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Deborah Kalb runs a cool website where she interviews a staggering number of authors and illustrators . . . and she finally worked her way down to me.

Please check it out by stomping on this link here.

Here’s a quick sample:

Q: You wrote that you were inspired by Roald Dahl’s Danny the Champion of the World to focus on a father-son dynamic in The Courage Test. How would you describe the relationship between your character Will and his father?

A: Yes, I came late to the Dahl classic and was struck that here was a loving book about a boy’s relationship with his father — not the kind of thing I’ve seen in many middle-grade children’s books. I found it liberating, as if Dahl had given me a written note of permission.

In The Courage Test, William Meriwether Miller is a 12-year-old with recently divorced parents. His father has moved out and moved on. So there’s tension there, and awkwardness; William feels abandoned, and he also feels love, of course, because it’s natural for us to love our fathers.

I wrote about this at more length, here, back a couple of years ago. In the unlikely event you are really fascinated by my connection to the Dahl book . . .

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Ooo.  Lots of adult books with smatterings of children’s literature littered about the pages today.  Don’t even know where to start with this one.  Let’s see, eeny meeny miney . . . MO!

Libertarians on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books by Christine Woodside

This is the most interesting of the batch in many ways.  This year saw the publication of the book The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, published by editor William Anderson.  I know these letters well since Jules Danielson and I used them for our book Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature.  Yet little did I know that the story of Rose Wilder was far more interesting than the degree to which she wrote the Little House books herself or whether or not she could swear like a sailor (she could).  Listen to this part of the description:

“Rose hated farming and fled the family homestead as an adolescent, eventually becoming a nationally prominent magazine writer, biographer of Herbert Hoover, and successful novelist, who shared the political values of Ayn Rand and became mentor to Roger Lea MacBride, the second Libertarian presidential candidate. Drawing on original manuscripts and letters, Woodside shows how Rose reshaped her mother’s story into a series of heroic tales that rebutted the policies of the New Deal.“

Nope.  Didn’t know that one!

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Lois Lenski: Storycatcher by Bobbie Malone

Sometimes a book gets published and I sit in my library and think, “Is anyone else in the entire world going to really read and enjoy this besides me?” Then, after a moment, I’ll get a crazed look in my eye, stand up at my desk, and scream, “THEN I SHALL MAKE THEM ENJOY IT!!!!”  Little wonder my desk is sequestered at the end of my floor, far from my cowering co-workers.  This Lenski bio may have a limited built-in audience but for Newbery die-hards (Strawberry Girl fans, are you with me?) this is a must.  Plus I really like the central conceit involving inherent class structures.  Says the description: “Lenski turned her extensive study of hardworking families into books that accurately and movingly depicted the lives of the children of sharecroppers, coal miners, and migrant field workers.”  Now somebody out there write me a comparative study looking at how Kate DiCamillo has done similar work with working class people in Florida, with a good compare and contrast of the two award winning authors’ work.  And . . . go.

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Everybody Behaves Badly: The True Story Behind Hemingway’s Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises by Lesley M.M. Blume

Okay.  You’ll bite.  What’s the children’s literature connection here?  Is it the fact that the book’s about Hemingway and we know that his grandson Eddie Hemingway makes picture books?  Is there going to be a revelation in the book that Hemingway based The Sun Also Rises on The Velveteen Rabbit (think about it . . . no, wait, don’t)?  No, it’s a lot simpler than that.  Its author, Lesley M.M. Blume, has made a veritable plethora of children’s books over the years.  My personal favorite was her Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins, and Other Nasties: A Practical Guide by Miss Edythe McFate.  Now she’s getting stellar reviews on the adult side of things.  Bully for her, says I!  Well done!

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Love From Boy: Roald Dahl’s Letters to His Mother by Donald Sturrock

What We Know: 2016 marks 100 years since the birth of Roald Dahl.

What That Means: Lots o’ books about Dahl.  Some covering areas we’ve seen before.  Others traipsing into new territory.  I certainly haven’t seen this one before and as the mom of a 2-year-old boy it gets frighteningly close to teary-eyed territory.  I also love this part of the book’s description: “Sofie Magdalene kept every letter her son wrote to her (sadly, her own side of the correspondence did not survive).”  Tsk.  Ain’t that like a boy.

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The Best “Worst President” by Mark Hannah, ill. Bob Staake

Bob Staake cover and interior art.  Nuff said.

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Walking with Ramona: Exploring Beverly Cleary’s Portland by Laura O. Foster

One of my catalogers came up to me the other day, book in hand.  Baker & Taylor has cataloged this book as 813.54 (literary stuff) but the book is clearly (Cleary-ly?) a travelogue.  Indeed, open it up and you get a whole mess of delightful Portland, Oregon haunts.  Where the HECK was this book when I was moving there, all those years ago?  I would have lapped it up.  As it stands, it’s really very delightful.  Those of you planning to move there, or have friends or kids moving there, grab this thing.  Like I say – Ramona invented the original Portlandia.

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In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant, Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown by Amy Gary

 Hold the phone. Now hand the phone to me.  Someone else besides Leonard Marcus has written a biography of Margaret Wise Brown?  Who is this Amy Gary type personage?  Sez the description: “In 1990, author Amy Gary discovered unpublished manuscripts, songs, personal letters, and diaries from Margaret tucked away in a trunk in the attic of Margaret’s sister’s barn. Since then, Gary has pored over these works and with this unique insight in to Margaret’s world she chronicles her rise in the literary world . . . Amy Gary has cataloged, edited, and researched all of Margaret’s writings for the last twenty-five years.”

Oh.  There you go then.

Okay.  One more.

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Looking for Betty MacDonald: The Egg, the Plague, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and I by Paula Becker-Brown

For whatever reason I feel like this is slightly more accessible than the Lois Lenski book.  Probably because MacDonald had a career outside of children’s literature occasionally.  “Readers embraced her memoir of her years as a young bride operating a chicken ranch on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, and The Egg and I sold its first million copies in less than a year. The public was drawn to MacDonald’s vivacity, her offbeat humor, and her irreverent take on life. In 1947, the book was made into a movie starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert, and spawned a series of films featuring MacDonald’s Ma and Pa Kettle characters.” Piggle-Wiggle is what she’ll go down in history for, but it’s nice to see another side of her as well.  Could have put a little more work into that book jacket, though.  Seriously, University of Washington Press.  You weren’t even trying.

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I do not know where Monica Edinger found our first video today.  All I know is that she discovered a video that is absolutely the most interesting thing you’ll see all week.  It’s a young Maurice Sendak.  He’d recently won the Caldecott for Where the Wild Things Are.  I’ve never seen anything like this before.  And who knew you could kinda sorta flip Pierre?

Thanks to educating alice for the link.  If you have a Margaret Wise Brown  interview hidden away somewhere I’d be happy to take it off your hands.  Ditto a copy of Pinocchio illustrated by Mussino.  He makes a strong case.

Not long ago I mentioned that Dan Gutman’s book The Kid Who Ran for President was notably talked up on Last Week Tonight (John Oliver’s show).  Now I’ve heard that the book was reportedly the most read review on pw.com last week.  It would be a shame not to show the video in question.  Here it is then, in all its Gutmanesque glory:

This just in! “Carla D. Hayden will be sworn in as the 14^th Librarian of Congress in a historic ceremony in the Thomas Jefferson Building Wednesday, Sept. 14 at noon. The ceremony will be broadcast live on the Library of Congress YouTube channel. The YouTube broadcast will be captioned.”  So it’s not up yet, but if you’ve time this Wednesday you might want to tune in and see it for yourself.  She is, after all, the first Librarian of Congress to have an actual library degree in over 50 years.

Here’s a fun one for the Dahl fans. In this hour-long video, David Walliams presents a celebration of Roald Dahl’s children’s books, from The BFG to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  It also happens to include contributions from Steven Spielberg and Julie Walters.

Thanks to Zoe Toft for the link.

Why did the PBS News Hour feature Christian Robinson recently?  I care not.  All that matters is that he’s great to listen to.

Thanks to Elisa Gall and Aunt Judy for the link.

And for the off-topic video of the day, I’m hat tipping Brian Biggs for passing this along.  I like a video that doesn’t pound you over the head with its message.  This sort of connects well to my recent interview with Mr. Biggs where we discussed gender roles in children’s books.  As they say in this video, have a think in your head.

Thanks to Brian for the video.

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Matilda. Roald Dahl. Illustrated by Quentin Blake. 1988. 240 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.

Premise/plot: Matilda, our heroine, is an absolute genius. (She's taught herself to read and to do times tables). But her parents are terrible human beings. Mr. Wormwood is a used car salesman who is really dishonest. Mrs. Wormwood, well, maybe her greatest fault is neglecting her children? Both Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood are addicted to television and abhor the written word. Hate isn't too strong a word for how they feel about their daughter. Matilda escapes from her home most every day to visit the local public library. (She's read every book in the children's section and is now making her way through the adult section with a little guidance from Mrs. Phelps.) Another escape soon becomes school. The good news is that Miss Honey, the teacher, LOVES AND ADORES her genius pupil. The bad news is that the headmistress is evil, cruel, abusive. (Was Dahl inspired by Jane Eyre!) Matilda's reaction to injustice is naughtiness and cleverness. How can she use her brains to get revenge on those she sees as being unjust or in the wrong???

My thoughts: I like this one. I do. I more than like it actually. Perhaps because Matilda LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to read and there is a lot of dropping of book titles and authors names. Perhaps because Matilda finds the library to be such a wonderful place. Perhaps because two of the nicest people in the book are a librarian and a teacher. Regardless this one is definitely worth reading.


© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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First sentence: Here is James Henry Trotter when he was about four years old.

Premise/plot: James, our hero-orphan being raised by two horrid aunts (one horribly fat, one terribly skinny), finds his fortune changing quickly one day when he meets a complete stranger--an older man--who promises to show him something wonderful and then pulls something out of his pocket...a small white paper bag filled with tiny green almost-glowing things. He's given instructions on how to use these green things to have a super-wonderful life. But. On his way home, he trips and the green things are lost...on the ground....but that is not the end. The title should give away the rest.

My thoughts: This one was weird and silly and unexpected and unique. I didn't hate it certainly. It is very Dahl. But I didn't love it. I find Dahl's lack of characterization annoying in some ways because instead of characterization we don't get more action or more adventure, we just get cruelty. Cruelty seems to be one thing all Dahl books have in common.

Aunt Sponge was enormously fat and very short. She had small piggy eyes, a sunken mouth, and one of those white flabby faces that looked exactly as though it had been boiled. She was like a great white soggy overboiled cabbage. (6)

I liked this one better once James enters the giant peach and meets all the insects who have been effected by the mystery green things.

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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George's Marvelous Medicine. Roald Dahl. Illustrated by Quentin Blake. 1981. 89 pages. [Source: Library]

This was my first time to read George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl. My expectations were perhaps a little too high? I'm not sure. I do know that I didn't care for it as much as I'd hoped.

The premise. George HATES his grandmother who lives with them. Every Saturday, he's left to tend to his Grandmother while his mother goes out to do errands. He has to remember to give her her medicine. As I said, he hates, hates, hates her. And it's more mutual than not. The Grandma is depicted as being rude, snappish, unkind, mean. So the premise. One Saturday he decides to substitute a medicine of his own making for her real medicine. I'd say about 90% of his ingredients would have warning labels on them that they are not to be taken internally, that they are dangerous, poisonous. In they all go. George is reckless in his mixing to say the least.

Will Grandma still be breathing by the final page of this one? That would be a NO. Did George's medicine kill her? Essentially yes. Do all the characters rejoice at her death? Again the answer is YES. It is the celebration of recklessness, carelessness and shortsightedness that bothers me. The way George's father WANTS him to make more, more, more so that he can FEED it to all the farm animals and thereby introduce it to the POPULATION. (George's father doesn't think about that at all. That what you feed chickens and cows and pigs MATTER.) I think there are real-life cases where this kind of wacky science has been encouraged and applauded.

Dahl's silliness--wackiness--is fun in other books. This one that essentially ended up in murder with no consequences, in fact ending up with a PARTY of sorts, really unsettled me.


© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Fantastic Mr. Fox. Roald Dahl. Illustrated by Quentin Blake. 1970. 96 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Down in the valley there were three farms.

Premise/plot: Three farmers join together to hunt down and kill a fox that has been stealing from them. Farmer Boggis. Farmer Bunce. Farmer Bean. One raises chickens. One raises ducks and geese. One raises turkeys and apples. The story is told from the fox's perspective. Mr. Fox leaves his hole nightly to provide food for his wife, Mrs. Fox, and his four "small Foxes." Because Mr. Fox is great at what he does--fantastic even--all is well for a while until the farmers decide to camp outside his hole and WAIT FOR HIM.

My thoughts: I love this book. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. Why didn't I ever read this one as a kid?!?! This one is short, but short in a just-right way. Each chapter is packed with delight. I would definitely recommend this one!  

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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The BFG. Roald Dahl. Illustrated by Quentin Blake. 1982. 199 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Sophie couldn't sleep.

Premise/plot: Sophie, an orphan, is "kidnapped" one night by a giant--a Big Friendly Giant. He's not interested in eating her, though there are nine other giants who love, love, love to munch and crunch on human beans. He has taken her with him because she has seen him, and he doesn't want any human beans to know that giants are real. He disapproves of the other giants, but, wants the existence of giants to be kept secret. Will Sophie help him see things differently?

My thoughts: I really, really enjoyed this one. I also liked the dream gathering and dream giving aspect of this one. The BFG was just so much fun to spend time with. I can see how mood might play a big role in this one. If you're not in the right mood to enjoy the silly craziness, then the giant's horrible grammar might be much too much for you to tolerate. It does have a lot of made up words in it. Personally, it worked for me!

Here's a quote: "Here is the repulsant snozzcumber!" cried the BFG, waving it about. "I squoggle it! I mispise it! I dispunge it! But because I is refusing to gobble up human beans like the other giants, I must spend my life guzzling up icky-poo snozzcumbers instead. If I don't, I will be nothing but skin and groans." (45)

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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So many good videos to choose from today!  First and foremost, I begin with a very special message from Jon Scieszka.  It seems you still have two days to vote in the Children’s Book Choice Awards and . . . well . . . Jon would really like your kids to do so.  Seriously.

I own that suit!

I also enjoyed this video from Storycorps.  In it, a woman reflects on the bookmobile that changed her life:

In other news, it’s been a good book trailer season. When I went to Zootopia the other day (and how cool was its Emmett Otter reference?) I got a couple before the show. In this first video I spent the bulk of it trying to figure out if it was an adaptation of the Mac Barnett / Jory John Terrible Two series. It is based on a book, but we just aren’t that lucky:

On the plus side, the new BFG trailer looks pretty darn good:

And there’s a new trailer for A Monster Calls that I really enjoyed.

Finally, for the off-topic video, I actually think you could make a case for this being on-topic.  I mean, have you ever seen a truer to life version of Are You My Mother?

It comes with its own Snort!

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Steven Spielberg served as a narrator for First Book’s “Share the Magic of Storytelling” piece. The video embedded above features references to Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book, The BFG.

Here’s more from a First Book blog post: “Disney has donated a record 50 million books to First Book. To celebrate this milestone, Disney, ABC and First Book invite you to join the fourth annual Magic of Storytelling campaign through March 31.”

Spielberg directed a film adaptation based on Dahl’s novel. The theatrical release date has been set for July 01, 2016. Click here to watch the first movie teaser.

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Shanta Newlin has been promoted to vice president at Penguin Young Readers. She will also continue to serve as the executive director of publicity.

Newlin first joined the company back in 2008. In the past, she has held positions at ABRAMS, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, and Random House Children’s Books.

Since Newlin came on board, she has worked on campaigns for several high profile authors including Sabaa Tahir, B.J. Novak, Eric Carle, John Grisham, and the Roald Dahl backlist. She reports to the president of the division, Jen Loja.

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The cover has been unveiled for Tahereh Mafi’s forthcoming book, Furthermore. We’ve embedded the full image for the jacket design above—what do you think?

Dutton Books for Young Readers has scheduled the publication date for May 3. This project marks Mafi’s debut as a middle grade author.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Mafi explains that she had never intended to write a middle grade story. She reveals that “it was my editor, Julie Strauss-Gabel, who wisely pointed out that the heart of my story was middle grade through and through. It was only after I realized how much of this book was a love letter to my favorite middle-grade stories — Anne of Green Gables; Alice in Wonderland; The Secret Garden; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; everything by Roald Dahl — that I understood how very right she was.”

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Author Padma Venkatraman‘s most recent novel A Time to Dance was an Honour Winner in the 2015 South Asia Book Award and was chosen for inclusion in IBBY’s 2015 Selection of Outstanding Books for Young … Continue reading ... →

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Fun stuff.  Looks a lot like Harry Potter to a certain extent (mood, lighting, music, etc.).  It’s the trailer for Roald Dahl’s The BFG.

Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link!

A bit of an older video here.  In my travels recently I discovered that the entirety of the Oliver Jeffers short film version of his book Lost and Found is apparently online.  Bonus!  I never got to see it.  For your viewing pleasure then (and it’s 24 minutes long, FYI):

Shoot. Christmas is over but only now have I learned about this new collection of Walt Kelly’s Fairy Tales.  Well, there’s always next year, I guess.

Cool. I’d heard that there was a children’s theater adaptation of Grace Lin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, but didn’t know it had a little trailer too. Eh, voila.

And for the off-topic video, we’re not entirely off-topic.  After all, Mary Poppins was a children’s book originally.  Ipso facto a flash mob for Dick Van Dyke’s 90th birthday is . . . well it works for me.

 

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Disney has unveiled a teaser for The BFG. The story for this movie comes from Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s book.

Mashable reports that Steven Spielberg served as the director on this project. The video embedded above offers glimpses of Ruby Barnhill as young Sophie and Mark Rylance playing the titular character.

According to The Guardian, other members of the cast include Bill Hader, Rebecca Hall and Jermaine Clement. The theatrical release date has been set for July 01, 2016. (via Rolling Stone)

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What sources of light do you recall from your favorite books? The team at solarcentre has created an infographic to showcase “Memorable Lights From Literature.”

The image features references to The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Beloved by Toni Morrison, and The BFG by Roald Dahl. We’ve embedded the full piece below for you to explore further—what do you think?

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Who are your favorite villainous characters from fiction books? The team at MorphCostumes has created an infographic to highlight “Monsters in Literature.”

The image features antagonists that come from several beloved novels including The Witches by Roald Dahl, Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. We’ve embedded the full piece below for you to explore further—what do you think? (via Electric Literature)

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For Banned Books Week this year, we combed through hundreds of records of challenged materials reported by Oregon schools and libraries over the past 35 years. In the process, we came across some surprising, amusing, and, at times, weirdly specific arguments for banning books. Here are 10 particularly strange reasons that demonstrate how absurd it [...]

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It's one thing to read about censorship in a news article; it's another to become aware of the threat at a nearby library or school. For Banned Books Week this year, we reviewed hundreds of documented appeals to remove materials from a local public library, school library, or course curriculum. Below are 30 books that [...]

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Sometimes I read something so wise and good that I can't wait to pass it on to my best writer buds. That happened this morning. Tara Lazur reviewed the biography of Roald Dahl on her blog--Read it here: wp.me/p7jVE-18t

But THIS is the part that gave me happy goosebumps:

What makes a good children’s writer? The writer must have a genuine and powerful wish not only to entertain children, but to teach them the habit of reading…[He or she] must be a jokey sort of fellow…[and] must like simple tricks and jokes and riddles and other childish things. He must be unconventional and inventive. He must have a really first-class plot. He must know what enthralls children and what bores them. They love being spooked. They love ghosts. They love the finding of treasure. The love chocolates and toys and money. They love magic. They love being made to giggle. They love seeing the villain meet a grisly death. They love a hero and they love the hero to be a winner. But they hate descriptive passages and flowery prose. They hate long descriptions of any sort. Many of them are sensitive to good writing and can spot a clumsy sentence. They like stories that contain a threat. “D’you know what I feel like?” said the big crocodile to the smaller one. “I feel like having a nice plump juicy child for my lunch.” They love that sort of thing. What else do they love? New inventions. Unorthodox methods. Eccentricity. Secret information. The list is long. But above all, when you write a story for them, bear in mind that they do not possess the same power of concentration as an adult, and they become very easily bored or diverted. Your story, therefore, must tantalize and titillate them on every page and all the time that you are writing you must be saying to yourself, “Is this too slow? Is it too dull? Will they stop reading?” To those questions, you must answer yes more often than you answer no. [If not] you must cross it out and start again.

 The quote above is from a letter Dahl wrote to “The Writer” Magazine in October, 1975: “A Note on Writing Books for Children”.

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Dan Scott was born in Surrey, England. Growing up, he became interested in ancient Rome and his love of historical fiction provided plenty of inspiration for the adventure stories he began to write as a child. Eventually, his characters and stories developed into the action-packed Gladiator School series.

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