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In the past few weeks I’ve started following some new blogs, some of which might be of interest to you…
e is for book
Have I mentioned that 2011 is the year ebooks explode? It’s time to start figuring these things out (so says the reluctant librarian). The group blog e is for book should prove pretty helpful in this pursuit, with a bevy of authors talking about the transition to the brave new eworld.
Author blogs can be a dicey proposition. The best of them go beyond self-promotion and interact with the children’s lit world as a whole. Jonathan Auxier, author of the forthcoming Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes takes this wide-angle view, highlighting interesting topics and sharing personal knowledge. Plus, there’s funny drawings.
Klickitat is the brainchild of librarian Julie Judkins, and even though she’s just 9 posts in, I’m digging what I see – a nice mix of reviews, link round-ups, and discussion starters. It also don’t hurt one bit that Judkins is a fellow Michigander.
Started by a pair of children’s lit hobbyists, Reads for Keeps has all the reviews, book lists, and rambling editorials you could hope for. Bonus points for a cool header as well.
This one’s on the list for all the school librarians out there, but it may have some solid public library use as well. AASL Advocacy Tip of the Day is as straightforward as a blog can be – one post per day about how to generate support and spread good news about your school library. Brief, to the point, and useful.
The appropriately-titled Booklist went and created a book list. A rather sound book list. A top 10 list of black history books for youth, all published in 2010. Click the image below to check it out, and add to your collection accordingly.
They say that the hold shelf is a window into the soul.
Well, that might be overstating things a bit, but it is certainly a way to find out what kids are reading when given the freedom of choice. Let’s take a look at the books students are lining up to read at the 5th and 6th grade school where I work.
Rivers of Fire (Atherton series) by Patrick Carman
As Far as I Can See (My America series) by Kate McMullan
Distant Waves by Suzanne Weyn
The Ugly Truth (Diary of a Wimpy Kid series) by Jeff Kinney
Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur
The Burning Bridge (Ranger’s Apprentice series) by John Flanigan
School’s Out – Forever (Maximum Ride series) by James Patterson
I’m seeing two common themes here:
Series. While I sometimes poke fun at the proliferation if series books in recent years, it is cool that kids are able to continue on with characters and stories they’re into.
Fiction. It seems like our hold shelf is always stocked with fiction titles. Do you get this too? My initial thought is that it’s due to the fact that with nonfiction, you can usually get another book on the same topic, so there is less need to put a specific book on hold.
Every Monday (save for the Mondays where I don’t) I’ll try my hand at giving each and every Newbery Medal-winning book a new cover, beginning from the beginning. Today’s installment of Covering the Newbery bring the 20s to a close. Is it with a bang – or with a whimper? Let’s find out…
Dang, just when I feel like I’m easing into this 2011 thing, 2012 pops up on the radar. The excellent Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog has the lowdown on a batch of books that may be contenders for the 2012 award. Click the image below to check them out.
Some of the entries into the Cover Curiosities file are clearly the doing of the Intentional Bogeyman (holding stuff, I’m talking about you), others I chalk up to the Ghost of Random Chance. I am very superstitious about about my cover similarities. Today’s submission strikes me as a member of the latter camp, but I can’t help but see some common ground in these two appealing covers. Up first…
Bunny Days by Tao Nyeu
and…
Calvin Can’t Fly by Jennifer Berne, illustrated by Keith Bendis
And, just for kicks, lets try a new way to compare the two:
The composition, the white space, the text locations – certainly similar. Not that I’m complaining.
If you’re unfamiliar with Arthur Geisert’s work, it can usually be summed up like so:
Through books likeLights Out and Hogwash Geisert often puts his porcine characters in the position of trying to solve real world problems through staggeringly creative means. The results are almost always must-read. Add Ice to this group. Originally published in France, Ice follows 2010’s excellent The Chicken Thief in Enchanted Lion’s Stories Without Words series. An excellent entry in a series that is becoming one to watch.
The book opens with a two page spread of a tiny island dotted with small A-frame huts, massive sun looming in the sky. A small band of Geisert’s familiar human-like pigs are doing their best to beat the heat – seeking shade and cooling themselves with fans – with lackluster results. Their huge well, which provides water to the entire island, is running low. After gathering to plan a voyage, the pigs spring into action, lifting off in their frigate-meets-hot-air-balloon vessel. They journey north, hitch an iceberg, and pull it back to their home, where it provides much needed relief.
The creativity is off the charts here. Geisert’s detailed illustrations run the show, creating a pleasing mix of nuts and bolts reality and island fantasy. I think the magic comes from the fact that everything seems as if it could almost happen. The civilization looks like something humans would build. The island’s well system seems plausible. Heck, even the cover brings to mind an old photograph of remote real-life island-dwellers, discovered by the outside world for the first time.
A simple, pitch-perfect story that will serve to get the imaginative juices flowing. The year is young, but Ice will likely be a 2011 standout.
Review copy from publisher.
Find this book at your local library with WorldCat.
Few author interviews go deeper than the typical “tell us about your book” surface. Teacher, reviewer, and ALSC Notable Books committee member Ed Spicer routinely cuts through the standard chatter in his author interviews, which he posts at his website, Spicy Reads. Ed recently sat down with Gary Paulsen (as Paulsen was in the midst of recording audio versions of some of his books), and the results give rare insight into the iconic author’s life and work.
Really, who doesn’t want to know if Paulsen has ever peed on an electric fence?
The concept of a small protagonist making a mark on the big world is a children’s lit mainstay. It makes sense – there are few situations children can better relate to than being surrounded by those that are older and bigger and wanting to do something conspicuous. Tom Lichtenheld’s charming Cloudette ably enters this territory, and will likely garner fans big and small. But mostly small.
As her name suggests, Cloudette is a cloud of the most diminutive proportions. Clearly, there are perks to being small, but Cloudette reaches a point where she wants to do important things, like make rivers flow and waterfalls fall. She tries to help the fire department, garden center, and car wash, but is turned away at every stop. When a storm drops Cloudette in an unfamiliar place, she finally finds where her modest services can make a difference – a small, dried-up pond.
While third-person narration guides the narrative, dialog intermittently appears in smaller font, sometimes adding comic relief and other times filling out the story.
For a book about a cloud, these illustrations are certainly sunny. Ink, pastel, colored pencil, and watercolor are used to create bright, clean artwork. There are some two page spreads here that absolutely stand out as some of Lichtenheld’s best work. For example:
And when the story reaches its climax and our heroine finally lets the rain fall, the view shifts, requiring the reader to turn the book to the side (think Tops & Bottoms) to get the full effect – a nice touch.
It isn’t cloying, it isn’t didactic – it’s just a little book about self determination that works. In the end, Cloudette is perfectly pleasant, and that’s not a bad thing to be.
Today I was checking out upcoming releases using Edelweiss (a great place to go for publisher catalogs y’all) when I came across a book that was released back in September – the paperback edition of Zorgamazoo by Robert Paul Weston. If you remember, the original cover made an impression on me.
But this new design? It may just be a world’s first.
How is it unique? Take a look:
That’s right, the awards it has won (E.B. White Read Aloud Honor, Silver Birch) have been incorporated into the cover illustration as balloons held by the main character, Katrina Katrell. Very cool.
Now a question for the masses (this includes, of course Peter from Collecting Children’s Books) – is this the first book you’ve seen do such a thing?
After a holidays and ALA Midwinter induced hiatus, Covering the Newbery is back up and running. The basics? I’m redoing the cover of every Newbery Medal-winning book, beginning with The Story of Mankind and working up to today. Uh, this little project is going to take a while. My rules are these:
The image I use must be Creative Commons-licensed for editing from the website Flickrcc.
Over four days, fellow school librarian John Schumacher and I will bring you our Top 20 children’s books of the year. The list contains books for the Kindergarten through sixth grade reader, but other than that, anything goes. You’ll see picture books mingling with graphic novels and chapter books elbowing nonfiction. Five titles a day, presented in countdown fashion.
These are our favorite books of 2010.
20. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger [Amulet]
Few 2010 releases made as memorable a first impression as The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. The cover, featuring the iconic Star Wars character in paper form, brandishing his lightsaber is the definition of shelf appeal. But what makes this book truly stand out as one of the year’s best is its uniquely authentic portrayal of the humor, awkwardness, and first crushes of 6th grade life. –Travis Jonker ___________________________________________________________________
19. Art & Max by David Wiesner [Clarion]
Am I Beezus or Ramona? Frog or Toad? Mary Richards or Lou Grant? Now, thanks to three-time Caldecott Medal winner David Wiesner, you’ll ask yourself: Am I Art or Max?
Art and Max are lizards. Arthur is serious, while Max is impulsive and bubbling with energy. The opening spread shows Art painting a portrait while listening to Pink Floyd. (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi would say Art is experiencing “flow”.) Max charges into the story, nearly crashes into Art’s easel, announcing, “I can paint too, Arthur!” While Art finds this news ridiculous, he eventually concedes and lets Max join, so long as he doesn’t get in the way. This decision takes readers on a colorful journey through watercolor, acrylic, pastel, and India ink. Kids will gasp at Wiesner’s bold illustrations. An eight-year-old responded, “It felt like Art was going to leap from the page. I was afraid my clothes would get covered in paint.” –John Schumacher ___________________________________________________________________
18. How to Clean a Hippopotamus: A Look at Unusual Animal Partnerships by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page [Houghton Mifflin]
Rarely do children’s literature team-ups generate the amount of success enjoyed by the duo of Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. It’s become so common for this pair to create outstanding work, that their excellence sometimes slips by without much fanfare. Well, it’s Vuvuzela time, folks, because How to Clean a Hippopotamus ranks among the year’s best. An eye-catching informational powerhouse examining unexpected animal alliances that deserves to be nonfiction section standard-issue. –Travis Jonker _____________________________________________________
0 Comments on Top 20 Children’s Books of 2010 (#20-16) as of 1/1/1900
*Disclaimer* The process described below is one method for informing Cybils evaluating. It is not, I repeat, not how the Cybils shortlists are created.
I’m honored to be a panelist on the fiction picture book committee of the 2010 Cybils awards. Since “kid appeal” is part of the award criteria, I though it wise to hit up honest-to-goodness youngsters for their opinions. While I can make predictions on what will float kids’ boats, you can never know for sure until you see the boats actually floatin’.
Here’s my plan:
A book battle of epic proportions. Two schools, eight classrooms, one winner. Well, actually, two winners (but that last sentence sounded so much better with “one winner”). I’ll add these two final student choices to the list of books I’ll be fighting for when our committee gathers to create a shortlist.
Week 1 is a straight-up battle. Each classroom gets two books, they read both and pick their favorite. Scientific? Nay. But a way to gather some useful information.
I feel like it would be slightly unfair to show which books lost, as all have been nominated and are still under consideration. So let’s take a look at the winning books for week one. Each and every title has been classroom approved:
Sneaky Sheep by Chris Monroe
The illustrations in Sneaky Sheep were a high point for students. The humorous story was also a winner.
Hot Rod Hamster Cynthia Lord & Derek Anderson
Students enjoyed the rhyming text and humor of Hot Rod Hamster.
Mostly Monsterly by Tammi Sauer & Scott Magoon
Students noted the artwork in Mostly Monsterly as excellent. They also enjoyed the original story.
Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown
Humor takes the cake. Children love the absurdity of this story and the fact that the boy’s only communication is “squeak”.
Spork by Kyo Maclear & Isabelle Arsenault
Students like Spork‘s unusual illustrations and loved the originality on display. They use sporks at lunch, so they can relate the utensil. The giant baby featured in the climax was also a big hit.
My Garden by Kevin Henkes
My Garden won the day for two reasons: the creativity of the story and the outstanding illustrations.
0 Comments on Epic Cybils Book Battle: Week I as of 1/1/1900
Last week it was Newbery, this week it’s Caldecott. Next week I’m hoping the folks at ACPL conduct a mock chocolate-covered pretzel contest. I would also like in on such a contest. Anyway, ACPL has gone and posted their third list of Caldecott contenders. List #1List #2List #3
HOW A COVER IS BORN
I sometimes tinker with covers. The results? Not so hot. If you want a taste of how the pros do it, you’ll enjoy the cover evolution series at ABRAMS Art Director (and former 100 Scope Notes interviewee) Chad W. Beckerman’s blog Mishaps and Adventures. To see the entire cover art process, from initial sketches to finished product and all the stops in between for Sweet Treats & Secret Crushes by Lisa Greenwald, click here.
FAMILY GREED SEPARATES CHARLOTTE FROM WILBUR
This is a real headline alert, folks. Remember the recent auction of original Charlotte’s Web artwork? Well there is more to the story, as Rocco Staino explains in this Huffington Post piece. There’s even a video of the auction. Click here to read.
Of Thee I Sing by Barack Obama. Currently #1 on the New York Times and Indie Bound picture book bestseller lists.
The first week of sales for President Obama’s picture book was, to paraphrase Joe Biden, “a big deal”. Of Thee I Sing topped both the New York Times and Indie Bound bestseller lists.
You have to love a list with some quirk. Guardian makes some less traditional picks for their 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books. Click the image above to read.
If you’re a librarian, a children’s lit fan, or just some dude who has a thing for best-of lists, you’ll be well served to check out the 2010 edition of School Library Journal’s Best Books of the Year. So many great picks. Click the image below to read:
On the more commercial side of things, Amazon has also named their favorite children’s books of the year in two categories: picture books and middle readers. Worth a look. Click the images below to read:
After scouring the children’s lit landscape, what follows are the 10 titles set to release in December, January, and February that most caught my eye as a K-6 school librarian. It’s a subjective list, to be sure, and not a collection of surefire winners – just some promising prospects. Here we go…
Middle Grade Fiction
No Passengers Beyond This Point by Gennifer Choldenko
Feb. 8, 2011 | Dial
The Newbery-honor winning author of Al Capone Does My Shirts offers up a departure that I’m looking forward to. A fantasy about three siblings and their journey to Colorado to visit their uncle. Good author, interesting premise – consider my curiosity piqued.
What’s Bugging Bailey Blecker? by Gail Donovan
Feb. 17, 2011 | Dutton
Do we share a similar sense of humor? Let’s find out. I think this story about a 5th grader growing out her hair to donate while dealing with a classroom outbreak of head lice sounds like a comedy gem in the making. What do you think? From the author of In Memory of Gorfman T. Frog.
Nonfiction Picture Books
Tillie the Terrible Swede: How One Woman, a Sewing Needle, and a Bicycle Changed History by Sue Stauffacher, illustrated by Sarah McMenemy
Jan. 25, 2011 | Random House
While biographies of well known historical figures are eye-catching, it is often the lesser-known stories that have the biggest impact. The author behind the wonderfully odd Doughnuthead takes on pioneering female cyclist Tillie Anderson. I’m looking forward to the results.
A Nation’s Hope: the Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Jan. 20, 2011 | Dial
Speaking of well-known figures, Joe Louis is one of America’s most famous boxers. Last I checked, however, there wasn’t a solid Louis bio for younger readers. With Kadir Nelson handing illustration duties, this one might fit the bill.
Picture Books
Where’s Walrus? by Stephen Savage
A wordless story about a zookeeper’s attempts to capture an escaped walrus, illustrated with about as much charm as you can fit between two covers.
Feb. 1, 2011 | Scholastic Press
Except If by Jim Averbeck
Jan. 25, 2011 | Atheneum
First came the egg, then the chicken. Except if it becomes a dino. Jim Averbeck (In a Blue Room) brings us a story full of possibilities.
0 Comments on 10 to Note: Winter Preview 2010-11 as of 1/1/1900
Are you in the process of writing a book called “Neil Gaiman is a Cool Guy“? Oh, good – you’ll want to use this recent Twitter conversation between Gaiman and a confused Neil Patrick Harris fan. Click here (or the image below) to head over to BuzzFeed and read the whole thing.
0 Comments on Epic Cybils Book Battle: Week I as of 1/1/1900
