Month: August 2014

Review: Blind by Rachel DeWoskin

| Tasha

blind

Blind by Rachel DeWoskin

When Emma was 14 watching fireworks with her family, a rocket backfired and hit the crowd, burning Emma across her eyes and leaving her blind.  Emma has to learn how to live as a blind person, pitied by everyone but mostly by herself.  She learns to walk with a cane after months of sitting on the family couch not doing anything at all.  She is sent to a special school where she learns to read braille and yearns to be back with her best friend at normal high school.  After working hard for a year, Emma manages to progress enough to be allowed to return to normal high school, but everything has changed.  Not only is it difficult being blind there, but a classmate has been found dead.  Now Emma has to figure out how to process the girl’s death without becoming the PBK – Poor Blind Kid again.

DeWoskin has written a complex book here.  The heart of it, Emma’s blindness is brilliantly captured.  Readers will learn about the limitations of being blind, but also how it makes to listen differently and with more attention than before.  The small coping mechanisms are fascinating, such as always wearing a tan bra so that you know it won’t show through any of your shirts and the fact that blind girls still wear makeup, but theirs has to be labeled in a way you can touch. 

Emma is a great heroine.  Her grieving process is clearly shown as is her determination to return to normal.  She is strong but not too strong, so that she is fully human on the page.  When Emma creates a group of students who meet secretly to deal with the girl’s death, the book slows.  While it is an interesting device to show how teens can come together to help one another grieve and heal, it is far less compelling than Emma’s own journey. 

A book that will reach beyond those interested in visual impairment, this teen novel shows the resilience of a girl suddenly blinded but who discovers an inner strength she had never realized she had.  Appropriate for ages 13-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Viking.

Review: Tickly Toes by Susan Hood

| Tasha

tickly toes

Tickly Toes by Susan Hood, illustrated by Stephane Barroux

This playful board book looks at infants’ interest in their own toes, whether it is when they are being tickled by someone else, or when they see them in the bubbly bath water.  Written as if a parent is addressing the baby directly, this book will read aloud well to the smallest of listeners.  With illustrations that invite counting, this book is also an invitation to count baby’s own toes right now.

Hood avoids being too sing-songy in her rhyme, instead keeping it jaunty.  Even when baby pulls of his booties and flings them away, the tone remains entirely positive and encouraging as baby finds his feet all on his own.  The illustrations by Barroux are bright and large.  They show the ten toes on many pages as well as a loving family environment around him.

Get your toes wiggling with this bright and bouncy board book.  Appropriate for ages birth to 2.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Kids Can Press and NetGalley.

This and Last Week’s Tweets, Pins & Tumbls

| Tasha

Here are the links I shared on my Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr accounts this week that I think are cool:

Keep calm... seriously, you're in a library

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Angry parents criticise Julia Donaldson for ‘inappropriate’ smoking scarecrow – Telegraph http://buff.ly/1ouooGZ #kidlit

Author and illustrator Ashley Bryan comes of age – The Portland Press Herald – http://buff.ly/1u0YNco #kidlit

‘Creepy’? New ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ book cover confuses readers – Books http://buff.ly/1okdAM8 #kidlit

George R.R. Martin’s children’s book gets re-release http://buff.ly/1o8gzae #kidlit

It’s time to rethink what children’s non-fiction could be – Telegraph http://buff.ly/V1Q3mS #kidlit

J.K. Rowling reaches out to shooting survivor who quoted Dumbledore – CNET http://buff.ly/1r67xsS #kidlit

Picture a Novel from Lane Smith http://buff.ly/1xwhxOm #kidlit

Starred reviews, September/October Horn Book Magazine – The Horn Book http://buff.ly/1y61Cq7 #kidlit

Top Ten Novels in Verse by Katie Strawser | Nerdy Book Club http://buff.ly/1ouoD4I #kidlit

What are the best books for children who feel ‘weird’ or different? | Children’s books http://buff.ly/1ugyOec #kidlit

http://lisnews.org/how_a_new_dutch_library_smashed_attendance_records

LIBRARIES

Macmillan’s Full Catalog of Ebooks Now Available to Public Libraries | American Libraries Magazine http://buff.ly/1nnUlfl #ebooks #libraries

The Way Upward | Design4Impact http://buff.ly/1rWn0Qj #libraries

PUBLISHING TRADE

Google partners with Barnes & Noble for same-day book delivery | The Verge http://buff.ly/1ogxg4m

James Patterson: If I were Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (Opinion) http://buff.ly/1u1wE4T

TEEN READS

How Rainbow Rowell Turned A Bomb Into A Best-Selling Novel http://buff.ly/1nw59bq #yalit

WILS WORLD

"Attention is a scarce resource in this century" #wils14

Don’t just do things right, do the right things. #wils14

Don’t sacrifice good for the perfect. #wils14

If you aren’t risking failure, you aren’t moving the library forward enough. #wils14

Innovation can happen in a time of reduced funding. You don’t need additional resources. #wils14

Measure success via serendipity rather than productivity – look at things in other ways than industrial measures. #wils14

People overwhelmed by choice and full library shelves. #wils14

Relationship with publishers – do libraries pay more or walk away? #wils14

Start very small and very quickly to hear immediately from potential customers and react and reprioritize – #wils14

Your library catalog is very expensive real estate so use it to promote library events. #wils14

Review: Uni the Unicorn by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

| Tasha

uni the unicorn

Uni the Unicorn by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Brigette Barrager

Released August 26, 2014.

Do you believe in unicorns?  One might expect the main question of this book to be just that, but instead it’s a question of whether unicorns should believe in little girls.  Uni was a normal unicorn in most ways.  She may have had extra sparkly eyes and her mane may be extra luxurious, but she could heal with her horn like the others and make wishes come true too.  But the one thing that made Uni different was that she believed that little girls were actually real!  Her parents just smiled at her when she insisted little girls were real and her friends laughed at her.  But Uni just knew that somewhere in the world was a little girl just for her.  And out in the world, there was.

Rosenthal has written a book with a surprise twist that makes it fresh and radiant.  Using the unicorn as the heart of the book and indisputably real is a delightful way to approach this mythical beast.  Rosenthal writes that both the unicorn and the girl are looking for a friend who is “strong smart wonderful magical.”  The emphasis on that rather than beauty is appreciated, particularly in a book about unicorns. 

Barrager’s art is lush and colorful.  Her digital illustrations feel like pop art with their modern edge.  Showing Uni longing for her little girl by reading books and drawing pictures is a clever and clear way to tie her to the little girls who may be longing for a unicorn.

I’m not a huge unicorn fan and hate drippy books that are too sweet.  Unicorn fans will adore this book and those of us on the lookout for books that are saccharine will be pleasantly surprised.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

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

Smoking Hot Controversy

| Tasha

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The Scarecrow’s Wedding by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler has garnered some criticism from parents for having an evil scarecrow who smokes.  Evidently, it’s not enough that the bad guy is the one smoking, nor that the other characters actually say out loud that smoking is bad, but just the image of a cigar is enough to cause concern for children.

I have a copy of the book and wanted to see what the fuss was about.  I must admit I was surprised at how clearly smoking was dealt with as something bad and then that even the bad guy doesn’t really successfully smoke.  I’ve taken a picture of the page in question, and honestly it is just a single page in the entire book.  This way you can make up your mind if it’s appropriate for your school, library or children.

photo 1

I also appreciate the fact that the cigar is actually part of the plot.  When it falls from Reginald’s hand, it starts a fire that is important to the progress of the story. 

So what do you think?  Should children’s books have smoking in them?  Is it ever OK? 

Review: Flashlight by Lizi Boyd

| Tasha

flashlight

Flashlight by Lizi Boyd

Released August 12, 2014.

The author of the fantastic Inside Outside returns with another wordless book featuring the same little boy.  Here the boy is outside in a tent at night and uses his flashlight to explore.  As he moves around, his flashlight shows white and color against the deep black and greys of the rest of the scene.  He locates his lost yellow boot, finds different animals out at night, sees plants and fish, and finds an apple to eat.  But then he trips and his flashlight goes flying until it is found by a raccoon who uses it to show the boy himself in the beam.  Then all of the animals get a turn with the flashlight until they lead the boy back to his tent.

I adore this book.  It is so simple with the pitch blackness of the page, the grey lines that show the characters and nature, and then that surprising and revealing beam of light that cuts a swath through the darkness.  One reason it works so well is that the rest of the page is not complete darkness, instead you get a feel of the woods around and the animals, but when the light does shine on them even more is shown. 

Boyd uses small cutouts on the page to great effect.  They reveal dens, flowers, small touches.  In their own subtle way, they too shine a light of attention on even smaller components of the illustrations.  They are a subtle but important part of the book.

Beautiful, dark and mysterious, this picture book is a wordless story of exploration and wonder.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Chronicle Books.

A Wrinkle in Time – The Disney Movie

| Tasha

A Wrinkle in Time (Time, #1)

The writer of Disney’s hit movie Frozen has signed on to pen the screenplay of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic science fiction book A Wrinkle in Time.  At this time, there is no director assigned to the project, though it does have producers.

It will be very interesting to see what Disney does with A Wrinkle in Time.  Here’s hoping that it keeps its scientific, questioning wonder without going all soppy on us.

Waking Brain Cells Anniversary!

| Tasha

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Waking Brain Cells turns 11 years old today!

I am honored to have been writing things for you all to read for so many years, even more honored that people continue to read what I write, that publishers continue to work with me, and that teachers, librarians and parents take time out of their busy day to find out about new and beloved books. 

Thank you so much for spending time with me and for caring what people read.  That is what is worth celebrating.

Reading and Intelligence

| Tasha

A new study from Edinburgh and King’s College in London studied 1890 pairs of identical twins over the course of nine years.  The twins took IQ tests at age seven, nine, ten, 12 and 16.  The results showed that those children who were better at reading had a higher general intelligence.

Because the study used identical twins, genetic and environmental factors were able to be set aside.  The results showed that even with identical twins, if one twin could read better that twin would do better at IQ tests.

This fascinating result shows that being better at reading does more than allow you to read better, it speaks to being deeper than that and more profound.