Top 100 Chapter Books Poll – Again!

Children's Fiction Review, Classics, General, Sondy's Selections, Top Ten Tuesday 0

As I said last night, Betsy Bird, who writes School Library Journal’s Fuse #8 blog, is doing another Top 100 Chapter Books Poll. You have two more days to get in your votes! Anyone who loves books, do this soon! You’ll be so glad you did!

I had a terrible time limiting my list of Chapter Books to only ten. In fact, the only way I could do it at all was to take out some of my absolute favorites because part of what I love about them is the romance. Come to think of it, ALL of these choices, I read at one time or another to one or both of my boys (or my husband did). So I can safely say that all of these books are definitely children’s books. Though I can also firmly say that there are adults who will love them, too. And I’m afraid I only read half of them as a child myself.

I definitely still keep wavering with the final choices. In fact, let’s see if I make any last-minute changes as I post this list!

The Books I Believe are the Top Ten Chapter Books of All Time:

1. Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery

I mentioned last night that I would have loved to include Emily of New Moon. But this is right. Anne is classic. Anne is the heroine who started it all. I first read this book in 10th grade, and I found it a breath of fresh air after all the adult books I’d been reading. Then, as I was in high school and college, they slowly came out with more and more of L. M. Montgomery’s books. I also own all the volumes of her journals and everything I could get my hands on of hers. My absolute favorite is The Blue Castle, but it’s actually a book for adults. Anyway, Anne Shirley is a character who comes alive.

2. Momo, by Michael Ende

I know this one won’t make the list, but I can’t let it go unrecognized. This was the first book I ordered from Book-of-the-Month Club, and it was so good, I blame it for all the other books I ended up ordering. When I moved to Germany, my first purchase was a copy of this book in the original language (German). Momo is a little girl with a gift for listening. So when gray men come and steal people’s time by convincing them to save it, Momo is the only one who can see them, because she really listens to them. This book is mythic in scope.

3. Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne

I tell the whole story of how much I love this book in my review. Let’s just say that I remember my mother reading it to me. Then I remember reading it to my little brothers and sisters. Then, in college, I learned that one of the most fun things to do was read with a group of friends, where different people read the different voices. And finally, I got to read it to my sons, or together with my sons. Oh, and I’ve read it in German!

One of the funny things is that it reads on different levels. I remember as a child just taking the things said as perfectly reasonable and matter-of-fact that now I think are hilarious. This book is a work of genius.

I also have to mention that I brainwashed both my sons into loving these characters so that the very first characters they pretended to be were ones from Winnie-the-Pooh. In fact, my son learned early to write his own name — “P-O-O-H.” (When he called me in the night with the call, “Pi–iglet!”, I thought he’d gone too far.)

Now, to be honest, The House at Pooh Corner is a little better, since it includes Tigger. However, last time I voted for The World of Pooh in order to include both and my vote was totally wasted. I’m sure everyone who reads the list will be thinking of ALL the Pooh stories.

4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis

I remember at my vast old age in 7th grade sadly concluding that I was too old for the Narnia books now. (I had already read them many times.) Then I took them up again in college and found new riches. I know I will never “outgrow” them again. Of course, it does help that I’m a Christian, and love the insights about God found in Lewis’s writings. But the magic of the stories works fully, even without that. (And I appreciate that part much more as an adult than I did as a kid.)

As I said in my review, no kid who reads this book will ever look at a closet door the same way again.

5. The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien

I remember reading this book on the way to school and having to stop right when Bilbo was in the tunnel leading to the dragon’s lair. That was excruciating!

6. The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner

When we were reading to both our kids together, my older son said we had to read this book next. I was skeptical, but by the time I finished, I was a complete fan. And it grows on me with each rereading — because I notice more clever things each time. The second book, The Queen of Attolia would be near the top of my YA list.

7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling

Oh, our family got hours and hours and hours of enjoyment out of these books. We read all of the first five out loud as a family, with no reading ahead. (Or as little reading ahead as we could stand.) We read books #3 and #4 on family vacations, and ended up putting off a visit to Neuschwanstein Castle because we just had to finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

8. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle

This book isn’t perfect, but how it endures. I didn’t read this until I was in college. When I did, I was so grateful to the person who told me about it.

9. Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren

This book has such childlike exuberance. Pippi is someone we’d talk about as if we knew her. (“And she sleeps with her feet on the pillow!”) This is a child-sized tall tale.

10. Half Magic, by Edward Eager

My favorite of his is Seven Day Magic, but Half Magic is more well-known, the first one I read, and a classic concept.

Oh, so do I really have to leave out so many? I wanted to include Little Britches, by Ralph Moody, Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, and Black Beauty, by Anna Sewall. I hope other people include them! And the ones I decided were YA, but that I love, love, love are The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley, The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale, and The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare.

I am helping Betsy compile the results, but I am sure if I changed some answers, I’d get found out, and she would withdraw the privilege. So I will be good. Sigh.

The results will be better the more people send in their lists! So get moving on that! And I do really enjoy your comments. What would be on your list?

Top 100 Picture Books – Again!

Picture Book Review, Readalouds, Sondy's Selections, Top Ten Tuesday 1

I first started following Betsy Bird’s Fuse #8 blog back a few years ago, when she did the Top 100 Picture Books Poll. I didn’t start in time to contribute my votes, but I was captivated by her entertaining run down of the choices. She added web links, interesting facts, and other goodies on top of just the interesting facts of which books made the list.

I did participate in her Chapter Books poll. That time, I made the mistake of things like voting for the third Harry Potter book, since it was my favorite, and voting for The World of Pooh, because it includes both Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. No one else thought of that, so my vote went nowhere.

Now, with her much wider audience (I think), Betsy’s doing it again! But hurry — there are only a few days left! Trust me, if you don’t send in your votes, you will wish you had.

She’s running both polls again. Once again, list your top 10 favorite Picture Books, and top 10 favorite Chapter Books. They will be given 10 points for first place, 9 points for second, and so on. Yes, this is very difficult to choose. She does suggest using the first book in a series. And I’m still having a problem with the definition of “chapter book.” Some of my favorites are rather in between. But I decided that when romance is one of my favorite things about the book, like The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley, The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale, and The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare, I’d leave those books out. I also decided to go with only one book by each author, so even though I like Emily of New Moon a little better (heresy, heresy) than Anne, I went with the more well-known, partly because I do think Anne is slightly more enduring, ground-breaking, and appealing to everyone.

However, I’m going to indulge myself by listing my favorites here on my blog. I will also post these lists at my Sondy’s Selections page.

Partly, I’m posting these to force myself to commit and choose my top ten!

The Books I Consider the Top Ten Picture Books of All Time:

1. Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey

Okay, I’m going to go with nostalgia to decide which book to put on top. I actually remember, when I was a very little girl, hearing Captain Kangaroo read this book on television. I remember the way the camera panned over the ducks almost getting hit by the cars. I was fascinated with the book, and later we checked it out from the library. Later, I bought the book and read it many times to my sons. Best of all, when we visited the Boston Public Garden when my firstborn son was two years old, we visited the statues of Mrs. Mallard, followed by Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack. I took a picture of my son on Mrs. Mallard’s back, then taped that sweet picture into the front of our book.

2. Bark, George, by Jules Feiffer

This was the first book my second son could read all by himself. And since then, I’ve used it in many library story times, and it always goes over well. Always. It’s got predictability, repetition, animal sounds, expressive drawings, and lovely surprising humor.

3. Doctor DeSoto, by William Steig

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is brilliant, but in this one, William Steig uses just the right amount of words and tells a wonderfully clever tale.

4. Millions of Cats, by Wanda Gag

More nostalgia. This one, I remember reading to myself when I was very small when we would go to my great-grandmother’s house. She had some old books in her bookcase, and I know I read this one more than once. Since then, I read it to my own sons, and I still love using it in storytime. That refrain is unforgettable, and I love getting kids to chant along with me, “Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats!”

5. The Sneetches and Other Stories, by Dr. Seuss

This book has a perfect sample of Seuss stories. The title story has social commentary. The next story, “The Zax” is a pithy tale against stubbornness. Then for perfect Seussian word play, we’ve got “Too Many Daves.” Finally, I remember that incredible shiver of fear when I read about the pale green pants with nobody inside ’em. Funny how I didn’t find that story completely hilarious until I was an adult.

6. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, by Eugene Trivizias, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

I laughed and laughed when this book came in the mail from Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club. It’s a fairy tale parody perfectly carried out.

7. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, by Mo Willems

I still get a big kick out of reading the temper tantrum page.

8. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert

The best alphabet book ever. Another one that is totally fun to read aloud.

9. Are You My Mother?, by P. D. Eastman

This has everything. Different animals. A car, a plane. And all the drama and emotion of the baby bird trying to find his mother. But best of all — the Snort! I think this was one of the first books I could read. I do remember that my own mother was delighted to buy me a new book; I remember how wonderfully new and shiny it was; I remember being able to READ it; and I remember how I treasured it. [Wow. I had forgotten all this until I started writing about the book. Now that I think about it, it probably wasn’t often I got a new book of my own. That may have been why the shiny new cover made such an impression. I think it was in honor of my being able to read, or else to motivate me to be able to read it. I don’t think it was a birthday gift, but it was definitely a new book that my mother gave to me.]

Though I remember much more clearly my husband reading it to my oldest son. Josh was in his lap, so he couldn’t see his face. As the Snort lifted the baby bird and the baby bird realized something was happening, I saw Josh’s face begin to crumple. When my husband cried out, “You are not my mother! You are a Snort!” my son burst into tears. Later, when I read that to him, I tried to keep all emotion out of my voice at that part, to try to reduce the trauma.

10. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst

I had to include this one. It’s such a classic, all you have to say is “even in Australia” to evoke all the emotion. Truly, some days are like that. Still.

Okay, it’s getting late. So I’m going to put off my Top 10 Chapter Books until tomorrow.

Review of What Animals Really Like, by Fiona Robinson

Animal Characters, Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

What Animals Really Like

by Fiona Robinson

Abrams Books for Young Readers, New York, 2011.
Starred Review

If you like silly picture books; if you like reading books that make kids giggle, this is just the book.

When a child is big enough to know basic animal facts, know how books use rhyme to give you hints, he’s going to appreciate the surprises here.

Mr. Herbert Timberteeth, a beaver, is preparing for a big event. There’s an elaborate fold-out of many animals assembled on stage, dressed in their finest. Mr. Timberteeth is the conductor.

The song begins, with the groups of animals singing:

“We are lions, and we like to prowl.
We are wolves, and we like to howl.
We are pigeons, and we like to coo.
We are cows, and we like to . . . *turn page*

“. . . dig.”

Mr. Timberteeth tries to ignore it and move on. The next page:

“We are monkeys, and we like to play.
We are horses, and we like fresh hay.
We are worms, and we like to wiggle.
We are warthogs, and we like to . . .

“. . . blow enormous bubbles.”

Eventually, the animals decide they aren’t going to sing about what Mr. Timberteeth thinks they like, but about what they really like. Thus, a truly silly song begins. It doesn’t rhyme, but the pictured antics are hilarious. In fact the silly details in the pictures will reward reading this book again and again.

Only for silly readers.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/what_animals_really_like.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Sonderling Sunday – Chapter Three

Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, Sonderling Sunday 1

It’s Sonderling Sunday again! Yes, it’s late, but I have time to get in a little bit of language fun before the day’s over.

Did I mention that one of the things I loved about living in Germany 10 years was seeing the ways similar things are expressed in different languages? A favorite incident in France was a sign that said the passage was difficile (difficult) due to the rehabilitation of the bridge! Completely understandable, but definitely not a way I ever would have thought of putting it.

And that’s some of the fun I’m finding in this Sonderling Sunday project. I’m taking bizarre words, sentences, and paragraphs from The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy — things I certainly never would have thought to say without reading this book — and I’m seeing how they are expressed in German in the book Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge. I’m coming up with all kinds of delightful surprises!

And I’m ready to start Chapter Three. In English, this takes up 10 pages. In German, it is 12 pages, so not a huge difference this time.

As usual, I’ll begin with the first paragraph, but I find I also want to include the second:

Jo backed out of the ruby palace’s garage, yanked the gearshift, and rolled Aunt Lily’s gold Mustang out onto the bumpy road. She didn’t have a driver’s license, but after Aunt Lily crashed their car through the supermarket’s front window, Jo had taken over driving between the ruby palace and Dust Creek.

Aunt Lily and Colonel Korsakov were bickering and flirting in the back. Korsakov was so huge that he took up the entire seat; Aunt Lily, to her delight, had to sit on his lap.

Auf Deutsch:

Jo fuhr rückwärts aus der Garage des Rubinpalastes, riss an der Gangschaltung und rumpelte mit dem goldfarbenen Mustang ihrer Tante auf die holprige Stra?e hinaus. Sie hatte zwar keinen Führerschein, aber nachdem Tante Lily mit ihrem Wagen in die Fensterscheibe des Supermarkts gerauscht war, hatte Jo es vorgezogen, an ihrer Stelle zwischen dem Rubinpalast und Dust Creek hin- und herzufahren.

Tante Lily und Oberst Korsakov hockten im Fond und flirteten kichernd miteinander. Der Russe war so fett, dass er die gesamte Rückbank mit Beschlag belegte, und so musste die frühere Filmdiva sich zu ihrem Entzücken auf seinen Scho? setzen.

So far, we have:
“gearshift” = Gangschaltung (Go Circuit)
“rolled” = rumpelte
“bumpy” = holprige
hockten im Fond = “crouched in the rear” (I thought it meant were fondly bickering, but Google says I was wrong.)
In fact, I don’t find any bickering.
flirteten kichernd miteinander seems to mean “were flirting giggily with one another.”
Also, Germans say it like it is. English says Korsakov was so huge. German says “The Russian was so fat.” = Der Russe war so fett.
Instead of using Aunt Lily’s name again in the last sentence, the translator put in die frühere Filmdiva, “the former Film diva.”

Going on from there, an interesting translation:
“snuggling up to him” = an ihn schmiegte

Ah, on page 28 of the English version, we’ve got a fun paragraph. Watch for the translation of “armadillo.” Here it is in English:

It was a grubby room crowded with metal folding chairs and simulated-wood tables, dimly lit and almost intolerably hot, swimming in the thick stink of burnt coffee, fried dough, and maple syrup. The only decoration sat next to the cash register, a plastic armadillo so dented and abused that Jo almost pitied it.

Translated as:

In dem schmuddeligen Raum drängten sich metallene Klappstühle und Kunststofftische mit Holzimitat. Es war nicht besonders hell dort und unerträglich hei?. Der Raum war erfüllt von dem Gestank nach verbranntem Kaffee, altem Fett und Ahornsirup. Die einzige Dekoration befand sich neben der Kasse: ein Gürteltier aus Plastik, das so verbeult und abgeschlafft war, dass Jo es fast bedauerte.

Here are the goodies from that paragraph:
“grubby” = schmuddeligen
“folding chairs” = Klappstühle (I particularly like that one. “Folding” = Klapp)
“simulated-wood” = Holzimitat (Wood imitation)
German doesn’t say the room was “swimming” in the stink, just that it was erfüllt (filled) with it.
And my favorite:
“armadillo” = Gürteltier (“Belts animal”)

Going on:
“wobbly stool” = wackligen Hocker
“withered” = runzlige
“flowery” = in geblümte Kleider gehüllten (“in flowery clothes wrapped”)
“undertaker” = Bestattungsunternehmer (“burial undertaker”)
“standards” = Ma?stäben
“Adorable!” = Hinrei?end!
“funeral” = Beerdigung (“earth-going”)
“complaining” = beschwerten
“good-for-nothing grandchildren” = nichtsnutzigen Enkelkinder (nothing-useful grandchildren)
“squawked” = keckerten
“pouted” = schmollte
“theme music” = Titelmelodie
“storm clouds” = Gewitterwolken (That one’s just fun to say.)

Yikes! Look at the time! Sunday is over, so I will stop and get this posted. I’m on the Belgian Prankster paragraph on page 30 in English, Seite 42 auf Deutsch.

My favorites today were Gürteltier, schmiegte, schmollte, and Klappstühle.

Tune in next week, as we continue with Chapter Three.

Bloggiesta Sum-Up

Challenge, Events 0

Well, that didn’t work out like I hoped it would!

Okay, I knew my goals were impossible, but I thought I could make a lot more progress than I did.

However, I think I had a mini-stroke last week. I no longer overreact. I no longer head to the Emergency Room, or even call my neurologist. [The very very good news is that I see a specialist at Johns Hopkins this coming Friday. This will give me something more to tell him!] I suspect the mini-stroke was so small, it would not show up on an MRI. None of the others did! (But one I felt, and one caused permanent double vision if I look in certain directions.) However, all of them leave me feeling weak and dizzy if I walk around. I get better after a couple weeks, and I was doing great at PLA (Thank you, God!). But this week I had another setback, and the feeling is continuing through this weekend. I feel a lot more annoyed with it on my days off than I do on work days, I’m a bit ashamed to say!

So, I thought I could spend several hours on catching up on reviews. But I spent a big part of both days napping. I did get in a game of Dominion with my son both days, but that was worth it! I won’t be able to do that later in the week, when he’s at his Dad’s. And I do have two more days off, but I will definitely need to do some of the chores and errands I put off, ostensibly for Bloggiesta.

However! All that said, one of the best things about Bloggiesta, honestly, was reading this post at Chachic’s Book Nook. Like Chachic, my blog is meant to be My Happy Place. This is for fun!

So — though I only got 3 reviews written, I have put many more books than that back in my bag to return to the library. I do not need to say, “Here’s a good book,” unless I have a bit more to say about it than that. And I was nicely reminded to keep this fun.

Other things I did: I did make it to part of two of the Twitter parties.

I posted a review both days, and another blog entry both days, and a Sonderquotes entry both days, and a Sonderblessings entry today.

I attempted to upgrade my blogs, but ran into trouble with the needed database upgrade. I will take that up with Yahoo some time when I’m not expecting commenters, so it won’t be so bad if the whole site is down for awhile.

I did not achieve the commenting mini-challenge — only making 6 comments. But I do plan to go back to the Bloggiesta list to visit blogs in the future.

The other mini-challenges also didn’t get done, but again, the instructions stay there, so I can always go back to them when I’m feeling better.

Summing up, I still have piles of To-Be-Reviewed books. But they are smaller, and I do think my attitude toward them lightened up. I remembered how much fun this is!

Oh, and I found a whole bunch of delightful bloggers to follow on Twitter! That’s going to add some fun to my days long into the future.

Will I do Bloggiesta again? Absolutely!

Review of The Wilder Life, by Wendy McClure

Audiobooks, Biography, Musings, Nonfiction Review, Travel, True Stories 0

The Wilder Life

My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie

by Wendy McClure

Performed by Teri Clark Linden

Brilliance Audio, 2011. 9 discs, 10 hours, 43 minutes.

This audiobook was a fun one to listen to while driving to work and back. It felt a little on the long side, but I handled that by giving myself breaks of a few days in between discs. The narrator sounded a little too much like a teenager to me, actually sounding a whole lot like Natalie Moore, who narrated Dairy Queen. However, I got used to her voice and rationalized that the author was indeed a lot younger than me, so it was okay.

The book is about Wendy McClure’s childhood passion for the world of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and her quest to revisit the world of the books by seeing all the Little House sites peppered over America.

Now, I’ll confess right up front that I never read the Little House books myself. I think I read the first one, Little House in the Big Woods, on the urging of Karen Iwata, my best friend in second and third grades, but I thought it was frightfully boring. Those pioneer books didn’t grab me. I remember I also gave up on Caddie Woodlawn.

However, when my sons were growing up, my husband read them all the Little House books, which he had read and loved when he was a child, and I listened in and found them not so bad at all. What’s more, we had visited the home in Missouri where Laura lived as an adult and wrote the books.

And I certainly know about loving childhood books! Some day, some day, I will visit Prince Edward Island, where Lucy Maud Montgomery set her books. Hmm. Maybe I should write a book about it when I do. Though at least Laura Ingalls Wilder had many, many home sites, so Wendy McClure did have a book-length story to tell.

I found the book all the more fascinating because right now I’m in the middle of researching my family history. I keep thinking of the old picture I saw of my grandma as a baby with her brothers in front of their sod house. I remember her telling me, “Just like Laura Ingalls Wilder!” She and my grandpa were actually born in Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma — so quite near the original Little House on the Prairie. What’s more, lots and lots of my ancestors were pioneers and farmers, moving steadily west, so the world of the Little House books is really quite close to the story of my own roots — and that made Wendy McClure’s visiting the home sites all the more interesting to me.

And I have to admit, Wendy McClure knows how to make the tale interesting. She tells about each place she visits, the people she sees, and what she felt to see them. She explores lots of her feelings about the books and about the places, many of which any book lover can easily relate to. She also throws in facts about Laura and her family, but sprinkles them nicely so we don’t get bored.

In short, I recommend this book for anyone who loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, or just anyone who loves going back to the children’s books they cherished as a child. The story doesn’t have a lot of tension or a driving plot, but that actually makes it nice listening for a commute. And, hey, anyone who gets a chance to do a Little House road trip, following the steps of Laura Ingalls Wilder (and Wendy McClure), will definitely want to have this for the ride.

www.terriclarkvoiceover.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/wilder_life.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library audiobook from the Fairfax County Public Library.