Author: Tasha

The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear

| Tasha

The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear by David Bruins and Hilary Leung.

If you click on the title or image above, you will see that you are taken to their specific website instead of Worldcat or Amazon.  This little book is the reason I wade through so many small press or self-published books.  It is that hidden gem.

Ninja, Cowboy and Bear are all friends.  They enjoyed being together all the time, but at the same time were very different from one another.  Ninja was fast and graceful.  Cowboy was precise and accurate.  Bear was strong.  Their various strengths came between them one day when Ninja and Bear began to argue.  Cowboy set them a challenge to pile stones as high as they could.  Bear handily beat Ninja.  Bear declared himself best, but Cowboy challenged him.  Ninja set them a challenge that Cowboy won.  When that was done, Ninja challenged Cowboy and beat him at the challenge Bear set them.  All three walked off in a funk over the results until they realized the truth of their differences and strengths.

The illustrations are the thing that make this book so very special.  Done on a textured surface, they shout with bright colors and modern style.  Each of the three characters has their own way of moving and standing, speaking to their strengths.  On each argument page, the colors mute into sepia tones until the challenge is set.  A subtle but effective device.

The happy ending comes a bit too quickly and easily, but that may just be that I wanted the book to last a little longer.  The text is brief and friendly.  There are wonderful touches throughout that will have adults smiling even if children don’t understand the reference.  I personally enjoy the Free Game Inside! on the cover echoing the cereal boxes of my childhood.  But my favorite piece is when Ninja is meditating and cherry blossoms float by in the breeze.  Love it!

A winning book even if published by a large publisher, this book is charming, funny and offers that free game which is a more physical version of rock, paper, scissors.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Rhyming Dust Bunnies

| Tasha

Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas

Four bright-colored, hairy dust bunnies introduce themselves as Ed, Ned, Ted, and Bob.  They rhyme together all the time.  What rhymes with car?  The first three bunnies join in merrily rhyming together, but Bob has other things on his mind.  Ed, Ned and Ted are oblivious to what Bob is trying to tell them, chiding him for not rhyming.  Their continued rhyming and Bob’s refusal to play mixed with his growing desperation for them to understand will have everyone laughing.  Classic vaudeville humor in a picture book.

Thomas has this book paced exactly right.  It is a joy to read aloud, the words and the jokes hitting with a rhythm that is written directly into the text.  Add to that the muppet-like bunnies with their buggy eyes and grinning mouths, and you have a winner of a book!

Put this on the top of your school visit books, tuck it under your arm for your own children, just share it whenever possible.  Even better, it can work as an easy reader with its rhyming words and brief text.  This one you just have to try.

Posy

| Tasha

Posy by Linda Newbery and Catherine Rayner

As the proud owner of two adorable kittens, Posy was ideal reading.  Newbery and Rayner perfectly capture the charm, silliness, speed and constant movement of a small kitten.  The illustrations have a raggedy striped kitten where scribbly lines depict fur with great style.  Posy’s head tilts in the just the right way, her eyes focus with an intent to play even though they are just two black dots.  Simple but incredibly captivating, this book will have any cat lover entranced.

The illustrations are accompanied by two word lines of a poem that dances along at the same pace as a busy kitten.  Paired into rhyming couplets, the poem reads well aloud and makes this a book that offers not just a quick look at the life of a kitten but a great introduction to poetry for children. 

Appropriate for ages 2-5, share this one with the cat lover in your life no matter their age.  It is sure to generate the same chuckles as a kitten itself without the mess.

Who's Been Here: A Tale in Tracks

| Tasha

Who’s Been Here? : a tale in tracks by Fran Hodgkins, illustrated by Karel Hayes.

Take a walk through a wintry setting and find out what three children and their dog discover has been there before them.  Each illustration is framed with branches (as you can see on the cover too) and outside that frame readers will see the tracks close up.  Animals range from cats to turkeys to bears!  It is an exciting walk in the woods indeed.

The illustrations are charming in their rustic style framed by the woodsy branches.  The book is a winning combination of information and guessing game.  It will work well for units on animals and their tracks.  Plus it will be equally at home in story times about the winter.  Appropriate for ages 3-6.

Bones of Faerie

| Tasha

Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

15-year-old Liza lives in a world that recently survived a war between the human world and the world of Faerie.  Now the things in the human world have become strange, vines and trees have a taste for blood, corn and potatoes fight back when harvested.  Liza’s father has kept the entire village safe after the war, stamping out any sign of magic in the people who live there.  When Liza’s baby sister is born with the clear hair that is a sign of magic, her father takes the baby into the wild and leaves her to die.  After the baby’s death, Liza’s mother leaves the village, her death in the forest a certainty.  Now Liza is starting to notice signs of magic in herself.  She has visions in water and mirrors.  Fearing for her life and following her visions that show her mother alive, Liza flees into the wild.  She is joined by a boy from her village who has a magical secret of his own.  Liza must now learn the truth about the War and her magic for herself.

A stunning blend of apocalyptic fiction and faerie tale fantasy, this book is unique and fascinating.  The two divergent subjects work well together, blending to form a world that is strange yet familiar.  Because it is about Faerie and the real world, the book is able to talk frankly about the horrors and aftermath of all war. 

The characters are just as intriguing as the setting itself.  Liza is a contradiction both fearing magic and being able to wield it herself.  The  supporting characters have that same blend of the familiar and the surprising. 

I found this book nearly impossible to put down, caught up in Liza’s story and in the world itself.  Recommended to readers of Melissa Marr’s and Holly Black’s books.  Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Jerk, California

| Tasha

Jerk, California by Jonathan Friesen

Sam Carter has been bullied throughout his high school days because of his tics and outbursts that come from his Tourette’s Syndrome.  Unable to control his movements, except for very short periods, Sam is shunned by his stepfather, Bill.  Bill has told Sam many stories about his neglectful real father who womanized and drank and gave Sam his disorder through his faulty genes.  Now Sam is about to graduate from high school.  He has no prospects, no college dreams, nothing to look forward to.  It all starts to change when he agrees to work for George the Coot who used to be best friends with his real father.  As Sam learns the truth about his father, he discovers the truth about himself too.

There is much to appreciate in this novel about identity, fathers, nature and nurture.  Friesen has created a protagonist who is a wonderful combination of damaged and heroic.  Sam is abused by life but unbroken.  He himself cannot see beyond his disorder, but others can show him the way.  He rises above over and over again, but doesn’t quite realize that he has done it.  Sam is a wonderful metaphor for life.

The Tourette’s Syndrome is not played up to TV talk show proportions.  It is an important and pivotal feature of the story and of Sam, but it is written honestly and plainly.  I also appreciated the thread of religion that runs through the book, becoming part of Sam’s journey as well.  It too is not overly done, just a subtle part of the quest Sam is on.

Highly recommended, this book well deserves the ALA Schneider Award which consistently awards books that are very special and worth finding.  A complex tale of self and family, this book will be enjoyed by teen readers who want deep reading without the darkness.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

2009 Orbis Pictus Award

| Tasha

Hey, if I can ever manage to review a nonfiction book for Nonfiction Monday, then at least I can refer to a nonfiction book award!

The Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children is given by the National Council of Teachers of English.  The 2009 award went to:

Amelia Earhart: the legend of the lost aviator by Shelley Tanaka, illustrated by David Craig.

The Honor Books are:

George Washington Carver by Tonya Bolden

The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary by Candace Fleming

Washington at Valley Forge by Russell Freedman

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

When the Wolves Returned: Restoring Nature’s Balance in Yellowstone by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

What Type Am I?

| Tasha

Don’t you love online quizzes and this one is as easy as typing in your blog URL.  Typealyzer uses a Myers-Briggs Type psychology test and analyses any blog you like.  Of course I had to do it for Kids Lit! 

And?

My writing style is ENTP – The Visionaries

Here is what the site says:

The charming and trend savvy type. They are especially attuned to the big picture and anticipate trends. They often have sophisticated language skills and come across as witty and social. At the end of the day, however, they are pragmatic decision makers and have a good analytical ability.


They enjoy work that lets them use their cleverness, great communication skills and knack for new exciting ventures. They have to look out not to become quitters, since they easily get bored when the creative exciting start-up phase is over.

So what do you think?  Is that this blog?  I do like the fact that both my blogs got the same results, shows it is more about the writing than the subject matter.

Happy Blog-versary to Me!

| Tasha

Amazingly six years ago today, I started my first blog, Sites & Soundbytes.  It has changed a lot over the years, becoming more about my personal public-library directing style and approach and less about great web sites, though those are still there too! 

You can check it out, if you want to see my life beyond children’s lit.