Month: July 2009

Mama Says

| Tasha

Mama Says: a Book of Love for Mothers and Sons by Rob D. Walker, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon.

Move from one culture to the next with a brief stanza of the poem shared in both English and the language of the people being represented.

Mama says

Be good

Mama says

Be kind

Mama says

The rain will come

But still the sun will shine

That is the opening of the book, with the poem also written in Cherokee alongside.  The poem then moves through subjects like faith, hard work, dedication, endurance, inner peace, and courage.  All are universal and delivered in a way that children will understand.

The Dillon’s art is exquisite, representing the wide range of people on earth with boys who turn into men at the end.  It is a message that resonates deeply with all mothers who want their boys to turn into such men of composure and strength of purpose.  Walker’s poem is so simple but so powerful.  It is a perfect match to the strength of the illustrations.

Highly recommended for mothers and their young sons, this could also make a great gift for a graduate heading off to college.    This is a book that boys can draw strength from, learn from and see a path in.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by PlanetEsme, A Year of Reading, and The Brown Bookshelf.

Leviathan

| Tasha

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Released in October 2009.

The talented Westerfeld turns to steampunk in this first book in a new series.  Set in an alternate history on the eve of World War I, this book offers large walking mechs vs. man-made creatures that can be combined to form enormous flying and living blimps.  In this setting are two young people, Alek and Deryn.  Alek, son of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, is the sole surviving person in his family now that his parents have been killed.  He just may be considered the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne if he can survive long enough.  Deryn is a girl who has always loved to fly, but in 1914 girls are not allowed to become pilots.  So Deryn becomes Dylan, a tall, lean boy and proves she is born to fly.  The reader experiences the action through the eyes of both characters living completely separate lives until history brings them violently together.

Gorgeously imagined and written with a flair for battle and a sense of wonder, this book is a winner.  The pacing is fast, the action whirling, and the history deftly placed so that even teens and youth unaware of World War I’s basic timeline will understand the implications and importance of what they are witnessing in this alternate history.  Westerfeld’s characters are caught in the vortex of history and war and spend little time offering deeper insights about their psyches, but that is part of the pleasure here.  This book is more about the incredible war machines and creatures, the awe of flying, the amazement of running in a mech, and the biological magnificence of an enormous flying creature.  As readers, we too are swept up in the imagination on the page, happily believing in the most incredible creations.

Teens will pick this novel up simply because it is a Westerfeld novel, and happily this book will also offer an entry point for younger readers to enjoy Westerfeld’s work.  While much of Westerfeld’s work is for teens, this book could be offered to 5th and 6th graders without concern.  It is a rip-roaring and gripping look at both the future and the past that readers of all ages will have trouble putting down.

Reviewed from an ARC received at ALA Annual Conference.

Also reviewed by Karin’s Book Nook.

The Ask and the Answer

| Tasha

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (Book 2 of Chaos Walking)

Released September 2009.

Starting up exactly where the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, left off, readers are once again launched directly into the story of Todd and Viola.  Todd has been captured by Mayor Prentiss and regains consciousness as he is being interrogated.  Viola has disappeared after being shot.  Todd finds himself in the city he fought the entire first book to find, but it has been overtaken and surrendered to Mayor Prentiss without a fight.  Now Todd and readers must navigate the ever-changing power of the community, heroes who are villains, villains who are heroes, and some who are both at the same time. 

The complexity of this novel is awe inspiring.  Yet the story manages to remain unencumbered and move forward at a brisk pace.  The tension of the novel will have readers either unable to put it down or forced to put it down with shaking hands.  It is truly a gripping piece of writing.  As with the first book, it is also a very dark story.  Here torture is explored very completely, not hidden from the reader.  A risky choice for a YA novel, but one that definitely pays off.

In the two main characters, Ness has created heroes with faults.  They are both wonderfully drawn and complete characters.  Even the villains of the story are complicated and well developed.  It is this complexity that makes the book work so well.  As more and more is revealed, the story shifts and ripples into something different and new. 

Set aside time when you start this novel.  It is impossible to not think about when you are not reading it and definitely could be devoured in a single sitting.  Enjoy!  And then join me in eagerly awaiting the third.  While you are waiting, check out the short story on BookTrust that is about Viola before she lands on the planet.

(Reviewed from galley copy received at ALA Annual Conference)

Mouse Was Mad

| Tasha

Mouse Was Mad by Linda Urban, illustrated by Henry Cole.

Mouse is hopping mad.  Until Hare tells him he looks “ridiculous.”  But when Mouse tries to hop like Hare, he tumbles into a mud puddle.  Mouse is now even angrier.  Stomping mad, in fact.  Bear arrives and shows him how he should be stomping.  But when Mouse tries, it doesn’t have the same earth shaking effects.  In fact, it’s much more Mouse-shaking and Mouse falls into another mud puddle.  Now Mouse is screaming mad.  Bobcat tries to show Mouse how to really scream, but Mouse, you guessed it, falls into another mud puddle.  The book resolves with Mouse being so angry he can’t even move.  Now the other animals are impressed and try to be just as still with limited success.  Is that a smile readers see on Mouse’s face?

The end papers of this book are great.  At the front, they show Mouse gripped by utter rage and in the end we can see him being oh-so happy.  Urban has created a wonderful mix of emotions, humor, and repetition that will be embraced by toddlers and preschoolers.  Her repeated dunking of Mouse in mud is great fun, offering the predictability that young children look for.  It is also very effective against the unpredictable emotion of anger.  The humor works well as a foil for that emotion.

Cole’s illustrations are very effective, showing Mouse really, really angry, tail twitching as he watches the others do demonstrations.  The facial expressions of the animals are very evocative of emotions.  Mouse seems to have an infinite number of angry looks that range from simmering peevishness to outright fury.  Cole cleverly builds the tension before each fall into the mud with a series of illustrations showing Mouse just before the fall, in mid-air, and finally and delightfully covered in mud.

Highly recommended for storytimes on emotions or mice, this book is a winner of a read aloud and will have all of the children in your group enthralled.  It can also be used as a book to get children moving, since you can have children stomp, hop, and yes, even scream.

(Reviewed from copy checked out from public library.)

This book has been well-covered by the kidslitosphere.  Too many places have mentioned it to list here!

Ring, Ring – Little, Brown Calling

| Tasha

Thank you everyone for your perspective on what happened at ALA at the Little, Brown booth.  Your comments have been wonderful. 

I got a voicemail this morning from Miriam Parker at Little, Brown and we connected just now on the phone.  She did not ask me to post any of this.  She only apologized elegantly and profusely for what had happened.

What the woman at the booth told me is NOT Little, Brown’s policy with bloggers.

Miriam was blunt about that.  They have worked with online reviewing for 10 years.  They have no expectation of a positive review.  Whew! 

Matter resolved as far as I am concerned.  Thank you Miriam for contacting me so quickly and being so great about explaining and listening. 

Now back to talking books again!

Mandela’s Favorite Folktales

| Tasha

To celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 91st birthday, there is a new audio book of his favorite African folktales.  Featured on NPR’s Morning Edition this morning, you can hear tempting fragments of songs and the voices of popular American actors reading the tales.  The collection sounds like a great way to bring African folktales into libraries and homes.  The audiobooks raise funds for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and Artists for a New South Africa.  The official website is here with more story excerpts to sample.

ALA Exhibits Epic Fail – Rant

| Tasha

Going up to publishers and saying that you are a blogger can be hard.  When I first started doing this at ALA five years ago, I was met with blank stares because no one had even heard about blogs.  Things have definitely changed.

I went up to one publisher, ready to do my spiel about how I am a blogger, and legit, and would like to work together.  The person at the booth knew my blog, was shocked I wasn’t getting copies, and I was left just glowing from the entire experience.  Easiest conversation of my life!

The next day, the last day of the exhibits, I walked up to a booth.  I had been there before, been ignored because they were conversing with one another, but now I was back.  Here is the conversation as best I can recall.  I got the person’s attention after about 10 minutes of waiting, gave a big smile:

Me:  Hi, I have a blog and you are one of the only publishers here I don’t work with.

Her: We hear from hundreds of people that they blog.

Me:  Yes, I’m sure.  And I know… (I was going to say that I knew it was hard to tell who has readers and who doesn’t, but she cut me off.")

Her: So we will need you to contact us with your numbers.

Me:  OK, I can do that.  I’ve been blogging for 5 years now.  (That line is usually a winner.)

Her:  Everyone has been blogging for five years.  (Um, no.  Really.  No.)  We need solid numbers.

Me:  Well, I get x number of visits a day.  (Don’t want to turn this into a discussion of the number of visits I get.  It’s about more than that.)

Her: Everyone gets x number of visits a day.  (Um, no.)  We need real numbers, like unique visitors each day.  (Which is the number I just gave her.)

Me:  OK, I can do that.  So I just email you with those numbers…

AND HERE IS THE PROBLEM!

Her:  And if the numbers are good enough, we will send you ONE BOOK and IF WE LIKE HOW YOU HANDLE THAT TITLE YOU CAN HAVE ANOTHER ONE. 

Me:  (Blankly.)  Oh? 

Her:  You can see that our titles have been embraced by the blogging community (Yes, there were several that were HUGE on blogs.)  That’s because of this policy.  It really works for us.  (Yes, I bet it does.  Didn’t doubt that for a moment.)

Me:  I’ll have to think about that.  I don’t do that with any other publisher I work with.  It’s not how I do business.

Her:  (Sudden change in demeanor.  I think she just replayed our conversation and realized that she had completely misread the situation.)  Well, we could send you hundreds of titles at a time.  We wouldn’t hold you to one, necessarily.

Me:  Well, I’ll think about it. 

I stopped just short of ripping her card to shreds right there, but by the end of the conversation I was literally shaking in fury.  She had been unnecessarily rude.  Her tone of voice was hostile at best.  The same information delivered in a kind way would have been fine.

UNTIL she got to that part about ONE TITLE AT A TIME and seeing how I handled it online.

Let me put it to you straight – publishers have absolutely NO RIGHT to decide how independent reviewers like bloggers treat their titles online.  I am not going to blog happy little reviews in order to get fed another ARC to do the same thing with or lose my supply of titles.  What a load of crap!

I shudder to think about bloggers who are actually participating in this little scheme. This is a large publisher who proudly announces that this is how they deal with bloggers.  Not me.  I am not going to request any books.  No way.  I’d rather check them out from the library when they are out. 

Just to be clear, I get a lot of books from publishers but I have never, ever been told that my supply of books depends on how I handle their titles online.  If any publisher said that, I would not work with them.

And so, Little Brown, I will not be calling.  I am dismayed at the disrespect your company shows bloggers, the hold you believe you have over them, and the rotten attitude of your booth workers.  I hope that anyone working with publishers under this sort of policy decides to no longer do it.  It’s not worth selling the space on your blog for a copy of the hottest book. 

I want to be treated as a reviewer, a legitimate, honest, passionate reviewer of books for youth and teens.   So yes, I will accept galleys, but not in exchange for anything other than a potential review.  And then only if it is awesome.  I promise.

ALA

| Tasha

I’m off to ALA after taking a couple of days off.  I’ll be at the Unconference on Friday, leading a discussion on Library Director 2.0 and absorbing all sorts of great information.  It’s my first unconference, and I’m really psyched about it!

I have breakfasts planned for Saturday and Sunday that are children’s book related.  I’m going for what I hope will be a fascinating mix of children’s, intellectual freedom, and technology programs.  And of course, I will be at the exhibits with my family in tow, getting books and other loot.

I may have a chance to Tweet or blog, but it will probably be when I find myself back in my hotel room.

Hope to see you at the conference!

Team Jacob Cheers!

| Tasha

Little, Brown has released the book cover of the movie edition of New Moon. 

Team Edward loses.  Team Jacob wins.