Month: January 2009

Same Difference

| Tasha

Same Difference by Siobhan Vivian

Emily feels like a third wheel now that her best friend Meg has a boyfriend.  So when Emily gets the chance to attend a summer art program in Philadelphia, she decides to go even though she has never considered herself a real artist.  Emily’s summer is split between the big city and her suburban home.  She discovers new things about herself and makes a new best friend, Fiona, who is also an artist.  Emily’s friendship with Meg and her relationship with her family suffer as she realizes that she is changing while everyone at home is staying the same.  This is a book about finding who you really are when you don’t know who in the world that is.

Vivian’s tone here is perfection.  Readers see the world through Emily’s eyes and by the end of the book are understanding that Emily is not seeing things as clearly as she first thought.  The book could easily have been one of an artist fleeing their suburban roots, but Vivian makes it much more than that as Emily realizes that home and the past are vital pieces of her too. 

The book has just enough tension to keep things interesting but never moves into melodrama or excess.  There is a natural rhythm to the book, making it all ring true.  Vivian’s characterizations are also nicely done, with even secondary characters shown as complex and surprising.

Highly recommended, this novel will appeal to many teens who see themselves as not fitting in with their background or family or friends.  It is a classic dilemma faced by adolescents that is captured in a wonderfully drawn novel.  Appropriate for ages 13-17.

Behind the Narnia Scenes

| Tasha

  

The LA Times has a fascinating article on the real reason that Disney is not continuing the Narnia series on film.  Essentially it is a matter of money, both in marketing and in their relationship with Walden Media.  I love seeing the drama behind the drama.

The good news for fans of the films (and I wasn’t a fan of Prince Caspian) is that a third film deal may be announced as early as the end of this week.  Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the next in the series and should be a swashbuckling good time.   I consider the first three books the easiest to make into film.  The others look very daunting.

Wintergirls

| Tasha

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Lia finds out at breakfast that her ex-friend Cassie died alone in a motel room.  Now Lia is left with the question of why she didn’t bother to answer her cell phone when Cassie called.  33 times.  There are rumors that it was drugs or alcohol that killed her, alone in that room.  Lia is fighting her own demons, unable to handle what is happening to her and what happened to Cassie.  Lia has been hospitalized twice for eating disorders and is not on the road to recovery, but instead heading deeper and deeper into the mental maze of weight loss, lies and self abuse. 

What a perfect author for this book!  I have read many books about eating disorders for teens, but none have led me this deeply into the psychological torment.  Lia’s world is filled with obsession, counting calories, avoiding food, lying about it and covering up.  Her world is strange, foreign, but through the skillful writing also amazingly familiar and real.  The book is a slow torture of a novel, building in soft, painful crescendos to what is inevitable. 

Through this haze of pain and self-hate, Halse Anderson offers delectable prose that shines and sings.  Here is just one of the passages that had me gasping with the amazing writing:

This girl shivers and crawls under the covers with all her clothes on and falls into an overdue library book, a faerie story with rats and marrow and burning curses.  The sentences build a fence around her, a Times Roman 10-point barricade, to keep the thorny voices in her head from getting too close.

That is one of many places where Halse Anderson creates such beauty out of what is normal, juxtaposing it with a gentle touch against the agony that is Lia’s existence. 

Highly recommended and perfect for book discussions, this is one of those novels that girls will share, keep overlong from libraries, and want their own copies of.  Destined to be one of the best of the year, I just may hear Printz bells chiming for this a year from now.  Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Living Sunlight

| Tasha

Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life by Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm

Through an amazing blend of poetry and science, children learn about the importance of the sun in our lives.  There is a sense of wonder about the process of photosynthesis that elevates this book above that of a more scientific text.  Here you see the beauty and glory of the sun reflected too.  Bang’s illustrations capture the depth of space, lacing it with waves of light, showing the same waves washing upon the earth, the plants and us.

This book’s text comes in waves too.  Waves of poetry that are laced with scientific facts, pinning the high floating poetry down a bit to more earthly concerns.  The marriage of the two is so well done that it is hard to see where poetry ends and science begins.  Pair that with the scientific yet thrilling illustrations and this book becomes transcendent.

Highly recommended, this winning scientific picture book deserves a spot in every library.  If we wonder why children don’t tend to become scientists, we can look at this book that will inspire each child to ask questions of their world but not stop wondering and dreaming too.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

2009 Edgar Award Nominees

| Tasha

The 2009 Edgar Award Nominees have been announced.  Here are the nominees for children and teens.

 

Juvenile

The Postcard by Tony Abbott

Enigma: A Magical Mystery by Graeme Base

Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff

The Witches of Dredmoore Hollow by Riford McKenzie

Cemetery Street by Brenda Seabrooke

 

Young Adult

Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd

The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferraiolo

Paper Towns by John Green

Getting the Girl by Susan Juby

Torn to Pieces by Margo McDonnell

 

I’m not a big mystery reader, so I haven’t read many of the nominees.  Anyone have a favorite on the list?

The One and Only Marigold

| Tasha

The One and Only Marigold by Florence Parry Heide, illustrated by Jill McElmurry.

Marigold is a little monkey with her own way of doing things.  She has a favorite purple coat that she wears all the time, even in the shower and to bed.  But now her coat is wearing out and she has to face replacing her beloved coat.  Marigold is a loyal monkey and refuses to give up her best friend, her purple coat for anyone.  This includes her other close friend, Maxine who gets upset when Marigold lists the coat before her on her friend list.  Maxine storms out and Marigold plots revenge which she achieves in an interesting and subtle way.

I love picture books that are not saccharine and sweet, but instead show children characters who have complicated feelings and relationships just like they have in real life.  Marigold is a protagonist with firm ideas and a strong sense of self.  Through skillful writing, the author manages to avoid making her whiny or annoying.  Instead she is surprising, fun and unique.  McElmurry’s illustrations match the story well, filled with little touches that are just as fascinating as the main character.

This is a longer picture book, making it appropriate for slightly older children.  Recommended for ages 5-7.

Chicken Said "Cluck!"

| Tasha

Chicken Said, "Cluck!" by Judyann Ackerman Grant, pictures by Sue Truesdell.

I rarely review very easy readers because they lack a good story so often.  This is the exception.  Two children set out to grow pumpkins.  They try to shoo the chicken away, but it stays nearby scratching the dirt.  The children water and weed and then watch their pumpkins grown, all with the chicken clucking and scratching around them.  The chicken is useless until the day the grasshoppers come. 

With lots of repeating words to get children started reading on their own, this book manages to have rhythm, a limited vocabulary and a funny story.  Truesdell’s illustrations are quirky and also fun, adding the lively feel of the book.

Highly recommended as one of only a few early readers with story and style.  Appropriate for 3-5 year olds.

Tough Chicks

| Tasha

Tough Chicks by Cece Meng, illustrated by Melissa Suber

From the minute they hatch, Penny, Polly and Molly are chicks of a different feather.  They wrestle worms, race bugs, and dive for flies.  And they move at a fast pace with a "Peep, peep, zoom, zip, cheep."  All of the farm animals beg mother hen to make her chicks behave and be good.  But mother hen knows that her chicks are good.  Even the farmer gets upset when he finds the chicks under the hood of his tractor.  The animals on the farm put together an educational program for the chicks to help them be more normal, but with each lesson the chicks look at things from a completely different angle.  When a runaway tractor heads for the henhouse, the chicks just might be more useful than expected!

Happily targeting the role of cute young girls in a family and society, this book skewers the social norm with a playful spirit.  These three chicks are just like many girls who enjoy action, motors and little danger and refuse to move at a sedate, ladylike pace.  Meng’s text is just as lively as the chicks themselves, zooming along at a great pace.  Suber’s art is equally lively with crotchety pigs, perturbed fowl, and goggle-eyed sheep. 

Read this one last in a story time, which is the greatest compliment a book can ever have!  This shouldn’t be saved for those chicken story times, make sure you use it as one of those rainy-day books that you pull out to brighten things up.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

What a Trip!

| Tasha

What a Trip! by Arthur Yorinks, illustrated by Richard Egielski

Mel is walking along kicking a rock when he trips and falls into another dimension where everything looks similar but very pointy.  When Mel trips there, he falls back into his own dimension where no one believes him.  After finally being diagnosed as nothing more than a klutz, Mel trips once again and falls back into the pointy dimension right in front of his father.  Will Mel be able to return this time?  And what happens when he meets the pointy Mel?

This is one of those books that is so surprising that you will draw even reluctant listeners into the story with Mel’s first trip.  Everyone will need to see what the other dimension looks like and Egielski’s illustrations are such fun that they will stay to see more.  Yorinks’ story is silly, funny and gloriously inventive.  Children will be so surprised by the folding page that changes everything in the dimensions, making it OK to play with your books. 

A complete winner of a picture book.  Use this with unruly elementary groups to get them focused and listening.  It is great read aloud or all on your own.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.