The longlist for the 2015 Guardian Children’s Fiction Award has been announced. This British award celebrates the best fiction writing for children.
Here are the books on the longlist:
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan
El Deafo by Cece Bell
Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders
An Island of Our Own by Sally Nicholls
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
My Name’s Not Friday by Jon Walter
A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond
What a year for teen graphic novels!
The 2015 Eisner Award Winnes have been announced and some of my favorite teen graphic novels of the year won in categories that are not limited to younger ages! Here are the winners that are either specifically for books for children and teens or that were won by those books:
BEST NEW SERIES
Lumberjanes by Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson and Brooke A. Allen
BEST PUBLICATION FOR EARLY READERS (up to age 7)
The Zoo Box by Ariel Cohn & Aron Nels Steinke
BEST PUBLICATION FOR KIDS (ages 8-12)
El Deafo by Cece Bell
BEST PUBLICATION FOR TEENS (ages 13-17)
Lumberjanes by Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson and Brooke A. Allen
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM – NEW
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM – REPRINT
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
BEST WRITER
Gene Luen Yang for Avatar the Last Airbender and The Shadow Hero
BEST WRITER/ARTIST
Raina Telgemeier for Sisters
George by Alex Gino
Released August 25, 2015.
George was born with the body of a boy but knows that she is really a girl. Her fourth grade classroom is doing a production of Charlotte’s Web and George wants to be Charlotte more than anything. But when she tries out for Charlotte instead of a boy’s part, George’s teacher stops her. George is offered the role of Wilbur, but that is not the character she wants to be since she’s not a boy! As George struggles with the bullies in her class, she also finds allies who embrace her gender. Once her best friend knows about her being transgender, she and George come up with a plan that will let George appear on stage as Charlotte after all. It will also let everyone know exactly who she is.
This book is so crucial. As the mother of a transgender teen, I know that she considered herself a girl from a very young age. Books like this will help young transgender children start to figure out what they are feeling inside and realize that they are not alone. The book focuses on a fourth grader, but trans children of all elementary ages will love this look at their struggles. I also must admit that I cried on page one. Gino does something I have not seen in other books about trans kids. He uses George’s given name combined with the gender pronouns she identifies with. That alone is so powerful and so important and so poignant. Another important moment comes later in the book when George’s best friend is helping her dress as a girl for the first time in public. Gino changes George’s name to her chosen female one once that happens. Another subtle but powerful statement about identity.
George herself is a beautiful protagonist. She represents so much of the struggle of trans kids and yet her own youth doesn’t get lost in the message. George is resilient, funny, and strong. I love the process of George’s mother in coming to terms with her daughter being transgender. It is so real, the denial, the rejection, and eventually the acceptance and importantly, looking for additional help. I also appreciated the school principal being the one who understands trans issues and offers a haven for George in the future. Another important piece in supporting trans kids in our communities.
Important and life-saving for some children, this book demonstrates the acceptance that trans kids need and the power of family and friendship. Appropriate for ages 8-11.
Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic Press.
The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi
Released August 1, 2015.
Snow has fallen and Kikko wants to help her father clear her grandmother’s walk. He has already left but forgot to take the pie for her grandmother, so Kikko follows his footprints through the snow. She can see him ahead of her when she falls and crushes the pie. Still, she picks it all back up and continues on her way. But her father is heading into a huge building that Kikko has never seen before. As she approaches, she looks in the window and sees that the man she has been following is actually a bear in a coat. A little lamb comes up to her and asks her inside to join the tea party. Kikko is the only human there in a room filled with forest creatures. She quickly is welcomed to their tea party and spends a splendid time with them. When the time comes to continue on her way to her grandmother’s house, the animals replace the crushed pie with one made from different pieces of their own pies. Kikko is soon at her grandmother’s house where they are clearly delighted with the unusual pie.
Miyakoshi has created a story that is pure magic. She takes the traditional Little Riding Hood story of a girl heading through the woods to her grandmother’s house and turns it upside down in a most pleasant and unusual way. Once readers see that she is with wild animals, they will expect the story to take a darker turn. Instead they will discover a book that gets ever friendlier and more welcoming, a book filled with the warmth of new-found friends.
The illustrations are done with touches of color brightening the charcoal and pencil illustrations. Kikko is set apart immediately with her bright yellow hair and red hat and mittens. She is a burst of color against the white and the darkness. The illustrations of the animals are particularly effective. They are realistic and yet the animals are dressed in human attire, making it a lovely and whimsical book.
Gentle and friendly, this twist on Little Red Riding Hood is enchanting. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Reviewed from copy received from Kids Can Press.
Judith St. George was an author who wrote about American history. She celebrated history in almost all of the 40 books she wrote. Subjects ranged from the Revolutionary War to Native Americans to feminists. Ms. St. George was 84.
The Wren and the Sparrow by J. Patrick Lewis, illustrated by Yevgenia Nayberg (InfoSoup)
This Holocaust story tells of an old man who weaved carpets on a loom and spent his evening singing to a hurdy-gurdy. His student, the Sparrow, learned at his side. The town in Poland was dark and dismal, all of its trees harvested for kindling. Food and clothes were rationed and even the music was starting to disappear. One day music was removed from the village as soldiers arrived to gather all of the musical instruments and take them away. Everyone had to give up their instruments, but the old man sang one final song before he put his hurdy-gurdy on the pile. And he would not stop singing, even as he was dragged away. That night, the Sparrow returned and took the hurdy-gurdy from the pile and hid it away. Then she too disappeared. It was found years later with a note that spoke of the bravery of both the Wren and the Sparrow and the importance of music in keeping spirits alive in dark times.
Based on the musicians who played in the Lodz Ghetto, a place that housed 230,000 Jewish people in 1940. Only 1000 survived the Holocaust that followed. Music was a part of their life and that celebration of music as a way of expressing feelings that could not be voiced is very clear in this picture book. Lewis writes with intense beauty in this book, the strong feelings showing in his sentences such as “The town shriveled up like a rose without rain.” And the image of “the gift of music soon dwindled to a sigh.” The entire book sings with prose like this, adding its own music to the story.
The illustrations by Nayberg, a native of Ukraine, show the darkness of the times. The illustrations swim with the colors of war, khaki ground and the gray of despair. When the instrument and music are present though, there is a glow and a warmth that shines in the illustration visually capturing the impact of the music on people around.
This allegorical tale captures the impact of the Nazi regime in Poland and elsewhere, offering a lesson about the power of music to carry hope in the darkest of times. Appropriate for ages 5-7.
Reviewed from copy received from Kar-Ben.
Here are the links I shared on my Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr accounts this week that I think are cool:
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
12 fantastic children’s books to help talk about prejudice http://buff.ly/1CrOFiF #kidlit
The Best Feminist Books for Younger Readers http://buff.ly/1H5sE5Y #kidlit #feminism
‘Children’s books are one of the most important forms of writing we have’ http://buff.ly/1HMKe45 #kidlitOne Weird Trick Any Children’s Book Can Use to Make Parents Cry http://buff.ly/1D1fXXV #kidlit
Summer reads: The kid edition http://buff.ly/1CrXetB #kidlit #yalit
Why Diversity in Children’s Literature Really Matters http://buff.ly/1HMOwZf #kidlit #diversity
EBOOKS
Everything Science Knows About Reading On Screens http://buff.ly/1KT5aFT #ebooks #reading
LIBRARIES
Audit Details $310,000 in Prohibited Expenses by Queens Library’s Leaders http://buff.ly/1CrWWDc #libraries
Caught In The Middle: Librarians On The Debate Over LGBT Children’s Books http://buff.ly/1J53rZE #libraries #kidlit #lgbt
Designs for new Wichita central library nearly finished http://buff.ly/1CizsAr #libraries
Fifty Challenges Filed Against LGBTQ Children’s Books in Rural Texas County http://ow.ly/P8x6j #libraries
Future of libraries: No more shushing teens at the library http://buff.ly/1TlMuBy #libraries
How The New York Public Library Is Bridging The Digital Divide http://buff.ly/1D0MT2V #libraries
Vancouver Public Library is the best library system in the world http://buff.ly/1HIwLdB #libraries
Where are the books? Libraries under fire as they shift from print to digital. http://buff.ly/1RkP7Gd #libraries
TEEN READS
"Author Jenny Han Discusses The Successes And Shortcomings Of The Young Adult Genre" http://buff.ly/1LWnfEx #yalit
Michelle Knudsen On Winning The 2015 Sid Fleischman Award (For Humor) For Her YA Novel "Evil Librarian" http://buff.ly/1G9IKtx #yalit
The Night World by Mordicai Gerstein (InfoSoup)
In the middle of the night darkness, a boy is woken by his cat who clearly wants to go outside. She leads him out of his room, through the dark house where everyone is asleep, even the fish. Then the cat speaks, saying that it is coming and it’s almost here. The two go outside where the grass is dewy, the air is warm, and the sky is filled stars. He can only see shadows everywhere. Some seem to be flowers and others seem to be animals who are also out at night, a deer, an owl, a porcupine and more. The birds start to call about it almost being here and slowly through the trees comes a glow. Dawn arrives. The animals depart off to sleep. And color floods away the shadows as the day shines into a glorious morning.
Gerstein has written a radiant picture book. He combines a mystery of what the cat is talking about that lengthens and deepens as the story unfolds. As the boy stands outside in the summer moments before dawn, there is a feeling of safety thanks to the animals gathered around him to witness the dawn too. There is immense pleasure is seeing the sun rise and that is captured vividly on these pages. From the hush and quiet splendor of the darkness to the dazzle of the day, this picture book is a perfect way to celebrate nature and each new start.
The illustrations are paramount here and they are immensely lovely. The dark pages in particular which are lit by the barest of lights, the deep blacks and greys of night are allowed to show their richness. The eyes of boy and cat light the darkness alone until outside where the stars in the sky join them as well, shining high above them. And the dawn that breaks so slowly over the horizon, first a glow and then becoming a full day with clouds, pastel colors and light.
A celebration of dawn, this picture book may just have early birds waking up to see the light break over their own dewy yards. Appropriate for ages 3-5.
Reviewed from library copy.
Rufus the Writer by Elizabeth Bram, illustrated by Chuck Groenink (InfoSoup)
Released July 14, 2015.
One summer Rufus decides not to have his regular lemonade stand. Instead he will do a story stand! So he gets all set up wtih plenty of paper, pencils, pens and markers. When Millie and her little brother Walter stop at the stand, Rufus agrees to write them a story in exchange for a special shell from the beach. The story is about Walter’s favorite color. Sandy stops by with a box of kittens and even though they are free, Rufus writes a story in exchange for the black kitten, a story about cats. Rufus is reminded that his little sister’s birthday is tomorrow and he knows that a story will be the best present. Sara stops by and asks for a story about buttons, so Rufus agrees in exchange for whatever Sara thinks it should be worth. All of his customers pick up their stories at the same time and sit right down to read and enjoy them.
This smart blend of lemonade stand and creativity makes for a book premise that is very engaging and fun. Particularly pleasant is the lack of focus on money as payment and instead allowing a warm and friendly bartering system in exchange for Rufus’ stories. The values make sense, paid in kittens, shells and flowers. Also great is the way that Rufus’ stories are each designed specifically for that reader, with their favorite color or via the subject matter. The stories are engaging and fun, just brief enough to give a flavor and not slow the main storyline down.
Groenink’s illustrations are done in gouache, acrylics and pencils with Adobe Photoshop. They are warm and bright, showing a friendly neighborhood with plenty of ethnic diversity in Rufus’ customers. They have a playful feel with the trees around Rufus’ stand done in a whimsical way and various woods animals peeking at what is going on. The illustrations in Rufus’ stories are drawn with fine details and show the coloring lines. They have the same quality and feel of the other pictures but also have a distinct style of their own.
A celebration of creativity and writing, this book may inspire children to find their own variations on lemonade stands or even try their hand at writing and illustrating their own stories. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Reviewed from digital galley received from Schwartz & Wade and Edelweiss.
Waking Brain Cells 