Month: June 2011

Book Review: The Summer Before Boys by Nora Raleigh Baskin

| Tasha

summerbeforeboys

The Summer Before Boys by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Julia is spending the summer with Eliza, who is her age but is also her niece.  Julia’s mother has been sent overseas with the National Guard and her father can’t watch Julia and work.  So the two girls spend their summer together, often heading up to the hotel where Eliza’s father works.  The friends spend a lot of time playing pretend, imagining that they are back in time when girls wore long dresses.  But Julia is worried about her mother and the war.  She has also discovered a boy named Michael who seems interested in her too.  But pursuing Michael may mean leaving Eliza behind.

This is a book about changing from being a child to being a teen.  Baskin perfectly captures that transition, that tension that is achingly real here.  Her writing explores the changes, the new-sounding laughter of flirtation, the running both from and to boys at the same time, the loss of imagination, the setting aside of old priorities for new ones.  She allows us to see the friendship of the two girls first as it always has been with a comfort, a shorthand, a natural ease.  And then we watch it change before our eyes as one girl grows up faster than the other, and tensions begin to create cracks and shifts.

Julia is a beautifully crafted heroine who is honest, confused, and filled with a depth of feeling and awareness that makes the book so special.  I enjoyed seeing the world change through Julia’s eyes rather than having it be Eliza, the one being left behind, who was the first person voice.  And the ending, the ending!  It is exactly what the book needed, what all of us who have left childhood behind need to remember.  Lovely.

Highly recommended, this book is a stellar piece of tween fiction that captures that age with depth and beauty.  Appropriate for ages 11-13.

Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Reviewed by

Book Review: Slog’s Dad by David Almond

| Tasha

slogsdad

Slog’s Dad by David Almond, illustrated by Dave McKean

Originally a short story, this small book is eerie, haunting and achingly sad.  Slog’s father is dead and he knows it.  But when he sees the scruffy man outside the butcher shop, he knows that it is his father who has returned to see him.  But Davie, his best friend, is just as convinced that this man is a fake.  The story explores the way that Slog’s father died, slowly and by tangible steps.  It is a story of grief but also one of hope that asks unanswerable questions and allows readers to stay in the in-between world where hope thrives but so does doubt.

Almond and McKean paired up for The Savage, an amazing work of fiction.  This story is gentler and hopeful.  It quietly explores grief, allowing the poignant moments to live, hover and hope.  It is a story of dreams and beauty, of the unexpected and the amazing.  Almond’s writing is at times so blunt that it is traumatic and unblinking.  At other times, it is eerie and bizarre.  And at still others it is haunting, hopeful and trembling.

McKean’s illustrations help bring the story to a new level.  From the almost photographic detail of some of them, where the warped faces are the only clue that you are not looking at a photograph to the line drawings that soar with greens and blues hovering above heads.  These are illustrations that explore the emotions of the book.  They are not concerned with a unified look and feel, but with the look and feel that is right for that moment in the story. 

A gorgeous work of writing and art, this book is a testament to grief, hope and wonder.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by:

2011 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards

| Tasha

Roger Sutton announced the winners and honor books for the 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards on his blog. 

Here they are:

Fiction Winner

Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones

Fiction Honors

 

Chime by Franny Billingsley

Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke

 

Nonfiction Winner

The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin

Nonfiction Honors

 

Into the Unknown: How Great Exploreres Found Their Way by Land, Sea and Air by Stewart Ross, illustrated by Stephen Biesty

Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins, illustrated by Vicky White

 

Picture Book Winner

Pocketful of Posies: A Treasure by Nursery Rhymes by Salley Mavor

Picture Book Honors

 

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen

Pecan Pie Baby by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Sophie Blackall

Book Review: If Rocks Could Sing by Leslie McGuirk

| Tasha

ifrockscouldsing

If Rocks Could Sing: a Discovered Alphabet by Leslie McGuirk

This is such an intriguing premise for an alphabet book!  Each alphabet along with the items that the letter stands for are shown in rocks.  The rocks were found along a Florida shore and not changed to look this way.  It is a book based on finding treasures others overlook and seeing possibilities.  The book has a simple layout, allowing the rocks to be the feature here.  It begins with A is for Addition with rocks standing in for 1, 8, = and 9.  B is for Bird with a very unique bird-shaped rock posed in a nest.  C is for couch potato, because who could ever not use this perfectly potato-like rock!  The book is a whimsical tribute to beachcombing.

It is such a simple concept that it has to be done right.  While a couple of the rocks do seem more like blobs than the object they are meant to be, others are startlingly close.  Look at the T is for Toast page, and you can almost see the whole-wheat grain in the toast slice.  The book is a delight just to page through and discover.

It is a book that will have you looking for much more than pretty seashells on your next visit to the beach!  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

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

Also reviewed by Journey of a Bookseller.

Check out the trailer:

Book Review: Are You Awake? by Sophie Blackall

| Tasha

areyouawake

Are You Awake? by Sophie Blackall

Edward wakes up in the middle of the night and can’t sleep.  Luckily, his mother is right there though she is sleeping.  But Edward has so many questions to ask, that he can’t help but ask them right then and there.  The recurring question is “Why is it still nighttime?”  His mother has many answers for that question:  the alarm clock hasn’t rung yet, the sun hasn’t risen yet.  But Edward continues to ask a series of spiraling, looping questions that are endearing, charming and yes, enough to keep even the more tired mother awake.  As the book progresses, the two of them start talking about yellow things, and as Edward’s mother lists more and more things that are yellow, he begins to drowse, just as the room fills with the yellow light of the sun.

The conversations between mother and child in this book are so natural that all families will have some version of this story in their personal histories.  The lines of text are done in two different fonts, one for each character, so their voices are easily read aloud, but no extra words are needed.  Thanks to this, the book has a flow and ease to it that is just as charming as the conversation happening between mother and son.

Blackall’s illustrations play with the dim nighttime room, using just subtle touches of color in the otherwise black and white illustrations.  Readers with sharp eyes will notice the subtle changes as the night progresses, from a deep darkness, to blue tinged, to pinks, and finally to the bold yellow of the sunny day. 

Filled with gentle humor, clever writing and illustrations that convey the loving relationship, this book is a small gem ideal for bedtime reading snuggling under the covers.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Henry Holt.

Punk Farm–The Movie

| Tasha

MGM has announced that it will be doing an animated version of Punk Farm, based on the picture book by Jarrett Krosoczka.  While MGM is not known for animated films, this project will be a major one for the studio as it emerges from bankruptcy.  We will just have to wait and see what the CG animation looks like.

Book Review: Bring on the Birds by Susan Stockdale

| Tasha

bringonthebirds

Bring on the Birds by Susan Stockdale

This is a bright and bold picture book about birds.  Written in simple, rhyming text, the book is a celebration of the diversity of birds around the world.  It shows birds of different sizes, colors and habitats.   Some are active, others sitting, and still others hang upside down.  There is a section at the end of the book that has more information on each bird as well as a list of nonfiction titles about birds for children to explore. 

The text here is so simple that it glides past.  The rhythm and rhyme is gentle and unifies the book.  The illustrations are the glory of the book offering simple backgrounds that the birds shine against.  Even in their simplicity, the illustrations manage to convey the birds’ habitat and size. 

Definitely not for the birds, this is a very successful nonfiction picture book for young readers.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Peachtree Publishers.

Also reviewed by:

So Many Computers in Libraries…Was a Mistake

| Tasha

librarycomputers

http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarycommission/5041211887/

The new Children’s Laureate in the UK, Julia Donaldson, has expressed concerns about the number of computers in public libraries. 

“I thought it was a shame when so many computers were brought into libraries – adults using them for playing card games, teenagers looking at [questionable] websites, I thought that was a mistake,” she told The Herald.

“At the time [as computers were being installed] I said we needed to have more children’s writing specialists.

“I might get into hot water by saying this, but I would love to see more [investment] going into stocking children’s titles, even at the expense of adult sections. But part of my job is to create a stink.”

Sigh. 

I do hope that eventually people understand that libraries are about far more than books.  Yes, books are important, vital to our world and communities, but to disparage the offering of computers by public libraries is not helpful.  We get people into our libraries because we offer computers, because we offer open access to information whatever format it may appear in.  We are working hard to get digital books into libraries in a way our patrons will respond to.  In this day to equate books with reading and computers with playing games is simply wrong.

I also sigh over her willingness to improve children’s collections in libraries at the expense of adult collections.  While that may be her focus as Children’s Laureate, I think it’s another naïve and damaging statement to make about libraries.  Libraries definitely focus on children’s services.  Right now, I am typing this down the hall from a children’s performer singing lively songs to an enormous group of preschoolers.  I see the need for strong children’s collections, and deep knowledge of reading and books among library staff, but let’s not pit adult reading vs. children’s reading.  Both are great!

So that’s my opinion as a public library administrator.  What about you?  Do you think there are too many computers in libraries?  Should we be funding children’s collections at the expense of adult? 

Chris Colfer Gets Children’s Book Deal

| Tasha

Chris Colfer, star of Glee, has signed a two-book deal with Little Brown.  The first book, The Land of Stories, will be released in the summer of 2012.  Colfer does have writing experience.  Right now he is writing scripts for a Disney Channel pilot and for a feature film.

It will be interesting to see if he can rise above the usual star author fare with his books.  What do you think?  Are you excited to read his books?