new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Michelle Pauli, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 26 - 42 of 42
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: Michelle Pauli in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
By the Shores of Silver Lake. Laura Ingalls Wilder. 1939. HarperCollins. 291 pages. [Source: Library]
As a child, By The Shores of Silver Lake wasn't my favorite of the series. I blame Jack's death for that. But as an adult, I've come to appreciate By The Shores of Silver Lake more, seeing it as more than just a transition between On the Banks of Plum Creek and The Long Winter.
In By the Shores of Silver Lake:
- Mary goes blind, Laura is "asked" to be her eyes
- Pa is offered a new job, a job with the railroad, which he takes
- He goes by wagon, Jack dies BEFORE Pa's departure
- The rest of the family travels most of the way by train
- They continue the rest of their journey (a day or two or three) by wagon
- They settle in for a while, Pa talks about the claim he hopes to claim later that year or whenever his job is finished and he's able to go out seeking a claim of his own
- Pa's job isn't always safe; he's the paymaster for the railroad, and he has to calm down an angry mob in this one.
- They meet the Boast family
- They spend the winter in the 'biggest' house Laura has ever lived in
- Winter may be lonely (no neighbors, no town) but the spring will see plenty of people come and go. EVERYONE stops at their house on their way west
- The family learns that there is a school for the blind, they all decide Mary should go there.
- The family decides to claim land near De Smet, South Dakota
- Laura catches the tiniest glimpse of Almanzo Wilder's horses
I definitely am enjoying rereading these books. By The Shores of Silver Lake may not be my favorite of the series, but, I'm glad I reread it.
© 2015 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
By:
Becky Laney,
on 2/22/2015
Blog:
Becky's Book Reviews
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
books reviewed in 2015,
books reread in 2015,
Laura Ingalls Wilder,
series books,
J Fiction,
Newbery Honor,
mg historical fiction,
children's classic,
MG Fiction,
1937,
library book,
j historical,
Add a tag
On the Banks of Plum Creek. Laura Ingalls Wilder. 1937. 340 pages. [Source: Library]
I love Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series. I do. And On the Banks of Plum Creek, while not my absolute favorite--that would be The Long Winter or possibly These Happy Golden Years--is worth rereading every few years. One thing I hadn't noticed until this last reread is that the Ingalls' family celebrates three Christmases in this one book!
Plenty of things happen in On The Banks of Plum Creek:
- the family moves into a sod house
- the family moves into a wooden house with real glass windows
- the family gets oxen and horses
- the girls start school
- the family attends church
- crops are planted and lost
- Pa leaves the family behind twice to go in search of work
- hard weather is endured
- Laura gets in and out of trouble (she almost drowns in this one)
The book is enjoyable and satisfying. I love the illustrations by Garth Williams. I remember them just as well as I do the text itself.
© 2015 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
Winterbound. Margery Williams Bianco. 1936/2014. Dover. 234 pages. [Source: Bought]
Did I love Winterbound the same way I loved Margery Williams' Velveteen Rabbit. NO! I want to be honest about that from the start. Winterbound is not nearly as charming and lovely and wonderful as The Velveteen Rabbit. But with the right expectations, Winterbound could work for some readers.
Winterbound is about four siblings living on their own in a rented house in rural New England with both parents away. The father is an archaeologist, if I'm remembering correctly. He'll be gone for a year or two. The mother's absence is more sudden. She goes to take care of a sick relative in New Mexico. The family--three girls, one boy--were raised in the city. This is their first time 'experiencing' country life. This is also their first time being independent. The two oldest are nearly-grown--upper teens. Kay. Garry (short for Margaret). Caroline. Martin.
Is the book about anything? Yes and no.
It is a coming-of-age story for both Kay and Garry, in a way. Both are learning who they are as individuals: what they like, love, want, need, etc. Both are thinking ahead, thinking about the future: who they want to be, what they want their lives to look like, how they plan to earn money, etc. I think it's good to approach this one as an "Am I ready to be an adult?" book.
It is a book about family and friendship. All of the siblings make friends within the community. And, of course, there's always their relationships with each other. The sections when they're spending time with their best friends are always enjoyable. Plenty of storytelling.
It is a book about rural life, seasons, and nature. When you see the title don't think LONG WINTER, that isn't fair to this book at all. This book isn't so much about winter, as it is about all the seasons. Yes, the four face a difficult week or two when they're isolated because of too much snowfall, a blizzard perhaps. But that's just a tiny part of the book as a whole. It's just as much about all four seasons.
It is a slower-paced book, I admit. Not every book has to be action-packed and full of adventure and drama. But I wouldn't say that
nothing happens. The focus is on the ordinary.
© 2015 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
ABC Bunny. Wanda Gag. 1933/2004. University of Minnesota Press. 40 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence:
A for Apple, big and red
B for Bunny snug a-bed
C for Crash!
D for Dash!
E for Elsewhere in a flash
F for Frog--he's fat and funny
"Looks like rain," says he to Bunny
Premise/Plot: The plot is minimal. Though simple might be a better word. After Bunny is woken up suddenly, this alphabet book follows his adventures. This one won a Newbery Honor in 1934, so obviously the text was thought worthy! But it is an alphabet book. It is a beautifully illustrated alphabet book no doubt.
My thoughts: I love the black and white illustrations. The illustrations are very detailed. I found them oddly mesmerizing. (I love the illustrations of the porcupine and the squirrel). This is an enjoyable book. I don't remember reading it as a child--that is I don't remember having it read aloud to me as a child. (I have very strong memories of reading Millions of Cats). But this is a lovely book. I wish my library had more of Wanda Gag's books.
© 2015 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
The Windy Hill. Cornelia Meigs. 1921. 210 pages. [Source: Bought]
The Windy Hill by Cornelia Meigs is a 1922 Newbery Honor book. She received two more Newbery Honors for Clearing Weather and
Swift Rivers. Her Invincible Louisa won the Newbery in 1934. (I plan on reading Invincible Louisa in February.)
Oliver and Janet are staying with their cousin Jasper. In the past, they've loved spending time with him. He's a real favorite. But. This visit there is something a bit off. Jasper isn't acting like himself at all. They're worried about him, and rightly so it turns out.
The book opens with Oliver escaping or running away. Jasper has arranged for them both (Oliver and Janet) to meet someone--a cousin their own age, a girl. It's the last bit that decides it for Oliver. So off he goes in bit of a mood. But he meets someone very interesting. Two people actually. A man he calls Beeman, and a girl around his own age. And the 'Beeman' is quite a storyteller. They become friends, and, he brings Janet to meet them both. They eventually confide in him their worries about Jasper...
Did I enjoy The Windy Hill? For the most part, yes. I liked the Beeman's stories best of all. These stories are adventure-packed. They also turn out to be true family stories. The book itself has some excitement--or action. The characters do more than sit around listening to stories. It concerns a flood. So plenty of drama is to be had.
Windy Hill was a quick read. It was enjoyable enough. Perhaps not a 'must' read, but nice all the same.
© 2015 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
Millions of Cats. Wanda Gag. 1928. Penguin. 40 pages. [Source: Library]
Once upon a time there was a very old man and a very old woman. They lived in a nice clean house which had flowers all around it, except where the door was. But they couldn't be happy because they were so very lonely. "If we only had a cat!" sighed the very old woman. "A cat?" asked the very old man. "Yes, a sweet little fluffy cat," said the very old woman. "I will get you a cat, my dear," said the very old man.And he set out over the hills to look for one. Millions of Cats is a Newbery Honor book from 1929.
Premise/Plot: A very old man and a very old woman long for a cat. The husband goes on a quest to bring back a "sweet little fluffy cat" to please them both. Is his quest successful? Yes. A little too successful. For in fact he finds
Cats here, cats there,
Cats and kittens everywhere,
Hundreds of cats,
Thousands of cats,
Millions and billions and trillions of cats.
How is he ever to choose just ONE cat from so many?! Especially since as he picks up or pets each one he sees, he finds it to be the prettiest cat. He can't bring himself to leave any of the cats behind. But it isn't practical to bring home hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, and trillions of cats. You can probably guess what his wife's response will be! Surely, they can't keep them all. For better or worse, he lets the cats decide amongst themselves. One scrawny cat remains, but, it may be the best one of all.
My thoughts: I loved this one growing up. I loved the repetition. I thought it was a fun story. I didn't--at the time--take the man's conclusion that the trillions of cats ate each other up literally. Is the book violent? Perhaps. Perhaps not. See for yourself. "They bit and scratched and clawed each other and made such a great noise that the very old man and the very old woman ran into the house as fast as they could. They did not like such quarreling." This one might pair well with Eugene Field's "The Duel." (The gingham dog and the calico cat).
Have you read Millions of Cats? Did you like it? love it? hate it?
© 2015 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
Everything on a Waffle. Polly Horvath. 2001/2008. Square Fish. 176 pages. [Source: Review copy]
There were things about Polly Horvath's Everything On a Waffle that I liked. I liked the heroine, Primrose Squarp. I liked how unique she was. She had a unique way of seeing the world around her, a unique perspective on just about everyone in town. The novel opens with tragedy, what most people would call tragedy. Primrose loses her mom and dad to a storm. Her dad was out sailing, her mom saw how horrible the storm was, got worried and left in another boat to go find him. Every single person in town, and, most every person from out of town who hears the story, concludes that Primrose's parents are dead. Their bodies have not been recovered, but, they are most certainly dead. Primrose arrives at the opposite conclusion. Her parents are not dead. They are not. They may be marooned on an island. They may be missing for a time. But her parents are most definitely alive. Many well intentioned folks in town encourage Primrose to come to terms with what has happened, to grieve her parents, to react and feel. But instead of Primrose coming to terms with her loss, it is the town who ends up coming to terms with Primrose and her unending optimism. No one is quite sure what to make of Primrose, she's just Primrose.
After a few weeks, Uncle Jack comes to stay with Primrose. Uncle Jack doesn't demand much from Primrose. He doesn't demand that she get in touch with her emotions and talk it all out. He lets Primrose be herself. And he accepts Primrose pretty much as is. And she does the same. Both are flawed beings, if you will. They seem to fit together well enough.
Miss Honeycut watches Primrose closely. She does not think Primrose is doing well at all. She thinks Primrose needs something that Uncle Jack could never give her.
One of the things that sets the book apart are the recipes at the end of every chapter. Also the small town quirky charm. I absolutely loved the idea of THE GIRL IN THE SWING restaurant. I loved the owner. I loved the idea that EVERYTHING on the menu came with waffles. Very unique.
As I said, I liked this one. I didn't love it.
© 2014 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
Afternoon of the Elves. Janet Taylor Lisle. 1989. Scholastic. 128 pages. [Source: Review copy]
I enjoyed reading Afternoon of the Elves. At its heart, the novel is simply about an unlikely friendship, and how that friendship impacts the two girls. Sara-Kate is the oldest of the girls. She does not have any friends at school. She is not exactly invisible, but, her real self is not seen by anyone. If Sara-Kate were successfully invisible at school, perhaps the girls would not go to so much trouble to talk about her all the time, to tell of scandalous doings, to share every rumor, perhaps to invent every rumor. They are noticing Sara-Kate for all the wrong reasons: she doesn't look like me, she doesn't dress like me, she doesn't act like me, she doesn't talk like me. Hillary, the youngest girl, is Sara-Kate's neighbor. Sara-Kate has NEVER to anyone's knowledge invited another girl to play with her. But she does invite Hillary into her backyard. She shows her an elf-village. Hillary isn't exactly sure that elves are real, that they do in fact live in a village in her neighbor's backyard. But the "proof" of such a village does exist. And together these two girls meet almost daily through the fall. They keep it to the yard. They keep the subjects limited. No probing questions on subjects Sara-Kate would rather avoid. But. Hillary, eventually, comes to realize that some of the rumors she thought were mere lies had some basis in truth.
The book is interesting. Sara-Kate is mysterious: veiling her darkest truths but at the same time showing glimpses here and there that do hint at her desperate need to be seen and loved and helped. Hillary is observant enough to know that Sara-Kate likes to have control, that she hates to be vulnerable. She comes to think of her friend as an elf, having all the elf qualities that she learns about from Sara-Kate. Hillary does make decisions. She decides to NOT listen to her friends. She chooses to befriend Sara-Kate even though no one else likes her. She does decide to go over to her friend's house every day despite the fact that her mother does not approve. She decides that her mother just doesn't know Sara-Kate, and that her mother is wrong to think the worst of Sara-Kate and her mother. She decides to steal money from her mother's purse to help Sara-Kate when she realizes that her friend has no food in the house. Hillary never has to make the hardest decision. She never has to make the ultimate choice of keeping her friend's secret no matter what, or, telling her mom. I'm not sure what Hillary would have decided.
© 2014 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
.jpeg?picon=3604)
By:
Katie DeKoster,
on 3/8/2013
Blog:
Book Love
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
fearless female,
family,
mystery,
adoption,
death,
Newbery Honor,
MG,
BOB,
domestic abuse,
Add a tag
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage, Dial, 2012, 256 pp, ISBN: 0803736703
Recap:As an infant who washed ashore in a hurricane, tied to a scrap from a billboard, Mo(ses) LeBeau surely does have luck on her side. (Even if all of that luck hasn't helped her find her Upstream Mother in the last eleven years)
But now Mo and her best friend Dale are going to need more than luck if they're going to solve a murder and bring Mo's adopted family home safe again!
Review:
Sheila Turnage's Three Times Lucky found it's way into my book bag via School Library Journal's Battle of the Books. The very first thing that grabbed my attention was Ms. Mo LeBeau herself. That girl is downright hilarious! I have a (bad?) habit of turning down pages when there's a line I want to remember, and I turned the first three corners down before realizing that Mo was going to make me laugh out loud, or at least crack a grin, on pretty near every page.
Everyone else in Tupelo Landing, NC is just as colorful a character, and the town itself reminded me of a more country-fied version of Stars Hollow - everybody knows everybody else's business and, for the most part, they love each other just the same.
The plot of the story was where I got stuck. It was about a murder, but the writing was just so funny and cute that I never got that creepy murder feeling. In fact, for a long time I was sure that the murder was going to end up being a hoax. There's another serious plot line going on at the same time, regarding Dale's alcoholic, abusive father, but the reader never actually sees this firsthand until the very end, so again... I just wasn't getting the intense vibe that the story probably deserved. For me, the quick-witted, clever narration from 11-year-old Mo just never seemed to gel with the actual story she was telling.
But maybe that's part of the point? I mean, Mo was only 11, and she was 100% into solving the case with her Desperado Detective partner Dale, so maybe she was just telling the story as seriously as a 11-year-old is able to? Help me out here, book lovers! I know a number of you have read this one and loved it. What do you think I'm missing?
Recommendation:
Three Times Lucky would be perfect for middle grade readers (in this case, I'm picturing grades 4 - 6) who like to laugh and maybe even solve a mystery.
BOB Prediction:Three Times Lucky goes up against
Endangered in the first round, and if I were the judge... I would give it to
Endangered, no question.
Quotable Quotes:
- "Demons!" he gasped, pointing vaguely in my direction. I sighed. Dale's family is Baptist. - Mo
- I tried not to sound impressed. "You stole Mr. Jesse's boat?" He studied his fingernails. "I wouldn't say stole," he said. "But I did borrow it pretty strong." - Mo and Dale
Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - The World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin, Flash Point, 2012, 272 pp, ISBN: 1596434872
Recap:In December of 1938, a German chemist named Otto Hahn made a discovery that stunned scientists around the world: he discovered that atoms could, in fact, be split in half.
And while that may not have meant much at the time to most of the world's population, Hahn's discovery eventually became the foundation for the deadliest weapon that our world has ever known.
Bomb is the story of three countries in a race against time - a race to solve the mysteries of physics, a race to make history, a race to kill or be killed.
Review:Whew, I feel like I just ran a race myself! Book lovers, I am telling you, that Steve Sheinkin had me on the edge of my seat from page 1! Am I a history buff? No. A science scholar? Oh, no. On any given day I'm more likely to be reading People.com than really anything history related. But I could not put this book down.
Thanks to Sheinkin's narrative style and the heaps of (true!) dialogue, Bomb reads very much like a novel. There are pages and pages of photographs, and my favorites were the scrapbook style photos at the beginning of each new section, highlighting the "major players" that the reader was about to meet. The sheer amount of different names could have proven daunting for a reader, but Bomb is written so skillfully that I never once felt overwhelmed or confused. Rather, I couldn't wait to see what the next chapter would hold.
I think one of the marks of a truly great read is when you frequently find yourself talking about it with others. In the past few days, I've managed to turn a number of conversations around toward Soviet spies, particle physics, secret science labs in the desert, and weapons of mass destruction. Seriously, can you tell I'm hooked on this book?
Recommendation:If you are at all interested in World War II or in Science, Bomb is a must-read. And for the record, I'm not particularly interested in either of those subjects, but I still found Bomb completely fascinating. In the mood to expand your reading horizons? Pick up Bomb today.(PS: Did I mention that Bomb won the Sibert Medal for nonfiction + was selected as a Newbery Honor and National Book Award Finalist??)
BOB Prediction:Honestly book lovers, this one is just too close for me to call. I have a sincere love for Wonder. It's one of the best books I've read this year. BUT... Bomb is one of the best, most engaging pieces of nonfiction that I've ever had the pleasure of reading. I do not envy judge Kenneth Oppel in this round!
Quotable Quotes:- "When do we get as scared as we ought to?" - Leona Woods
- (on site at the Trinity test) "We were told to lie down on the sand, turn our faces away from the blast, and bury our heads in our arms. No one complied. We were determined to look the beast in the eye." - Edward Teller
- (in reference to the chill that settled over the jubilant crowd of physicists, following the successful test at Trinity) "It was the chill of knowing they had used something they loved - the study of physics - to build the deadliest weapon in human history." - Steve Sheinkin
When I was younger, Homecoming and Dicey's Song were two of my favorite books. My cousin and I both loved them so much that each time we would see each other, we would swap the books back and forth and read them again. I never knew there were more than those two books until I was much older...sad!
The entire Tillerman Cycle is being re-released this year, in both hardcover and trade paperback! I think the books were fabulous in the 80's when I read them, but still totally timely and relatable for those upper middle grade/teens today. The first three, Homecoming, Dicey's Song, and A Solitary Blue are available now. One of my nieces is going to get all three for her birthday. I think she'd love them!
In
Homecoming, we're given the story of a broken family... children abandoned by their mother and left to fend for themselves, is incredibly thought-provoking and beautifully written. The kids have to walk hundreds of miles, alone, to find someone to help care for them. Dicey is put into this terrible position of needing to keep her family together, no matter what it takes.
You'll grow to love all of the characters and want them to succeed. I'm such a huge fan of Cynthia Voight and this series, and am super excited it's getting attention again. The rest of the books in the series will be out later this year.
The Tillerman CycleYoung AdultAtheneumReview copies
By:
Katie,
on 4/26/2011
Blog:
Book Love
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
family,
historical fiction,
Newbery Honor,
BOB,
National Book Award Finalist,
Black Panthers,
fearless female,
multicultural lit,
Coretta Scott King Winner,
Scott O'Dell Award Winner,
Add a tag
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, Amistad, 2010, 224 pp, ISBN: 0060760885
Recap:
When Delphine and her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, are shipped all the way across the country to spend the summer with the mother who abandoned them, they have absolutely no idea what they're in for.
Some time in the past six years, their mother Cecile has changed her name to Nzila, and she wastes no time in letting the girls know that she doesn't want them anywhere near her home.
Because the only thing Nzila will feed them is air sandwiches - "Go on back to the room. Open your mouths, and catch one." - the girls go down to the People's Center every morning for breakfast, and end up staying for Black Panther summer camp.
Even though, according to Vonetta, "We didn't come for the revolution. We came for breakfast," the girls end up getting a powerful education regarding Huey Newton, Lil' Bobby, and what Power to the People really means.
It might be one crazy summer, but it's a summer these sisters will never forget. Surely is.
Review:You know how some books just get so much hype that there's no way they could ever live up to it? One Crazy Summer is not that book. All of my expectations? Exceeded.
Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are each completely their own person with very distinct personalities. At the same time, no three sisters were ever closer. "When my sisters and I speak, one right after the other, it's like a song we sing, a game we play. We never need to pass signals. We just fire off rat-a-tat-tat-tat. Delphine. Vonetta. Fern."
Even Cecile quickly became one of my favorite characters - regardless of the fact that she seemed completely disinterested in her own daughters. With her crazy get-ups, strange penchant for shrimp lo mein, and stubborn refusal to call Fern anything but "little girl," I just couldn't get enough
Nzila Cecile.
Rita Williams-Garcia has taken an incredibly turbulent, pivotal time in our nation's history, a
By:
Samantha Clark,
on 2/8/2010
Blog:
Day By Day Writer
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Writing,
Marla Frazee,
Chris Barton,
Newbery Honor,
writing conferences,
Caldecott Honor,
Jacqueline Kelly,
All the World,
The Day-Glo Brothers,
ALA winners,
Austin SCBWI conference,
Sibart Honor book,
The Evolution of Capurnia Tate,
Add a tag
Sorry if you came here on Saturday looking for this post. I had a busy weekend and didn’t get to my computer much.
But here is day six of my reports from the Austin SCBWI conference. First, a quick recap of my other reports: agent Mark McVeigh on publishing, agent Andrea Cascardi on getting and working with an agent, editor Cheryl Klein on writing a great book, agent Nathan Bransford on finding the right agent for you and author/former editor Lisa Graff on writing and revising.
Today I’m featuring three of this year’s ALA award winners, all of whom show that success comes from perserverance.
Jacqueline Kelly, author of the 2010 Newbery Honor book The Evolution of Capurnia Tate, said the inspiration for her book came after she fell in love with a really old house that’s falling down. As she sat on its porch one day, she could hear the main character come alive in her head and recite the book’s first paragraph to her.
She first wrote about the characters in a short story, and it was her critique group members that encouraged her to expand it into a novel.
Capurnia Tate was rejected by 12 publishers before it was picked up.
If it wasn’t for Jacqueline’s critique group and her perserverance, we would not have Capurnia Tate to enjoy today.
Acclaimed illustrator Marla Frazee, whose picture book All the World is a 2010 Caldecott Honor book, has had similar perserverance during her career. She said it took 12 years to get her first book, then another five years before her second.
She said picture books are a collaboration between words and pictures, with the two working together to tell the story. Sometimes the pictures will illustrate the words completely, and other times the pictures will add new meaning to the words. For example, she showed a picture from her book A Couple of Boys Have The Best Week Ever, in which the words say the character is sad to leave his parents but the picture shows him excited and happy.
Marla said
By:
Mark G. Mitchell,
on 1/21/2010
Blog:
How To Be A Children's Book Illustrator
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
News,
SCBWI,
Libba Bray,
Marla Frazee,
American Library Association,
Houston SCBWI,
Chris Barton,
Newbery Honor,
Printz Award,
Pictures worth a thousand words,
Charlesbridge,
Jerry Pinkney,
Mark Mitchell,
Vermont College of Fine Arts,
"Make Your Splashes; Make Your Marks",
Caldecott Honor,
Jacqueline Kelly,
"The Day-Glo Brothers",
Liz Garton Scanlon,
All the World,
The lion and the Mouse,
The course,
"Destination Publication,
Austin Museum of Art Art School,
Sibert Honor,
The Caldecott Medal,
Add a tag
It’s been a landmark week for Austin children’s writers. Three of our gang scored top honors -- a Caldecott Honor, a Sibert Honor and a Newbery Honor — from the American Library Association.
Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
Our Austin, Texas chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers (SCBWI) is a little dazed after last weekend’s 2010 award announcements. Austin’ s Jacqueline Kelly received a Newbery Honor for her YA novel The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate about a girl growing up at the turn of the 19th century. The picture book poem All the World penned by Liz Garton Scanlon of Austin and illustrated by Marla Frazee was named one of the two Caldecott Honor books. (Frazee’s second Caldecott Honor.)
"All the World" by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Frazee
And The Day-Glo Brothers written by Chris Barton of Austin and illustrated with retro lines and Day-Glo colors by Tony Persiani won a Sibert Honor for children’s nonfiction. (From the ALA – “The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal is awarded annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published in English during the preceding year.”)
Our SCBWI chapter claims all three of these writers and we’ll claim Frazee, too. So that makes four.
All four, as it just so happens had been scheduled to present at the Austin SCBWI regional 2010 conference “Destination Publication” next weekend (January 30) with an already honors heavy line-up of authors, editors and agents. Marla is giving the keynote address along with Newbery Honor author Kirby Larson (Hatti Big Sky)
Another Texan, Libba Bray won the Michael L. Printz Award
Call me old fashioned, but this is the kind of story telling that I love. Filled with larger than life characters and slices of Americana, Richard Peck’s stories of Grandma Dowdel are ripe for reading aloud and reading again!
Joey and Mary Alice were shipped off from Chicago to their Grandmother’s house every August starting when Joey was 9 years old. As Joey said, “Being Chicago people, Mother and Dad didn’t have a car. And Grandma wasn’t on the telephone.” (p. 4) so Joey and Mary Alice would be put on the train and sent on to Grandma’s place.
Grandma Dowdel is a big woman who is incredibly self-sufficient. It’s 1929 when the stories start, and Joey and Mary Alice are mad that their folks wouldn’t let them parade past Al Capone’s bullet ridden corpse in Chicago. Little did they know that they’d be sitting in a room with a corpse when they hit Grandma Dowdel’s place. Turns out that Shotgun Cheatham died, and because of his name, some of the bigger newspapers took a liking to his obituary and wanted to find out just exactly who this fellow was. Grandma is the type of woman who likes to keep to herself, but when she hears that folks have been making up all kinds of stories about Shotgun, she lets Joey and Mary Alice in on the kind of man that Shotgun really was.
Then the reporter shows up at her door, and Joey and Mary Alice get a taste of the adventures in store living with Grandma. No sooner does she discount the story that folks in town have told the reporter, but she is spinning a yarn so deep that the kids simply can’t believe it. And the kicker is that they are now sitting in Grandma’s front room, with Shotgun’s corpse laid out for the town and the reporter to see.
This first story gets readers ready and on the edge of their seats for the rest. From make-shift wakes, to out pranking the Halloween pranksters, to beating the law at every turn, Grandma Dowdel will have readers chuckling and gasping out loud. Old fashioned everyday gardening, canning, hunting, community events, and life without the distraction of media pepper the text along with the realities of the Depression era. Wonderfully written, these stories beg to be read aloud. I can’t wait to read the next installment about the family that moves on in next to Grandma!
I love Kevin Henkes's picture books and I loved this novel! Not surprisingly it won a Newbery Honor a few years ago and it was quite an impressive from an author best known for Lily Purple Plastic Purse! This was also one of my choices for the Triple 8 Challenge.
Martha and her family are preparing to go on their yearly summer beach vacation to her grandmother's house, when the mother of a deceased classmate shows up at Martha's door. Olive passed away several months ago after being struck by a car and though Martha felt terrible, she barely knew Olive. The girl's mother hands Martha a page out of Olive's diary, professing Olive's want of being friends with Martha. This turns Martha's summer upside down, leading her to realize that if Olive can die, so can anyone.
Martha's summer consists of making sure her grandmother is not dying and getting the attention of Jimmy, one of the brothers from the beach that her family has known for years. Jimmy helps Martha keep her mind off dying, until he takes advantage of her crush on him and turns what should be a great moment in Martha's young life into one of the most humiliating experiences she has ever faced. Martha then proceeds to almost drown, which really solidifies her thoughts that anyone can die at any moment and it looks like her entire summer will be completely ruined until her grandmother, and a boy named Tate turn everything from rotten, to perfect.
This was a very enjoyable novel, one that I believe any 12 year old girl could relate to and love. I hope Kevin Henkes continues writing novels! Another challenge book down!
Have any of you read Un Lun Don yet? It's received some excellent reviews. I'm so swamped, though, I haven't yet sought it out. Let me know what you think!
In any case, Michelle Pauli talks to China Mieville today for the Guardian. Why the switch to children's lit? Well for the usual reasons, but also because giraffes come into play in the novel. Here's what Mieville has to say on that subject:
- "I wanted to think of an animal almost universally considered adorable and make them a really scary baddie. So it had to be either giraffes or pandas ... You couldn't do that in an adult book.""
I know what you're missing. The audio. It's de-lightful. The narrator brings Mo to life and gives it the sleuth vibe I loved. (My review: http://www.talesofwhimsy.com/2012/08/audiobook-review-three-times-lucky.html)
Great honest review doll! :)
I love that the main character was absolutely hilarious! I have a habit of marking pages with my favorite quotes, except I use those little post it strips. I love a story with awesome supporting characters, but what a bummer that you didn't get that 'murder mystery' feel! Thanks for the awesome review Katie! :)