Monica Edinger's Blog, page 74

Stefan Bachmann’s THE PECULIAR and Laura Amy Schlitz’s SPLENDORS AND GLOOMS

Here is a richly realized alternate Victorian world of elegant upper-class homes and squalid faerie slums. Filled with healthy doses of suspense and action, this is a story young fantasy buffs are sure to enjoy. And while he is bound to be compared to Christopher Paolini, whose “Eragon” was also published while he was still in his teens, Bachmann has written an accomplished book that deserves to be considered on its own.

and

Schlitz skillfully manages multiple narratives as the story makes its...

Doing it for Free

A famous writer friend is always a bit bemused by my blog writing. “You don’t get paid?” he wonders. I squirm when he says this because I do very much like getting paid for my writing. More than the cash, it gives me the good feeling that I am valued, that what I say and how I say it matters enough to pay me for it.But I also like writing this blog and, so far, no one has wanted me to move it somewhere and pay me to do it. So, yeah, I do a lot of writing for free.

A recent kerfuffleinvolving t...

Slice of Life in New York City, Fall 2001

It was the end of our second week of school. A week with no disasters, no bomb threats, no evacuations, no special assemblies, and no school cancellations. Just plain old school. My fourth-graders (equivalent to Year 5) got spelling books, started maths, and wrote in their journals. There was homework. I sidelined some kids for playing too roughly during recess. A couple of girls started a petition because they didn’t like the way I’d arranged the desks. Plain old school, but in a brand new w...

Thoughts on Newbery: The Problem with Popularity Contests

Popularity is in the eye of the tweeter, facebook-liker, and such. That is, I do feel that those of us involved in social media can perceive and help foster the perceptions that particular books are more popular than others. And those involved in enthusiastically advocating for these books can feel dismayed when their evident popularity is not considered for awards like Newbery. But I’ve always felt that these representations of popularity are problematic — that they do not give us a true sen...

Doing Things With Books

… what do we value about the book? Why do we preserve and protect books, store them and hoard them? Why is the destruction of books instinctively abhorrent to many of us. (Price’s front cover image might be regarded as beautiful art but isthe destruction of a set of Lemony Snicket booksby reality TV star Lauren Conrad afforded the same cultural status?)

From this very interesting review of Leah Price’s very-interesting-sounding How to Do Things with Books in Victorian England.

Newbery Season is Seriously Underway

Newbery 2013 talk now really gets going with the resumption of the Heavy Medal blog run by my two friends, Jonathan Hunt (who also is our BoB commentator) and Nina Lindsay. Yeah!

In the Classroom: My First Read Aloud of the Year

I have one more week to figure out my first read aloud book of the year. I’ve got several in mind, but I’m still unsure which will end up being THE ONE. Last year at this time, having the same dilemma,I asked others what they were selecting. I ended up with Frank Cotrell Boyce’sThe Unforgotten Coatas it related beautifully to our year-long focus on migration and immigration. I’m considering starting with it again, but others tantalize me too.

I love to read aloud books that are almost, but not...

My Trip to England 2012

Here are links to all my posts about my recent trip.

Long Sweltering London Day

London Day Two: Dennis Severs and Matilda

Bunnies and Butties

IBBY Congress Day One

IBBY Congress Day Two

IBBY Congress Day Three

IBBY Congress Day Four

Oxford, the Pitt Rivers Museum, and the Duke ofCittagazze

Oxford, the Pitt Rivers Museum, and the Duke of Cittagazze

I like Oxford. I’ve come many times over the years, my favorite visit still being the week of the Lewis Carroll Centenary Celebration at Christ Church. (That was long before I began blogging or was on facebook so some day I need to pull together all my stuff from that glorious event and put it up here.) And so I decided to finish up my brief time in England at Oxford.

First of all I headed over to my favorite museum in the world — the Pitt Rivers Museum. It was a bank holiday and so fairly cro...

IBBY Congress Day Four

The final daybegan with Jamila Gavin,Elizabeth Laird, andBeverley Naidooand then moved on to a brilliant session of storytellers:Dashdondog Jamba,Sonia NimrandMichael Harvey. Michael Harveydid a wonderful story in English and Welsh, Sonia Nimrdid an Iranian one that was especially funny, andDashdondog Jambablew us away telling and singing his in Mongolian. I took a few videos of this and will post them somewhere when I figure out how to do so.

After a coffee break we returned toPatsy Aldanawho...