Sonderling Sunday – Chapter Eleven – Memories and Prophecies

Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, Sonderling Sunday 0

It’s Sonderling Sunday! Have you ever laughed at the odd phrases tourist books choose to translate? Have you ever wondered how these words could possibly be used? On Sonderling Sundays, I take phrases from books for children and young adults and give you the German translation. Obviously, these phrases are useful: They have been used! I also hope you will enjoy a different way of hearing them or looking at them.

I’d like to think that even if you don’t speak German, you can enjoy Sonderling Sunday. In fact, with that in mind, I offer two challenges for the comments:

1) Please attempt to use one of the phrases or words from today’s post in a sentence.
2) Please translate one of the phrases or words into another language for all of our edification.

This week, I’m back to The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy. We left off on Chapter 11.

I like this sentence at the beginning, and thought it would be fun to see how it translates:
“Gone was the vast jeweled egg she’d woken up in every other morning of her life.”
This becomes:
Das riesige juwelenbesitzte Ei, in dem sie bisher jeden Morgen ihres Lebens aufgewacht war, war verschwunden.

(A literal translation is something like this: “The giant jewel-possessing egg, in which she up to now each morning of her life woke up to, was disappeared.”)

Some more intriguing phrases you never knew could be useful:
“scruffy wooden desk” = zerkratzten Holztisch

I like this one:
“a little arched leaded-glass window” = ein kleines Bogenfenster mit Bleiglas herein

This doesn’t change a lot, but I like the sound in German:
“She couldn’t get out of the crusty, stinky thing fast enough.” = Sie konnte gar nicht schnell genug aus diesem schmutzigen, stinkenden Ding herauskommen.

“in an agony of relief” = mit einer beinahe qualvollen Erleichterung

“wrapped in a fluffy white towel” = eingewickelt in ein flauschiges wei?es Handtuch

Here’s a phrase I dare you to use in a sentence:
“cars and elephants moving in the boulevards” = Wagen und Elefanten bewegten sich über die Boulevards

“Jo nearly spit out her coffee.” = Jo hätte sich fast an ihrem Kaffee verschluckt.

“painful” = sehr schmerzlich

“It was as if the ground had reeled under her.” = Jo hatte das Gefühl, als würde der Boden unter ihr schwanken.

“Just hearing it made her skin prickle.” = Es kribbelte sie am ganzen Körper, als sie dieses Wort nur hörte.
(“It tingled her on her whole body, when she this word only heard.”)

“jewelry box” = Schmuckkassette

“lead the life of a normal Odd-Fish squire” = lebe wie ein ganz normaler Knappe eines Seltsamen Sonderlings

“incredulous” = ungläubig

Well, I’m tired, so I’m stopping there for tonight. How about you? Can you think of a reasonable way to work one of these phrases or words or sentences into normal conversation? Or can you give us a translation in yet another language? I’ll be watching the comments to see.

Review of Bear Has a Story to Tell, by Philip C. and Erin E. Stead

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Bear Has a Story to Tell

written by Philip C. Stead
illustrated by Erin E. Stead

A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2012. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a gorgeous new offering by the creators of the Caldecott winner A Sick Day for Amos McGee. I like this one even better. The story is similar, but I like that the characters are all animals, and so don’t include an adult at all, just a big furry bear who looks completely huggable.

This is a great getting-ready-for-winter tale and a great friendship tale. It’s gentle and quiet, with a nice ending that circles back to the beginning.

The book begins:

It was almost winter and Bear was getting sleepy.
But first, Bear had a story to tell.

Bear asks all his friends if they’d like to hear a story. He asks Mouse, Duck, Frog, and looks for Mole. But Mouse has seeds to gather, Duck has to fly south, Frog has to find a warm place to sleep, and Mole is already asleep. Erin E. Stead so beautifully shows us a sleepy, sleepy bear walking through falling leaves and patiently helping out his friends. After a two-page spread of falling snow, we see Bear asleep in his den, and then waking up in the springtime.

In the spring, first Bear greets his friends and thinks of them. But the story is no longer on the tip of his tongue. Good thing he has his friends to help.

This is a book every parent of a young child should check out or purchase simply to enjoy the quiet but gorgeous artwork, perfectly paired with a story that kids will understand. And it’s fun to have a story about hibernation that doesn’t end with going to sleep. But it’s also a book about Story. I love the way Bear gives up the story he originally wanted to tell and, with his friends’ help, realizes that story is all around.

mackids.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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 Liar’s Moon, by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Fantasy, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Liar’s Moon

by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic, 2011. 356 pages.
Starred Review

This book is a sequel to Star Crossed, and I liked Elizabeth Bunce’s first book, A Curse Dark as Gold so much, I bought my own copy of StarCrossed and Liar’s Moon. I did get a chance to reread StarCrossed before I took up Liar’s Moon.

I did enjoy Liar’s Moon, and there’s absolutely no question in my mind that I will snap up the next book. Some details are left very badly hanging, so it’s clear this is intended as at least a trilogy.

This is not your typical second-book-of-a-trilogy, though. After narrowly escaping from her home in the city of Gerse in the first book, Digger is back, trying to survive in the underbelly of the city. Right from the start, she’s captured and thrown into prison — in a cell with Durrell Decath, whom we met at the very start of StarCrossed, but then didn’t see much of.

It turns out that Digger’s in prison just to talk with Durrell. He says he’s been falsely accused of murder. But if he didn’t murder his elderly wife, who did?

If you’re expecting a book very similar to StarCrossed (like I was), then you’re going to be disappointed. But if you take it for what it is — a murder mystery set in a fantastical world, with our heroine scouring the underworld for clues — then there’s lots to enjoy here.

In all her books, Elizabeth Bunce is skilled at making another world seem completely down-to-earth and real.

Now, there’s a huge plot development at the very end, so I think I need to reserve judgment on this trilogy until it finishes up and the story is complete. So far, I enjoyed the first book more, but I definitely liked this one enough to want to reread it when the third book comes out. I definitely want to see more of Digger’s friends, fighting in the war, and find out how that battle turns out. I don’t really understand Digger’s relationship with her brother, and that will probably become more clear with time, too.

But meanwhile I highly recommend this series. The first book gave you conflicting loyalties and magic and secrets. This one gives you a murder mystery set in an alien world. Who knows what will be next?

elizabethcbunce.com
thisisteen.com/liarsmoon
scholastic.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/liars_moon.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.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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.

There’s a lot we could discuss about the ending, so please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Get in your Cybils Nominations!

Cybils 0

It’s time for Cybils nominations!

The Cybils are children’s book awards given by Kidlit Bloggers. They have a wonderful breadth of categories, and anyone can nominate one item in each category. Nominations are open until October 15. This year’s awards go to anything published in the last year, October 16, 2011 to October 15, 2012.

I confess that I wasn’t ready with my list this morning, so this year I think I’ll wait a little while and then see if anything’s missing from the books I want to be considered. If you want to nominate your very favorites, it helps to get up early! But if any of my favorites slip through the cracks, I’ll give a try to nominating them before October 15.

And I need to start reading like crazy! This year I’m a Round One Panelist in the category of Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy. I’m so looking forward to being forced to read my favorite kind of books. We’ll see if I can handle it!