Author: Tasha

Big Bad Bunny

| Tasha

Big Bad Bunny by Franny Billingsley, illustrated by G. Brian Karas.

There are some picture books designed to be great fun to read aloud and this is definitely one of them.   Mama Mouse is sweetly tucking her little baby mice into bed.  Kisses and sweetness reign supreme.  But turn the page and discover the horror of BIG BAD BUNNY stomping and rampaging no matter what is in her way.  Mama Mouse discovers that Baby Boo Boo is missing!  And then readers discover that Big Bad Bunny is what Baby Boo Boo turns into when she is angry, especially about being called a baby!

Moving between the loud anger of Big Bad Bunny and the tooth-achingly sweet mothering of Mama Mouse is great fun.  And the text is written perfectly to move between them.  Karas’ art is as vibrant as ever, skillfully telling more of the story than the words do alone. 

Small children everywhere will love this story and will relate with relish to the anger of Baby Boo Boo.  So here we have a picture book that parents will love to read, children will love to listen to, and which has a great message.  What immense fun!  Recommended for small children (not babies) everywhere, especially those ages 4-6.

Visit the Franny Billingsley’s homepage at http://www.frannybillingsley.com/, where you will discover her fantasy books for older children.

Visit G. Brian Karas’ page at http://www.gbriankaras.com/ and enjoy his other picture books which are some of my all-time favorites like Muncha, Muncha, Muncha!

Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach

| Tasha

 

Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach by Melanie Watt.

Scaredy returns in his third book that follows the same wonderful theme as the first two.  Though Scaredy would love to go to the beach there are so many wrong crowds that he could be surrounded by that he doesn’t think it’s wise.  So Scaredy creates a beach of his own using an inflatable pool and kitty litter.  But something is missing – the sounds are all wrong.  So Scaredy sets off to find a seashell at the beach to put to his ear.  He plans carefully but somehow doesn’t factor in one little detail – people.

Watt’s art is as always very fresh and fun.  The quirks of Scaredy’s logic and thoughts are again thoroughly entertaining.  I love the touches of oven mitts, his middle name, and the care he puts into anything he does.  Very funny, unique and above all child-friendly.

Highly recommended where the first two were popular.  But if you don’t have the first two, make sure you get those as well.  The cover art will get the books moving off of your shelves and the stories will keep them coming back for more.  Recommended for ages 5-7.

Ink Exchange

| Tasha

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr.

The sequel to the amazing Wicked Lovely tells the story of one of Aislinn’s human friends who doesn’t know anything about the faeries living around them or that Aislinn is now Queen of the Summer Court.  Leslie is a girl whose life has turned upside down, her mother left, her father turned inward, her brother deals drugs, and she was sold as a sexual favor to cover his debts.  She is damaged but not broken as she turns to a tattoo to restart her life, declaring her body her own again.  But it is not that simple, because Rabbit, her tattoo artist has ties to the Dark Court and Leslie finds herself slowly drawn into their fight for survival through the very tattoo she thought would mark a new beginning of freedom.

The world building here is exquisitely done.  Marr takes the world she built in Wicked Lovely and makes it deeper, darker and more intense.  Her writing is skillful, drawing you into the same web Leslie is trapped in.  By the end there is such a sense of claustrophobia and control that it is almost hard to breathe, but equally hard to put down.  Masterfully done.

I enjoyed Leslie as a heroine throughout the novel.  She is tough but still somehow vulnerable, wise but naive, and these qualities make her all the more intriguing and human.  Equally well portrayed are the two faeries Niall and Irial who struggle to not fall for Leslie but fail.  The Dark Court could have been chillingly callous and cruel, but Marr has managed to make them multi-dimensional and even allows readers to have some understanding of their motives and emotions.  It is a delicate balance that Marr achieves and that lies at the heart of the success of this novel.

Highly recommended for readers of the first novel, this book will fly off the shelves and into the hands of teens everywhere.

2008 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts

| Tasha

Here they are!  Hot off the presses (really hot off of an announcement on the CCBC-Net list).  They are not on the Notables website yet.

Poetry and Drama

Jazz on a Saturday Night by Leo and Diane Dillons.

Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon by Ruth Forman.

Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo Poems by Linda Sue Park.

Good Masters, Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz.

 

Historical and Realistic Fiction

Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine

In Search of Mockingbird by Loretta Ellsworth.

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford.  (My review)

The Wild Girls by Pat Murphy.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. (My review)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. (My review)

Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth.

Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson.

Fantasy/Folklore

Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal by Paul Fleischman. (My review)

The Black Book of Secrets by F. E. Higgins.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon.

Information/Biography/Autobiography/Memoir

Muckrakers by Ann Bausum.

How to Write Your Life Story by Ralph Fletcher.

Pass It Down: Five Picture Book Families Make Their Mark by Leonard S. Marcus.

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis. (My review)

Helen Keller: Her Life in Pictures by George Sullivan.

 

Picture Books

Dear Deer: A Book of Homophones by Gene Barretta.

Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett. (My review)

The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington. (My review)

One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II by Lita Judge.

The Zoo by S. Lee.

When the Shadbush Blooms by Carla Messinger and Susan Katz. (My review)

The Arrival by Shaun Tan. (My review)

Chester by Melanie Watt. (My review)

Woolvs in the Sitee by Margaret Wild.

 

Got any favorites of your own on the list?

2008 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts

| Tasha

Here they are!  Hot off the presses (really hot off of an announcement on the CCBC-Net list).  They are not on the Notables website yet.

Poetry and Drama

Jazz on a Saturday Night by Leo and Diane Dillons.

Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon by Ruth Forman.

Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo Poems by Linda Sue Park.

Good Masters, Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz.

 

Historical and Realistic Fiction

Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine

In Search of Mockingbird by Loretta Ellsworth.

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford.  (My review)

The Wild Girls by Pat Murphy.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. (My review)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. (My review)

Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth.

Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson.

Fantasy/Folklore

Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal by Paul Fleischman. (My review)

The Black Book of Secrets by F. E. Higgins.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon.

Information/Biography/Autobiography/Memoir

Muckrakers by Ann Bausum.

How to Write Your Life Story by Ralph Fletcher.

Pass It Down: Five Picture Book Families Make Their Mark by Leonard S. Marcus.

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis. (My review)

Helen Keller: Her Life in Pictures by George Sullivan.

 

Picture Books

Dear Deer: A Book of Homophones by Gene Barretta.

Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett. (My review)

The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington. (My review)

One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II by Lita Judge.

The Zoo by S. Lee.

When the Shadbush Blooms by Carla Messinger and Susan Katz. (My review)

The Arrival by Shaun Tan. (My review)

Chester by Melanie Watt. (My review)

Woolvs in the Sitee by Margaret Wild.

 

Got any favorites of your own on the list?

2008 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts

| Tasha

Here they are!  Hot off the presses (really hot off of an announcement on the CCBC-Net list).  They are not on the Notables website yet.

Poetry and Drama

Jazz on a Saturday Night by Leo and Diane Dillons.

Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon by Ruth Forman.

Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo Poems by Linda Sue Park.

Good Masters, Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz.

 

Historical and Realistic Fiction

Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine

In Search of Mockingbird by Loretta Ellsworth.

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford.  (My review)

The Wild Girls by Pat Murphy.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. (My review)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. (My review)

Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth.

Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson.

Fantasy/Folklore

Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal by Paul Fleischman. (My review)

The Black Book of Secrets by F. E. Higgins.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon.

Information/Biography/Autobiography/Memoir

Muckrakers by Ann Bausum.

How to Write Your Life Story by Ralph Fletcher.

Pass It Down: Five Picture Book Families Make Their Mark by Leonard S. Marcus.

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis. (My review)

Helen Keller: Her Life in Pictures by George Sullivan.

 

Picture Books

Dear Deer: A Book of Homophones by Gene Barretta.

Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett. (My review)

The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington. (My review)

One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II by Lita Judge.

The Zoo by S. Lee.

When the Shadbush Blooms by Carla Messinger and Susan Katz. (My review)

The Arrival by Shaun Tan. (My review)

Chester by Melanie Watt. (My review)

Woolvs in the Sitee by Margaret Wild.

 

Got any favorites of your own on the list?

What I Read on Spring Break

| Tasha

I meant to do a full review of all of these, and they do deserve it, but right now I am completely swamped and want to get these back to the library shelves so others can enjoy them.  So I’ll do a brief (even briefer than normal) snapshot of each title.  I consider them all must-reads.

One Whole and Perfect Day by Judith Clarke.

I had heard wonderful things about this book for months and months, but no local library purchased it until it was a Printz Honor Book.  It is the intimate but inherently funny story of a family with all of their ups and downs, strained relationships, new-found friends and lovers, and the meeting of strangers who then become part of your life.  Written with grace and beauty by Clarke, the book dips and dives through lives, allowing us to laugh at our own and see beauty where we may not have seen it before.  It also demonstrates without preaching or bullying that we are all interconnected beyond our small lives.  Simply wonderful and definitely a book that is purely teen but is not bleak or dark.  Lovely.

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd.

Salim boards the London Eye and goes up but never comes down.  Now his cousins Ted and Kat must figure out how and why Salim never came back down to earth.  A great mystery for middle-graders, this book has what seems to be an impossible situation, a moment where all of the evidence clicks into place neatly, and two great detectives in the young siblings who each have their own strengths.  Great characterization is the real center of the book here, despite the wonderful mystery.  Ted is a unique boy who has features of autism but is highly functioning.  His quirks make him the detective he is and allow his brain to see things from a different perspective.  What is best about the book is that Ted is never pitied or looked down upon, rather he is seen as special and interesting.  What a treat of a character!  Highly recommended for pre-teens, this would make a stellar book talk.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin.

From the author of Elsewhere, comes another winning teen novel.  Naomi falls down a set of stairs and hits her head at the bottom, losing her memory.  As she wakes up into a life she no longer remembers, she has to piece together why she is dating a tennis jock, why she has the friends she does, and what she wants to do with her life now.  It is a wonderful journey of self-discovery encapsulated by her lost memory.  Beautifully written and effortlessly plotted, the book is fresh and fast.  Zevin manages with both of her novels to create complex situations that envelope a truth.  This book is one that teens will flock to read, enjoy entirely, and pass on to their friends.

PLA Arm Strain

| Tasha

Well, I’m home after dragging back bags and bags of ARCs, pounds of candy and a boatload of pens and pencils from the exhibits.  PLA was wonderful with lots of sessions that really inspired me, but they weren’t about children’s librarianship or books.  I got to go to the great sessions on library management, and really they were great. 

But when I hit the exhibits, I was all about the children’s and teen books.  The last time I went to a national conference it was ALA a few years ago.  At that time, if you mentioned you blogged it was met with confusion if not disdain by the people at the booths.   That has completely changed, and now if you say you are a blogger you get the ARCs from behind the curtains, the business cards to contact them further, and the small presses are thrilled to see you.  Of course there were a few publishers who still don’t get it.  Harcourt is one of those, though it may have just been the person running the booth.  She informed me that they don’t do ARCs though they had some at their table and I pointed out that I get ARCs and review copies from some of their subsidiaries already.  But she insisted that it was too expensive to send ARCs out to just anyone.  I have to admit I got steamed at that and started to cite my number of hits per day and such.  No effect.  She was done with me.  And frankly, I don’t expect a copy of the one ARC I got her to write my name down for to appear anytime soon.

But I came away from the exhibits and from most booths with an incredible number of books.  Here are the ones I am looking forward to most:

  

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr (I’ve already started this and if the writing holds through the book this may be better than the amazing Wicked Lovely.)

Playing with Fire by Derek Landy (the sequel to Skulduggery Pleasant)

Looks by Madeleine George.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.

Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli

Lamplighter by D. M. Cornish

Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

Peeled by Joan Bauer

Away

| Tasha

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I am on vacation with my boys for the next couple of days and then will spend the bulk of next week at PLA in Minneapolis.  I’m looking forward to seeing some of the new children’s books, begging for ARCs, and chatting with vendors and librarians alike. 

Hope you have a wonderful Easter and a great spring break!