Day: April 28, 2009

Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards

| Tasha

The 2009 Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards have been announced.  The awards are given each year to children’s books that “effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races as well as meeting conventional standards for excellence.”

The winners are:

For Younger Children:

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola (an amazing picture book!)

 

For Older Children:

The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle (loved this book!)

 

Younger Children Honor Books:

The Storyteller’s Candle by Lucia Gonzalez, illustrated by Lulu Delacre

Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad by James Rumford

 

Older Children Honor Books:

The Shepherd’s Granddaughter by Anne Laurel Carter

Ain’t Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc Aronson

NPR Celebrates National Poetry Month

| Tasha

Take a listen to this fun NPR piece on the poetry of Karen Jo Shapiro.  She redoes classical poetry into poems that are friendly for the modern kid.  How Do I Love Thee becomes How Do I Love Ketchup! 

 

Yes, some purists will be offended by the irreverent tone and style of these poems.  But her use of the form and rhyming scheme make them charming and it is such fun to listen to her read them aloud.  I’ve always thought that poems are best aloud anyway. 

The Vast Fields of Ordinary

| Tasha

The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd

Dade just graduated from high school and his entire life has reached a breaking point.  He has a horrible job at Food World, his parents should be divorced but are hanging on until he leaves for college, and his “boyfriend” Pablo is so far in the closet that he has a girlfriend and won’t acknowledge Dade in public.  Dade drifts through his summer in a haze of marijuana and booze, living in that strange world between high school and college.  On the way he finds both a first true friend, a real boyfriend, and his own voice. 

This book is about making connections and the amazing moments in life that come from making that first leap into fear.  Burd’s writing is a wonderful mix of straight-forward prose and then buttons on the ends of the chapters that rise to another level.  He writes emotional scenes without reveling in the drama but also without denying the emotions that young men feel. 

Dade is a great character who is confused, lost and entirely himself.  He is a person that straight and gay people will relate to easily.  Burd writes beautifully of first love and how tentative it is.  Readers will finally get to read a book where gay teen sexuality is embraced.  Beautifully written, the sexual passages read just like any straight sex scene in a teen novel.  Thank goodness!

Highly recommended, this book offers a gloriously normal but profound look at a gay teen.  Appropriate for ages 16-18.

Classic Books Chosen by Children’s Laureates

| Tasha

Those of us who enjoy classic children’s lit will cheer when we see the list put together by the 5 British Children’s Laureates.  Quentin Blake, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson and Michael Rosen were asked to select seven great works of children’s literature.

Great reads are timeless as this list shows.  Just reading the list brings back flashes of memories.  Lovely.

Here is the list that happily contains two of my all-time favorite reads: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken.  I have read both at least 20 times.

The ones I have read are bolded (not as many as I would like):

Chosen by Quentin Blake:

1. Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain by Edward Ardizzone (published 1936)
2. Queenie the Bantam by Bob Graham (1997)
3. The Box of Delights by John Masefield (1935)
4. Rose Blanche by Ian McEwan and Roberto Innocenti (1985)
5. Five Children and It by E. Nesbit (1902)
6. Snow White by Josephine Poole (1991)
7. Stuart Little by E.B. White (1945)

Chosen by Anne Fine:

8. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken (1963)
9. Absolute Zero by Helen Cresswell (1978)
10. Just William by Richmal Crompton (1922)
11. Journey to the River Sea by Iva Ibbotson (2001)
12. Lavender’s Blue by Kathleen Lines (1954)
13. A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (1885)
14. Sword in the Stone by T.H. White (1938)

Chosen by Michael Morpurgo:

15. Five Go to Smuggler’s Top by Enid Blyton (1945)
16. Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton (1939)
17. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (1838)
18. Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling (1902)
19. A Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear (1846)
20. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)
21. The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (1888)

Chosen by Jacqueline Wilson:

22. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868-9)
23. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905)
24. What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge (1872)
25. The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett (1937)
26. The Railway Children by E. Nesbit (1906)
27. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (1936)
28. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers (1934)

Chosen by Michael Rosen:

29. Clown by Quentin Blake (1995)
30. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (1947)
31. Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner (1928)
32. Not Now, Bernard by David McKee (1980)
33. Fairy Tales by Terry Jones (1981)
34. Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear by Andy Stanton (2008)
35. Daz 4 Zoe by Robert Swindells (1990)