Top 100 Chapter Books Poll – Again!

Children's Fiction Review, Classics, General, Sondy's Selections, Top Ten Tuesday 0

As I said last night, Betsy Bird, who writes School Library Journal’s Fuse #8 blog, is doing another Top 100 Chapter Books Poll. You have two more days to get in your votes! Anyone who loves books, do this soon! You’ll be so glad you did!

I had a terrible time limiting my list of Chapter Books to only ten. In fact, the only way I could do it at all was to take out some of my absolute favorites because part of what I love about them is the romance. Come to think of it, ALL of these choices, I read at one time or another to one or both of my boys (or my husband did). So I can safely say that all of these books are definitely children’s books. Though I can also firmly say that there are adults who will love them, too. And I’m afraid I only read half of them as a child myself.

I definitely still keep wavering with the final choices. In fact, let’s see if I make any last-minute changes as I post this list!

The Books I Believe are the Top Ten Chapter Books of All Time:

1. Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery

I mentioned last night that I would have loved to include Emily of New Moon. But this is right. Anne is classic. Anne is the heroine who started it all. I first read this book in 10th grade, and I found it a breath of fresh air after all the adult books I’d been reading. Then, as I was in high school and college, they slowly came out with more and more of L. M. Montgomery’s books. I also own all the volumes of her journals and everything I could get my hands on of hers. My absolute favorite is The Blue Castle, but it’s actually a book for adults. Anyway, Anne Shirley is a character who comes alive.

2. Momo, by Michael Ende

I know this one won’t make the list, but I can’t let it go unrecognized. This was the first book I ordered from Book-of-the-Month Club, and it was so good, I blame it for all the other books I ended up ordering. When I moved to Germany, my first purchase was a copy of this book in the original language (German). Momo is a little girl with a gift for listening. So when gray men come and steal people’s time by convincing them to save it, Momo is the only one who can see them, because she really listens to them. This book is mythic in scope.

3. Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne

I tell the whole story of how much I love this book in my review. Let’s just say that I remember my mother reading it to me. Then I remember reading it to my little brothers and sisters. Then, in college, I learned that one of the most fun things to do was read with a group of friends, where different people read the different voices. And finally, I got to read it to my sons, or together with my sons. Oh, and I’ve read it in German!

One of the funny things is that it reads on different levels. I remember as a child just taking the things said as perfectly reasonable and matter-of-fact that now I think are hilarious. This book is a work of genius.

I also have to mention that I brainwashed both my sons into loving these characters so that the very first characters they pretended to be were ones from Winnie-the-Pooh. In fact, my son learned early to write his own name — “P-O-O-H.” (When he called me in the night with the call, “Pi–iglet!”, I thought he’d gone too far.)

Now, to be honest, The House at Pooh Corner is a little better, since it includes Tigger. However, last time I voted for The World of Pooh in order to include both and my vote was totally wasted. I’m sure everyone who reads the list will be thinking of ALL the Pooh stories.

4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis

I remember at my vast old age in 7th grade sadly concluding that I was too old for the Narnia books now. (I had already read them many times.) Then I took them up again in college and found new riches. I know I will never “outgrow” them again. Of course, it does help that I’m a Christian, and love the insights about God found in Lewis’s writings. But the magic of the stories works fully, even without that. (And I appreciate that part much more as an adult than I did as a kid.)

As I said in my review, no kid who reads this book will ever look at a closet door the same way again.

5. The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien

I remember reading this book on the way to school and having to stop right when Bilbo was in the tunnel leading to the dragon’s lair. That was excruciating!

6. The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner

When we were reading to both our kids together, my older son said we had to read this book next. I was skeptical, but by the time I finished, I was a complete fan. And it grows on me with each rereading — because I notice more clever things each time. The second book, The Queen of Attolia would be near the top of my YA list.

7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling

Oh, our family got hours and hours and hours of enjoyment out of these books. We read all of the first five out loud as a family, with no reading ahead. (Or as little reading ahead as we could stand.) We read books #3 and #4 on family vacations, and ended up putting off a visit to Neuschwanstein Castle because we just had to finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

8. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle

This book isn’t perfect, but how it endures. I didn’t read this until I was in college. When I did, I was so grateful to the person who told me about it.

9. Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren

This book has such childlike exuberance. Pippi is someone we’d talk about as if we knew her. (“And she sleeps with her feet on the pillow!”) This is a child-sized tall tale.

10. Half Magic, by Edward Eager

My favorite of his is Seven Day Magic, but Half Magic is more well-known, the first one I read, and a classic concept.

Oh, so do I really have to leave out so many? I wanted to include Little Britches, by Ralph Moody, Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, and Black Beauty, by Anna Sewall. I hope other people include them! And the ones I decided were YA, but that I love, love, love are The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley, The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale, and The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare.

I am helping Betsy compile the results, but I am sure if I changed some answers, I’d get found out, and she would withdraw the privilege. So I will be good. Sigh.

The results will be better the more people send in their lists! So get moving on that! And I do really enjoy your comments. What would be on your list?

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.

Review of Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

Wonderstruck

A Novel in Words and Pictures

by Brian Selznick

Scholastic Press, New York, 2011. 637 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Battle of the Kids’ Books Contender

Brian Selznick did something amazing with The Invention of Hugo Cabret, telling half the story with pictures. The pictures were so excellent, he won the Caldecott Medal for his work.

Now, with Wonderstruck, Brian Selznick has created another work that will fill readers with wonder. The form is very similar to Hugo Cabret, but the book has a logic and beauty of its own. In both books, the writing didn’t draw me in, didn’t make me feel for the characters as much as I wanted to. However, Wonderstruck pulled me in anyway with the characters. Where, to me personally, Hugo Cabret felt like a clever puzzle, Wonderstruck is a brilliant puzzle wrapped up in a heart-warming story and fascinating historical details.

In Hugo Cabret, the detailed pictures evoked the silent films the story was about. In Wonderstruck, we’ve got two separate stories going on. The written narrative is set in 1977, beginning in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota, and the story told through the pictures is set in 1927, beginning in Hoboken, New Jersey. The story in 1927 is about a deaf girl, so silent pictures, like the silent movies she loves, are appropriate for her story. The two stories converge in New York City at the end of the book.

The author’s Acknowledgements at the end reveal the vast amount of research he did and his incredible attention to historical detail. This book is an amazing work of art in the way he wove together words and pictures, but also two separate stories into one. He even makes the pacing the same as he tells the stories. When one child is running away, so does the other. When one child is discovering things, so does the other.

I do love having Brian Selznick’s books there to offer to children. They look like a big, daunting book — but with all the pictures, can be read quite quickly. So even reluctant readers can read an “Award Winner” and thoroughly enjoy it.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/wonderstruck.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 ALA Annual Conference.

Review of The Grand Plan to Fix Everything, by Uma Krishnaswami

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

The Grand Plan to Fix Everything

by Uma Krishnaswami
illustrated by Abigail Halpin

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York, 2011. 266 pages.
Starred Review

This is a completely fun book about a girl whose parents pick up and move to India for two years, leaving their home in Maryland behind — and Dini’s best friend, Maddie.

Dini hopes maybe, just maybe, it can work out for the best if she can meet the Bollywood film star, Dolly Singh.

“Dini is a Dolly fan. She has been forever, from the time she discovered that Dolly’s first movie, in which she was just a kid, came out the day — the very day! — that Dini was born. You can’t be more closely connected than that.”

Now, I should say that I am horribly prejudiced against books written in present tense. I’m not sure why, but it really bugs me. However, I read this one anyway, since it’s a contestant in School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books. And I have to admit that it grew on me so much that most of the time I didn’t even notice the tense. Also going for it were Abigail Halpin’s illustrations. She illustrated Penny Dreadful, by Laurel Snyder, and I love the feel her illustrations give a book — telling you correctly that this is a nice, light-hearted, solid story with lots of fun.

This book did have lots of coincidences, but it felt right. The whole book is a tribute to Bollywood films, and I have a feeling (I don’t actually know) that the coincidences may have made the book more like a Bollywood film, where everything works out happily in the end. There’s even a dance number!

This is a great solid and entertaining middle grade story. I enjoyed reading it, and hope I can find some library members to recommend it to, because I think there are lots of kids who would enjoy it.

KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/grand_plan.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 for free on the last day of ALA Midwinter Meeting.

Review of Dead End in Norvelt, by Jack Gantos

Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

Dead End in Norvelt

by Jack Gantos

Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, 2011. 341 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Newbery Medal

It’s refreshing to read a book set in the Sixties that is not about the Cuban Missile Crisis or Vietnam! This book is about a kid’s strange and interesting summer. It’s surprising how much fun our hero Jack Gantos has, considering that he’s grounded the whole summer. Or at least, we readers have fun reading about it.

The most interesting things happen because Jack is asked to help his neighbor, the ancient Miss Volker. Miss Volker has terrible arthritis, so she needs Jack’s help to type up obituaries for the original residents of Norvelt, who seem to all be dying quickly this summer. Miss Volker tacks on a surprisingly interesting history to each obituary, and she knows relevant details about each resident.

On top of that, we’ve got Jack driving Miss Volker’s car around town. His Dad building an airplane and a runway. His Mom monitoring his behavior. His best friend, the daughter of the funeral parlor owner, teasing him about his fear of dead bodies. And then there’s Jack’s nose:

“How could I forget? I was a nosebleeder. The moment something startled me or whenever I got overexcited or spooked about any little thing blood would spray out of my nose holes like dragon flames.”

There’s a lot of death in Dead End in Norvelt, including a Hell’s Angel who gets hit by a truck in town. But Jack Gantos the author manages to keep things funny. He gives us a great yarn about a kid just trying to stay out of trouble, and managing to learn lots along the way.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/dead_end_in_norvelt.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 Okay for Now Audiobook

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Okay for Now

by Gary D. Schmidt
read by Lincoln Hoppe

Random House, Listening Library, 2011. 9 hours 30 minutes on 8 compact discs.
Starred Review
2012 Odyssey Honor Winner
2011 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 Audio Rereads

From the time I read Okay for Now early in 2011, I was hoping it would win the 2012 Newbery Medal. However, I was in several discussions about the book, and found that many others didn’t like the ending and thought too much was thrown into the book at the end and felt it lost believability. Personally, I thought the book completely overcame any flaws, but I feared it wasn’t such a shoo-in for the award as I had hoped.

One of the discussions was at the Morris Seminar, which is a training for award committees. I decided to reread the book in audio form.

Listening to this production of Okay for Now made me fall in love with the book all over again. A key characteristic of the book is the voice of the narrator, Doug Swietek, and reader Lincoln Hoppe gets his voice just right. One of the things I like about the book are the repeated words that are used throughout the book, and Mr. Hoppe read them in a way that you notice the subtle differences in the ways the words are used. For example, when Doug says “Terrific” at the start, it’s always sarcastic. But he uses the word at the end to mean genuinely terrific. There are several other repetitions like that, and Lincoln Hoppe nails them all.

Another thing listening to the audio version pointed out to me was the structure of the book. There are eight CDs, and the fourth CD is full of dramatic turning points. I didn’t notice when I was barreling through reading it to myself, but right in the middle the plot makes some important turns.

So I was indeed disappointed that Okay for Now didn’t get any Newbery Honor, but I was delighted when the audio production won an Odyssey Honor. (The Odyssey awards are for children’s and young adult audiobooks.) The Odyssey Awards do not have to worry about believability of plot. They simply focus on the quality of the production. This one is excellent.

I’ve already talked two of my co-workers into listening to this audiobook. The one catch is that you won’t see the reproductions of the Audubon prints Doug works on. But you will pay much more attention to the descriptions of the birds.

Happy Listening.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/okay_for_now_audio.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 Clementine and the Family Meeting, by Sara Pennypacker

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Clementine and the Family Meeting

by Sara Pennypacker
pictures by Marla Frazee

Disney Hyperion Books, New York, 2011. 162 pages.
Starred Review
2011 Sonderbooks Stand-out: Children’s Fiction #7

Hooray! Another book about Clementine! This is now the fifth book about the irrepressible third grader, her family and her friends and the concerns of her life. Clementine’s life is not boring for a second, but all the events seem completely true to a third-grader’s perspective.

The book begins, as the others, with Marla Frazee’s wonderful pictures. We see Clementine, bundled up on the bus, looking droopy and worried. Here’s how the book begins:

“The very first thing Margaret said when she sat down next to me on the bus Monday morning was that I looked terrible. ‘You have droopy eyebags and a pasty complexion. Absolutely no glow. What’s the matter?’

“‘I’m having a nervous breakdown,’ I told her. ‘Our FAMILY MEETING! sign is up, and I have to wait until tonight to find out if I’m in trouble.’

“‘Of course you’re in trouble,’ Margaret said. ‘Probably something really big. Bright pink blush and a sparkly eye shadow is what I recommend.'”

Meanwhile, Clementine has to get through the day. Here’s a part I liked very much:

“I opened my backpack and pulled out my IMPORTANT PAPERS folder and found a good surprise: the science fair project report Waylon and I had written was still in there! I’m supposed to keep it until the end of the project, and every day that it’s still in my backpack feels like a miracle.

“As I started reading over the report, I calmed down. This is because lately I really like science class.

“I didn’t always. In the beginning, science class was a big disappointment, let me tell you.

“On the first day of third grade, Mrs. Resnick, the science teacher, had started talking about what a great year it was going to be.

“I looked around the science room.

“No monkeys with funnel hats and electrodes. No alien pods leaking green slime. No human heads sitting on platters under glass jars talking to each other, like I’d seen in a movie once, and don’t bother telling my parents about it because I was grounded for a week already and so was Uncle Frank, who brought me to the movie.

“No smoking test tubes, no sizzling magnetic rays, no rocket launch controls. Just some posters on the walls and a bunch of tall tables with sinks, as if all you would do in a room like this was wash your hands. Margaret had told me she liked science class, and now I knew why: Margaret says ‘Let’s go wash our hands’ the way other people say ‘Let’s go to a party and eat cake!’

“‘Does anyone have any questions?’ Mrs. Resnick had asked that first day.

“I sure did. I wanted to ask, ‘You call this a science room?’ But instead, I just said, ‘Excuse me, I think there’s been a mistake,’ in my most polite voice.

“‘A mistake?’ Mrs. Resnick asked.

“‘Right,’ I said. ‘I’m in the wrong science room.’

“‘The wrong science room?’ she repeated.

“I nodded. ‘I want the one with the invisibility chamber and mind-control buttons and mutant brains spattered on the ceiling. The one with experiments.’

“‘I want that one, too,’ Waylon said. I gave him a big smile.”

Most of the developments in this book happen because of the results of the Family Meeting, so I’ll try to refrain from repeating more good bits.

As always, reading about Clementine simply makes me smile. This week I had the pleasure of recommending the Clementine series to a third grade girl, and I hope she’s made another friend.

Buy from Amazon.com

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

Other Books from 2011

Animal Characters, Biography, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Nonfiction Review 0

I currently have 43 reviews I’ve written that are waiting to be posted, a stack of books waiting for me to review them, and more books I’ve read in 2012 now piling up. I began Sonderbooks when I was working half-time, and I reviewed everything I read (at least everything I enjoyed). I hate it when I can’t keep that up! However, now I’m working full-time, and last July, I had a stroke. Since then, I need more sleep than I did before. I also had more reading time, so I simply got farther behind. Worse, I still have not recovered. Last Thursday, I had a Transient Ischemic Attack (a mini-stroke) lasting only three seconds. But it means the Coumadin I’m taking is not effectively keeping me from strokes, and what’s more, now I feel awful and only lasted a half-day at work today. I’m up writing this in hopes it will make me tired enough to get some sleep when I go to bed.

Anyway, enough complaining! All that is to say that I read some great books that are sitting here waiting and waiting to be reviewed. I’m going to list them now with brief reviews, because they deserve attention and readers. But in the interests of catching up, I’m not going to give them their own pages on Sonderbooks. (Sigh.) I’ll go until my laundry’s done and see how far that takes me.

The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, by Jeanne Birdsall

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2011. 295 pages.

These first two books, I grant you, I read without having read the books that came before them. I read them anyway, because they were on the Heavy Medal blog’s Mock Newbery Shortlist. This book comes after The Penderwicks and The Penderwicks on Gardam Street.

Quite some time ago, I tried to listen to Penderwicks on audio and got several chapters in, but finally decided I simply couldn’t stand listening to the grandmotherly voice of the reader. Reading The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, at first I heard that same voice in my head and was very put off, but as I persevered, I got more into the story.

The basic story is the classic one of four sisters having fun together. In this book, the oldest sister, Rosalind, is having vacation separate from the younger three. So Skye is concerned about being the OAP (oldest available Penderwick). As someone from a big family, that bothered me a bit that one of the children should feel so responsible for her younger siblings. Parents, that is your job! Though their Dad is going on his honeymoon, so he’s not there, but they are staying with an aunt, for goodness’ sake!

However, that, too, I was able to get past. Once I settled in and enjoyed it, it was a lovely vacation story about three sisters having vacation adventures with their friend, a boy, and new friends they met in Maine. I have to admit I would have loved to read these books with my kids — if I had had daughters instead of sons. This is a nice solid middle grade story, but I do think better for girls than boys.

The Trouble with May Amelia, by Jennifer L. Holm

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York, 2011. 204 pages.

The Trouble with May Amelia is a sequel to Newbery-Honor-winning Our Only May Amelia. This is another solid choice for middle-grade girls, this time historical fiction set in Washington State in 1900. With this one, I was put off by the present tense voice, which I’m prejudiced against, and I didn’t already know the characters like most readers would have. However, I was still quickly pulled into the story.

May Amelia’s the seventh child and the only girl in a Finnish family whose father believes that Girls Are Useless. May Amelia wants desperately to believe that she’s not, but there are some things she’s not good at — like cooking and mending. The book covers plenty of entertaining adventures of pioneer life on the Nasel River.

Then a man comes around who’s got an investment that’s sure to make the family millions. May Amelia’s father has her translate. She does her best, and the reader can see that she does yet be fully aware of impending doom. In fact, lots of troubles befall the family, but through it all we’ve got an upbeat, very fun book to read. I am looking forward to reading Our Only May Amelia when I get there on my quest to read all the Newbery winners and Honor books.

The Story of Charlotte’s Web: E. B. White’s Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic, by Michael Sims

Walker & Company, New York, 2011. 307 pages.

This one’s for adults. It’s a biography of E. B. White, and especially focuses on the parts of his life that contributed to the creation of his masterpiece, Charlotte’s Web. I wasn’t surprised to learn of the in-depth research he did on spiders while writing the book, and am all the more impressed by how well he wove those things into the story. I also was not surprised to learn that he had always loved farms and farm animals. That certainly is also obvious in his book.

Those who love children’s literature in general and Charlotte’s Web in particular will enjoy this book.

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale, by Carmen Agra Deedy & Randall Wright, Drawings by Barry Moser

Peachtree, Atlanta, 2011. 228 pages.

Here’s another solid middle-grade choice, this time for boys or girls. This one’s definitely for people who like animal stories. It has a similar flavor to The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo.

The book is set at an inn which still exists today, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, at the time when Charles Dickens was a frequent guest. The main character is a street cat, Skilley, who loves cheese — and The Cheshire Cheese has the best cheese in England.

A resident mouse, Pip, and Skilley come up with a plan. Skilley will catch mice at the inn, but then he will let them go. In return, they will bring him cheese, and they will be allowed to stay at the inn. But this cozy plan has trouble when another street cat is brought into the inn. On top of that, there’s someone in the attic who claims the fate of the entire country rests upon his own fate. Meanwhile, Charles Dickens is looking for an opening for his novel about the French Revolution….

That’s all I have time for tonight, but I hope maybe I’ll have won these books some readers. Happy Reading!

Review of The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Short Stories, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Suspense 0

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick

14 Amazing Authors Tell the Tales

illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2011. 221 pages.
Starred Review
2011 Sonderbooks Standout: Children’s Fiction #5

One of the highlights of my year this year was when, on vacation, I was driving my son a couple hours in the State of Washington to visit a college, and I got him to read aloud to me from The Chronicles of Harris Burdick as I drove. He’s 17, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the stories.

But let me backtrack. Many years ago, when I was first married (so about 25 years ago, in fact), a friend of my husband and me gave us The Mysteries of Harris Burdick for Christmas. (Thanks, Len!) It maybe wasn’t a traditional gift to give a young couple, but we both loved it.

In the introduction to this new book, Lemony Snicket summarizes the premise behind the original book:

“The story of Harris Burdick is a story everybody knows, though there is hardly anything to be known about him. More than twenty-five years ago, a man named Peter Wenders was visited by a stranger who introduced himself as Harris Burdick and who left behind fourteen fascinating drawings with equally if not more fascinating captions, promising to return the next day with more illustrations and the stories to match. Mr. Wenders never saw him again, and for years readers have pored breathlessly over Mr. Burdick’s oeuvre, a phrase that here means ‘looked at the drawings, read the captions, and tried to think what the stories might be like.’ The result has been an enormous collection of stories, produced by readers all over the globe, imagining worlds of which Mr. Burdick gave us only a glimpse.”

The original pictures, especially combined with the captions and titles, all have something eerie or surreal about them. For example, there’s the picture that goes with the story “Under the Rug” that shows a lump under a rug, and a man with a bowtie holding a chair over his head about to swing it at the lump. The caption reads, “Two weeks passed and it happened again.”

I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the picture that goes with “The Seven Chairs.” You see a grand cathedral, and two priests standing and looking at a nun who is sitting calmly on a chair that is floating into the cathedral. The caption reads, “The fifth one ended up in France.”

Chris Van Allsburg implied so much between the pictures, the titles, and the captions.

Back in 1993, Stephen King wrote a story to go with “The House on Maple Street” (the picture with the caption “It was perfect lift-off.”) For this volume, they asked fourteen distinguished authors (including Chris Van Allsburg) to write stories to go with the pictures.

At first, I thought it might be a shame to actually write down a story. But I’ve been thinking about these pictures too long. I don’t feel like these are the only possibilities. In fact, looking at the pictures still gets your mind spinning — but these offerings are still tremendous fun.

Some do a better job than others, and some used approaches I wouldn’t have ever taken, but I can honestly say that I enjoyed all the stories. In fact, this would be a fine collection of stories even if it didn’t have such an intriguing history. In fact, I hope the publishers will consider making this a tradition every decade or so, and get 14 more authors to write the stories!

My personal favorites, in order of appearance, were Jon Scieszka’s “Under the Rug”; Jules Feiffer’s “Uninvited Guests”; Kate DiCamillo’s “The Third-Floor Bedroom”; Chris Van Allsburg’s “Oscar and Alphonse”; Stephen King’s “The House on Maple Street”; and my very favorite, M. T. Anderson’s “Just Desert.”

These stories are eerie enough, they aren’t for the usual picture book crowd. Teens, like my son, will definitely enjoy them, and so will elementary age kids who can handle and enjoy some creepiness.

Like the years when we’d read our new Harry Potter book in England or Bavaria or wherever we were traveling on vacation, this book, in a smaller way, definitely enhanced my vacation. After all those years of reading to my boys, it’s a treat to find a book that my son is willing to read to me. We only finished half the book on vacation, but when I read M. T. Anderson’s story, I insisted that my son read it as well. I can confidently say this book spans many age ranges.

Buy from Amazon.com

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

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Source: This review is based on an Advance Review Copy I got at ALA Annual Conference.

2011 Sonderbooks Standouts: Children’s Fiction

Children's Fiction Review, Stand-outs 0

Most years, I have a clear favorite category (YA Fantasy), but not this year! This year I had books I totally loved in all the categories, and I’m so thankful I have a precedent of making categories so I don’t have to rank them against each other.

In Children’s Fiction, I didn’t have such a hard time with the ranking, at least the top of the list. Although I adored Okay For Now, and it’s my pick for the Newbery Medal, my definite most-loved and most-enjoyed Children’s book this year was Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George. What can I say? It completely won my heart.

I have to add that Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run had to be included, because it helped convince me NOT to go to the 150th Anniversary and Reenactment of the First Battle of Bull Run, for which I had tickets, on a day when the weather was over 100 degrees and I’d had a headache for three weeks. Since I had a stroke the very next day, I’m absolutely convinced that was a fabulous (possibly life-saving!) decision. Besides, it’s a really fun book!

So here are my favorite Children’s Fiction books that I read in 2011:
1. Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George
2. Okay for Now, by Gary D. Schmidt
3. The Great Wall of Lucy Wu, by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
4. Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis
5. The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg
6. Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run, by Michael Hemphill and Sam Riddleburger
7. Clementine and the Family Meeting, by Sara Pennypacker

Here are the other lists I’ve posted so far:
Fiction for Grownups
Teen Fiction
Last Year’s Standouts