Review of The Shape of You, by Muon Thi Van, illustrated by Miki Sato

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

The Shape of You

by Muon Thi Van
illustrated by Miki Sato

Kids Can Press, 2023. 32 pages.
Review written August 23, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Here’s a picture book that gently leads children into abstract thinking and ends up with love.

I’m not a huge fan of picture books about how much a child is loved — Although every family should have some books like that, they have to be something special to stand out. This book is something special.

First, the art is cut paper skillfully rendered with depth and shadows. Objects at a distance are gently blurred. The images are beautiful and sweet — especially of the mother, child, and dog.

The book starts looking at the shapes of things you can see, including a rectangle door and a square table. Then it gently gets more abstract, first with things you can see:

The shape of this water
is a cup,
but sometimes it’s a cube

or a cloud.

This beautiful spread is still something you can see, but now they’re talking about the concept of “shape” more abstractly:

The shape of light
is all the colors of the sunset —

red, yellow, blue,
tangerine, chartreuse, mulberry, tan.

It progresses to completely abstract, such as, “The shape of thinking is quiet,” and “The shape of learning is a question.”

One of my favorite spreads has a knitted scarf on the cut-paper child, with the wind blurred in the distance:

The shape of the wind
is a scarf flapping.

And the book finishes up with shapes that change, but the wonderful reminders:

The shape of my fingers
will always fit yours.

And the shape of my love
will always be you.

A sweet story about love, edging into abstract thinking, that could be a wonderful conversation starter. What shapes do you see and feel around you?

kidscanpress.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Puppets of Spelhorst, by Kate DiCamillo

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

The Puppets of Spelhorst

A Norendy Tale

by Kate DiCamillo
illustrated by Julie Morstad

Candlewick Press, 2023. 150 pages.
Review written November 8, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Hooray! Kate DiCamillo has started a series of original fairy tales!

Now, mind you, I’m a fairy tale fan, and this wasn’t my favorite ever. There’s not much magic — well, except puppets that can talk — and no fairies at all. But the feel does fit fairy tales, and I definitely would like to read this book aloud to an audience of primary grade kids. There’s a musical quality to the words and the atmospheric illustrations fit perfectly.

The story itself is about five puppets — “a king and a wolf and a girl and a boy and an owl.” An old sea captain named Spelhorst buys them because the girl reminds them of someone he loved once.

But when the sea captain dies, their adventures begin. The puppets want to be in a story. The wolf keeps going on about his sharp teeth. The king is very proud of his kingly nature. The owl is full of wise sayings. The boy has a quiver full of arrows. And the girl has beautiful eyes that want to see the world.

And the puppets do indeed find a story, complete with some danger in the middle, but ending up with adventure.

To give you an idea of the flavor, here’s a section when the puppets are in a dark trunk on the cart of a rag-and-bone man who takes things that aren’t wanted:

The puppets lay together in the chest. They could hear the rag-and-bone man’s song.

“Who are we?” said the owl.

“Well, I suppose we’re something that’s not wanted,” said the girl.

“Nonsense,” said the king. “Everyone wants a king. That’s the very definition of kingliness.”

“It’s so dark in here,” said the boy.

“Darkness means nothing when your teeth are as sharp as mine,” said the wolf.

“Into the darkness, there sometimes comes a light,” intoned the owl.

I’m definitely looking forward to more idiosyncratic fairy tales from the quirky mind of Kate DiCamillo. (Honestly! How does she think of these things?) This one left me smiling.

candlewick.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Burn the Page, by Danica Roem

Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

Burn the Page

A True Story of Torching Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change

by Danica Roem

Viking, 2022. 296 pages.
Review written November 12, 2022, from a library book

Note: I wrote this review a year ago and didn’t get it posted, but now Danica Roem has just been elected Virginia’s first transgender state senator.

I couldn’t resist reading Danica Roem’s story. She’s the first transgender delegate in Virginia, and she represents a district right next door to me, so she’s a local political force. With a transgender daughter myself, I’m always interested in stories of transgender people, and am proud of how Danica Roem is representing our region.

So I did enjoy this book for those reasons. Mind you, there’s a lot in the book about her love for heavy metal and leading a metal band which I didn’t relate to at all and started to gloss over. She’s also from a different generation than me, so the story of her growing up years didn’t hit any common threads.

But I like hearing about her work first as a local reporter and then as a political leader. She gets to know her constituents and honestly wants to bring their concerns to Richmond to make a difference. And I also like hearing about her joy in living as the woman she’s always known herself to be, and finally daring to make that public.

In all, she’s got an inspiring story. And a refreshing voice in politics. Here’s how she finishes the last chapter before the Epilogue:

For all of that, your most honest internal default setting, in which you don’t trip over yourself and stumble over how you think people want you to be, is to just be authentic. You don’t have to keep track of who you are to some people and who you are to others. I say this as someone who inherently wants to be liked: If they don’t respect you, they’re not worth your time. If they do, though, let ’em know who you are, not who you think they want you to be.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Grimoire of Grave Fates, created by Hanna Alkaf and Margaret Owen

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Grimoire of Grave Fates

created by Hanna Alkaf and Margaret Owen
read by January LaVoy and Nicky Endres

Listening Library, 2023. 12 hours, 27 minutes.
Review written November 11, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.

I made sure to check out The Grimoire of Grave Fates because I love Margaret Owen’s writing so much. It turns out this is a compilation from many fantasy authors. The story is set in a magical school — a school with a highly diverse population. The most hated professor — a professor who despised the diverse population — has been found dead, and it’s clearly murder.

The book gives a different student’s perspective for every hour of the day his body is found, beginning at 2:00 am and finishing at 8:00 pm, when the mystery is solved. Each student’s story is told by a different author. And really, it’s kind of amazing that this method works — the clues students turn up at the beginning do affect things later, and the mystery unfolds.

It’s fun how the eighteen students featured all have different magical specialties. I’m not completely sure how that would work in one school, but it kept this book interesting. I think this is an example where I would have done better to read the book rather than listening to the audiobook, because I would have referred back to the explanation at the beginning of the different houses of the school and it would have helped me keep the characters straight. As it was, it was looking at the Table of Contents for the eaudiobook that helped me realize there was one student each hour and a different author for each student.

These are the authors who wrote the chapters: (I’ve only read a few of them before, and need to fix that.) Marieke Nijkamp, Randy Ribay, Kwame Mbalia, Darcie Little Badger, Cam Montgomery, Preeti Chhibber, Kat Cho, Kayla Whaley, L. L. McKinney, Hafsah Faizal, Julian Winters, Karuna Riazi, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Mason Deaver, Victoria Lee, Yamile Saied Mendez, Jessica Lewis, and Natasha Diaz. I assume that Hanna Alkaf and Margaret Owen were responsible for the overall story and what major plot points each author would hit.

As a mystery, this book was nothing special, but as a window into diverse magical students — it was delightful. I enjoyed each student who was featured and the look into their type of magic. These authors are people with imagination and empathy, and I’m going to look for more of their work.

penguinrandomhouse.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Good Books for Bad Children, written by Beth Kephart, illustrated by Chloe Bristol

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Good Books for Bad Children

The Genius of Ursula Nordstrom

written by Beth Kephart
illustrated by Chloe Bristol

anne schwartz books, 2023. 44 pages.
Review written October 26, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Good Books for Bad Children is a picture book biography of one of the giants of children’s literature — Ursula Nordstrom, the editor behind hundreds of classics.

The book begins with some spreads about her lonely childhood, early fondness for books, and time in boarding school. Then she couldn’t afford college and got a clerk job in the textbook department at Harper & Brothers publishers. But that led to meeting the head of the Department of Books for Boys and Girls in the cafeteria. And that led to becoming her assistant. And that led to becoming the head of the department four years later in 1940. And that led to many fabulous children’s books being created over the next decades.

The author doesn’t give us a list of books she edited. (I would have liked one in the back, but it surely would have taken up too much space.) Instead, she keeps it interesting for child readers and gives us a story behind the publication of several classics: encouraging Crockett Johnson about Harold and the Purple Crayon, listening to the first line of Goodnight Moon on the phone, laughing with Ruth Krauss over lines for A Hole Is to Dig, and more.

Here’s my favorite spread in that section:

Sometimes Ursula would find a way
to help her writers and artists end their stories.
Like when Maurise Sendak
came to her with a tale about a boy named Max
who goes on a wild stomp of an adventure.

The problem?
Maurice didn’t know how to get Max back home.

“Well, why did Max want to go home?” Ursula asked and asked again.

“Well, he wanted to be where someone loved him best of all,
but he couldn’t really say that,” Maurice said at last.

“Why not?” Ursula asked.

It was the perfect question,
which led to the perfect ending
for Where the Wild Things Are.

I also love the way the author gets across Ursula Nordstrom’s attitude that children need all kinds of books, because there are all kinds of children out there. Indeed, she worked to make good books for bad children.

I was already a fan of Ursula Nordstrom because of reading Dear Genius, a book of her letters collected by Leonard Marcus. I’m happy that now children can learn about this lovely person who made a big difference in the world.

bethkephartbooks.com
chloebristol.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Just One Flake, by Travis Jonker

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Just One Flake

by Travis Jonker

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2023. 48 pages.
Review written October 25, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

First, full disclosure: Travis Jonker is a librarian friend of mine. First, beginning many years ago, I read his 100 Scope Notes blog. Then I got to serve on an ALSC committee with him, which gave me an excuse to say Hello at conferences. I’m happy about his new success as an author, and this book marks his debut as an illustrator as well.

Just One Flake is a simple story of a kid trying to catch one snowflake on his tongue.

I grew up in California — but I still remember trying to do this when I was a 4-year-old — the last year I lived where it snowed (before moving away from California as a young adult). I failed to catch a snowflake on my tongue because it’s just not as easy as it looks.

This book takes that common childhood aspiration, and gets us rooting for little Liam with all the things he tries.

And what more is there to say? He tries, and tries again, thwarted over and over again, with ultimate success — and it just makes for a wonderful winter romp. A sure storytime hit, too.

And one of my favorite things is this line on the copyright page:

Case art by Tom Angleberger, Stephen Barbara, Cece Bell, Betsy Bird, Lauren Castillo, Carter Higgins, Allison Jonker, Colin Jonker, Lina Jonker, Supriya Kelkar, Laurie Keller Minh Lê, Donalyn Miller, James Preller, John Schu, Colby Sharp, Bob Shea, Philip Stead, and Erin Stead. This book wouldn’t exist without all of you. Thank you.

So I checked the case art — the cover of the book underneath the paper cover, and it’s covered with pictures of paper snowflakes! So yes, you can finish your winter storytime with this book by all making paper snowflakes. And sharing snowflakes with friends, as the author did.

This book is one of a kind. Like a snowflake.

100 Scope Notes
abramsbooks.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Maizy Chen’s Last Chance, by Lisa Yee

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

Maizy Chen’s Last Chance

by Lisa Yee

Random House, 2022. 276 pages.
Review written February 17, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review
2023 Asian/Pacific American Literature Award Winner, Children’s Literature
2023 Newbery Honor Book
2022 National Book Award Finalist

Maizy Chen’s Last Chance is about a girl who’s spending the summer with her mother at her grandparents’ place in Last Chance, Minnesota. She didn’t know her grandparents before this summer, but her grandfather is very sick, so her mother came to make peace.

In Last Chance, her grandparents run a Chinese restaurant, which has been in the family for more than one hundred years. As Maizy spends time with her Opa, he begins telling her the story of his grandfather, Lucky, and how he came to America and started running this very restaurant. Maizy also does her own research about some pictures up in the restaurant. They turn out to be pictures of “paper sons” who immigrated to America under fake papers, but got help getting on their feet with Lucky in the Golden Palace restaurant.

In the present, Maizy needs to get her bearings and make some summer friends. And then the giant wooden bear that’s been standing in front of the restaurant gets stolen, with a nasty note with racial slurs left in its place. Can Maizy get the bear back and figure out who did it? Maizy also spends time getting to know her grandparents — and writing better fortunes for the fortune cookies that everyone expects in a Chinese restaurant.

This book has a nice weaving together of the past and the present. Lucky’s story is told by Maizy’s Opa in short bits that keep you — and Maizy — wanting more. And she ends up proud of her family and their place in America.

LisaYee.com
rhcbooks.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Yes, And . . ., by Richard Rohr

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Yes, And . . .

Daily Meditations

by Richard Rohr

Franciscan Media, 2019. 412 pages.
Review written March 21, 2023, from my own copy.
Starred Review

I purchased this book when I was looking for a new devotional book to read through in 2022. Well, there are 366 “Meditations” in this book, but they are not dated. So I took my time. Sometimes I read a page a couple days in a row. And I ended up finishing it a few months into 2023. The advantage, of course, is that you can start reading it at any time.

I chose a book by Richard Rohr because I love his email meditations which I read daily, sent out from the Center for Action and Contemplation. It was nice to have a set I could hold in my hands, because sometimes when I use my phone to read the email meditation, I get distracted.

It’s hard for me to do justice to this book in a summary. The entries were gathered by others from Richard Rohr’s many writings. Action and contemplation, like the name of the Center he founded, is maybe a good way to sum them up. We see thoughts about a life of faith, thoughts about how that looks and how it’s experienced, and what it means to you and to others around you.

I will put a link to my Sonderquotes blog with quotations from Richard Rohr to give you a taste. I also recommend signing up for the daily emails in the link above, and if you like what you read, this book is a way to get more.

Richard Rohr’s writings leave me inspired and encouraged, with my eyes opened to more of the beautiful things God has placed in this life.

cac.org

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Conference Corner – Virginia Library Association Conference 2023

Conference Corner 0

ast Tuesday, I got to attend one day of the Virginia Library Association Conference. It was close by — basically in between my home and my workplace. I like to write up notes to consolidate what I learned, always bearing in mind that a big part of the value of librarian conferences is connecting with colleagues. In this case, I got to see many friends from my own library system and have lunch with people I used to see daily.

First up, the keynote speaker was author Jason Reynolds.

Now, if you’ve never heard Jason Reynolds speak, you need to find a way to do so. And I can’t communicate in notes his humor and presence — you had to be there.

But I will also note some good points he made (with lots of humor and poignancy):

He talked about relating to kids, as he does as an author but also as a person. He says you need three things: Humility, Intimacy, and Gratitude.

In his writing, he needs Humility because he’s no longer 13.

He’s got intimacy because the language of his neighborhood (rap) has become the language of youth culture. He puts boys in stories where they can be vulnerable.

Gratitude — He shows kids as human beings. His books are his love letters to kids.

Books are the tickets he created to get access to human beings, his golden tickets to every school in the country.

When we deal with humans, we need:

Humility — Deal with our egos. Adults are an entitled population. We need humility to create a relationship with kids.

Intimacy — Thank them for coming. Without the kids, we have no purpose.

Books are important, but we ban humans every day, by not acknowledging them.

Look up and see the people around us. We’re all made to be opened.

***

After lunch, the next session I went to was the Cardinal Cup Author Spotlight.

The Virginia Library Association gives an annual award to honor a distinguished biography, historical fiction or American history book for young people. It has this year been renamed the Cardinal Cup instead of the Jefferson Cup.

The winning book this year was Louisa June and the Nazis in the Waves, by L. M. Elliott. The author talked about her research about the Nazi U-boats that used to patrol the East Coast of the United States and in March 1942, before sonar, were sinking an American ship every 8 hours. Five U-boats sank 397 ships. I’d had no idea! Her talk about her research and the tidbits she found was fascinating.

Her writing process is research, then imagination, dictated by fact. I was enchanted by all she had to say and got two signed books (this one and her next one), which I plan to read just as soon as we’ve chosen this year’s Morris Award winners.

***

The next session was called Legislative Panel on the Right to Read in School and Local Public Libraries

It was moderated by VLA’s liaison to the legislature and featured a Virginia state senator and state legislator who have been fighting increased legislation attacking the right to read and trying to limit what’s available in Virginia libraries.

As the legislator said, parents who *want* their children to have access to books have rights, too.

The Virginia senator speaking is also a professor of literature, so this is close to her heart. After all, we know the dangers of book banning.

This past legislative session, they talked about bills that were defeated, and a bill that got through. On its surface, it is saying parents have to consent to study books in class. In practice, it made it easier to ban books.

They warned us that advocacy is important. Right now, those who want to ban books have the loudest voices, and we need to change that. Advocacy matters.

This is driving government control on speech and thinking.

Remember: We never want politicians to determine what is literature!

***

The final session I attended was four “lightning talks” with basically nuts-and-bolts library issues, including two friends from my library system who made an app that helps manage our collection.

Altogether, it was a great day to get out and mingle with other librarians and be inspired and refreshed to continue doing the work.

Review of Royal Blood, by Aimée Carter, read by Kristen Sieh

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Mystery, Teen Fiction Review 0

Royal Blood

by Aimée Carter
read by Kristen Sieh

Listening Library, 2023. 10 hours, 21 minutes.
Review written October 25, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.

Royal Blood is a contemporary mystery about an American girl who is secretly the illegitimate daughter of the King of England. No, not Charles — this book looks at a modern world where King Edward VIII didn’t abdicate for Wallis Simpson and lived out his reign with a queen his family approved of. Now in 2023, Alexander, son of Edward IX, is on the throne.

Evangeline Bright has never met her father — that she can remember. But he’s been supporting her since she was eleven years old and her grandma died. Evan’s mother has schizophrenia, but it’s under control with medication. Evan keeps getting herself kicked out of boarding schools, hoping she’ll get to go home to her mother. But when this book opens, her attempt to burn the school’s grade book got out of control, and at almost eighteen years old, she’s got a potential felony pending. So when Jenkins, the liaison with her father, comes to help, he decides it’s time for her to get out of the country and go to England.

Her half-sister Maisie, the heir to the throne, isn’t thrilled to meet her, but Queen Helene even less so. And that’s nothing to what happens when the press gets wind of her existence.

However, that’s all just the beginning. The real trouble ensues when a charming rich boy attempts to sexually assault her at a party — and ends up dead. Did Evan kill him? She’s not even sure because the details of that night are hazy. But if she didn’t, then who did?

This story could get tawdry, but it’s told with heart, as Evan thinks about what makes a family and learns more about what makes her famous one. The book doesn’t feel like a gossip rag, but a novel of a teen in an extraordinary situation where she doesn’t know whom she can trust.

It turns out there’s a set-up to make this the start of a series. Yes, I find that I’m looking forward to spending more time with this American girl who’s finding her place in the British royal family.

aimeecarter.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?