Winner:
Mikis and the Donkey
by Bibi Dumon Tak; illus. by Philip Hopman; trans. from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson
Primary, Intermediate Eerdmans 93 pp.
10/14 978-0-8028-5430-8 $13.00
Setting the stage on the island of Corfu, Hopman’s atmospheric opening illustrations pan in from aerial view to village to Mikis’s grandpa under a sycamore tree with his cronies. Grandpa has just gotten a donkey to haul wood — “they don’t guzzle gas, and they usually start the first time.” Soon Mikis is making friends with Tsaki and becoming the animal’s advocate. Concerned about the chafing caused by heavy loads, the boy seeks medical attention for Tsaki (from an MD, to general amusement); he also arranges a visit with another donkey in case Tsaki is lonely. This is a huge success; as classmate Elena discreetly observes, the two donkeys “were getting along really well back there…really, really well.” Fortunately, the old man is kind as well as gruff; though “Mikis had to give his grandpa donkey lessons,” he eventually builds Tsaki a cleaner, airier stable with Mikis’s help. The Dutch creators of Soldier Bear (rev. 11/11) bring a lovely simplicity to this affecting picture of a close-knit Greek community where a teacher’s boyfriend can give her class motorbike rides to general contentment. The generous number of loosely drawn illustrations capture windswept landscapes, village life, and human character and diversity with equal aplomb. Visually inviting and easily read, this would also make a fine read-aloud for younger children. JOANNA RUDGE LONG
From the November/December 2014 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.
Honor books:
Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust
by Loïc Dauvillier; illus. by Marc Lizano; color by Greg Salsedo; trans. from the French by Alexis Siegel
Primary, Intermediate First Second/Roaring Brook 78 pp.
4/14 978-1-59643-873-6 $16.99
In this graphic novel for younger readers, Elsa wakes up in the night and discovers her grandmother sitting in the dark, feeling sad. When Elsa asks why, she hears for the first time the story of her grandmother’s childhood in Nazi-occupied France. Young Dounia’s parents try to explain away the yellow star she must wear by calling it a sheriff’s star, but she quickly realizes its true meaning when she begins to be treated very differently at school and in town. When the Nazis come to their apartment, her parents hide Dounia but are themselves taken away, and the terrified little girl is saved by a neighbor. A chain of people help her escape to the country, where she lives as a Catholic girl, with a new name. The graphic novel format helps reinforce the contrast between the dark, scary moments and the happier times in the countryside. The artists use small panels to tell most of the story, with words in the bottom right corners emphasizing Dounia’s inner thoughts; large panels occasionally punctuate the big moments. While not disguising the ugliness of the events, the art also helps focus attention on the loving moments between Dounia and her parents, Dounia and the people who help her, and Dounia, Elsa, and her father (who also hears the story for the first time) all hugging one another at the end.
From the July/August 2014 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.
Nine Open Arms
by Benny Lindelauf; trans. from the Dutch by John Nieuwenhuizen
Intermediate, Middle School Enchanted Lion 256 pp.
6/14 978-1-59270-146-9 $16.95
It takes a while to realize that the main character in this Dutch import is a building, the eponymous Nine Open Arms, a rundown, back-to-front, peculiar brick house situated beyond the cemetery “where names came to an end.” The story opens when a family of nine — hapless dreamer and cigar-maker father, tough grandmother, four almost-grownup sons, and three younger daughters — moves into this house and tries to figure out its mysteries, including the tombstone in the cellar, the forbidden room, and Oompah Hatsi the homeless man who moves into the hedge. While the setting is specific (the Dutch province of Limburg in the 1930s), the whole thing feels more like a folktale, with a folktale’s harshness. (The bully girl at school, Fat Tonnie, is said to have bashed a dog to death with a hammer.) Halfway into the tale we travel back to the 1860s to a doomed love story between a villager and a young woman of the Traveler people, and we start to figure out the origins of the steeped-in sadness of Nine Open Arms. Then back to the main narrative, where kindness, courage, and truth-telling redeem the tragic past. Up to a point. This is a strange, somber, and oddly compelling narrative, a different combination of flavors than we would find in a book originally published in North America. SARAH ELLIS
From the September/October 2014 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.
The post Reviews of the 2015 Batchelder Award winners appeared first on The Horn Book.
ALSC Award Acceptance Speeches (image courtesy ALSC)
The 2014 ALSC book and media award acceptance speeches evoked plenty of emotion. Some were funny and warm. Some were emotional and informative. You can read them yourself on the ALSC website! Download a copy of the PDF of each of the speeches:
You can also watch reaction videos from the 2014 ALA Youth Media Award winners. Videos of the award speech presentations and inspiration videos that concluded the banquet will be posted soon.
The Lily Pond Annika Thor, translated from the Swedish by Linda Schenck
In this sequel to A Faraway Island, Stephie is on the mainland, studying at school and lodging with Soderbergs. Unfortunately, the Soderbergs aren't as warm as Stephie expected. She's to eat her meals in the kitchen and once Mrs. Soderberg keeps her from going back to the island one weekend because she's throwing a big party. Stephie's excited to attend, until she discovers that she's to be hired help, not a guest.
The one highlight of the Soderberg home is Sven, on whom Stephie quickly develops a crush (oh, such a painful storyline to read.)
In addition, on the mainland, Stephie learns that the Nazi threat grows ever closer and even though Sweden is a neutral country, there are more than a few Nazi sympathizers. And, of course, letters from home show how desperate the situation is getting for her parents-- for modern readers who know what the truth ends up being about the fate of some many European Jews, it is heartbreaking to read, and rage-inducing to read the reactions of the Swedish adults Stephie tries to get to help her family.
There are four books in this series and I cannot wait for the next two to come out in the US. Sadly, there was a two-year lag between the first and second one. Maybe they'll speed up the publication cycle because the first two have both won awards? I don't want to wait until 2015 to see how it all turns out!!!
Book Provided by... my local library
Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.
Soldier Bear by Bibi Dumon Tak, translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson
With the partition of Poland at the beginning of WWII, members of the Polish army were taken prisoner, either by Germany or the USSR, depending what side of the border you were one. Once Germany declared war on the USSR, the Soviets let the Poles go, hoping they'd join the Soviet army. Many fled south, crossed the border into Iran, and joined up with the British.
One group of Polish prisoners making their way to the British found a bear cub. They name him Voytek and he becomes a private in the Polish army, getting into mischief and causing mayhem, but also helping to haul munitions and keeping everyone's spirits up.
It's a fun, light read, despite the horror of war. While the soldiers see some horrible things and are afraid, the book doesn't dwell there. Usually, Voytek does something silly to make everyone (including the reader) feel better. It's very episodic, which is not my cup of tea at all.
It's based on real events, and the back has photos of the real Private Voytek. There is not, however, any end matter explaining a little more about WWII (the politics at play here are complicated, and not all explained in the text) as well as detailing what parts of the story are true and what parts aren't.
It's funny, and I think kids will like it. Voytek is not the only animal in the unit and his antics, as well as those of Kaska the monkey and the various dogs are sure to delight child readers. It's a great WWII story that will appeal to both boy and girl readers and shows a different theater than we usually see in the literature. (North Africa and Italy.)
I think I would have really liked this one as a kid. As an adult, I don't dislike it, but it also didn't do much for me. Probably because of the episodic plot.
Book Provided by... my local library
Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.
A Time of Miracles by Anne-Laure Bondoux, translated from the French by Y. Maudet
Koumail knows that his real name is Blaise Fortune. He is a French citizen. As a baby, he was rescued from a train wreck by Gloria. Since the age of 7, they have been on the run from the rebels, from the war. He doesn't understand the war and everytime he asks, Gloria tells him that it's useless to try to understand the Caucasus. It's not the concern of a French citizen. And so they try to get from Georgia to France, finding kindness and refuge, fleeing from rebels and militias. The politics aren't fully explained until the end and it's hard to know what they're running from, but this confusion that the reader feels is the same that Koumail feels-- he knows they are refugees and that the soldiers mean badness and that's all the reader knows as well.
It's hard to pinpoint, this book. It's quiet and fast-moving at the same time. We start when he is 7, we end when he is 20, but the book is only 180 pages long and the chapters are short. Koumail narrates his story simply, and to the point. Despite all the action, it's still going to be a book for your readers-- Koumail's constant upheaval is just the way his life is, so he's not that focused on it. Instead, he focuses on the relationships he makes-- the friends he meets and inevitably loses along the way. Through it all his is relationship with Gloria, the woman who has raised him and his fear that he will lose her, too.
The twist isn't that hard to see coming, but the twist isn't what's important. It's how Koumail grows, how he focuses on the positive so he doesn't give in to despair and his journey.
It's not a book for everyone, but I really loved it.
Book Provided by... my local library
Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.
Nothing Janne Teller, trans. from the Danish Martin Aitken
On the first day of Year 7, Pierre Anthon stands up and announces "Nothing matters...I've known that for a long time. So nothing's worth doing. I just realized that." He then walks out and spends the rest of his days hanging out in the plum tree outside the commune he lives on.
His classmates have been raised to believe that they matter, that they were going to amount to something, to be someone. They have to walk by Pierre Anthon's plum tree to get to and from school. When they pass, he pelts them with plums and his ideas on life "It's all a waste of time... Everything begins only to end. The moment you were born you began to die. That's how it is with everything. The Earth is four billion, six hundred million years old, and you're going to reach one hundred at the most! It's not even worth the bother."
His plums and words find sore spots, and they set out to prove him wrong. The best way the class can think of to prove life has meaning is to make a heap of the things they find meaningful in their lives. Some are objects (sandals you waited for all summer) some are symbols (the flag, the church's crucifix). But it's quickly apparent that the students don't want to part with things that really mean the most to them, so the other students decide. Once you're forced to give up what's most meaningful, you pick the next student and what they have to give up.
It gets dark quickly as the students start choosing objects in revenge for what they were forced to lose.
And then... when the heap is finished. Will it still be enough to convince Pierre Anthon that he's wrong?
I love the language in this book.
"Nothing matters," he announced. "I've known that for a long time. So nothing's worth doing. I just realized that." Calm and collected, he bent down and put everything he had just taken out back into his bag. he nodded good-bye with a disinterested look and left the classroom without closing the door behind him.
The door smiled. It was the first time I'd seen it do that. Pierre Anthon left the door ajar like a grinning abyss that would swallow me up into the outside with im if only I let myself go. Smiling at whom? At me, at us. I looked around the class. The uncomfortable silence told me that others had felt it too.
We were supposed to amount to something.
Something was the same as someone, and even if nobody ever said so out loud, it was hardly left unspoken, either. It was just in the air, or in the time, or in the fence surrounding the school, or in our pillows, or in the soft toys that after having served us so loyally had now been unjustly discarded and left to gather dust in attics or basements. I hadn't known. Pierre Anthon's smiling door told me. I still didn't know with my mind, but all the same I knew.
All of a sudden I was scared. Scared of Pierre Anthon.
Scared, more scared, most scared. (page 5-6)
Agnes is our narrarator, but she's a bit anonymous-- she functions more as an every student. I do, however, love her habit of repeating important word
This does sound interesting, but I think I'd want more details about the real bear and want to know what is fact and what is not. Fascinating story though. I've linked to your review on War Through the Generations.