Betsy Bird's Blog, page 322

Review: 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

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.

Review of the Day: Spirit Seeker by Gary Golio

Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey

By Gary Golio

Illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez

Clarion Books (an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

$17.99

ISBN: 978-0-547-23994-1

Ages 6 and up

On shelves now

Is there any complicated hero with a past so full of darkness that their life cannot be recounted to children? This is the conundrum of any author who takes it upon his or herself to tell the stories of people who didn’t grow up happy, live lightly, and die laughing in their beds. The most interesting stories are sometimes the ones about folks who look into the eye of the devil and walk away the wiser. Trouble is, it can be hard to figure out whether or not theirs is a story kids need to know. They might love the life of Charlie Chaplin, but do you bring up his penchant for the very young ladies? Bob Marley did great things in his life . . . and consumed great amounts of drugs. Do you talk to kids about him? In the end, it all comes down to the skill of the biographer. The person who sits down and turns a great man or woman into a 32-48 page subject, appropriate for kids too young to watch PG-13 films on their own. To do it adequately is admirable. To do it brilliantly, as it’s done in Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey is worthy of higher praise.

He led as perfect a childhood as any African-American kid in the late 1930s could hope for. A loving family, two grandfather preachers, a great musician for a dad, the works. But all that came before the deaths. First his grandfather, then his father, then his grandmother too. Things grew dark for John, but an opportunity to learn the saxophone for free arose. It became John’s new religion, and the void inside him was easily filled by drugs and alcohol. He was brilliant at the instrument but was his own worst enemy when his addictions held sway. Golio tells the tale of how one young man bucked his fate and went on to become a leader in more ways than one. An Afterward, Author’s Note, Artist’s Note, and Sources and Resources appear at the end.

In any picture book biography (and this applies to bio pics on the silver screen too) the author needs to determine whether or not they’re going to try to cover the wide swath of their subject’s life, or if they’re going to select a single incident or turning point in that life and use that as the basis of their interpretation. Golio almost has it both ways. He’s certainly more in the wide swath camp, his book extending from John the child to John the successful and happy (relatively) adult. But within that storyline Golio takes care to build on certain images and themes. Reading through it you come to understand that he is showing how a happy child can become a brilliant but cursed young man, and then can escape his own personal demons, inspiring others even as he inspires himself. Under Golio’s hand Coltrane’s early exposure to religion reverberates every time he seeks out more spiritual knowledge, regardless of the sect. He loses so many people he loves (to say nothing of financial stability) then grows up to become the perfect melding of both his grandfather and his father.

Just as Golio builds on repeating images and themes in his text, so too does artist Rudy Gutierrez make a go of it in his art. The author/artist pairing on picture book is so often a case of an author writing a story, handing it over to their editor, that editor assigning it to an illustrator, and the illustrator working on the piece without any interaction with its original creator. It seems like a kind of crazy way to make great picture books, and many times the art and the text won’t meld as beautifully as they could. Then you’ll see a book like Spirit Seeker and though I know that “Gary Golio” is not a pseudonym for “Rudy Gutierrez” (or vice-versa) it sure feels like the two slaved together over each double-paged spread. I suppose the bulk of that credit lies with Gutierrez, all fairness to Golio’s text admitted. Gutierrez explains in his Artist’s Note at the end of the book that Coltrane was such an “artistic angel” to him that he fasted for two weeks so as to best focus, meditate, pray and paint this book. The result is a product that looks as though someone cared and cared deeply about the subject matter.

Mind you, the book will do kids and adults little good unless they like Gutierrez’s style. I happen to find it remarkable. He strikes the perfect balance between the literal and allegorical representation of certain aspects of Coltrane’s life. Some artists fall too far on one side or the other of that equation. Gutierrez isn’t afraid to attempt both at once. You’ve the energy of his lines trying to replicate the energy of the music, John’s grandfather’s preaching, his spiritual journey, etc. There are moments when you can actually sit a kid down and ask them something like, “What do you think it means when that single curving line moves from John’s father’s violin to his son’s heart?” At the same time, you know that Gutierrez is doing a stand up and cheer job of replicating the faces of the real people in this book time and time again. The melding of the two, sad to say, does turn a certain type of reader off. Fortunately I think that a close rereading can allay most fears.

In my own case, it took several rereadings before I began to pick up on Gutierrez’s repeated tropes. Golio begins the book with a description of John sitting in his grandfather’s church, his mother at the organ, the words of the sermon making a deep and lasting impression. That passage is recalled near the end of the book when John does his own form of “preaching” with his horn. As the text says, he was, “a holy man, shouting out his love of man to the whole human race.” You could be forgiven for not at first noticing that the image of John’s grandfather at the start of the book, hunched over a pulpit, the curve of his body lending itself to the curve of his words, is recalled in the very similar image of John’s and his saxophone, the curve of HIS body lending itself to the curve of his saxaphone’s music near the book’s end. Notice that and you start jumping back to see what else might have passed you by. The image of the dove (my favorite of these being when John meets Naima and two doves’ tails swirl to almost become a white rose). There’s so much to see in each page that you could reread this book twenty different times and make twenty different discoveries in the art alone.

I’ve mentioned earlier that there are some folks that don’t care for Gutierrez’s style. Nothing to be done about that. It’s the folks that object to doing an honest bio of Coltrane in the first place that give me the willies. I have honestly heard folks object to this story because it discusses John’s drug use. And it does. No question. You see the days when his deep sadness caused him to start drinking early on. You see his experiments with drugs and the idea some musicians harbored that it would make them better. But by the same token it would be a pretty lackadaisical reader to fail to notice that drugs and alcohol are the clear villains of the piece. Gutierrez does amazing things with these light and dark aspects of John’s personality. On the one hand he might be looking at the symbols of countless world religions. Then on the facing page is an opposite silhouette of John, the borders little more than the frightening red crayon scratchings of a lost soul. Read the book and you discover what he did to free himself from his trap. Golio even goes so far as to include a lengthy and in-depth “Author’s Note: Musicians and Drug Use” to clarify any points that might confuse a young reader. Let’s just say, all the bases are covered here. These two guys know what they are doing.

If there is any aspect of the design of the book that makes me grind my teeth to a fine powder it’s the typeface of the text. I’m not a typeface nerd. Comic Sans does not strike a chord of loathing in my heart as it does with others. That said, I do harbor a very strong dislike of this horrendous LA Headlights BTN they chose to set this story in. It fails utterly to complement the writing or the tone or the art in any way, shape, or form and makes the reading process distinctly unpleasant. They say that in some cultures artists will include a single flaw in a work because otherwise that piece would be perfect and only God is true perfection. With that in mind, I’ll consider this the single flaw that keeps Spirit Seeker from attaining a higher calling.

The reason Coltrane works as well as he does as a subject is that his is a story of redemption. Not just the redemption of a life freed from the power of drugs and alcohol, but a spiritual redemption and reawakening as well. It would pair beautifully with books like Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly by Walter Dean Myers which perfectly complement this idea. It is the only real picture book bio of Coltrane worth considering, and a kind of living work of art as well. Melding great text with imagery that goes above and beyond the call of duty, this is one biography that truly does its subject justice. Complex in all the right ways.

On shelves now.

Source: Copy sent from publisher for review.

Like This? Then Try:

Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow, A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix by Gary Golio


Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra by Andrea Davis Pinkney


I and I, Bob Marley by Tony Medina

Interviews:

BayView with Gary Golio.
SLJ with Gary Golio.
KMHD with Gary Golio.

Other Blog Reviews:

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
BooksForKidsBlog
Casa Valdez Studios
The Fourth Musketeer

Professional Reviews:

A star from Kirkus
Horn Book
The Washington Informer
The New York Times
The Skanner
Oregon Music News

Other Reviews:

Richie’s Picks
Jazz24.org

 

And We’re Back!

The holidays put me out of commission for a little while but back we are and back we shall stay! As you can see, the new site is quite fancy dancy.  Note the following cool features.  First off, I have a logo.  A fuse within a number sign logo at that.  Somehow they managed to put the two together in a cool and fancy manner.  Next up, check out the little bar at the top.  Now if you want to read my Fusenews or Reviews or Librarian Previews or what have you, you need only click on one of those little links and all is well.  Awesome, right?  Now scroll down to the bottom of the page.  There you will find links to my Twitter feed (which now actually shows up ON my blog, homina homina) and my Goodreads page (which is where you can see what I’m reading as I read it, but before I review it). Best of all, all the old links redirect to the new ones and I didn’t lose a lick of content!!

Meanwhile I’ve been pounding out last minute reviews to post before the final seconds of 2012 tick away. PLUS we need to look at the best of the year and all the news and new videos and and and and and *pant pant pant*

Needless to say I’m pleased to be here, I like my new format, and I’m excited about the possibilities.

2013 is shaping up to be a helluva year.

Good News / Bad News: An Unexpected Delay

Good News! Ye Olde Blog is getting an upgrade.  We’re talking fancy new server, hoity-toity design, the works, baby!

Bad News! I might be down until that upgrade happens.  And . . . um . . . that might be until . . . uh . . .

the end of the year.

*cough*

Good News! It’s not just me.  Everyone here at SLJ is getting a new look.

Bad News! If you comment on any of my posts from now until the blog comes back the comment probably won’t migrate to the new site.  Like, ever.

Good News! I’m getting a kickin’ logo.  A logo so kickin’ that I’m convinced it contains a secret code.  I will be asking those of you who see it to crack this code.

Bad News! There’s a possibility that my URL will change and everyone will have to reset their bookmarks accordingly.

Good News! Uh . . . I wuv you?

Seriously, just know that when I AM up and running there may be a sudden influx of lots and lots and lots of end of the year reviews.  Plus my 100 Marvelous Children’s Books of 2012 list.  And more predictions for Caldecott & Newbery!  Stay strong, folks.  I’ll be back when I can (and you can sorta follow me on Twitter at @FuseEight until then anyway).

See you in the new year!

Librarian Preview: Lerner Books (Spring 2013)

Since I’ve so many little publisher previews to try and get done before Spring has sprung, I’ve decided to concentrate on the slightly smaller folks.  The big six (soon to be five) have some great stuff too and I’ll be sure to try and talk ‘em up, but for now let’s look at some folks not even located in the Big Apple.  More like the Mini Apple, as in Minneapolis.  Yes, Lerner was kind enough to show me its wares and I shall in turn show you all there is to see.

First off, the stuff you’re going to have to know to look for thanks to the Core Curriculum and other nonfiction needs.  Teachers love them some “community helper” assignments.  My librarians are constantly requesting nonfiction titles that examine the everyday jobs of the people in your neighborhood.  Trouble is, while books like that exist they often are difficult to find reviews for.  Now Lerner (which has a lovely tendency to get reviews, tra la) has stepped into the picture book nonfiction ring with their Cloverleaf Books series Community Helpers (apropos, no?).  With titles like Let’s Meet a Construction Worker and Let’s Meet a Librarian (darn right) there are eight of these jobs altogether.  It would be interesting to look at these types of books over the decades and to see if any occupations have fallen out of favor.  Hm.

And now a series that will of the most use to parents who do not have all the answers but want to look like they do.  My kiddo is just 18 months but I’m mentally prepping like an Olympic gymnast for the day she utters those terribly frightening words, “Why is the sky blue?”  I think I’ve an answer for her, but we won’t know until the day at hand.  Compared with other things kids ask, though, that question is a breeze.  Can you imagine what you’d do if your kiddo asked How Do Jets Work? That’s one of the titles in the How Fight Works series from Lighting Bolt Books and other topics cover gliders, helicopters, hot air balloons, parachutes, and space vehicles.  Each book is presented in a Q & A format with diagrams in the backmatter and visual components of each vehicle.  Plus they’re colorful and lively.  Hopefully that’ll distract the little tykes long enough that you’re able to skim through the book ahead of them, reading for the answers.

A show of hands.  Who remembers this segment?

Yes.  Everything you ever saw as a child really is on YouTube.

This old Sesame Street segment was part of PBS’s hope that I would learn where everyday objects came from.  Mr. Rogers, to be fair, also tried to show similar things.  I don’t know that you’d find that many segments like this on your television programming for kids today, but at the very least there are books now that fulfill the same purpose.  The Start to Finish: Everyday Products series seeks to do just that.  Whether it’s From Wax to Crayon or From Oil to Gas, these are written with the struggling reader in mind.  They’re simple enough that you could do them as readalouds and there are teaching guides in the back of each book.

Now you would think that in the great big city known as Manhattan that there would be loads of foodie kids.  As it happens, we do have a couple but they’re mostly located around the Battery Park area (don’t ask me why).  Still, cookbooks are generally popular no matter where you are.  Some of them are ludicrously complex though they pretend to be for kids.  The You’re the Chef series is for beginners and has e-source materials for each of their books.  Better than that, I was happy to see that there are clear illustrated diagrams for every step of the process.  I admit it.  That’s why I like the Pioneer Woman cookbooks.  She does the same thing for adults but with photographs.  This book has photos for the final product.  So there you go.

Every month I attempt to find any YA nonfiction for kids with low reading levels that I can.  It’s hard.  The topics are not exactly easy to locate.  Lerner is now putting out their Extreme Summer Sports Zones series and it sort of fits the bill.  Granted, most of these sports involve fancy bikes that a lot of my kids wouldn’t be able to afford.  But there are also stories like Skateboarding Street (vs. Skateboarding Vert).  Most interesting to me was the fact that they cover how sponsorship works when you get all big and famous.  A good idea, that.

With the same idea (books with a lower reading level that you can pitch to your YA reluctant readers) the Villains series out of Lerner is a very interestingly designed.  It’s sort of a solution to the problem of how you put black and white photos on a book’s cover without it looking booooooring.  For those kids interested in killers and the corrupt (who ain’t?) we’ve books like Assassins, Traitors, and Spies as well as older titles like Lethal Leaders and Military Madmen.  There are freakish fact sheets and short browsable spreads.  Hey, man.  Nonfiction reading has to begin somewhere.

Three words.  Deadly Adorable Animals.  I’ve always been a bit disturbed by the fact that it’s only the cute animals that get saved when they near extinction.  Ugly animals deserve their moment in the sun too!  We’ll have to wait for a book of Ugly Extinction, however, and instead read this book about the ootsy cutesy psycho killers of the animal world.  Part of the Deadly and Dangerous series, these books cover everything from Deadly High-Risk Jobs to Deadly Danger Zones.  Noted and noted.

And then once again Common Core raises its head.  Part of the 4th grade science standards require kids to know their earth science.  In response, Lerner integrated a couple CCS (Common Core Standards – don’t you love it when I fling lingo about willy-nilly?)into their Do You Dig Earth Science? series.  Plus Sally Walker (author of such books as the Sibert Award winning Secrets of a Civil War Submarine) is behind the books with otherwise dull titles like Researching Rocks and Marveling and Minerals.  So you know it’s gotta be pretty okay.

Here in New York City the demand for cheerleading books is a sneeze shy of nonexistent.  But in other parts of the country they’re a bit on the important side.  With that in mind, keep an eye peeled for You’ve Got Spirit! Cheers, Chants, Tips, and Tricks Every Cheerleader Needs to Know by Sara R. Hunt.  It’s a book for kids who are aspiring to cheer, and honestly I can’t name you more than a title or two that does what this book does.  It has the hairdos and the tryout tips and all that stuff.  Consider pairing it with one of those later Amelia Rules books by Jimmy Gownley where she joins the cheerleading squad.

Bio time.  My husband had a bet going with this next series.  They are the celebrity bio books called Action Movie Stars.  See, for a couple years now we’ve been trying to figure out if Twilight actors are the celebrities their P.R. machines say they are, or if they’re just not known at all.  All that debating came to a head when I informed him that Lerner had a bio coming out of a guy called . . . wait for it . . . Booboo Stewart.  Yeah, I had to Google it.  I half expected his name to be a prank on Lerner’s part.  Maybe they slipped him into my packet as a joke and were hoping I’d fall for it.  Turns out there really is a guy named that.  That and other Tiger Beat inspired bios will you find here.  The others are a lot more normal (Jennifer Lawrence, the guy who plays Gale, etc.) but my heart will always be with the guy named after Yogi Bear’s little buddy.

I do not pretend to be hip or with it or in the know.  I consider listening to the radio as I walk to the subway in the morning to be the #1 best way to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s happening.  So if you were to ask me who created Tumblr my response would probably be, “Somebody created it?”  Apparently I am under the impression that websites just sort of spring from the loamy earth fully formed like Venus in her shell.  That’s why I wasn’t aware of the existence of David Karp: The Mastermind Behind Tumblr.  He’s appearing in a little bio which is particularly interesting since he may be one of those guys your kids know but you don’t.  A 15-year-old dropout, this is the guy who got his company going in 18 months so that it was pulling in millions.  There’s not much on the guy out there, so this bio is certainly the only one for kids and teens you’ll find.

Now in terms of bios of folks that no one has ever heard of, meet Tillie Pierce.  Her new book is Tillie Pierce: Teen Eyewitness to the Battle of Gettysburg.  Author Tanya Anderson’s a history teacher and one day she went to Gettysburg.  While there she went to Tillie’s house and learned her story.  This 15-year-old lived in a house that abutted the Pennsylvania battfield.  While the battle raged she went out with her neighbors and aided the soldiers.  Don’t go looking for other books about her, though.  Aside from her memoir there isn’t really anything on Tillie at this moment in time.  And now with the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg coming up, 2013 is the time to release this book.

Woot!  New Malcolm X book on the horizon!  Woot woot!  It’s A Marked Man: The Assassination of Malcolm X.  Unlike other books on Malcolm, this one takes a very careful look at the circumstances surrounding his death.  The book covers the man’s history, charisma, and has some primary sources for folks making reports.  I recently finished reading Andrea Davis Pinkney’s examination of Malcolm in her book Hand in Hand, so he’s been on my mind as of late.  We definitely need some newer stuff on him.  This book is teen, by the way.

Okey-dokey.  So here we are in the 21st century and the Theory of Evolution is not precisely embraced by every last American we know.  Whole swaths of folks don’t go in for it.  So Sylvia A. Johnson came up with a way to talk about the issues.  In Shaking the Foundation: Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution, the book covers Darwin’s life and background.  Then it discusses the issues at hand with supporting and opposing views.  There will be some e-resources to accompany this book, and I will be very interested in watching whether or not schools pick it up.

That was serious.  Let’s scale everything back a bit, then.  Let’s go the picture book route.  Better still, let’s go the Chris Monroe picture book route.  I was pleased as punch to find out that the woman behind old Monkey With a Toolbelt (still one of my all-time favorite books and titles) is coming out with Cookie, the Walker.  In this book Cookie the dog decides to try her hand on walking on two legs rather than four.  The advantages seem to far outweigh the disadvantages, until fame and fortune turn out to not be quite what Cookie needs.  The thing that I particularly love about this book is that Cookie has a friend and confidant in another dog who happens to be her best friend.  That dog’s name?  Kevin.  I have no idea why that name amuses me so much, but it does.  Kevin the dog.  Awesome.  This book may pair well with an upcoming Peter Brown project.  I shall say no more.

Years ago I discovered Mr. Joe Kulka when he created one of the weirdest, wildest, and most enjoyable picture books I’d encountered called simply The Rope.  I think I may have received a rope in the mail in conjunction with the book, which was certainly an original way of going about promotion.  Well, Mr. Kulka’s moved on and for a long time he’s been doing books with Carolrhoda.  His latest is My Crocodile Does Not Bite.  In it, a boy brings Fluffy (a pet of rather large stature) to school.  A bully girl and her poodle insist that the croc has to go, but our hero (Ernest . . . another great male name) explains how well-behaved his reptile really is.  You may see where this is going.

And now for the baseball fans amongst us will be pleased to see Rob Skead’s Something to Prove: The Great Satchel Paige vs. Rookie Joe DiMaggio.  Illustrated by Floyd Cooper the story follows a game when the Yankees wanted to test Joe DiMaggio against the greatest pitcher around.  So they went out of the major leagues and played barnstormer Satchel Paige.  I haven’t seen a good Satch book for kids in a couple years here, so anything new is welcome.  I’m particularly pleased with the way in which Mr. Cooper brought out the craggy qualities in Satchel’s face.  A great topic for a book, that’s for sure.

Now the other day I was at a PEN holiday party here in town.  Lots of authors were milling about (Doris Orgel! Emily Arnold McCully!) including a fellow from Minnesota.  I didn’t know him at first, but the name sure sounded familiar.  John Coy . . . Coy . . . When I thought about it long enough I could picture it.  I remembered shelving his baseball/soccer middle grade fiction in my old children’s room!  Sure!  John Coy!  Well turns out that John’s written a book for his fellow Minnesotan locals at Carolrhoda Books, and boy is it a doozy.  Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Baseball caught my attention first and foremost because there is a man wearing a handlebar mustache on the cover.  So, y’know, right there I’m in love.  Illustrated by Joe Morse (remember his inner city take on Casey at the Bat all those years ago?) the book is a funny and high-spirited take on a guy who desperately tried to keep a group of young (mustached) men occupied.  The solution could only be to invent basketball.  There are primary sources and all kinds of stuff in the back as well.

Okay, back to baseball again.  Now I pay about as much attention to the sport as I do opera.  I know it is there.  I’ve even seen it live.  I just never know all that much about it.  Like, let’s talk about secret mud.  I didn’t know there was secret mud out there.  I thought all the mud in the world was open and honest and in the public domain.  Then I see a book like Miracle Mud: Lena Blackburne and the Secret Mud that Changed Baseball and there I am learning stuff.  Written by David A. Kelly (his name sounds familiar because he writes The Baseball Mysteries, oh fellow children’s librarians) and illustrated by Oliver Dominguez the book has a VERY simply text, even as it tells the story of the Baseball Rubbing Mud which started selling in 1938.  Mud.  Whodathunkit?

Okay, class, pop quiz.  Here’s the question: What bird flies farther than any other when it migrates?  Pencils down and turn your papers over.  The answer?  The bar-tailed godwit, of course (duh!).  And in Sandra Markle’s The Long, Long Journey: The Godwit’s Amazing Migration you get to see that journey firsthand.  It’s just a little picture book with facts written on a 2nd grade reading level.  The illustrations happen to be by Mia Posada and I can’t help but think it would pair nicely with Wisdom, the Midway Albatross: Surviving the Japanese Tsunami and Other Disasters for Over 60 Years. Hm.

Anyone else remember the book/musical How To Eat Like a Child?  Man, that was good stuff.  I can still sing one of the best songs in that show, “How to Torture Your Sister”.  Somebody should bring that book back (it was by Delia Ephron, which is awesome right there) because a lot of the elements of that book were timeless, sister torture foremost amongst them.  All this came to mind when I saw the Michel-Yves Schmitt graphic novel Where’s Leopold?: #1 Your Pajamas Are Showing! When a boy finds he can turn invisible he uses his powers for the greatest good of all – making his older sister’s life miserable.  Oh the pranks, the pranks!  This is a young comic containing little mini stories.  Might pair well with any Fox Trots you happen to have in your system.

In other graphic novel news, I’m intrigued by this William and the Lost Spirit by Gwen de Bonneval.  With art by Mattheiu Bonhomme (we’re really loving the French names today) the book is actually being promoted as YA.  The story revolves around a boy who is trying to find his father and his sister (who got lost looking for the father).  As you can tell from the cover it’s one of those epic fantasies, but I was pleased to hear that it was all done in pen.  There’s no digital involved anywhere.  Awesome.

A new British series (or is it Australian?) on a 4th grade reading level is coming to town.  Called S.W.I.T.C.H. the books follow Josh and Danny, twins that have accidentally get sprayed by S.W.I.T.C.H. serum (otherwise known as Serum Which Initiates Total Cellular Hijack).  Now they’ve turned into bugs.  This is a six book series that sounds like Metamorphosis meets Honey I Shrunk the Kids.  Talk about an easy booktalk.

Pity the sports loving girls for they shall have few books between them.  Pity particularly the girls who look for sports series.  Just off the top of my head I can name series starring girls that concern groups who are friends, who start a paper, who have a cupcake club, who ride horses, and so on and such.  But girls on a team together?  Not happening.  The Counterattack series is actually for teens, but they’re hi-lo books.  Short high interest titles on girls who play soccer.  In other words, perfect for jock girls (has ANYONE ever attempted to write jock girl fiction before, by the way?).  They look kind of badass, I have to admit.  None of this girls in gowns running away in slow motion crap.  I’m sold.

And I’m running out of time (I have to get this post up before midnight or I won’t be able to post it until my upgrade has occurred!!) so the only other YA fiction I’ll mention is R.J. Anderson’s Quicksilver.  I mention it partly because I’m a fan of the Stratford, Ontario author and partly because it sounds awesome.  In a smart and twisty YA novel a girl is on the run.  This is the sequel to the book Ultraviolet and our heroine is trying to keep her family safe.  Oh.  And there are aliens.  Nuff said.

Big time thanks to the good folks of Lerner who paid me a visit!  Looking forward to your books when I see ‘em, guys.

Fusenews: On Beyond Flummoxed

In a weird way, Twitter sort of made my Fusenews posts this side of obsolete.  If you want cool things to see online it’s often just a case of knowing whom to follow.  And yet I love my little Fusenews.  Pressed as I am for time today, let’s pretend that these are little tweets:

Pinterest continues to remain a strange elusive creation that I have a hard time wrapping my head around.  Fortunately sometimes it will do something like post images from William Steig’s Agony in the Kindergarten (circa 195o) and all at once everything is clear. Thanks to Alex Penfold for the link.

And while you’re looking at vast numbers of images, why not look at this collection of international children’s art.  Purdy.  Thanks to Warren Truitt for the link.

Adrienne says, “I Can’t Imagine There Was Ever a Time in Which This Version of Little Red Riding Hood Wasn’t Creepy.” I don’t quite know what she means since I haven’t yet seen the . . . GAAAAAHHHHH!!!

I want a new Leslie Connor middle grade novel for kids and I want it now now now now now. (This is called “baiting the universe” and should only be attempted under the strictest of circumstances.)


Was anyone else aware that Thomas Locker died this year, or just BookMoot?  First I’ve heard of it.  Shoot.


As per usual, the best round-up of the year is happening at Chicken Spaghetti.  If you want to see every last Best Of list printed for 2012 books, seek ye no further.


Speaking of Best Of lists, I am not usually flummoxed by the books folks pick.  I like to think that on the children’s side I see almost everything.  So imagine my flummoxing when I check out the 100 Scope Notes Top 20 Children’s Books of 2012 and find that #20 is a book I have NEVER heard of before!?!  I am tongue-tied, stopped, and otherwise befuddled.  You win this round, Jonker, but I shall have my revenge!!


The Bookbug children’s bookstore in Kalamazoo, Michigan does many things right.  But most recently they managed to make this remarkable little fellow:

Don’t try to buy him for your holiday shopping, though.  Apparently to make it you need to get “many different packages of legos from several different vendors.”  Worth it.

You know how weird it was when they redid Spiderman with an all-new cast?  Yup.  Well, hold onto your hats, folks.  A children’s book is getting yet another reworking as well. From Cynopsis Kids:

Columbia looks to Zach Helm (Stranger Than Fiction, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, which he also directed, and the upcoming The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) to write a new big screen adaptation of Jumanji, based on Chris van Allsburg’s 1981 book of the same name, per THR. Matt Tolmach (The Amazing Spider-Man) will produce the new Jumanji movie. Joe Johnston directed the 1995 feature film incarnation of Jumanji, which starred Robin Williams and Kirsten Dunst.

Daily Image:

There is a giant swing installation somewhere in New York City right now.  You walk in, you sit, and you swing.

I may have missed the Columbus Circle installation but by gum I am finding this one!  Thanks to Crooked House for the heads up.

Video Sunday: You had me at “giant ice cream”

I think the nicest thing about the internet, for me anyway, is that if you wait around long enough things that you’ve seen live will appear online and then you can let lots of people know about them.  For example, this video of Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket and Maira Kalman is not new.  It does, however, contain the only known record (known to me) of them both talking about the photograph game they would play.  The photo involving the catapult and the giant ice cream is a bit dangerous as it makes me giggle for long periods of time.

Next up, the only thing better than bad lip reading of Twilight?  Bad lip reading of New Moon.  True fact.

Read a really good independently published children’s book this week.  Self-published and remarkably fun.  It even has one top-notch book trailer to accompany it.  Check it out, peoples.

If the author’s name sounds familiar, that would be Ms. Lynn Messina of Little Vampire Women fame.  On an unrelated note, she also owns awesome boots.

Big time thanks to David Maybury for directing me to his link to this video of Laureate na nÓg Niamh Sharkey working with students from Griffeen Valley Educate Together on a Christmas Window for Hodges Figgis Bookstore in Dublin.

I’m now harboring fantasies of some store in New York doing something similar.  Books of Wonder maybe, though Bank Street Bookstore would probably get more foot traffic watching.  I mean, if Dublin can do it, we can too, can’t we?

And finally, for the off-topic video sometimes you just gotta give cred to the science/digital geeks.  Serious cred.

Thanks to BoingBoing for the link!

Review of the Day: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz

Splendors and Glooms

By Laura Amy Schlitz

Candlewick Press

$17.99

ISBN: 978-0-7636-5380-4

Ages 10 and up

On shelves now.

Do you remember that moment in the film version of The Princess Bride where the grandfather is trying to convince his stubborn grandson that the book he’s about to read is fantastic? He lures the kid in by saying the book contains, “Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles.” If I had a kid standing in front me right now looking at Splendors and Glooms with equal suspicion I would probably tell them that the book has a witch, an evil puppet master, transformations, a magical amulet, small dogs, orphans, lots of blood, and Yorkshire pudding. And just as the grandfather’s description fails to do The Princess Bride justice, so too does this description just wan and pale in the presence of Laura Amy Schlitz’s latest. This is a book infused with such a heady atmosphere that from page one on you are so thoroughly sucked into the story that the only way to get out is through.

The witch is dying. The girl is lonely. The children are hungry. Four people unconnected until the puppet master Grisini brings them, in a sense, together. Lizzie Rose and Parsefall are orphans who have lived with the man for years, doing his puppet work with him, received almost nothing in return. When they perform for Clara Wintermute, a rich little girl who requests a performance for her birthday, they are unprepared when the next day policeman come around asking questions. Clara has disappeared and Grisini is under suspicion. When Grisini himself disappears, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall find something that makes Clara’s fate seem out of the ordinary. All the more so when they are summoned by a witch to a beautiful distant estate and everyone, even Grisini, is reunited once more for a final showdown.

As odd as it is to say, what this book reminded me of more than anything else was A.S. Byatt’s Angels & Insects. To be fair, I felt that way about Ms. Schlitz’s previous novel A Drowned Maiden’s Hair too. Though written for adults, Byatt’s novel consists of two short stories, one of which concerns séances and a woman with multiple dead children in her past. Thoughts of that woman came to me as I read more about Clara’s story. At first glance a spoiled little rich girl, Clara is cursed in a sense to be the one child that survived a cholera epidemic that wiped out her siblings when she was quite young. Forced to honor them at her birthday (not to mention other times of the year) she is understandably less than in love with their figurative ghosts. Like Byatt, Schlitz taps so successfully into a time period’s mores that even as you wonder at their strangeness you understand their meaning. You may not agree with them, but you understand.

Where A Drowned Maiden’s Hair was a self-described melodrama, Splendors and Glooms is Victorian Gothic. It brings to mind the dirty streets of London and books by authors like Joan Aiken. In Lizzie Rose and Parsefall’s world you can get dirty just by walking through the yellow fog. Never mind what you encounter on the street. The first three chapters of the book are split between three different characters and you go down the class ladder, from upper-upperclass to kids who feed only when they can get away with it. It’s a distinctive period and Schlitz is a master and plunging you directly into that world. I am also happy to report that her ear for language is as pitch perfect as ever. She’s the only author for kids that I know of that can get away with sentences like, “Lizzie Rose corrected him, aspirating the h.”

At the same time no one acts the way you would expect them to. You walk into the novel thinking that orphans Lizzie Rose and Parsefall will be perfect little pseudo-siblings to one another and you’re repeatedly surprised when Parsefall rejects any and all affection from his devoted (if not doting) friend. In fact he’s a fascinating character in and of himself (and at times I almost had the sense that he knew himself to BE a character). He has only one love, one devotion, one obsession in this world and it’s difficult for anything else to make a dent in it. Likewise, when Lizzie Rose interacts with the witch you expect the standard tale where she melts the old woman’s heart against her will. Schlitz doesn’t go in for the expected, though. You will find no schmaltz within these pages. Though the characters’ expectations may line up with the readers’, beware of falling too in love with what somebody on the page wants. You might find your own heart breaking.

Even as a child I had a strange habit of falling in love with storytime’s villains. Captain Hook most notably, but others followed suit. That was part of what was so interesting about the villain Grisini in this book. By all logic I should have developed a crush on him of some sort. Yet Schlitz manages to make him wholly reprehensible and just kind of nasty to boot. He actually doesn’t appear in all that many pages of the book. When he does you are baffled by him. He’s not like a usual villain. He’s almost impotent, though his shadow is long. He also suffers more physically than any other bad guy I’ve encountered in a book for kids. If you’ve ever worried that a no goodnik wasn’t paying sufficiently for their crimes you shall have no such similar objections to Splendors and Glooms. The wages of sin are death and perhaps a bit of bloodletting as well.

I admit (and I’m ashamed to say so now) that when I first read this book I thought to myself, “Well that was delightful but I’m sure I’ll have a hard time persuading other folks to like it as much as I do.” Chalk that one up to my own snotty little assumptions. I’m sure the underlying thought was that I was clearly the right kind of reader and therefore my superior intellect was the whole reason I liked what I had read. Fortunately I was to find that I was nothing more than a snobby snob when it became clear that not only did other librarians love it (librarians who would normally eschew most forms of fantasy if they could possibly help it), kids were enjoying it too! As of this review there are twelve holds on my library’s print copies of Splendors and Glooms and six holds on our two ebook editions! So much for lowered expectations. It is exceedingly rare to find an author who hits it out of the park, so to speak, every single time she writes. Ms. Schlitz has written six published works for children and not one has been anything but remarkable. As adept at fairy stories as fairytales, at straight biographies or melodramatic ghost stories, at long last we see what she can do with a Dickensian setting. Result: She does wonders. Wonders and splendors with just a hint of gloom. The sole downside is sitting and waiting for her next book. If it’s half as good as this one, it’ll be worth the wait.

On shelves now.

Source: Finished copy sent from publisher for review.

Like This? Then Try:

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente


The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge


The Eyeball Collector by F.E. Higgins


The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

First Sentence: “The witch burned.”

Notes on the Cover: Hands down brilliant.  Bagram Ibatoulline (the artist behind it) spends so much time being sweet and meaningful that it’s almost a relief to watch him doing something adequately creepy.  Be sure to spot that wonderful skeleton marionette on the back cover.  Worth discovering, certainly.

I was also unaware of the British change to both the cover and the book’s very title:

Other Blog Reviews:

The Book Smugglers
slatebreakers
Ciao Bella
Book Nut

Professional Reviews:

A star from Kirkus
The New York Times
The Wall Street Journal

Misc:

This book appears on New York Public Library’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing 2012.


Read a sample chapter here.


What are it’s Newbery chances? Heavy Medals has an opinion on the matter.

Giving Scaredy New Reasons to Fear: A Gingerbread House Extravaganza (With Some Shrinky Dinks for Spice!)

The jolly gift of the season, for me, is to have friends with oodles, sheer oodles, of talent just ah-flowing out of their gills (so to speak).  Last year I posted about how some buddies and I got together to make Shrinky-Dink Christmas ornaments (which, in turn, led to Shrinky-Dink Caldecott jewelry later in the year).  This year we upped the ante, so to speak.

So I was sitting in my office, minding my own business, when the mail arrived.  And not just any mail either.  Big mail.  Big flat mail.  Big flat mail that had a very prominent bakery sticker on the outside.  I got very excited when I saw that.  Tis the season for chocolate goodies, yes?

No chocolate awaited me inside (well, maybe a little chocolate).  What I found instead was a remarkable little gingerbread house kit, complete with a copy of the latest Scaredy Squirrel title Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Christmas.  Inside was a handy dandy builder’s permit (made out to me!), pre-made frosting, gingerbread, the works!

Knowing that I had a Christmas party in my home coming up I schlepped it to my apartment and waited until this past weekend to start construction.  Not that I constructed a darn thing. Nope.  Say hello to the foreman in charge of this project, Josh Ess.

Some of you may remember Josh as the husband of the illustrious Lori Ess and the man who single-handedly saved an Eric Carle Museum program that featured Anita Silvey (amongst others) when its computer went on the fritz.  Turns out, the man does a mean edible arrangement.  This may have something to do with the fact that he is a professionally trained chef.  Perhaps.

The first problem we had with the house turned out to be the biggest.  At some point in its travels, the body of the house had cracked.

So yes.  We were dealing with a crack house.  Josh put the crack house together as best he could and you can see the clever patching job done with frosting.  Still, things were looking dire.  Particularly when it was discovered that the roof didn’t really fit either.  This called for creativity!!  Step #1: Place gumdrops where the house would normally connect.

Step #2: Stick everything in place with copious frosting.

Step #3: Place other portion of roof on top without toppling everything like a house of cards.

Ta dah!  With some effort the house started to perk up a bit.  Josh even arranged the faux M&Ms on the top in a rainbow pattern.

Now it was time to decorate.  And who better to help with that feature than graphic novelist Gareth Hinds?  You may remember him from such graphic novel Shakespearan adaptations as King Lear, or his work on The Odyssey and Beowulf.  He’s got a killer Romeo & Juliet out in the future, and a very fine hand on hiding the cracked doorway of the house going on here.

Not that Josh wasn’t a remarkable piper when it came to the frosting.

That is the advantage of doing a house like this.  When you make a mistake, you eat the cement.

Ta dah!!  A happy home for all to see.

But what really sealed the deal for me was Josh’s attention to fine details that would have gone unnoticed had someone not pointed them out.  When we weren’t looking he took the Tootsie Rolls that came with the house, some frosting and some toothpicks and made . . . a reindeer!!

Then later in the evening, that same reindeer morphed into Rudolph.

That is what happens when you separate the gingerbread men from the gingerbread boys, son.  Josh, you are the undeniable gingerbread king.

Others have received this same house in the mail.  If you want to see the full roster you can see them on the Scaredy Squirrel Facebook Page.  The blog Pickle Me This actually put the darn thing together using the instructions and ALL the ingredients.  Other blogs followed suit.  Go here or here if you want to see what it was supposed to look like.

After that there was nothing for it but to make a couple Christmas ornaments with whatever picture book characters I happened to have hanging around my living room.  This year the winners included:

Me Want Pet by Bob Shea – ornament created using markers (!!!!) by Alison Morris

Flora’s Very Windy Day by Jeanne Birdsall, illustrated by Matt Phelan – ornament created by Lori Ess using only colored pencils

Humpty Dumpty from the Will Moses Mother Goose – ornament created by Josh Ess

Dick Tracy by my very own resident husband Matt.

And a Sumo wrestler  – ornament created just off the top of his head on a spur of the moment whim by Gareth Hinds.  It was not traced.

If you do not have a tiny Sumo wrestler on YOUR tree, I pity you.

I cannot thank my guests enough for such a fantastic party.  Thanks to Alison Morris, Gareth Hinds, Lori Ess, John Ess, and Matt for helping to make this the bestest Christmas ever.  Special thanks to Alison for the bulk of these fabulous pictures.

And thanks to the folks at Kids Can Press for allowing me the chance to make a house of my very own with absolutely zero effort on my own part.

Finally, my own offspring.  Suited up to fit the holidays.

Video Sunday: “…Rousseau and his mate Voltaire.”

Oh, why not.  Let’s just start with what is undoubtedly the best thing ever.  Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the 90-Second Newbery and James Kennedy, the author and organizer, was clever enough to know how to start things off.  It seems that Aaron Zenz and his Boogie Woogie kids have made another video.  And darned if it isn’t even better than their previous (genius) efforts. I liked it so much I’m including the Making Of film as well.

Those of you already familiar with the PBS Digital Studio’s remixes of Mr. Rogers, Julia Child, and Bob Ross (boy is that catchy) know that no one is safe when it comes to classic public television.  They did a nice job with LeVar here too.  It’s fun to watch based on his shifting facial hair alone.

Seems to me that LeVar Burton had his way of recommending books.  Iron Guy Carl of Boys Rock, Boys Read has a different method: Scare them away with a PSA.  Works for me!

Now here we have a movie coming out based on a YA novel I never read.  I did listen to the Read It and Weep podcast episode about it, but now I suppose that was insufficient.  I dunno.  The creepy kiddo looks interesting but I may just hold out for The Last Apprentice film that’s coming out soon anyway.

Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

Oksey-doksey.  New publishing model time.  It happens.  Seems Rebecca Emberley and Deidre Randall are creating a new “hybrid children’s book imprint” called two little birds (something about that name just speaks to me).  They’re pairing a picture book in print form with an app of the same title and publishing them simultaneously.  The first book is the sure-fire winner The Itsy-Bitsy Spider, catchy song in tow.

You can learn more about their Kickstarter campaign here and read the article about it here.

Author Alan Silberberg has a different method of bringing videos and books together.  He animates his thoughts on writerly advice.  Like so:

Sweet screams never sounded so right.

Finally, the off-topic video (I did well this week, didn’t I? – she said like an eager puppy).  Normally I’d eschew something as tawdry as a Gangnam Style parody, but . . .  but . . . there are literary references!  And for once the idea of looking like you’re riding a tiny pony makes odd sense.

Thanks to Jeanne Birdsall for the link.