Review of Dreamer’s Pool, by Juliet Marillier

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

dreamers_pool_largeDreamer’s Pool

by Juliet Marillier

Roc (Penguin), 2014. 414 pages.
Starred Review

This was the first book I read in 2015, and I will not be one bit surprised if it ends up being my favorite book read in 2015.

I already loved Juliet Marillier’s writing. This book starts a new series completely unlike her others – but equally rich, moving, and filled with magic.

The subtitle calls Dreamer’s Pool A Blackthorn & Grim Novel. At the start of the book Blackthorn and Grim are in a wretched prison. The book begins with Blackthorn hoping for release.

I fished out the rusty nail from under my pallet and scratched another mark on the wall. Tomorrow would be midsummer, not that a person could tell rain from shine in this cesspit. I’d been here a year. A whole year of filth and abuse and being shoved back down the moment I lifted myself so much as an inch. Tomorrow, at last, I’d get my chance to speak out. Tomorrow I would tell my story.

But then a prison guard gleefully gives her some bad news:

”You must have really got up Malthuin’s nose,” he said. “What did you do to make him so angry?” Perhaps knowing he wouldn’t get an answer, Slammer went right on. “Overheard a little exchange. Someone wants you out of the way before the hearing, not after.”

“Out of the way?”

“Someone wants to make sure your case never goes before the council. First thing in the morning, you’re to be disposed of. Quick, quiet, final. Name crossed off the list. No need to bother the chieftains with any of it.” He was scrutinizing me between the bars, waiting for me to weep, collapse, scream defiance.”

However, much to her surprise, the next morning just before dawn, she is instead later brought to meet with a fey nobleman named Conmael. He makes her an offer — with conditions.

“I’m offering you a chance to be safely out of here before they come for you. You’d leave the district and travel north to Dalriada. There’d be help along the way, and a place to stay when you got there. After that, you’d need to earn a living doing what you did before. There’s always a need for skilled healers.”

“Travel north. When?”

“Straightaway.”

As I made to speak again, to say I couldn’t go anywhere because I had to appear at the council, Conmael gestured me to be quiet. “There are three conditions you must agree to meet before I grant you this opportunity. Firstly, the considerable skill you possess must be used only for good. You will not let bitterness or anger draw you down the darker ways of your craft. Secondly, if anyone asks for your help, you will give it willingly. I do not mean solely those who come to you for assistance with their ailments, but anyone at all who seeks your aid.”

“And thirdly?” It occurred to me that I could be as good a liar as anyone. What was to stop me from agreeing now, and once I was out of here, doing whatever I pleased? I might yet live beyond dawn and see Mathuin brought down before nightfall. My heart began to race.

“Thirdly, you will not seek vengeance. You will remain in Dalriada and stay away from Mathuin of Laois.”

That, I could not do. But I bit back the no that sprang to my lips. “Is there a period of time attached to this ridiculous proposition?”

Conmael gave a cool smile. “Seven years,” he said. “That is the term for all three conditions.”

“What?” Morrigan’s curse, I’d be lucky if I managed seven days, let alone seven years! Walk away and leave Mathuin behind me, his crimes not only unpunished but not even reported? Agree to every single request for help? As for using my gifts for good, all the good had been beaten out of me long ago. My spirit was as stained and foul as my reeking, vermin-ridden body. But then, what did it matter if I was bound to his stupid plan for my whole life, provided I saw Mathuin brought to justice first?

“Mathuin has done ill deeds,” Conmael said. “He’s also a powerful chieftain who enjoys the support of many fellow leaders. You are a prisoner, without family, without resources, with no home to go to and no friends to help you. Even if you did stand up at the council, even if you did make these accusations before the assembled chieftains, who would take your word against Mathuin’s? All you would achieve is your own destruction. So let us set a limit on the number of times you may break the rules. Five, I think.”

“Or what happens?”

“Or you find yourself back here, filthy, worn down, defeated, with the executioner knocking on your door. And this time, no reprieve.”

Conmael does rescue her from prison — by blowing apart the prison. The only survivors are Blackthorn and Grim.

Blackthorn would have gone to Dalriada on her own, but when Grim asks to help her, he asks in a way that makes her realize she’d be helping him to allow him to stay with her. Because of Conmael’s conditions, she can’t say no.

That’s one complex story thread of this book. And we also hear Grim’s perspective on events. But a third narrator, Prince Oram, also gives us his story. Oram is the prince ruling Dalriada, where Blackthorn and Grim are now living. He has found the love of his life via exchange of letters. But when his betrothed comes to visit, to seal the betrothal, she bathes and almost drowns in Dreamer’s Pool, near Blackthorn’s cottage. And after that, something is very wrong. Even her beloved dog wants nothing to do with her.

This is about Blackthorn and Grim starting new lives, dealing with shadows of the past, and helping people by solving mysteries. There is also a young girl who has suddenly gone missing. The people of the village think she ran off with a gypsy, but the girl’s friend thinks otherwise, and Blackthorn is good at listening.

I can’t communicate all the beauty that is in this book. Blackthorn is dealing with deep scars and pain, but the author makes you care deeply about her and the new life she is setting up. Grim is big and strong, and has a reputation for not being very bright, but we come to love him, and even Blackthorn comes to realize she can’t do without him.

There are mysteries in this book, natural and supernatural. And characters you will come to love.

My favorite thing about the book? There’s going to be more about Blackthorn and Grim.

julietmarillier.com
penguin.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/dreamers_pool.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 my own copy, preordered via amazon.com.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of El Deafo, by Cece Bell

Award Winners, Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Memoir, Starred Review 0

el_deafo_largeEl Deafo

by Cece Bell
color by David Lasky

Amulet Books, New York, 2014. 240 pages.
Starred Review
2015 Capitol Choices Selection
2015 Newbery Honor

El Deafo is an endearing and engaging graphic novel-style memoir. I’m not quite sure why everyone is presented as human-rabbit creatures, but that’s part of an informal graphic style that will pull kids in.

Cece Bell got meningitis when she was very young – and lost her hearing almost completely. El Deafo is her story of growing up deaf – wearing hearing aids, learning to lip read, and navigating the ways different people treated her because she was deaf.

Cece got to attend Kindergarten in a class with other kids with hearing problems, but her family moved and she had to go to first grade with hearing students. She’s given a high-powered hearing aid connected to a microphone the teacher wears around her neck. Cece discovers she has a superpower – she can hear what her teacher is saying or doing anywhere in the building.

But making friends is difficult. First, there’s the friend who dominates everything the two do together. Then there’s the friend who always e-nun-ci-ates (which is harder to lip-read) and makes a huge deal of Cece’s deafness.

Cece also illustrates ordinary friendship perils that become larger. For example, she can’t lip read at a slumber party once the lights are shut off. And that boy she has a crush on – what will he think when he sees her with her extra-large hearing aid at school?

This book’s friendly format will catch kids’ interest, and give them a glimpse of what the world might be like if you couldn’t take hearing for granted. No preaching is needed – Cece tells her compelling story, and kids’ eyes will be opened.

cecebell.com
amuletbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/el_deafo.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Library Mascot Cage Match, by Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum

Humorous, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

library_mascot_cage_match_largeLibrary Mascot Cage Match

An Unshelved Collection

by Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum

Overdue Media, Seattle, 2005. 120 pages.
Starred Review

We recently had a Library Staff Day, and Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum spoke, and we each received a copy of one of their books. I have seen Unshelved online, but I had forgotten just how funny their cartoons are.

Unshelved is set in Mallville Public Library. The comic is written so that even non-librarians will find it funny. However, we librarians? We think it’s hilarious. At last the world is having some of their misperceptions about libraries cleared up!

My favorite strip from this book is one they highlighted in their session. You see people running around the library, and a customer saying “I thought libraries were supposed to be quiet!” Dewey (the teen librarian) says, “You have what we call ‘The Misperception.’”

Another good series is where a customer is advocating for a vote to close the library to “save” taxpayer money. The librarians help him prepare his case and his materials. At the end, he asks, “What is this, the Twilight Zone???” Dewey says, “No, a library. We don’t have to like you to help you.”

This book also includes, in the center, a full-color graphic novelette, “Empire County Strikes Back,” when a high-tech bookmobile from a neighboring county tries to take over their customers and close their library. There’s a lovely scene at the end where Dewey explains all that librarians do for their community, which technology can never replace.

It’s time to take sides. Are you going to be seduced by the lure of high technology or are you going to support your local public library the way we support you?

I need to take another look at this webcomic. Time to sign up for those daily emails – and order more of the books.

unshelved.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/library_mascot_cage_match.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of The Yarn Whisperer, by Clara Parkes

Art, Creativity, Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

yarn_whisperer_largeThe Yarn Whisperer

My Unexpected Life in Knitting

by Clara Parkes

STC Craft, a Melanie Falick Book (Abrams), New York, 2013. 160 pages.
Starred Review

This book would be an ideal gift for any knitter who also enjoys musings about life (like me). Clara Parkes takes experiences and techniques from her life in knitting, and applies the ideas to life.

For example, she talks about how a steek is like a divorce or other big cuts of life.

There’s a way to do it right, without pain. We work a series of steps called a steek, so that the stitches are prepared for what’s coming and can absorb the shock, heal without any scars, and even thrive in their new environment.

Another chapter is called “Stitch Traffic,” and talks about how stitches travel:

But some patterns do wild things. When you move those stacked stitches around, split them up and swap them over and under one another, force sudden merges and yields, driving becomes much more interesting. Your roads sprout new lanes, fork off in different directions, pass through busy rotaries. They can be detoured by giant bobble boulders, blasted with yarnover potholes, or forced into sudden dead ends….

Cables are the knitter’s version of highway overpasses and tunnels guiding lanes of stitches on their merry way…. Wide cables are like L. A. freeways, their beautiful maze of overpasses and off-ramps leading every stitch home. Occasionally traffic will snarl from a jackknifed big-rig, a mis-twisted cable. You’ll send in a wrecker to unravel the whole thing – or maybe use the Jaws of Life to cut an outside strand and reknit your way back in.

Her chapter on the Kitchener stitch and seamless connecting of all kinds begins by telling about the Knitter’s Handshake:

Two hands go in for the grab-and-shake, but at the last minute, they veer to the closest sleeve or band and grab it instead, while we ask, “Did you knit this?” Our eyes immediately scan the fabric for seams and joins, cast-on edges and edgings. We can’t help it, we’re wired to look for imperfections. A proper seam garners respect and admiration, even envy. Hastily worked, jagged, or lumpy lines are like scars – we know it’s impolite to ask how they got there, but we can’t stop staring.

I like “The Dropped Stitch” chapter so much, I’m going to quote from it at length:

Yarns are like people. Some have abandonment issues. They don’t do well when stood up. They look at the empty chair. They check their watches and realize what’s happened, and they panic. Glancing around, they see happily secure stitches just out of grasp, mocking, sneering, like teenagers in a cafeteria. They look up for the reassuring arms of the next row, but they see only air….

But not all yarns respond in this way. Some stand their ground, not the least bit unnerved by their disconnection or solitude. Their stitches can sit suspended for hours, days, years even. They bring their own books. They write letters home. They nod to passersby, reach out to pet strangers’ dogs, completely confident that eventually someone will notice their absence and come back to pick them up. “Oh, hello there,” they finally greet the returning needle, sliding in quickly and putting on their seat belt. “Nice to see you again.”

What makes a yarn react to abandonment the way it does? Why do some people crumble when faced with that empty chair, while others take it in stride? Does it all boil down to confidence – spunk, determination, security in one’s self and one’s own place in the world? Ironically, the most opulent and imperial yarns – the ones with slick and glossy surfaces that glide past their neighbors without so much as a how-do-you-do – tend to slink out the emergency exit the fastest.

Whether it’s from vanity or perhaps shyness, these slippery silks and smooth worsteds seem to have fewer deep and abiding connections. They look so beautiful in the skein. Their smooth and dense construction may help them last longer in the world. But what kind of life do they have? They’re so intent on holding it together that they rarely relax, let their hair down a little, get to know their neighbors. They sit upright in their fabric, arms held in to preserve their personal space. Knit them too loosely and sunlight will stream in between each stitch; too tight, and the stitches will quickly get grumpy and stiff from the forced intimacy. They expect life to go a certain way….

But those yarns with outgoing personalities – the ones formed from a noisy and jubilant community of lofty, crimpy fibers that are always in one another’s business – those yarns come together in times of trouble. Each stitch, even the tormented teenager who just wants a little privacy now and then, fundamentally supports the others. They willingly expand and contract to fill whatever space you give them. Need to add three more place settings for dinner? No problem, they smile, we can stretch the meal. And when the needle suddenly disappears and leaves a stitch stranded, the others reach out instinctively, “We’ve got your back,” they say, and they mean it….

Depending on where you go, these rugged-seeming woolen-spun yarns may not be sitting at the popular kids’ table. In fact, they’re more likely to be sitting in smaller groups outside, on the grass, under a quiet tree. But you know what? When push comes to shove comes to slipped needle and dangling stitch, when a chair is empty that’s supposed to have someone sitting in it, those are the yarns that will always wait for you. They are loyal to a fault, forgiving and secure in their own twist and tenacity. You want them on your side.

She talks about how yarn stashes are like gardens, casting on represents beginnings, and swatching is “the knitter’s equivalent of sight-reading.” There are all sorts of connections to knitting from the mind of someone who loves knitting and loves life.

I read it a chapter per day, and consistently got things to smile about and some food for thought. All lovers of yarn will find something to love about this book.

knittersreview.com
claraswindow.blogspot.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/yarn_whisperer.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of You Can Heal Your Heart, by Louise Hay and David Kessler

Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth, Starred Review 0

you_can_heal_your_heart_largeYou Can Heal Your Heart

Finding Peace After a Breakup, Divorce, or Death

by Louise L. Hay and David Kessler

Hay House, Carlsbad, California, 2014. 182 pages.
Starred Review

I picked up this book because I like Louise Hay’s work, and of course can always use more healing after my divorce. I also recently broke up with a boyfriend for the first time in my life. We’d only been dating two months, but still, this was new to me.

David Kessler I hadn’t heard of before, but he is an expert on grief and loss, so he brings solid credentials to the book. I think of Louise Hay as New Age-y. She focuses mainly on the power of affirmations, which I have some skepticism about. However, they take a solid look at your self-talk after loss and help you reframe your thinking and choose to see the positive. And Christians will find nothing to fault here. They may want to substitute “God” where Louise Hay uses “the Universe,” but everything else I think they can agree with.

In the Introduction, the authors explain how they’re trying to help:

A broken heart is also an open heart. Whatever the circumstances, when you love someone and your time together ends, you will naturally feel pain. The pain of losing a person you love is part of life, part of this journey, but suffering doesn’t have to be. Although it’s natural to forget your power after you lose a loved one, the truth is that after a breakup, divorce, or death, there remains an ability within you to create a new reality.

Let’s be clear here: We’re asking you to change your thinking after a loss occurs – not to avoid the pain of grief, but to keep moving through it. We want your thoughts to live in a place where you remember your loved one only with love, not with sadness or regret. Even after the worst breakup, the meanest divorce, and the most tragic death, it is possible to achieve this over time. That doesn’t mean that you deny or run away from the pain. Instead, you let yourself experience it and then allow a new life to unfold – one where you hold the love dear, not the sorrow.

The three main areas they focus on are helping you feel your feelings, allowing old wounds to come up for healing, and changing distorted thinking about relationships, love, and life.

Here’s a paragraph from the chapter that most interested me, on divorce:

Grief is a time of mourning all that has been lost – the dreams that have been shattered, and the loss of hope for the marriage you thought you were going to always have. However, when you can arrive at sweet acceptance that what has happened did actually happen, you will find that grief is also a time of renewal, rebuilding and reforming. You now have the opportunity to create yourself anew. Who will you be after the divorce? Don’t just leave a void for others and your past to fill and define you. Choose who you want to be. This is a new chapter, and you have the opportunity to start again. If you’re thinking, It’s too late for me to start again, just know that that is only a thought – and one that isn’t true. If you’re still residing on the planet, it’s never too late for you to start over.

I did like that, after the chapters on break-ups, divorce, and death, there was a chapter on the death of a pet, and then a chapter on other losses, such as job loss or miscarriages. Here’s a paragraph from the chapter “Honoring Pet Loss”:

The reality is that grief from pet loss is not as easily fixed as some would have us believe. It’s hard to live in grief that’s judged as unworthy. Grief is about love, and our animal companions often show us some of the most unconditional love we could ever experience. How often, despite our best efforts, do we absorb some of society’s judgments and think, I shouldn’t be grieving this much? Yet when we let these thoughts in, we betray our genuine feelings.

This is a gentle, hopeful and encouraging book which reminds you that a broken heart is also an open heart.

Let your thinking manifest hope to your sorrow. Choose your thoughts wisely. Be kind to yourself, and reflect on the loss with love. If you’re grieving the death of a loved one, remember how you loved them when they were present; know that you can continue loving them in their absence. You can go from grief to peace.

LouiseHay.com
DavidKessler.org
hayhouse.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/you_can_heal_your_heart.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of Froodle, by Antoinette Portis

Animal Characters, Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Readalouds, Starred Review 4

froodle_largeFroodle

by Antoinette Portis

A Neal Porter Book (Roaring Brook Press), New York, 2014. 32 pages.
Starred Review

I just got back from a vacation in Oregon, where I stayed in the home of my sister and her toddler daughter Alyssa, who is learning to talk and make animal sounds and all those good things. When I read this book, I so wished I could read it to Alyssa! I will have to settle for a Preschool Storytime. Now, it will go over best with kids who already know their animal sounds, so they will know how silly this book is. But no matter what the age, you will certainly find kids repeating the silly, jazzy words.

Here’s the story: All the animals and birds in a particular neighborhood make the normal, expected animal sounds. Until one day, out of the blue, little brown bird decides she wants to sing something new, maybe something silly, like “Froodle sproodle.”

The other birds are upset, especially the biggest bird, Crow. But before long, more silliness slips out, and it begins to spread. Cardinal says, “Ickle zickle! Pickle trickle!” And next thing you know, even the peace-making dove has joined in with “Oobly snoobly!”

Little Brown Bird, Cardinal and Dove continue singing jazzy songs together, until even Crow can’t resist. The neighborhood will never be the same.

What makes this book so fun is that the sayings are admittedly silly. Crow even gives his reason for participating as “Everyone knows there is no such thing as a silly black crow.” But the sayings are also jazzy and catchy, and I’m guessing that kids who hear this book read will be no more able than Crow to resist joining in.

mackids.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/froodle.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of Rupert Can Dance, by Jules Feiffer

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

rupert_can_dance_largeRupert Can Dance

by Jules Feiffer

Michael di Capua Books, Farrar Straus Giroux, 2014. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Jules Feiffer, the genius behind Bark, George, has another simple-but-powerful kid-pleaser here.

Rupert is a cat. His owner, Mandy, dances all day long, and Rupert loves to watch her dance. Mandy only stops dancing when she goes to sleep – and that’s when Rupert starts.

You can not believe how good he was.

Not just a good dancer, but also a quiet dancer.

Dancing was Rupert’s secret!

And the last thing he wanted was for Mandy to wake up and find out.

Rupert loved having a secret from Mandy. Cats love secrets

and Rupert took great pride that his secret was one of the best ever.

But then, one night, Mandy wakes up unexpectedly and learns Rupert’s secret. And, to Rupert’s horror, she wants to give him dancing lessons.

Rupert was mortified. The fun in dancing was to do it his own way. In secret. And without having to take lessons.

Dogs might qualify for lessons, but Rupert was a cat.

Cats are not meant for lessons. Cats are free spirits.

Rupert stays under Mandy’s bed for three days. Until finally Mandy hatches a plan for getting Rupert interested in life – and dancing – again.

Part of the charm of this book is Jules Feiffer’s loose, enthusiastic drawings. I like the exuberance of the dancing girl and dancing cat. I like the picture of Mandy thinking about Rupert – line drawings of Rupert are superimposed all over Mandy, perfectly symbolizing how he’s intruding into her thoughts.

I also like the way Rupert is such a quintessential cat. Cats indeed love secrets. I believe that. And a cat would indeed blanch at being offered lessons, like a dog.

Here’s a book that at least will not get children trying to teach their cats to dance. But it may get them wondering what secrets their own cats are hiding.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/rupert_can_dance.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of Edward Hopper Paints His World, by Robert Burleigh and Wendell Minor

Art, Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

edward_hopper_paints_his_world_largeEdward Hopper Paints His World

by Robert Burleigh
paintings by Wendell Minor

Christy Ottaviano Books (Henry Holt), New York, 2014. 44 pages.
Starred Review

I’ve got a soft spot for picture book biographies of artists, especially when the illustrator does such a wonderful job of evoking the subject’s artwork.

Both author and illustrator of this book did their homework. The author tells how, from childhood, Edward Hopper planned to be an artist. He doesn’t linger long in childhood, but talks about how Edward pursued his goal singlemindedly, even though it took years before he won recognition. Here’s a typical page:

Because he was fascinated by the look and feel of old houses, Edward began to make paintings of them. Once he remarked: “All I want to do is paint sunlight on the side of a house.”

But maybe Edward liked to paint houses for another reason. Many houses in his paintings seem moody, quiet, and alone. Were Edward’s houses a bit like Edward himself?

Another page explains one of his most famous paintings, and the illustration, with Edward Hopper looking at the scene, isn’t exactly like the painting.

But Edward didn’t just copy what he saw. His paintings often combined things he sketched on his travels: a café on a deserted street corner, customers drinking coffee, lost in thought – or dark shadows on an eerie green pavement.

Starting with scenes and details like these, Edward used his imagination to create some of his best-known pictures. One famous painting shows solitary people sitting at a counter in an all-night diner. The painting is called Nighthawks.

“I was painting the loneliness of a large city,” he later explained.

The paintings illustrating this book are beautiful in their own right. I found the Artist’s Note especially interesting:

. . . In this book, I tried to create the feeling of Hopper’s art while maintaining my own style. Upon careful observation, the reader will notice many differences in my interpretations of the four famous Hopper paintings in this book. My idea was to evoke the familiar through Hopper’s point of view. . . .

In this book, Robert Burleigh and I have attempted to give the young reader an introduction to the artist’s process of discovery. We see Hopper observing subjects, and we try to imagine what it might have been like to be there with him. Hopper sometimes sketched and painted his subjects on-site, but other times, he would return to his studio and sketch his observations from memory. His work is a combination of the real and the imagined. The best example of this is perhaps his most famous painting, Nighthawks. My research has shown that the all-night café in his painting never really existed. Hopper created this imaginary place from the many different scenes he encountered on his walks through New York City’s streets – and he did it in such a way that the viewer is convinced they know this café to be real. Such is the power of creativity! Robert Burleigh and I hope that we will inspire young artists everywhere to observe and then create wonderful pictures of their world.

I feel confident the author and artist are succeeding in that goal.

robertburleigh.com
minorart.com
mackids.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/edward_hopper_paints_his_world.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of The Code of the Woosters, by P. G. Wodehouse

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Humorous, Starred Review 0

code_of_the_woosters_largeThe Code of the Woosters

by P. G. Wodehouse
performed by Alexander Spencer

Recorded Books, 1989. First published in 1938. 8 hours on 7 compact discs.
Starred Review

I’m trying to listen to all the P. G. Wodehouse Jeeves and Wooster books, since there is nothing better for putting me in a good mood while riding in the car.

The Code of the Woosters is one that was used for the marvelous BBC series Jeeves and Wooster, starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, so I was very familiar with the plot – but that didn’t diminish my enjoyment in the slightest. It perhaps helped me follow the convoluted plot all the better. It did have a slightly different resolution than is dramatized in the series, but mostly the series follows the book closely.

If you’ve seen the series, all I have to say is that this is the one with the imbroglio involving the Cow Creamer.

The book itself uses the word “imbroglio” to describe the situation we find here, and the description is apt. You couldn’t hope to come up with a more convoluted set of people hoping to marry other people and threatening to marry others and needing approval and blackmailing innocents into nefarious deeds and being in danger of disaster of all different kinds. And it’s all done with a proper British accent and Bertie’s jovial way of talking.

Entirely too much fun.

recordedbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/code_of_the_woosters.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Love Among the Chickens, by P. G. Wodehouse

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Humorous, Starred Review 0

love_among_the_chickens_largeLove Among the Chickens

by P. G. Wodehouse
read by Jonathan Cecil

BBC Audiobooks, Limited, 2005.
Starred Review

Listening to Jonathan Cecil read P. G. Wodehouse is getting to be my standard entertainment when driving. I will be devastated when I run out of library audiobooks. As it is, this was my first book, not about Jeeves and Wooster, but about Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge and his friend, the narrator, Jeremy Garnet.

The book starts when newly married Ukridge talks Jeremy, a novelist, into joining him in the countryside as he starts a chicken farm. Ukridge is sure chicken farming is the road to riches, so he feels free to buy all their supplies on credit. As Jeremy travels to the farm, he sees a young lady on the train whom he will never forget.

Well, the road to true love does not run smoothly. The young lady, Phyllis, and her father do end up being neighbors, but when they come to dinner at the farm, Ukridge manages to alienate the father, which he holds against Garnet as well. When Garnet hatches a plan to restore himself to good favor, it works for awhile, all the more disastrously to fail in the end.

And meanwhile, Ukridge’s adventures in chicken farming are nothing if not entertaining. Even without Jeeves and Wooster, this is a typical Wodehousian farce, with larger-than-life characters and tangled schemes, which generally work out in precisely the worst way, but also the funniest way.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/love_among_the_chickens.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 Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!