, and worldwide acclaim/blame.

A child named Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad del Cobre Martinez y del Hoyo dances in her Cuban home. “Like light, / she’s barely aware / of the floor beneath her dancing feet.” Few could suspect at the time that she would grow up to become perhaps the greatest Cuban ballerina in the world. After years of practice she marries at fifteen to a fellow dancer and moves to New York. It’s there that she is discovered, just in time for her retina to detach. But even blinded she dances in her head and when she comes back to the stage her toe shoes are glued to her feet with blood. Back in Cuba she starts a dance company that suffers under the dictator Batista and does better under Castro. When the decision comes to dance for Cuba or the U.S. she stays with her roots, to the admonishment of the exiles. To this day she dances still. A final author’s note, list of ballets she’s performed, awards received, a Chronology, Glossary of terms, Sources, Website, and Notes appear at the end.

Books for children that deal with Cuba make me wish I had been a better student in school. My knowledge of the Cuban Revolution comes in bits and pieces, fits and starts. Recently we’ve seen quite a few titles concerning this moment in history but often I found them strangely black and white. In books like “The Red Umbrella” for example, characters were portrayed as incredibly black and white. When one starts to join with Castro, she becomes evil near instantaneously. Sometimes historical choices and moments have bits of gray in there, though. Part of the reason I liked Alicia Alonso as much as I did had to do with these gray areas. First off, it was one of the few books to speak about Dictator Batista. Next, here you have a woman who chose to stay in Cuba. As the Author’s Note explains, “Alicia had

Here is the faculty, so far:

MARGERY CUYLER, Publisher, Marshall Cavendish

PBs, Rhyming books, Board Books, Easy Reader/​Chapter Books, Middle Grade, YA, Non Fiction, Graphic Novels, Historical fiction, Fantasy, Edgy. She likes a novel that “immediately represents modern conflict” and one that doesn’t “hold the story hostage to the message.”

At a conference specifically geared to the Jewish market, Ms. Cuyler mentioned that there’s a big need for “good Jewish mysteries and time travel” as well as a need for “contemporary Jewish stories.”

Eileen Robinson – Publisher of MOVE BOOKS: www.move-books.com , which focuses on Middle Grade books for boys.

Eileen is also the owner of F1rst Page and does Editorial Consultanting – F1rst Pages http://f1rstpages.com  As an editorial consultant, Eileen works with both published and unpublished authors to help them strengthen their writing.

Eileen is also a former executive editor at Scholastic.

At the New Jersey 2012 SCBWI Conference Eileen will conduct a 4 hour Intensive on Friday June 8th, where she will work hands-on with writers who want to improve their manuscripts.  Keep in mind that space is limited.

Scott Treimel, agent and owner of S©ott Treimel NY, which opened in 1995.

Scott has worked for a literary agency, a literary scout, two book publishers, a newspaper syndicate, a book club, and a movie studio, either buying, selling, packaging, editing or creating intellectual property—all for children. If you haven’t met Scott, he is a wealth of information and a very accomplished agent in the children’s book industry.

Stephen Fraser, Literary agent at Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency.

Stephen Fraser joined the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency as an agent in January 2005. He worked most recently at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where he edited such creative talents as Mary Engelbreit, Gregory Maguire, Michael Hague, Ann Rinaldi, Kathryn Lasky, Brent Hartinger, Stephen Mitchell, and Dan Gutman. He began his career at Highlights for Children and later worked at Scholastic and Simon & Schuster. A graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont, he has a Master’s degree in Children’s Literature from Simmons College in Boston. He represents both children’s and adult books in a wide range of genres.

What He’s Looking For: Currently, looking for children’s books for every age – picture books, middle-grade, and young adult – and adult fiction and non-fiction in a wide range of genres.

KRISTA MARINO is an Executive Editor at Delacorte Press (Random House Children’s Books) where she acquires and edits Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction. She is always looking for strong new voices, innovative concepts, and great stories for her list. She doesn’t do cute- she’s more on the da

The Greedy Sparrow: An Armenian Tale
By Lucine Kasbarian
Illustrated by Maria Zaikina
Marshall Cavendish Children
$17.99
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5821-0
Ages 4-8
On shelves now.

As a children’s librarian in New York City I am expected to have a full knowledge of existing children’s literature as it pertains, not just to the American publishing industry, but to the world at large. If a group of unusually tall Norwegian women come in asking for children’s books by their countrymen, I am supposed to know how to locate the nearest Jo Nesbo/P.C. Abjorsen title. I have gaps, though. Whole swaths of continents where my knowledge is lacking or useless. For example, let’s say you walked up to my desk and asked me to produce as many Armenian children’s folktales as possible. I could do it, I suppose, if I did a catalog search. We might have some. But I wouldn’t be able to name them off the top of my head. The Greedy Sparrow fills in that gap nicely. An original composition based on a classic Armenian oral tale, author Lucine Kasbarian and Russian illustrator Maria Zaikina bring to life a story unfamiliar but to a few Americans. Want to bulk up your Armenian folklore for a spell? Seek ye no further than this.

A little Author’s Note appears on the publication page of this book, which I appreciated. It states right from the start, “Armenian fables begin with ‘Once there was and was not’.” After we read these words we begin our tale. A sparrow with a thorn in its foot asks a baker to remove it. The woman does so gladly, burning it up afterwards, but when the sparrow returns and asks for his thorn back she has nothing to give him. Pleased, he takes some bread instead. Next, he visits a shepherd with a flock and asks the man to look after his bread. The fellow does for a time, but eats the bread when hunger overtakes him. As payment, the sparrow takes a sheep. Through these sneaky methods the sparrow exchanges a sheep for a human bride, a human bride for a lute, and finally he loses the lute, his ultimate prize, when he falls from a thorn tree. Lute gone. New thorn in his foot.

I have a tendency to lament the death of the picture book folktale on a nice and regular bi-annual schedule. Compared to the last few decades, folktales and fables are publishing at the lowest ebb seen in years. Each season I scramble to find as many as I can, often disappointed by the results. Maybe that’s why I glommed onto The Greedy Sparrow as quickly as I did. Here we have an honest-to-goodness folktale, retold for contemporary audiences, and unknown to a whole chunk of them. Kasbarian says in her bookflap that she learned to recite this story from her father who learned it from his grandmother, an Armenian storyteller. Clearly such talents are genetic since Kasbarian’s writing flows easily. You leap effortlessly from situation to situation until the end. Happily, the author sees no need to put some kind of moral capper on the tale. All she needs to write is the final sentence: “But as the sparrow rocked in glee, he lost his footing, and the lute fell, too, leaving the sparrow as he began … with nothing but a thorn in his foot!” Batta bing, batta boom. Nothing more need be said.

May Contain Spoilers

From Goodreads:

Review:

Memento Nora clocks in at just under 200 pages, and though the book is short on length, it is long on providing food for thought.  Imagine a future United States where the government not only condones, but encourages drug use to help its citizens forget all of the unpleasant memories that might interfere with daily pursuits like shopping.  Got to keep that economy moving somehow!  Have you witnessed a terrorist attack while visiting the mall to spend your hard earned dollars?  Just stop in the local Therapeutic Forgetting Clinic and take a pill to forget the traumatic event! 

When Nora witnesses a terrorist attack while she’s shopping with her mother, her life changes in ways she never expected.  Her first trip to the local TFC doesn’t go quite as smoothly as expected, and after hearing her mother discuss the memory she wants gone, Nora rebelliously spits out her pill.  She doesn’t want her mother to suffer without someone knowing the truth behind their perfect family.  This one defiant act sets Nora on path of underground rebellion, and threatens her future and that of her family.

I loved the concept of this story!  See something upsetting or that you don’t want to remember, and that memory can be gone with a swallow.  It keeps public protests down, too, as outspoken citizens are rounded up and sent to detention centers and their memories are forcibly erased.  Nora never gave much thought to her society as a whole – she is privileged and she has everything she could ever want.  By all appearances, she has the perfect life.  When she hears her mother’s memory, the one she wants to forget, Nora can’t help but want to remember it.  Someone has to.  Someone has to help her mom, and Nora is determined that it will be her.

After Nora gets involved with Micah and Winter, she has an outlet to tell her story.  Micah suggests they create a comic chronicling Nora’s visit to the TFC.  She impulsively agrees to his suggestion, and the two of them are suddenly high on the government’s radar.  If they get caught, they are in great danger of being thrown in a detention center, or having all of their memories erased forever.  Neither can stop what they have begun, however, and they keep creating new chapters for the comic, exposing the truth behind the government and the terrorist attacks.

I found this a very suspenseful read, and I couldn’t put it down.  The story is told through the alternating view points of Nora, Micah, and Winter.  I liked each of the characters, and enjoyed all for their stories.  Nora is the most developed character, though, and her voice drives events forward.  She goes from being blissfully ignorant to quietly rebellious, and her motivations are convincing, and initially selfless.  She doesn’t want her mother’s suffering to be forgotten, and she puts herself at considerable risk to ensure that this doesn’t happen.

Memento Nora is a great start to Angie Smibert’s dystopian series, and I am so curious to see where th

On Sunday, Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books publisher Margery Cuyler and actress Robin Holly will judge children’s books produced by contestants on Donald Trump‘s reality television show, The Celebrity Apprentice.

Here’s more from the release: “In the episode, the star-studded cast featuring celebrities such as Gary Busey and La Toya Jackson will split into two teams and engage themselves in one of the most prominent niches in the book publishing industry – children’s literature. Both teams will author an original children’s picture book to help raise money for charity.”

In the past, Celebrity Apprentice contestants worked at Redbook magazine and Zappos.com comics, but this is the first time the show has featured children’s books. Will you watch it?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

MARSHALL CAVENDISH CHILDREN’S BOOK PUBLISHER FEATURED ON NBC’S THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE

Tarrytown, NY (March 8, 2011) – Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books, an imprint of Marshall Cavendish Corporation, announced today that Margery Cuyler, Publisher of the imprint, will be featured on an episode of NBC’s alternative series, “The Celebrity Apprentice,” airing March 13th (9/10 PM ET/PT).

In the episode, the star-studded cast featuring celebrities such as Gary Busey and La Toya Jackson will split into two teams and engage themselves in one of the most prominent niches in the book publishing industry – children’s literature. Both teams will author an original children’s picture book to help raise money for charity. Their works will be evaluated by actress Robin Holly and by Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books publisher Margery Cuyler.

The winning celebrity team will present their charity with a check. Last season, “The Celebrity Apprentice” raised over $1.25 million dollars for charity.

“The Celebrity Apprentice” is produced by Mark Burnett Productions in association with Trump Productions LLC. Mark Burnett, Donald Trump, Eden Gaha and Page Feldman are executive producers. Nancy Gunn is the co-executive producer.

Marshall Cavendish Corp. is a leading North American publisher of encyclopedias, nonfiction series, young adult and children’s books.  And we love Margery here in New Jersey.  We’ll definitely be watching.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy