#3 Picture Book Author and Illustrator – Dr. Seuss

Picture Book Review, Top 100 Writers and Illustrators 0

I’m summing up the Author and Illustrator totals from Betsy Bird and School Library Journal‘s Top 100 Picture Books Poll. I’m doing it slowly, savoring the results, and I’m up to #3. Dr. Seuss is such a stand-by, my only surprise here is that he was beaten by youngster Mo Willems. (Go, Mo! There’s no shame in #3, after all. But to beat Dr. Seuss! That really impressed me about Mo. In fact, since Maurice Sendak died after the poll closed, Mo Willems is now the top living Picture Book Author and Illustrator, based on that poll.)

But this is about Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss is one of those writers who is such a stand-by, such a basic, you almost don’t think of him when you’re thinking about top picture books. And he has so many classics, it really spreads out the votes.

Here are his totals:

#3 Picture Book Writer, 349 points, 56 votes
#3 Picture Book Illustrator, 349 points, 56 votes

His books that made the Top 100, with links to Betsy’s posts, were:
#12 Green Eggs and Ham, 86 points
#33 The Lorax, 53 points
(Here are my pictures from The Street of the Lifted Lorax at Seussville in Universal Studios.)
#36 The Cat in the Hat, 50 points
#61 How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 30 points, 6 votes
#63 The Sneetches and Other Stories, 30 points, 5 votes
Here’s my own review of The Sneetches.

His other books that got votes were:

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, 17 points
“I figure there has to be a Seuss on my top list, and this is the one that I have the most fun reading aloud.” — Stacy Dillon
(“From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.”)

The Butter Battle Book, 15 points
“It’s hard to pick any Dr. Seuss title, as his entire work should make up the top 40 of any best picture book list. For me though, The Butter Battle Book is an excellent example of both Dr. Seuss’ incredible talent with words and his ability to incorporate poignant messages of humanity into his stories.” — Owen Gray
“My favorite Seuss, though as a child, I didn’t get the full implications. I just remember thinking the increasingly outrageous contraptions were fun. And I have no idea where this comes from, but I have a vague memory of a story about someone asking Dr. Seuss what side of his bread he buttered, and the response was ‘The crusts, of course.'” — Sharon Thackston

I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew, 15 points
(“where they never have troubles, at least very few.”)

Horton Hatches the Egg, 14 points
(“An elephant’s faithful, one hundred percent.”)

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, 10 points
“Fun for the young; great for graduates! Imagine giving a high school or college graduate a new copy of this book, what would she/he say!” — Dudee Chiang

Fox in Socks, 8 points
“I love to read tongue twisters aloud” — Carol
I’m with Carol! On Read Across America one year, I read Fox in Socks as quickly as I could.

Dr. Seuss’s ABC, 8 points
My oldest son learned to identify the letter O from this book at the amazing age of 15 months.

Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?, 7 points

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, 3 points
“I always prefered Dr. Seuss when he wrote longer form stories, so this was a natural. All the characters are fully realized, as the situation just keeps on getting more ludicrous.” — Kyle Wheeler

Happy Birthday to You!, 3 points
(“If you weren’t you, then you might be a WASN’T. A Wasn’t has no fun at all. No he doesn’t.”)

Review of Just a Second, by Steve Jenkins

Children's Nonfiction Review, Mathematical, Science, Starred Review 0

Just a Second

A Different Way to Look at Time

by Steve Jenkins

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2011
Starred Review

I think this is the first time I’ve read a book by Steve Jenkins where I pored over the words without noticing the exquisite art the first time through. Make no mistake, his cut-paper art is as detailed and amazing as ever. It’s so realistic, I’m not sure I noticed at first that it was his usual cut-paper art and not drawings.

But the text! This is a practical way to explain time. He mentions where seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years came from (most being a long-time-ago invention of man). Then he tells some things that happen in each amount of time.

Did you know that in one second “A peregrine falcon in a dive, or stoop, plunges more than 300 feet”?

Did you know that in one week “Moose antlers, the fastest-growing tissue of any mammal, can add 6 inches to their length”?

Did you know that in one year “More than 2,000,000 people are killed by mosquito-borne diseases”? “Humans cut down 4,000,000,000 trees”?

The book is full of facts like that: some fascinating, some surprising, some disturbing. Some, like “In one year an estimated 50 people are killed by sharks,” may be included because the accompanying illustrations are so much fun.

This book definitely succeeds as a “Different Way to Look at Time.” Good for children learning about time, as well as for science buffs, as well as for the simply curious.

stevejenkinsbooks.com
hmhbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Review of Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten! by Hyewon Yum

Contemporary, Parenting, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten!

by Hyewon Yum

Frances Foster Books (Farrar Straus Giroux), New York, 2012. 36 pages.
Starred Review

I would have never checked out this book. I mean, come on, how many books do we need about getting ready for Kindergarten? When I did read it because it is being considered for the Capitol Choices list, I became convinced that we don’t need any of the other books. We need this one!

This is a book about the feelings of a kid and his Mom when the child is starting Kindergarten. Those feelings are beautifully expressed by size and color. I especially love the way the sizes and colors change from page to page, because feelings on such a momentous day are volatile. Feelings change.

At the start, the big boy is excitedly waking up his little, blue mother, because he’s ready to start school.

Mom makes my lunch and she starts to worry. “Do they have snacks in kindergarten? What if you don’t have time to finish your sandwich at lunch? You’ll be so hungry.”

“I can eat fast, Mom.”

The picture on that page clearly demonstrates the big, confident boy wolfing down his breakfast in an Enormous Mouthful. All Mom’s other worries, he can handle. And he’s consistently pictured as large and confident, while Mom is much smaller and completely shaded in blue.

They rush to school, with the big, happy, confident boy pulling along his tiny Mom. The reversal of the usual tropes continues, and the big boy mounts the steps to the big school.

Mom doesn’t look happy.
“We don’t know anyone here. I miss your old teachers and your friends.”

“I like to make new friends, Mom, and you’ll make new friends in no time.”

I say hi to the girl with a pink ribbon.
She says hi.

And her mom says hi to my mom.
My mom smiles back.

On that page, color beautifully dawns on Mom’s face and body. She smiles with pink cheeks, and the pink and yellow radiate into her blouse. The top of her head and her legs are still blue, but you can see that she’s warming up.

And then, on the next page, they’re back to life size. The boy is tinged with blue as he faces the open classroom door. Mom’s bigger now, and colorful, and she provides a stable place for him to hug. (There’s some blue at her waist where he’s hugging her.)

The teacher comes out to greet them, and the boy gets his confidence back. And his large size. There’s a wonderful picture on the page when the teacher says it’s time for the parents to leave. “Mom hugs me, and kisses me, and hugs me, and kisses me.” The boy is about to pop from the force of the hugs, and Mom’s face is blue again, but she’s smiling.

Then we get to work.
Kindergarten is awesome.

There’s a truly wonderful double page spread at the end of the day when the Kindergartners are lined up, ready to go home. They are all huge and confident, completely filling the page and smiling. “When we line up, I feel so much bigger.” He looks bigger, too.

Mom, waiting out in the school yard, is back to blue. But when they have a big hug, she’s back to normal color and size.

Until the boy has his final question:

“Mom, can I take the school bus tomorrow, please?”

This book is perfect in so many ways. It so wonderfully shows the feelings taking place here, using the art to say so much more than words can. Then there’s humor in the Mom’s worries, and the confident, reassuring child. But I love that even he has moments of being blue, because that’s the way it really happens.

If you know of a child getting ready to start Kindergarten, I can’t think of a better choice than this book!

mackids.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/mom_its_my_first_day_of_kindergarten.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! Excellence, Education, and Innovation

Library Links 0

The Carnegie Corporation has a wonderful article on their site, “Today’s Public Libraries: Public Places of Excellence, Education, and Innovation.” This picture was taken at one of the libraries in my own system.

Here are some sections I particularly like:

The second reason libraries persist is the notion of improvement, something that has been an article of faith among librarians and their civic backers for as long as there have been libraries in this country. We Americans were early proponents of universal education and individual initiative, and we long ago recognized the importance of giving people a chance to make their lives better by gaining knowledge and cultivating their minds—in other words, improving themselves both materially and intellectually. It’s an idea redolent of Ben Franklin and Samuel Smiles, Horatio Alger and even Dale Carnegie.

Visiting the Flushing library helped me realize that libraries persist because the marketplace, with all its many splendors, provides no good alternative to these comforting institutions where you can sit and think without a penny in your pocket. Libraries also persist because the idea of improvement persists—and because libraries continue to meet the needs of their patrons, perhaps even better than they have in the past. Library layouts have been evolving in recent years to accommodate different groups of patrons—just as they did years ago, to accommodate children. Librarians also have more training nowadays, not just in using computers but in communicating with patrons. And they are using the tools of the digital revolution—the very ones that were supposed to make librarians obsolete—to do a better job for the public, for example by promoting community discussions online, offering help on the Web and using Twitter to keep patrons informed.

In New York City, in Chicago, in Los Angeles and so many other places that are magnets for immigrants, libraries provide reading material in a host of tongues, not to mention instruction in the English language and workshops on how to become a citizen. They still provide books, of course, but they also provide Internet access for those who lack a connection, a computer or even a home. In smaller communities, they remain cherished civic and cultural spaces, anchoring sometimes tattered main streets and serving as a destination for children after school and the elderly after a lifetime of work. This idea of improvement—of helping people to make their lives better through knowledge, just as Andrew Carnegie sought to do through his vast international library-building program—is what ties together all the things libraries do today.

Yet even with the Internet at their fingertips, Americans still need—and want—their public libraries, even if only as a place to access the Internet. Most of us, though, want and expect much more from our libraries, and that’s reflected in every measure of public attitudes toward them. Consider that homes near libraries sell for higher prices. Two-thirds of American adults say they visit a library at least once annually. Last year voters approved a remarkable 87 percent of library operating ballot measures, suggesting that taxpayers overwhelmingly believe they are getting their money’s worth from these venerable and much-loved institutions.

Instead, librarians can focus on their unique capabilities as repositories, organizers and guides to knowledge. They can provide a focal point for their communities, as well as a necessary refuge. And they can carry forward the faith in improvement that has sustained them all along. By upholding their great tradition of public service, libraries will continue to win public support—and, it is hoped, public dollars. It’s a great bargain for society, and one likely to keep libraries in business long into the digital future.

The whole article is excellent, talking about the same thing I’m trying to emphasize here — how many different ways libraries and librarians help their communities.

And it’s been awhile since I posted about the things I’ve gotten to do myself.

A big summer theme is parents or grandparents coming in, looking for books to tempt their children, with the children along. That’s one of my favorite questions, and I usually offer them several choices. I love when a child’s eyes light up with interest. One little boy said, “That looks interesting!” when I showed him the book The Polar Bear Scientist. I found him some fiction and nonfiction that he found appealing.

I always like to stress to kids that they are allowed to stop reading if they don’t like it. I try to give them several possibilities, in hopes that something will spark their interest. That won’t work if they feel obligated to read my suggestions all the way to the end. Summer reading should be non-required reading, and a big huge part of summer fun.

I’m a lot more frustrated with parents who come in with lists or who only want books from a list. In the first place, parents in the same area use the same lists, and they tend to be checked out. (Put them on hold from home if you just want those particular books!) But when the parents are willing to talk to me and get similar suggestions, when they have a little flexibility, and especially when they bring their kids, then we can find some wonderful choices.

A fun thing happened one day at the end of July. Three different kids on the same day asked where the books by Roald Dahl were, but none of them knew his name. Instead, one asked for books by the author who wrote The BFG, the next one asked for books by the author of Matilda, and the third one asked, “You know James and the Giant Peach? Are there more books by that author?”

Also this month, one of my co-workers put on a “Book Bingo” program that was a big hit. They play bingo with a modified card (using book titles), and the prizes are — books. We use gently used donations that the system doesn’t need. Some are wrapped, and there are opportunities to exchange for a title a child wants. What I love about it is how enthusiastic the kids were and how excited about their winnings. It’s a super simple program, but what a great way to get kids excited about reading.

But my favorite question of the last month or so was the guy who walked nervously up to the information desk and asked, “Where’s the nearest exit?” Now, mind you, we have one main entrance and exit to the library, and it’s quite obvious from the information desk. He got me wondering if there was a specific reason he wanted the nearest exit, and I evaluated whether the nearest emergency exit was nearer than the main entrance. I decided it wasn’t and pointed him to the big doors through which he must have entered the library in the first place.

Did he know something I didn’t know? I have to admit, I was relieved when no alarm went off in the next five minutes.

Spread the word — Librarians Help!

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are entirely my own and do not in any way reflect those of my employer.

Review of Bossypants, by Tina Fey

Audiobooks, Humorous, Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

Bossypants

by Tina Fey
read by the author

Hachette Audio, 2011. 5.5 hours on 5 CDs.

I’d heard good things about this book, and then a co-worker told me she was listening to it. When she said that Tina Fey herself read it, I knew this was one book I’d want to enjoy in the audio form.

This was a perfect audiobook to get me laughing on my commute. The humor doesn’t get political very often, so I suspect some of my conservative friends may also enjoy it. Tina Fey tells about her life in performance, and what it’s like to be in charge.

I think my favorite part was when she explained what she learned from sketch comedy and how it’s like life. I wish I could quote sections to you, but that’s the disadvantage with the audio form — not easy to go back to get quotes. In sketch comedy, it’s absolutely vital to cooperate with your partner, and she gave hilarious examples.

The audiobook also included a recording of her sketch on Saturday Night Live where Tina Fey, as Sarah Palin, gave a public service announcement with “Hilary Clinton.” The pictures in the text were included in a PDF file on the final CD, and so was a complete recording of that show. Having the pictures was nice — I didn’t have to check out the print book to see them, though I admit I looked at them after the fact, not in the middle of the text, like they would have been in the original book. Tina Fey talks about her strange six weeks performing as Sarah Palin. Like so many people, I hadn’t realized that she wasn’t even working for Saturday Night Live at the time — until public demand suggested that she be the one to play Sarah Palin.

So, Tina Fey talks about performing, about parenting, about being a boss, and so much more. And she does it all with a lot of humor. This is a wonderful commuting book, because what’s better than a good laugh on the way to work?

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/bossypants.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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Cinder, by Marissa Meyer

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

Cinder

The Lunar Chronicles: Book One

by Marissa Meyer

Feiwel and Friends, New York, 2012. 390 pages.
Starred Review

I’ve always loved fairy-tale retellings, but this science fiction version of Cinderella is even better than most. Once again, I stayed up all night reading to finish the book, even though I know that’s not good for me. But the book was so good! Since I was able to take a nap the next day, I’m afraid my bad behavior was reinforced, and it was totally worth it.

Cinder is set in New Beijing, 126 years after the end of the fourth world war, after which the kingdoms of the earth have been at peace. They’ve been at peace, but not without problems. There’s a plague raging, and even the Emperor of the Eastern Alliance is sick with it.

Linh Cinder is a cyborg, which is why she’s a second-class citizen. She’s 63.72% human, but she has some machine parts, like her left hand and foot, and some brain and sensory enhancements. She doesn’t remember anything from before the accident and fire that burned her when she was eleven years old.

Since her adoptive father died, Cinder’s been the one making a living for her family as a mechanic. She’s a good mechanic, as her cyborg enhancements give her special abilities, but she’s surprised when Prince Kai brings in an old android that needs repair.

Cinder barely heard him above the blankness in her mind. With her heartbeat gathering speed, her retina display scanned his features, so familiar from years spent watching him on the netscreens. He seemed taller in real life and a gray hooded sweatshirt was like none of the fine clothes he usually made appearances in, but still, it took only 2.6 seconds for Cinder’s scanner to measure the points of his face and link his image to the net database. Another second and the display informed her of what she already knew; details scribbled across the bottom of her vision in a stream of green text.

There’s something important about the android, but Prince Kai has many other things to worry about. The evil queen of the Lunar Colony wants to marry an earth emperor. But the people who live on the moon have evolved the ability to control the minds of others. If she marries Kai, she will enslave the people of his country as she has her own. But she can apply powerful pressure.

In the meantime, there is a draft of cyborg “volunteers” to test potential plague antidotes. When Cinder’s stepmother decides it’s time for Cinder to “volunteer,” Cinder learns some surprising new things about herself. But she also runs into the prince again.

This book takes the framework of the fairy tale and plays with it. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that instead of losing a shoe when she leaves the ball, Cinder loses a foot. I admit I was sad that there wasn’t a fairy godmother in this story, because I wanted that for Cinder, but it’s quite amazing what she manages to accomplish herself.

And there’s no Happily Ever After yet for Cinder, but the title page warned that this is Book One, so I didn’t expect it. But at the same time, it tells a satisfying story, following the Cinderella basic framework, yet adding in an intricate plot all its own. The future world is credibly and skilfully built. And the romance between Cinder and the Prince is done well.

I’m going to want to read the next volumes just as soon as they come out. Though I will definitely try to start very early on an evening when I have no other plans.

thelunarchronicles.com
macteenbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/cinder.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 I got at a library conference.

Sonderling Sunday – Chapter 9 – Meeting the Sonderlinge

Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, Sonderling Sunday 1

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! I missed last week because it was my youngest son’s 18th birthday! (Where oh where does the time go?) That reminds me of a funny thing about Germans and birthdays. Did you know that German kids sing “Happy Birthday” in English? Perhaps it was just my landlady’s family, since she grew up around Americans, but I suspect it was more widespread, because the small children who attended this birthday party in 1998 knew the words to the English “Happy Birthday” song.

(The cutie in the bottom right corner is my son, who is now 18 years old.) I believe the birthday girl was 5 years old, and we were so surprised at how well the small children sang in English. I suppose, bottom line, it’s hard to fit Alles gute zum Geburtstag into a nice song.

But back to Sonderling Sunday, the time when I play with language and supply you with delightfully useless phrases to know in German by looking at the translation of James Kennedy‘s The Order of Odd-Fish, Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, a truly Sonderbook.

We left off two weeks ago in the middle of chapter 9, on page 86 in English, and Seite 110 auf Deutsch.

Last time, we learned several different translations for “dithering,” as the knights of the Order of Odd-fish discussed Sir Oliver’s six-hundred-thousand-page dissertation on the subject. I still find it interesting and not at all surprising that Germans don’t have as many different words for dithering as English speakers do.

Ah! There’s a lovely paragraph right at the start of this next section, so I’ll start off by quoting the whole thing:

The cockroaches swooped in, snatched away the soup bowls, and served plates heaping with a gooey stew. It was spicy and slimy, and after a few cautious bites, Jo decided she liked it.

That translates as:

Die Kakerlaken stürmten wieder in den Raum, entrissen allen die Suppenschüsseln und servierten Teller mit einem pappigen Eintopf. Er war würzig und schleimig und nach ein paar vorsichtigen Bissen kam Jo zu dem Schluss, dass sie ihn mochte.

Some of the goodies here:

“soup bowls” = Suppenschüsseln
“gooey stew” = pappigen Eintopf (“cardboardy one-pot”)
“slimy” = schleimig (Surely this is where we got the English word?)

Going on, there are more wonderfully useless phrases about being wonderfully useless:

“properly dubious” = angemessen zweifelhaft

“unreliable” = unzuverlässig

“useless” = nutzlos

“out of date” = überholt (shorter in German!)

“contradictory” = widersprüchlich (“speech against”)

“we never publish anything misleading” = wir niemals irgendetwas veröffentlichen, das auf eine falsche Fährte führen könnte (“we never publish anything that can send one on a wrong trip”)

“deliberately misleading” = vorsätzlich Irreführendes (See the root for trip still in there?)

I thought it was funny that with this sentence the German translator did not dither as much as in English:
“Which, er, isn’t too far, actually, sometimes.” = Was, genau genommen, manchmal nicht sonderlich weit ist. (“Which, strictly speaking, sometimes is not especially far.”)

This one sounds better in German:
“an unreliable reference book” = ein unzuverlässiges Lexikon

Here’s a fun one I didn’t know before:
“at once” = schlagartig

“Jo’s stomach dropped.” = Jo plumpste der Magen in die Kniekehlen. (“Jo flopped her stomach in the hollow of the knees.”)

“Rumors, leads, myths, things that are maybe true, maybe not.” = Gerüchte, vermutungen Mythen, Dinge, die vielleicht wahr sind, vielleicht aber auch nicht.

“whiskers” = Backenbart

“hiccups” = Schluckaufs

“dubious” = fragwürdig (“question worthy”)

“discredited metaphysics” = verrufene Metaphysiken

“It is spectacularly tiresome!” = Es ist ungeheuer ermüdend! (“It is monstrously tiresome!”)

“Some of my research positively sparkles with dullness.” = Etliche meiner Metaphysiken funkeln förmlich vor Trübsinn. (“Some of my metaphysics sparkles formally with gloom.”)

“arcane drudgery” = uralter Trübsal (“ancient sorrow”)

I like this translation:
“Oh ho ho, oh no, oh no!” = Nein und nochmals nein!” (“No, and again no!”)

“Jo couldn’t help but smile.” = Jo musste unwillkürlich lächeln. (“Jo must involuntarily smile.”)

“supreme distaste” = überlegenem Abscheu

“Jo gritted her teeth.” = Jo knirschte mit den Zähnen.

Here’s a nice concise way of putting it:
“wet with sweat” = schwei?nass.

“as Sir Alasdair dissolved into snuffling laughter” = während Sir Alasdair vor Lachen Schniefte (“as Sir Alasdair with laugher sniffed”)

That’s all I have time for tonight! I hope to meet the rest of the Order next week!

Meanwhile, here are some highlights:
Most fun to say: Suppenschüsseln, unzuverlässiges Lexikon, Schluckaufs
Best exclamation: Nein und nochmals nein!
Best figure of speech: Jo plumpste der Magen in die Kniekehlen.
Most concise: schwei?nass.

Bis nächste Woche!

Review of Wisdom’s Kiss, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Wisdom’s Kiss

A Thrilling and Romantic Adventure, Incorporating Magic, Villainy, and a Cat

by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2011. 284 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s another fairy-tale-type story set in the world of Princess Ben. In fact, Princess Ben, as a grandmother, makes an appearance, though you don’t at all have to have read her story to understand what’s going on.

Wisdom’s Kiss centers around two princesses, named Temperance and Wisdom. They are granddaughters of Queen Benevolence and share the tradition of character-based names in the kingdom of Montagne. The story is also about Trudy, a young maid with the Sight. She loves the miller’s son Tips, who has gone off to learn to be an acrobat, and an excellent one.

Despite his mother’s machinations toward the throne of Montagne, Duke Roger of Farina is betrothed to Wisdom, the younger sister. She must travel to Farina for the wedding, and along the way she gets a new lady-in-waiting, Trudy, even though when Trudy looks at Wisdom, she feels great pain.

But then Tips’ troupe is performing in the capital of Montagne, and when Wisdom sees him, she finds out what she really aspires to. But royal betrothals are not easily gotten out of.

This is a fun story, with very creative story-telling, including several different perspectives, The Imperial Encyclopedia of Lax, letters, and a play script. The plot moves along with nice twists and turns and is never the least bit boring.

A lot hinges on love at first sight, which I wasn’t crazy about, but mostly everyone’s actions seem true to character, and even that love seems to have a basis in the characters of the people involved.

This is an entertaining tale, creatively told, and does include romance, magic, and villainy to delight all readers.

catherinemurdock.com
hmhbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/wisdoms_kiss.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 a library conference.

Review of The Friendship Doll, by Kirby Larson

Children's Fiction Review, Historical 0

The Friendship Doll

by Kirby Larson

Delacorte Press, 2011. 201 pages.

The Friendship Doll tells the story of an exquisite Japanese doll, Miss Kanagawa, sent to the United States in 1928 along with fifty-seven other dolls in a gesture of friendship. The book tells about four girls whom Miss Kanagawa encounters over a period of years. All the girls learn a small lesson from the doll, and the doll herself becomes less haughty and learns about love.

I was put off a bit by the very first story. Bunny is pouty because the mean girl Belle Roosevelt gets to give a speech to welcome the doll, even though Bunny could do it better. The doll convinces Bunny not to play a mean trick herself. It just all seemed a little petty, right from the start. Perhaps that was intentional, so we could see some growth in Miss Kanagawa herself.

I did warm up more to the stories of the other girls. Kirby Larson walks a thin line, but stays on the right side of preachiness, even though the girls learn lessons. But it’s delicately done. The girls Miss Kanagawa encounters are all quite different from one another, and I found myself enjoying each adventure a little more than the one before.

However, I do have one peeve with the second adventure, during the Depression. This could be a spoiler for this particular story, so be forewarned.

Here’s the thing. Lois dreams of flying some day like Amelia Earhart and Bessie Coleman. When she gets to go to the World’s Fair with Aunt Eunice, she wants nothing more than to go on a rocket ride zooming two hundred feet above the ground over the lagoon. On the day of the Fair, she has a quarter to spend how she wishes. Then she even gets permission from Aunt Eunice to go on the rockets. But she sees Miss Kanagawa and gets a message from her: A good friend gives our heart wings. She decides instead to buy some exquisite dollhouse furniture for her friend Mabel who couldn’t come.

Okay, call me selfish, but I really really wish Lois had gone on the ride! The reason I’m mentioning it is this: Isn’t that what girls are so often encouraged to do? Enjoying the moment is selfish — you should buy something for someone else.

Now, I lived in Europe for ten years. I learned after awhile that buying a souvenir for someone else tends to not mean a whole lot to them. Because a souvenir from a place they haven’t been doesn’t have any memories tied to it. But even more than that, why can’t Lois take the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity being offered her and enjoy it to the hilt, without having to feel guilty that her friend can’t share it, too? And what if Mabel doesn’t even like what she picks out? But she’s supposed to like it because Lois sacrificed her dream to give it. Isn’t that a recipe for resentment between them?

Anyway, that’s my take on the admittedly artificial situation. But I should add that this would make a fabulous mother-daughter discussion. What do you think?

I wasn’t crazy about this book, but I did enjoy it. And I think younger girls, especially ones who still love dolls, will find it enchanting. There are some fascinating historical details as well as lots of fuel for discussion.

kirbylarson.com
randomhouse.com/kids

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Source: This review is based on a book I got at ALA Annual Conference and had signed by the author.

Review of The Reading Promise, by Alice Ozma

Audiobooks, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

The Reading Promise

My Father and the Books We Shared

by Alice Ozma
Narrated by the author

Hachette Audio, 2011. 7 hours on 6 CDs.
Starred Review

It should come as no surprise that I’m crazy about a book about a father reading to his daughter. Alice Ozma and her father Jim Brozina had “The Streak” going — he read to her for 3,218 days in a row, from a day when she was in third grade to the time she went off to college.

My initial reaction? I’m mad at myself for never counting the nights their Dad and I read to our sons. And what a brilliant idea! With a “streak,” the kids don’t decide they’ve outgrown being read to nearly as soon. Indeed, Alice’s father had exactly that in mind, because he didn’t want Alice to decide she was too old for this, as her sister had done. Obviously, the strategy worked beautifully.

Alice Ozma reads the audiobook herself. At first, I thought her voice sounded way too young for it, but as the book got going, since she’s talking a lot about when she was a child, that is perfect, and I got used to her voice by the time she was talking about being older. In a lovely touch, her father narrates the foreword he wrote, and reads all the sentence excerpts from classic children’s books placed at the beginning of each chapter.

This isn’t an outline of every book they read. They don’t talk about every day of reading. Instead, there are lovely vignettes about different times in Alice’s reading life and her relationship with her father.

And my goodness, they have some entertaining vignettes! I laughed and laughed over the way Alice’s father convinced her she could go out on a highwire act — except they didn’t have a costume the right size. Or the way the family accommodated her at the funeral of Franklin the fish. Or how her father convinced her that getting in the dreaded kiss-lock with a boy was life-threatening. But the funniest one of all (and I’m just a little ashamed of saying this) was when she talked about her terrible fear of the corpse of John F. Kennedy.

To be completely fair, it was not the person himself whom I was afraid of, initially. I was afraid of his dead body, and I had somehow become convinced that it would appear one night on my bottom bunk, all laid out and ready for a funeral. I don’t know where I got this idea, and I’m happy to report that today it makes me laugh. Then, though, it was a very grave and serious matter.

Every night, I would go through a huge ordeal to avoid the body. At first I tried going to bed while it was still light out, but because it was winter that only gave me an hour or so from the time I got home from school. And if I went to bed early, it meant waking up early, while it was still dark out. So the darkness was unavoidable. Instead, I tried turning on all the lights in my room and sleeping with them on. My parents didn’t even yell at me, but finally the overhead light in my room burned out and I wasn’t tall enough to replace it. My father was, but I think he made a conscientious decision not to do so. As I got older, contrary to my parents’ expectations, the fear actually got stronger. By middle school, avoiding JFK’s dead body, which was obviously lying in state on my bottom bunk, was the focus of my evening….

The fear soon shifted from JFK’s dead body to JFK in general and included even photos of or quotes about him. So it was with great terror that I learned my father was planning a family trip for my sister and me shortly after my mother moved out, and one of the stops was the JFK Memorial Library. My father tried to convince me that I liked libraries more than I feared JFK. I had to point out to him that he did not know his own daughter.

I like the way she finishes off that sad but hilarious chapter:

I couldn’t appreciate it then, but it takes creativity to lie shivering and shaking in your bed, wondering if your cats will know how to defend you, not against ghosts or the boogeyman, but against the immobile body of one of the most famous and beloved ex-presidents of the United States. Thanks to The Streak and my father, imagination was not something I lacked.

The book does progress beyond these vignettes to a sad story of its own. Alice Ozma’s father was a school librarian, and an outstanding one, who emphasized reading to children. In the name of “progress” he was ordered to stop reading to them, to emphasize computers, and his entire collection was put in storage. Here’s where he tells Alice, now in college, about it:

“Neither of them understand what I’m trying to do. [The principal] ordered hundreds of new books this summer without listening to my suggestions. He said we needed all new, current books because students like new things. He put everything but the picture books, fiction or nonfiction, in storage.”

I put up my hand to fight in defense of the collection my father had spent years building, but he raised his eyebrows and gestured his hands in agreement and continued.

“I know! It’s absurd! Here’s the worst, Lovie — the library already owned some of the books he ordered! We had them in hardcover, and he ordered them in paperback. I never order paperbacks because they fall apart in less than a year. He ordered flimsy, paperback versions of books we already had. After all the budget cuts, that is how he uses our precious library money. When there are things we really needed, books that the children would have cherished. And where is the collection I spent so many years putting together? In boxes, in the school basement.”

Mr. Brozina did fight back, but eventually, he retired. However, Alice got a front row seat on this battle and how much it hurt the kids in the school. By the end of the book, her dad’s reading to seniors and preschoolers and to children in hospitals.

But inevitably, his mind wandered back to the children he had left behind. After working in a school made up mostly of minorities and almost entirely of children who qualified for free lunches from the state, he always worried about the students who slip through the cracks. A library without books seemed like a nightmarish punishment for students who desperately needed literacy to move on in the world and rise out of poverty. I knew that he couldn’t settle with the injustice for too long. His announcement did not come as a surprise.

“I’m running for the school board,” he said one day, as though waking up from a long nap.

Alice Ozma ends her book with something of a manifesto.

We called it The Reading Streak, but it was really more of a promise. A promise to each other, a promise to ourselves. A promise to always be there and to never give up. It was a promise of hope in hopeless times. It was a promise of comfort when things got uncomfortable. And we kept our promise to each other.

But more than that, it was a promise to the world: a promise to remember the power of the printed word, to take time to cherish it, to protect it at all costs. He promised to explain, to anyone and everyone he meets, the life-changing ability literature can have. He promised to fight for it. So that’s what he’s doing.

She ends with a sample Reading Promise in which you can fill in your own name, with this explanation:

My father was not the only person to make this promise. I made it, too, just as millions of people have made it around the world. Since books were first created, copied by hand beside glowing firelight, many have recognized them for the treasures they really are. Men and women everywhere have valued and protected these treasures. They may not start a reading streak, but the commitment is still there. There is always time to make the commitment to read and defend reading, and it is a commitment that is always worthwhile. This is more important now than it has ever been before. Unfortunately, my father’s situation is not unique: day by day, literature is being phased out of our lives and the lives of our children. This is the time to act. This is the time to make a promise.

There you have it. This book includes heartwarming stories about a girl and her father, and it progresses to a call to action about the power of literature. This wonderful story will remind you of the power of reading together and stir you to action.

makeareadingpromise.com
HachetteBookGroup.com

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

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