Month: April 2015

Children’s Book Council of Australia – 2015 Book of the Year Short List

| Tasha

The short lists for the 2015 Book of the Year have been announced by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. Winners will be announced in August.

OLDER READERS

Are You Seeing Me? The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl

Are You Seeing Me? by Darren Groth

The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl by Melissa Keil

Intruder The Minnow

Intruder by Christine Bongers

The Minnow by Diana Sweeney

Nona and Me The Protected

Nona & Me by Clare Atkins

The Protected by Claire Zorn

 

YOUNGER READERS

Bleakboy and Hunter Stand Out in the Rain The Cleo Stories: The Necklace and the Present

Bleakboy and Hunter Stand Out in the Rain by Steven Herrick

The Cleo Stories: The Necklace and the Present by Libby Gleeson, illustrated by Freya Blackwood

Figgy in the World The Simple Things

Figgy in the World by Tamsin Janu

The Simple Things by Bill Condon, illustrated by Beth Norling

Two Wolves Withering-By-Sea

Two Wolves by Tristan Bancks

Withering-by-Sea by Judith Rossell

 

EARLY CHILDHOOD

Go to Sleep, Jessie! A House of Her Own

Go to Sleep, Jessie! by Libby Gleeson, illustrated by Freya Blackwood

A House of Her Own by Jenny Hughes, illustrated by Jonathan Bentley

 Pig the Pug

Noni the Pony Goes to the Beach by Alison Lester

Pig the Pug by Aaron Blabey

Scary Night 

Scary Night by Lesley Gibbes, illustrated by Stephen Michael King

Snail and Turtle Are Friends by Stephen Michael King

 

PICTURE BOOK OF THE YEAR

The Duck and the Darklings Fire

The Duck and the Darklings illustrated by Stephen Michael King, text by Glenda Millard

Fire illustrated by Bruce Whatley, text by Jackie French

My Two Blankets One Minute's Silence

My Two Blankets illustrated by Freya Blackwood, text by Irena Kobald

One Minute’s Silence illustrated by Michael Camilleri, text by David Metzenthen

21952818 The Stone Lion

Rivertime by Trace Balla

The Stone Lion illustrated by Ritva Voutila, text by Margaret Wild

 

EVE POWNALL AWARD FOR INFORMATION BOOKS

A–Z of Convicts in Van Diemen's Land Audacity: stories of heroic Australians in wartime

A-Z of Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land by Simon Barnard

Audacity: Stories of Heroic Australians in Wartime by Carlie Walker, illustrated by Brett Hatherly

Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia Emu

Coming of Age: Growing Up Muslim in Australia edited by Demet Divaroren and Amra Pajalic

Emu by Claire Saxby, illustrated by Graham Byrne

Mary's Australia: How Mary Mackillop Changed Australia Tea and Sugar Christmas

Mary’s Australia: How Mary Mackillop Changed Australia by Pamela Freeman

Tea and Sugar Christmas by Jane Jolly, illustrated by Robert Ingpen

Review: Ms. Rapscott’s Girls by Elise Primavera

| Tasha

ms rapscotts girls

Ms. Rapscott’s Girls by Elise Primavera (InfoSoup)

Ms. Rapscott runs a board school for girls that is all about adventure, courage and birthday cake, with candles. When a new summer term begins, five little girls are mailed to the school in their boxes. Mailed because their parents are some of the busiest people in the world and can’t be bothered to drop their children off at school in person. Four little girls make it safe and sound but the fifth has fallen out of her box because it wasn’t sealed properly. Ms. Rapscott has to teach her remaining students some of the basics of life like bathing, brushing teeth, and the importance of stout boots when going on adventures. But most of her lessons are much more fun and involve things like riding the wind into the sky and skimming the surface of the water on seals. As the girls learn how to take care of themselves and embrace adventure, they are also locating the missing student, by trying not to find her.

Funny and delightfully whimsical, this book is at its heart a book that shows that little girls can be just as daring, naughty and adventurous as boys. These are girls who have flaws, like shouting all the time, being a know-it-all, and just wanting to spend time watching TV or asleep. But in each of them is a little adventurer who if fed enough attention and cake will rise to the opportunities before her.

The art in the book adds a delightful richness to the tale as well as breaking up the text so that the book is more approachable for young readers. Done in full double-page spreads, the illustrations show the different parts of the school as well as important moments in the story. At the beginning and end of the book, they appear in a series of illustrations that welcome the girls to the school and then send them home at the end with a promise of adventures to come.

Enter a world of magical wonder in this book for young readers where adventure awaits everyone. Appropriate for ages 7-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Dial Books.

Review: The Truth Commission by Susan Juby

| Tasha

truth commission

The Truth Commission by Susan Juby (InfoSoup)

There are books you never want to end, and this is one of those. These characters are so fresh and new and real that I wanted to spend even more time with them. This novel is about three teenage friends who attend a private art high school together. There is Dusk, the stunningly beautiful girl who creates tiny tableaus for stuffed shrews. There is Neil, a boy stuck in the 1970s and who paints portraits of beautiful women like Dusk. And then there is the protagonist, Normandy, who does tiny needlepoint work and is best known for being the younger sister of the famous graphic novelist. The three start The Truth Commission, where they decide to start asking everyone the truth about things they may be keeping secret. Nothing is off limits from sexuality to love to angry ostrich-raising school secretaries. But Normandy’s family survives on secrets and the question becomes whether she can face the truth about herself and those she loves.

Juby has created a witty and dazzling read for teens. Done entirely in Normandy’s voice and writing as “narrative nonfiction” the book offers footnotes that are often asides between Normandy and her English teacher. This framework creates a real strength of the story, allowing for not only the story to be told but for Normandy to be writing about the past and offer some perspective on what happened. Filled with plenty of clever humor, this book is an impressive mix of tense mystery and gentle romance.

The characters are the heart of the book. Normandy reveals herself on the page and hides nothing. She shows through her own reactions to her sister’s graphic novels, which depict Normandy as entirely useless and ugly, as the only one who is thoughtful and credible in her family. As she hides from the wrath of her sister, making herself small and quiet, she also becomes her sister’s confidante. Her best friends too are intriguing mixes of truth and denial. Dusk is the artistic daughter in a family of doctors, and yet one can see her own ties to medicine through her art. Neil seems to be the son of a stereotypical middle-aged man who hits on teen girls, but both he and his father are far more lovely than that.

Strongly written with great characters and a dynamic mix of humor, romance and mystery, this teen novel is one of the best of the year so far. Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Viking Books for Young Readers.

Review: Room for Bear by Ciara Gavin

| Tasha

room for bear

Room for Bear by Ciara Gavin (In InfoSoup)

Bear visited the Duck family one spring and then never left. He fit in perfectly in many ways, except for their house which was not designed for someone Bear’s size. So Bear set off in search of a perfect space for all of them. But it was hard to find a place that worked. Places that fit Bear perfectly did not work for the Ducks. Where the Ducks were happy, Bear was not. Then Bear thought that maybe it was because HE did not fit in with the Ducks after all, so he went away to find a home just for him. The Ducks missed Bear horribly, and Bear missed the Ducks. Finally, Bear found just the right huge cave for himself and then came up with a clever Duck-sized solution that would let them all live together happily.

This picture book is about families and what makes a family. Told from the point of view of animals, it speaks beyond cultures and skin color to a feeling where differences in general are embraced and honored. At the same time, the book honors the feeling a person can have of fitting in just fine sometimes and in other situations feeling that they are an outsider. These complex feelings are caught on the page without over dramatizing them. The result is a book the embraces adoptive and blended families of all sorts without making the picture too rosy and uncomplicated.

Gavin’s illustrations are done with a whimsical sense of humor. From Bear trying to fit into a tiny and tippy Duck boat as a home to the unhappy Ducks sitting around the table forlornly missing Bear, she captures emotions clearly on the page as well as the dilemmas of differences. The illustrations are softly painted with fine ink lines that allow both the big bear and small ducks to have personality galore.

A winning read that speaks to all families and particularly adoptive and blended families. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: I Was Here by Gayle Forman

| Tasha

i was here

I Was Here by Gayle Forman (InfoSoup)

The author of the very popular If I Stay series returns with another winner of a read for teens. Cody is betrayed and shocked when her best friend commits suicide by drinking poison. Meg had always been the adventurous one, the smart one, the one that Cody relied on. When they graduated from high school, Meg headed off to a private school on a full scholarship. Cody was left behind in their small town and as time went by the two drifted apart. Now it is up to Cody to head to Meg’s college apartment and gather her things to bring back to Meg’s family, a family that was very much Cody’s too. While she is there, Cody discovers that there is a lot that Meg was keeping from everyone back home. There is a bunch of missing emails on Meg’s computer as well as an encrypted file that is in her computer’s trash. As Cody starts to piece Meg’s last months together and solve the mystery of what caused her death, she also grows closer to Meg’s roommates and to a boy who may have broken Meg’s heart. Cody has to figure out what caused Meg to take her own life and also how Cody can go on without her.

Forman’s writing is pure comfort reading. Her writing is solid and strong. Here she creates a small town girl longing for big city life, but it goes far beyond that. As Cody starts to understand Meg, she also starts to understand herself and the mother she has long dismissed. At the heart of the book is of course suicide, and Forman there too manages to make it about more than a tragedy. It is about the inevitable guilt and blame that surrounds a loss like this. The ways that you return again and again to the pain and the ways you manage to deny it for awhile. The story arc is wonderfully fractured, showing the starts and stops as Cody deals with different stages of grief.

Cody is a great protagonist, one who slowly begins to see who she is as the novel progresses. At first she is what she sees herself as, just a shadow of a person without Meg around. Yet as she starts to choose her own path and see her way forward, she shifts and grows. She is a person who is not desperate for a boyfriend, but desperate for the truth of what happened to her best friend. Unable to stop following the mystery, she is also clearly and wholly in denial, creating a tension that carries the entire book forward.

When great authors create more great works, it’s a beautiful thing and this is one beautiful read. Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from copy received from Viking.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – The Movie

| Tasha

The first trailer for Me and Earl and the Dying Girl has been released.  Based on a book by Jesse Andrews, the film won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Review: You Can Do It, Bert! by Ole Konnecke

| Tasha

you can do it bert

You Can Do It, Bert! by Ole Konnecke (InfoSoup)

Bert is ready, he knows just what to do.  He approaches the end of the branch, and… decides he needs a running start. Here he comes! Wait, he’s got a banana for a snack. He looks over the edge again and after a little yelling from the narrator in encouragement, he dashes right off the end of the branch! He’s worried on the way down, down, down until he hits the water. The other birds are right there saying they always knew he could do it and together they head up to jump off again.

This wonderful twist on a first flight book will take children by surprise. The book captures the dread and then the wonder of taking a plunge in life, literally. Children who are trying new things will find encouragement in this little orange bird who has enough personality for multiple books. Throughout the text is spare and told in the voice of an observing narrator, who uses all sorts of tones to encourage the little bird on his way. This makes for a great read aloud.

The art too is simple and bright. Most of it is Bert alone on the one branch, with plenty of white space around him. Readers will envision right from the beginning Bert launching into that blankness and flying off. It is the space around the illustrations that help with the subtle deception and assumptions. It’s cleverly designed and will work well with groups of children thanks to its large format and clarity.

Great read aloud and a great addition to story times and units on taking risks. It will also make a great one to mix into books on flying! Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

This 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:

Vera Nazarian

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Everywhere dragons – The Horn Book http://buff.ly/1E1j2LH #kidlit

Five questions for Nikki Grimes – The Horn Book http://buff.ly/1yTdcGi #kidlit #poetry

If you could change any rule . . . — @fuseeight gets them all exactly right – #kidlit

Inside The Mind Of The World’s Naughtiest Children’s Book Illustrator http://buff.ly/1CRnP05 #kidlit

Q & A with Rita Williams-Garcia http://buff.ly/1Cv6FSb #kidlit

LIBRARIES

Free Video: Libraries in the Internet Age http://buff.ly/1E1gKw9 #libraries

A look back: Creating The Yahara Music Library at Madison Public Library | Library as Incubator Project http://buff.ly/1GlpyPg #libraries

Cornelia Funke, Inkheart.

TEEN READS

Q&A: Atlantan Becky Albertalli on portraying travails of gay teen in “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda” http://buff.ly/1DZYByP #yalit #lgbt

Stacked: Get Genrefied: YA Westerns http://buff.ly/1E1lW2U #yalit

Review: Stella Brings the Family by Miriam B. Schiffer

| Tasha

stella brings the family

Stella Brings the Family by Miriam B. Schiffer, illustrated by Holly Clifton-Brown

Stella’s class is going to be celebrating Mother’s Day and all of the kids know who they will bring as their special guest.  But Stella has two dads and no mother, so who can she invite? Stella worries and worries about who to bring, and the other kids in her class start to ask her how she manages without a mother to do so much. Stella’s dads take great care of her along with a big extended family who give lots of love and kisses. When Stella talks to her dads about who to bring, they come up with a perfect solution and soon Stella has the largest group at the Mother’s Day party even though none of them are her mother.

Perfect for families of all sorts who may not fit the traditional stereotypical family, this picture book shows how a loving family can create their own unique solutions and fill them with their own joy. Schiffer clearly conveys the worry and stress that a child can feel in this sort of situation, not minimizing the emotional impact. At the same time, she also demonstrates how that can be so easily eliminated by a family that listens to concerns and solves problems in positive ways. This is one empowering story that many families will relate to.

The illustrations are filled with children of all races and the story also includes a family with two mothers. On the day of the party, there are also grandmothers there, speaking to that issue of working parents who may not be able to be there either. The inclusive art has a warmth to it that is conveyed by the caring adults and the brightly hued illustrations.

All public libraries need more picture book that embrace gay families, so this is a great pick for strengthening those collections. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Chronicle Books.