new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Quirky, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 9 of 9
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: Quirky 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.
Marino, Nan. 2013. Hiding Out at the Pancake Palace. New York: Roaring Brook.
(Advance Review Copy provide by NetGalley)
Due on shelves April 16, 2013
Hiding Out at the Pancake Palace
(a booktalk)
Cecilia has no rhythm, and not too many friends; but she has something special - a story. A story of a song that connects her to New Jersey's wild Pine Barrens as firmly as the roots of its Pygmy Pines and Atlantic Cedars. Everyone in Wares Grove knows the story of the song played by the forest on the night of Cecilia's birth. Only the story of the Pineland's most famous inhabitant, the Jersey Devil, is known more widely.
But two unexpected things occur as Cecilia's 12th birthday approaches. Cecilia's mother begins to doubt the song, and a young boy, a boy who has perhaps lost a song of his own, has arrived in the middle of the night under suspicious circumstances - and he's hiding out at Piney Pete's Pancake Palace.
A song, a secret, and the legendary tale of the Jersey Devil are entwined in this imaginative story of discovery set on the fringes of New Jersey's Pine Barrens, a natural wonder.
Find out who's Hiding Out at the Pancake Palace.
##
Note:Lest you think that the Pine Barrens is a made-up place, or that New Jersey is nothing more than exits off the Turnpike or Parkway, be assured that the Pine Barrens are in fact, one of the world's most interesting places. The Pinelands cover 1.1 million acres, or 22 percent of New Jersey's land area. (from the official NJ tourism site - see below)
Learn more about the Pine Barrens and other locations in Nan Marino's new book at these sites:If I didn't have a sore throat, this one would have been a podcast. Look for a podcast or video booktalk for Hiding Out at the Pancake Palace soon.
By: shelf-employed,
on 11/15/2011
Blog:
Shelf-employed
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
friendship,
book review,
birthdays,
fantasy,
family life,
series,
J,
quirky,
magic,
Add a tag
Mass, Wendy. 2011.
13 Gifts. New York: Scholastic.
Earlier in the year, I listened to
11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass.
(Review here). At the time, I didn't realize that it was the first in a series, and while I enjoyed it, I didn't plan to read any follow up titles. So I passed on
Finally, and planned to give away my ARC of
13 Gifts. Instead, I opened it to read a few pages
(it is a Wendy Mass book, after all), found the following passage, and was hooked:
Since the telegram arrived, Mom's been really distracted. She's even stopped asking if I've finished my homework or made any new friends (usually her two favorite topics). Whenever I try to strike up a conversation, she mumbles something and wanders out of the room. This morning I found her keys in the freezer next to the ice cream sandwiches.
Her normal approach to mothering has always been to smother and overprotect. While I was still in my crib she taught me that talking to strangers would cause my tongue to turn green. (I believed this until I was eight.) I've never been allowed to sleep over at anyone's house, and my cell phone has a GPS tracker in it that links up to her computer. Mom promised me she'd only activate the tracker if I went missing, but when I stopped to buy gum after school last month, she texted me to get a quart of milk. Coincidence? I think not.
In a strange turn of events, Tara's overprotective mother and her dad (the devoted husband), have decided to leave Tara with relatives in Willow Falls while they travel to Madagascar, where Mrs. Brennan will be studying the mating habits of lemurs. Tara barely knows her relatives, and is bewildered by her mother's ironclad decision; but she soon finds out that this may be the least bewildering thing she encounters during her strange summer in Willow Falls.
Due to the loss of her iPod and cash,Tara becomes beholden to a mysterious, old woman named Angelina (who features prominently in the two earlier books). Angelina operates a curiosity shop, which curiously, cannot be seen by all of Willow Falls' inhabitants. Angelina tasks Tara with finding thirteen items before her 13th birthday, and Tara, normally a loner, is forced to seek the help of the strangely cooperative kids of Willow Falls.
In Willow Falls, everything happens for a reason, and most reasons are unapparent. In her search for the items on Angelina's quirky list, Tara finds much more than duck canes, frayed shawls, and misprinted books! But
all the mysteries of Willow Falls and its families, are not revealed in
13 Gifts. Clearly, there are more to come.
A melding of realistic fiction and fantasy,
13 Gifts is a humorous coming-of-age story, but it's part of a much broader picture of a magical small town that, in conjunction with its oldest resident, Angelina, promotes harmony and healing - but not without a price. A fun and unconventional book.
A word of advice: it's best to read these books in order. Normally, it's fairly easy to pick up a series in midstream, but I often found myself wishing that I had read
1 Comments on 13 Gifts - a review, last added: 11/15/2011
By: shelf-employed,
on 10/10/2011
Blog:
Shelf-employed
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
nocturnal animals,
rhyming,
book review,
dogs,
trains,
elephants,
owls,
storytime,
quirky,
E,
Add a tag
My calendar's packed. I just returned from a trip. I'm in the midst of a class. I'm presenting at a forum this week. But wait, four great new picture books are sitting on my table waiting to be reviewed!
What to do? Do it Twitter-style! Here they are in 140 characters or less:
Willy. De Kockere. 2011. Erdman. Celebrating the peculiarities that make Willy the elephant special. Monty Python-esque art, a perfect foil to a quirky tale. Love it!
- Train Trip. Caswell. 2011.Hyperion. Cheerful and rhyming, a boy and a train bond during a trip. “Special treat. “Come on in!” “Sound the whistle?” Eager grin."
- Little Owl’s Night. Srinivasan. 2011. Viking. An owl observes the night’s activities. Dark colors, cheery wide-eyed creatures. Simple and serene.
- Shaggy Dogs, Waggy Dogs. Patricia Hubbell. 2011. Marshall Cavendish. Happy, rhyming, romping dogs. Dogs, dogs and more dogs! A storytime gem.
And one more of Willy, in case you didn't get enough!
 |
| ©Copyright Carll Cneut |
(Yikes! I forgot that MSWord doesn’t count spaces. Now I’ll have to be more clever!)
By: shelf-employed,
on 2/17/2011
Blog:
Shelf-employed
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
rhyming,
book review,
cats,
chickens,
funny,
bedtime stories,
storytime,
quirky,
metafiction,
E,
monters,
Add a tag
Here are a few of my recent favorites - mostly silly
- Bardhan-Quallen, Sudipta. 2011. Chicks Run Wild. Ill. by Ward Jenkins. New York: Simon & Schuster.
The Caterpillow Fight (Candlewick 1997) was(is) an old favorite of mine. This is a similarly silly tale of siblings who run amok after Mama has tucked them in for the night. Of course, these aren't caterpillars, they're chicks. Mama gets increasingly angry after each time she checks in on them,
Wings on hips, she warns those chicks, "No more games and no more tricks!"
One quick peck for each sweet child,
she slams the door . . .
those chicks run wild!
In the end, Mama beats them at their own game. The illustrations are bright and cheerful and funny. The chick in the over-sized black frame glasses is a riot all by himself!
Illustrator, Ward Jenkins, offers a great preview and some bonus material on his site. Check it out!- Czekaj, Jef. 2011. Cat Secrets. New York: Harper.
This meta fiction picture book is funnier than its trailer.
(see below) The cats discover the readers of the book and attempt to verify their identity,
It has come to my attention that someone other than a cat may be reading this book.
Shame on you.
Hey, you! Yes, you! You don't look much like a cat!
None but cats are allowed to read
Cat Secrets!
Cat Secrets by Jef Czekaj -- Book Trailer from HarperTeen on Vimeo.- Dormer, Frank W. 2010. Socksquatch. New York: Henry Holt.
A tiny quirky book about Socksquatch, a monster in search of his socks. Few words,
Flowers tremble.
Trees quake.
Socksquatch lumbers.
...
Got sock?
with hilarious illustrations in a style reminiscent of your funniest grade school pal's drawings. Funny!
And last, but certainly n
By:
mrana,
on 4/4/2010
Blog:
Bit by Bit
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
illustration,
dog,
pets,
cafepress,
drawing,
Dogs,
Animals,
typography,
Drawings,
cards,
Daily Sketches,
driving,
shoe,
Dabbling,
text design,
typography design,
Colored Pencil,
artwork,
whimsical,
quirky,
floating lemons,
boot,
driver,
Kaelen,
Add a tag
It's been hectic recently and my sleep patterns are completely shot, but the good news is that I've completed almost everything (despite procrastinative measures) on my list for the moment, and that I truly enjoyed every moment of my latest drawing, above.
I dug up an old lace-up shoe from the depths of my closet where it was hiding amongst multiplying dust devils, and added a bit of a quirky twist. The idea of the driver dog came to me while I was walking my own two, who would love nothing more than to dash ahead of themselves. The model for the above was my brown Bertha--she was quite happy to pose her profile for the camera :)
Below is a text design for my nephew, hope he likes it!
Dog Driving a Shoe cards & gifts at Floating Lemons at Zazzle
Kaelen cards & gifts at Floating Lemons Typography at Zazzle
By:
mrana,
on 4/4/2010
Blog:
Bit by Bit
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
illustration,
dog,
drawing,
typography,
driving,
shoe,
whimsical,
quirky,
floating lemons,
boot,
driver,
Kaelen,
Add a tag
It's been hectic recently and my sleep patterns are completely shot, but the good news is that I've completed almost everything (despite procrastinative measures) on my list for the moment, and that I truly enjoyed every moment of my latest drawing, above.
I dug up an old lace-up shoe from the depths of my closet where it was hiding amongst multiplying dust devils, and added a bit of a quirky twist. The idea of the driver dog came to me while I was walking my own two, who love nothing more than to dash ahead of themselves. The model for the above was my brown Bertha--she was quite happy to pose her profile for the camera :)
Below is a text design for my nephew, hope he likes it!
Dog Driving a Shoe cards & gifts at Floating Lemons at Zazzle
Kaelen cards & gifts at Floating Lemons Typography at Zazzle
By:
mrana,
on 3/29/2009
Blog:
Bit by Bit
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
humor,
csi,
artwork,
whimsical,
cupcake,
quirky,
police,
crime scene,
criminal,
floating lemons,
blood,
dagger,
bullet,
handmans noose,
prison bars,
illustration,
Add a tag
This was a special request by my niece Marisa for a good friend of hers, Sara, who is a huge fan of a certain Crime Scene programme on TV :) Blood red icing, a dagger plunged into it, a bullet in its side and a hangman's noose draped over the cupcake ... as well as the DO NOT CROSS police tape -- I hope I added enough murderous implements to satisfy her!
And here's the magnet that just won the Today's Best Award over at zazzle.com :)
By: Rebecca,
on 3/12/2009
Blog:
OUPblog
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
quirky,
reading death,
Obituaries,
details,
A-Featured,
Media,
oed,
ammon shea,
newspaper,
Add a tag
Ammon Shea recently spent a year of his life reading the OED from start to finish. Over the next few months he will be posting weekly blogs about the insights, gems, and thoughts on language that came from this experience. His book, Reading the OED, has been published by Perigee, so go check it out in your local bookstore. In the post below Ammon shares his love of the obit section.
I am an unabashed fan of trivial information. I suppose this may rightfully be referred to as trivia, but I prefer the adjectival word to the plural noun – trivia has a limited range of meaning (each of which is more or less contemptuous), whereas trivial can refer to things having to do with math, chemistry, mediæval university studies, the place where three roads meet, and a host of other subjects. The trivial does not provide grand explanations for why the world is so, but it tells some small piece of history as a story, and in doing so grabs my attention in a way that great events never seem to. I suppose this is why I enjoy reading obituaries.
I find the obituaries to be by far the most interesting part of the newspaper. Not because I have a morbid fascination with death, but because this is where wonderful little details come out, things that would ordinarily not be classified as news. Yesterday I was reminded of one of my favorite obituaries of recent years, from the New York Times of September 12, 2008, titled “Martin K. Tytell, Typewriter Wizard, Dies at 94”.
It is a long obituary, and justifiably so, for even though it deals with (mostly antique) typewriters, the man it profiles was the foremost expert of this field, and deserves the column inches. It is a fascinating story, full of intrigue (Alger Hiss and the O.S.S.) and descriptions of a man who was entirely devoted to his field. Somewhere near the middle there a nugget of trivia, mentioned almost in passing: “An error he made on a Burmese typewriter, inserting a character upside down, became a standard, even in Burma.” I cannot help but wonder what the typewriter wizard’s feelings were on this – was he chagrinned at his mistake, or satisfied in a quiet fashion that his influence was such as to change a written language?
This has been on my mind of late because a friend has recommended a book on the subject: The Dead Beat, by Marilyn Johnson, a former obituary writer. I’ve not yet had the chance to read it, but it has the twin virtues of featuring a fine, under-written subject and possessing a great opening line: “People have been slipping out of this world in occupational clusters, I’ve noticed, for years.”
I wish that there were more of this in the news. It is not that I want to ignore the ugliness and strife of the world, and I am not calling for more feel-good human-interest stories in the news, but why must the unimportant yet interesting details wait until a person is dead before they can be widely known? It seems odd that death grants the permission to make the whimsical newsworthy.
I'm there!
3rd Annual Los Angeles International
Tamale Festival
at "The tamales capital of the world"
MacArthur Park - Mama's Hot Tamales Café
(2124 West 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90057
between Parkview & Alvarado Street on 7th Street)
FREE ADMISSION
November 9, 10 & 11, 2007
Friday: 3pm - 8pm
Saturday:10am - 9pm
Sunday 11am - 6pm
Best Tamale Contest Tamale Eating Contest Biggest Tamale Contest
Tamale Making Demo Non-profit Booths Commercial Booths Art & Crafts
Booths Kids Zone
Entertainment Schedule:
Friday
3:00 P.M. Perdy Montes
4:30 P.M. Emilio Tejeda
5:00 P.M. Banda Sinaloense Los Angelinos
5:30 P.M. Sol Latino
6:10 P.M. Fama Nortena
6:45 P.M. Ruben dela Cruz
7:30 P.M. Juan Carlos "La imagen de Juan Gabriel"
8:00 P.M. Closed
Saturday
10:00 A.M. Juan Elizulde
10:30 A.M. Julio Molina
11:00 A.M. Natalie Reyes
12:00 Noon Alan Reyes
1:00 P.M. Best Tamale Contest - Stage
2:00 P.M. Rosy Gonzales
3:00 P.M. Rico Mago
4:00 P.M. Rock en Espanol
5:00 P.M. Sangre Fria
6:00 P.M. Gustavo VII
7:00 P.M. Yaky La Indomable
8:00 P.M. Alerta 3
9:00 P.M. Closed
Sunday
11:00 A.M. Danza Folklorico Netzahaul
12:00 Noon - Stage Honoring all Veterans
1:00 P.M. Tamale Eating Contest
2:00 P.M. Sangre Fria
3:00 P.M. Ballet Folklorico Azatlan
3:30 P.M. Lupita Fernandez
4:00 P.M. Lenny Lopez y su lluvia Tropical
4:30 P.M. Los Ases del Tamboraso
5:00 P.M. Pateles Verdes
6:00 P.M. End of Event
Loved this book and no didn't know about Jeremy Fink. Thanks for the heads up!