Betsy Bird's Blog, page 321

Fusenews: Confessions of a syllabus addict

Allrighty then (remember when this phrase was a thing?).  Time to whip out a Fusenews in this new format.  Let’s crank her up and see what she can do!

Let’s start with the me stuff.  This happened while I was on vacation:  The folks at the New York Times asked me to be a part of their Room for Debate series, this time on the topic What’s “Just Right” For the Young Reader? (which is described as “How do you know the age at which to introduce children to certain books that might have ‘big kid’ themes?”) I get to give my two cents alongside such heavies as Paolo Bacigalupi, Lisa Von Drasek, Jenny Brown, and the like.  My commenters are particularly smart as well.


Not a blogger out there who can’t relate to The Oatmeal’s fantastic Some thoughts and musings about making things for the web.  Even if you don’t agree with everything he says, he’s pretty dead on.


My husband is now shooting me worried glances because I keep screaming out things like “TELL IT!” and “AMEN!” and “THANKGODTHANKGODTHANKGOD!” over and over as I read Shannon Hale’s recent blog post on Why Do You Write Strong Female Characters?  Big time thanks to Liz B for the link.


*sniff sniff*  Smell that?  I smell buzz.  Book buzz.  The ink on 2013 is hardly dry and already I’m hearing good things about certain books.  Books like Starring Jules (As Herself) by Beth Ain which has already gotten a star in PW.  I wasn’t attracted to the cover but my insider moles (with opinions I trust) tell me that the book is mighty worthy.  The book’s not out until March so sate your curiosity for now with Ms. Ain’s blog Tin-Can Stilts.  For years I’ve wanted to make a secondary blog called Tin Can Phone.  Looks like the basic idea is already gone.


Hello.  My name is Betsy and I am a syllabus addict.  I love them.  When I see a course taught on children’s or YA literature I just gotsta get my hands on it.  And when the course is taught by author Mitali Perkins and is called Race, Culture, and Power in Children’s and Young Adult Books?  Bonus.    I want to go to there.


It’s always fascinating when the ShelfTalker blog compiles a list of The Stars Thus Far, which collects all the books that have earned stars in a given year.  Of similar interest is Heavy Medals’ work tabulating the 2012 Best Books Lists’ Overlap.  All very telling, though I know we can all name years where the winners of the Newbery and Caldecott were books that got only one star here and there and no Best Books listings.


Speaking of Heavy Medals I was touched by Jonathan Hunt’s remembrance of Peter Sieruta this past week.  Please take some time to read the comments, particularly those of Jules and Helen Frost.  It’s one of those losses you just sit there and shake your head about.  Just shake and shake and shake.


Liz Burns has provided a smart and insightful look at Leonard Marcus’s Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L’Engle in Many Voices.  If nothing else, read the last paragraph in Liz’s piece.  That’s why we love her.


No end of the year compilation is complete without heading over to Seven Impossible Things to check out Jules and her 2012 7-Imp Retrospective Before Breakfast.  Consider not only the fabulous content but also the fact that the woman wrote a freakin’ book during the year as well (with me, but trust me when I say she did the lion’s share).

So much stuff happens in New York City that I sometimes have to rely on my out-of-state friends and siblings to alert me to what’s up.  Take the immersive theatrical performance of Then She Fell as one such example.  In it, fifteen audience members wander around a former hospital encountering the performers one-on-one.  Says the description, “Inspired by the life and writings of Lewis Carroll, it offers an Alice-like experience for audience members as they explore the rooms, often by themselves, in order to discover hidden scenes; encounter performers one-on-one; unearth clues that illuminate a shrouded history; use skeleton keys to gain access to guarded secrets; and imbibe elixirs custom designed by one of NYC’s foremost mixologists.”  Paging Educating Alice . . . . Thanks to Kate for the link.

Okay. Show of hands.  How many of you knew that author Patrick Carman has a podcast called Intersect with Jeremy Gonzalez where they interview various children’s and YA literary luminaries?  Since it looks like he only started it as recently as October 16th I don’t feel TOO bad about my lack of knowledge, but this thing has been far too below the radar.  You can never have too many children’s literary podcasts, that’s what I always say (though the current go-to site remains Brain Burps About Books).


It’s not exactly news that Jeff Bridges has been trying to make Lois Lowry’s book The Giver into a film.  That’s been the story for years.  What is news is that he finally, and at long last, got the green light.  You can list to the Studio 360 on the news right here.


In other it’s-not-news-except-that-it’s-news there have been a couple articles out there about New York Public Library’s upcoming makeover.  The Daily News talks about it here and The New York Times does the same here.  All I care is that there’s to be a new children’s room and a new teen space and they will be separate.  Whew!


Color me cynical but any time I see a journal or magazine for the masses do a best children’s book list for the year I can’t help but think the writer is just cribbing off the free samples savvy publishers sent to their door.  Then I get even more cynical and think, “How can I get my own book into the EW offices next holiday season?”  Such self-interest will have to wait, at least until we look at EW’s 10 Great Kids Books of 2012.  Ten is a pretty small number, but cynicism aside it’s actually a pretty darn smart list.  They even worked in a little nonfiction!  Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the link!


Did this appear in PW Children’s Bookshelf and I just didn’t see it?  I think I’d remember an article called The 5 Books That Inspire the Most Tattoos.  Featured on the PWxyz blog, 3 out of the 5 books mentioned are children’s.  Darn tootin’.


Speaking of PW Children’s Bookshelf, they did find some fabulous fodder as of late.  Now I’m fairly certain I first saw this on their site, but when I tried to relocate it on there I failed miserably.  Regardless of where it came from, if you haven’t seen the piece on Celebrities Who Have Modeled For Book Covers, do so now.  The Baby-Sitters Club connection is worth it.


Also found there, it’s hard to resist a piece with a name like Scholastic Editors Predict Trends in Children’s Books.  Which should probably be called Scholastic Editors Predict Trends in Children’s and YA Books, but we’ll let ‘em off the hook this time.  A good list of things to look for, though they forgot to mention twins in middle grade, clones in YA, and the upcoming space opera plethora of literature.  Though admittedly that last trend might just be wishful thinking on my part.


Though I take issue with the little summaries on the sidebar that call this How We Write: The Snickets (Lisa Brown is no such of a thing) if you want to see people being smart in the face of inane questions, this little Q&A is enough to convince anyone that neither you nor I is/am/are clever enough to ever be interviewed in this manner.  Extra Bonus: It includes a link to American Chickens (the duo’s zine) which I had hitherto not been privy to see.


Daily Image:

Trust Berlin to get awesome on us yet again.  This week we see that the Bookcrossing Bookswap Club has struck again.  This time they’re using fallen tree trunks to give out the goods.  Here’s a taste here.

You can get a full taste of the goods at Inhabitat.  Thanks to mom for the link!

NYPL’s Children’s Literature Salon : Ethics in Nonfiction for Kids

Oh yeah, babies.  I’m staring 2013 off with a bang!  As you’ll recall, each month I host these free gatherings at the main branch of NYPL for anyone with an interest in children’s literature.  In New York City this Saturday?  Have some spare time around 2 p.m.?  Come on by and watch!  I guaran-dang-tee it’s going to be one helluva good show.  The deets:

New York Public Library’s Children’s Literary Salon is pleased to announce our event on Saturday, January 5th at 2:00 p.m.:

Ethics in Nonfiction for Kids

Join authors Sue Macy, Susan Kuklin, Deborah Heiligman, and author/illustrator Meghan McCarthy for a discussion of informational texts and ethical standards.

This event will be held in the main branch of NYPL (The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, located at 42nd Street and 5th Avenue) in the Berger Forum on the second floor.  No RSVP necessary.  All lovers of children’s books welcome.

Press Release Fun: A Poem a Day in 2013

From the pen of Jane Yolen, a 365 day a year project:

SAVING AMERICA’S ECONOMY ONE POEM AT A TIME

For the past three years I have joined with other local Western Massachusetts poets in writing a poem a day in November. We sign up readers who pledge a certain amount per poem to aid a local literacy charity:  the Center for New Americans in Northampton, MA. It was a wonderful scheme invented by the then Northampton poet laureate, Leslea Newman.

After the first November, I realized that—while I was lucky to get two or three really good (after many revisions) poems, that the exercise gave me much more than that. I had pushed myself to think as a poet for thirty days in a row, not just occasionally when an idea popped into my head or I had time I could steal from other projects.

Like a piano student’s fingerwork, the every-day poem gave me a poetic flexibility I’d lost.  So I determined then to try and write a poem a day for a year. Now I’m about to start the third year. Along the way, the majority of the poems have been consigned to the back files, most likely never to be seen again by anyone except masochistic scholars. But about fifty or so of the poems this year have already been published—after considerable revisions–in journals, magazines, in my latest collection for HolyCow! that venerable small press in the Midwest, as well as in upcoming children’s books. A pretty good ratio.

And yet. . .and yet. . .some piece of the year-long puzzle has been missing.

I finally realized the missing piece was the reader’s respons. When one of my November pledgers wrote back this year telling me that the day’s poem was life-changing (or at least day-changingI knoew I’d written something that had the ability to sneak into the armor chinks, slip under the lowering portcullis. It happened several times with several different poems. I may be a slow learner about some things, but I caught on to that!

So I developed a new plan I: “A Poem A Day/ A Book a Month”. I offered to write and send out a new poem a day for the next year, beginning on January, 1 to people who subscribed. The only cost is that instead of sending money to me, the subscriber has to buy one of my books that month from a local bookstore or take one out of the library to read.

Here’s my poem for this January 1, my New Year’s resolution. I will have all of 2013 to work on it, to get it right or sell it to a magazine, for as all poets know (and Paul Valery said it first): a poem is never finished, it’s abandoned.

            Resolved: Combustion

 

“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion.

You must set yourself on fire.” Arnold H. Glasow

 

First find the right tinder,

a handful of dry grass,

the idea of the poem, piecemeal,

shaggy, rough, flaking in the hand.

A bit of flint next, the hard idea,

needing something striking at the core.

Find a stick, not for poking about with,

that will come later in the revision,

but to cradle the nascent flame.

Then blow. Oh—wait,

your hot air is not regulated enough.

You might put the small spark out.

Thrust the ember into the pith,

into the heart of the poem.

Feel the heat of it, browning the edges,

curling, curing, curating your lines.

Now you are ready, the fire is set.

Breath deep. Blow yourself apart.

Jane Yolen, often called “the Hans Christian Andersen of America,” is the author of over 300 books ranging   from rhymed picture books and baby board books, through middle grade fiction, poetry collections, nonfiction, and up to novels and story collections for young adults and adults. She has won two Nebulas, a World Fantasy Award, a Caldecott, the Golden Kite Award, three Mythopoeic awards, two Christopher Medals, a nomination for the National Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award, among multiple other awards s. She is also the winner (for body of work) of the Kerlan Award, the World Fantasy Assn. Lifetime Achievement Award, Science Fiction Poetry Association Grand Master Award, the Catholic Library’s Regina Medal, and the 2012 du Grummond Medal. Six colleges and universities have given her honorary doctorates. Also worthy of note, her Skylark Award–given by the New England Science Fiction Association, set her good coat on fire. Her website is www.janeyolen.com

Jane Yolen’s website is www.janeyolen.com for people who would like to contact her to sign up to receive poems.

Betsy Regretsy: Books I Most Regret Not Reviewing in 2012

Observe!  Before your very eyes I will now beat my breast and rend my clothing (simultaneously… I’m talented like that) while wailing at a fever pitch about the books that I wish I had reviewed in 2012.  You see, I give myself some pretty strict rules when it comes to reviewing.  Once the second hand strikes midnight and the new year comes in, that is IT for the previous year’s titles.  Not all is lost, of course.  There is a chance that if any of these books win a Newbery or Caldecott I will do some last minute reviewing of them right after the award announcements.  But otherwise, these are the folks who lost out and I sincerely regret it.  Technically every book that appeared on yesterday’s 100 Magnificent Children’s Books 2012 list should be here, but from that I’ll select just a couple that make me particularly sad.

Without further ado, and in no particular order whatsoever . . .

H.O.R.S.E. by Christopher Myers – Gah.  The ONLY reason I didn’t do this one is that the sole copy in my possession is at NYPL because we placed it on the 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing List (which ain’t a bad thing) and there it stays with the other books of the year.  The book was remarkable for a lot of reasons, not least of which was the fact that it was one of the very very few contemporary picture books with African-American characters.

Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky: Poetry and Prose by Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School. Edited by Timothy P. McLaughlin. Illustrated by S. D. Nelson. – The number of books written by Native Americans is small in any given year, so what was my excuse for not reviewing either Louise Erdrich’s Chickadee or this remarkable collection of poetry by the kids at the Red Cloud Indian School?  Whatever it was, it wasn’t good enough.

Crow by Barbara Wright – If it really does win a Newbery this year I’m gonna feel pretty stupid for predicting its win and then never reviewing it.  I just adore this description of the book on the author’s website: “The only successful coup d’etat in US history, seen through the eyes of a young boy.”  Great new paperback cover too.

The Fairy Ring by Mary Losure – Funny that other folks didn’t like this one as much as I did.  I really did feel it was one of the best little recaps of a successful hoax out there (though by no means the only one written in a children’s book format in 2012).  Great production and design, lovely writing, a stellar project through and through.

Bomb: The Race to Build – And Steal – The World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin – This one took me a long time to read since I thought it was straight YA and I don’t get a chance to look at a lot of that fare in a given year.  That said, I think this is one of the rare YA titles eligible for the Newbery, and just a stellar piece of writing through and through!  Sorry I missed the boat here.

Trains Go by Steve Light – I officially reviewed only one board book this year.  Would that it has been two.  Though you could call this a sequel of sorts (Trucks Go came out four or so years prior) this book was a magical combination of great train sounds and stellar art.

Cardboard by Doug TenNapel – And then I go and find out that it’s currently being turned into a film starring Tobey Maguire.  Gah!  There were so few really imaginative graphic novels this year.  The sequence where the old man explains the cardboard’s sci-fi / fantasy / religious background was worth the price of admission alone.

Duck for a Day by Meg McKinlay, illustrated by Judith Rudge – Don’t count how many Candlewick books made my 100 Magnificent Children’s Books list for the year.  It’s a little silly.  Fortunately I was able to keep my reviews on par with the other publishers.  UNfortunately, that meant not getting a chance to review stellar works like this one.  A great little early chapter book it was by no means the only duck related early chapter title of 2012 (I counted at least four others) but it was, at least, the best.

Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery – Sweet jeebus it was good.  Bar none the best book on autism for kids I’ve ever read.  I think I missed this one because it got SO much excellent press when it first came out.  Guess I felt I would be a single voice lost in the chorus.  Ah well.

Duck Sock Hop by Jane Kohuth, illustrated by Jane Porter – My library’s amazing catalog (called Bibliocommons) allows us to make lists that are searchable by all the other 50+ systems that use the same system.  One list I made for this year was Top Ten Picture Book Read-Alouds of 2012.  And you can bet this book was prominently promoted on that list.  Oh yes indeedy it was.

Deadweather and Sunrise by Geoff Rodkey – Another victim of timing.  I’ll stand by my statement that it’s the funniest pirate chapter book for kids I’ve ever read.  There aren’t enough humorous books in a given year anyway.  May as well seek out the few that exist (and are honestly funny).

Let’s Sing a Lullaby with the Brave Cowboy by Jan Thomas – As a children’s librarian I have a natural adoration for Jan Thomas.  This book really ranks up there with Rhyming Dust Bunnies, coming across as funny in all the right ways.  The sole problem I have with it is that I keep misremembering the title as “Let’s Go Sleep with the Brave Cowboy” which would be a very different book (I have a similar problem with Mo Willems and his this-is-not-the-actual-title “Let’s Go Sleep with Sheep the Sheep”).

Plunked by Michael Northrup – Dang de dang de dang.  I totally failed to keep up with boy sports fiction this year.  So you’d think that the one really good one I read, one of the few where the hero is an actual honest-to-god jock, would have gotten some attention from me.  Michael’s been coming to my KidLit Drink Nights here in NYC for years.  Would have loved to give him his proper due.  Ah well.

Buried Alive!: How 33 Miners Survived 69 Days Deep Under the Chilean Desert by Elaine Scott – I reviewed Marc Aronson’s Trapped on the same topic last year.  Would that I had seen this first.  Incredibly gripping and kid-friendly, I didn’t do right by Ms. Scott.  Couldn’t get enough people to read her in time.  If you get a chance, do look at this.  It’s a remarkable story and the visuals in this format just POP!

Drama by Raina Telgemeier – Well, at least I got Smile in, even if it was in the Times and not on this blog.  Even as I write this I come to the slow dawning horror of a realization that I’ve never reviewed Telgemeier on this blog . . . ever.  Not even once.  And it’s not like she churns one out a year or anything!  ARG!

In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz – Oh, you should have seen the notes I wrote at the back of its galley.  They were scintillating.  Brilliant.  Man, I was drawing comparisons between this and Starry River of the Sky that would have made your head spin.  Pity it never happened.  Still, I’m heartened to hear that #3 in this series (if you can call it that) is on the horizon and that it involves The Juniper Tree (amongst other things).  I’m having nightmares in anticipation already.

And in the final reviewing tally, here is the complete list of the publishers I DID review in the year 2012:

Abrams: 3

(Amulet: 2)

Barefoot Books: 1

Bloomsbury: 1

(Walker: 1)

Blue Apple Books: 1

Candlewick: 6

(TOON Books: 1)

Charlesbridge: 1

Chronicle: 2

Cuento de Luz: 1

Eerdmans: 2

Enchanted Lion Press: 1

Groundwood Books: 1

Harper Collins: 6

(Harper: 3)

(Balzer & Bray: 1)

(Greenwillow: 1)

(Walden Pond Press: 1)

Holiday House: 1

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 4

(Clarion: 3)

Hyperion: 1

Kids Can Press: 1

Lerner: 2

(Graphics: 1)

(Millbrook Press: 1)

Little Brown & Co: 2

Macmillan: 6

(Roaring Brook: 5)

(First Second: 1)

Mims House: 1

National Geographic: 1

Penguin: 3

(G.P. Putnam’s Sons: 2)

(Dial: 1)

Phaidon: 1

Random House: 6

(Anchor Books: 1)

(Wendy Lamb: 2)

(Knopf: 1)

(David Fickling: 1)

Scholastic: 2

Simon & Schuster: 5

(Atheneum: 2)

(Beach Lane: 1)

(Margaret K. McElderry Books: 1)

Simply Read Books: 1

Tater Tot Books: 1

I like to alternate the big guys with the little.  A couple folks are missing, so I’ll have to make sure I hit them in the new year.

Woot!  2012 OUT!

100 Magnificent Children’s Books of 2012

Happy 2013, everybody!

*tweet!*

And that officially marks the end of all my 2012 reviews.  I’ll have an appropriate regret-filled post on the matter tomorrow, but for now let’s celebrate the year!  Everyone has their own little lists, and I am no exception.  In case you’re curious, I did similar ones for 2010 and 2011.  Now just because I don’t mention your favorite book here, that doesn’t mean I don’t adore it on some level.  I just had to limit these titles to 100, which is bloody difficult.  Similarities to the 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing list from NYPL are acknowledged, but there are some definitely differences, you betcha.  For one thing, I could only include the books I’d actually read on this list.

So without further ado . . . here we go!!

Picture Books

And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano. Illustrated by Erin E. Stead. Roaring Brook Press

Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff. Beach Lane Books

Beach Feet by Kiyomi Konagaya. Illustrated by Masamitsu Saito. Enchanted Lion Books

Boot & Shoe by Marla Frazee. Beach Lane Books

Cat Tale by Michael Hall. Greenwillow Books

Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Adam Rex. Hyperion Books

Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds. Illustrated by Peter Brown. Simon & Schuster

Duck Sock Hop by Jane Kohuth. Illustrated by Jane Porter. Dial Books for Young Readers

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Jon Klassen. Balzer & Bray

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. Roaring Brook Press

Happy Like Soccer by Maribeth Boelts. Illustrated by Lauren Castillo. Candlewick Press

H.O.R.S.E.: A Game of Basketball and Imagination by Christopher Myers. Egmont USA

It’s a Tiger! by David LaRochelle. Illustrated by Jeremy Tankard. Chronicle Books

Jimmy the Greatest! by Jairo Buitrago. Illustrated by Rafael Yockteng. Groundwood Books

John Jensen Feels Different by Henrik Hovland. Illustrated by Torill Kove. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

Jonathan & Martha by Petr Horacek. Phaidon

Lester’s Dreadful Sweaters by K.G. Campbell. Kids Can Press

Let’s Sing a Lullaby with the Brave Cowboy by Jan Thomas. Beach Lane Books

Me and Momma and Big John by Mara Rockliff. Illustrated by William Low. Candlewick Press

My Dad Is Big and Strong, But . . . by Coralie Saudo. Illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo. Enchanted Lion Books

The Quiet Place by Sarah Stewart. Illustrated by David Small. Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Step Gently Out by Helen Frost. Photographs by Rick Lieder. Candlewick Press

The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson. Illustrated by Julie Morstad. Simply Read Books

Trains Go by Steve Light. Chronicle Books

Up, Tall and High by Ethan Long. G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Folk and Fairytales

The Goldilocks Variations by Allan Ahlberg. Illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg. Candlewick Press

The Great Race: An Indonesian Trickster Tale. Retold by Nathan Kumar Scott. Illustrated by Jagdish Chitara. Tara Books

Hans My Hedgehog: A Tale from the Brothers Grimm. Adapted by Kate Coombs. Originally written by Brothers Grimm. Illustrated by John Nickle. Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Robin Hood. Retold by David Calcutt. Illustrated by Grahame Baker-Smith. Barefoot Books

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse: An Aesop Fable. Retold by Helen Ward. Templar Books

Poetry

Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems by Gail Carson Levine. Illustrated by Matthew Cordell. Harper

Leave Your Sleep: A Collection of Classic Children’s Poetry. Adapted to music by Natalie Merchant. Illustrated by Barbara McClintock. Farrar Straus Giroux

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry. Edited by J. Patrick Lewis. National Geographic

Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies. Illustrated by Mark Hearld. Candlewick Press

Shiver Me Timbers!: Pirate Poems & Paintings by Douglas Florian. Illustrated by Robert Neubecker. Beach Lane Books

Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky: Poetry and Prose by Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School. Edited by Timothy P. McLaughlin. Illustrated by S. D. Nelson. Abrams Books for Young Readers

Early Chapter Books

The Adventures of Sir Balin the Ill-Fated by Gerald Morris. Illustrated by Aaron Renier. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Duck for a Day by Meg McKinlay. Illustrated by Leila Rudge. Candlewick.

The No. 1 Car Spotter and the Firebird by Atinuke. Illustrated by Warwick Caldwell Johnson. Walker & Company.

Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover by Cece Bell. Candlewick Press.

Sadie and Ratz by Sonya Hartnett. Illustrated by Ann James. Candlewick Press.

Twelve Kinds of Ice by Ellen Bryan Obed. Illustrated by Barbara McClintock. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Older Chapter Books

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton. David Fickling Books

Buddy by M. H. Herlong. Viking

The Case of the Deadly Desperadoes by Caroline Lawrence. Orion Children’s Books

Chickadee by Louise Erdrich. Harper

Crow by Barbara Wright. Random House

Deadweather and Sunrise by Geoff Rodkey. Putnam Juvenile

Fairest of All by Sarah Mlynowski. Scholastic

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen. Scholastic Press

Freaky Fast Frankie Joe by Lucile Clifton. Holiday House

Goblin Secrets by William Alexander. Margaret K. McElderry Books

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy. Illustrated by Todd Harris. Walden Pond Press

In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz. Dutton Children’s Books

The Kairos Mechanism by Kate Milford. The Clockwork Foundry

Katerina’s Wish by Jeannie Mobley. Margaret K. McElderry Books

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead. Random House

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine. G. P. Putnam’s Sons

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. Illustrated by Patricia Castelao. Harper

Pickle: The Formerly Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School by Kim Baker. Illustrated by Tim Probert. Roaring Brook Press

Plunked by Michael Northrop. Scholastic Press

The Prince Who Fell From the Sky by John Claude Bemis. Random House

Return to the Willows by Jacqueline Kelly. Illustrated by Clint Young. Henry Holt and Company

Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz. Candlewick Press

The Star Shard by Frederick S. Durbin. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin. Little, Brown and Company

Summer of the Gypsy Moths by Sara Pennypacker. Balzer & Bray

Three Times Lucky by Shelia Turnage. Dial Books for Young Readers

The Traveling Restaurant by Barbara Else. Gecko Press

The Unfortunate Son by Constance Leeds. Viking

The Vengekeep Prophecies by Brian Farrey. Illustrated by Brett Helquist. Harper

Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket. Illustrated by Seth. Little, Brown & Co.

Wonder by R. J. Palacio. Alfred A. Knopf

Graphic Novels

Cardboard by Doug TenNapel. Graphix

Drama by Raina Telgemeier. Graphix

Fangbone! Third-Grade Barbarian by Michael Rex. G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Giants Beware! by Jorge Aguirre. Illustrated by Rafael Rosado. First Second

Hades: Lord of the Dead by George O’Connor. First Second

Little White Duck: A Childhood in China by Na Liu and Andres Vera Martinez. Graphic Universe

Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Big Bad Ironclad! by Nathan Hale Amulet Books

The Secret of the Stone Frog by David Nytra. Toon Books

Nonfiction Picture Books

Bird Talk: What Birds Are Saying and Why by Lita Judge. Flash Point

Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman by Marc Tyler Nobleman. Illustrated by Ty Templeton. Charlesbridge Publishing

The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau by Michelle Markel. Illustrated by Amanda Hall. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

How Many Jelly Beans? by Andrea Menotti. Illustrated by Yancy Labat. Chronicle Books

It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw by Don Tate. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. Lee & Low Books Inc.

Jazz Age Josephine by Jonah Winter. Illustrated by Marjorie Priceman. Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey by Gary Golio. Illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez. Clarion Books

Nonfiction Chapter Books

A Black Hole Is Not a Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano. Illustrated by Michael Carroll. Charlesbridge

Buried Alive! How 33 Miners Survived 69 Days Deep Under the Chilean Desert by Elaine Scott. Clarion Books

Chuck Close: Face Book by Chuck Close. Abrams Books for Young Readers

The Fairy Ring by Mary Losure. Candlewick Press

The Great Molasses Flood: Boston, 1919 by Deborah Kops. Charlesbridge

Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America, by Andrea Davis Pinkney. Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. Hyperion

The Human Body Factory by Dan Green. Illustrated by Edmond Davis. Kingfisher

Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure by Jim Murphy and Alison Blank. Clarion Books

The Skull in the Rock: How a Scientist, a Boy and Google Earth Opened a New Window on Human Origins by Marc Aronson and Lee Berger. National Geographic Books for Children

Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson. Scholastic Press

Zombie Makers: True Stories of Nature’s Undead by Rebecca L. Johnson. Millbrook Press

Review of the Day: Henry and the Incredibly Incorrigible, Inconveniently Intelligent Smart Human by Lynn Messina

Henry and the Incredibly Incorrigible, Inconveniently Intelligent Smart Human

By Lynn Messina

Tater Tot Books

$7.99

ISBN: 978-0984901845

Ages 9-12

On shelves now.

Every year I swear to myself that I’ll review at least one self-published book written for kids. And every year I manage to do it, but only after sifting through countless manuscripts. The process is as close as I ever come to living the swanky life of an unpaid publishing company intern. Your slush piles ain’t got nothin’ on my slush piles. Why do I do it? Because every once in a great while I hit gold. Pure, uncut, rarified gold, my friend. I find a book that really is remarkable. Really is worth reading. Finding a picture book that falls into that category is hard enough. Chapter books for middle grade readers can be even trickier. The last time it happened was back in 2008 when I reviewed B.B. Wurge’s Billy and the Birdfrogs. Now at the tail end of 2012 I find the remarkable, hilarious, exciting, and downright diamond-in-the-rough worthy Henry and the Incredibly Incorrigible, Inconveniently Intelligent Smart Human. A smart little novel with a catchy hook I’ve not seen in a book for kids before, hand this one to the next kid who comes you whining that their teacher told them to read something “science fiction”. They’ll moan no more, guaranteed.

They say the 13th upgrade is the hardest. Insufficient comfort for a robot like Henry, though. Because of a bug in his system Henry just can’t keep up with the other kids in his class. Things seem pretty gloomy until good news arrives. Henry’s dad has just received a fantastic new appliance. It’s the HueManTech ETC-420- GX-2, a top of the line human meant to do menial tasks around the home. Trouble is, the human’s good. Too good. And the more time Henry spends with it, the more he comes to suspect that this human might be so smart it could be used as a weapon by the government itself. What’s a kid to do when his best friend’s an appliance? Save the day, of course.

The basic premise that robots are the productive members of society and humans merely their appliances is a joke that by all rights should get old fast. What’s remarkable is that not only does Messina pull it off, she turns it into world building. Slowly you begin to envision the fields where wild consoles are harvested and turned into video games. Where prisons are kept at ridiculously high temperatures to keep rogue robots in check. Where fire isn’t a concern but water can be death itself. To make the idea of robots human and humans robots, Messina had to be extraordinarily clear from page one onward about where Henry lived and what his world was like. At the same time, she sets him in a space that’s familiar to many a kid reader. What child can’t relate to being called on in class and unable to conjure up the correct answer at a moment’s notice? That’s the sly trick of the novel. It couches the strange in the familiar and ends up the stronger for it.

If the child reader is anything like myself then they’ll begin the book by trying to figure out if this is an entirely alternate reality, or if it’s some kind of post-apocalyptic world where robots have taken over and humanity has long since been forgotten. I kept wavering between the two possibilities for the better part of the book. This feeling was fed into by little hints Messina posed from time to time. For example, at one point E asks Henry where original ideas come from if robots are programmed to replicate only the same ideas over and over again. Henry finds this to be an impossible paradox, suggesting perhaps that robots aren’t the be all and end all. Later it becomes clear that there may be a conspiracy surrounding the creation of humans in the first place. I won’t ruin for you whether one theory or another was correct. Regardless, it satisfies sufficiently.

There are some distinct horrorific elements to the tale, but they’re told as matter-of-factly as if this were everyday fare. Humans that fail in their programming are sent to be compacted, easy peasy. It sort of has a slow creeping horror when you hear that. And really it isn’t until E is on the precipice of his own compaction that it’s drilled home to the reader. I had visions of the song “Worthless” from The Brave Little Toaster as all this happened. Or maybe Soylent Green. The funny thing is that though Messina ratchets up the tension, you don’t get a clear sense of the bloody process involved. And that is a-okay with me.

Alas, due to the number of times the book repeats the human’s official name of HueManTech ETC-420- GX-2, I’m afraid this won’t exactly be a readaloud, unless the reader is willing to shorten the little human’s name “E” or “ETC” for the bulk of the book. Aside from that it’s a pretty compact, smart bit of a novel. The kind of book that’ll make kids question the ease with which they treat their own iPads, iPods, and other handy dandy devices like things without feelings. A great discussion topic would be a thought about a next generation tablet so smart it has opinions of its own. Hey, man. Stranger things could happen. Just read this book if you don’t believe me.

On shelves now.

Source: Copy sent from author for review.

Like This? Then Try:

The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes


Eager by Helen Fox


Brother From a Box by Evan Kuhlman

Videos:

There is a book trailer that I particularly like…

Review of the Day: Pickle by Kim Baker

Pickle: The (Formerly) Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School

By Kim Baker

Illustrated by Tim Probert

Roaring Brook Press (a division of Macmillan)

$15.99

ISBN: 978-1-59643-765-4

Ages 9-12

On shelves now

When I was in college I took a course in journalism to fulfill an English credit. I had no real desire to report the news in any way, shape, or form so when the time came to write an article for the paper I had to find something that would be in my wheelhouse. Ultimately I decided to write a piece on the history of pranks at my alma mater. It was a fun piece to write and instilled in me not a love of reporting but rather a love of pranking and all it entails. A good prank, a true prank, does no harm aside from a minor inconvenience for the poor schmuck who has to clean it up. It does not destroy school property, causing only joy for those innocents who witness it. And pranks, the really good ones, are almost impossible to think up. Now it’s hard enough to think up a prank for a liberal arts college in eastern Indiana. Imagine how much more difficult it is to think up a whole roster of pranks for a fictional elementary school. That is the task Kim Baker gave herself and the end result is a book that I simply cannot keep on my library shelves. Kids eat this book up with a spoon.

What would you do if you found out your favorite pizza joint was getting rid of all the balls in their ball pit for free? If you’re Ben Diaz, the answer is simple. You make several trips with the balls to your elementary school, dump the lot in your classroom window, and then sit back and enjoy the show. It’s an auspicious beginning for an up-and-coming prankster, and once Ben gets a taste of the havoc (and admiration) his act garners, there’s no stopping him. Next thing you know he’s started a prank club with school funds. Okay… technically the school thinks that he’s started a pickle club, but that shouldn’t be a problem, right? Trouble is, once you’ve started something as silly as a prank club, it’s hard to know when you’ve crossed a line and gone a little too far.

There’s been a lot of talk in the press and the general public about the fact that when it comes to Latino characters in children’s books you may as well be asking for the moon. They exist, but are so few and far between when compared to other ethnicities that one has a hard time figuring out who precisely is to blame. Pickle, I am pleased to report, stars a Hispanic kid who is featured on the cover front and center, no hiding his race or getting all namby pamby on who he is. And let me tell you now that the only thing rarer than a children’s book starring a Latino boy is finding a children’s book starring a Latino boy that’s hilarious and fun. The kind of book a kid would pick up willingly on their own in the first place. It’s like a little diamond on your bookshelf. A rara avis.

Now the key to any realistic school story, no matter how wacky, is likable characters. Not everyone in this book is someone you’d like to hang out with (personally I wouldn’t cry a tear if Bean took a long walk off a short pier) but for the most part you’re fond of these kids. Ben himself is a pretty swell guy. I don’t think anyone’s going to accuse Baker of failing to write a believable boy voice. Best of all, he’s a can do kind of kid. He takes charge. His solution to the pickle problem is well nigh short of inspired, and a nice example of a protagonist using their special skills to problem solve. And though the true antagonist of the book is the principal, it’s clear that his best friend Hector is a likable but lowly worm that serves as the emotional antagonist to our hero. You can’t help but like the fact that Hector is such a stoolie/squealer that he will not only confess crimes he and Ben have committed but crimes they NOT committed as well. There is no better way to get a reader on your side than to tap into their sense of injustice and unfairness. It is a pity that the only girls in the group are the only people incapable of really good pranks. Or, rather, one is incapable of coming up with a good prank and the other is perfectly good but goes rogue with it.

Baker distinguishes nicely between pranks that merely annoy and pranks that upset and destroy. Undoubtedly there will be adults out there that worry that by reading this book kids are going to immediately go out and start putting soap in their own school’s fountains/drinking fountains/what have you. Aside from the fact that most of the pranks in this book would be difficult to pull off (unless your kids have access to abandoned ball pits, I think you’re pretty safe) the book distinguishes nicely between those pranks that do good and those that do harm. I’m sure there are adults who believe that there is no “good” prank in the world. Those are the folks who should probably steer clear of this one.

Pranking requires a certain set of requisite skills. You need to be smart enough to figure out what the pranks should be and how to make them work. You need to have the guts to pull them off, regardless of the consequences. And you need to know when you’ve gone two far. Include only the first two requirements and leave off the third and you’ve got yourself one heckuva fun book like Pickle. Celebrating the kind of anarchy only pranking can truly inspire, this is one of those books for kids that are truly FOR kids. Gatekeepers need not apply. Show one to a kiddo and watch the fun begin.

On shelves now.

Source: Galley sent from author for review.

Like This? Then Try:

Double Dog Dare by Lisa Graff


M3: Sir John Hargrave’s Mischief Maker’s Manual by John Hargrave


The Bad Apple (The Merits of Mischief #1) by T.R. Burns


The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander

Other Blog Reviews:

There’s a Book
Teaching My Baby to Read
Teen Reading Reviews

Professional Reviews:

Kirkus
Publishers Weekly

Misc:

The faux pickle related website that “Ben” created is pretty fun.  Hard not to love a site that promotes popsicles made out of pickle juice.  Mmm mmm!


Read an excerpt of the first chapter here.

Videos:

One hot and piping book trailer, just ready for you!

Review of the Day: It’s a Tiger! by David LaRochelle

It’s a Tiger!

By David LaRochelle

Illustrated by Jeremy Tankard

Chronicle Books

$16.99

ISBN: 978-0-8118-6925-6

Ages 4-8

On shelves now

There is an art to reading a picture book but I’ve not encountered many schools that actually teach that skill. Librarians will learn it in their graduate courses, of course, but what about parents and booksellers? Are they doomed to stumble through their readings without getting some of the insider tips and tricks? Yup, pretty much. The only thing you can really do is just recommend to them picture books that make reading aloud one-on-one or to large groups a painless experience. Books that have an inherent interior rhythm and logic that kids will naturally adhere to. So each and every year I sit and wait for those great picture book readalouds of the year. For 2012 I’ve seen a couple that lend themselves to groups. Up, Tall and High by Ethan Long is ideal for preschoolers. Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds is perfect for the 1st and 2nd graders. But the all-around best readaloud of the year, bar none as far as I can tell, has got to be It’s a Tiger! A boon to librarians and booksellers looking for new storytime fare as well as parents and grandparents, David LaRochelle’s latest is a hoot, a holler, and could even be called a hootenanny if you’re so inclined to call it that.

So you’re walking through the forest, minding your own business, checking out monkeys when you realize that the orange and black tail over there isn’t a vine at all. It’s a TIGER!! Like a shot you (which is to say, the boy in the book) take off lickety split. Still, it doesn’t matter where you go. Whatever you do, that darned tiger seems to follow. Dark caves, ships at sea, desert islands, the tiger is everywhere! At the end you realize that the tiger doesn’t really want to eat you. So to put it to sleep you decide to tell it a story. A story about a boy walking through the forest until he sees a green scaly vine. Wait a minute . . . that’s not a vine . . . .

It took a couple readings before I realized something essential about this particular book. Turns out, this is one of the rare picture books written in the second person. You do this. You do that. The reader actually is the little boy who finds himself inexplicably running into the same orange and black foe over and over again. It’s a narrative technique that I just know that I’ve seen in picture books before, but when I try to think of them I find myself stumped. They’re not as common as you might think and I certainly can’t come up with any that are also great read alouds for large groups. By making the audience the narrator they get all the requisite chills and thrills without actually feeling like they’re in direct danger. It would be a good companion to Michael Rosen’s We’re Going On A Bear Hunt honestly. Same threat level. Same you-are-there aspects.

I think what I like best about the book is the fact that it goes from surprising to funny in fairly short order. The first three or four times you turn the page and encounter a tiger the kids are still uncertain about the order of occurrences. Once the pattern is firmly established, that’s when they can kind of let go and enjoy. Then LaRochelle ratchets up the silly factor and the kids really begin to have fun. We don’t always remember that children have a relatively refined sense of the absurd. They’re literalists, every last one, and though they might point out the flaws in your logic as you read the book (how can you swing and land on the tiger when you just escaped the tiger?) there’s a different kind of fun to be had in telling grown-ups they can’t possibly be right about something. It’s a Tiger! combines several different kinds of reading pleasures then. Interactive (kids can yell “It’s a tiger!” along with the reader). Power plays (telling adults they must be mistaken). The element of surprise. The controlled fear factor. It’s all there. And it’s awesome.

It is difficult for me to be impartial about a book that features the art of Jeremy Tankard. A couple years ago he burst onto the picture book scene with three books that changed the way I do preschool storytimes (Grumpy Bird, Me Hungry!, and Boo Hoo Bird). Even when he’s working on other people’s books, as in the case here, he has a distinctive style that can’t be beat. In this book he utilizes his usual ink and digital media style, but the colors are extraordinary. They just pop off the page with these magnificent blues, greens, oranges, yellows, and reds. It was interesting to note that the pages themselves have a sheen and gleam I’ve not noticed in a picture book before. Hold them up to the light and watch as the thick black lines and colors seem as though they should be transparent, if that makes any sense. That visual pop means that when you reach the every-other-page “surprise” of the tiger, Tankard can really make the animal’s appearance seem surprising. He uses some anime-type lines around the tiger from time to time to direct the eye to the center of the page, which as of this review still has a new and contemporary feel to it. We’ve seen it in books by folks like Dan Santat for years, of course. My suspicion is that though it will certainly make the book feel like an early-21st creation, that doesn’t mean it’ll age poorly. It’s simply a work of its time now.

Long story short, we haven’t seen a boy/tiger relationship this complex since the days of Calvin and Hobbes. Tigers are such cute and cuddly carnivores, and honestly it’s very difficult to be perfectly afraid of something as soft and fluffy as a tiger. That sort of makes them ideal picture book threats. LaRochelle has written innovative picture books for years now (The End, etc.). Pairing him with Tankard just guarantees a hit. Put this one on your Must Have list and stat.

On shelves now.

Source: Final copy sent from publisher for review.

Like This? Then Try:

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, ill. Helen Oxenbury


Snip, Snap! What’s That? by Mara Bergman


Fortunately by Remy Charlip

Other Blog Reviews: 

Shelf Elf
Picture-Book-a-Day
books4yourkids.com
Cinjoella

Professional Reviews:

Kirkus
Publishers Weekly

Other Reviews:

ChildrensBooksGuide.com
Richie’s Picks

Interviews:

Watch. Connect. Read. talks with David LaRochelle
Watch. Connect. Read. talks with Jeremy Tankard

Misc:

A behind the scenes glimpse at the making of the book.


And here’s the activity kit.


And here’s a teacher’s guide.

Videos:

A handy dandy book trailer, here for the viewing.

Video Sunday: Six ships of my own making

I’ve blogged about this fellow before, but it’s been a while.  There’s a young actor in L.A. by the name of Hunter Davis who has a penchant for doing a dead on Ian McKellen imitation.  He’ll post videos of his antics from time to time, and with the release of the new Hobbit movie you can see that he’s extended his repertoire a tad.  Apparently it isn’t just Ian McKellen.  He has a pretty good Andy Serkis as well.

Previous videos include things like the theme to Ducktales, the Magic Dance song in Labyrinth, that sort of thing.

Now I understand that Christmas has come and gone and that if you’re anything like me you’re just vegetating on your couch watching the snowflakes fall, contemplating the sheer caloric loads you’ve imbibed in the last week and a half.  But insofar as I can tell it is NEVER too late to watch British children’s authors singing The 12 Books of Christmas. Here you will find Sarah and Don Conroy, Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick, Michael Emberley, Jane Mitchell, Síne Quinn, Conor Hackett and on ukelele Grainne Clear and Deirdre Sullivan.  Their band name?

The Blurbs.

Worth it if only to discover how to pronounce Niamh Sharkey.  Thanks to David Maybury for the link.

Finally, for our off-topic video (busy week, not much fodder, somehow I missed this Spike Jonze book-loving bit of stop-animation.  In the interest of work friendliness there is some copulating skeleton action over the credits at the end.  If your place of business is anti-skeleton sex, forewarned is forearmed.

Thanks to mom for the link!

Review of the Day: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom

By Christopher Healy

Walden Pond Press (an imprint of Harper Collins)

$16.99

ISBN: 978-0-06-211743-4

Ages 9-12

On shelves now.

Since when did fairytales become the realm of the girly? I blame Disney. Back in the days of Grimm your average everyday fairytale might contain princesses and pretty gowns and all that jazz, but it was also just as likely to offer its own fair share of dragons and murderers and goblins as well. Once the Disney company realized that princesses were magnificent moneymakers, gone was the gore and the elements that might make those stories appealing to the boy set. If you actually sat down and watched the films you’d see plenty of princes fighting beasts (or fighting beast princes) but the very idea of “Sleeping Beauty” or “Snow White” or any of those films has taken on a semi-sweet and sickly vibe. By the same token, it’s hard to find fractured fairytale children’s novels that can be loved just as much by boys as by girls. The great equalizer of all things is, to my mind, humor. Make something funny and gender is rendered irrelevant. There are certainly a fair number of funny fairytale-type stories out there, but to my mind none are quite so delightful and hilarious as Christopher Healy’s newest series. Starting with The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (and followed by The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle), Healy takes that most maligned of all fairytale characters and finally gives “him” a voice. You heard right. Prince Charming is finally getting his due.

Meet Princes Liam, Frederic, Duncan, and Gustav. If their names don’t ring a bell with you, don’t be too surprised. Known better by their pseudonym “Prince Charming” the princes are a bit peeved at the lousy P.R. their adventures have garnered. The bards have found that their stories tell better when the girls get all the credit (and actual names) and it isn’t just the princes that are peeved. A local witch is more than a little upset, and that anger may have something to do with the slow disappearance of the bards themselves. Now it’s up to our four heroes, brought together through the strangest of circumstances, to band together to defeat an evil witch, strike down a giant or two, outwit bandits, and generally find a way to make their faults into strengths.

I take a gander at debut author Christopher Healy’s credentials and I am oddly pleased. A reviewer of children’s books and media he has written for Cookie, iVillage, Parenting, Time Out New York Kids, and Real Simple Family. In short, he’s from the parenting sphere. Clearly he’s taken what he’s learned and applied it here because it’s his wordplay that stands out. For example, he might list the jobs Cinderella has to perform as using “every waking hour performing onerous tasks, like scrubbing grout or chipping congealed mayonnaise from between fork tines.” By the same token, the sneaky sidenote is a delicate beast. It requires of the author a bit of finesse. Go too far as a writer for children and you end up amusing only the adults who happen to pick up your book. With this in mind, Healy is a sneaky sidenote master. He’ll give away a detail about the future and then say, “Oops, sorry about that. I probably should have said, `Spoiler alert’.” That’s 21st century foreshadowing for you. Or he might sneak in a Groucho Marx reference like “Captain Spaulding” once in a while, but it works within the context of the story (and amuses reviewers like myself in the meantime). Or he’ll mention that part of the witch’s plan is shooting bears at people out of cannons. It’s hard not appreciate a mind that comes up with that kind of thing.

In his New York Times review of the book Adam Gopnik took issue with the sheer enjoyment one can have with the book, going so far as to say, “Each page offers something to laugh at, but it can be an effort to turn each page.” His objections were steeped in the world building happening here, unfavorably comparing it to The Princess Bride (an unfair comparison if ever there was one) and even shooting quite low when he dared to invoke the name of the Shrek films. Oog. The fact of the matter is that if you’re looking for deep insightful probes into the human psyche, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a perfectly fun story that meanders a bit but always stays on its feet, here’s your book. The princes are broad portraits, stereotypes that break out of their chosen roles, if reluctantly. They are also fellows you would follow from book to book to book. They have on-page chemistry (my wordier version of on-screen chemistry). You believe in these guys and you want them to succeed and not get beaten up too badly. It’s a fun and funny book and though it won’t win huge children’s literature awards it will be adored by its readership and discussed at length on the playgrounds of this good great nation. And that is just fine and dandy with me.

Considering how many contemporary updates to fairytales there are in pop culture right now (Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Snow White & The Huntsman, etc.) it’s strange to me that I can’t think of a book to quite compare with this one. A book that takes standard fairytales and familiar characters, renders them unfamiliar but human, and then loads the storyline up with bucketfuls of humor. I mean, books like A Tale Dark and Grimm and In a Glass Grimmly are newfound looks at old standards but they haven’t the light bouncy breezy quality of Healy’s work. These are fairytales for folks who love Disney, hate Disney, love fractured fairytales, love the original fairytales, and/or just like a good story in general. It’s perfect bedtime fare and ideal for those kids who want something amusing to read on their own. You know when a kid walks up to you and says they want a “funny” book? This is for them as well. Basically it’s for everyone, fantasy fans and fantasy haters alike. If ever you feel sick of the sheer seriousness of some fantasies (*cough* Eragon *cough*), this is a book for you too. Put it on your To Read list and pronto.

On shelves now.

Source: Galley sent from publisher for review.

Like This? Then Try:

The Sisters Grimm: The Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley


Fairest of All by Sarah Mlynowski


Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine


Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst


Of Giants and Ice by Shelby Bach

First Sentence: “Prince Charming is afraid of old ladies. Didn’t know that, did you?”

Book Jacket Nattering: Love it. It’s nice when a cover artist makes it clear that they actually read the book. And Todd Harris must have read this puppy several times because not only are his cover illustrations dead on, the interior ones are great as well. Mind you, I have had a lot of kids complain to me about the fact that though the four princes do appear on both the front and back covers of this book, if you look just at the front cover only two of them made the cut with Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella thrown on there as well. This problem has been fortunately remedied with the sequel where you will find all four of our heroes front and center. Here’s the full front and back of the first book’s cover:

Oh.  And love that British cover, I do.  Just not as much.

Other Blog Reviews:

The Book Smugglers
Scattered Pages
Katie’s Book Blog

Professional Reviews:

The New York Times
The Los Angeles Times
A star from Publishers Weekly
The Wall Street Journal
A star from Kirkus

Misc:

The movie rights have indeed already been picked up.


The official website is here.

Video:

A book trailer!  Huzzah!

And here’s an interview with the author, who is rather charming himself.  Clearly he writes what he knows.

And a Vlog Review.  Awwwww.