Author: Tasha

Dragon Dancing

| Tasha

Dragon Dancing by Carole Lexa Schaefer, illustrated by Pierr Morgan.

This toddler-friendly picture book combines multiculturalism, creativity and pure imagination.  It is Mei Lin’s birthday.  Her teacher reads a book about dragons, and the children create a Birthday Dragon from paper, string, feathers and tape.  As they dance around the room, the dragon in their imaginations forms around them, becoming more and more life-like.  Until the teacher calls them back, and they get birthday dragon treats to eat.

The book is filled with great sound words like whish-whoosh and great action words like creep-crouching.  The illustrations are bright, engaging and filled with movement.  If you work with a group of busy toddlers, this book will lend itself to allowing them to move with the words.  What is creep-crouching?  What does swirl-whirling look like?  And what sounds can they make to match the sounds in the book?  Sounds like good fun to me!  And what a treat that it also teaches about imagination, sharing and creativity.

2007 Boston Globe – Horn Book Awards

| Tasha

The 2007 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards have been announced:

The winners are

For Fiction and Poetry: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Pox Party by M T Anderson.

Picture Book: Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.

Nonfiction:  The Strongest Man in the World: Louis Cyr by Nicolas Debon.

Honor books were selected in all categories as well.  Enjoy!

VOYA's Perfect Tens

| Tasha

This is one list that I love to see each year.  VOYA offers a list of its Perfect Tens, books that scored top marks for both quality and popularity.  I have only read two of them!  How can this be?  Ah well, more to add to my never-ending list of books that must be read.

Here’s the list:

Defining Dulcie by Paul Acampora.

Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.

The Notebook Girls: four friends, one diary, real life by Julia Baskin.

My Lost and Found Life by Melodie Bowsher.

The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima.

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen.

What Happened to Cass McBride? by Gail Giles (Hurrah!  Yes, a perfect ten of a book!)

Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan.

The Flip: turn your world around by Jared Rosen and David H. Rippe.

They Teach That in College!?: a resource guide to more than 75 interesting college majors and programs.

The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin.  (One of my favorites of 2006!)

Conservative Children's Books

| Tasha

Oh Yippee! (said with great sarcasm) The publisher of “Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed,” Eric Jackson has a second children’s book that follows the same conservative theme.  The new book is called, “The Sky’s Not Falling! Why It’s OK to Chill About Global Warming.” 

He has cute titles, but I’m not sure he has anything else going for him.  That said, this liberal librarian is probably not his target audience.  I can think of many homeschooling conservatives who would love a book debunking global warming. 

A Swift Pure Cry

| Tasha

A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd.

Nominated for the Carnegie Medal, this book is my favorite YA novel of the year.  It is a powerful look at abandonment, distrust, family, responsibility, love and forgiveness.  Shell is a 15 year old who lives in modern-day rural Ireland.  With her mother dead, her father has never recovered and no longer takes care of Shell or her two younger siblings.  All responsibility falls to Shell to raise her brother and sister.  While she struggles to form a home for them, schooling often falls to the side until Shell is forced once again to attend.  When a new young priest comes to Shell’s church, the words of the Bible once again come alive for her.  Shell struggles with her Catholic religion, sometimes seeing her mother before her and other times unable to make a connection to any type of divinity.  As her life continues to become even more complicated, Shell must decide what she loves and who she really is.

There are three aspects to this novel that make it so deeply moving.  First is the poverty that Shell and her family live in.  Dowd manages to make it very real but not melodramatic.  It is handled matter-of-factly as another aspect to Shell’s situation in life.  Second is religion.  Shell’s struggle with faith, spirituality, and forming her own beliefs is almost physically tangible.  I see religion as another fully developed character in the novel.  Beautifully and honestly rendered.

The final aspect that makes this novel spectacular is the writing.  It fairly sings on the page.  One passage that made my breath catch was when Shell sees her dead mother walking on the beach. 

“Shell blinked.  The figure vanished.
Shell’s heart had a purple cover over it.
When Jesus dies, she thought, you die a little too.”

I’m not sure I can say anything more to tell you how marvelous this novel is.  Poetry in prose with a dark depth to it that will leave you aching when you finish it.  Recommended to teens and adults who enjoy a novel to sink into and truly experience. 

To the Best of Our Children's Lit

| Tasha

To the Best of Our Knowledge is a great Wisconsin Public Radio program.  This Sunday (June 3rd) they will be discussing children’s books.  Here is the great intro statement that I heard on WPR this morning as I drove to work:

One of the worst things about growing up is you get kicked
out of the children’s section of the library. I mean, you learn to read
and life is one olong happy string of books, from Peter Pan to Winnie
the Pooh to Harriett the Spy, but then you reach a certain age and you’re
supposed to graduate and spend the rest of your life reading grown-up
books. Well, have no fear. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,
it’s children’s books, for us.

Great sounding, isn’t it?  Authors like Maurice Sendak and Philip Pullman will join in the conversation.

Even if you don’t live in Wisconsin, you can listen to the program later in the week online using the link above.  Just click the Listen button and off you go!

Riddle Me This

| Tasha



Riddle Me This!: Riddles and Stories to Challenge Your Mind by Hugh Lupton, illustrated by Sophie Fatus.

Recently released in paperback, I never saw the hardcover version so this is a new book to me.  This book is filled with great riddles from the classic ones to more modern versions.  The illustrations make it child-friendly, but this book is perfect for riddle lovers of all ages.  In fact, we spent the evening last night reading the riddles out loud and trying to figure them out as a family.  I can’t think of a nicer way to spend an evening. 

I love riddle books rather than joke books.  They really make you think and the groan when you are completely baffled and the answer is discovered is very satisfying.  This book is a winner for kids who enjoy a good riddle and love to think.

Wizarding World

| Tasha

Orlando will be home to a new theme park based on the Harry Potter books!  Universal Studios expects to open the park in 2009.  There is just something magical about being able to experience Hogwarts and Rowling’s world.  I probably should feel more cynical about this.  I know it is sure to be expensive and  filled with cheap but expensive toys that no child can live without. But still, I would love to see Hogwarts…

Off Season – The Waiting Game

| Tasha

Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock is on my list of must read titles.  I have a hold on it at the library and am waiting rather impatiently.  It certainly doesn’t help when newspapers run glowing reviews. 

If you haven’t read Murdock’s first book, Dairy Queen, start there.  It is a winning read for teen girls who are not the prom queen type.