Month: August 2009

Nonfiction Monday – An Eye for Color: the Story of Josef Albers

| Tasha

An Eye for Color: the Story of Josef Albers by Natasha Wing, illustrated by Julia Breckenreid.

Josef Albers was born in Germany where he saw art everywhere including in the doors his father painted.  As he grew up, he worked with collage and different medium in his art.  When he traveled to Mexico, he found inspiration everywhere.  He began painting rectangles and noticing how colors changed depending on what is around them.  He set out to study color itself and eventually wrote a book, Interaction of Color.  Albers’ colorful squares play a major role in modern art, and readers of this book will understand his importance.

Wing has summed up Albers’ life in a way that is fascinating and very child-friendly.  Her language is simple while the concepts are large.  She has managed to convey facts of his life alongside the wonder of his discoveries.  I especially appreciate the portion of the book where she looks at color specifically, just as Albers does.  Breckenreid’s art pays homage to Albers with its playful use of color and strong use of shape.  She evokes Albers on every page.

Highly recommended for art classrooms but also as an accessible biography for children. Appropriate for ages 5-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Henry Holt.

Check out Natasha Wing’s blog!

Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award Finalists

| Tasha

The first finalists for the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award have been announced.  The award recognizes an author whose work shows “a positive approach to life, widespread teen appeal, and literary merit.”  The award is sponsored by ALAN (The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents) and is unique in its emphasis on a positive point of view towards life. 

Here are the finalists:

After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Me, the Missing, and the Dead by Jenny Valentine

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

Franny Parker

| Tasha

Franny Parker by Hannah Roberts McKinnon

Franny has grown up in a small Oklahoma town surrounded by her loving family.  She has become known for rescuing baby animals and the entire town now brings her tiny furry bundles.  When Lucas moves in next door, Franny naively thinks that his past is similar to hers.  But readers will realize before Franny does that Lucas and his mother have serious problems that they are running from.  Rescuing Lucas proves much more difficult than rescuing animals, and Franny is not sure that they even want to be rescued at all.

McKinnon’s debut novel is very strong.  Her characterization of the rather naive Franny also shows Franny’s wisdom about certain things.  Lucas is portrayed as much more than a troubled teen with his own way with animals and children.  The adults in the small community are drawn with history, clarity and style.  This is a family that I loved spending time with.

Small touches in the novel make it even more grounded and real.  The annual reading contest at the library, the local fair, and a strong connection to the rural landscape bring the setting fully to life.  McKinnon has a strong sense of place and character.

And the cover!  Love it!  It has a freshness, a friendliness, that perfectly matches what is inside.

Franny is a character readers will love meeting.  She is inspirational, interesting and unique.  Highly recommended for ages 11-13.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by A Patchwork of Books.

Jumping Off Swings

| Tasha

Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles

When Ellie gets pregnant, it changes her life and that of three of her friends and classmates.  Coming from an outwardly perfect but very distant family, Ellie tries to find comfort and love by having sexual relationships with boys.  Josh, finding Ellie willing, loses his virginity to her and then ignores her.  When Ellie discovers she is pregnant, she turns to her best friend Corinne for advice.  Caleb, a classmate and friend of Josh’s, is furious about the way Ellie has been treated.  The four lives of these teens are now entwined in a larger way, giving readers a chance to see how they cope with an overwhelming situation and series of choices.

Knowles, author of Letters from a Dead Girl, has created a novel filled with sensitivity and grace.  Her deep exploration of the impact of an unexpected pregnancy offers insight into not only this issue but any momentous occurrence in the lives of teens.  The inner strength it takes to deal with such situations is a large focus of the novel.  Knowles’ writing is easy to read and keeps itself simple while exploring such complex subjects.

The various choices of a pregnant teen are shown not only through Ellie but through the families of all of the characters.  There are sisters who had abortions, parents who got married because of a pregnancy, and the option of adoption.  The beauty of the novel is that there is no judgment about any of the decisions made.  They simply are.

Knowles also excels at creating four distinct types of families for the teens.  Ellie’s distant aloof family, Josh’s dysfunctional one, Corinne’s loving parents, and Caleb’s nearly-perfect but embarrassing single mother.  Again, Knowles offers a banquet of diversity without judgment.

Highly recommended, this novel is deep, moving and lovely.  Appropriate for teens 14-18.

Reviewed from ARC gotten at ALA.

Also reviewed on Sharon Loves Books and Cats, Kate’s Book Blog, and The Unnamed Forest.  You can check out Jo Knowles’ blog too!

How to Potty Train Your Monster

| Tasha

How to Potty Train Your Monster by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Mike Moon.

In a handy step-by-step format, readers find out the dangers and difficulties of potty training a monster.  You have to make sure your monster is ready (most should be 7 feet tall).  You have to get him a giant potty chair because he is too big for the normal toilet.  And the book ends with the joys of monster underwear as an incentive.  Parents will immediately see that this book is about children being potty trained, but children may be too caught up in the monster humor to feel any pressure themselves.

The tone here is just right, allowing children to laugh about learning to use the potty.  The humor is physical, potty humor that all children will hoot about.  The unexpected twists and turns in potty training are showed to monstrous proportions and great effect.  Moon’s illustrations bring to life a bright-colored menagerie of monsters with silly befitting names.  Their google-eyed furriness is much more funny than frightening.

A great example of a potty book that is not saccharine or dull.  I’ve potty trained two monsters myself, so I know that every word here is true!  Appropriate for 2-4 year olds.  Older children will enjoy the humor and hopefully will not need the potty tips.

Reviewed from library copy.

Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally)

| Tasha

Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) by Lisa Yee, illustrated by Dan Santat

Will be released in September 2009.

Bobby and Holly have been best friends for years, but now that they are in fourth grade, everything is changing.  Though they hung out together at the Labor Day Fiesta, they immediately separated when one of Holly’s girl friends appeared.  Bobby was left holding the fish that Holly had won with his last dollar.  Now Bobby finds himself always at odds with the girls in his class, especially Holly.  Plus, he now has a fish and not the dog he has always wanted.  What’s a boy to do?

Yee has struck the exact right tone here for children in 3rd and 4th grades.  She has incorporated just enough humor, friendly adults, and an age-old complication of grade school.  Bobby is a protagonist who finds himself constantly thrust into unexpected situations, and he manages to make the best of them in the end.  His dilemmas are funny, relatable and interesting.  Another touch that I appreciated was the subtle insertion of different races into the text.  Bobby is part Chinese, and one of his friends is part Indian.  It is referred to in passing and just as part of life.  Nicely handled and very important. 

My ARC copy of the book does not include the art except for rough drafts, so I can’t speak to that aspect though the number of illustrations will make the book welcoming to young readers.

A great book for young readers, this will speak to them and their lives.  Recommended for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from ARC sent by Scholastic.

Wild Girl

| Tasha

Wild Girl by Patricia Reilly Giff

Lidie lives with her aunt and uncle in Brazil, and now is being reunited with her father and brother in the United States.  In Brazil she spends her time riding horses and she hopes to be able to show her father, a horse trainer, and her brother, a jockey-in-training, that she can ride too.  Reaching America, she finds that so much is different.  From the language barrier, to her skills at school, to her relationship with her father.  Everyone expects her to be the small girl they left behind in Brazil, but she has changed.  Her father gives her an old horse to teach her to ride, not knowing that she can ride well.  But Lidie wants to ride Wild Girl, the new spirited and unbroken filly.  How can Lidie show everyone who she really is without betraying everything she once was and where she came from?

Lidie is a fantastic character.  Her voice is strong and consistent, her dilemma understandable and relatable, and her actions true to who she is.  I love having a heroine in books who is flawed, struggling and gloriously real.  Lidie is a voice for many girls who come to the United States, struggle with the language, and are bright, vivacious and fascinating. 

By combining girlhood and horses, Giff has created the perfect setting.  Everyone can relate to a love of horses and riding.  It is a language that translates across all of us.  A world we are all a part of.  It was a brilliant choice of setting and character melding together.

Giff has also excelled at creating a home filled with love where there are communication problems and misunderstandings.  She has written all of our homes into this one, a universal home for children who are seen as younger than they really are and are struggling to reveal who they have become. 

With her universal themes combined with a vivid characterization, Giff has created a book that should be in the hands of almost every pre-teen girl.  I guarantee that they will see themselves on the page no matter what their first languages are.  Highly recommended for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy provided by Random House.

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing the Piano

| Tasha

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing the Piano by Peggy Gifford

This third book in the Moxy Maxwell series continues with the same spirit and humor as the first two.  In this book, Moxy is getting ready for her piano recital, or she is supposed to be.  But she has a long list of things she has to do, which doesn’t include practicing her duet with her little sister Pansy.  So she must make a Green Grass Power shake for upper body strength, she must warm up her voice in case she is asked to sing, she must try on the cape that her grandmother is making for the recital, and much more.  Plus her mother expects her to practice the hard part of her song and her piano teacher expects her to stop at the end of the song and stop the banging in the middle.  Even with everyone’s great planning and expectations, things do not work out as Moxy envisioned them at the recital.

I adore Moxy’s character.  She is headstrong, unique and vivacious.  In each book, she remains true to herself and no one else.  Every other character is also written with great spunk, giving Moxy a canvas to really shine against.  All of the book feature the skilled photography of Valorie Fisher, who manages to take pictures just like a gifted young person would.  Her great eye mixes flawlessly with the great voice of the novel. 

Laugh-out-loud funny and a great hoot for this daughter of a pianist, I highly recommend you head out and read all of the Moxy books.  Right now!  If you are already a fan, this third novel will not disappoint at all.  Appropriate for ages 8-12.

Reviewed from copy sent by the publisher.

One Fine Trade

| Tasha

One Fine Trade retold by Bobbi Miller, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand

A retelling of the classic folktale style of trading for something worse and then reversing the trading to finally get what you set out for.  In this version, Georgy Piney Woods is a peddler.  His daughter asks him to trade her horse so that she can get a silver dollar to buy her wedding dress.  So he trades the horse for a cow, the cow for a dog, the dog for a stick.  Sounds worse and worse, doesn’t it?  But never fear, a solution, unexpected and wonderfully complex, is on its way.  I wouldn’t want to spoil the tale and tell you the ending though!

Miller excels at writing in a traditional way.  Her words evoke a history of folktales without effort.  It is filled with great folksy sayings like “How-do!” And the text is made for reading aloud with its partial sentences that really read like someone is speaking.  Miller has also added lovely descriptive passages about the land Georgy is passing through on his travels.  Daisies are a-dancing, gators are a-splashing, and catbirds are a-mewing.  Hillenbrand takes these passages and brings the entire story to life.  His art is friendly and folksy, with an angular horse, deep darkness of swampland, and one amazingly large stick.  Each character he draws has its own feel and style, which is quite a challenger in a book with such a series of people appearing.

A great read-aloud version of the folktale and well worth trading a horse for!  Appropriate for ages 4-8.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by Fuse #8 and Shari Lyle-Soffe.