Top 100 Picture Books – Again!

Picture Book Review, Readalouds, Sondy's Selections, Top Ten Tuesday 1

I first started following Betsy Bird’s Fuse #8 blog back a few years ago, when she did the Top 100 Picture Books Poll. I didn’t start in time to contribute my votes, but I was captivated by her entertaining run down of the choices. She added web links, interesting facts, and other goodies on top of just the interesting facts of which books made the list.

I did participate in her Chapter Books poll. That time, I made the mistake of things like voting for the third Harry Potter book, since it was my favorite, and voting for The World of Pooh, because it includes both Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. No one else thought of that, so my vote went nowhere.

Now, with her much wider audience (I think), Betsy’s doing it again! But hurry — there are only a few days left! Trust me, if you don’t send in your votes, you will wish you had.

She’s running both polls again. Once again, list your top 10 favorite Picture Books, and top 10 favorite Chapter Books. They will be given 10 points for first place, 9 points for second, and so on. Yes, this is very difficult to choose. She does suggest using the first book in a series. And I’m still having a problem with the definition of “chapter book.” Some of my favorites are rather in between. But I decided that when romance is one of my favorite things about the book, like The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley, The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale, and The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare, I’d leave those books out. I also decided to go with only one book by each author, so even though I like Emily of New Moon a little better (heresy, heresy) than Anne, I went with the more well-known, partly because I do think Anne is slightly more enduring, ground-breaking, and appealing to everyone.

However, I’m going to indulge myself by listing my favorites here on my blog. I will also post these lists at my Sondy’s Selections page.

Partly, I’m posting these to force myself to commit and choose my top ten!

The Books I Consider the Top Ten Picture Books of All Time:

1. Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey

Okay, I’m going to go with nostalgia to decide which book to put on top. I actually remember, when I was a very little girl, hearing Captain Kangaroo read this book on television. I remember the way the camera panned over the ducks almost getting hit by the cars. I was fascinated with the book, and later we checked it out from the library. Later, I bought the book and read it many times to my sons. Best of all, when we visited the Boston Public Garden when my firstborn son was two years old, we visited the statues of Mrs. Mallard, followed by Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack. I took a picture of my son on Mrs. Mallard’s back, then taped that sweet picture into the front of our book.

2. Bark, George, by Jules Feiffer

This was the first book my second son could read all by himself. And since then, I’ve used it in many library story times, and it always goes over well. Always. It’s got predictability, repetition, animal sounds, expressive drawings, and lovely surprising humor.

3. Doctor DeSoto, by William Steig

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is brilliant, but in this one, William Steig uses just the right amount of words and tells a wonderfully clever tale.

4. Millions of Cats, by Wanda Gag

More nostalgia. This one, I remember reading to myself when I was very small when we would go to my great-grandmother’s house. She had some old books in her bookcase, and I know I read this one more than once. Since then, I read it to my own sons, and I still love using it in storytime. That refrain is unforgettable, and I love getting kids to chant along with me, “Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats!”

5. The Sneetches and Other Stories, by Dr. Seuss

This book has a perfect sample of Seuss stories. The title story has social commentary. The next story, “The Zax” is a pithy tale against stubbornness. Then for perfect Seussian word play, we’ve got “Too Many Daves.” Finally, I remember that incredible shiver of fear when I read about the pale green pants with nobody inside ’em. Funny how I didn’t find that story completely hilarious until I was an adult.

6. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, by Eugene Trivizias, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

I laughed and laughed when this book came in the mail from Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club. It’s a fairy tale parody perfectly carried out.

7. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, by Mo Willems

I still get a big kick out of reading the temper tantrum page.

8. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert

The best alphabet book ever. Another one that is totally fun to read aloud.

9. Are You My Mother?, by P. D. Eastman

This has everything. Different animals. A car, a plane. And all the drama and emotion of the baby bird trying to find his mother. But best of all — the Snort! I think this was one of the first books I could read. I do remember that my own mother was delighted to buy me a new book; I remember how wonderfully new and shiny it was; I remember being able to READ it; and I remember how I treasured it. [Wow. I had forgotten all this until I started writing about the book. Now that I think about it, it probably wasn’t often I got a new book of my own. That may have been why the shiny new cover made such an impression. I think it was in honor of my being able to read, or else to motivate me to be able to read it. I don’t think it was a birthday gift, but it was definitely a new book that my mother gave to me.]

Though I remember much more clearly my husband reading it to my oldest son. Josh was in his lap, so he couldn’t see his face. As the Snort lifted the baby bird and the baby bird realized something was happening, I saw Josh’s face begin to crumple. When my husband cried out, “You are not my mother! You are a Snort!” my son burst into tears. Later, when I read that to him, I tried to keep all emotion out of my voice at that part, to try to reduce the trauma.

10. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst

I had to include this one. It’s such a classic, all you have to say is “even in Australia” to evoke all the emotion. Truly, some days are like that. Still.

Okay, it’s getting late. So I’m going to put off my Top 10 Chapter Books until tomorrow.

Review of What Animals Really Like, by Fiona Robinson

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

What Animals Really Like

by Fiona Robinson

Abrams Books for Young Readers, New York, 2011.
Starred Review

If you like silly picture books; if you like reading books that make kids giggle, this is just the book.

When a child is big enough to know basic animal facts, know how books use rhyme to give you hints, he’s going to appreciate the surprises here.

Mr. Herbert Timberteeth, a beaver, is preparing for a big event. There’s an elaborate fold-out of many animals assembled on stage, dressed in their finest. Mr. Timberteeth is the conductor.

The song begins, with the groups of animals singing:

“We are lions, and we like to prowl.
We are wolves, and we like to howl.
We are pigeons, and we like to coo.
We are cows, and we like to . . . *turn page*

“. . . dig.”

Mr. Timberteeth tries to ignore it and move on. The next page:

“We are monkeys, and we like to play.
We are horses, and we like fresh hay.
We are worms, and we like to wiggle.
We are warthogs, and we like to . . .

“. . . blow enormous bubbles.”

Eventually, the animals decide they aren’t going to sing about what Mr. Timberteeth thinks they like, but about what they really like. Thus, a truly silly song begins. It doesn’t rhyme, but the pictured antics are hilarious. In fact the silly details in the pictures will reward reading this book again and again.

Only for silly readers.

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Sonderling Sunday – Chapter Three

Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, Sonderling Sunday 0

It’s Sonderling Sunday again! Yes, it’s late, but I have time to get in a little bit of language fun before the day’s over.

Did I mention that one of the things I loved about living in Germany 10 years was seeing the ways similar things are expressed in different languages? A favorite incident in France was a sign that said the passage was difficile (difficult) due to the rehabilitation of the bridge! Completely understandable, but definitely not a way I ever would have thought of putting it.

And that’s some of the fun I’m finding in this Sonderling Sunday project. I’m taking bizarre words, sentences, and paragraphs from The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy — things I certainly never would have thought to say without reading this book — and I’m seeing how they are expressed in German in the book Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge. I’m coming up with all kinds of delightful surprises!

And I’m ready to start Chapter Three. In English, this takes up 10 pages. In German, it is 12 pages, so not a huge difference this time.

As usual, I’ll begin with the first paragraph, but I find I also want to include the second:

Jo backed out of the ruby palace’s garage, yanked the gearshift, and rolled Aunt Lily’s gold Mustang out onto the bumpy road. She didn’t have a driver’s license, but after Aunt Lily crashed their car through the supermarket’s front window, Jo had taken over driving between the ruby palace and Dust Creek.

Aunt Lily and Colonel Korsakov were bickering and flirting in the back. Korsakov was so huge that he took up the entire seat; Aunt Lily, to her delight, had to sit on his lap.

Auf Deutsch:

Jo fuhr rückwärts aus der Garage des Rubinpalastes, riss an der Gangschaltung und rumpelte mit dem goldfarbenen Mustang ihrer Tante auf die holprige Stra?e hinaus. Sie hatte zwar keinen Führerschein, aber nachdem Tante Lily mit ihrem Wagen in die Fensterscheibe des Supermarkts gerauscht war, hatte Jo es vorgezogen, an ihrer Stelle zwischen dem Rubinpalast und Dust Creek hin- und herzufahren.

Tante Lily und Oberst Korsakov hockten im Fond und flirteten kichernd miteinander. Der Russe war so fett, dass er die gesamte Rückbank mit Beschlag belegte, und so musste die frühere Filmdiva sich zu ihrem Entzücken auf seinen Scho? setzen.

So far, we have:
“gearshift” = Gangschaltung (Go Circuit)
“rolled” = rumpelte
“bumpy” = holprige
hockten im Fond = “crouched in the rear” (I thought it meant were fondly bickering, but Google says I was wrong.)
In fact, I don’t find any bickering.
flirteten kichernd miteinander seems to mean “were flirting giggily with one another.”
Also, Germans say it like it is. English says Korsakov was so huge. German says “The Russian was so fat.” = Der Russe war so fett.
Instead of using Aunt Lily’s name again in the last sentence, the translator put in die frühere Filmdiva, “the former Film diva.”

Going on from there, an interesting translation:
“snuggling up to him” = an ihn schmiegte

Ah, on page 28 of the English version, we’ve got a fun paragraph. Watch for the translation of “armadillo.” Here it is in English:

It was a grubby room crowded with metal folding chairs and simulated-wood tables, dimly lit and almost intolerably hot, swimming in the thick stink of burnt coffee, fried dough, and maple syrup. The only decoration sat next to the cash register, a plastic armadillo so dented and abused that Jo almost pitied it.

Translated as:

In dem schmuddeligen Raum drängten sich metallene Klappstühle und Kunststofftische mit Holzimitat. Es war nicht besonders hell dort und unerträglich hei?. Der Raum war erfüllt von dem Gestank nach verbranntem Kaffee, altem Fett und Ahornsirup. Die einzige Dekoration befand sich neben der Kasse: ein Gürteltier aus Plastik, das so verbeult und abgeschlafft war, dass Jo es fast bedauerte.

Here are the goodies from that paragraph:
“grubby” = schmuddeligen
“folding chairs” = Klappstühle (I particularly like that one. “Folding” = Klapp)
“simulated-wood” = Holzimitat (Wood imitation)
German doesn’t say the room was “swimming” in the stink, just that it was erfüllt (filled) with it.
And my favorite:
“armadillo” = Gürteltier (“Belts animal”)

Going on:
“wobbly stool” = wackligen Hocker
“withered” = runzlige
“flowery” = in geblümte Kleider gehüllten (“in flowery clothes wrapped”)
“undertaker” = Bestattungsunternehmer (“burial undertaker”)
“standards” = Ma?stäben
“Adorable!” = Hinrei?end!
“funeral” = Beerdigung (“earth-going”)
“complaining” = beschwerten
“good-for-nothing grandchildren” = nichtsnutzigen Enkelkinder (nothing-useful grandchildren)
“squawked” = keckerten
“pouted” = schmollte
“theme music” = Titelmelodie
“storm clouds” = Gewitterwolken (That one’s just fun to say.)

Yikes! Look at the time! Sunday is over, so I will stop and get this posted. I’m on the Belgian Prankster paragraph on page 30 in English, Seite 42 auf Deutsch.

My favorites today were Gürteltier, schmiegte, schmollte, and Klappstühle.

Tune in next week, as we continue with Chapter Three.

Bloggiesta Sum-Up

Challenge, Events 0

Well, that didn’t work out like I hoped it would!

Okay, I knew my goals were impossible, but I thought I could make a lot more progress than I did.

However, I think I had a mini-stroke last week. I no longer overreact. I no longer head to the Emergency Room, or even call my neurologist. [The very very good news is that I see a specialist at Johns Hopkins this coming Friday. This will give me something more to tell him!] I suspect the mini-stroke was so small, it would not show up on an MRI. None of the others did! (But one I felt, and one caused permanent double vision if I look in certain directions.) However, all of them leave me feeling weak and dizzy if I walk around. I get better after a couple weeks, and I was doing great at PLA (Thank you, God!). But this week I had another setback, and the feeling is continuing through this weekend. I feel a lot more annoyed with it on my days off than I do on work days, I’m a bit ashamed to say!

So, I thought I could spend several hours on catching up on reviews. But I spent a big part of both days napping. I did get in a game of Dominion with my son both days, but that was worth it! I won’t be able to do that later in the week, when he’s at his Dad’s. And I do have two more days off, but I will definitely need to do some of the chores and errands I put off, ostensibly for Bloggiesta.

However! All that said, one of the best things about Bloggiesta, honestly, was reading this post at Chachic’s Book Nook. Like Chachic, my blog is meant to be My Happy Place. This is for fun!

So — though I only got 3 reviews written, I have put many more books than that back in my bag to return to the library. I do not need to say, “Here’s a good book,” unless I have a bit more to say about it than that. And I was nicely reminded to keep this fun.

Other things I did: I did make it to part of two of the Twitter parties.

I posted a review both days, and another blog entry both days, and a Sonderquotes entry both days, and a Sonderblessings entry today.

I attempted to upgrade my blogs, but ran into trouble with the needed database upgrade. I will take that up with Yahoo some time when I’m not expecting commenters, so it won’t be so bad if the whole site is down for awhile.

I did not achieve the commenting mini-challenge — only making 6 comments. But I do plan to go back to the Bloggiesta list to visit blogs in the future.

The other mini-challenges also didn’t get done, but again, the instructions stay there, so I can always go back to them when I’m feeling better.

Summing up, I still have piles of To-Be-Reviewed books. But they are smaller, and I do think my attitude toward them lightened up. I remembered how much fun this is!

Oh, and I found a whole bunch of delightful bloggers to follow on Twitter! That’s going to add some fun to my days long into the future.

Will I do Bloggiesta again? Absolutely!

Review of The Wilder Life, by Wendy McClure

Audiobooks, Biography, Musings, Nonfiction Review, Travel, True Stories 0

The Wilder Life

My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie

by Wendy McClure

Performed by Teri Clark Linden

Brilliance Audio, 2011. 9 discs, 10 hours, 43 minutes.

This audiobook was a fun one to listen to while driving to work and back. It felt a little on the long side, but I handled that by giving myself breaks of a few days in between discs. The narrator sounded a little too much like a teenager to me, actually sounding a whole lot like Natalie Moore, who narrated Dairy Queen. However, I got used to her voice and rationalized that the author was indeed a lot younger than me, so it was okay.

The book is about Wendy McClure’s childhood passion for the world of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and her quest to revisit the world of the books by seeing all the Little House sites peppered over America.

Now, I’ll confess right up front that I never read the Little House books myself. I think I read the first one, Little House in the Big Woods, on the urging of Karen Iwata, my best friend in second and third grades, but I thought it was frightfully boring. Those pioneer books didn’t grab me. I remember I also gave up on Caddie Woodlawn.

However, when my sons were growing up, my husband read them all the Little House books, which he had read and loved when he was a child, and I listened in and found them not so bad at all. What’s more, we had visited the home in Missouri where Laura lived as an adult and wrote the books.

And I certainly know about loving childhood books! Some day, some day, I will visit Prince Edward Island, where Lucy Maud Montgomery set her books. Hmm. Maybe I should write a book about it when I do. Though at least Laura Ingalls Wilder had many, many home sites, so Wendy McClure did have a book-length story to tell.

I found the book all the more fascinating because right now I’m in the middle of researching my family history. I keep thinking of the old picture I saw of my grandma as a baby with her brothers in front of their sod house. I remember her telling me, “Just like Laura Ingalls Wilder!” She and my grandpa were actually born in Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma — so quite near the original Little House on the Prairie. What’s more, lots and lots of my ancestors were pioneers and farmers, moving steadily west, so the world of the Little House books is really quite close to the story of my own roots — and that made Wendy McClure’s visiting the home sites all the more interesting to me.

And I have to admit, Wendy McClure knows how to make the tale interesting. She tells about each place she visits, the people she sees, and what she felt to see them. She explores lots of her feelings about the books and about the places, many of which any book lover can easily relate to. She also throws in facts about Laura and her family, but sprinkles them nicely so we don’t get bored.

In short, I recommend this book for anyone who loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, or just anyone who loves going back to the children’s books they cherished as a child. The story doesn’t have a lot of tension or a driving plot, but that actually makes it nice listening for a commute. And, hey, anyone who gets a chance to do a Little House road trip, following the steps of Laura Ingalls Wilder (and Wendy McClure), will definitely want to have this for the ride.

www.terriclarkvoiceover.com

Buy from Amazon.com

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

First Quarter Reading Progress

Challenge 0

The first quarter of the year will be done in about a half-hour! (I know, how’d that happen?) So I’m curious to see how I’ve done on my Crazy 2012 Reading Plans.

I posted about this at the start of March, but it’s simpler to just summarize my total progress for the year. In March, I attended my first Capitol Choices meeting, so I spent a couple weeks trying to catch up on the books we’d be talking about, thus interrupting my Plan. Here are my new totals:

Rereads: 3
My Books: 3
New Library Books: 3
Award Winners: 3
Prepub ARCs: 3
Older Library Books: 3
Books for Capitol Choices: 6
Books for Heavy Medal Shortlist: 2
Books for School Library Journal’s Battle of the Books: 3
Book read before meeting author: 1
Book to read along with Liz B: 1
Nonfiction: 7
Shorter Books (in between books of Plan): 4
Children’s Nonfiction: 3
Audiobooks: 4

Not too bad. I’d like to be a lot further on my Reading Plan, but my grand total is 52 books, which is pretty good for one-fourth of the year.

I’ve written 40 reviews so far this year, which explains why I’m still behind. I will definitely have to be more willing to skip reviewing some books.

This weekend, I was trying to participate in Bloggiesta, but alas! I was feeling really dizzy, so I slept late and took a long nap. I did get three reviews written, Frankenstein and a nonfiction book finished, posted this, posted a review, posted a Sonderquotes entry, made supper, and played a game of Dominion with my son. But now I need to get to bed and hope I’ll have a little more time for it tomorrow. Oh, I also tried to upgrade the blogs, but first I have to upgrade my data bases, and Yahoo (my host) kept giving an error when I tried to do that. I will try again some time this week (when I don’t mind the site being down for awhile) and send them an e-mail if I keep running into trouble. And I did attend today’s Twitter Party before I got too tired and took a nap. I have done a total of 4 comments, so I will have to get really busy tomorrow if I want to complete that mini-challenge.

But, remember: This is all for FUN! So no pressure! I will see what I can do!

Review of Wonder, by R. J. Palacio

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Wonder

by R. J. Palacio

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2012. 315 pages.
Starred Review.

August Pullman has never been to school before. Not because he has a disability, but because he’s always been recovering from one surgery or another to attempt to fix his face. It was always easier to homeschool him. So now he’s starting fifth grade at Beecher Prep Middle School, and he doesn’t quite know what to expect.

Auggie doesn’t actually tell us how he looks. He says that however you imagine it, he looks worse. He knows the looks people give him. He’s used to the averted eyes and people trying not to stare, but going to school makes it all new.

“Being at school was awful in the beginning. Every new class I had was like a new chance for kids to ‘not stare’ at me. They would sneak peeks at me from behind their notebooks or when they thought I wasn’t looking. They would take the longest way around me to avoid bumping into me in any way, like I had some germ they could catch, like my face was contagious.

“In the hallways, which were always crowded, my face would always surprise some unsuspecting kid who maybe hadn’t heard about me. The kid would make the sound you make when you hold your breath before going underwater, a little ‘uh!’ sound. This happened maybe four or five times a day for the first few weeks: on the stairs, in front of the lockers, in the library, Five hundred kids in a school: eventually every one of them was going to see my face at some time. And I knew after the first couple of days that word had gotten around about me, because every once in a while I’d catch a kid elbowing his friend as they passed me, or talking behind their hands as I walked by them. I can only imagine what they were saying about me. Actually, I prefer not to even try to imagine it.”

The book gets yet more interesting about 80 pages in, when the author starts giving us sections from other people’s perspectives. Auggie’s sister. Various friends and acquaintances. We see some of the same events through new eyes, but we also see new events unfold around Auggie.

When the book starts, Auggie seems very realistically overprotected. He’s always been homeschooled, and with his birth defects, his parents, especially his Mom, have always been protective of him. He still displays his love of all things Star Wars, and he cries easily. The growing up process is not easy, but we see Auggie make some strides.

This book covers the whole school year, with lots of interactions and events that happen because of Auggie. There’s plenty of Middle School humor; these feel like genuine fifth-graders, and there’s lots to make kids laugh. But the book also strikes deep, making the reader think: How much do I judge by appearances?

I think this book is going to be a contender for next year’s Newbery Medal.

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Bloggiesta!

Challenge, General 0

At the last minute, it’s turned out that I have a couple days I can give to this year’s Bloggiesta!

Bloggiesta is hosted at Suey’s blog It’s All About Books and Danielle’s blog There’s a Book. I found out about this year’s event from reading Chachic’s Book Nook.

It turned out nice. I do have the full weekend off. On Monday this week, I learned that my son had been accepted to Boston University. So I asked for next Monday and Tuesday off to do a crazy quick road trip up to Boston. Then he got the acceptance notice with a financial aid offer — and a list of tuition prices. He also got accepted to William & Mary. It was easy to notice that Boston University with financial aid would cost the same as William & Mary without financial aid. So I’m no longer interested in trying to get him more interested in Boston. He seems happy to think of going to William & Mary, so I’m happy too!

But — I did ask for those two days off. And when I realize that my son will be at home those two days (and the rest of the week at his Dad’s), it seems like a good idea to still take them off. Then I discovered that Bloggiesta is this weekend! So what that means… I can spend all day Saturday and most of Sunday doing Bloggiesta, and put off my weekend chores and errands for Monday and Tuesday. Sounds like a lovely way to put fun ahead of work!

Bloggiesta, for those who haven’t seen it before, is all about dedicating a weekend to work on your blog and add some new features and learn about blogging and network. Here are the things I’d like to do. (Note: My to-do lists are ALWAYS much longer than I can really do, but that makes me happy, so just ignore it!)

1. *** Catch up on writing reviews!!!

Note, today I read Chachic’s post about remembering that blogging is fun. Like her, I realized that any pressure I put on myself is coming from me, not from anybody else. When I started writing reviews, I worked half-time. Now I work full-time. But I began by reviewing everything I read, and I find myself wanting to keep that up. Sondy, I’m telling myself, that is unrealistic. So what if I make my goal to write reviews of the books piled up that I most enjoyed — and turn the rest back into the library! *gasp* I will see if I have the strength of will to do this at the end of this weekend. I actually have 23 books piled up here next to the computer that I have read but haven’t reviewed. That’s not counting picture books (some of which are longer nonfiction picture books). So I will try to alternate between longer books and picture books and see how many I can get reviewed — *and turn in the rest*!!! (I’m not at all sure I’ll really do this is why I’m giving it so much emphasis. If I start with the ones I enjoyed most, I can’t really go wrong, can I?)

2. Update the wordpress version of my blogs.
This one’s just a detail — usually. Sometimes it hits a bump and takes a long time. So I’ve been putting it off.

3. Attend a Twitter party! I just caught the end of the first #bloggiesta Twitter party. I will try to attend the one tomorrow from 4 to 6.

4. Post one post on each of my blogs each day, and one review.

I have four blogs, for different things. https://sonderbooks.com/blog/ is my main blog, and all the reviews are permanently posted on my website, sonderbooks.com The catch with having an html website and a blog is that it takes longer to update both and set up the links. This is why I’ve begun writing the reviews ahead, and then posting them later. My Sonderquotes blog is just to post good quotations from books I’m reading. My Sonderblessings blog is a personal blog to remind me to be thankful for all the good things in my life. I just count my blessings. And finally, my Sonderjourneys blog is supposed to be a link about places I’ve been and what’s going on in my life. But I stopped in the middle of my last vacation and last posted at Christmas, so I do need to give it some updates.

5. Do the commenting mini-challenge! That’s hosted by Book Journey. I’ll have to do some work to find 20 blogs to comment on. Definitely fun work!

6. Look over plug-ins for my blogs. That’s hosted at Jenni Elyse’s blog.

7. Add some more social media icons. That mini-challenge is posted at Adventures of 2.0.

8. Look at my subscription page and see if I can switch it to e-mail subscription. I’ve been meaning to do this since KidLitCon last September.

9. Finally, if I get the chance, look at the mini-challenge at Janicu’s Book Blog to link my blog to my neglected-no-longer(?) GoodReads account.

Whew! Did I mention that I know this list isn’t actually doable in only two days? And the big priority is to cut down on my to-be-reviewed stacks. So I will try to spend time writing reviews before I do any of the challenges.

But it does sound like a lot more fun than cleaning my house!

Revised to add: I found one more cool mini-challenge:
10. Stats Challenge at There’s a Book

Write on!

Review of The Ionia Sanction, by Gary Corby

Adventure, Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Starred Review 0

The Ionia Sanction

by Gary Corby

Minotaur Books, New York, 2011. 335 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a second mystery set during the dawn of democracy in Athens. In this one, our hero Nicolaos is sent to Ephesus in Ionia to retrieve a letter stolen from a murdered man.

This book also begins with a dead body. The first line is still pretty striking:

“I ran my finger along one foot of the corpse, then the other, making the body swing with a lazy, uncaring rhythm.”

The proxenos for Ephesus in Athens (kind of the opposite of an ambassador; an Athenian with an interest in Ephesus who handles Ephesian business) has been murdered. A letter he received from Ephesus has been stolen. Nico has to go to Ephesus with a mission to find out what was in the letter. The murdered man’s son would like his father cleared of treason while Nico’s at it. And the woman he loves, Diotima, is now a priestess at the Artemsion in Ephesus.

This is no cozy armchair mystery. There are some gritty details and some sexual misadventures, but they do seem to reflect life in that time period. I had known, for example, that impalement was used to kill people, but I’d never before understood what a truly horrible form of death it was. The author explains in his note at the end that crucifixion was introduced later as a more humane alternative to impalement.

Nicolaos travels to Ephesus and Magnesia, where he meets the famed hero of Athens, Themistocles, who was later exiled as a traitor and now enjoys the favor of the Great King of Persia. There’s another death, and Nico has to figure out how they all tie together, as well as fulfill his commission from Pericles in Athens.

The mystery is the sort where you don’t necessarily have the clues to solve the case yourself, but you do enjoy the adventure of watching Nicolaos come to the solution, with lots of help from Diotima.

All in all, despite some moments that made me wince, this book gives a fun story, an adventure with lots of historical details and a strong dose of humor. Nicolaos is something of a bumbler. The more pleased he is with himself, the more confident he is, the more you can be sure he’s going to fail.

Since Nico’s visiting Persia, he naturally looks at their lives with the eyes of an Athenian. This makes an entertaining way of telling the reader the things that were normal in Athens. For example, one character convinces Nico that wearing trousers is a more comfortable way to ride a horse.

Reading the extended author’s note at the end of the book made me all the more impressed with it. Based on the historical record, everything in this book could actually have happened. As in the first book, The Pericles Commission, the list of characters at the front highlights people who are actual historical figures, about half of the list. My favorite, of course, is still Nicolaos’ annoying little brother, Socrates, though he only shows up at the start of this book.

If you read these books, you’ll never think of ancient history the same way again. The Athenian proxenos for Ephesus is murdered. Nicolaos goes to Ephesus to investigate. Highjinks ensue. Now I know what really happened.

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

Go, Zombie, Go!

Events 0

Well, today the last of my three favorite books in School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books was knocked out.

To review, those three favorites, probably in this order, were: Okay for Now, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and Chime. Though I’m plenty fickle, because in her brilliant analysis, E. Lockhart got me completely behind her choice of Chime over Daughter.

Now, in a side note, didn’t I tell you that authors tend to pick the book least like the one they’d write themselves? So, once I thought about it, I wasn’t really surprised Maggie Stiefvater didn’t move Chime along. And let’s just say that I loved her book, The Scorpio Races, more than either Chime or Daughter of Smoke and Bone. But that’s the way these things go. The fun is not in having my own choices vindicated (They usually aren’t.); the fun is in reading brilliant authors talking about reading brilliant books.

Now, I said last week that I was pretty sure I would choose any book in the first half over any book in the second half.

But now that I know the books that have won, I actually think I would pick Drawing from Memory over Between Shades of Gray. DfM is growing on me as I read the judges’ comments, and it really is a brilliant book. And, let’s face it, Between Shades of Gray is much more depressing.

What’s that you say? Drawing from Memory is up against Life: An Exploded Diagram tomorrow and may not even make it to the Final Round? I am not even going to consider that possibility! It would be too wrong.

But all this is a moot point, and here’s why: I want the Zombie to win!

You see, every year since the second, the fun thing about SLJ’s BoB is that they hold an Undead Poll before the Battle begins. Fans vote for their favorite book to come back from the dead and compete in the final round, if it got knocked out sooner. This year, I voted for Okay for Now, but I would be very happy if any one of my top three favorites was the winner. I think my chances of one of these three being the winner are very good. — They were all three popular books.

And this is cool because now they don’t have to compete against each other, so I can wholeheartedly root for the Zombie to win.

Go, Zombie, Go!