New Sondy’s Selections Page

Sondy's Selections 0

My church is in the process of building a community resource center, which we will use as our meeting place on Sundays. We also hope to make it a place used by our community, which will include preschool and kindergarten programs.

Every preschool or kindergarten program needs books! As we’re in the process of building, I’m going to slowly make a list of high quality books that I think our church should purchase to have in the classrooms.

I’ll break the lists into three categories — one for preschool, one for Kindergarten, and one for specifically Christian books. There will definitely be some overlap, but this will be based on how I think of them. I’m a little sorry that the “Christian” category won’t be very large. I get books from the public library and don’t encounter as many books for Christians. But I’m starting this page off having just reviewed a wonderful picture book about the life of Jesus, so that will be my first book to post.

I’m going to build these lists slowly, adding to them little by little. If you have suggestions, use this post. I’ll keep the list updated on my new Sondy’s Selections page.

My previous Sondy’s Selections posts and page were my personal top ten lists of books for different age ranges. This new list will be my ideal collection of books for a church preschool and kindergarten.

Happy Reading!

Review of Miracle Man, by John Hendrix

Biography, Christian, Historical, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

miracle_man_largeMiracle Man

The Story of Jesus

by John Hendrix

Abrams Books for Young Readers, New York, 2016. 44 pages.
Starred Review

This is a picture book telling about the life of Jesus Christ, done by an accomplished picture book illustrator.

Now, I personally am not completely crazy about the book, since I have my own conception of Jesus’ story, and there’s some necessary simplification. For example, he gives Andrew’s lines to Peter (the only disciple named in this book, besides Judas) in the story of the feeding of the five thousand.

But the more I look at this book, the more it’s growing on me. John Hendrix makes the characters in the story look like Jews. Jesus looks tough, and his clothes are a little ragged. But the most interesting feature is that he makes the words of Jesus part of the art and larger than life.

The author introduces Jesus like this:

On a day that didn’t seem at all unusual, there came an unusual Man. He looked like any other man, but he was like none who had ever lived before. This Man was God’s son. When he spoke, his words made things happen. His words came . . . ALIVE

[ALIVE is spelled out by butterflies in the illustration.]

The stories told about Jesus include calling the disciples and the miraculous catch of fish, healing a leper, healing the paralytic (after his friends broke through the ceiling), and calming the sea. I especially like the author’s paraphrase of Jesus’ words after he stops the storm:

I am the Son of the living God who made the water and the winds. Did you forget who was in your boat?

The story goes on with the feeding of the five thousand and Jesus walking on the water, including Peter walking on the water. (“Peter, have faith in my feet, not your own.”) Then we come to the Last Supper and Judas’ betrayal.

The crucifixion is mainly alluded to — very tastefully done for a picture book — one page with Jesus carrying the cross and then a grand scene with the heartbroken disciples, and the women in a corner with Jesus’ body, and the very walls of Jerusalem seeming to say, “It seemed the miracles had COME TO AN END.”

Then we have a spread from inside the empty tomb, graveclothes on a ledge, and Jesus outside in the light looking at a butterfly.

But God’s Son, Jesus, the Miracle Man,
had in store one last glorious miracle . . .

I haven’t seen another book about Jesus’ life quite like this one. The word that comes to mind is Majestic.

The Author’s Note at the back explains why John Hendrix wanted to tell this story. I liked hearing that he was fascinated as a child by the words of Jesus in red in his Bible.

You may have heard about the life of Jesus many times before, but my hope is to share the familiar story with you in a new way. Perhaps the best way to experience the Easter story is to momentarily forget about the trappings of religion around it and see the man at the center. In my experience, the story changes when we think of the people who experienced Jesus in person during the time he walked among us. Those people didn’t have a steepled church building or know anything about Christian theology. They simply met a man, some of them for only a brief moment, and they were changed forever.

Most of all, the author’s love for the Miracle Man shines through. This book is a wonderful way to tell children about Him.

johnhendrix.com

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

What did you think of this book?

Sonderling Sunday – Jinx in Das Haus des Zauberers

Sonderling Sunday 3

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! That time of the week when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s books, creating a Very Silly Phrasebook for Travelers.

This week, let’s go back to Jinx, by Sage Blackwood, known in German as Jinx und der magische Urwald.

Jinx

Last time, we finished Chapter One, so this week we’re starting Zweites Kapitel, Das Haus des Zauberers, “The Wizard’s House.”

We’ll look at interesting phrases and how they are translated. My sister’s visiting Germany this week, so bonus points to her if she can think of ways to use these phrases.

The first sentence (its own paragraph) of this chapter is interesting enough to write out in its entirety here:
“And that is how Jinx came to live with a possibly evil wizard and twenty-seven cats in a huge stone house that stood alone in its own clearing, protected by invisible wards that kept monsters out but let some very strange visitors in.”
= So kam es, dass Jinx bei einem möglicherweise bösen Zauberer und seinen siebenundzwanzig Katzen einzog, in ein großes Haus aus Stein, das einsam auf einer Lichtung stand, beschützt von unsichtbaren Wachen, die Monster fernhielten, einige sehr merkwürdige Besucher jedoch einließen.

“a very satisfactory dinner” = ein höchst schmackhaftes Mahl

“pie” always seems to get translated Kuchen, though it’s not really the same thing. (But Kuchen isn’t really the same as “cake,” either.)
“pumpkin pie” = Kürbiskuchen.

“rafters” = Dachbalken

“barrels and shelves” = Fässern und Regalen

“probably something evil” = vermutlich für etwas Böses

“Jinx was annoyed at being laughed at.”
= Jinx ärgerte sich über den Spott.

“hasten the process” = den Prozess beschleunigst

“drop dead” = tot umfällt

“formidable enemy” = einflößender Feind

“Put that nonsense out of your head.”
= Schlag dir diesen Unsinn aus dem Kopf.

Try finding a reason to say this:
“bottle-shaped blob of terror”
= flaschenförmigen Schreckensklecks

“swear word” = Schimpfwort

“chipmunk” = Streifenhörnchen

This is fun:
“worse and worse” = immer schlimmer

“How darling!” = Wie reizend!

“puff” = Lufthauch

“spiral staircase” = Wendeltreppe

“scattering cats” = verscheuchte mehrere Katzen

“a many-colored patchwork skirt” = einen bunten Flickenrock

Now isn’t it lovely to have one word for this?
“mustache of foam” = Schaumschnurrbart

“dragon scales” = Drachenschuppen

“a red polka-dot kerchief” = ein rot getupftes Tuch

“worrying” = nachgrübeln

“wormwood” = Beifuß

“cackled” = gackerten

“suck your soul out with a straw”
= den Menschen die Seele mit einem Strohhalm aussaugte

“stack your bones up crisscross”
= ihre Knochen kreuzweise übereinanderstapelte

“campfire” = Lagerfeuer

“scrubbed” = schrubbte

“night-blooming bindweed” = Nachtblütenwinde

“zipped” = sausten

“hurtling” = brauste

“He saw footprints, hoofprints, and claw prints frozen in the mud.”
= Er sah gefrorene Spuren von Füßen, Hufen und Tatzen im Matsch.

“zooming” = schwindelerregend

“shakily” = mit wackligen Beinen

“Simon flickered irritation at him.”
= Simon funkelte ihn ärgerlich an.

And that’s it for Chapter Two! I hope things won’t get immer schlimmer and you won’t encounter any flaschenförmigen Schreckensklecks. But now if you see a Schaumschnurrbart, you’ll know what to call it.

Review of The War That Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

war_that_saved_my_life_largeThe War that Saved my Life

by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
read by Jayne Entwistle

Listening Library, 2015. 7.5 hours on 6 compact discs.
Starred Review
2016 Newbery Honor Book
2016 Odyssey Award Winner
2016 Schneider Family Award Winner

I always try to listen to the Odyssey Award winner, since it is given to the best children’s or young adult audiobook of the year. This year, the winner was also a Newbery Honor book and a Schneider Family Award winner, so I already knew it was something special. First, I got to listen to Echo, which was also a Newbery Honor book but the only Odyssey Honor audiobook. It was so good, it was hard to imagine an audiobook being chosen above it.

Even with that much build-up, when I listened to The War that Saved my Life, I was not at all disappointed. This was one of the few audiobooks that, when I got to the last CD, I brought the book into the house to finish listening, rather than wait until the morning and my next trip to work. It was way too good to wait!

I should say a word about the narrator, Jayne Entwistle. I’ve listened to other books she’s read, The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place and >As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust. I always enjoy her distinctive voice. Now, I do enjoy almost all English accents, but Jayne Entwistle does an excellent precocious little girl. And she does a fine job making the voices of the various characters distinctive. In this case, she didn’t need to do as many voices as in The Scandalous Sisterhood, and she put just the right character into each of the voices she did portray.

The story in The War that Saved my Life is heart-wrenching. The story is told by Ada Smith. She’s got a club foot, though at the beginning of the book, she doesn’t know that’s what it’s called. She only knows that her foot is disgusting, according to her Mam, and she’s not to let anyone see her. She must stay in their one-room apartment in London.

It’s bearable for Ada when she has her little brother Jamie to watch over. But as Jamie’s getting old enough to go to school, he’s also old enough to start playing outside. Ada’s heart is torn being alone in the apartment. So she decides to teach herself to walk.

Not long after, they learn that London children are going to be evacuated to the country because bombs will be coming from Hitler. Mam hasn’t decided if she’ll send Jamie. Ada asks about herself.

Mam still didn’t look at me. “Course not. They’re sending kids to live with nice people. Who’d want you? Nobody, that’s who. Nice people don’t want to look at that foot.”

“I could stay with nasty people,” I said. “Wouldn’t be any different than living here.”

I saw the slap coming, but didn’t duck fast enough. “None of your sass,” she said. Her mouth twisted into the smile that made my insides clench. “You can’t leave. You never will. You’re stuck here, right here in this room, bombs or no.”

All of that happens in the first two chapters.

But Ada decides then and there that she will leave with Jamie. Her Mam doesn’t know she can walk, and Ada steals Mam’s shoes and sneaks out with Jamie to get there early on the day the children are evacuated.

Once they’re in the country, Ada and Jamie are indeed the last ones picked. The “iron-faced” woman in charge takes them to the home of Susan Smith. Susan doesn’t want children. She is mourning the loss of her “very dear friend” Becky, who lived with her and kept horses.

There’s still a pony named Butter out in the field, and Ada is fascinated with it. The story that follows shows us clearly how Ada’s life is saved. Susan’s and Jamie’s lives are changed along the way.

Words can’t adequately describe this book and how brilliantly the story is woven. The two short chapters at the beginning prepare us for how deprived Ada is, but it’s more fully revealed as she comes out of the room and copes with the country.

Here’s a bit from their ride on the train:

The buildings ended and suddenly there was green. Green everywhere. Bright, vibrant, astonishing green, floating into the air toward the blue, blue sky. I stared, mesmerized. “What’s that?”

“Grass,” Jamie said.

“Grass?” He knew about this green? There wasn’t any grass on our lane, nor nothing like it that I’d ever seen. I knew green from clothing or cabbages, not from fields.

Jamie nodded. “It’s on the ground. Spikey stuff, but soft, not prickly. There’s grass in the churchyard. Round the headstones. And trees, like that over there.” He pointed out the window.

Trees were tall and thin, like stalks of celery, only giant-sized. Bursts of green on top. “When were you in a churchyard?” I asked. What’s a churchyard? I might have asked next. There was no end to the things I didn’t know.

Later on, it seems utterly realistic that, rather than being grateful, Ada gets frustrated and annoyed with all the things Susan tells her, full of words she doesn’t know. When Susan makes a beautiful dress for Ada for Christmas, she has a complete meltdown, unable to feel that something so nice can be for her.

But most of the book is filled with little victories. Ada learns to use crutches. She learns to care for Butter. She learns how to go among people and makes friends.

And the backdrop of all this is the war, which does come even to the countryside. And the looming question of what will happen when Ada has to go back?

This is a beautiful book. Even though I listened to it, I’m going to keep my Advance Reader Copy, because I am going to want to treasure Ada’s story again. I’m sure I’ll notice subtle emotional cues I didn’t catch the first time.

How can I tell children about this wonderful book? I may decide to play up the bombs and spies (Yes, they are both in there). This is ultimately a book about the value found in every person and how love can save your life.

kimberlybrubakerbradley.com
listeninglibrary.com

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

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

Source: This review is based on a library audiobook from 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.

What did you think of this book?

Review of My Two Blankets, by Irena Kobald & Freya Blackwood

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

my_two_blankets_largeMy Two Blankets

by Irena Kobald & Freya Blackwood

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, 2015. 32 pages.
Starred Review

This is a simply lovely book that poetically shows the reader what it feels like to be an immigrant in a country where you don’t know the language.

On the page where our narrator says, “Nobody spoke like I did,” we see strange shapes coming out of people’s mouths all around.

When I went out, it was like standing
under a waterfall of strange sounds.
The waterfall was cold.
It made me feel alone.

I felt like I wasn’t me anymore.

When I was at home,
I wrapped myself in a blanket
of my own words and sounds.
I called it my old blanket.

My old blanket was warm.
It was soft. It covered me all over.
It made me feel safe.
Sometimes I didn’t want to go out.
I wanted to stay under my
old blanket forever.

She meets a girl in the park. Slowly a friendship develops, with shared activities. Slowly she begins to learn words of her new home.

At night, when I lay in bed
under my old blanket,
I whispered the new words
again and again.

Soon they didn’t sound so cold
and sharp anymore.
They started to sound warm and soft.
I was weaving a new blanket.

The new blanket grows warm and soft and comfortable as the old one.

The metaphor used in this book is cozy and accessible. Readers will feel happy with the immigrant child as she finds joy in her new home. The soft pictures beautifully accompany the text, dipping into the metaphorical when the blankets are described.

We read on the back flap that the author was inspired to write the book by a friendship that developed between her own daughter and a Sudanese child. She teaches aboriginal children in Australian outback communities who use English as their fifth language.

This book is a lovely way to build bridges of understanding.

freyablackwood.com.au
hmhco.com

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

What did you think of this book?

Review of Exploring Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson

Humorous, Nonfiction Review 0

exploring_calvin_and_hobbes_largeExploring Calvin and Hobbes

An Exhibition Catalogue

by Bill Watterson

Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansas City, 2014. 151 pages.

Can we all agree that Calvin and Hobbes is one of the best comic strips of all time? (I say “one of” because: Peanuts. I don’t even want to decide between them, but the fact that it’s very close says worlds about Calvin and Hobbes.)

This book is a retrospective. It accompanies an exhibition at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Besides a representative (and wonderful) sample of the strips, it’s got an extended interview with Bill Watterson at the front of the book, and includes some strips that influenced him as well as some examples of his early work before Calvin and Hobbes.

In some ways, reading this book is less satisfying than sitting down with one of the old collections. It did make me want to sit down with one of the old collections. It gives you tastes and reminders of this wonderful strip. It brought me back to the 80s when I was a newlywed and the early 90s when I was a young mother. Both my kids read these collections over and over when growing up.

My sister used to tell me when I had kids, they’d end up just like Calvin. And I have to say, if they gained some of Calvin’s curiosity and creativity and divergent thinking, who am I to say that Bill Watterson didn’t have something to do with that?

It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy . . .

Let’s go exploring!

andrewsmcneel.com

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

What did you think of this book?

Review of Two Friends, by Dean Robbins

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

two_friends_largeTwo Friends

Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass

by Dean Robbins
illustrated by Sean Qualls & Selina Alko

Orchard Books (Scholastic), New York, 2016. 32 pages.

Here’s a simple picture book telling a story from history about Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. The two were friends and both lived in Rochester, New York. There’s a statue there showing the two of them having tea. This picture book dramatizes one such occasion, mostly using it as an opportunity to talk about both of their lives and how similar they were.

The language is easy for children to understand:

As a girl, Susan wanted to learn what boys learned.
But teachers wouldn’t let her. . . .

Susan wanted something more.
She read about rights in the United States.
The right to live free.
The right to vote.
Some people had rights, while others had none.
Why shouldn’t she have them, too?

Susan taught herself to give speeches.
Some people liked her ideas about rights for women.
Others didn’t.

The similar language used about Frederick Douglass highlights their similarities.

Frederick grew up as a slave in the South.
Slaves had to do everything the master said, but Frederick wanted something more.
He secretly learned to read and write.
New ideas thrilled him.

Frederick read about rights in the United States.
The right to live free.
The right to vote.
Some people had rights, while others had none.
Why shouldn’t he have them, too?

Frederick escaped from his master and headed north.
He taught himself to give speeches.
Some people liked his ideas about rights for African Americans.
Others didn’t.

Beyond this, there’s basic information about how the two supported each other and were friends. And the pictures are marvelous.

A lovely introduction to the topic of equal rights for young readers.

deanrobbins.net
seanqualls.com
selinaalko.com

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

What did you think of this book?

Review of Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine, by Laurie Wallmark

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

ada_byron_lovelace_largeAda Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine

by Laurie Wallmark
illustrated by April Chu

Creston Books, 2015. 40 pages.
Starred Review

Hooray! A picture book biography of Ada Lovelace, a great female mathematician, the person who wrote the first computer program.

Now, for me, I preferred the graphic novel version of fact mixed with fiction found in The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, but this picture book is perfect for kids, firmly establishing that women can be truly great at math and computer science.

As a picture book biography, the book gives many pages to an incident in Ada’s childhood. Here’s the text that begins a section where Ada was trying to invent a flying machine and ended up playing in a cold pond and catching pneumonia:

And with her mother often traveling, Ada was lonely. Her journals, filled with pages of inventions and equations, kept her company.

The best part was when her sketches flew off the page and became real.

The accompanying picture shows birds flying just out of reach, including a mechanical bird. This may be unfortunately misleading – it looks like the book has turned to a book about a magic, rather than a factual biography. In fact, in the rest of the book, the illustrations simply show what’s described. Okay, there’s one exception where Ada was blind for a time from her illness, and we see what she’s imagining as she sits in the corner of the picture with eyes closed. But this flight of fancy is much more clear as a flight of fancy.

I came up with one other complaint. The book talks about Ada using Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine to calculate 12 times 15. The picture shows Ada looking closely at the machine with a completely different number showing. That’s a little confusing.

But those are admittedly minor complaints. The author nicely explains how Ada Lovelace wrote a computer program before a computer actually existed – based simply on Charles Babbage’s plans for one.

The paintings illustrating the book are gorgeous. Except for that one quibble where it’s not clear yet that the illustration is symbolic, they wonderfully accompany the story and shed light on the events, adding variety and interest.

Because Babbage never finished building the Analytical Engine, Ada never got to see her program run. But the influence of her work lives on. More than one hundred years before the invention of the modern computer, Ada had glimpsed the future and had created a new profession – computer programming.

Ada couldn’t know that one day a computer language would be named after her — Ada. And one of Ada’s uses? To guide modern flying machines.

The girl who needed crutches ended up flying after all!

lauriewallmark.com
aprilchu.com
crestonbooks.co

Buy from Amazon.com

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

What did you think of this book?

Sonderling Sunday – Fumo versus Zam-Zam, the Ritualized Threats

Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, Sonderling Sunday 3

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! That time of the week when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s books. This week it’s back to the Sonderbook that started it all, Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy.

Sonderlinge 2

I think of Sonderling Sunday as a very silly phrasebook for travelers. Because it’s too much fun imagining a situation where you could use these phrases if you were a tourist in Germany. And when it comes to using phrases in unusual ways, James Kennedy is a master. I also hope, by the way, that it piques my readers’ curiosity and they are tantalized into picking up the book to find out exactly how these phrases are used.

Last time, we left off on page 260 in the English edition, Seite 330 auf Deutsch.

“Raucous cheers and wild applause.”
= Jubel und wilder Applaus brandeten auf.

“hooted” = johlte

“stragglers” = irgendwelchen Nachzüglern

“cash box” = Geldkassette

Only in a James Kennedy book:
“Fumo, the Sleeping Bee, versus Zam-Zam, the Dancing Ant of Sadness!”
= Fumo, die schlafende Biene, gegen Zam-Zam, die Tanzende Ameise der Traurigkeit!

“boasts” = Schmährede

“armored ostrich” = gepanzerten Strauß

Okay, this is just fun to write out:
“One hundred forty-four thousand, four hundred forty-four”
= Einhundertvierundvierzigtausendvierhundertvierundvierzig

“ritualized threats and insults” = ritualisierte Drohungen und Beleidigungen

“exchange of insults” = Austausch von Beleidigungen

“jiggling antennae” = wippenden Fühlern

“stinger” = Stachel

We lost the alliteration here:
“sleek sheaths of segmented steel” =
eine Rüstung aus unterteilten Stahlplatten

“slumber” = Schlummer

Here’s an interesting sentence, which you probably shouldn’t use if you’re a tourist in Germany:
“When I am finished with you, your body shall be torn asunder by five wild boars and buried in five ignominious places, each one more shameful than the last!”
= Wenn ich mit der fertig bin, wird dein Leichnam von fünf wilden Keilern zerfetzt und an fünf schändlichen Orten verscharrt warden, von denen jeder schmachvoller ist als der andere!

“Bold words!” = Kühne Worte!

“Verily shall I construct honeycombs of your carcass”
= Wahrlich, ich werde Honigwaben um deinen Leichnam errichten

“retorted” = konterte

“ashes of defeat” = der Asche der Niederlage

“contemptuous joy” = verächtlicher Freude

“Vile boaster!” = Schändlicher Prahlhans!

“Quafmaf, the Pigeon of the Moon” = Quafmaf, die Taube des Mondes

“Nixilpilfi, the Gerbil Who Does Not Know Mercy”
= Nixilpilfi, die Wüstenmaus, die keine Gnade kennt

“the realm of obloquy” = Reich der Schmach

“force to your lips the flagon of infamy!”
= die Flasche der Schändlichkeit an deine Lippen zwingen!

While you’re learning all these insults, this is a good response to know:
“Idle threats, Fumo!” = Leere Drohungen, Fumo!

“Mizbiliades, the Bleeding Butterfly”
= Mizbiliades, den blutenden Schmetterling

“Paznarfalasath, the Rhinoceros Whose Laughter Destroys Worlds”
= Paznarfalasath, das Rhinozeros, dessen Lachen Welten zerstört

“Zookoofoomoot, the Maggot of Dismay”
= Zookoofoomoot, die Made der Bestürzung

“Pft the Mouse” = Pft, die Maus

“bed of disgrace” = das Bett der Ehrlosigkeit

“the lullaby of destruction” = das Wiegenlied der Verheerung

Interesting translation:
“a tea ceremony in the Grudge Hut in Snerdsmallow”
= einer Teezeremonie in der Grollhütte in Gimpelgarten

Better know this:
“Consider yourself challenged!”
= Betrachtet Euch als herausgefordert!

“Challenge accepted!” = Herausforderung angenommen!

And another sentence I’d love to find an opportunity to use:
“The lowliest cockroach would spit on you.”
= Selbst die ordinärste Kakerlake würde dich anspucken.

And I’ll finish as the fight finally starts:
“Oh, look, it’s starting!”
= Oh, sieh nur, es geht los!

Review of Winter, by Marissa Meyer

Fairy Tale Variant, Romance, Science Fiction, Teen Fiction Review 0

winter_largeWinter

The Lunar Chronicles, Book Four

by Marissa Meyer

Feiwel and Friends, 2015. 827 pages.

Ah! The Lunar Chronicles come to a satisfying end in this book. If you have read this far, I don’t have to say anything to get you to read the final volume, so let me make some comments about the series in general.

What I loved most was the fairy tale parallels. Cinder paralleled “Cinderella,” Scarlet paralleled “Little Red Riding Hood,” Cress paralleled “Rapunzel,” and this final book, Winter, parallels “Snow White.” However, all the characters from each of the previous books are still in the story – and by the final book, elements from Snow White’s story seemed forced. (Whereas in Cinder they arrived in natural and clever ways.) In particular, the part about the poisoned apple seemed totally unnecessary in the overall scheme, and I didn’t really believe that a disease would progress the way this one was portrayed.

But I do like the character of Winter, and even her status as Queen Levana’s stepdaughter worked well. I do like that each of the main characters is very different from the others.

I still didn’t really believe in the wolf-human hybrids, which has been a problem for me since Scarlet. I didn’t particularly like the additional information we got about that in this book – didn’t make it easier to believe.

At first when I opened this book, I thought, okay, we’ve got four couples. Two have matched up with the one they love but have some obstacles between them. Two are in love but haven’t admitted it to each other yet. And I knew all four would get together by the end of the book, and I thought that was a bit much. But I have to hand it to Marissa Meyers – she kept each romance distinct and interesting. All four plotlines are definitely not simple!

In fact, if anything the plot was a bit too convoluted with all those characters to juggle. But that did keep things from being at all boring or predictable and kept you turning pages. She is one of those authors who gives you a lot of interior monologue – which means it takes a little longer for actions to happen. This book is more than 800 pages long, since that’s what it took to tie everything together. In some spots, we were following three different sets of characters in different places, so that slowed things down, too.

However, all that said – in this book pulling all the threads together, Marissa Meyer accomplishes a well-earned Happily Ever After. Though I was able to put down the book and go to sleep, I was never even slightly tempted to set it aside altogether, and I began reading the same day my hold arrived. We’ve got life and death situations and the fate of earth at stake. We’ve got an intrepid band of rebels who go deep into the tyrant’s territory. Can they win the day?

marissameyer.com
thelunarchronicles.com
macteenbooks.com

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

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