In a rather backwards roundabout way, Disney is getting into the graphic novel business.  They have created Kingdom Comics which will generate graphic novels from which Disney Studios will select projects to bring to film.  I had to read the article several times to make sure I was really reading that right. 

Yup, create books in order to gauge interest in potential films.  After all, that’s what books are for right? 

Oh wait, no, books and stories are really there to gut and maim in the name of Disney to create stories that rather than being dark and fascinating are sugary and can be sold not only in films but as theme park rides, costumes and an entire cultural phenomenon. 

Now THAT’s what books are for!  (she said with great snarkiness)

I found myself unable to stop reading this Times article on a visit Hans Christian Andersen paid to Dickens in England.  The two had been mutual admirers and then correspondents, but then Andersen came to stay for what was meant to be a fortnight and stayed for five weeks!  Dickens never corresponded with Andersen again.

Here is my favorite quote from the article:

To Andersen, the visit was timeless Elysium, a holiday, a fairy tale come true. To Dickens, his wife, and particularly his children it was eternal torment, a holy hell, a horror story made real.

Anyone else enjoying this the way I do?  There’s some sort of vicarious pleasure in reading this.

Join the Kidlit bloggers at their second annual conference, this time in Portland Oregon.  The conference is Saturday, September 27th and details are available on a blog (what else?!)  Portland Kidlit.

I won’t be able to make it this year, but I hope it is a wonderful conference.  It is a thrill to meet people who you have only read online before. 

Some of you may notice that you haven’t gotten updates on your RSS feed lately.  Others may have seen updates and posts that no longer appear on my site.  Well, so goes updating to the newest version of MoveableType.  Everything should be fine now and you can expect the feed you get to perfectly match the site once again. 

Fingers crossed…

Hey Mr. Choo-Choo, Where Are You Going? by Susan Wickberg, illustrated by Yumi Heo.

Get
ready for a rollicking rhythmic read in this picture book that will
have every small train-crazed boy asking for it to be read again. 
Again!  And again!  You have been warned.

Each new page starts with the chorus of

Hey Mr. Choo-choo,

Red, white, and blue-choo,

Hey Mr. Choo-choo,

And
then asks a question that the rest of the page answers.  So it can be
what the train is pulling, where it’s going, etc.  And it is all done
with a sense of fun, joy and just pure spunk.  You can’t read this book
without smiling (at least for the first five times.)

The
illustrations are wonderful.  Big, colorful, friendly and a little
zany.  Train enthusiasts will want to name the types of cars, but that
isn’t focused on in the text.  It is much more about the rhythm, rhyme
and movement.  I encourage you to get the kids doing the chorus with
you each time, though that will naturally happen anyway.  Perhaps with
movements?

Recommended for reading to toddlers and preschoolers ages 2-4.  Highly recommended as part of a toddler story time on trains.  “I’m saying bye-bye-bye with my bell-bell-bell!”

After two years of planning, the Fox Cities Book Festival was held this weekend.  Almost every event had more people than we expected.  It was a wonderful testament to the power of poetry and books in people’s lives. 

For me, every event I attended was magical, imbued with wonder and joy.  One event that I helped most with was a children’s area at the Book Fair where School Specialty donated children’s books for us to simply give away to children who came in.  The books were lovely, shiny, new and so were the children who came in.

What joy to be able to tell people that they could have a book to keep.  Just because of someone’s generosity, because they cared, and because we care.  It was a powerful message and I just couldn’t get tired of delivering it over and over again.

But what I loved most was seeing the people.  As a library director, I don’t get to interact with people as much as I used to.  And I miss it.  This weekend taught me that.  Demonstrated the power of small connections over books, and immersed me in a joyous day of giving and thanks.

What a treat to be a part of the Festival.  What a treat to know that I helped make it possible.  Helped create conversation, wonder.  And what a treat to be gifted with that day.

Looks by Madeleine George.

Released June 2008.

Meghan is an enormous girl who spends her lonely days in high school virtually invisible, except when she is mercilessly tormented by a group of the popular jocks.  Because she is often overlooked, she knows things about almost everyone at school.  That’s why she is intrigued when Aimee starts school.  Aimee is stick thin and struggling with an eating disorder and has no interest in being friends with Meghan who can’t manage to talk coherently when she approaches her.  When both girls are betrayed by the same person, they haltingly start a friendship for revenge.

The language of this book is pure poetry.  I know that is something often said about prose, but in this case it is entirely true.  Here is a paragraph from Page 12 of the novel to demonstrate:

Here in the dark she disappears completely, her body dissolves, but every one of her senses sharpens: vision, scent, memory, hearing.  Meghan tilts her head toward the door and curves her whole self into a listening device.  She wakes up every sleeping cell in her body to listen.  She makes her skin listen, she makes her eyelashes listen.  She stills her breath, lets it in and out of her lungs in faint wisps.  She listens so hard she feels her heartbeat slow.

The book is like that, taking you so deeply into characters, exposing them, looking beyond the surface to the people they are inside with all of their fascinating drives, needs and fears.  In doing this, neither of the main characters can possibly be stereotypical.  Meghan is seen as dainty at times, graceful, lovely.  Aimee as sharp in voice and in spirit.  Both as cautious kindred spirits brought together by far more than betrayal and revenge. 

There are so many layers here to immerse readers.  This is a book that celebrates unique people, lingers in painful moments, displays beauty where none seemed to exist.  It is a book that sings in tribute of these two disparate but similar characters.  It is a wonder of a teen novel. 

Highly recommended, this book will find those who will relate to it by the great cover.  Hand this one to teens who go their own way and they will find two characters to revel in and one amazing novel to call their own.

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!

A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee.

James and Eamon head to Eamon’s grandparents house at the beach to go to nature camp nearby during the day.  The book follows the boys not as they go to camp, but as they return to the house each evening.  They play video games, each lots of banana waffles, and spend most of their time indoors even though the beach is right at their doorstep.  It isn’t until their final night there that they spend some time outside and discover that it is the best part of their week.

This book is such a treat.  Frazee has a great sense of humor that children will immediately appreciate.  Often the text says one thing while the pictures tell the truth of the situation, which is great fun.  But what makes this book so stellar is that it perfectly captures modern boys, video games, and friendship.  The tone is exactly right, the characterizations are spot on, and there is a joyous skip to the entire book.

Additionally, the grandparents are a welcome pair in children’s books.  Not relegated to the background, these grandparents are unique individuals who simply allow the boys to have the week they want to have rather than pushing them to do more constructive things. 

Highly, highly recommended for boys, girls, parents and grandparents.  This goes in my top ten picture books of the year.  Recommended for a wide range of ages because of the humor: ages 6-10.  (Actually, my 11-year-old laughed even louder than the rest of us!)