Review of The Mating Season, by P. G. Wodehouse

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Humorous, Starred Review 0

mating_season_largeThe Mating Season

by P. G. Wodehouse
narrated by Jonathan Cecil

Sound Library (AudioGO), 1992. 6 hrs 51 min on 6 CDs.
Starred Review

I keep exclaiming on how much fun Jeeves & Wooster CDs are to listen to in the car. This one had delightfully absurd situations.

Bertie’s Aunt Dahlia has asked him to visit Deverill Hall, and he dare not disobey. He is to participate in a concert in the village, which is being organized by the vicar’s niece, Bertie’s good friend Corkie, who is also a Hollywood star. Meanwhile, Gussie Fink-Nottle has been told to visit Deverill Hall by his fiancé, Madeleine Basset. Living at the hall is Esmond Haddock and his five aunts.

As if that situation alone weren’t enough, Bertie ends up going to Deverill Hall pretending to be Gussie, and Gussie comes later, pretending to be Bertie. Once at the hall, romances are all tangled up. Corkie loves Esmond, but he is too cowed by his aunts. Gussie falls for Corkie, which puts Bertie in peril of being engaged to Madeleine Basset. And Corkie’s brother, Catsmeat, is in love with Gertrude Wentworth, a daughter of one of Esmond’s aunts. But Catsmeat fears that Gertrude is falling for Esmond, who is trying to make Corkie jealous.

As usual, there’s a grand comical mess, and only Jeeves can possibly hope to straighten it all out. Along the way, we get to hear Bertie’s hilarious understatements and apt similes all told in Jonathan Cecil’s wonderfully versatile British accent. He’s consistent in using different voices for each of the many characters, so you can tell who is speaking by just listening to his voice. A marvelously entertaining audiobook.

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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 An Eye for Art, Presented by the National Gallery of Art

Art, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

eye_for_art_largeAn Eye for Art

Focusing on Great Artists and Their Work

presented by the National Gallery of Art

Chicago Review Press, 2013. 177 pages.
Starred Review

Here is a fabulous overview of great artists and their work. I ended up reading it by looking at one artist per day. There are seven sections: Studying Nature, Exploring Places, Examining Portraits, Telling Stories, Observing Everyday Life, Questioning Traditions, and Playing with Space. Each section features several individual artists, with more than 50 featured in the book.

Each artist gets four pages. First, a title page, filled with the detail of the featured piece of art. When you turn the page, you get an oversized double-page spread that includes a picture of the entire work of art, usually a picture of the artist, and information about the artist and what they did that was notable in the work of art. Sometimes more than one work of art is included.

The final page on each author has either “explore more,” “try this,” or “another view.” “Explore more” looks at more of the artist’s work and suggests a way kids can explore that idea. Some examples are “Keep a cloud journal of your own” or “Make a self-portrait.” “Try this” also springboards from the work of art to project ideas. Examples here include “Create a colorful collage” or “Leaf rubbing.” “Another view” takes a look at another artist who did something similar to the featured artist. The text compares with the original artist and gives the reader a broader view of that trend in art.

This book is fascinating, beautiful, and informative. The cover explains that it includes 40 activities, so it is also inspiring. This is a wonderful book for a school library or a home collection or anyone who’s interested in art.

nga.gov
chicagoreviewpress.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/eye_for_art.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 Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design, by Chip Kidd

Art, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

go_largeGo

A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design

by Chip Kidd

Workman Publishing, New York, 2013. 150 pages.
Starred Review

Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design is a wonderfully visual introduction to all that goes into graphic design. Chip Kidd takes the approach that everyone is a designer, and he teaches the reader to be more conscious of design decisions, along with the effects they have.

He begins with an overview of design in general and graphic design in particular. He goes on to look at specific elements of graphic design: Form, Typography, Content, and Concept. Each element is looked at in great detail, and with lots of examples for each aspect. For example, under Form, he looks at things like Scale, Image Quality, Symmetry/Asymmetry, and Color Theory, to name just a few. Absolutely every concept has an example. There are no pages in this book consisting only of plain type.

Many of Chip Kidd’s book cover designs are featured in the book, showing that he really does this professionally, and giving examples of what works and the rationale behind them. But those are by no means the only examples.

The book finishes with 10 Design Projects for kids to try on their own, thus giving them a way to use the concepts they’ve learned. What’s more, he asks them to send copies of their projects to his website, gothebook.com, so not only are they encouraged to be creative, they get ideas for how to be creative, and they get to show off their creativity.

gothebook.com
Chipkidd.com
workman.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/go.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 King for a Day, by Rukhsana Khan and Christiane Krömer

Contemporary, Cross Cultural, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

king_for_a_day_largeKing for a Day

by Rukhsana Khan
illustrations by Christiane Krömer

Lee & Low Books, New York, 2013. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Recently, Betsy Bird of School Library Journal’s Fuse 8 blog did a post about “casual diversity” – books that include characters from diverse backgrounds, but where that isn’t the point of the story. Race or disability isn’t seen as a problem, it’s just the way the world is.

Shortly after reading that post, I read King for a Day and was delighted to find such a wonderful example.

The story is about Basant, a kite festival that happens every year in Lahore, Pakistan, to celebrate the arrival of Spring. We focus on a boy, Malik, who has been planning for a long time to win the kite battles, to be king of Basant. He has one kite which he has crafted himself.

He flies his kite from the roof of his building. Right away, he comes up against a bully who lives nearby, who has a big, expensive kite. But Malik is triumphant. And the day continues, battling all kinds of colorful kites. The illustrator has beautifully created many different cloth kites for these pages.

Big kites, little kites, fancy and plain. Even kites made of old newspapers. Sometimes I catch them in groups. Making wide circles around clusters of kites, Falcon slashes through their strings.

For a while the kites fly where the wind carries them. When they land, they’ll belong to whoever finds them. But at least they will have tasted freedom.

Insha Allah, I really am king of Basant today!

So we have a wonderful story about a kid living in another culture tasting victory. But what takes this a step further is that Malik is in a wheelchair.

It’s never mentioned in the text, that is just the way Malik is. His sister helps him with the kite’s taking off and helps him gather the kites that come to their rooftop. His brother, down below, gathers kites that drift downward. They help Malik with things that need feet, but he is the mastermind and the chief kite battler.

The illustrations are beautifully done in collage, with a wonderful variety of kites, in particular. Simply a marvelous book.

rukhsanakhan.com
christianekromer.com
leeandlow.com

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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 A Dance Like Starlight, by Kristy Dempsey and Floyd Cooper

History, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

dance_like_starlight_largeA Dance Like Starlight

One Ballerina’s Dream

by Kristy Dempsey
illustrated by Floyd Cooper

Philomel Books, 2014. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a beautifully illustrated picture book about a little girl who wants to be a ballerina. Sounds trite? What gives this book extra power is that the little girl is black and lives in Harlem in the 1950s. Her mother works for the ballet school, cleaning and stitching costumes.

One day, the Ballet Master sees the little girl do an entire dance in the wings, from beginning to final bow. After that, he makes an arrangement for her to join lessons each day from the back of the room, even though she can’t perform onstage with white girls.

And every once in a while,
When Mrs. Adams is especially surprised or perhaps even pleased with my form,
She asks me to demonstrate a movement for the whole class.
With every bend, I hope.
With every plié,
every turn,
every grand jete, I hope.
The harder I work, the bigger my hope grows,
and the more I wonder:
Could a colored girl like me
ever become
a prima ballerina?

And then something life-changing happens. She sees an announcement that Janet Collins is going to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House, the first colored prima ballerina. Her Mama makes sure she gets to go.

My favorite picture in the book goes with these words:

In my heart I’m the one leaping across that stage,
raising myself high on those shoulders,
then falling
slowly
slowly
slowly
to the arms below.

It’s like Miss Collins is dancing for me,
only for me,
showing me who I can be.
All my hoping
wells up and spills over,
dripping all my dreams onto my Sunday dress.

The picture shows a close up of Janet Collins in the middle of a leap in front of a packed opera house, with the girl in a graceful leap right beside her.

The Author’s Note at the back explains the historical background:

On November 13, 1951, four years before singer Marian Anderson’s Metropolitan Opera debut, dancer Janet Collins became the first African American hired to perform under contract with the Metropolitan Opera. Though she had been denied the opportunity to dance with other ballet troupes because of the color of her skin, Met Ballet Master Zachary Solov was so taken with her skill and beauty as a dancer, his choreography of the opening night opera was inspired by her movement. Rudolf Bing, general manager of the Met from 1950 to 1972, considered his greatest achievement to be having hired Miss Collins, breaking the barrier that existed for African American performers of the era.

Miss Collins’s performance on opening night and the fact that she was “colored,” as African Americans were called at that time, were both highly publicized in advance. Though I have only imagined this little girl and her mother were at the Met to see Miss Collins perform, I hope many women, regardless of their age or the color of their skin, are inspired to achieve their own dreams through her historic performance.

As if the inspiring story, with its discussion of wishes versus hope, weren’t enough, the art by Floyd Cooper is simply beautiful. This is an uplifting book in every way.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/dance_like_starlight.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 What’s Your Favorite Animal? by Eric Carle and Friends

Art, Children's Nonfiction Review, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

whats_your_favorite_animal_largeWhat’s Your Favorite Animal?

by Eric Carle and Friends

Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2014. 36 pages.
Starred Review

What’s Your Favorite Animal? is simply good fun. A collection of 14 fabulous illustrators of children’s books answered that question and provided a picture to go with it.

Many, such as Eric Carle, Peter Sis, Peter McCarty, Steven Kellogg, Susan Jeffers, and Erin Stead, give us a little story explaining their choice. Steve Kellogg says, “My older sister had claimed horses as her favorite animal, so I chose cows.” Erin Stead tells us, “I like how penguins seem confidently awkward on land but then glide so swiftly and expertly underwater.” Peter Sis gives us a heart-warming story of blue carp at Christmas time in the Czech Republic.

Nick Bruel goes with cartoon panels, telling us about the charms of octopuses – until Bad Kitty interferes. Rosemary Wells also uses panels, to show us the favored positions of a dog on my bed. Tom Lichtenheld gives us a limerick about giraffes.

I think my favorite picture is Jon Klassen’s duck. Those eyes. Classic Klassen.

The rest are quite short. Chris Raschka’s lovely snail, Lane Smith’s show-off elephant, and Lucy Cousins’ beautiful leopard are simply explained. But shortest of all is the entry by Mo Willems, with a picture of a snake with a bump in the middle: “My favorite animal is an Amazonian Neotropical Lower River Tink-Tink. (It is also this snake’s favorite animal.”

This would require time for discussion in a storytime, and I think would work better shared one-on-one, or with a child to pore over in private. An elementary school art class could have a good time with it. Of course, it begs the question, “What is your favorite animal?”

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/whats_your_favorite_animal.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 Jane, the Fox & Me, by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Jane, the Fox & Me

by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault

translated by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou

Groundwood Books/ House of Anansi Press, Toronto, 2013. First published in Montreal in 2012. 101 pages.
Starred Review

Hélène is a girl who’s relentlessly insulted. On the stall door of the second-floor washroom, on the blue staircase, in the schoolyard, on her locker door.

So Hélène is not happy when she learns their whole class is going to be going to Nature Camp. “Four nights, forty students. Our whole class.” She is not excited. She’s scared and nervous.

She goes with her mother to buy a bathing suit and looks like a sausage. On the bus, for comfort, she’s reading Jane Eyre. Jane has a terrible childhood, but grows up clever, slender, and wise. But even Jane Eyre needs a strategy. At camp, Hélène uses the strategy of pretending to look for something in her suitcase, and ends up in a tent with the Outcasts.

But some surprises happen at camp, including a close encounter with a fox. Things start to change for Hélène.

This graphic novel is a beautiful story of a sensitive and thoughtful girl going through relentless cruelty. And it ends well! Readers won’t be able to help but cheer for Hélène as things change for her.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/jane_fox_me.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 The Writer Who Stayed, by William Zinsser

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Writer Who Stayed

by William Zinsser

Paul Dry Books, Philadelphia, 2012. 175 pages.
Starred Review

This is a book of essays by a master of the form — indeed, the man who wrote the book on writing nonfiction (On Writing Well). It’s actually a collection of “columns” which were posted online. I would have called them blog posts, but The American Scholar, the magazine that posted them, calls them essays, and coming from William Zinsser, that’s completely appropriate.

I mostly read an essay per day, kind of like you’d read a blog. Each day I enjoyed having some insightful reading, and something to muse over for the day.

The essays are not long, and each word is used well. I want to give you some quotations, to show his wonderful use of language, but that doesn’t convey the completeness of each essay, the way he sets up something at the start that pays off by the end.

This is the ending of the essay “Content Management: In Praise of Long-Form Journalism”:

“As a journalist,” I tell my despairing students, “you are finally in the storytelling business.” We all are. It’s the oldest form of human communication, from the caveman to the crib, endlessly riveting. Goldilocks wakes up from her nap and sees three bears at the foot of her bed. What’s that all about? What happens next? We want to know and we always will.

Writers! Never forget to tell us what’s up with the bears. Manage that content.

Here’s another paragraph about writing, from the essay “Permission Givers: To Teach Is to Allow and to Encourage”:

Writers! You must give yourself permission, by a daily act of will, to believe in your remembered truth. Do not remain nameless to yourself. Only you can turn on the switch; nobody is going to do it for you. Nobody gave George Gershwin permission to write “Rhapsody in Blue” at the age of 25, when he had only written 32-bar popular songs. Nobody gave Frank Lloyd Wright permission to design a round museum.

The essays are by no means all about writing. Here’s the beginning of one that made me laugh:

Last week I got a letter from the man I once thought of as my broker, who now calls himself my investment counselor and would probably call himself my wealth management adviser if I had any “wealth” for him to manage. He was writing to tell me that Sandra, “the lead assistant assigned to your relationship, has decided to change careers and become a full-time mother of 10-month-old Brad.”

I didn’t even know I had a relationship with Sandra. She never mentioned it, probably because she already had a relationship — evidently quite a long one — with the father of 10-month-old Brad. But my investment counselor said he was “happy to announce” that Daniele had joined his office and would now be managing my relationship.

A few days later I went into my Citibank branch to get some cash and found a message on the ATM. It said, “Now you can have a dedicated relationship manager!” That got me wondering about Daniele. I knew she would be caring. But shouldn’t she also be dedicated?

This book contains good writing that will give you something to muse over. Definitely worth dipping into.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/writer_who_stayed.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 Constable & Toop, by Gareth P. Jones

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Paranormal, Starred Review 0

Constable & Toop

by Gareth P. Jones

Amulet Books, New York, 2013. 391 pages.
Starred Review

I like the blurbs at the front of Constable & Toop. They’re by “The Ghost of Oscar Wilde,” “The Ghost of Dr. Johnson,” and other distinguished ghosts. The Ghost of Emily Brontë says, “I very much enjoyed the melancholy and tragedy contained within these pages. The humor was less to my taste.”

Sam Toop can talk to ghosts. The ghosts know him as a “Talker,” and often ask him to help them with their unfinished business, like give a message or uncover a hidden will. But there’s something terribly wrong at the church where one of the ghosts wants his body buried.

Meanwhile, Lapsewood has been doing his desk job faithfully, in death as in life. But when he gets transferred to another department, and expected to check on residents of haunted houses, as the past Outreach worker has gone missing, he also stumbles on something terribly wrong.

At the same time, Clara’s parents invite an exorcist to their home. As Clara had suspected, they did have a ghost haunting their home, but the exorcist banishes her. After that event, nothing feels right, but things are even worse after the body of a girl is found in their home.

Constable & Toop is set in Victorian London, at a time when people were obsessed with death and funerals and the supernatural. Gareth Jones spins an entertaining tale of plots and murderers, among the living and the dead, and good people who try to do their bit to help.

This story is highly imaginative, intricately plotted, and a whole lot of fun.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/constable_and_toop.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 To Dare Mighty Things, by Doreen Rappaport

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

To Dare Mighty Things

The Life of Theodore Roosevelt

by Doreen Rappaport
illustrated by C. F. Payne

Disney Hyperion Books, New York, 2013. 44 pages.
Starred Review

This book does exactly what a picture book biography should do. It gives the reader a fantastic introduction to the life of a great man. There are big, beautiful pictures, showing active scenes. The text covers the highlights of his life, beginning with his curious childhood. I especially like the quotations featured on each page, in large bold print.

Here’s text from a two-page spread about his childhood. The quotations are much larger than the rest of the text.

Teedie stuffed hedgehogs into drawers.
Sometimes they escaped.
Guests were warned to check water pitchers for snakes before pouring.

“He has to be watched all the time,” his mother told his father.

He illustrated and wrote books about ants, spiders, ladybugs, fireflies, hawks, minnows, and crayfish.
His fingers were always stained with ink.
He collected animal and bird specimens and created a museum in his room.
He smelled. The whole house smelled.

“All growing boys tend to be grubby; but the ornithological boy is the grubbiest of all.”

Of course, with the cover image simply the head of Theodore Roosevelt, I’d love to see people pose with the book in front of their face.

This is an accessible book for young children, giving them an overview of Theodore Roosevelt’s life and work in a beautiful package that will catch anyone’s interest.

doreenrappaport.com
cfpayne.com
disneyhyperionbooks.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/to_dare_mighty_things.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.