Saturday, December 29, 2007


FINISHED:

O'Brien, Robert C. (1971). Mrs. Frisby and the rats of Nimh. New York: Aladdin/Simon & Schuster.


[Wow, I REALLY liked this one. Widowed Mrs. Frisby the mouse has to find a way to move her family as the farm that she's living on is about to be tilled up for planting. She enlists the help of a bunch of rats who live underneath a rose bush - rats who have escaped from a laboratory, NIMH. In the lab, the rats were subjected to shots that have not only made them much smarter, but have also kept them young. Not really at all what I thought the book was going to be about - but I'm going off my memories of the animated film from the '80s which seemed to have a "mystical" element to it.]

STARTED:
Jacques, Brian. (2002). Triss. New York: Philomel/Penguin Putnam.

[From one talking animal book to another. This is the 15th "mousey-tales" book by Jacques. I've read the first 13 (believe it or not) and started the 14th when we were in Mexico. I never got to finish it and decided to move on and come back to it some other time. Luckily, these Redwall tales aren't sequentially bound.]

*

Wednesday, December 26, 2007


FINISHED:

Konigsburg, E.L. (1967). Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and me, Elizabeth. New York: Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.


[This woman is just great. She's got the kid voice down pat. This one's a quirky tale about an outsider girl who befriends another outsider girl whom she believes is a witch.]

STARTED:

O'Brien, Robert C. (1971). Mrs. Frisby and the rats of Nimh. New York: Aladdin/Simon & Schuster.


[An old classic that I've never read. It's also a Newbery winner, so I can check that one off the list when I'm done.]

*

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas Book 2007



Shulevitz, Uri. (1998). Snow. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.


[It's only fitting that the Christmas book that I got this year is one of the best books that I discovered this year, by one of the best illustrators that I discovered this year. Just so simple, poetic, and beautiful.]


STARTED & FINISHED:

Dubanevich, Arlene. (1986). Pigs at Christmas. New York: Bradbury/Macmillan.


[Done in big panels, this one is cute, but really strange.]




Briggs, Raymond. (1973). Father Christmas. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan.


[Done in comic book panel style, this seasonal tale, by the guy who did "The Snowman", teaches us that Santa does indeed use the bathroom and is a crotchety, cursing jerk who hates his job. Lovely holiday fare for the whole family!]




von Juchen, Aurel. (1968). The holy night. New York: Atheneum.


["Why is he reading a Christmas book about the nativity story??" Well, it's because the drawings were done by Celestino Piatti and I just can't get enough of the guy. Again, STUNNING illustrations that are suitable for framing. I'd give you a summary of the plot, but I'll bet that you can guess what it's about...]

*

Monday, December 24, 2007


FINISHED:

Sanchez, Alex. (2004). So hard to say. New York: Simon & Schuster.


[A quick read about Frederick - the new kid at school - and Xio, the girl that falls for him and brings him into her group of friends. Frederick is, of course, questioning his feelings for guys, and is worried that even talking to the kid at school that everyone teases as being a "fag" will bring the spotlight toward himself. Definitely stuff that I can relate to having gone through. Going through Sanchez's "gay" books makes me think about how these would've "flown" back when I was a teenager. I mean, they probably couldn't have existed back then, but I wonder how things might be different for me if they had been around when I was going through a bunch of the same emotions as the kids in these books. Would I have even had the courage to go up to the circulation desk at the library and check them out? At least kids these days can use self-checkout machines...]

STARTED:
Konigsburg, E.L. (1967). Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and me, Elizabeth. New York: Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.

[Another Konigsburg - working my way through all of her books.]

*

Sunday, December 23, 2007


FINISHED:

Schmidt, Gary D. (2007). The Wednesday wars. New York: Clarion.


[This one really did turn out to be pretty darn fun. It's set during the Vietnam War and is about a 7th grade kid named Holling Hoodhood who is Presbyterian, so, while on Wednesday afternoons half of his class goes to Temple and the other half go to Catechism, he's stuck alone with his teacher, Mrs. Baker. After initially punishing Holling for being Presbyterian (if he were Catholic or Jewish she'd have the afternoon off...) by making him clean chalkboards and erasers, she decides to have him start working his way through Shakespeare's plays. It's a fun series of wacky stuff occurring over the course of a school year, with Mrs. Baker's husband being lost in the War, Holling having to deal with his father whose only goals are to be Businessman of the Year and have Holling take over his architecture firm, a sister who wants to be a flowerchild, yellow tights with feathers on the butt, and cream puffs. Best YA book of the year? Well, it's great, but holding me back is a scene where Holling is literally chased across the schoolyard by a couple of rats. Most of this book made me laugh out loud, but that scene made me go, "Oh, come on!"]

STARTED:

Sanchez, Alex. (2004). So hard to say. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Another one for gay youngsters from the guy who did the Rainbow series of books.]

*

Wednesday, December 19, 2007


FINISHED:

Sanderson, Brandon. (2007). Alcatraz versus the evil librarians. New York: Scholastic.


[Will post my review for ACL after I write it. Here it is:

After burning down the kitchen of his umpteenth foster family’s house, Alcatraz Smedry, prone to breaking things, is whisked away by an old man who shows up at the door claiming to be his grandfather. Grandfather Leavenworth (all Smedry males are named after prisons), after explaining that librarians are in control of all information and hope to keep “Hushlanders” in the dark about certain facts, leads Alcatraz on a mission to break into the downtown library (evil librarian headquarters). They’re on a mission to retrieve a box of sand that Alcatraz received for his 13th birthday – sand, that if melted into glass lenses, may hold the key to a long forgotten secret language. The first in a series, Alcatraz is packed with wise-cracking humor, brisk action, and introduces young readers to a new world of intriguing gadgets, heroes, and villains.
Each chapter begins with editorializing from our protagonist narrator – chatter, though often quite humorous, that tends to interrupt the flow of the action and, by the end, grows a bit tiresome (especially when it suggests that novels about the Great Depression “rot the brain”). A surprising highlight, however, is a moving, introspective passage in which Alcatraz comes the realization that maybe he has pushed people away all his life – that his talent for breaking things extends to not letting anyone get to close to him. This is a light, often quite funny, book – the first in a series – which teases and tickles from the first line to the last. Fans of light fantasy and humor will find this one quite satisfying.]

STARTED:

Schmidt, Gary D. (2007). The Wednesday wars. New York: Clarion.

[Getting a lot of pre-Newbery buzz, and I'm REALLY liking it so far. It's not super often that a novel can make me laugh out loud.]

*

Tuesday, December 4, 2007


FINISHED:

Pullman, Philip. (1997). The golden compass. New York: Del Rey/Ballantine.


[Really liked this again the second time around. Just wanted to make sure that I remembered it all before seeing the movie - which, just looks stupendous - like it has a really unique visual style. Can't imagine that it's going to be a huge success as I'm sure word of mouth will be, "It's pretty but it didn't make a lick of sense."]

STARTED:
Sanderson, Brandon. (2007). Alcatraz versus the evil librarians. New York: Scholastic.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

*

Monday, December 3, 2007


STARTED & FINISHED:

LaReau, Kara. (2006). Ugly fish. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc.


[LOVE the illustrations by Scott Magoon - I think he's a talent to watch out for - but the message of the book gets a little lost. Ugly Fish eats each of the fish that are put in the tank with him then gets his own by being eaten by a bigger fish that is thrown in with him. The author says this is a response to bullying, but, is the message we want to send out that bully's will get their own one day?]



Coy, John. (1996). Night driving. New York: Henry Holt & Company.


[Gorgeous illustrations by Peter McCarty - quickly becoming one of my favorites - that are like softer, more ethereal Chris Van Allsburg pictures. It's an understated, sweetly nostalgic story of a boy and his dad on a nighttime drive.]

*

Saturday, December 1, 2007


STARTED & FINISHED:

Heide, Florence Parry. (1971). The shrinking of Treehorn. New York: Holiday House.


[CHARMED by this black comedic tale with illustrations by Edward Gorey. A little kid starts shrinking and all that his parents can say about it are, "If you want to pretend you're shrinking, that's all right as long as you don't do it at the table", and, "I wonder if he's doing it on purpose. Just to be different." Witty, hilarious dialog that will strike a chord with any disenfranchised youth. There are two more of these that I need to pick up and read.]




Geisert, Arthur. (2002). The giant ball of string. Boston: Walter Lorraine/Houghton Mifflin.


[Mixed feelings on this one. I'm quite drawn to Geisert's illustrations, but the story rubs me the wrong way. So, there's this town of pigs that take pride in the fact that they are in possession of the largest ball of string in the world. One night, the ball of string is washed away in a rainstorm and a town downstream finds it, and, KNOWING that the ball of string belongs to another town STILL DECIDES TO KEEP IT AS THEIR OWN! What kind of message is that? Sure, the citizens of the town that really own the string ball come up with an intricate and clever plot to get it back, but...]

*

Tuesday, November 27, 2007


STARTED & FINISHED:

Taylor, Mark. (1966). Henry the explorer. Boston: Little Brown & Company.


[Super charmed by this one. It looks like there are more adventures of Henry, so I'm definitely going to have to check those out. Cool watercolor wash illustrations and a simple, deadpan funny story about a kid and his dog, Laird Angus McAngus (is that not the greatest name for a dog!?!), who decide to go exploring, marking their discoveries with homemade flags along the way.]




Lakin, Patricia. (2007). Rainy day! New York: Dial/Penguin.


[Looks like it's one in a series (i.e. "Sunny Day!", "Beach Day!", etc.). Like the illustration style a lot, but the story itself is awfully random - and not in an OK way (they play mini-golf in the rain at one point...). The bold, rhyming text is fun, but, again, it's just kinda random.]




Wheeler, Lisa. (2004). Farmer Dale's red pickup truck. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc.


[The evening that I read these turned out to be rhyming night. Haven't read a whole lot of rhyming texts here, but, then all of a sudden a bunch pop up. Sweet illustrations compliment a tale about a pickup truck driven by a dog that picks up a bunch of other animals along the way into town. Would work well in a storyhour about animals or farms.]




Gorbachev, Valeri. (2005). That's what friends are for. New York: Philomel/Penguin.


[I'm finding myself drawn again and again to this guy's illustrations. There's something very Richard Scarry about them, and who didn't LOVE at least one Richard Scarry book as a child? This a cute little Arnold Lobel/Frog & Toad-ish tale where Goat sees his neighbor Pig crying and assumes the worst - then coming up with ways to help. Turns out, Pig was just chopping onions. Again, GREAT illustrations and a fun, simple story that would be perfect in a storytime.]




Yee, Wong Herbert. (2001). Fireman Small - fire down below! Boston: Houghton Mifflin.


[I thought that I'd be charmed by Fireman Small, but that wasn't quite the case. He's a cute character, and I still LOVE the drawing of him with a towel wrapped around his arm smashing open a fire alarm case, but the resolution just doesn't work for me. I'm willing to give him another chance and will check out one of his other adventures, though.]




Ward, Lynd. (1973). The silver pony. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.


[Had big hopes for this one, too. Again, just kind of weird and random. What drew me initially to it is that it's told completely in pictures done in a cool '50s illustration style. But the story about a kid dreaming of a flying horse and the things they do together is just odd and unconnected - although, I suppose that they work in a dream-like way. In the end it seems like the kid has a horrible sickness and that is why he's hallucinating (??) and then gets a pony. RANDOM.]

*

Wednesday, November 21, 2007


FINISHED:

Klages, Ellen. (2006). The green glass sea. New York: Viking/Penguin.


[Liked it a lot. Didn't LOVE it like I thought I would, but it was a good read and will certainly pick up the sequel when it comes out. The setting (Los Alamos, during the development of the atomic bomb) was a fascinating one.]

STARTED:
Pullman, Philip. (1997). The golden compass. New York: Del Rey/Ballantine.

[Reading it again before seeing the movie - which I'm VERY excited for!]

*

Saturday, November 17, 2007

STARTED:

Klages, Ellen. (2006). The green glass sea. New York: Viking/Penguin.

[Heard a lot of great things about this one, didn't feel like reading the books that I have to review for ACL, and I certainly didn't want to do my homework - saw it while shelving the other day and checked it out. (Needed a good book for an airplane flight, too. Also going to try to reread THE GOLDEN COMPASS before I see the film...) So far, so good.]

*

Thursday, November 15, 2007

3 Big Winners! (and an odd one)


STARTED & FINISHED:

Zolotow, Charlotte. (1962). Mr. Rabbit and the lovely present. New York: HarperCollins.


[FANTASTIC. The illustrations by Maurice Sendak, at first, freaked me out a bit, but the story is just so sweet and well told that I had to fall in love. It's a simple dialog between a girl and a rabbit that is so funny and, if you really try and read it with the characters in mind, quirky sweet. It'd make a great read-a-loud between two people. I'm not at all surprised that it was a Caldecott Honor Book winner.]



Say, Allen. (2004). Music for Alice. Boston: Walter Lorraine/Houghton Mifflin.


[I need to read more of his books. He's got the perfect combination of story, words and illustration. All pure poetry.]



Emberley, Ed. (1992). Go away, big green monster! New York: Little Brown/Time Warner.


[This man is an absolute genius. I'm not even going to attempt to describe this book because it needs to be experienced to be appreciated - it's brilliant in all its die-cutness.]



Valen, Herb. (1968). The boy who could enter paintings. Boston: Little Brown.


[Gives me that same feeling that I get from Winnie the Pooh: is Christopher Robin just an incredibly lonely and disturbed child who makes all these characters up to fill some awful void?]

*

Friday, November 9, 2007


FINISHED:

Spinelli, Jerry. (2007). Love, Stargirl. New York: Knopf/Random House.


[Official ACL review:

This continuation of the trials and tribulations of Stargirl, an eccentric home-schooler, picks up after she and her family have moved from Arizona to Pennsylvania. Still pining for her ex-boyfriend Leo, Stargirl embarks on a quest to keep her “happy wagon” filled with rocks while interacting with some of her new town’s array of odd supporting characters: an agoraphobic woman who hasn’t left her house in 4 years, an old man who sits at his dead wife’s grave everyday, a possible new love interest who litters, steals, and has a harem of girls following him around, and Dootsie, an over-excited 5-year old who has clung to Stargirl and her pet rat, Cinnamon, like sickeningly sweet gum on the bottom of your shoe (a stock character that we’ve seen many times before). As the book is written in letter/diary format, things get a tad monotonous and repetitive in the middle of the year – one wonders for a long time about the relevance of planting spatulas on a hill to make a sun calendar, and why Stargirl continues to tell us, in code no less, how she is putting orange halves around the neighborhood. While both of these incidences do pay off somewhat in the end, one can’t help but think that it takes much to long to get there, and it is all just a bit too eccentric and colorful for the sake of being eccentric and colorful. Fans of the first will certainly find lots to love here, and while this one stands on it’s own, it’s hard not to compare Love, Stargirl to the myriad of other novels out there with unique protagonists finding their way in a world of unique and oddball characters.]

STARTED & FINISHED:


Magoon, Scott. (2007). Hugo & Miles in: I've painted everything: An adventure in Paris. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.


[Also reviewed for ACL:

Hugo is a “creative artist” who, one day, comes to the startling realization that that he has painted everything (his studio is filled with paintings of light switches, hamburgers, and bell towers). Hugo’s friend Miles, an inventor, has to fly to Paris on business, so he invites Hugo along believing that the change of scenery might offer him some inspiration. While touring some of Paris’s most famous art museums, Hugo sees the works of some of the grand painting masters, and, while on the top of the Eiffel Tower, finds inspiration in how different things look from a new angle. Adorable illustrations, done in pencil and then digitally colored, that will bring a smile to any child (or adult’s) face compliment a sweetly simple story of a painter with artist’s block. The central lesson for kids about perspective and looking at the world from different points of view is timeless and deeply important in our world today. Other touched upon concepts such as hue and impressionism could open up a larger discussion or storytime about artists and styles of art. A relative newcomer, Scott Mangoon is definitely someone to watch out for in the future.]




Odone, Jamison. (2007). Honey badgers. Honesdale, PA: Front Street/Boyds Mills Press.


[Quirky. VERY VERY quirky, and I think that I LOVE it. Yes, VERY Maurice Sendak. I bought it at the ACL meeting this week - it was on the sale table. But it looks like no one ever reviewed. I think that I may review it and label it OUTSTANDING...]

*

Friday, November 2, 2007


STARTED & FINISHED:

Ransome, Arthur. (1968). The fool of the world and the flying ship. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.


[Featuring the Caldecott Award winning illustrations of Uri Shulevitz (my new favorite!).]



Van Allsburg, Chris. (1982). Ben's dream. New York: Houghton Mifflin.


[Not my favorite of Van Allsburg's books, but the woodcut-looking illustrations are winners. I just wish that he would work on his noses. He's never been great with the noses. Mostly wordless, this one is about a kid who falls asleep studying monuments from around the globe, and in his dream, finds his house floating by a number of them.]



Holm, Jennifer L., and Matthew Holm. (2007). Camp Babymouse. New York: Random House.


[The sixth in the series. Kind of lacking, but still fun. HIGHLY recommended for kids of all ages.]




Say, Allen. (1989). The lost lake. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.


[I think that I need to add Allen Say to my list of favorites on the left. His soft watercolors and straightforward, nostalgic stories are outstanding.]

*

Wednesday, October 31, 2007


STARTED & FINISHED:

Pilkey, Dav. (1995). The Hallo-wiener. New York: Blue Sky/Scholastic.


[.]




Gomi, Taro. (1983/2001). I lost my dad. Brooklyn, NY: Kane/Miller.


[.]




Meddaugh, Susan. (2005). The witch's walking stick. Boston: Walter Lorraine/Houghton Mifflin.


[Wow! Blown away by this one! I kinda like the "Martha Speaks" books, so I thought I'd give it a try. Plus, it's kinda Halloween-y. Original story with a great wrap up that doesn't cheat at all.]




Kraus, Robert. (1973). How Spider saved Halloween. New York: Scholastic.


[.]

*