FINISHED:
Ogburn, Jacqueline K. (2017). The Unicorn in the Barn. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[Reviewing for ACL - it doesn't actually come out until July.  Review soon...]

STARTED:  
Whitehead, Colson. (2016). The Underground Railroad. New York: Doubleday/Penguin Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
DiCamillo, Kate. (2016).  Raymie Nightingale.  Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[Raymie is determined to learn to twirl a baton - she NEEDS to so that she can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition.  If she does then she is certain that her father will see her picture in the paper and come home (he ran off with a dental hygienist...).  Nothing goes as planned, however, as the baton classes don't happen, her reading aloud to the elderly creeps her out (plus, she loses the book under one of their beds), and she becomes friends with cynical Beverly and Louisiana, who's determined to get back the cat she had to give away (though he was almost certainly put down...) because she couldn't afford to keep him anymore. 

REALLY liked this one.  Kind of quiet and mindful, spare and lovely.  Louisiana was a FANTASTIC character - her unbending enthusiasm and perseverance were hilarious and moving.  SURELY this year's Newbery Award committee will be looking at this one very closely.]

STARTED:
de la Peña, Matt. (2008). Mexican Whiteboy. New York: Delacorte.

[Realized that aside from his other picture book (other than LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET, natch), I haven't read anything else by him...]

*

FINISHED:
Nix, Garth, and Sean Williams. (2013). The mystery (Troubletwisters #3). New York: Scholastic.


[After an old town recluse dies in the castle near their grandmother’s house, Jaide and Jack help a local bookseller with cataloguing an extensive book collection there, and the twins discover that the castle may be the location of the “Card of Translocation”, whose purpose is unknown but which their father has instructed them to find.  In addition, the two are led to believe that their father, who’s supposed to stay away from them so that he doesn’t drive their “Gifts” wild, may be involved in the death of the recluse, and their grandmother, a Warden of Portland who is responsible for protecting the world from “The Evil”, ends up in the hospital after being mysteriously driven off the road.   The proceedings are swiftly set into motion in this third installment of the series, and readers who may not have read (or remember) the first two books are brought up to date with some early interspersed catch-ups.  Though most of the action is saved until the last few chapters, fans of the previous installments will find plenty to enjoy along the way, with the cast of characters widening, and the history of the Wardens and Troubletwisters being explored and revealed in more depth, with the twins coming to learn more about their “Gifts” and what connects them to all of the other Troubletwisters that have come before them.]


STARTED:
Larsen, Reif. (2009). The selected works of T.S. Spivet. New York: Penguin.


[Jeunet movie coming soon!!]


*

FINISHED:
McAlpine, Gordon. (2013). The tell-tale start: The misadventures of Edgar & Allan Poe (Book 1).  New York: Viking.


[.]


STARTED:
Balliett, Blue. (2013). Hold fast. New York: Scholastic.


[LOVE HER.]

*

FINISHED:
Steensland, Mark. (2012). Behind the bookcase. New York: Random House.

[ACL review forthcoming....]


STARTED:
Amis, Martin. (2012). Lionel Asbo. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

[My second "grown up" book in a month!]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:
Santat, Dan. (2011). Sidekicks. New York: A.A. Levine.

[.]






Pien, Lark. (2009). Long Tail Kitty. Maplewood, NJ: Blue Apple/Chronicle.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Epstein, Adam Jay, and Jacobson, Andrew. (2010). The Familiars. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Stroud, Jonathan. (2004). The golem's eye. New York: Hyperion.

[Read the first in the series YEARS ago and have been wanting to get back to it. Stroud's got a great sense of humor.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:
Riddell, Chris. (2008). Ottoline and the yellow cat. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
West, Jacqueline. (2010). The books of Elsewhere: The shadows. New York: Dial.

[My review for ACL:

Olive, perpetual new student, and her nomadic, mathmetician, computer screen-glued parents move into a dusty old house still full of the previous occupants’ Victorian-era belongings. One of the first things that Olive notices is the abundance of paintings (which seem permanently attached to the walls) whose images, when viewed through a pair of found antique reading glasses, begin to move. Ever the curious explorer, Olive discovers that she is able to climb into these paintings and, while wandering around in one, comes across a frightened little boy in an old nightshirt who claims to have been stolen from the real world and imprisoned in the painting by a malevolent, ever-watching shadow. West’s debut novel, the first in an assumed series, is briskly paced and, for the most part, engaging, with a spunky outcast for a protagonist in whom avid readers of the genre will recognize shades of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (HarperCollins, 2002). A trio of talking cats add comedy and a bit of confusion: aside from the occasional difficulty of keeping them straight, their motives are unclear as they seem genuinely helpful but appear to be “working for” the shadowy force. Thorough, vivid physical description provides a definite sense of environment and the premise is intriguing enough to attract young fantasy beginners. (Reviewed from ARC.)]

STARTED:
Connor, Leslie. (2010). Crunch. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[Reading for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:

Barnes, John. (2009). Tales of the Madman underground. New York: Viking.

[Have yet to write my ACL review. Can't believe it took me SO LONG to finish...]

STARTED:
MacDonald, George. (1969). The light princess. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[Have been wanting to read this short story (here, with Maurice Sendak's stunning illustrations) because Tori Amos is writing a musical based on it.]

*

Picture Book Tuesday

STARTED & FINISHED:

Collington, Peter. (2000). Clever cat. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

[Cat is tired of being neglected and treated poorly by his owners so he gets a set of keys and a credit card and begins to take care of himself, eventually realizing that it might just be better to be a regular cat after all. Fantastic illustrations, a HORRIBLE family of abusive creeps, and laughs caused by seeing a cat walking on his hind legs carrying a set of keys.]




Shulevitz, Uri. (2008). How I learned geography. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

[LOVE this man. This one is an autobiographical tale about living in poverty. One day, instead of bringing home food from the town center, Uri's father brings home a wall-sized map which takes Uri's mind on a trip around the world - fueling his drawing and imagination.]




Gorbachev, Valeri. (2008). Turtle's penguin day. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

[LOVE this man, too. In this one, Turtle is read a bedtime story about penguins which causes him to dream about them and inspire him to dress and act like a penguin the next day at school. Sweet and fun with Gorbachev's characteristic warm and expressive illustrations.]

*

FINISHED:

Iserles, Inbali. (2008). The Tygrine cat. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

[Reviewing for ACL - will post review here when finished with it.

Here it is:

Mati, a young cat set adrift on a ship by his mother, Queen of the Abyssinia Tygrine, finds himself much later in a marketplace of an unfamiliar town. Here, he comes across the Cressida Cats, a clan of feral felines who live amongst humans in the labyrinth of tunnels below the market. Mati, after being banished from the clan for a crime that he didn’t commit, comes to understand that he is being pursued by the evil cat who murdered his mother, but may be able to fight back using the words and advice from feline spirits with ties to Ancient Egypt who live in the Fianey, the space between waking life and sleep. From the cover alone, comparisons will undoubtedly be drawn to Erin Hunter’s Warriors series (HarperTrophy, 2001-), and those assumptions are not unfounded – this is a story about warring bands of cats which even comes with a map of the territory where the action takes place, a la the aforementioned books by Hunter. The descriptions are often quite detailed and the action is brisk, but some of the details surrounding the ancestry of the cats and their connection to the spirit world are a bit murky. While a few of the historical details about the cats are factual, most appear to be fictitious and, thus, a librarian should encourage readers to do research of their own if interested in cats and their connection to Ancient Egypt. While not groundbreaking, this is a book that has a sweet subplot which lightly explores the relationships between cats and humans and is perfect for fans of fantasy tales where animals are the main protagonists.]


STARTED:
Lerangis, Peter. (2005). Smiler's bones. New York: Scholastic.

[One of those ones that I grabbed while shelving books at work. Just sounds like an incredibly intriguing premise: Eskimos at the turn of the century (1897) who are taken to New York to be "living, breathing museum exhibits".]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

McCarty, Peter. (2007). Fabian escapes. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

[Ugh. How many times and ways can I say that I LOVE this guy's illustrations? This is his latest and I'm already WAITING IMPATIENTLY for the next one. The story here is a bit disjointed, with the dog (Hondo) going out for a walk and the cat (Fabian) going for an adventure by jumping out the window, but the look is just so soft yet textured. Hondo and Fabian themselves are so darned adorable, and I dare any cat owner not to go "Awww!" when looking at the picture of Fabian rolling in the dirt. Oh, and the illustration of the three dogs "playing" chase with Fabian - with the dogs smiling and Fabian looking a bit terrified. Super cute. Nice, simple language and situations make this one a great potential read-aloud.]



Shulevitz, Uri. (1995). The golden goose (the Brothers Grimm). New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux.

[Love Shulevitz and his illustrations, but the story in this one isn't a particularly "happening" one to me. So, a fool goes to cut down a tree and a golden goose appears. Everyone that touches him inexplicably becomes stuck to him, and then, inexplicably, gets unattached. Um, ok. What's the point here? Not sure if it's the fault of the Brothers Grimm, or Shulevitz's retelling. Should probably consult the source material before making too much of a judgement...]



Cate, Annette LeBlanc. (2007). The magic rabbit. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

[Heard such good things about this one a few months ago when someone reviewed it at ACL, but I found it kind of bland. Again, nothing really happens here: magician loses his rabbit - rabbit is all alone - rabbit eventually finds his way home by following a trail of stars. Am I missing something? Sure, the illustrations are great, and there may not be anything cuter than the picture of the magician and the rabbit watching a movie on the couch together (look at the rabbit's adorable little feet!), but even the way that the two get separated seems forced and too easy. Now, this isn't all to say that I would never use this in a storytime or recommend it to a parent looking for a sweet story about friendship, but it just didn't do so much for me personally as a reader.]

*