Top Ten Tuesday

Sondy's Selections, Top Ten Tuesday 2

I decided I want to start a Kidlitosphere meme. Even if I don’t get anyone else to do it, this will be a fun thing to do for myself.

At my new job in the Office for Children, Provider Services, I was asked to use my Children’s Librarian experience and put together some suggested book lists for my team of Child Care Specialists — they work with Home Day Care Providers to give them tips and ideas about caring for children.

Well, needless to say, I loved that assignment. I made several “Sondy’s Selections” lists of ten books that I would choose for several different age groups. I’m proud of the lists — they have a nice mix of old classic titles and brand new books.

I decided I should definitely share the lists on my website. Then I got to thinking that it would be fun to find out what books other people will choose.

So, here’s my plan: Beginning next Tuesday, I’m going to post a blog entry where I list my top ten choices of books in a certain category. For anyone who wants to participate, you can post a link to your blog in the comments for that entry. I’m going to warn you of what category will happen next, so you can think about it ahead of time. At first, the categories will be based on age levels, but after I finish these lists for younger children that I’ve already written, I think I can come up with some fun, more off-the-wall categories. (And suggestions are welcome!)

So, next Tuesday, on October 12, 2010, I will post an entry of Sondy’s Selections for children from birth to two years old. This will be a list of the Top Ten books I would pick if I were starting a child care business with babies from zero to two years old. This will be a personal list, with my own preferences — that’s why I’d enjoy seeing lists from other people.

See you on Top Ten Tuesday for Baby Books!

Review of Suspect, by Kristin Wolden Nitz

Contemporary, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Suspect

by Kristin Wolden Nitz

Peachtree, Atlanta, 2010. 199 pages.
Starred Review

Okay, I’ll say right up front that I’m biased about this book. Kristin Wolden Nitz is my friend. She’s a fellow member of the Sisters of Royaumont. We met at a children’s writers’ retreat at an abbey outside Paris back in 1999, started an e-mail critique group, and were reunited at another retreat at the same abbey, Abbaye de Royaumont in 2005, with time together in Paris before and after. Kristin is an inspiration to me as a writer. She’s persistent and versatile.

I’ve given Kristin some critiques on some of her books before they were published, but not this one. Getting to pick up a copy of the Uncorrected Proof at ALA Annual Conference was the first I got to read it. I was very impressed and enjoyed it thoroughly.

When her Grandma Kay needs some help for the summer at the family bed-and-breakfast, 17-year-old Jen agrees to help out. Her dad warns her, though, that Grandma Kay has gotten a crazy idea into her head that Jen’s mother is dead.

Jen’s mother left fourteen years ago. She’s written to Jen over the years and sent her presents, but she’s never been back. Now it’s been a few years since Jen heard from her. Still, why would Grandma Kay now think she’s dead? Has she been watching too many murder mysteries?

Grandma Kay does have a thing for mysteries. Every year she hosts a mystery weekend at the bed-and-breakfast for a competitive group of would-be sleuths. This year, Jen has an uncomfortable feeling that Grandma Kay is modeling the mystery after Jen’s mother’s disappearance. And Jen gets to play the role of the victim.

What’s more, if Jen’s mother was killed, who killed her? Was it one of the people Jen has known and loved all her life, one of the people assembled for the murder mystery weekend?

On top of everything else, Jen’s boyfriend just broke up with her, and she’s finding herself feeling strange things when she’s around Mark, her “uncousin” — like family, a friend since childhood, but not actually related to her.

It all adds up to an excellent “cozy” mystery. You’ve got believable romance, an intriguing and well-plotted mystery, and characters you like and enjoy.

There aren’t so many mysteries out there with teenage characters. This one takes a capable teenage girl and casts her in the middle of an intensely personal mystery she’d rather not be part of. Will she be the detective, or the victim?

This book will keep you turning the pages and leave you with a satisfied smile at the end.

Source: An Uncorrected Proof picked up at ALA.

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Fairfax County Public Library Budget Cuts

Library Links 0

Well, I just got back from Fairfax County’s budget forum, and I’m so discouraged I want to cry. I will try expressing some of my thoughts here, instead.

Now, I did get a chance to speak up for libraries — to say that the cuts they made in the last two years to the library system were totally unacceptable, bad for Fairfax County, and should be restored. But I felt like people just thought I was biased because I’d been RIF’d from the library. (For those who are lucky enough not to have experience with the acronym RIF, it stands for “Reduction in Force.” Back in June, I was cut from my position as a Youth Services Manager in a community library and placed in another county agency at the same paygrade as a Management Analyst I.)

Actually, I’m luckier than the people who did not get RIF’d — I have much, much better hours than people who still work for the library. They have to work until 9:00 pm two nights every week, and they have to work every other Saturday, and some every other Sunday. They have trouble scheduling vacations because staffing is so low, and they feel guilty if they’re too sick to work. What’s more, my new job is much, much less challenging, does not require a Master’s degree (I have two), and doesn’t supervise anyone or have to set up a program schedule or have to serve the public or have to make decisions about weeding the collection. In other words, it’s something of a vacation from stress. (And I hope to get back soon — I hear that before long a Librarian I will retire.)

But I feel terrible about the library cuts because it is so terribly bad for the people of Fairfax County.

The worst part is that the people who are hurt most by the cuts are exactly the people who don’t have much of a political voice — the unemployed, children from families without internet access, the homeless, college students, home schooled families, parents of young children, immigrants who need to learn English, people who want to interact with the government but don’t have computers, and so many more. These people, the ones hurt worst, are exactly the sort of people who don’t tend to speak up in the political process. So that was why I felt the need to go to the budget forum and say my piece, since I do have a voice.

It’s frustrating. The county says that two of its top three priorities are Education and Human Services. Yet libraries serve both of those areas in a very cost-effective way, yet they are put in the category of “culture” and are therefore low priority. That’s nonsense! Libraries are all about education, and for EVERYONE, not just the children who use the public school system.

Though it also supports the public school system by giving students the resources to get their homework done and supporting their reading skills during the summer.

What’s more, libraries are one of the only places where you can get help without having to apply for it. This is help that preserves your dignity. Computers to apply for jobs. Help to apply for jobs. Research materials for classes. Consumer information. Programs that build early literacy and future success for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. Not to mention free books!

Libraries are the one resource that really really helps the poor — but also helps the rich! Of course, the downside to that is that some rich people think that since it would be no hardship for them to go without the library, it’s also no hardship for anyone else. How wrong they are!

I wonder about our homeless regulars at my former library — what are they doing now that the library is open so much fewer hours. In the library, they could retain their dignity and use the computers and books like any other customer.

And every single day, even at a smallish branch, we got people using the internet to look for jobs and people asking for books to learn English. Not to mention the regular flow of children needing help with finding materials for a school assignment. I understand that the parents of babies are already asking why the library is not doing programs for them every week, but instead once a month, if that.

It’s because of BUDGET CUTS, folks!

When you’ve cut the number of librarians down to barely enough to keep the library open, you just can’t do as many programs. No more on Saturdays, which was great for working parents. For my former library, it’s down to the bare minimum.

What really added insult to injury was the news a couple weeks ago that the Board of Supervisors had carryover money — more money than had been anticipated — and they decided to put $24.9 million into a “rainy day fund against future budget shortfalls.”

What’s insulting about that was that this amount is EIGHT TIMES the amount they cut from the library system last year, $2.67 million. So it makes it look like all our sacrifices — the rotten hours, closing the doors on customers who need us — didn’t actually make any difference. In fact, that was a TINY, miniscule amount in terms of the overall budget — less than a tenth of one percent. But in the last two years, they have cut more than 30% from the library’s budget, and that has devastated the library system.

So, the one bright spot in the meeting tonight was when the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors was saying that the cuts they’ve already made are sustainable and long-term — but she specifically mentioned the cuts in library hours as an exception to that.

But otherwise, though I got to say my piece, I felt that those there simply don’t realize how vital libraries are to the poorer people of Fairfax County. That with a miniscule investment of money in terms of the big picture, we can restore the library funding and make a huge difference, for the better, in so many people’s lives.

Support education and human services in Fairfax County — Restore Library Funding!!!

“Cutting libraries in a recession is like cutting hospitals in a plague.” — Eleanor Crumblehulme

So you know it’s not just me, here are a few links about the value of libraries:

1) Libraries help the economy:
Many links on the economic value of public libraries:
http://stephenslighthouse.com/2010/04/06/the-value-of-public-libraries/

2) Libraries support education:
The Importance of Summer Reading: Public Library Summer Reading Programs and Learning
http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/summer/brief01.pdf

3) Libraries keep the gap between the information “haves” and “have nots” from getting too much wider:
Opportunity for All: How the American Public Benefits from Internet Access at U.S. Libraries
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/learning/Pages/us-libraries-report-opportunity-for-all.aspx

4) The important role of libraries in a democracy:
http://thoughtsofawannabelibrarian.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/public-libraries-and-democracy/

http://stephenslighthouse.com/2010/08/22/5203/

http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla66/papers/101-122e.htm

I could go on, but I should probably stop. If any of my readers is a Fairfax County resident, please send an e-mail to your member of the Board of Supervisors: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/government/board/

Also be sure to comment on the budget forum page: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/budgetinput/

Support Education and Human Services! Restore Library Funding!

Note: The opinions expressed here are entirely my own and do not in any way reflect the opinions of my employer.

Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards

Events 0

For quite awhile now, I’ve been looking forward to traveling to Boston this weekend. I am a dedicated subscriber to Horn Book Magazine, and have been for years. They announced that on October 2nd they’d be having a Colloquium — The Horn Book at Simmons — with the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards the night before.

After I had such a fabulous time at the Newbery/Caldecott Banquet, I knew I had to go to this. For one thing, Rebecca Stead, the winner of the Newbery Medal, author of the brilliant When You Reach Me, was also the winner of the BGHB Award for Fiction. She gave a wonderful speech at the Newbery Banquet, and I got to meet her a couple times and she was so nice. I wanted to hear her speak some more.

But what clinched it for me was that Megan Whalen Turner was going to be speaking. She is the author of what I have to call my favorite series — the books about Eugenides, The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and this year’s A Conspiracy of Kings (which won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor for Fiction).

Another nice thing was that as long as I’m not working at the library, it’s easy to get weekends off. So I took today (Friday) off and my plan was to take the 11:50 flight to Boston, settle in to my hotel, and maybe even take a leisurely, lovely walk through Boston’s parks to the Horn Book-Boston Globe Awards from 5:30 to 7:30.

Well, yesterday the DC area had a ferocious rainstorm – heavy rain, with flooding. Unfortunately, that same storm decided to travel to Boston today, too. Our flight was delayed SIX HOURS. Ironically, if I had booked the 2:00 flight, I would have made it on time. But first, my flight was delayed due to weather in Boston. Then it was delayed much longer because of a mechanical problem with the air conditioning. Since that’s linked to the engine, they had to test the engine at full strength on the runway, which ended up taking hours. After that was finally resolved, they told us that the first officer wasn’t able to fly (He had to get home to a sick family member in Seattle.), and they had to find a substitute. When they found a sub, they boarded us on the plane – and then we learned that Boston wasn’t accepting flights!

In Boston I wish I wish that I had stopped at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant at the airport. But it was 7:00, and I was still toying with the idea of trying to get to the end of the awards. But by the time I took the shuttle to the subway, it was 7:30. The subway was very easy and not scary at all. (I had worried a little about taking the subway in a strange city downtown at night.) Then I walked only a couple blocks in the dark to the hotel, which also wasn’t scary because anyone out in that rain was in a hurry to get inside. My umbrella got blown inside out a couple times. I arrived at my hotel, quite soaked, at 8:00 pm. By that time, I was NOT going to set foot outside the hotel again. I even had pop-tarts from the vending machine for supper.

So, with all that waiting time, I did a lot of tweeting and reading tweets. My phone isn’t great for long messages, and I don’t like its e-mail interface, and I can’t write blog posts on it — but it’s great for tweeting. I also saw all that waiting time as a gift of reading time, so I got started rereading A Conspiracy of Kings, which I thoroughly enjoyed. (I brought it because I hope to get it signed.) That book is awesome! Like all of Megan Whalen Turner’s books, it’s even better when you read it again.

I admit, the first time I read it, I was a tiny bit disappointed — because she has set the bar so very high, and the surprise at the end wasn’t as big as the surprises in some of the earlier books. However, reading it a second time, knowing what to expect, I can really appreciate the brilliant way she develops Sophos’ character and how she gives the reader a sense of the huge choices he is facing.

In all of the books, we see that it’s not easy ruling a country. And Sophos, the heir of Sounis, must decide if he wants that kind of responsibility, and what he’s willing to do to get it. And there’s also the ever-present threat of the Medes.

Anyway, any day where I can spend several hours reading one of Megan Whalen Turner’s books is a good one! I only wish I could have landed in time to see her at the awards tonight — but the weather is supposed to be clear tomorrow, so I will not miss it!

Speak Up!

Book Links 0

Laurie Halse Anderson wrote an incredible book, Speak, about a girl so traumatized about something that happened at a high school party, she no longer speaks. The book is amazingly well-crafted. All the people, parents, teachers, and friends, are completely oblivious to what she’s going through. The book is absolutely powerful.

Recently, this book was ludicrously condemned as “soft pornography.”

School Library Journal posted an interview with Laurie Halse Anderson.

Liz Burns at A Chair, a Fire, and a Tea Cozy, has recently posted some thoughtful and excellent posts in reaction. First, about the issue of condemning books in reviews. Second, about what we are saying about other books when we call certain books “clean.”

As a librarian, I am strongly against censorship. As a conservative Christian, I understand where some parents are coming from, but I strongly believe that if a child isn’t ready for it, he or she won’t be interested. And there are difficult issues out there in the world. Isn’t reading a book a better way for your child to deal with them before they actually have to face them? I also strongly believe that there’s no better way to build empathy into a person than to get them to read — They can learn to see the perspective of both the villain and the victim. But if you stick to material that offends no one (Does such material exist?), it won’t have much impact.

Library of Congress Photos

Library Links 0

The Library of Congress has some amazing archival images posted online.

This set is of color photos from the 1930s and 1940s.

These are amazing to browse through. As I look at them, it dawns on me that even though, intellectually, I know that the world was the same then as now, in my heart it’s almost as if I believe Calvin’s Dad and think that everything used to be black and white.

Actually, this recently struck me about some other photos — when a friend posted pictures from his trip to Dachau, it struck me that I wasn’t used to thinking of Concentration Camps in anything but black and white. It seems to be the same with old pictures. You mean the world was actually in color then?

Blogging and the Kidlitosphere

General 0

Today I got a big disappointment. I had applied to be a judge or panelist for the Cybil Awards. They’ve been announcing the selectees since last Friday, and finally today posted the panels I had most wanted to be part of.

During the week, I’d really gotten my hopes up. I love blogging, and love fantasy and science fiction and kids’ books, and I’ve written these reviews since 2000 — probably longer than anyone else in the Kidlitosphere.

Is that, perhaps, the problem?

I’m not well-known in the Kidlitosphere. Probably partly because I don’t exclusively review children’s books. But I don’t think that’s the whole answer.

I don’t think I’ve really adapted with the times. I started Sonderbooks as an e-mail newsletter, with nearly weekly posts of the books I’d read that week, trying to have a balance of genres in each issue. Before long, I made it into a website. But I still posted in “issues,” with links between reviews for each issue but also a page for each genre.

Eventually, I decided it would be good to make it a blog. If I’d heard of blogs and an easy blog tool in 2000, that would have been how I made Sonderbooks in the first place.

But I’ve kept the Sonderbooks blog mainly to book reviews. I decided to post more personal things and pictures on my Sonderjourneys blog, quotations that uplift me on Sonderquotes, and personal reminders to be grateful on Sonderblessings.

Now, mind you, on Facebook, I’ve been posting articles about budget cuts to libraries, the value of reading, great things about authors. What if I started posting some of those things on my blog? I have so many opinions about libraries, reading, reading with kids, writing, and so many other things. I’ve been to author talks this week, and have some exciting book-related events coming up. I’ve been posting about ALA, but I did it on Sonderjourneys.

Mind you, I’m also way behind on posting reviews. I have a stack of 14 books here that I really really want to get reviewed, and I have 18 reviews which I have written, but haven’t yet posted. Or downloaded the cover picture or gotten the ISBN or made the links on www.sonderbooks.com.

I’d also like to get going with my Twitter account. I made an account, but I’ve never posted anything. That could be a good way to consolidate my different blogs and my Facebook links and posts.

But having so much I want to do is making me fall into the Perfectionist’s trap of Not Doing Anything.

So, not getting chosen for the Cybils is making me re-evaluate. I want to be a valued part of the Kidlitosphere, without losing the people who enjoy my other reviews.

Therefore, I’m making a resolution: I will post more on this blog, not confining it just to reviews. Anything related to books and authors and libraries and writing and learning — I’ll post those links and thoughts here. When I go to the National Book Festival this weekend, I’ll post about it here. When I go to the Horn Book Colloquium the weekend after next, I’ll post about it here.

I’ll still keep posts about my spiritual journey and my divorce and pictures of hiking and old pictures of castles over on Sonderjourneys. Actually, that gives me an idea. I’ve been posting old pictures on Facebook, in a cycle of Cute Pictures, Castle Pictures, The Good Ol’ Days, and Pretty Pictures. I’ve been scanning in pictures from our ten years in Europe, and there are some stunning ones. The Good Ol’ Days and Cute Pictures are about people, so Facebook is a good place for them. But it might be fun to post the Castle Pictures and Pretty Pictures on Sonderjourneys, since it relates to my travels. I could make each one a weekly feature.

I’ll also try to start using Tags. I’ve got categories, but I haven’t really been using tags. Time to get more adept at this social media!

So, my faithful readers, any ideas about other changes I should make?

Review of The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon, by David Almond

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Delightfully Silly, Fantasy 0

The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon

by David Almond
illustrated by Polly Dunbar

Candlewick Press, 2010. 117 pages.

Here’s a whimsical look at a boy with big ideas and the amazing things he finds when he’s willing to act on them.

Paul lives underground in a basement flat at the bottom of a great apartment block. One day, he decides to go and touch the sky.

On his way up the apartment building’s steps, he meets a variety of quirky characters, one of whom shows him the elevator. On the very top floor lives Mabel, the most interesting character of them all. Or is she Molly, Mabel’s identical twin sister, looking after Mabel’s apartment while Mabel is on holiday in Barbados?

Paul’s parents find Paul on the top floor, and Molly shows all of them a new way to look at the world. Paul admits that he is a person who has strange ideas, and all of them celebrate his ideas. They go on a strange adventure to visit Molly’s very shy brother, and eventually all the people in the apartment building help Paul to fulfill his wish of climbing to the moon.

This is a book of delightful nonsense, where logical things are stood on their heads. It celebrates strange ideas and self-belief and adventure and family and dreams coming true and poodles who fly. The illustrations are plentiful and full of fun. I have a feeling that children will “get” this book even better than imaginative adults.

This book is a quick read, perfect for a child who’s beginning to read chapter books, hopefully read when they are still young enough to freely and happily suspend disbelief. Anything is possible!

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/boy_who_climbed_into_the_moon.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 Ascendant, by Diana Peterfreund

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Ascendant

by Diana Peterfreund

HarperTeen, 2010. 392 pages.
Starred Review

Wow. I thought Diana Peterfreund’s first book about killer unicorns, Rampant was outstanding. But its sequel, Ascendant, is simply awesome. I just spent my Saturday reading it, and couldn’t tear myself away.

In the first book, things are fairly straightforward. Astrid Llewelyn learns that her crazy mother was right and unicorns are, in fact, bloodthirsty killers, and their family has magical powers for hunting them down and subduing them. She goes to Rome and trains with other girls they’ve found, virgin descendants of families from the ancient Order of the Lioness. They learn to hunt together and defeat a conspiracy against them. Along the way, she finds Giovanni, an Italian-American spending the summer in Rome, who loves her as she is.

In the second book, we’ve got the repercussions of this magical scenario. First, Giovanni goes back to college in America so she has to deal with a long-distance relationship. Now the world knows about the Reemergence of unicorns, and Astrid’s mother is capitalizing on their interest. The girls of the Order are still trying to kill any unicorns they can find, but their magic is growing. The hunters can read the unicorns’ thoughts, and Astrid doesn’t like killing something whose thoughts she can read — but her powers are superhuman when unicorns are around. And then, what about school? She wanted to be a doctor, but now she’s a high school dropout.

Meanwhile, Astrid’s cousin Philippa is trying to get unicorns worldwide protection as an endangered species. Astrid tries to reconcile those ideas with the work they are doing. After all, unicorns are attracted to hunters, so they need to train more hunters, or all the people around the untrained hunters will be in danger.

Then there’s the matter of the Remedy — the ancient cure that their ancestors knew how to make that would heal any wound and purify any poison. It works like the unicorns themselves heal when wounded, and like the hunters heal from stabbings by unicorn horns. Surely it can’t be bad for scientists to perform tests on any unicorns they can, in order to try to produce the remedy and save thousands? Can it?

That’s a basic idea of the themes and questions of the book — but the working out of them is much more complex. The plotting is very intricate, and a lot of things tie together in ways we don’t expect. The story is wonderfully well-told, and there are no easy answers. I hope with all my heart that Diana Peterfreund is working on a sequel, because the book doesn’t leave Astrid in a very good situation at all. I’m pretty confident there must be a third book coming, because that’s not the only thing that’s left unresolved. Though the story does end at a satisfying place, I want to learn that things get better for several of the hunters — and the unicorns.

Meanwhile, this book makes a terrific read. A story of characters who find out that saving the world isn’t as simple as it used to be.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/ascendant.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 uncorrected proof I got at ALA Annual Conference and had signed by the author.