Review of Vessel, by Sarah Beth Durst

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Vessel

by Sarah Beth Durst

Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster), 2012. 424 pages.
Starred Review

This book has a striking beginning:

On the day she was to die, Liyana walked out of her family’s tent to see the dawn.

Liyana’s dreamwalk has shown that she is to be a vessel, a vessel for the goddess Bayla to come among her people, the Goat Clan, and restore their oases and keep them alive.

Liyana has kept her body ready for Bayla, and she’s ready to dance and let the goddess take her body and send her own soul to the Dreaming. She thinks she does everything right. She dances all night. But Bayla does not come.

The tribal elders decide Liyana must be unworthy. They must travel on and leave her behind. If somehow they are wrong, Bayla will find her body and join them.

So Liyana stays in the desert and tries to survive a sandstorm on her own. Then a young man walks to her through the sand. He claims to be Korbyn, the trickster god. He was summoned five nights ago, and has come to find her.

“Me? But . . .” All calmness fled, and her voice squeaked. “Your clan! Your clan needs you!”

“All the clans need me,” he said. “And I need you.”

She understood the words he was saying, but the order of them made no sense. “You left your clan to find me?”

“Deities are missing. Five in total. They were summoned from the Dreaming, but their souls never filled their clans’ vessels.”

Liyana felt as if she had been dropped back inside the sandstorm. “Bayla . . .”

“I believe their souls were stolen. And I intend for us to steal them back.”

So begins a quest, a quest to find all the other vessels and then find who stole the gods.

I confess, I read this book in one stretch on a Sunday afternoon. I think I might enjoyed it more if I had spread it out and treasured the details more. We’ve got many clans of desert people living beside a great empire. The desert has many fantastical dangers, such as sand wolves and sandworms. And every hundred years or so, the gods choose vessels and come from the Dreaming to visit their people.

I don’t think I was completely happy with the ending, but I’m not sure I could have figured out any other satisfying way to end it. The world is wonderfully built, and I think I should have lingered longer.

sarahbethdurst.com
TEEN.SimonandSchuster.com

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

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

Review of The Drowned Cities, by Paolo Bacigalupi

Adventure, Science Fiction, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Drowned Cities

by Paolo Bacigalupi

Little, Brown and Company, 2012. 437 pages.

The Drowned Cities is set in the same world as Ship Breaker, but you definitely don’t need to read Ship Breaker first. The Drowned Cities is an even bleaker vision of the future than the first book. There’s still action and survival, but no love story and few glimpses that anyone in the world has it better than the characters in our story — so can they really hope for escape?

It took me awhile to realize that “The Drowned Cities” got their name as a new meaning for the initials “DC.” This book is set in a future world where global warming has raised sea level and turned the DC suburbs, now that things don’t freeze in the winter, into kudzu-covered jungle and swampland.

Mahlia and her friend mouse live with Doctor Mahfouz in a village in the jungle. It’s also a war zone, fought over by various warlords’ factions.

Doctor Mahfouz liked to say that everyone wanted to be good. They just sometimes needed help finding their way to it. That was when he’d first taken her and Mouse in. He’d said it even as he was sprinkling sulfa powder over Mahlia’s bloody stump of a hand, like he couldn’t see what was happening right in front of him. The Drowned Cities were busy tearing themselves apart once again, but here the doctor was still talking about how people wanted to be kind and good.

Mahlia and Mouse had just looked at each other, and didn’t say anything. If the doctor was fool enough to let them stay, he could babble whatever crazy talk he wanted.

In a nice touch of irony, the author has made Mahlia a daughter of a Chinese peacekeeper and a local woman. And Mahlia and her mother were left behind when the peacekeepers left.

These days, their hospital was wherever Doctor Mahfouz set his medical bag, all that was left of the wonderful hospital that the Chinese had donated, except for a few rehydration packets still stamped with the words WITH WISHES FOR PEACE AND WELL-BEING FROM THE PEOPLE OF BEIJING.

Mahlia could imagine all those Chinese people in their far-off country donating to the war victims of the Drowned Cities. All of them rich enough to send things like rice and clothes and rehydration packets all the way over the pole on fast-sailing clipper ships. All of them rich enough to meddle where they didn’t belong.

Mahlia and Mouse find a genetically engineered half-man out in the swamp who just wrestled an alligator and survived. First, Mahlia’s bargaining with him — Mouse’s life for medical supplies, and then she’s dealing with the war band that is on his trail. In a clever twist, Mahlia manages to get away from them, but her whole village pays the price. And when Mouse gets conscripted, Mahlia will do anything to save him — even if it means relying on the half-man. But even with his help, is there any escape from the Drowned Cities?

This book is far grittier than I usually read for pleasure. It’s a horribly bleak vision of the future, though from his Printz speech, I think Paolo Bacigalupi writes it as a warning. And several things are all too plausible. The factions include the Army of God and the United Patriotic Front and other groups that are like present-day groups taken to the extreme.

I think the fact that I live where the book is set (though many years before) makes it seem all the more real. I have to admit that the day I finished the book, I was driving home from work on the freeway, and thought it’s all way too built up and there’s too much concrete to become jungle for at least a thousand years. However, the following Sunday, I drove the opposite direction to church, and just that much further out in the suburbs, it’s actually easy to imagine jungle taking over. And Paolo Bacigalupi never does say how far out from the Capital they are. It takes awhile to travel to the city, and after all, they’re called “The Drowned Cities,” not “The Drowned City,” so I’m thinking the villages in the jungle may be further out from the Beltway than where I live.

The book does have some redeeming themes. There’s no romantic love, as in Ship Breaker, but there’s strong love and loyalty between Mahlia and Mouse, and they get help from the half-man, Tool, for reasons of his own. It does manage to give a hopeful ending, at least for those who survive to the end. And if you want reasons to think war is not a good thing and it’s better not to vilify other groups, because look where it could end up — This book has plenty of that.

This book might be good for those who love The Hunger Games and don’t mind some grit and gore in their adventure stories, and also don’t mind if there’s no romance. Definitely well-written, but also definitely not pleasant.

www.lb-teens.com

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

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

Review of Penny and Her Doll, by Kevin Henkes

Animal Characters, Beginning Chapter Books, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Penny and Her Doll

by Kevin Henkes

Greenwillow Books, 2012. 32 pages.
Starred Review

I love that Kevin Henkes is writing beginning readers, and I love that he’s brought out another book about Penny. The only thing I don’t like? Now that two are both published in 2012, they can’t both win the Geisel Award.

When I heard Kevin Henkes speak at ALA Midwinter Meeting, he said that the Penny books were designed to be a progression, and indeed Penny and Her Doll has three chapters, where Penny and Her Song had only two. It’s a slightly — very slightly — more complicated story and one that comes around back to the beginning.

Penny is out in the garden with her mother as the book opens. Her mother is weeding, and Penny is smelling flowers.

“The roses are my favorites,” said Penny.
“I do not have a favorite weed,” said Mama.

While they are in the garden, the mailman comes with a package for Penny from Gram. It is a doll, and Penny loves the doll as soon as she sees it.

But the doll needs a name. Everyone in their family has a name, and the doll needs one. So Penny spends the rest of the book looking for a name for her new doll. Adults will not be the least surprised at the name Penny chooses, but children will be delighted to guess before Penny comes up with it.

It was the first book that made me completely fall in love with Penny, since I definitely have a soft spot for a little girl who sings around her house. But this one keeps that love going. And I love Penny’s parents, so understanding and helpful and supportive. They suggest, but they don’t solve Penny’s problems for her.

And I love the way Kevin Henkes supports beginning readers with his repetitive structure, which seems entirely natural and adds to the story. For example:

“What if I can’t think of a name?”
said Penny.

“You will,”
said Mama.

“You will,”
said Papa.

Penny tried and tried
to think of a name for her doll.

And I should add that the first time Mama and Papa each say “You will,” there’s a small picture of them next to their words. Simply every detail in this book builds toward a child’s success in reading.

I’m definitely looking forward to the third planned book about Penny, Penny and Her Marble.

KevinHenkes.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Sonderling Sunday – Chapter 11 – Sefino’s Scandalous Speeches

Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, Sonderling Sunday 0

It’s Sonderling Sunday! That time of the week when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s books. Today, I’m back to the book that started this mad passion — Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy. I fondly hope that you do not have to understand German or have read the book in order to enjoy this series. I simply use the book to find utterly bizarre phrases to translate. Please see if you can find ways to use these phrases, as James Kennedy has so deftly done! Or perhaps you can give readers insight as to interesting ways they might be translated into yet another language? There are many possibilities.

Last time I was in Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, I left off on page 128 in English, which is Seite 164 auf Deutsch. Let’s look for some interesting sentences. Here’s one that is fun to say:

“These gossip-mongers have gone too far!” = Diese Klatschmäuler sind einfach zu weit gegangen! (“These gossip-mouths are simply too far gone!”)

“a reckless disregard” = eine rücksichtslose Missachtung (“a hindsight-less mis-attention”)

“Chatterbox” = Plaudertasche

“headline” = Schlagzeile (“hitting line”)

Oh! They did a marvelous job of translating the alliterative headlines. Let me write out them all for our enjoyment:

“SIMPERING SEFINO SUNK IN SKY-HIGH SKIRMISH” = SCHLUCHZENDER SEFINO STÜRTZT IN SCHARMÜTZEL SCHLUNDWÄRTS (Never mind that it would never fit in a headline, it’s alliterative! It translates, roughly, as “Sobbing Sefino crashes in skirmish gullet-ward.”)

“KORSAKOV’S COWARDLY COCKROACH CALLOWLY CRINGES, CRIES, IN CATASTROPHIC COMBAT” becomes:
KORSAKOVS KLÄGLICHE KAKERLAKE
KRÜMMT KÖRPER KECKERND,
KREISCHT KATASTROPHALEM KAMPF
This translates back to something like: “Korsakov’s pathetic cockroach curves body brazenly, yells in catastrophic war.” (I guess it was harder to keep it alliterative.)

And finally:
“INFAMOUS INSECT INDIGNANTLY IRKED IN INSIPID IMBROGLIO”
This becomes:
INFAMES INSEKT IRRITIERT INDISPONIERT IN INFERNALISCHEM INTERMEZZO
That means pretty much what it sounds like (“Infamous insect irritated indisposed in infernal intermezzo”), but hey, they found “I” words that were also German words.

Oh, this paragraph is good! I’ll take it in bits:
“ceaseless slanderous scribblings” = unaufhörlichen schmutzigen Schmierereien

“mischievous muckrakers” = schändlichen Schlammwühler (Oh, that is just too fun to say! I may not be correct, but it comes out phonetically (in English phonetics) something like “schendlischen schlahmvooler.”)

“ruthless rabble” = rücksichtlosen Rabauken

“no libel… too licentious” = keine Schmähung zu schimpflich

All that great alliteration, then they kind of fall flat with this one:
“no hearsay too hurtful” = kein Gerücht zu vage

And this doesn’t quite match the original either:
“to perniciously print in their poppycock periodicals” = um nicht derberweise in ihren dümmlichen Druckerzeugnissen dargestellt zu werden

With this one, they don’t even try:
“sneaking slander” = frechen Verleumdungen

This one’s pretty good:
“ink-inebriated idlers” = Tinte trunkenen Taugenichtse (“ink-drunken rascals”)

I have to say, I wouldn’t like to try to translate this stuff. (And I’m curious — Anyone know how to translate this into Spanish? French? Italian? Japanese?)
“a billion-headed beast of babblement” = die milliarden köpfige Bestie der Plappereien

Here we’ve got a useful word:
“slain” = neidergemetzelt (“massacred”)

And here’s one of the longest words yet:
“constitutional” = Gesundheitsspaziergänge (“health-pleasure-walk”) (23 letters)

Well, that’s it for tonight. I didn’t get far, but I did finish a section, and there’s only one section left in chapter 11. I hope this week I won’t encounter any schändlichen Schlammwühler, but if I do, at least I know what to call them!

Next week, I’ll be driving my son back to the dorm on Sunday, so I’m not sure I’ll get around to Sonderling Sunday, but meanwhile have a herrlich holiday!

Mathematical Knitting — Blessing Blanket

Mathematical, Prime Factorization 3

Alyssa Karise is here! And her blanket is ready to send! Here’s the finished blanket. It’s actually a rectangle, but I wanted the message to be in the picture, reading from the top to bottom, left to right, so the perspective warps it a little.

I used Base 5 math to code a message into the blanket, which I explained when I started. But now I can show you how it worked out.

You can see in the picture above that the blanket makes a sort of grid. The “smooth” squares in the blanket were knitted on the back side with the stitches P3, K1, P3 (purl 3, knit 1, purl 3). There are six of these squares in each row of the grid. I knitted my code on the back side so that the words would go from left to right. I coded letters into each square this way: P1, next two stitches are first digit of letter, K1, next two stitches are second digit of letter, P1.

I used two stitches for each digit of the letter, using a Base 5 code. I used P2 for 0 (since I was on the purl side); K2 for 1; yarn over, knit 2 together (ykt) for 2; ssk, yarn over (sky) for 3; and purl cable one stitch, holding to the back (cb) for 4. Here’s how the letters were made:

A: 01: p2 k2;
B: 02: p2 ykt;
C: 03: p2 sky;
D: 04: p2 cb;
E: 10: k2 p2;
F: 11: k2 k2;
G: 12: k2 ykt;
H: 13: k2 sky;
I: 14: k2 cb;
J: 20: ykt p2;
K: 21: ykt k2;
L: 22: ykt ykt;
M: 23: ykt sky;
N: 24: ykt cb;
O: 30: sky p2;
P: 31: sky k2;
Q: 32: sky ykt;
R: 33: sky sky;
S: 34: sky cb;
T: 40: cb p2;
U: 41: cb k2;
V: 42 – cb ykt;
W: 43: ykt cb;
X: 44: cb cb;
Y: 100: k2 p2 p2; (I knitted this as k2p1 (k1) p3, leaving the garter stitch in the middle.)
Z: 101: k2 p2 k2.

Here’s what I planned to have the blanket say (I added Alyssa’s name at the end when it was clear what that would be. Fortunately, I was knitting from bottom to top.):

Alyssa Karise,
Grace and Peace.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace and Peace.

When I had the blanket all finished, ends sewn in, and I laid it out to take pictures — I discovered I’d left out a word! Urgh! But it’s still a Blessing Blanket. And I still thought about and prayed for Alyssa as I knitted. And it’s still warm and soft. I’m not going to say what word I left out, because I want to see if the baby’s parents can “read” it well enough to figure out! (I’m bad!) Astute readers of this blog who possess really really good eyesight might be able to tell as well.

To see how the coding actually looks, I took pictures of the top three rows. Here is AL – KA – GR:

Since the stitches are done on the purl side, k2 gives you straight bumps. So A = p2 k2 gives you a smooth panel, then bumps. L = ykt ykt gives you a hole from the yarnover, then two stitches together, in both sides. On the second row, K = ykt k2 combines both of those. Then we have A, which looks just like the first A. The third row has the same combination reversed in G = k2 ykt. Then R = sky sky. With sky, the stitches are knitted together before the yarn over, so the hole is on the right of the combined stitches.

The next section shows YS – RI – AC, and a fourth row, ND:

Y = k2 p2 p2, so I started on that first stitch I usually leave a purl stitch. So it looks the same as A, only shifted over one stitch to the left. S = sky cb shows us our final “digit”. The cable in back comes out as one stitch going over another with no hole. The second row is easier to see. R = sky sky, so you can see both sides have the hole on the right. Then I = k2 cb, and you can more easily see the cabled stitch crossing over. On the third row, we have A = p2 k2 and C = p2 sky. The fourth row, the end of the word AND, gives you a nice look at the cables again, with N = ykt cb and D = p2 cb.

I’ll give you the end of the top three rows, but I’ll leave it to the reader to work out that at least I didn’t make a mistake on the top of the blanket:

Making this was so much fun! In fact, I’ve been dragging my feet about sending it on. But tonight I noticed that the yarn label happens to have a pattern for a one-skein scarf, and I happen to have one skein left. So perhaps making myself a scarf out of this wonderful 85% cotton 15% angora yarn (Serenade) will remind me to send thoughts and prayers and blessings to my sweet little niece, Alyssa Karise.

And, meanwhile, my brother announced that his wife is expecting a baby. His baby needs a prime factorization blanket! I am swatching to figure out how best to accomplish this, and will definitely be letting my readers know!

My posts on Mathematical Knitting and related topics are now gathered at Sonderknitting.

Review of The Lions of Little Rock, by Kristin Levine

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

The Lions of Little Rock

by Kristin Levine

G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2012. 298 pages.
Starred Review

This book is set in Little Rock in 1958. The schools have been ordered to integrate, and a few bold teens forced the issue. So now the mayor responds by closing the high school.

Marlee’s sister Judy is going into eleventh grade, so she’s going to have to go away to be able to go to school, leaving Marlee on her own. Marlee has a lot of fears. She doesn’t like to talk. Not to other people, anyway. But then a new girl comes to her middle school, and Marlee makes a wonderful new friend, a friend who helps her speak up and face the things she’s afraid of.

Marlee caught my sympathy early, because she uses numbers to steady herself. I also enjoyed her way of looking at the people in her life:

You see, to me, people are like things you drink. Some are like a pot of black coffee, no cream, no sugar. They make me so nervous I start to tremble. Others calm me down enough that I can sort through the words in my head and find something to say.

My brother, David, is a glass of sweet iced tea on a hot summer day, when you’ve put your feet up in a hammock and haven’t got a care in the world. Judy is an ice-cold Coca-Cola from the fridge. Sally is cough syrup; she tastes bad, but my mother insists she’s good for me. Daddy’s a glass of milk, usually cold and delicious, but every once in a while, he goes sour. If I have to ask one of my parents a question, I’ll pick him, because Mother is hot black tea, so strong, she’s almost coffee.

When Marlee’s new friend Liz turns out to be black, trying to pass for white, Marlee’s life turns upside-down. She has to examine things like true friendship, what’s right and what’s wrong, as well as facing her fears.

This novel about civil rights isn’t quite like any other I’ve read. It works just as well as a novel about a girl learning to face her fears and examine her friendships as much as it works to cast light on a particular time in history.

kristinlevine.com
penguin.com/youngreaders

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/lions_of_little_rock.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.

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

Review of Grave Mercy, by Robin LaFevers

Fantasy, Historical, Paranormal, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 2

Grave Mercy

His Fair Assassin, Book I

by Robin LaFevers

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2012. 509 pages.
Starred Review

Wow. This book reminded me of The Canterbury Papers, full of medieval palace intrigue, but this had supernatural powers thrown in.

The book is set in Brittany, beginning in 1485. Ismae has been told from birth that the scar she was born with, from the midwife’s poison failing, marks her as the daughter of Death himself, an ancient Breton god now called St. Mortain. When the man her father sold her to sees the scar, he is going to have her burned, but she is rescued by strangers and sent to the convent of St. Mortain.

At the convent, Ismae learns the special powers she has as the daughter of St. Mortain. She can see a mark on a person who is going to die. Poison does not harm her. She can see a person’s soul when it leaves his body. Also at the convent, they train her to be an assassin.

“If you choose to stay, you will be trained in His arts. You will learn more ways to kill a man than you imagined possible. We will train you in stealth and cunning and all manner of skills that will ensure no man is ever again a threat to you.”

Three years later, Ismae is ready for her first assignments. But now there is political trouble, and Brittany is in danger of being swallowed up by France. Ismae is sent to the court of the duchess herself, ordered to pose as the mistress of Duval, the duchess’s half-brother.

But at court, things don’t turn out as Ismae has been led to believe they will. Those she was told to be suspicious of seem kind and seem to have the Duchess’s best interests at heart. Those she is supposed to trust seem suspicious. What is right?

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of action and adventure. There are surprise attacks and deaths that Ismae had nothing to do with. And the duchess must marry soon, preferably to someone who can bring an army to her cause. Along the way, slowly and exquisitely, we see Ismae’s heart being won by a good man.

Here’s the situation as it’s laid out before Ismae leaves the convent:

Crunard spreads his hands. “Then you know it is true. The circling vultures grow bold. The regent of France has forbidden that Anne be crowned duchess. It is our enemies’ wish to make her France’s ward so that they may claim Brittany for their own. They also claim the right to determine who she will marry.”

Duval begins pacing. “Spies are everywhere. We can scarce keep track of them all. The French have set up a permanent entourage within our court, which has made some of the border nations uneasy.”

Crunard adds, “Not to mention that their presence makes it impossible to see Anne anointed as our duchess without their knowledge. But until we place that coronet upon her head before her people and the Church, we are vulnerable.”

I cannot help but feel sympathy for our poor duchess. “Surely there is some way out of this mess?”

I have addressed my question to the abbess, but it is Duval who answers. “I will forge one with my bare hands, if need be,” he says. “I vow that I will see her duchess, and I will see her safely wed. But I need information against our enemies if I am to accomplish this.”

The room falls so silent that I fear they will hear the pounding of my heart. Duval’s vow has moved me, and that he has made it on sacred ground proves he is either very brave or very foolish.

This is one book I was very happy to see called Book One. The story in this book does come to a satisfying conclusion, but I want to come back to this world. This book would be excellent if it only had the medieval intrigue and romance, but with the paranormal elements added in, there’s extra satisfaction seeing Ismae’s power far beyond what you’d normally expect of a woman in the fifteenth century.

robinlafevers.com
hmhbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/grave_mercy.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 an Advance Reader Copy I got at an ALA conference and checked against 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.

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

Review of Z is for Moose, by Kelly Bingham

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

Z Is For Moose

by Kelly Bingham
pictures by Paul O. Zelinsky

Greenwillow Books, 2012. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Alphabet Books are necessary preparation for a child learning to read, but they definitely have the potential to be snoozers. Here’s the most innovative alphabet book since Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

Just before the title page we get a glimpse of all the animals and objects lined up in order, ready to go, with Zebra in charge. But Moose is excited and exuberant, and not really paying attention to Zebra’s directions. He’s the one lifting the curtain that gives us our first glimpse of the performers. After the title page, with the characters still in line, he’s poking the Lollipop with the Needle.

Things start innocently and calmly, looking like a perfectly ordinary alphabet book. Then we see “D is for Moose,” with Moose standing proudly, and a frantic Duck behind, obviously kicked off the page. Zebra tells Moose, “Moose does not start with D. You are on the wrong page.”

Moose pops in on H is for Hat, getting right in front of the camera, asking “Is it my turn yet?” The H is blocked, but the savvy child will cleverly figure out exactly what it said.

Moose continues to lurk behind or in the pictures, getting more and more excited as M draws near. Then…

“M is for Mouse”

This definitely gets a reaction. Moose throws a fit; he tries to get in the remaining pictures, and Zebra has to block him. Finally, he’s in despair — until Zebra comes up with a lovely solution. On the back endpapers, Moose asks Zebra, “Can we do that again?”

“Yes, Moose. We can do that again.”

I have no doubt at all that most preschoolers will take that as permission to start the book over again immediately.

The book has many, many details that will reward further reading. Spotting the alphabetical objects in order even when Moose gets in the way will keep children busy through many readings.

Delightful fun.

kellybinghamonline.com
paulozelinsky.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/z_is_for_moose.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 The Mighty Mars Rovers, by Elizabeth Rusch

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

The Mighty Mars Rovers

The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity

by Elizabeth Rusch

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Boston, 2012. 80 pages.
Starred Review

This book is part of the Scientists in the Field, and focuses on a particular scientist behind the project to first send rovers onto Mars. The book is riveting, informative, and of course, timely. Though it went to press before Curiosity reached Mars, it tells about the planned landing and will make readers want to find out more, and what’s going on right now.

The scientist whose dream is the focus of this book is Steven Squyres. In a brief introductory chapter, they tell about his career that brought him to the Mars Rover mission. He actually thought for awhile of becoming a geologist — which led directly to his interest in having a robot on the ground in Mars to study the planet directly.

He ended up writing proposals for a Mars rover for eight years and for eight years got refused. But he didn’t give up, and was eventually given three years to build two rovers to send to Mars.

The book tells about every step of the mission, with a multitude of photographs or artist’s renderings along the way. It’s all explained clearly. Here’s an example:

Steve and Pete considered how each decision would affect every other. For example, the scientists wanted to put as many instruments on the rover as possible: cameras, microscopes, drills, and a weather station. Engineers had to design solar panels large enough to power all the instruments. But if the rover got too big, it wouldn’t fit in the lander (the case that would protect the rover during landing). Even worse, if the rover and the lander got too heavy, the whole spacecraft would crash.

Steve and his team added instruments and cut instruments. Engineers redesigned solar panels again and again. As the parts were built, engineers tested them. Too often, parts failed. Electronics malfunctioned. Cable cutters designed to set the rovers free from their landers didn’t work properly. Parachutes responsible for slowing the rovers down as they careened toward the surface fluttered in the wind and ripped to shreds. Airbags that were supposed to cushion the fall of the rovers onto the surface of Mars tore.

If the parts didn’t work, how would the team ever get the rovers to work?

The book goes through the missions to Mars and how each rover landed in a different spot. Elizabeth Rusch explains how the rovers were operated once they landed on Mars and the many different obstacles they faced. She explains the process the scientists went through trying to decide if Opportunity could climb down into a crater and how they worked to rescue the rovers when they got stuck in the Martian sand.

The author beautifully communicates the stunning accomplishments of the Mars rover mission team. She sums up in her final chapter:

Steve and his team of scientists and engineers expected the rovers to last three months, tops. Spirit and opportunity endured for more than six years — and scientists are still counting. These little machines explored a record-breaking 25 miles (44 km) of Mars’s surface and snapped more than a quarter of a million photos there, including 360-degree views of hills, plains, and craters. They became so much more than rovers. They did the work of geologists, meteorologists, chemists, photographers, mountain climbers, and crater trekkers. . . .

“What connects all this for me is that I simply love to explore,” Steve said. “I love doing something nobody else has done, going someplace no one has ever been, discovering stuff no one has ever seen.”

This book communicates the magnificence of human endeavor in science, along with nitty-gritty details. It shows how real people can do what it takes to learn things humans never knew before.

elizabethrusch.com
marsrover.nasa.gov
hmhbooks.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/mighty_mars_rovers.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 Finnikin of the Rock, by Melina Marchetta

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Finnikin of the Rock

by Melina Marchetta

Candlewick Press, 2010. First published in Australia in 2008. 399 pages.
Starred Review

I didn’t read Finnikin of the Rock when it came out, though I had fully intended to. I loved Melina Marchetta’s earlier book, Looking for Alibrandi, and now she was writing fantasy, my favorite genre? Of course I had to read it! I’m not quite sure why I didn’t get around to it, but now that some of my fellow bloggers are excited about the sequel to Finnikin of the Rock, I decided I would have to remedy that situation.

Finnikin of the Rock is a complex, richly woven fantasy tale. And Melina Marchetta pulls this off. I usually prefer simpler, fairytale-like stories, which is one reason I tend to prefer young adult fantasy books over fantasy books written for adults. But again, Melina Marchetta writes in such a way that overcomes this prejudice.

The situation is complicated, and full of pain for the participants. Ten years ago, after a horrible conquest by the cousin of the king, the land of Lumaterre was cursed. No one could get into or out of Lumaterre.

As it says in the Prologue:

This is the story, as told to those not born to see such days, recorded in The Book of Lumaterre so they will never forget.

The story of those trapped inside the kingdom, never to be heard from again, and those who escaped but were forced to walk the land in a diaspora of misery.

Until ten years later, when Finnikin of Lumatere climbed another rock. . .

Finnikin is the son of the man who was the king’s general, who is now imprisoned. Finnikin was a friend of the children of the royal family, who were killed in the slaughter before the curse struck. Or at least most think they were killed. Rumor has it that Balthazar, the king’s son, escaped.

Now Finnikin, who travels with the king’s First Man, has heard that a novice in the shrine to Sagami claims to walk through the sleep of the people trapped inside Lumatere, and, more importantly, through the sleep of Balthazar, the heir. They collect her and travel with her, in hopes of finding Balthazar and breaking the curse.

Their journey has many twists and turns and many surprises. There are lies and double-crosses as well as surprising loyalties. They travel through many different dangerous lands before they can tackle the curse. And we learn more and more about the horrible things that have happened outside and inside Lumatere in the last ten years.

Finnikin of the Rock does stand alone well, but it also leaves the reader wanting more. How can they possibly hope to heal so many wrongs done? In some ways, I’m glad I waited to read this book, because I can start right in on Froi of the Exiles.

Although this is fantasy, there’s not a lot of magic floating around. There are two goddesses worshiped by the Lumaterans, Lagrami and Sagrami, aspects of one goddess. A priestess of Sagrami is the one who cursed the kingdom with a blood curse when she was burned at the stake. Now the novice, Evanjalin, claims a gift from the goddess is what enables her to walk the sleep.

But mostly, this separate world enables the author to talk about people without a homeland and how they are treated without encountering any prejudice as might happen if she used people from our world. The truths are universal, and the people are flawed in places but also shining brightly in places, just like people in our world today.

This is an epic tale with many nuances and food for thought. As I write this, I have begun Froi of the Exiles, and this is the sort of book where reading the next one increases your appreciation for the first. The groundwork has been laid well, when I didn’t even realize how much groundwork was being laid. I’m definitely glad I’m taking on this saga.

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

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