Monica Edinger's Blog, page 10

Indie Press Spotlight Holiday Edition

Here are ten of the many beautiful, thoughtful, and intriguing indie press books that I have loved and not mentioned (I don’t think) here yet this year. They’d all make spectacular gifts for the season. Please do check them out, my other indie spotlight posts, and the many other wonderful books coming from the vibrant independent publishers world.

Do seek out Nnedi Okorafor and Mehrdokht Amini’s rollicking Chicken in the Kitchen from Lantana.

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From Toon Books there is Liniers’ delightful Good...

Center for Multicultural Literature’s Best for 2017 (Hint: It is Excellent)

This is always a terrific list.  You can see the list in greater detail (with covers and lengthy annotations) here. Congratulations to all involved, judges and creators alike. 
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An Interview with Katherine Paterson about My Brigadista Year

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Katherine Paterson is one of America’s greatest literary treasures; her works include novels, picture books, chapter books, and nonfiction. Her honors are myriad, from Newberys (two golds and a silver), a National Book Award, and….well too many to name. Just go here, here, and here to see them all.  This remarkable woman, on her journey as a writer, is always exploring new vistas. Her latest, My Brigadista Year, centers around Lora, a thirteen year-old Cuban who joins Fidel Castro’s national...

My Quick Visit to Berlin Where I Found Floor Rieder’s Gorgeous and Clever Alices

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I spent Thanksgiving in Berlin, a place I’ve been to often due to my family background. (My first visit was a childhood one with my mother, originally from Berlin. In the spring of 1965 it was a memorable experience.) An American friend who had never been to Germany joined me as did a dear German family friend. We visited the Pergamon Museum, leisurely saw the complicated city’s sights via bus and boat, spent a day exploring Potsdam, wandered the area near the Neue Synagogue (seen in the pho...

Thoughts On Newbery: Books I Wish Could Be Contenders, But Can’t Be

Heavy Medal has a clever post, “The Glorious Ineligibles” featuring books the three moderators love, but aren’t eligible for one reason or another.  Invited to provide our own I wrote the following:

La Belle Sauvage. [The moderators already had given good reasons for this title so I didn’t add more.]

Both Hardinges. [That is, the titles out this year in the US which are mentioned in the post.]  I read A Face Like Glass years ago when it was published in the UK (as I wanted to read EVERYTHING...

In the Classroom: Teaching Hacks

I frequently see tweets, links, and more to articles or videos celebrating methods to make something easier. In the “100 Life Hacks That Make Life Easier” you can learn how to waterproof your shoes, use newspaper to absorb fruit juices and more. So I figured I’d offer three that I’ve found helpful in my 4th grade classroom. Love to learn of more in the comments!

Lamps. I find low lighting in my classroom soothing, calming, and a great help to keep my students focused during work periods. Unf...

A Book Chat with the One and Only Patrick McDonnell

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Doing an ABC book was me trying to bring my childhood drawings back.

I’m quite the Patrick McDonnell fan so was delighted when invited to highlight the book chat video he did for Little Brown Books for Young Readers. Below he speaks with Victoria Stapleton about his latest, the charming and witty The Little Red Cat Who Ran Away and Learned His ABC’s (the Hard Way). Patrick talks about the challenge off telling a story with minimal text, the pleasure of indicating movement in just a few ima...

Paul Mosier’s Train I Ride

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As I’ve written here before, I’m extremely wary of books that are described as heartbreaking, poignant, tender, et al. Too often I feel that I’m being manipulated into tears as regularly happens in the movies with music. Happily, there are books thus described that DO work for me. Such a one is Paul Mosier’s Train I Ride. The structure is that of a girl with a very sad past traveling on Amtrak to a new life. Over several days on the train she meets people, builds relationships. has a romance...

La Belle Sauvage Swag

One fun aspect of being a so-called “Big Mouth” in this teeny tiny world of children’s books is the occasional swag that comes my way. Yesterday I received a small package that was meant to have arrived a few weeks ago, but got a bit lost. Here’s what was inside. You will need to read Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage to appreciate it. So go do so — the book is propulsive, gorgeous, and unique.

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Lyra in America

“Pan, where are they all going?” The canyon-like streets of Nieuwe York were filled with determined and dashing people, their daemons flitting and running and flapping along with them. Now a hawk, Pantalaimon, swooped above Lyra as she attempted to evade the flood of adults swarming by. Agile as the girl was, the density of the crowd was such that she was unable to avoid collisions earning her glares, snaps of irritation, and even in one case a frustrated slap. Finally, the exhausted and bewi...