By: Susan Thomsen,
on 10/12/2010
Don't miss Colleen Mondor's excellent list of nonfiction books that haven't yet been nominated for the Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction category of the Cybils. You'll find 10 great suggestions for new nonfiction for older-kid readers. The subjects of these books include Cleopatra, Civil War spies, and an underwater science station.
For even more nonfiction ideas for this age group, look at all the books that have been nominated!
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By: Susan Thomsen,
on 10/4/2010
"TaShon, his arms spread wide, twirls like an airplane. Spot barks and chases his tail. I lift the hose high; water falls like a soft summer shower.
"There is sweetness to this day.
"I thought this day was going to be ordinary. but it was full of surprises: Andrew, TaShon and Spot, and Miss Johnson saying I could be an engineer."
That's 12-year-old Lanesha talking. She lives with her surrogate grandmother, Mama Ya-Ya, in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. In the above passage, she is describing a day just before Hurricane Katrina hits.
Jewell Parker Rhodes' middle-grade novel, Ninth Ward, is a story of strength and survival. Don't miss this book.
Reviews at Charlotte's Library and The Happy Nappy Bookseller.
Rhodes, Jewell Parker. Ninth Ward. Little, Brown and Company, 2010.
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By: Susan Thomsen,
on 9/14/2010
No, not that one.
This version. It's for kids.
The Adventures of Odysseus makes a darn good read-aloud for thrill-seeking ten year olds; we just finished it here at our house. Using several translations of the Homerian classic and other sources, Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden fashion a rollicking adaptation, and tell the story of the Trojan War hero's long trip back to Ithaca—but in some 100 illustrated pages as opposed to 600 plain ones.
Nineteen years to get home! I-95 traffic is nothing compared to the nasty Cyclops, a livid Poseidon, and a man-eating dragon,all of which Odysseus encounters.What beautiful colors this book employs. Christina Balit's sunny yellows and oranges, gloomy grays, and sea-colored blues and greens illuminate the journey; her Art Deco/Greek vase-style motif works especially well with the ships, animals, and raging waters.
Grown-ups might want to catch up with the C.P. Cavafy poem "Ithaka," which Maurice Tempelsman, Jacqueline Onassis's companion, read at her funeral. "Hope the voyage is a long one./ May there be many a summer morning when,/ with what pleasure, what joy,/ you come into harbors seen for the first time." I love that.
Lupton, Hugh, and Daniel Morden. The Adventures of Odysseus. Barefoot Books, 2006.
Thanks to Powell's Books for the covers.
By: Susan Thomsen,
on 8/13/2010
Here's a Poetry Friday column from June 2008. We still read this book!
You'll find the Poetry Friday roundup, i.e., links to more poetry talk in the kidlitosphere today, at The Stenhouse Blog.
For today's Poetry Friday entry, I'd like to tell you about a book that Junior and I are enjoying: Janet S. Wong's Knock on Wood: Poems About Superstitions. I have soft spot for books, like this one, that start up a conversation between the people reading it. That's my hope for all children's books, really.
Junior's age, 8, is a fine one for talking about
superstitions [note: 10 is still good, too!]; he's heard of a few that Wong addresses in the seventeen
short poems. With a whiff of mystery and magic, the subjects include
four-leaf clovers, horseshoes, broken mirrors, and ladders, not to mention Friday the 13th. Because he
didn't know about all of them, Junior was eager to read the glossary
where the poet gives a little background on each superstition. For
instance, in reference to black cats, Wong notes that they were
"revered in ancient Egypt, but feared in medieval Europe." Since we're
feline aficionados, we decided we'd rather be like the ancient
Egyptians. The poem "Cat" begins "Look out for her, the black cat./Walk
backward/when she crosses your path/if you fear the magic she brings/as
she travels through your time." Julie Paschkis's typically lush and
beautiful illustrations accompany the poems, and provide additional
things to discuss.
By: Susan Thomsen,
on 8/9/2010
Patricia Reilly Giff, author of Lily's Crossing, Pictures of Hollis Woods, and many other books for children, has begun a new series, the Zig Zag Kids, set at an afterschool program. These chapter books are for readers aged six to nine.
A blog tour for Pat Giff and her new books starts tomorrow; next Monday I'll review the first two in the series, Number One Kid and Big Whopper. Here are the stops on the tour. Note that the author is now a blogger, too!
8.10 Cynsations
8.12 Where the Best Books Are!
8.13 Shelf Elf
8.14 Mundie Moms
8.15 The Children’s Book Review
8.16 Chicken Spaghetti. Right here!
8.17 Patricia Reilly Giff Add a Comment
Last week on Meet Me at Mikes Pip posted this trailer…
Wonderful isn’t it! Helena Bonham Carter plays nasty so well.
Although Enid is said to have been a dragon and pretty shocking to her own children she still created one of the first ever publishing franchises with her many different series. Of course the most popular are/where the Wishing Chair, Faraway Tree, Secret Seven and the Famous Five. I adored them all but the Faraway Tree series and the Famous Five where my favourites and stay with me vividly in adulthood.
Recently Hodder Children’s Books, who publish the Famous Five, announced that they are giving the Five a facelift. Changing some of the language in the books to make them more “timeless”. Read an article about the move here.
Not as harsh as the changes to Noddy but I think still probably unnecessary. What do you think?
Of course the books are all pretty twee and Enid was the first Barbara Cartland of children’s publishing – following formulaic storylines to publish title after title but I do really remember enjoying them.
I also remember all the words to the Famous Five TV show theme song…
One of my all time favourites. How I wished to be Anne riding my pony across the Moors!
So what do you think of the Enid Blyton books in 2010? Do you think they still have a place? Do you think the language should be updated?
Leave a comment sharing your view and we’ll have a little competition to (randomly) win a copy of a wonderful intermediate reader novel called Drizzle by Kathleen Van Cleve.
This whimsical fantasy about a rubarb farm where it always rains on Monday at 1pm is a gorgeous hardcover from the US.
By: Susan Thomsen,
on 7/27/2010
Among the many comic books and graphic novels winning Eisner Awards at the San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend were The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, adapted by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young from the L. Frank Baum original (Best Publication for Kids) and Beasts of Burden, by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson (Best Publication for Teens).
For the entire list of winners, click here.
Author Melissa Wiley covered Comic-Con on Twitter, and has started posting pics at her blog, Here in the Bonny Glen, too.
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By: Susan Thomsen,
on 7/4/2010
This morning I happily turn over the blog to my friend Michelle Turner, who also took the beautiful pictures. (Photographs copyright © 2010 by Michelle Turner. All rights reserved.) —ST
The few books I have from my childhood, along with a couple of my husband’s, occupy a small stack on our fireplace mantel. These volumes weren’t necessarily my childhood favorites. My copies of Eloise and The Poky Little Puppy didn’t survive through adolescence, and The Tall Book of Christmas is too, well, tall to fit nicely in the stack. But two books offering sound advice to my three-year-old-self definitely have their place. Joan Walsh Anglund’s A Friend Is Someone Who Likes You (inscribed “Happy Birthday, Michelle. Three years old - 1962. Mama and Daddy”) taught me that “everyone ... everyone in the whole world has at least one friend.” And Ruth Krauss’ A Hole Is to Dig, with charming illustrations by Maurice Sendak (more than a decade before Where the Wild Things Are), reminds me, among other things, that “[b]uttons are to keep people warm” and “[a] floor is so you don’t fall in the hole your house is in.”
The endpaper of The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit has been ripped out, so I don’t know how old I was when I got it. While my recommendation of this book horrified a friend when her daughter was young, as a girl I loved the “savage”-whiskered bad rabbit’s carrot stealing (“He doesn’t say ‘Please.’ He takes it!”). And I don’t remember being troubled at all by the appearance of the “man with a gun.” Compared to the torments inflicted on bad children in some fairy tales, the bad rabbit got off easy.
Speaking of bad children, at the bottom of my stack of childhood books is the one that remains most vivid–a 1945 version of Andersen’s Fairy Tales, beautifully and terrifyingly illustrated by Polish artist Arthur Szyk. My mother received the book, along with a companion version of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, as a Christmas present in the 1940s. (Someone in my husband’s family must have also, because our set came from his parents.) These tales, and their illustrations, are dark and grisly. A recurring theme in Andersen’s stories is the consequences befalling the vain and ungrateful child. There is hardly one more wicked than little Inger in “The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf,” and its powerful message remains with me today. Be a good, kind, considerate girl—or you’ll wind up with snakes in your hair, toads in your dress folds and wingless flies creeping across your face.
Michelle Turner, a practicing attorney and librarian’s daughter, lives with her husband, Steve, two British Shorthair cats, numerous chickens and an impressive assortment of books on about 14 acres of former Kentucky tobacco farm. Michelle and Steve blog, mostly about food, at Gourmandistan.
By: Susan Thomsen,
on 6/17/2010
1. The Prince of Mist, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
2. City Dog, Country Frog, by written by Mo Willems and illustrated by Jon J Muth
3. The Books of Elsewhere, Vol. 1: The Shadows, by Jacqueline West
4. Dark Life, by Kat Falls
5. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, by Tom Angleberger
6. The Red Umbrella, by Christina Diaz Gonzalez
7. Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green & David Levithan
8. How I, Nicky Flynn, Finally Get a Life (and a Dog), by Art Corriveau
9. Mockingbird, by Kathryn Erskine
10. The Quiet Book, written by Deborah Underwood and illustrated by Renata Liwska
This list for summer 2010 comes from IndieBound, a project of the American Booksellers Association. I picked up a flyer with these recommendations and more at Posman Books, in New York's Grand Central Terminal. The longer roster includes books by writer pals Elisha Cooper (Beaver Is Lost), Chris Barton (Shark vs. Train), and Mitali Perkins (Bamboo People).
I was in Posman to shop for a couple of editions of grown-up books I couldn't find at the local Barnes & Noble, which seems to be selling only classics published by, yep, Barnes and Noble. That means an older translation of Chekhov's stories instead of the acclaimed Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. I know that's so nerdy, but, still, I don't want the B & N versions. Posman had the P & V Chekhov and three different Middlemarches to choose from. That's what I want.
Links
IndieBound lists (and capsule descriptions) of recommended children's books, summer 2010
Bonus track: NPR's Summer Reading 2010 (for grown-ups)
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By: Susan Thomsen,
on 6/6/2010
Bruce Handy reviews John Grisham's new book, a legal thriller for children, in this morning's New York Times Book Review. Clearly familiar with the territory, Handy writes, "... you have to give Grisham credit for stepping into an arena where being the author of 'The Firm' counts for less than being the author of 'Junie B. Jones Is a Beauty Shop Guy'.” (In the same piece, Handy also considers the new, Egyptian-set novel The Red Pyramid, by Rick Riordan.)
Handy is a funny man; I like his reviews. The one-line bio notes that the critic is "writing a book about reading children’s literature as an adult and liking it." I look forward to reading that.
Other books considered in the NYTBR today are The Popularity Papers, by Amy Ignatow; The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, by Tom Angleberger (can't wait to read it); and Lynne Rae Perkins' As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth (reviewed by Monica Edinger, of the Educating Alice blog).
By: Susan Thomsen,
on 6/4/2010
Now, beside the racing, incomprehensible racket
Of the sea stretching its great girth forever
Back and forth between this direction and another,
Please let the words of this proper praise I speak
Become the identical and proper sound
Of my mourning.
from "Eulogy for a Hermit Crab," by Pattiann Rogers. Anthologized in Stories from Where We Live: The Gulf Coast, edited by Sara St. Antoine (Milkweed Editions, 2002).
The phrase "incomprehensible racket," which Pattiann Rogers uses here to describe the sea, now reminds me of what it must sound like in the Gulf of Mexico as BP and everyone else attempt to fix our country's biggest oil spill ever. "Incomprehensible" also reminds me of the mess that has already reached Louisiana and is headed for the Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida shorelines, all places I have spent many happy hours. Let's hope last night's giant funnel solution might actually pan out. Nothing, of course, will bring back the eleven rig workers who died.
Stories from Where We Live: Gulf Coast, from a Milkweed series for children, is an excellent collection of short poems, essays, and fiction, all focusing on nature and people's' relationship to place. This morning, as Junior crackled with excitement for his final elementary-school field day, I tied him to a chair suggested he sit down and listen as I read "The Singing River," about Mississippi's Pascagoula River, which is said to, yes, sing. Sylvia B. Williams' story describes the waterway, offers a few theories about the sound, and includes a Native American legend about the place.
This is a good book to read right now, and a fine starting point for conversations about the disaster that started some forty miles off the coast of Louisiana.
I'm not able to find a copyright-adhering online link to "Eulogy for a Hermit Crab," but in addition to Stories from Where We Live: Gulf Coast, you can find the poem in Rogers' Dream of the Marsh Wren (Milkweed, 1999) and Song of the World Becoming: New and Collected Poems 1981-2001 (Milkweed, 2001).
Additional link: Pascagoula River Audubon Center
Photo credit: [Live] Hermit crab on sea cucumber, Monterey, California. Image taken by Clark Anderson/Aquaimages. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license. Add a Comment
By: Susan Thomsen,
on 5/7/2010
Mrs. A., the media specialist at my fifth grader's school, recommended some books for Junior recently, but he hasn't gotten to them yet. Inventory at the school library starts this week, so the books have to go back. I think they'll make good summer reading, though, so I thought I'd share the names here.
A series called "Mysteries Unwrapped," from Sterling. Mrs. A. says that these books fly off the shelves, and they look perfect for Junior. The series includes Haunted U.S.A., by Charles Wetzel; The Real Monsters, by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen; and Mutants & Monsters, by Oliver Ho. Josh Cochran illustrated all of them.
The Big Book of Dummies, Rebels and Other Geniuses, by Jean-Bernard Pouy & Serge Bloch, and Anne Blanchard (Enchanted Lion Books, 2008). "26 lively and humorous portraits of notable figures from history, science, literature, music and film," says the jacket copy. I don't know if putting "dummies" in the title was so wise, but Mrs. A. highly recommends the book.
I picked out Guys Write for Guys Read, edited by Jon Scieszka (Viking 2005). We can pick this one up at the public library, along with Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka (Viking 2008). Guys Read: Funny Business (Walden Pond Press/Harper Collins) comes out in September—just in time for middle school.
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By: Susan Thomsen,
on 4/26/2010
The Association of Booksellers for Children announced the finalists for the 2010 E.B. White Read Aloud Awards. Winners will be announced at the trade show BookExpo America in late May. The two categories and the shortlists are as follows:
Picture Books
14 Cows for America, by Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez
Once Upon a Twice, by Denise Doyen, illustrated by Barry Moser
Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated), by Florence Heide Parry, illustrated by Lane Smith
The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown
For Older Readers
Leaving the Bellweathers, by Kristin Clark Venuti
Tumtum and Nutmeg: Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall, by Emily Bearn, illustrated by Nick Price
The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z., by Kate Messner
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin
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By: Susan Thomsen,
on 4/14/2010
Comic-Con International, a huge annual comics-industry showcase, announced nominations for the Eisner awards recently. The following are the lists of books specifically for kids. There are many other categories. All winners are declared at Comic-Con in San Diego on July 23rd.
Best Publication for Kids
Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute, by Jarrett J. Krosoczeka (Knopf)
The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook, by Eleanor Davis (Bloomsbury)
Tiny Tyrant vol. 1: The Ethelbertosaurus, by Lewis Trondheim and Fabrice Parme (First Second)
The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly (Abrams ComicArts/Toon)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz hc, by L. Frank Baum, Eric Shanower, and Skottie Young (Marvel)
Best Publication for Teens
Angora Napkin, by Troy Little (IDW)
Beasts of Burden, by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson (Dark Horse)
A Family Secret, by Eric Heuvel (Farrar Straus Giroux/Anne Frank House)
Far Arden, by Kevin Cannon (Top Shelf)
I Kill Giants tpb, by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura (Image)
My son can vouch for Lunch Lady, Tiny Tyrant, and The TOON Treasury, but I see we need to pick up The Secret Science Alliance (which also won a Cybils graphic novel award) and the Oz book, too. I may snag Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation, adapted by Michael Keller and Nicolle Rager Fuller (Rodale), which was nominated for Best Adaptation from Another Work; several comics cited in other areas will likely appeal to older kids.
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By: Susan Thomsen,
on 1/18/2010
Even more literary awards were announced today: the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children. Sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the prize-winners are as follows:
Winner
The Secret World of Walter Anderson by Hester Bass, illustrated by E.B. Lewis (Candlewick Press)Honor Books
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone (Candlewick Press)
Darwin: With Glimpses into His Private Journal and Letters by Alice B. McGinty (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children)
The Frog Scientist by Pamela S. Turner (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children)
How Many Baby Pandas? by Sandra Markle (Walker Books for Young Readers)
Noah Webster: Weaver of Words by Pegi Deitz Shea (Calkins Creek Books)
Recommended Books
The Boy Who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth by Kathleen Krull (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (Farrar Straus and Giroux)
Eleanor, Quiet No More by Doreen Rappaport (Hyperion Books for Children)
The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews during the Holocaust by Karen Gray Ruelle (Holiday House)
Life in the Boreal Forest by Brenda Z. Guiberson (Henry Holt and Company)
One Giant Leap by Robert Burleigh (Philomel Books)
Truce by Jim Murphy (Scholastic)
Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker (Carolrhoda Books)
Nonfiction Mondays are celebrated on a number of the children's book blogs. To see which books others are talking about today, readers can find a roundup of posts at Wendie's Wanderings.
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It’s really, really hot here today and we are trapped inside. Ned and I have enjoyed this little book trailer immensely and we will probably watch it a couple more times before the day is out. It looks gorgeous animated so it will be really interesting to see the book.
The author/illustrator, award winning designer, Michael Hall includes 300 hearts in his stunning illustrations and readers are encouraged to try and count all of the hearts at the end of the book. It is due to be published in Australia next month and you can see inside the book more on the Harper Collins website.
Also have a look at some deleted scenes from the book on the newly created blog Under the Greenwillow devoted to celebrating the publishers 35th birthday - this will be a blog to watch.
Thanks to Fuse #8 for pointing me in the direction of this great book trailer. Also check out their review of Cosmic, an intermediate novel by Frank Cottrell Boyce - one of my all time favorite authors.
Also discovered today is this awesome new blog, this is definitely going to be one that I am going to be addicted to. A whole blog devoted meticulously to ‘recommended inappropriate books for kids’. The research, the writing and the images are just incredible and will give you a giggle as well as providing some incredible info.
By: Susan Thomsen,
on 1/1/2010
That's right. The finalists for the 2009 Cybils awards were announced this morning. Congratulations too all the authors, illustrators, editors, designers, and everyone else involved in creating the books!
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By: Susan Thomsen,
on 11/30/2009
The page here called "Best Children's Books of 2009: The Big List of Lists" keeps growing. I'm waiting on School Library Journal's lineup, which ought to be announced shortly; meanwhile, I've added a bunch of links recently, including the following:
Amelia Bloomer Project nominations. "Recommended feminist literature" for children.
Best Hockey Books for Kids, at Joe Pelletier's Greatest Hockey Legends.com
Boing Boing Gift Guide 2009: Kids. Some 2009 books, some older.
Canadian Children's Literature Awards: TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, Nora Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Nonfiction, and Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People.
By: Susan Thomsen,
on 10/23/2009
Because this description in Welcome to My Tweendom's review cracked me up.
Mom’s next big idea is a reading club with all of the neighborhood guys. When she asks them to bring books they would like to discuss, some of the titles that arrive are: SUDOKU INSANITY, ULTIMATE VIDEO GAME CHEATS, GREEN WASP, AND XTREME POP-UP SHARKS! Greg’s mom deems all of these too violent and suggests some classic titles, like Little Women, The Yearling, Old Yeller, and Anne of Green Gables! Guess how many guys make it to the second meeting?
Read the entire review at Welcome to My Tweendom.
The scenario struck me as so funny (and so well-intentioned and Mom-ish, if I may be so bold to speak for my people) that I knew I had to read the book myself. Since my son owns a copy, it should be no problem.
Our neighborhood's school library cannot keep any of the Wimpy Kid books on the shelves; there are waiting lists for all four in the series.
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By: Susan Thomsen,
on 10/21/2009
Just up the road from where we live, elephants used to frolic in the sea. How cool it would it be to see that! Of course, we would have to travel in time back to the 1880s, when P.T. Barnum’s circus wintered in Bridgeport, CT, a city on the Long Island Sound and Barnum's home base.
I learned that about the circus and much more from Candace Fleming’s fascinating, photo-filled biography The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum, written for children aged nine and older.
Barnum (1810-1891) came to circus-owning relatively late in life. Setting the stage, so to speak, was his earlier American Museum, on lower Broadway in New York, with its “grand saloons” populated by mummies, artifacts, art works, live exotic animals, skeletons, and people like the Swiss Bearded Lady, the Highland Mammoth Boys, and little Tom Thumb. Fleming carefully situates the use of “human curiosities” in its historical context; she also notes that the performers’ salaries were “generous” for their era.
Barnum was no stranger to doing whatever it took to draw in people to his various entertainments; one whole chapter is called “Humbug!” The “real-life” Feejee Mermaid was an example of Barnum’s penchant for fooling his audiences. His family also paid a high price for his show-biz life; his daughters barely saw him when they were growing up.
The Great and Only Barnum would be a marvelous addition to the home or classroom library, especially for nonfiction, biography, and circus fans; a fourth-grade student called it "amazing" over at her teacher's blog Educating Alice.
In addition to the author's appearances this weekend at the Rabbit Hill Festival, Candace Fleming will speak, and sign books, at Bridgeport’s own Barnum Museum, at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 25th.
Barnum’s legacy carries on in other ways, too: the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performs at Bridgeport's Arena at Harbor Yard, October 29th-November 1st.
The Great and Only Barnum was nominated in the Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction category of the 2009 Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (the Cybils).
Details
Fleming, Candace. The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum. Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-0375945977.
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By: Susan Thomsen,
on 10/19/2009
2009 is proving to be a very good year for kids' nonfiction. Three of the five finalists for the National Book Awards' prize in "young people's literature" are nonfiction. The long list of potential nominees for the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards'(the Cybils') Middle Grade/YA Nonfiction is especially strong.
And here comes the 2009 Rabbit Hill Festival of Literature, with a focus on—nonfiction ("creative biography and historical events") for older children. Sponsored by the Westport (CT) Library, the three-day event begins Thursday, October 22nd, and runs through Saturday, October 24th. Always a draw for big-name authors, Rabbit Hill '09 will feature Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Tonya Bolden, Candace Fleming, Dennis Fradin, Judith Fradin, and Gary D. Schmidt.
The festivities begin on Thursday evening, with a reading by all of the authors involved. For a complete schedule of events, head over to the Rabbit Hill web site.
I'm in the middle of Candace Fleming's new book, The Great and Only Barnum. It's a fascinating biography of the ultimate showman, P.T. Barnum, whose home base was in Bridgeport, two towns away from Westport. Given the recent Barnum-esque "balloon boy" escapades, I'm looking forward to hearing Fleming's talk, along with the others, on Saturday morning at Rabbit Hill.
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Chronicle Books posted this lovely clip this week…
The Ivy and Bean series of books are about two spunky and smart seven year old girls. They have very different personalities…
’Ivy was always reading a big book. Bean never read big books. Reading made her jumpy’.
The author of the Ivy and Bean series is Annie Barrows who wrote the bestselling adult novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. What I love about her writing for children with Ivy and Bean is how natural the characters and story lines are. There are no big challenging issues in these stories, they are fun and playful. She makes the stories funny and children really relate to them, the dialogue is just fantastic to read aloud.
Ivy and Bean are often and rightly compared to the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary.
The illustrations are by Australian Sophie Blackall who lends a beautiful spirit to Ivy and Bean. She really makes the characters come alive.
I love how the boys in the clip enjoy the books too.
We have the first two Ivy and Bean books available in our store and will be receiveing the rest of the series soon, including the new book Ivy and Bean: Doomed to Dance.
By: Susan Thomsen,
on 10/12/2009
As a former horseback rider and a forever Misty of Chincoteague fan, I enjoyed reading The Georges and the Jewels, author Jane Smiley's first book for children. The middle-grade novel centers on Abby, a girl growing up on a California horse ranch in the 1960s. Aged twelve in this first of three books, Abby is less than thrilled with school—seventh grade and its attendant social conflicts—but, boy, can she ride!
Recently I was chatting with my friend Elaine Clayton, who did the fine pen-and-ink illustrations for The Georges and the Jewels. (In fact, she had lent me the review copy.) As she described the process of creating the art for the book, I knew that others would like hearing about it, too. I invited Elaine to write a guest column, and am so happy that she agreed to.
Without further ado, I turn things over to Elaine Clayton:
When I was asked by the art director at Knopf/Crown Books for Young Readers to illustrate Jane Smiley's first book for young readers, I was completely thrilled. I have illustrated many chapter books and novels for other authors, and find it to be a lot of fun. When I was told this book was about horses, I was even more thrilled. I created a horsey picture book published a few years ago called A Blue Ribbon for Sugar. The art is very gestural, the drawings of horses loose and free-flowing. I used pencil and water color. However, when I was told that Jane Smiley's novel would be pitched for slightly older readers and they'd need me to illustrate the horse equipment (and not illustrate the story), I realized this was a different kind of illustration project.
Normally, when illustrating a book someone else has written, I read the manuscript, and as I read, cinematic imagery develops in my mind instantly. I see the characters, see their world, feel myself in the story. I make notes and then go and make many, many sketches and try and be as true as ever to the author's description as I allow my inner vision of the character to emerge on paper. It is a wonderful thing to comprehend the writing of another, and an honor. The honor in it demands that I handle carefully the feel and mood and detail the author has offered up, and then to be true to my way of understanding visually that author's bounty.
In the case of The Gorges and the Jewels, I was asked not to illustrate the story, really. I was asked not to illustrate the characters or the place where they live. I was asked not to draw scenes which convey the personality of the characters, but instead to faithfully depict the implements of horse riding, the equestrian gear mentioned in the book that many people might never have seen or heard of before. This was exciting to me because I spent the last several years riding horses and grew up on horses. I am still learning about all the equipment and am still obsessed a little about what I have learned and excited about what I have not quite grasped in the way of horses and their care and training. There is so much to know, to explore and to understand about horses and their gear!
I set out to draw from life all things mentioned in the book: saddles, blankets, girths, bridles and breeches. I set up all the equipment I own and began drawing first in pencil. The drawings were made quite large, some as large as 12" across and almost as many inches high, others smaller. After pencilling in the equipment, I began inking in. I drew in small ink marks, "hatching" by crossing the ink marks in places of shadow or definition. I was tiny-line-by-line making the equipment come to life on the page.
For me, as a figurative artist, everything around me has a human character or "personality". All things look like a person to me. I know this sounds funny, but numbers, alphabets, chairs and lamps (just everything!) look like types of people to me. For example, a place to sit might look to me to be a sad, defeated oaf; the worn-out sofa. Things around the house aren't just things, the basket quietly positioned in the corner looks gullible to me, or maybe unopinionated. So of course all the art for this book came out with a bit of personality, especially the riding boots and clothes. It was like drawing portraits to me, in a way, as even bridles and saddles are full of character. I drew daily and all day long, allowing these ink marks to come together to form cowboy hats and English riding helmets, riding crops and whips, horse brushes and combs. I went to a local horse farm and they let me set up all their tack and brushes, etc. so I could draw anything I didn't have out of storage.
I then sent the art into Knopf and waited to see what they might do with it. I knew the art director would make it all beautiful. What they did was they took these somewhat large drawings and reduced them to a much smaller size. With a few drawings on a full page, at each chapter opening, the drawings allow the reader to get an idea about what comes ahead, but they also provide information so readers can read about something, then go look at it at the beginning of the chapter to acquaint themselves with what each implement looks like. Reducing the detail down into a smaller dimension made the art look more technical and delicate, more elegant, really. It was really fun to see the art reduced and to see each piece of equipment I drew serve this book quietly, but with a kind of dignity that only reduced ink line work can have.
The Book
Smiley, Jane. The Georges and the Jewels. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2009.
Illustrations by Elaine Clayton, used here with the permission of the artist. All rights reserved.
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By: Susan Thomsen,
on 8/26/2009
"50 Multicultural Books Every Child Should Read" is one of many pages at the National Education Association's web site. Neesha Meminger, who wrote the YA novel Shine, Coconut Moon, recently noticed that though the list features works by some of her favorite authors of color, it contains no books by South Asian writers. (Meminger was born in India, grew up in Canada, and now lives in New York.)
She wrote a blog post on the subject, and later updated it with the happy news that the Cooperative Children's Book Center, which originally compiled "50 Multicultural Books...," plans to expand the roster this fall. 75 Multicultural Books Every Child Should Read? Let's hope so!
I asked Neesha Meminger for her ideas on some South Asian additions that the CCBC could include. (Not that I have any affiliation whatsoever with the organization—I'm just a busybody who loves a good list.) She kindly sent me a list of some of her favorite South Asian children's books and authors:
More resources from the Meminger files include
* "MG" refers to middle grade, or ages 8-12. "YA," to young adult, or 12 and older.
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By: Susan Thomsen,
on 8/10/2009
Wouldn't you know it? Just as soon as I say the kiddo isn't reading, I spot him with his nose in a book once or twice. So I'll put aside parental anxiety for now. Jeez. Lesson learned.
We finished up Joy Cowley's middle-grade novel Chicken Feathers as a read-aloud; it's about a boy and a talking chicken who also likes to drink moonshine. Yes, a mite heavy on the quirk factor. Junior liked it.
This morning at the bookstore I picked up (for Junior) two novels recommended for their humor—David Lubar's Invasion of the Road Weenies, and Louis Sachar's Wayside School Is Falling Down. (I remember first hearing about the Wayside School books in Beth Kephart's Seeing Past Z: Nurturing the Imagination in a Fast-Forward World, a must-read book about encouraging children's reading.) I also bought some nonfiction: [Simon] Basher and Adrian Dingle's Periodic Table, which comes with a poster of the same.
Back in 2007, the Farm School blog reviewed The Periodic Table:
Add a CommentArtist Simon Basher and chemistry teacher Adrian Dingle have created a vivid rogues' gallery of elements guaranteed to bring the periodic table to life and appeal to kids of all ages. I'll be the first to admit I'm the originally fuddy-duddy, but there's something about this anime-style, Facebook approach to the periodic table that's remarkably engaging. Not to mention a sensible approach to making the subject—indeed, the individual elements—memorable for everyone from fourth or fifth graders to college seniors (not to mention home educating parents who majored in, say, history).
i think we owe it to enid to keep her words as she wanted them. it’s seems a crime to change such infamous words.
by the way…i just squealed with delight when i saw you have the new alex and lulu book. however,do you have it in hardcover? we have the first one in HC and I’d really like to be boring and a perfectionist and have both in HC
I think it’s crazy to change the language and words at the whim of some overtly PC publisher. It’s like changing Shakespeare in some respects. You just don’t mess with the best.
I LOVE THIS!!!!
My kids love the Famous Five and Faraway Tree series (which were also the ones that stayed with me from childhood) and they have read them in the original versions that I inherited from my mother, so I doubt very much that the language is a barrier. But it was interesting that the article you linked to said it was the parents who were put off by the language, not the children.
I was most disappointed to discover they had changed even the children’s names in the new Faraway Tree editions – if poor Fanny had to go, does that mean Dick’s days are numbered?
I think it’s a cynical exercise in marketing and I for one will continue buying the books second hand.
I have been reading Famous Five to Fred and we have to stop sometimes and talk about some of the values or attitudes towards girls (we haven’t come across any “dirty gypsies” yet to have that conversation.) The cadence of the language is one of the best things about Enid Blyton (and hearing Fred spontaneously come out with some of those funny little turns of phrase is a highlight of my existence).
The books were dated and silly when we were kids, and I loved them regardless. Famous Five were my favourite, but I also adored the Farm books and the Circus books. I loved her recurring motif of children who had a special language and empathy with animals.
I can never resisit an Enid post. I am against changing the words and I believe firmly that Enid Blyton is one of the most important writers of this century. You only have to look at how many writers from all genres she influenced as a child to see her importance. She not only inspired books such as the Harry Potter series but she helped to feed and inspire many budding imaginations. It’s no accident that so many writers pay homage to her in those five books that influenced me as a child column.
Her books are a product of the times and I dont have a problem with with the golliwog references. Enid Blyton was also very harsh towards big blonde dolls with blue eyes but nobody gets themself in a state over her bias towards blondes there. I really hate the modern trend towards dumbing down the books, changing the names etc. If Enid was a male writer and working in a different genre, she wouldn’t be treated with such disrespect.
I don’t think she can be compared to Barbara Cartland as Enid was so original in so many of her ideas. BC is very rarely mentioned as an influence in any writer’s lives.I’ve recently blogged about Enid and Helena on my Blog. It’s a wonderful movie and I totally love Helena in the role. However it fails to mention some of the more favourable ascpects about Enid’s character such as the charity work she was involved with The film also waited until her daughter Gillian died (who thought highly of her mother) and used Imogen (daughter who didn’t get along with her mother) was then used as a major source. Enid made my childhood magical along with millions around the world. My daughter still prefers her books to many current day writers working in this genre. A lot of current day books feature subjects such as I have 2 Daddies or How to Share or feature animals in place of children. Enid captured magic and mystery. I don’t find them twee anymore than Harry Potter (which owes a lot to Wishing Chair and Far Away Tree books) are twee Enid really knew how to enter into a child’s mind and imagination and I for one will always tip my hat in homage to her for that. xx
here is the link to my post
http://talepeddler.blogspot.com/2010/07/fabbo-friday-and-fab-flick-enid.html
The folk in the faraway tree was my favourite book and one of the first chapter books I read myself. I read the faraway tree series to my daughter when she was three. She loved them and couldn’t wait until bedtime for the next few chapters. I edited them as I read or explained some of the differences in values as we went along. I am looking forward to Ellie being old enough for me to read them to her too.
All my children love Enid Blyton and part of my delight in reading her stories is explaining some of the more old fashioned terms-I feel we should keep the language and remember the era in which the stories were written!
My favourite Enid Blyton’s include the Faraway Tree, Mr. Galliano’s Circus and Shadow the Sheep Dog.
We could change the language, but I would still like to read the old copies of my Mum’s and Grandad’s.
Hi!
I really ADORED this film! I love Helena Bonham Carter… and although I suspected that it wasn’t COMPLETELY accurate, it made for a jolly good yarn! I thought the bit where she got upset about people thinking she didn’t write her own books was a bit sad. Poor Enid. And I thought the way she read her fan mail was a bit overzealous! But yes, I did LOVE this film.
And I LOVE the BBC production of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ which DOES NOT relate at all to this post, but I thought I would tell you that! The one with David Morrissey in it. It is so wonderful. Sigh.
Okay! Bye! Hope your day is ace-ness!
xx Pip