Month: January 2013

Review: One Came Home by Amy Timberlake

| Tasha

one came home

One Came Home by Amy Timberlake

Georgie knows that she is the reason her sister Agatha left.  When an unidentifiable body is found with her sister’s hair color and the dress her mother sewed, everyone assumes it is Agatha.  But Georgie refuses to accept that.  She sets off to find out what happened to her sister.  In 1871 in rural Placid, Wisconsin, Georgie is forced to ask her sister’s old beau Billy to give her a horse.  She has a gun that she is an expert at using and a destination in mind, where the body was found.  It doesn’t work out the way Georgie expects since Billy insists on joining her for the trip and gives her a mule rather than a horse to ride.  The two set off arguing all the way, traveling through the debris from the largest passenger pigeon nesting in history, finding wild adventures along the way. 

Written in a lyrical voice, the prose in this book is noteworthy and lovely.  Timberlake has radiantly recreated both the society and setting of the late 1800s.  Happily, she spends less time on clothes and societal niceties and much more on spirit and gumption.  Early in the book you can see her words at work, drawing a picture of the two sisters using imagery from nature around them:

Feathers flew up with each breaking bottle. Pigeon feathers that spring were like fallen leaves in the autumn-they were everywhere, in everything. But there’s a difference between feathers and leaves. Feathers claw their way back into the sky, whereas leaves, after flying once, are content to rest on the earth. Agatha? She was a feather. She pushed higher, farther always. I suspected my constitution was more leaf than feather. I hoped I was wrong about that, though, because I wanted to be like Agatha.

Georgie is a tremendous protagonist.  She’s a natural with a rifle, looks forward to taking over the family store in their small town.  She’s not interested in boys and is far more concerned with her own future with her sister than with anything else.  She speaks with confidence and very boldly, never keeping her opinions to herself for long.  At the same time, she is also the voice of the novel, and through that she herself looks at the world in a poetic way.

Beautiful with a strong heroine, this book is a dazzling read for tweens.  Appropriate for ages 9-12. 

Reviewed from copy received from Knopf Books for Young Readers.

This Week’s Tweets and Pins

| Tasha

Here are the links I shared on my Twitter and Pinterest accounts this week that you might find interesting:

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

The Art of Breaking Hearts – Books that will make your heart ache « The Ship’s (B)log http://buff.ly/V2WVjg

The Call That Changes Everything – or Not – PW speaks with previous Newbery & Caldecott winners about that famous call http://buff.ly/X8f0XT

Hold On To Your Tighty Whities, Captain Underpants Is Back! : NPR http://buff.ly/10xs3de

Michael Ian Black re-teams with artist Debbie Ohi for children’s book ‘Naked!’ — The Family Room http://buff.ly/XhMmDY

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas: The ABC’s of Learning to Read Through Play – A thru M http://buff.ly/WK72mY

My top five: books to grab in an emergency! | Children’s books http://buff.ly/Xe3j25

EBOOKS

How bookshops could be happy ever after: ebooks could provide new revenue stream – The Independent http://buff.ly/UZbww1

LIBRARIES

7 Free Technologies Your Library Should be Using http://buff.ly/11qYaKX

Bexar set to turn the page on idea of books in libraries – San Antonio Express-News http://buff.ly/VYKikV

Libraries crisis set to get ‘much worse’ this year in the UK – http://buff.ly/W4DAu2

PUBLISHING

10 Ways Publishers Can Succeed and Survive | Publishing Perspectives http://buff.ly/W470sb – note the message to work with libraries!

TECHNOLOGY

The Nightmare That Keeps Microsoft Awake… Android On The Desktop – Forbes http://buff.ly/11rhCHa

TEEN READS

Here They Are — The Best Comic Books of 2013! | Underwire http://buff.ly/10zdqpS

A Literary Tour of Historical Y.A. – Entertainment-The Atlantic Wire http://buff.ly/VU3a4j

New Series from Author of THE MAZE RUNNER » EarlyWord http://buff.ly/10wKq1W #yalit

Top Ten Books featuring Autism Spectrum Disorders by Carrie Cox « Nerdy Book Club http://buff.ly/UZbvbs

Wouldn’t You Like to Know . . . Marissa Meyer | VOYA http://buff.ly/VEGEzo #yalit

Review: Building Our House by Jonathan Bean

| Tasha

building our house

Building Our House by Jonathan Bean

Told through the eyes of a young girl, this picture book chronicles her family’s move from the city to the country.  There in a bare field, they are going to build their own home.  The family works for a year and a half on their house, living in a very cozy trailer while they complete enough of the house to live in it.  Slowly the house takes shape from pegging out the corners to digging out the foundation to the incredible use of hand tools to work on the lumber for the frame.  Through it all, the entire family is involved in the process and what an amazing process it is!

There are plenty of lumber, rocks, trucks and construction in the book to keep children intrigued.  It is great to see a construction book where children are right in the middle of things, helping and getting fully engaged and dirty.  The story is based off of Bean’s own childhood when his own parents built their family home from the ground up.  It is told from his older sister’s perspective.  I think that is what really comes through in this story.  It is intensely personal but also wonderfully detailed so that children really get the feel of what it is to spend over a year building a home.

Bean’s writing and illustrations work beautifully together.  The illustrations are filled with small touches like the cats who join the family.  The seasons rush in and out, changing plans and creating a colorful background for the story.  This is a house that honors the site it is built on with all of the nature around it, the book does as well.

Get this into the hands of young construction enthusiasts definitely!  But it has appeal far beyond that since it is a story of family at its heart.  Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

2013 Scott O’Dell Award

| Tasha

Scott O'Dell Award

The Scott O’Dell Award is given to the author of a distinguished work of historical fiction for young people that is published by a US publisher and set in the Americas.  This year’s winner is:

Chickadee

Louise Erdrich for Chickadee

Erdrich also won in 2006 for The Game of Silence, another book in her Birchbark House series.

Tip of the hat to The Horn Book for the announcement.

Review: Road Trip by Gary Paulsen and Jim Paulsen

| Tasha

road trip

Road Trip by Gary Paulsen and Jim Paulsen

This collaboration of father and son is about a road trip to rescue a border collie puppy.  Ben and his father have not been getting along lately.  His father just told Ben that he has quit his job and started to flip houses.  That means that Ben’s hockey camp that he had been promised may not happen this summer.  The road trip is a way for the two of them to spend time together along with their adult border collie, Atticus, and for his dad to avoid his ticked-off mother.  When Ben realizes what is happening, he invites along a friend that his dad doesn’t really approve of.  That friend will not be the last surprise passenger on the trip as they quickly trade their failing truck for a school bus.  Told in alternating chapters, Ben and Atticus explain the journey in their own unique points of view.

This is really a love story to dogs.  Atticus is a huge part of the story, his reactions to people foreshadow what sort of person they will turn out to be.  The use of his perspective is also cleverly done so that his actions are explained to the reader even though the other humans in the book may not fully understand them.  Happily, the various odd characters who join them on their journey are also well drawn and interesting.

The writing is clever and fresh in this slim volume of just over 100 pages.  It is a great pick for reluctant readers.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

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

2013 Edgar Awards Nominees

| Tasha

edgarawards

The nominees for the 2013 Edgar Awards have been announced.  The awards are given by the Mystery Writers of America to acknowledge the best mystery writing of the year. 

Here are the nominees for the Best Juvenile and Best Young Adult mysteries of the year:

 

BEST JUVENILE

Fake Mustache 13 Hangmen The Quick Fix Spy School Three Times Lucky

Fake Mustache: Or, How Jodie O’Rodeo and Her Wonder Horse (and Some Nerdy Kid) Saved the U.S. Presidential Election from a Mad Genius Criminal Mastermind by Tom Angleberger

13 Hangmen by Art Corriveau

The Quick Fix by Jack D. Ferraiolo

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

 

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Emily's Dress and Other Missing Things The Edge of Nowhere (Saratoga Woods, #1) Crusher Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone Code Name Verity

Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things by Kathryn Burak

The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George

Crusher by Niall Leonard

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Review: Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue

| Tasha

sleep like a tiger

Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski

This is the story of a little girl who just wasn’t sleepy at bedtime.  Her parents agreed that she didn’t have to head right to bed, but she did have to put on her pajamas.  Then she had to wash her face, and that felt good.  She climbed into bed, because she loved the feeling of the sheets.  Then she asked about whether everything in the world sleeps.  Her parents explain that yes, like the dog being asleep on the couch where he shouldn’t be.  The book turns to explain about different animals and how they sleep from the upside down bats to floating whales to hibernating bears.  After talking, her parents let her stay awake in her bed.  The little girl begins to sleep like each of the animals, curling up like the dog, folding her arms like bat wings, finding the warmest spot like a cat.  Until finally, she is asleep like the strong tiger.

Oh what a bedtime story!  I had heard great things about this book and at first saw beautiful illustrations and a fairly normal story, but that changes and becomes something very special.  Once the little girl is in bed and talking about the animals, the language becomes more poetic and filled with imagery.  It is warm, cozy and infinitely inviting.

Zagarenski’s illustrations have a richness about them that enhances this bedtime tale.  Thanks to the golden crowns, they have an illuminated manuscript feel.  There is plenty of texture and pattern, but also a modern zing to the illustrations.  They are entirely winning.

This glorious bedtime story is a real treat to read aloud.  Get your own jammies on and cuddle up, I promise you will be dozing in no time, just like a tiger.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: From the Good Mountain by James Rumford

| Tasha

from the good mountain

From the Good Mountain: How Gutenberg Changed the World by James Rumford

A mysterious object appeared in Germany in the 15th Century.  “It was made of rags and bones, soot and seeds. It wore a dark brown coat and was filled with gold.  It took lead and tin, strong oak, and a mountain to make it.”  To find out the answer to this clever riddle that appears on the first page of this book, readers will visit the 15th century and meet Johannes Gutenberg, who has invented a way to print books with movable type.  The riddle is not left at the first page, but is the center of the entire book.  Each piece of the printing press is explored from the very elements it is made from to the final culmination in a printed document.  Each page is also illustrated like an illuminated manuscript. 

Come visit the world of Gutenberg in this picture book biography that takes a very unique and intriguing approach to its subject matter.  This is much more a biography of the press itself than Gutenberg the man.  It is about the ingenuity and foresight it took to see such a construct in raw materials.  Readers are sure to learn much about the process of printing and what materials were used to create books.

Rumford’s art is just as wonderful as his writing.  The illuminated manuscript feel of the book is captured in its use of golds that seem to shine on the page like gold leaf.  He also uses the deep blues and other rich hues to create a feel of timeless beauty.

This is an intriguing read that will appeal to students who enjoy puzzles and riddles.  It is a book that unwraps and explains in a clever, engaging way.  Appropriate for ages 7-9.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers

| Tasha

this moose belongs to me

This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers

Wilfred’s moose arrived a while ago and Wilfred just knew that the moose was meant to be his.  He called the moose, Marcel.  Wilfred had some serious rules if Marcel was going to be his pet, but Marcel didn’t seem interested in following them.  Some though, Marcel was very good at.  He did not make noise while Wilfred was listening to his music.  He provided Wilfred shelter from the rain and he knocked high things down so that Wilfred could reach them.  Then there were the rules that Marcel didn’t follow.  He didn’t stay near home and soon Wilfred had learned to carry string along with them so they could find their way back home after long jaunts.  It was on one of those long walks that Wilfred discovered that there was someone else who thought that THEY owned the moose! 

Jeffers once again captures a concept with solidity and grace.  He manages to take the idea of owning an animal and get readers to ask themselves about what ownership really means.  The character of Wilfred has to do some adapting of his own, quickly changing his own rules and beliefs to be more moderate and open-ended.  It also helped to share food.

The art here combines grand backdrops of mountains and plains with one small round-headed boy and a moose, dragging bright blue string behind.  It’s a wonderful juxtaposition that will have readers understanding immediately that this moose is certainly not a pet that belongs to anyone.

Another delight from Jeffers, this book is about wilderness, the wild, and owning a pet.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.