Month: May 2011

Book Review: The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall

| Tasha

penderwickspointmouette

The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall

In this third Penderwicks novel, the family is separating for the first time.  For two weeks in the summer, their father will be heading off and so will Rosalind.  The remaining Penderwicks are off to vacation in Maine.  This leaves Skye as the OAP (oldest available Penderwick) to take care of the others, along with Aunt Claire.  Skye is overwhelmed with the responsibility, particularly for Batty and even more so when a soggy note warns her vaguely about the potential that Batty could “blow up.”  Jane continues to write books, but this summer she has decided to write about romance and doesn’t know much about it, so she develops a Love Survey.  Batty and Hound continue to easily make friends, and this summer Batty discovers a hidden talent all her own.  Jeffrey escapes the binds of his mother and stepfather to join the others in Maine and he too makes a discovery with the help of Jane and Skye. 

So many series become rather drab and dull in their third book, but the Penderwicks seem to be growing ever better and stronger.  The characters here are funny, bright, and complete individuals.  Birdsall writes each character as if they were her favorite, making it nearly impossible for readers to figure out which sister they enjoy most.  It was a pleasure to have a book where Skye shines so much as she struggles with new responsibilities and not wanting to let anyone down. 

In such a character-driven work, it can be easy to not notice the skill with which Birdsall interweaves the setting of Maine into the story.  But it is there, filling in the spaces in the novel where the characters have a quiet moment.  As if it is waiting for them to stop being busy and to notice the beauty around them.  From the seals on the islands, the moose on the golf course, and the cold of the water, Maine is a spectacular setting for this third book.

A cozy, wonderful story that is filled with humor, these books have the feel of a classic but remain modern.  If you are looking for a series to start reading aloud with your children, this is a great one.  Appropriate for ages 8-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Random House Children’s Books.

Also reviewed by:

Book Review: Follow Me by Tricia Tusa

| Tasha

followme

Follow Me by Tricia Tusa

A girl swings on a swing, traveling from one color to another.  As the colors change, so does her swinging speed and style, until she flies free from the swim altogether.  She gets lost in green and travels down into the brown of the forest, and then out into the blue of the sky once again.  Until she drifts back down to green.  Finally, returning back home.

If that description of the book seems loose and floaty, that’s because the book is that way too.  While it does mention colors, this is not an introductory book about colors.  Rather it is about colors in a larger sense, an emotive way.  It is a poem that dances along, inviting us all to take to the air too. 

Tusa’s illustrations are filled with gentle colors that are airy and light.  They are colors that make you take deep breaths, as they seem to be filled with fresh air.  The girl who we follow through the book and the poem has a charming quirky quality to her.  The distinction between the clarity of the air and its emptiness vs. the clutter of the girl’s home is lovely.  Both have their own appeal.

This book captures the freedom and lightness of swinging through the air and combines it with childhood imagination.  Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by Cracking the Cover.

Book Review: Little Mouse’s Big Secret by Eric Battut

| Tasha

littlemousesbigsecret

Little Mouse’s Big Secret by Eric Battut

When Little Mouse discovers a juicy red apple on the ground, he decides that it will be his secret.  So he hides it in a hole in the ground.  Once it is safely hidden, his friends appear one-by-one and ask him what he’s hiding.  Little Mouse insists to each animal that he will not tell because it’s his secret.  As Mouse talks with animal after animal, his back is to the apple and the hole he hid it in.  Soon a sprout appears from the hole, then a stalk and finally a tree.  Apples appear on the tree just as Little Mouse declares that he will keep his secret forever!  Then the apples fall to the ground.  All of the animals reappear and Little Mouse discovers that some secrets are even better when shared.

Battut has created a picture book perfect for very young children.  From the simple, friendly illustrations that have plenty of whitespace to the repetition built into the animals asking what the secret is, this book has lots of child appeal.  Each double-page spread has only two lines of text on their own page, creating a book that is quite engaging and fast moving.

Children will immediately get the humor of a fast-growing apple tree that the mouse is completely oblivious to until the apples fall around him.  The book also has a high cute factor, with the animals dwarfed by the growing tree, all bright-eyed and merry.  They are on a buttery-yellow background that adds to the coziness of the title.

Add this book to your autumn and apple book lists.  The very little mouse and other animals make it more appropriate for small groups or individual sharing.   Appropriate for ages 2-3.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by

Book Review: The Absolute Value of Mike by Kathryn Erskine

| Tasha

absolutevaluemike

The Absolute Value of Mike by Kathryn Erskine

Released June 9, 2011.

Mike takes care of his father, who is a rather absent-minded mathematical genius.  But Mike is definitely not mathematical, despite his father’s hopes.  When Mike’s father decides to send him to spend the summer with distant relatives in rural Pennsylvania to work on an engineering project, Mike sees it as a way to finally prove himself to his father.  Mike discovers far more than an engineering project when he arrives.  In fact, there is no engineering project at all.  There is his wild-driving nearly-blind aunt, his uncle who is so deep in mourning over the death of his adult son that he can’t move, a homeless man who has good business sense and is willing to give the shirt off his back, literally, and a tattooed and pierced girl who needs a family.  He finds a town that is working on a project to adopt a boy from Romania, a boy that Mike realizes is very connected to him in a personal way.  Mike has a lot to learn this summer, just not about engineering.

Erskine is a chameleon of an author, changing her tone, her writing style to match this lighter novel that has a strong, meaningful core.  The humor here ranges from subtle to laugh-out-loud funny observations and asides.  At its heart, this is a book about a boy who doesn’t know his own strengths or his own worth, because it can’t be measured mathematically.  It’s a book that is steeped in math down to its chapter titles, but at the same time speaks to the knowledge that humans and their abilities sometimes don’t add up logically.

This is also a book about loss and grief.  It’s a book about handling what the world has given you either by giving up altogether or by continuing on.  It’s a book about connections, building them, creating them.  And about how the hardest connections to create can be the closest ones.

This is a funny, light book that reads quickly and will stun readers by being far deeper and more meaningful than they would have ever expected.  Appropriate for ages 11-14.

Reviewed from ARC received from the author.

Also reviewed by:

Book Review: Vincent van Gogh and the Colors of the Wind by Chiara Lossani

| Tasha

VAN_GOGH_EER-US-Casecover.indd

Vincent van Gogh and the Colors of the Wind by Chiara Lossani, illustrated by Octavia Monaco

Based on Vincent van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo, this book explores how Van Gogh became one of the greatest painters.  Vincent is enthusiastic and always moving as a child.  When he got older, he became a preacher like his father but was fired from that job because he preached as much about art as Jesus.  Vincent then became a full-time painter, but everyone doubted this man who dressed like a scarecrow and wandered the fields.  Vincent discovers the Impressionists and finds friends among them, but his work suffers as he spends time in Paris and away from nature.  Vincent is finding his voice as an artist, creating paintings that are groundbreaking and surprising.  All with the support of Theo, his brother and best friend.

Lossani writes in prose here, but it flows like poetry.  She uses gorgeous imagery in her text, such as when she compares Gauguin and Van Gogh: “Can two volcanoes stand side by side without causing a calamity?”  Her prose has a modern feel, an artistic flow that works well with the subject matter.

Immediately upon seeing the cover of this picture book, you know it is something unique.  The illustrations have an energy to them.  Without imitating Van Gogh’s work, they somehow capture the feel, the flow, and the colors.  They are dynamic, modern and push the boundary of art being used in picture books for children.

This is a dynamic biographic picture book for children that will work well when used with elementary children in a classroom.  It is also one that would work well for families heading to an art museum.  Appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from copy received from Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

Also reviewed by Fuse #8.

Book Review: What’s Special about Me, Mama? by Kristina Evans

| Tasha

whatsspecialaboutmemama

What’s Special about Me, Mama? by Kristina Evans, illustrated by Javaka Steptoe

A child asks his mother what makes him unique.  She responds, “So many things, Love.”  He asks for examples.  She tells him that his eyes are unique, because they tell stories without words.  He dismisses that answer because he has always been told he has her eyes, so that’s not unique.  His mother goes on to talk about his skin color, which is just like his father’s.  Then his freckles, which are like Auntie Jade’s.  His hair is like his grandmother.  She starts to talk about the things he does, his special behaviors.  He continues to ask for more, until she explains that there is nothing little about love and that he is loved more than anyone in the world. 

The beautiful words by Evans have a rhythmic quality to them, a to and fro that works especially well here.  The conversation has its own ebb and flow, and then the mother speaks in a poetic and joyous way about her son.  It is a book that really speaks to the worth and special qualities of all children, but also of this specific one. 

Steptoe’s illustrations are done in collage and feature many different shades of skin the the same family.  The illustrations have bold colors and strong lines.  Done in crinkled paper, they have a texture and heft to them that is gorgeous.  I should also mention that the illustrations do not make it clear if the child is a boy or girl, making the book even more adaptable and interesting.

A joyous look at what makes someone special and unique, this book will have you smiling with its bright colors and embracing message.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

Book Review: What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

| Tasha

whathappenedtogoodbye

What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

Mclean has moved four times in the last two years.  Ever since her parents very public divorce, she has lived with her father and his restaurant management job keeps them moving around.  At each new place, Mclean changes her first name and also the persona she has in school.  Now she is in the second half of her senior year and in another new city.  Mclean renames herself Liz at first, but then finds herself using her real name, making real friends, and feeling connected to a community.  But Mclean hasn’t been herself in years.  In fact, she’s not really sure she knows who she is, just that she is not any of the personas she has been before.  This smart, thoughtful book examines the feeling of losing oneself only to realize that it’s hard to find yourself again.

Dessen excels at creating worlds in her books:  communities and characters that readers will want to linger with and befriend.  Mclean is one of those people, as are many of the secondary characters.  Mclean is a protagonist that readers will understand immediately.  She is much more of a mystery to herself than to the reader, which is a great piece of the novel.  She is strong and resilient, independent to a fault, but at her core she is afraid, defensive and hurt.  It’s an intriguing mix of characteristics. 

Dessen’s secondary characters are also well written and complex.  Mclean’s friends read as real people, their interests and quirks make for well-rounded characters.  From Beth, the new girl who never managed to make friends, to Dave, the genius whose parents no longer trust him.  They are far more than they seem, perfect foils for Mclean who is far more than she thinks she is. My only quibble is that I was quite taken with the character of Deb, and I rather wished the book had been about her as a main character. 

Dessen writes with humor, charm and a light touch.  What could have been a problem-novel becomes something much more enjoyable in her hands.  This is a book that will speak to almost every teen. 

Highly recommended, this book is sure to fly off of library shelves into the hands of Dessen’s fans.  But I can’t help but think what a great booktalk this book would make.  Just Mclean herself, her moves and her different names and personas would be all it would take to get this book into even more hands.  Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Reviewed from ARC received from Penguin Group.

Also reviewed by:

2011 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards

| Tasha

The winners of the 2011 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards have been announced with the incredible Margaret Mahy winning the Book of the Year!

Picture Book Category Award Winner and New Zealand Post Book of the Year

The Moon & Farmer McPhee by Margaret Mahy & David Elliot

 

Nonfiction Award Winner

Zero Hour: The Anzacs on the Western Front by Leon Davidson

 

Junior Fiction Award Winner

Finnigan & the Pirates by Sherryl Jordan

 

Young Adult Fiction Award Winner

Ebony Hill by Anna Mackenzie

 

Best First Book Award

Hollie Chips by Anna Gowan

Children’s Choice Awards

   

Overall Winner and Picture Book Winner : Baa Baa Smart Sheep by Mark Sommerset & Rowan Sommerset

Nonfiction Winner: Who’s Cooking Tonight by Claire Gourley & Glenda Gourley

Junior Fiction Winner: Hollie Chips by Anna Gowan

Young Adult Winner: Smiling Jack by Ken Catran

First Image of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss

| Tasha

Entertainment Weekly’s cover story is Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, and man, I am very impressed.  Love the hair, the bow, the mockingjay pin, and especially that strong look in the eye:

HG-Cover-550x734

What do you think?