Author: Tasha

Back of the Bus

| Tasha

Back of the Bus by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Floyd Cooper

It is a winter afternoon in Montgomery, Alabama.  A boy and his mother are riding the bus home after a long day.  The boy is playing with a marble, letting it roll up the aisle.  When a hand snatches the marble, the boy sees Ms. Parks smiling at him and she rolls the marble back.  The bus gets more crowded and then there is a commotion.  The bus remains stopped until the police arrive and take Ms. Parks away.  There is something in her eyes and the way she holds her head though, that show the boy that something big is happening.  And he can see the same spark in his mother’s eyes now.

Here we see a moment in history captured through a young boy’s perspective.  Reynold’s poetry is languid with the warm afternoon and the bumps of the bus.  His poetry allows us to see more deeply into the boy and his mother as he calls attention to small details:

Mama shakes “no” at me,

and I hold it snug in my hand.

She’s got them worked-all-day eyes,

but she’s got her strong chin on.

Very accessible to children, the poem is filled with an honesty and truth.  Cooper’s illustrations are filled with afternoon sunshine that illuminates this moment in history.  He has captured the small world of the bus, yet the poem and his illustrations reveal far more.  Warmly lit, detailed and beautifully done, his illustrations are glowingly lovely.

Highly recommended, this book takes history and bring it to life through poetry, image and one boy.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.

Reviewed from library copy.

New Board Books

| Tasha

Rosemary Wells continues her series of Baby Max and Ruby books with Counting Peas and Love.  With just enough texture on the page to make them engaging without being intrusive, these books are clever, sweet and funny.  In Counting Peas, Max sneezes peas all over.  He puts them in his shoe, but eventually is distracted away from his peas by strawberries!  In Love, readers see the family that surrounds and takes care of Max.  But who does he love best of all?

Another pair of great board books come from Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin and feature the beloved characters from Click, Clack, Moo.  In Click, Clack, 123, one farmer is fast asleep and so the animals get into all sorts of mischief which is counted along to.  Nicely, the numbers support the story rather than getting in the way.  In Click, Clack, ABC, the animals are heading off for some fun which isn’t revealed until the ending.  The rhyming here is well done and adds to the speed and romping style of the book.

Reviewed from copies received from publishers.

2010 Edgar Nominees

| Tasha

The nominees for the 2010 Edgar Awards, given by the Mystery Writers of America, have been announced:

Best Young Adult

Reality Check by Peter Abrahams

If the Witness Lied by Caroline B. Cooney

The Morgue and Me by John C. Ford

Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone by Dene Low

Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell

 

Best Juvenile

The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett

The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour by Michael D. Beil

Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn

Creepy Crawly Crime by Aaron Reynolds

The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline by Nancy Springer

 

Thanks to Bookshelves of Doom for the link.

Twilight the Graphic Novel

| Tasha

Welcome to the next dimension of the Twilight juggernaut.  Graphic novels.

Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive (including an inside spread so you can see Edward himself) of the new offering by Yen Press.  The graphic novel will be released on March 16th with a large first printing of 350,000 copies. 

Libraries need to stock up.  The merger of the manga craze and the Twilight craze – this could be huge!

Camille McPhee Fell Under the Bus

| Tasha

Camille McPhee Fell Under the Bus by Kristen Tracy

Camille is having a rough time as a fourth grader.  Her best friend has moved to Japan, and Camille has not gotten a letter from her yet.  She has low blood sugar and has to carry extra food to school in a cooler which makes her stand out from the others.  Her desk is right under a dangling hornet.  And to top it all off, she fell under the bus when she was trying to get on.  It’s enough to make someone give up entirely!  But not Camille McPhee.  Instead she is hopeful that things will get better.  She even has a plan to avoid making new friends by acting like a lone dingo.  And how could that fail?

Tracy has created a book that is modern and fresh.  It speaks to everyone who has been accident prone, or a misfit, or just has days or years filled with things going wrong.  In other words, it will speak to everyone.  Camille is a great heroine with a spot-on voice that is wry, funny and entirely herself.   Throughout the book, we can see Camille grow despite her own best efforts at staying the same.  The secondary characters are equally interesting from her warring parents to the girls who just might become her friends if she lets them.

A funny book about self-esteem, friendship and life in general, this book is a winner of a novel.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Check out Kristen Tracy’s website.

American Indian Youth Literature Awards

| Tasha

Debbie Reese announced the third American Indian Youth Literature Awards on her blog, American Indians in Children’s Literature.  The awards are given by the American Indian Library Association.

The winners are:

Best Picture Book

A Coyote Solstice Tale by Thomas King, illustrated by Gary Clement

 

Best Middle School Book

Meet Christopher: An Osage Indian Boy from Oklahoma by Genevieve Simermeyer, photographs by Katherine Fogden

 

Best Young Adult Book

Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me by Lurline Wailana McGregor

Bloomsbury Buries It Once Again

| Tasha

 

When I first posted my review of Magic Under Glass earlier in the month, I could not find an online version of the cover on the left.  They appeared to have been pulled in favor of the one on the right.  I breathed a sigh of relief because I had so many issues with the one on the left.

Those issues have been fully aired by others.  You can read a great roundup of the issues at Chasing Ray. 

Now it appears that the book was released with the Caucasian cover.  And that is wrong.  Period.  This book is fantasy yes, but clearly in the novel, Nim is described as having long black hair and darker skin.  Her nationality, because it is fantasy, is not clear, but I loved the way that it was left vague, so that we could each decide if she was Asian, Middle Eastern, African on our own.  It became a book that celebrated diversity that way.

And now to have a cover that denies that is horrible.  Nim is a strong woman of color in the novel.  Her pride in her heritage shines throughout and is an important theme in the book.  So Bloomsbury denies it with their cover?  Why not celebrate it?!  Why not embrace what made this such a special novel? 

Only Bloomsbury can answer that.  Only Bloomsbury can explain why they have had two of the largest cover controversies over people of color in the last year.  And only they can decide to do better.

It is our job to be outraged, to insist, to demand that they do better.  Some bloggers are looking to boycott them.  I stated something similar last year about a different publisher and learned that it is not that easy, not that simple.  I believe it is far more powerful to not boycott them, but to continue to demand that they fix it.  FIX IT.  NOW.

National Council of Teachers of English Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children

| Tasha

Another award was announced today! 

Winner:

The Secret World of Walter Anderson by Hester Bass, illustrated by E. B. Lewis

 

Honor Books:

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone

Darwin: With Glimpses into His Private Journal and Letters by Alice B. McGinty

The Frog Scientist by Pamela S. Turner

How Many Baby Pandas? by Sandra Markle

Noah Webster: Weaver of Words by Pegi Deitz Shea

 

Recommended Books:

The Boy Who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth by Kathleen Krull

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

Eleanor, Quiet No More by Doreen Rappaport

The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews during the Holocaust by Karen Gray Ruelle

Life in the Boreal Forest by Brenda Z. Guiberson

One Giant Leap by Robert Burleigh

Truce by Jim Murphy

Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker

 

Thanks to Chicken Spaghetti for the link to the honorees.

2010 Newbery Award – Live Blog

| Tasha

Wiping away the Caldecott tears…

 

Honor Books

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly (YES!!)

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

 

Winner

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (You bet!  That’s the one!  Hurrah!!!!!)

 

I don’t think my two top choices have ever won the Caldecott and the Newbery.  What a year!

My husband says I should tape my reactions to the awards because I shout, moan, cheer and cry.  My youngest son has picked up on my mood and is begging to read some of the books.  :)  So I guess my emotional display is worth it.  I probably should never attend this in real life, I’d be a puddle on the floor.