Month: March 2014

Review: Monday, Wednesday, and Every Other Weekend by Karen Stanton

| Tasha

monday wednesday and every other weekend

Monday, Wednesday, and Every Other Weekend by Karen Stanton

Henry and his dog, Pomegranate, live in two different houses.  On Mondays, Wednesdays and every other weekend, he lives with his mother on Flower Street.  On Tuesdays, Thursdays and every other weekend, he lives with his father two blocks away on Woolsey Avenue.  The two houses are very different.  They smell different, look different, sound different and even taste different.  Pomegranate though is never truly happy at either house.  He wants to be somewhere else.  Then one day, Pomegranate gets out and runs away.  Henry and his father head to Flower Street to see if he is with Henry’s mother, but no Pomegranate.  Then Henry realizes where Pomegranate must be and heads straight to the house where his family used to live all together.  Now a little girl lives there and she has Pomegranate with her! 

This book has such a strong heart.  Stanton clearly shows the differences between the two homes that Henry lives in.  The different neighborhoods, the different foods, the different sounds.  Both homes are beautiful, both are filled with love for Henry.  Stanton’s clever use of Pomegranate as the expression of the emotions involved in a divorce is well done.  She manages to allow Henry to be well adjusted and happy while still dealing with the complex emotions that divorce elicits.

The art is charming and wonderfully loud.  Done in collage mixed with painting, the colors shine on the page.  She makes sure to show the elements that make up life in each house, showing again the differences but also the similarities in the homes.

A memorable book on divorce for children, even children who have not experienced divorce themselves will enjoy this engaging title.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Feiwel & Friends.

Review: Anna Carries Water by Olive Senior

| Tasha

anna carries water

Anna Carries Water by Olive Senior, illustrated by Laura James

Anna wishes that she could carry water on her head the way her older brothers and sisters do.  Her family does not have running water in their home, so the children walk to the spring and back every day toting water.  Her siblings carry the water in different types of containers balanced on the top of their heads.  But Anna with her smallest container can’t do that.  Anna tries, but only manages to dump water down herself and have to refill the coffee can.  Then she carries it in her hands instead.  Anna’s oldest sister reminds her that when she is old enough to balance the water, it will just happen.  But can Anna wait that long?

This Caribbean picture book is a treat.  It not only offers a glimpse into a different way of life but also gives a gentle reminder of the importance of patience and perseverance.   Written in simple language, the book uses repetition very nicely to give it a sense of traditional folktale while being firmly set in the present day. 

The illustrations tell much of the story and also have a traditional feel mixed with modern content.  They are bright colored, vibrant and help make sure that readers know that they are in another part of the world.

A bright and vivid book, this is a great pick for sharing aloud and would make an unusual but great addition to any story time or unit on water.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Maze Runner – The Movie Trailer

| Tasha

2014 Shortlist for The Hans Christian Andersen Award

| Tasha

Hans Christian Andersen Award

The shortlist for the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Award has been announced.  From 58 candidates from 33 countries, the shortlist has been narrowed to six illustrators and six authors.  The award is given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People “to an author and illustrator whose complete works have made lasting contributions to children’s literature.”

AUTHOR SHORTLIST

Brothers: Life, Death, Truth Mijn Meneer Hou van mij: bijna alle gedichten en veel beelden 1984 - 2009

Ted van Lieshout (The Netherlands)

Reçel Kavanozu Testi Mecit'in Maceraları 1 - İlk Yıllar

Houshang Moradi Kermani (Iran)

Malka Anne Frank: A Hidden Life Treasures from the Attic: the Extraordinary Story of Anne Frank's Family

Mirjam Pressler (Germany)

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (Moribito, #1) 獣の奏者 1 闘蛇編 (Musician to the Beasts, #1) Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness (Moribito, #2)

Nahoko Uehashi (Japan)

Das Vamperl Johanna Drachenflügel

Renate Welsh (Austria)

Locomotion Feathers Each Kindness

Jacqueline Woodson (USA)

 

ILLUSTRATOR SHORTLIST

Frühlings-Wimmelbuch In the Town All Year 'Round Definitely Not for Little Ones: Some Very Grimm Fairy-tale Comics

Rotraut Susanne Berner (Germany)

Mr. Gumpy's Outing It's a Secret!

John Burningham (UK)

3383790 Snöret, fågeln och jag

Eva Lindstrom (Sweden)

mello1 mello2 mello3

Roger Mello (Brazil)

Toby and the Secrets of the Tree Tales of a Lost Kingdom: A Journey Into Northwest Pakistan Piratas

Francois Place (France)

My Father's Arms Are A Boat The Hole

Oyvind Torseter (Norway)

Review: She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick

| Tasha

she is not invisible

She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick

Released April 22, 2014.

Laureth keeps tabs on her famous father’s emails, making sure that his fans are responded to in a kind and timely way.  But one day, she gets an email from someone claiming to have her father’s writing journal.  The problem is, her father is supposed to be in Europe, but this person is in New York City.  Laureth’s mother doesn’t seem to care about her father being missing, so it is up to Laureth to figure out how to reach him and find out what happened.  But Laureth has an additional obstacle to her rescue mission: she is blind.  So she must fool her 7-year-old brother into joining her on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean to a huge city to find her father.  This is a quest unlike any other, written by a master.

Sedgwick’s writing is beautiful and effortless.  He has created a truly incredible character in Laureth, a girl who doesn’t even realize how brave she is.  Her blindness is both a huge factor in the novel but also never a factor in Laureth’s self perception.  She tries to pass as sighted throughout the novel, managing it at times and failing at others.  There are frightening encounters, moments of disorientation, and other times where blindness is the reason she survives. 

Sedgwick’s book is about far more than a girl who is blind making a quest.  It is about moments of coincidence too.  Sedgwick works this theme in by pulling quotes from Laureth’s father and his research into coincidence.  But it is also a large theme of the book itself, those breathtaking moments where the universe seems to be speaking just to you.  And it is those moments that make the connections we have with others stand out clearly.

A remarkable protagonist in a magical book, this is another winner for Sedgwick.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from digital copy received from NetGalley and Roaring Brook Press.

Review: Jim Curious by Matthias Picard

| Tasha

jim curious

Jim Curious: A Voyage to the Heart of the Sea by Matthias Picard

In black and white images, a boy walks out his house.  With a klang, he emerges and takes steps with a loud bong since he’s wearing a diving suit.  Turn the page, put on your 3D glasses, and once the boy enters the water the magic starts to happen.  Jim is now exploring.  He passes a sunken car and a long pipeline, but soon reaches the open ocean.  As the pages turn, the 3D effects are gasp-worthy and so well done.  Readers and Jim together are on an amazing journey at sea.

A nearly wordless book, this is true immersion.   I’m not usually a fan of books with gimmicks but the 3D is put to such incredible use on the page here that I found myself immediately drawn in.  It is so effective that you will find yourself reaching out to touch parts of the image that seem closest and then feel shocked when you touch a flat page.  It happened to me time and again. 

While this may not be ideal to circulate at libraries since the glasses will quickly be lost, this is a great gift book that is definitely worth exploring.  Appropriate for ages 4-10.

Reviewed from copy received from Abrams Books for Young Readers.

The Lack of People of Color in Children’s Books

| Tasha

The very talented father and son, Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers have both written separate pieces in the New York Times on the need for more children’s books to be written featuring children and people of color.  Both pieces are powerful and vital.

Walter Dean Myers writes of his own complex relationship with books and then his own role as a writer:

When I was doing research for my book “Monster,” I approached a white lawyer doing pro bono work in the courts defending poor clients. I said that it must be difficult to get witnesses to court to testify on behalf of an inner-city client, and he replied that getting witnesses was not as difficult as it sometimes appeared on television. “The trouble,” he said, “is to humanize my clients in the eyes of a jury. To make them think of this defendant as a human being and not just one of ‘them.’ ”

I realized that this was exactly what I wanted to do when I wrote about poor inner-city children — to make them human in the eyes of readers and, especially, in their own eyes. I need to make them feel as if they are part of America’s dream, that all the rhetoric is meant for them, and that they are wanted in this country.

Christopher Myers writes so poetically of the children we are not supporting and instead are abandoning:

We adults — parents, authors, illustrators and publishers — give them in each book a world of supposedly boundless imagination that can delineate the most ornate geographies, and yet too often today’s books remain blind to the everyday reality of thousands of children. Children of color remain outside the boundaries of imagination. The cartography we create with this literature is flawed.

My hope is that their voices are heard, that we move beyond platitudes to true inclusion of people and children of all sorts of diversity.  In the meantime, I will do my small part of selecting books for my community that show the rainbow of diversity that we serve and also blogging here and featuring books about diverse people.  We can make a change!

Review: The Dumbest Idea Ever! by Jimmy Gownley

| Tasha

dumbest idea ever

The Dumbest Idea Ever! by Jimmy Gownley

This graphic novel memoir focuses on one idiotic idea that changes comic-creator Gownley’s life forever.  At 13, Gownley was on top of the world.  He was popular, getting great grades, and was top-scorer on the school basketball team.  Then he got chicken pox and he had to miss the championship game.  But that wasn’t the end of his bad luck, he followed the chicken pox with a bout of pneumonia and missed more school.  Soon Jimmy wasn’t a basketball star and his grades were getting bad.  Jimmy did have one thing going for him though, the dumbest idea ever!  It was an idea that would make him money, get him popular again, find him a girlfriend, and even impress a very stern nun.  And let me tell you, it takes one amazingly stupid idea to accomplish all that!

Gownley reveals how he became a cartoonist in this graphic novel.  It is cleverly done with a strong story arc that keeps the entire book sturdily structured.  Gownley has a wonderful self-deprecating humor that works particularly well in comic format.  His humor is smart and very funny, often conveyed with ironic twists of eyebrows or sarcastic facial expressions.  The book is a quick read thanks to the format but also to the fast pacing that will have readers happily turning page after page. 

Get this into the hands of Smile! fans who will appreciate the humor, the honesty and the art.  Appropriate for ages 10-13.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Never Ending by Martyn Bedford

| Tasha

never ending

Never Ending by Martyn Bedford

Shiv is unable to live with her brother Declan’s death, particularly her own role in it.  So she is sent to the Korsakoff Clinic where she hopes to be cured and be able to continue her life.  Unable to see past her own guilt and loss, Shiv finds herself in an unusual clinic where she is first forced to focus on her brother and then forced to look directly at his death without turning away.  She is joined in the clinic by several other teens who all lost people in different ways but all feel as responsible and guilty as Shiv does.  As they are forced to see the truth of their loss, all of them react in different ways.  When hope is highest though, the ground falls out below Shiv and she must figure out that saving someone else may be the answer to saving herself.

Bedford has created a very compelling read.  He slowly reveals Shiv’s life before Declan’s death.  Along the way, readers get to know Shiv and Declan and their warm and loving parents.  They see directly what grief and loss do to people and the way their relationships are torn asunder.  They also see how hard it is to return to life after such a loss.  Bedford maintains a large level of complexity throughout the novel, moving into flashbacks and also showing Declan as a human rather than a lost angel.  The relationship between the siblings is good until a gorgeous young man enters their lives and creates waves for both of them.

As the flashbacks to Declan’s final days continue, the tension in the book mounts.  The pressure is also building in Shiv’s recovery as she starts to recover and then suffers setbacks.  There are no easy answers here.  Declan’s life as well as Shiv’s are complex.  The therapy she undergoes is unusual but it is up to Shiv to really do the work of recovery. 

Beautifully written and structured, this novel of recovery, pain and guilt weaves a mesmerizing web for the reader who is never quite sure how things are going to end.  Appropriate for ages 15-17.

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