Review of A People Tall and Smooth, by Judith Galblum Pex

Christian, Cross Cultural, Current Issues, Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

A People Tall and Smooth

Stories of Escape from Sudan to Israel

by Judith Galblum Pex

Cladach Publishing, 2011. 219 pages.

A People Tall and Smooth tells the stories of many Sudanese refugees who have ended up in Israel.

Judith Galblum Pex and her husband John run a hostel in Eilat, Israel. She introduces the situation that developed in 2007 with these words:

“People from over one hundred nations intermingle in Israel. Besides Jews from Kazakhstan and Kansas, Burma and Belgrade, Calcutta, Congo and places in between, over a million tourists every year add to the mosaic. Include in the mixture two hundred thousand legal and illegal workers from countries such as China, Thailand, Philippines, Nepal and Ghana, and it’s clear that the average Israeli is used to seeing faces of all colors and shapes.

“In 2007, however, a new group appeared on the scene whose appearance and status was unlike any other till this time. We began to notice men, women, children and babies on the streets in our town of Eilat who were exceptionally black and strikingly tall.

“‘Where do they come from and who are they?’ My husband John and I asked ourselves. ‘What language do they speak?’ Having managed The Shelter Hostel in Eilat on the Red Sea since 1984, we are used to interacting with diverse people groups and were eager to meet these new arrivals.

“Our questions were answered when a tall, dark man walked through our front gate one morning. ‘I’m Gabriel, a refugee from Sudan,’ he introduced himself in perfect English. We then had even more questions. How did these Sudanese get to our city of Eilat in the south of Israel? What made them want to come to Israel of all places? Were they refugees from the genocide in Darfur that we’d been reading about lately?”

Their questions were answered by the refugees that came streaming to them. I was fascinated by how many Sudanese believed this passage from Isaiah 18 applied to them:

“Woe to the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush, which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water. Go swift messengers to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech whose land is divided by rivers … At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty … to Mount Zion.”

Judith Galblum Pex writes:

“Whatever the original meaning, many Sudanese took this passage as a personal encouragement in their complicated struggle as refugees in Israel. Still, life with uncertainties in Israel was better for them than what they had endured in Africa.”

This book tells the stories of several Sudanese refugees, of different backgrounds, who wound up on their doorstep and became their friends. The writing is a little uneven. I would have preferred less about how they got the stories and the author’s reaction to the stories, and a focus on just the stories themselves. However, the stories are so compelling, you can get past that distraction.

This book contains amazing true stories of powerfully resilient people with a strong faith in God who have come through incredibly difficult events. The stories are both eye-opening and inspiring.

cladach.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/people_tall_and_smooth.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 book sent to me by the publisher.

Top 100 Children’s Novelists #2 – E. B. White

Top 100 Writers and Illustrators 0

# 2 Children’s Novelist – E. B. White, 365 points.

Nobody’s surprised about this one. The author for the second highest number of points in Betsy Bird’s poll of the Top 100 Chapter Books of All Time is E. B. White.

What might be surprising is that while J. K. Rowling, the #1 author, got there with votes on all seven of her books, E. B. White pulled off second place with votes on only two of his books.

Charlotte’s Web was Chapter Book #1, with 349 points.
And The Trumpet of the Swan had two people vote for it with a 2nd place and a 4th place ranking, for a total of 16 points.
I was surprised that Stuart Little got no points at all.

Now, I personally didn’t vote for Charlotte’s Web, but I might have if I’d thought for a moment it wouldn’t win. I have to admit the book is practically perfect. I have wonderful memories of Charlotte’s Web, since it was my 3rd grade teacher, Miss Kita, who introduced the book to me when she read it to our class after lunch. I remember being completely enthralled.

I was never enamored with the other two books, though my husband ended up making me fond of them. That Stuart Little was a mouse, I always found completely creepy. A small human would have been interesting. But a mouse? The open ending didn’t help for me, either.

Then there was The Trumpet of the Swan. I didn’t encounter that one until I was an adult. It’s a good story, but, come on, a trumpet? Really? I know enough about brass instruments to know that you really do need lips to play one. Playing a trumpet with a beak? I’m sorry, but my imagination doesn’t stretch that far.

Even though you’d think that would bother him, my ex-husband, a tuba player, had loved all three books since he was a boy. He read all three to our sons, and I get warm feelings just remembering that. He and our older son were working together on a sequel to Stuart Little called Margalo.

Then there was the Hanna Barbara film of Charlotte’s Web. My son watched that over and over and over, as only a preschooler can. And yet — I did not hate it, even after hearing it uncountably many times. Most of the dialogue was straight from the book, and the fact is, that’s good dialogue.

Come to think of it, Charlotte’s Web, though completely brilliant, is unconventional, like the other books. Perhaps that’s what blocked it from a Newbery Medal in the end. It starts out as a realistic book and then switches into fantasy with talking animals, though never going all the way there, staying firmly grounded in reality.

I recently read Michael Sims’ brilliant book, The Story of Charlotte’s Web. It turns out that E. B. White studied spiders for a full year before writing the book. His impeccable research is reflected in the book. These animals — and that immortal spider — are real and grounded in reality.

Review of Summer of the Gypsy Moths, by Sara Pennypacker

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Summer of the Gypsy Moths

by Sara Pennypacker

Balzer + Bray, 2012. 275 pages.
Starred Review

I wasn’t really attracted to this book by the cover. It looks like a feel-good story about girlfriends spending a summer at the beach. However, since I already think Sara Pennypacker’s a genius because of her brilliant writing in the Clementine books, I knew I did want to read it. And since it was nominated for Capitol Choices, I read it sooner rather than later.

In the first 50 pages, I learned that this is actually a book about two 12-year-old girls planning to hide a dead body!

Stella came to her Great-Aunt Louise after her mother had been charged with neglect and was off on an adventure following what she said were job leads. Great-Aunt Louise had also taken in a foster child, Angel, to be company for Stella. That didn’t work out very well, since the two were like oil and water.

“From the living room, I heard Angel snort. She snorted every time I mentioned Heloise, which just went to show what kind of a person she was, since Heloise does nothing but good for people with her household hints column, helping them get their lives in order.”

But then, it’s almost the end of the school year, and Stella and Angel come home from school to find Louise sitting in her chair with the TV on, but it’s the wrong show. Louise is dead.

Angel is not ready to go to another foster home. Stella doesn’t have anywhere else to go. At first they’re just going to put off having to leave, but one thing leads to another, and they decide to stay. They tell crazy fibs about what’s wrong with Louise, and Stella, who’s used to taking care of things for her mother, has no trouble with Louise’s task of keeping the four summer cottages tidied up between customers.

This book is funny and sad and outrageous and poignant.

Once again, Sara Pennypacker’s characters seem like completely real children. The way they react to the dead body that was Louise struck me as completely real. Here’s where they try to prepare her for burial by bringing out all the jewelry she bought from the Home Shopping Network:

“When it came to doing it, though, we couldn’t. Neither one of us could touch Louise’s neck or ears or wrists. In the end, we just tossed everything over her robe and then jumped back to the doorway. Her lap looked like a pirate’s treasure chest, with necklaces and bracelets spilling all over her, and I thought, who wouldn’t like that?”

I’m glad I’m not on the Newbery committee this year, because I’d have an awful time deciding between this book and Wonder and The One and Only Ivan. On the other hand, I’d have to read these brilliant books several times, which would be a treat.

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Librarians Help! Conference Edition

Conference Corner, Library Links 0

It’s been more than a month since my last Librarians Help! post. During that time, I went to ALA Annual Conference. What did I learn there? More ways to help, of course!

Librarians:

— Help parents build early literacy skills in their little ones.
— Help older kids learn to read.
— Help show kids the fun side of reading.
— Provide a place to come in from the heat.
— Provide conversation about technology and privacy and ethical use of technology.
— Provide exposure to technology.
— Show how to use technology to promote learning.
— Help people trace genealogy.
— Help people find their next book to read.
— And, of course, promote great books by giving prestigious awards.

I’ve got notes from some of the people I helped before I went to California for the conference (and vacation with family and friends), so I’ll post a few of those.

— Lots and lots of requests for specific books or specific topics
— Got out some old photos of a local high school from the rare book room.
— Ordered microfilm from the Library of Virginia.
— Figured out the title of a book from a fragment on one copied page.
— Answered the question: What were the top three companies (by any criteria) in 1939?
— Helped someone copy a pdf file on the public computers.
— Helped someone load library books onto their Nook.
— Helped a customer format her resume.
— Answered question about salaries of congressional staff.
— Provided a definition of “cognitive dissonance” over the phone.

And here’s a link to an excellent article on Kentucky Teacher about the value of School Librarians: “Why You Need Your School Librarian.”

Have I convinced you yet? Librarians Help!

Review of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart

Award Winners, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

by E. Lockhart

Hyperion, New York, 2008. 345 pages.
2009 Printz Honor Book
Starred Review

I took an online course about the Printz Award, and the course finally got me to read this wonderful book.

Frankie’s father is sending her to the exclusive prep school where he attended. Her Dad still meets with his buddies and talks about their secret society, the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. Unfortunately, it was only for men, so he can’t reveal to Frankie where they hid their record of their escapades, The Disreputable History.

When Frankie’s new boyfriend invites her to a party after curfew and the invitation has a seal with a picture of a basset hound, it’s pretty easy for her to figure out what he’s up to. She doesn’t like it when he won’t tell her anything about his involvement. He thinks of her as a pretty little thing, and that what he does with his friends shouldn’t concern her.

Here’s the letter that opens The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks:

“To: Headmaster Richmond and the Board of Directors, Alabaster Preparatory Academy

“I, Frankie Landau-Banks, hereby confess that I was the sole mastermind behind the mal-doings of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. I take full responsibility for the disruptions caused by the Order — including the Library Lady, the Doggies in the Window, the Night of a Thousand Dogs, the Canned Beet Rebellion, and the abduction of the Guppy.

“That is, I wrote the directives telling everyone what to do.

“I, and I alone.

“No matter what Porter Welsch told you in his statement.

“Of course, the dogs of the Order are human beings with free will,. They contributed their labor under no explicit compunction. I did not threaten them or coerce them in any way, and if they chose to follow my instructions, it was not because they feared retribution.

“You have requested that I provide you with their names. I respectfully decline to do so. It’s not for me to pugn or impugn their characters.

“I would like to point out that many of the Order’s escapades were intended as social criticism. And that many of the Order’s members were probably diverted from more self-destructive behaviors by the activities prescribed them by me. So maybe my actions contributed to a larger good, despite the inconveniences you, no doubt, suffered.

“I do understand the administration’s disgruntlement over the incidents. I see that my behavior disrupted the smooth running of your patriarchal establishment. And yet I would like to suggest that you view each of the Loyal Order’s projects with the gruntlement that should attend the creative civil disobedience of students who are politically aware and artistically expressive.

“I am not asking that you indulge my behavior; merely that you do not dulge it without considering its context.

“Yours sincerely,

“Frances Rose Landau-Banks”

How does Frankie manage to out-prank the pranksters? What are these intriguingly named escapades? In what sense were they social activism? And what happens when she pulls them off?

All is revealed in this delightful book. It’s amazing how gripping the plot is, even when you’re told what happens right at the outset. You can’t help but love Frankie and will keep reading to see what clever stunt she accomplishes next, and if her boyfriend and his buddies will learn to take her seriously. Along the way, she has lots to say about our patriarchal society.

Buy from Amazon.com

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

#1 Picture Book Author and Illustrator – Maurice Sendak

Top 100 Writers and Illustrators 0

Maurice Sendak
#1 Picture Book Author, 570 points
#1 Picture Book Illustrator, 607 points

I should point out that Betsy Bird’s Top 100 Picture Books Poll happened before Maurice Sendak’s death. So these numbers were not inflated by the news of his death. I can’t help but wish he’d seen this one more triumph, but I imagine he knew he was on top with the last poll, so this was simply one more honor to a picture book genius.

Now, this name won’t come as a surprise, since Where the Wild Things Are all by itself was #1 with 533 points. As it turns out, no other author or illustrator got a total that passed that one. But he had another book in the Top 100, Pierre, at #79 with 25 points. What other books showed up on the poll for Maurice Sendak?

Higglety, Pigglety, Pop! got 5 points.
In the Night Kitchen got 5 points.
Chicken Soup With Rice got 2 points.

And for illustration:
Little Bear, by Else Holmelund Minarik, got 17 points.
A Kiss for Little Bear, by Else Holmelund Minarik, got 7 points.
Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present, by Charlotte Zolotow, got 5 points.
A Hole Is to Dig, by Ruth Krauss, got 4 points.
A Very Special House, by Ruth Krauss, got 2 points.
What Can You Do With a Shoe?, by Beatrice Schenk deRegniers, got 2 points.

So you see, Maurice Sendak well deserves the Number One spot!

I should confess that when I was a little girl, I didn’t really like Where the Wild Things Are. I’m afraid I was a real goody-two-shoes who didn’t like that Max was being bad. However, years later, as a mother of boys, I came to appreciate the need for a Wild Rumpus at times.

Though my truly favorite Maurice Sendak books are A Hole Is to Dig, Chicken Soup With Rice, and Little Bear. His children are truly ready to jump and play and dance. I so love the way the child laughs when the words say a tablespoon is to eat a table.

Truly Maurice Sendak was a genius and left the world a richer place.

Review of Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, by Anna Quindlen

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake

by Anna Quindlen

Random House, New York, 2012. 182 pages.
Starred Review

Anna Quindlen is just a few years older than me. So I love reading her musings on turning 50, on aging, on being the mother of young adults. Because she tells me what’s to come. I feel for her, but I can tell myself that is still far in the future, but as I read, I begin to look forward to it.

Anna Quindlen wrote a “Life in the 30’s” column when she was in her 30’s. She wrote about everyday things, and people wrote back to her. In her foreword, “Life in the 50’s” she talks about those letters:

“I feel like I’m not alone,” some of those who wrote to me said, and that sentiment changed my life. That’s what’s so wonderful about reading, that books and poetry and essays make us feel as though we’re connected, as though the thoughts and feelings we believe are singular and sometimes nutty are shared by others, that we are all more alike than different. It’s the wonderful thing about writing, too. Sometimes I would think I was the only person alive concerned about some crazy cul-de-sac of human behavior. Then I would get the letters from readers and realize that that was not the case, that we were not alone, any of us.

I love Anna Quindlen’s outlook on aging. She makes it sound so much fun! And she makes me so ready for it.

Many of us have come to a surprising conclusion about this moment in our lives. No, it’s not that there are weird freckly spots on the back of our hands, although there are, or that construction guys don’t make smutty comments as we pass, although they don’t. It’s that we’ve done a pretty good job of becoming ourselves, and that this is, in so many ways, the time of our lives. As Carly Simon once sang, “These are the good old days.” Lots of candles, plenty of cake. I wouldn’t be twenty-five again on a bet, or even forty. And when I say this to a group of women at lunch, everyone around the table nods. many of us find ourselves exhilarated, galvanized, at the very least older and wiser.

So take a ride along with Anna Quindlen, a superb essayist, as she explores thoughts about life, aging, growing, learning, being a friend, and living well.

AtRandom.com

Buy from Amazon.com

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

#1 Chapter Book Author – J. K. Rowling

Top 100 Writers and Illustrators 0

#1 Chapter Book Author: J. K. Rowling
445 points.

Tonight I’m beginning my posts of the Top 100 Chapter Book Authors from Betsy Bird’s Top 100 Chapter Books Poll with something of an upset. I hadn’t looked at the totals in awhile, and in the back of my mind, I simply thought that of course E. B. White, having won the top slot so decisively with Charlotte’s Web, would naturally be on top.

But I shouldn’t have been surprised. We all know how much the books by relative newcomer are beloved. Though this time most of us simply voted for the first book in her beloved series, not only was that book #3 in the Chapter Book Rankings, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was #12, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was #98, and yes, every single other book got at least one vote.

Just a little background. Betsy Bird did a poll on her Fuse #8 blog asking people to write in with their Top 10 Chapter Books of all time, ranked in order from 1 to 10. Each book was given 10 points for first place, 9 for second place, and so on. Then she gave us a ranking of the top 100 point-getters. I helped tally up the points, and I was interested in what authors would be on top, since with some it was so hard to choose just one book to vote for. Hence this series of posts.

Here are Betsy’s posts about J. K. Rowling’s three books in the Top 100:

#3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

#12. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

#98. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

And here are my own reviews of all the books:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I am very proud that I gave the first book to my son Josh on his eleventh birthday, and just as soon as he finished reading it, he urged us to read it as a family at bedtimes. (His little brother was five years old, and we’d started reading them books together, when we could find a book both would like.) The next year, before the book was famous, we gave the book to several other people. One of those was Josh’s fifth grade teacher, and he said it was the best present he’d ever received. When controversy began breaking out over the book the following year, his class put up big “We Love Harry Potter” signs on the classroom windows.

I confess, when my husband told me he wanted a “trial separation” a few months before Harry Potter #6 was due out, I said, “But then you won’t be there to read Harry Potter!” and burst into tears. (He did stay through the purchase of that book, but it was clear his heart wasn’t in it.) He had been the principal reader for all the earlier books, and I had treasured that family time. By #7, my son Josh was away at college, and my ex-husband was in Japan, but I talked my young teenage son who remained to let me read it aloud to him. Sigh. Now I just have to read them on my own. But I will always ALWAYS treasure those memories of reading Harry Potter together, at home and on vacation in England (one year we got the book earlier than everyone else by going to England) and in Germany (we spent a whole day of our vacation in Bavaria reading the end of The Goblet of Fire rather than going sight-seeing).

We also have a collection of Harry Potter books: American, British and German editions of all the books except the last (In case you’re wondering, that’s my childhood collection of Black Stallion books next to the British editions of Harry Potter.)

And we have copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in many different languages: Hebrew, Chinese, Czech, Bulgarian, Japanese, and French. As well as, of course, American, British, and German. (I’ve read the American, British, German and French ones. Not the others.)

Yes, I must admit I’m pleased that J. K. Rowling has the Number One Chapter Book Author spot. She deserves it!

Review of Darth Paper Strikes Back, by Tom Angleberger

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Humorous, Starred Review 2

Darth Paper Strikes Back

by Tom Angleberger

Amulet Books, New York, 2011. 159 pages.
Starred Review

Darth Paper Strikes Back is, naturally, the sequel to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Both books are fabulous middle school reading. I so wish I could ever find them on the shelves of the library, because there are many customers I would recommend them to — but so far, they are always checked out.

The first book covers Tommy’s sixth grade year, where he gets surprisingly wise advice from Origami Yoda, a finger puppet manipulated by a really weird kid called Dwight. The advice solves all kinds of problems and is far too wise for Dwight to have made up on his own. But all along, there was a skeptic, a kid named Harvey who scoffed at everyone else’s belief in Origami Yoda.

On the first day of seventh grade, Harvey shows up with an origami finger puppet of Darth Vader. And Harvey does Vader’s voice much better than Dwight has ever done Yoda’s voice. And then things get bad for Dwight.

Tommy explains the scenario at the beginning of his latest “case file”:

“The bad news is that this year Origami Yoda’s up against the destructive force of Darth Paper, and can’t seem to handle it.

“It has all gone wrong since that first day. Now it’s October and Darth Paper has pretty much destroyed all the good Origami Yoda did last year. Now the girls don’t like us. The teachers don’t like us. Some of us don’t even like each other….

“But it’s been worse for Dwight. He’s been suspended from school, and the school board is going to decide if he should get sent to CREF — the Correctional and Remedial Education Facility — the school where they send the really, really bad kids, which Dwight isn’t. Amy’s older brother said the toughest, meanest, nastiest guy in his class was sent there . . . and got beat up! It’s kind of like Jabba’s palace, except without the alien rock band.

“This would be the ultimate defeat for Origami Yoda! And we think that Darth Paper is behind it. I just find it hard to believe that even Darth Paper/Harvey could be so evil!”

Tommy’s case file consists of telling about the good influences Origami Yoda has already had this year, the good advice he’s given, the situations he’s saved. I love the way these are real middle school concerns — like a game to play when they take video games off the library computers, helping Lance to decide which class to take, a way to clean up on the school popcorn sale, and even telling Murky the secret origins of Yoda that are not revealed in the movies. And, yes, there’s a return of Mr. Good Clean Fun and Soapy the Monkey, but this time he’s encouraging participation in the popcorn sale, rather than teaching them to wash their hands. (You see, the background situation of the middle school has some wonderful humor, too.)

Now, I was halfway through the book, wistfully thinking of how in the first book, the kids learned through the adventures that Dwight was a pretty great person after all. But in this book, Harvey just seemed bad clear through. I also thought it pretty unrealistic that a school board would listen to a bunch of students about a disciplinary matter, so Tommy’s whole case file seemed awfully misguided and unrealistic.

Then I read the ending, and I will just say that Tom Angleberger nailed it! Best of all, we’ve got a picture of Yoda at the back, promising “The End… This is Not!”

Did I mention that, like the Wimpy Kid books, this book has cartoons throughout? Personally, I like these books better. They feel more good-hearted to me. Sure, Harvey’s mean, but there’s not much bullying going on, and these seem like genuine middle school kids with middle school concerns. So I really hope our library will get more copies before long, so I can direct those who like the Wimpy Kid books to turn to Origami Yoda next. Now, admittedly, people familiar with Star Wars will enjoy it a lot more. I could be wrong, but isn’t that pretty much all middle school kids?

origamiyoda.com
amuletbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Another Blog Series! Top 100 Authors, Illustrators, and Picture Book Authors, Oh My!

General, Top 100 Writers and Illustrators 0

Yes, I’m going to start another blog series.

I know, I know, you are right to be skeptical. Let’s see, besides 54 reviews I want to post, the blog series I currently have going are:

Sonderling Sunday
Conference Corner
Sondy’s Selections
Librarians Help

And, yes, I intended for most of those to be weekly series….

So now I want to start a series that will have 300 entries! Will it ever end? Will it even get off the ground?

Here’s the deal. When Betsy Bird of School Library Journal’s Fuse #8 blog decided to run another Top 100 Chapter Books and Top 100 Picture Books Poll, she put out a call for volunteers to help tally the results. Since I love spreadsheets and counting things and detail work, I quickly sent a “Pick Me! Pick Me!” e-mail. Now, mind you, I wasn’t content to only total the results of the top 100 books. It struck me as unfair that certain authors like Dr. Seuss with a wide body of work and no clear favorite would suffer in the standings. So I also tallied up the top chapter books authors, picture book authors, and picture book illustrators.

Betsy has graciously told me I can post this data on my own blog. I was thinking I’d just blast the info out there this weekend.

But then I got to thinking. Perhaps it’s because I’m feeling dead tired, still jetlagged from my trip to California less than a week ago. The thought of posting 300 names is simply daunting.

And, after all… why should I post all of them at once? Between you and me, the ONLY thing I didn’t like about Betsy’s posts was I couldn’t keep up. I was at ALA Annual Conference and on vacation when the big dramatic reveal of the highest numbers happened. I still haven’t read all the posts. (Though I assure you, I will.)

Personally, I’m not in a hurry to post about them. It would actually be quite fun to focus on one name at a time. I can link to all of Betsy’s posts about books by each person, link to my own reviews of any books by each person, throw in some of my own anecdotes, and end up with a very very long-running blog series out of it. Since it may be years before I get to the end, I will also start at the top with the Number One names, and then just go as long as I feel like it.

So — keep watching and I will post about the #1 Chapter Book Author very soon!