Author: Tasha

Teens' Top Ten

| Tasha

The 2008 Teens’ Top Ten has been announced by YALSA.  The Top Ten is a list with books from the previous year nominated by teens and then voted on by teens across the country.  This year over 8,000 teens participated in the voting.

Here’s the list:

  1. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

  2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

  3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

  4. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

  5. Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson

  6. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

  7. The Sweet Far Thing  by Libba Bray

  8. Extras by Scott Westerfeld

  9. Before I Die  by Jenny Downham

  10. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

Dead Girl Walking

| Tasha

Dead Girl Walking by Linda Joy Singleton.

Left or right?  Amber’s sense of direction is so bad that she can get lost in her own hometown, finding a cemetery that she never knew existed.  And all in front of the girl she hopes will be her first management client.  Amber’s day goes from bad to even worse. When she finally makes it to the party, she hears a group of girls mocking her.  And to cap off the entire dreadful day, she is hit by a mailtruck.  When she heads toward the light, her grandmother and dog are there to greet her.  Her grandmother tells her that it is not yet her time, and sends her back, but on the way, Amber gets lost.  When she wakes up, she finds herself in the body of the most popular girl at school.  A girl whose flawless life has driven her to suicide.  Now Amber must find out if she can get back into her own body and along the way come to understand what drove this girl to do something so tragic.

This novel is very clever with great touches of humor throughout, the snarkiness of teens and siblings, and yet a serious side which supports the story with its strength.  Amber is a well-written protagonist who offers the perfect perspective on what is happening.  Equally nicely drawn are her friends, though the adults in the book trend toward stereotypes.

An intriguing but not dark look at death and life, this story will be enjoyed by teens who read teen novels, rather than those who read fantasy.  Appropriate for ages 12-15.

The Graveyard Book

| Tasha

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman was highlighted in a piece by National Public Radio where Gaiman is interviewed and the wonderful qualities of the novel are mentioned.  Their web site also has a review of the book and an excerpt.  Enjoy!

Cat & Mouse

| Tasha

Cat & Mouse by Ian Schoenherr.

Cat and Mouse play together, wrestling over a paper umbrella.  The text follows a nursery rhyme, changing into Hickory Dickory Dock, and then returning to the original rhyme.  As Mouse gets the best of Cat time and again, will they end up as enemies or friends?

The lively illustrations bring the old-fashioned text to vibrant life.  Both animals are captured with attention to minute details, but then are made wide-eyed and action filled to great comic effect.  Families who have kittens or cats will recognize Cat’s movements and body postures as being purely feline.  Mouse is much more human than Cat.

Enjoyable, laugh-out-loud nursery rhyme fun.  This book will work well for groups of children, and is ideal for use in story times or classroom units.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Mimi

| Tasha

Mimi by Carol Baicker-McKee.

Mimi is a little pig who has two great friends, her stuffed animal Bunny and her roly-poly bug Frank.  When she tries to share some of her breakfast banana with Frank, he isn’t there!  Mimi goes on with her day, heading to the library for story time, playing at the park, taking a nap, waking up cranky, blowing bubbles to improve her mood, and finally heading for bed.  Through all of that, there is no sign of Frank anywhere.  Until Mimi climbs into bed and feels something strange crawling on her!

The illustrations are what got me to pick up this book.  Baicker-McKee combines fabric, clay and paint to create three dimensional tableaus that are eye-catching and interesting.  Her text is equally successful and child-friendly with every-day events at the center of the story.  The quiet tone of the text perfectly suits the style of the illustrations.  Both parents and children will know that they are in a soft, sweet childhood story here.

While the story is sweet, there are no saccharine overtones here.  Just a gentle story that toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy and relate to.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

National Book Award Finalists

| Tasha

The National Book Foundation just announced the finalists for the 2008 award.  Here is the list for Young People’s Literature:

Laurie Halse Anderson for Chains

Kathi Appelt for The Underneath (Yippee!)

Judy Blundell for What I Saw and How I Lied

E. Lockhart for The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Hurrah!)

Tim Tharp for The Spectacular Now

Brava Strega Nona!

| Tasha

Brava, Strega Nona! A Heartwarming Pop-up Book by Tomie dePaola, Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart.

While the subtitle claims to be a heartwarming pop-up book, I would describe it as a heart-stopping pop-up book.  Some of the pages fly open to form such complex and amazing structures that I found myself simply sitting and closing and opening the book again and again to see the pop-up work. 

The combination of dePaola’s simple illustrations and these amazing pop-ups is utterly charming.  Though the pop-ups are complex but stay in tune with the style of the illustrations, embracing the feel of Strega Nona entirely. 

This is a winner of a pop-up book.  My favorite spread is the grape arbor which pops to life before your eyes.  Though I must say that the one that got a gasp out of me is the noodles spilling – literally- right into the reader’s face.  Enjoyable and great fun, this of course will not survive classroom use or public checkouts in a library.  But what a treat to pull out for special storytimes.

New Madeline Book

| Tasha

The grandson of Ludwig Bemelmans has written a Madeline book.  The amount of pure chutzpah that must have taken is staggering.  Simply being a children’s book author with that familial link would have been filled with pressure, but writing a Madeline book is jaw-droppingly brave. 

Madeline and the Cats of Rome is the first completely new Madeline book in more than 40 years.  It will be interesting to see if the grandson managed to recreate his grandfather’s charm, wit and feel. 

David Shannon

| Tasha

A nice newspaper interview with David Shannon in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  Shannon talks about his inspiration for his books coming primarily from his family.  The article also talks about his upcoming book, Too Many Toys.  Nicely, the article ends with a brief look at how Shannon became a picture book illustrator and the final paragraphs are perfect:

While he’s won fame and fortune as a children’s-book author, however, Shannon says he’s still learning things about the picture-book format and using picture books to tell a story.

"I think I have the best job in the whole world," he said.

Isn’t it nice to have an article underline that writing and illustrating for children is not easy!  It’s a nice foil to the innumerable celebrities who try their hand at it and almost always fail spectacularly at this "simple and easy" format.