It seems to be a season for losses in the children’s book field. Author Ellen Levine has died at the age of 73 from lung cancer. Her children’s books focused on historical fiction about immigrants and minorities.
Her Henry’s Freedom Box from 2007 received a Caldecott Honor for Kadir Nelson’s artwork.
Tor.com is carrying the sad news of the death of Leo Dillon, half of the duo of Leo and Diane Dillon, the amazing husband and wife artists that create such detailed, emotive works. Their work celebrates diversity, dreams and design. They are magical, haunting and powerful.
The pair won two consecutive Caldecott Medals for Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears and Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions. They also work on book covers as well as children’s picture books. If you read science fiction and fantasy, you will recognize their art.
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage
Mo LoBeau arrived in the small North Carolina town of Tupelo Landing as an infant riding on a hurricane wave. She was discovered by the Colonel, a man also trapped in the storm who completely lost his memory. Now at age 11, Mo helps the Colonel and Miss Lana run the café that is attached to their home. It’s a quiet life, punctuated by the hope of her long-lost mother finding one of the bottles that Mo sends off upstream. Then the law comes to town and things get interesting. A murder was committed in a nearby town, then someone is murdered right in Tupelo Landing! Mo and her best friend, Dale, form a detective agency and try to stay a step ahead of the police as they investigate the murder, try to clear Dale’s name, and worry that the Colonel may be mixed up in things too. All Mo knows is that it is up to her to continue to trust the people she loves so fiercely and to prove their innocence.
I must admit that I sighed a bit when I discovered that this was another book set in a small town in the south. I knew that it would be filled with interesting small town characters, probably have a spunky heroine, and expected that it would be pretty formulaic as well. It does have interesting small town characters, but also ones that resemble modern society. As much as this is a story of a family that is created out of love alone, it is also the story of what a small town community can be. Yes, Mo is spunky. She is also smart, savvy and wonderfully inventive. And while the story starts out in a familiar way, it quickly turns into a book that is a fun, fast-paced read.
The story is not as light-hearted as it might seem on the surface. Dale lives with his mother in fear of his drunken father returning and beating him. There are families that are divided in other ways, including money. And without giving anything away, there are twists that are surprising in a children’s book.
Turnage’s writing is filled with humor. She creates memorable characters, dancing quickly with stereotypes and then reaching beyond them to something that means much more. She is not afraid of real danger in her book and she is also not shy about deep love. It is a book about family, community, bravery and friendship.
This is one to read on a slow summer day, preferably one threatening a nice fat thunderstorm. Now if someone can just find me a real café like Miss Lana’s I’m all set. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Reviewed from ARC received from Dial Books.
The CBI Book of the Year for 2012 has been announced.
The winner of the CBI Book of the Year is also the winner of the Children’s Choice Award, the first time the same book has won both awards!
The winner is:
Into the Grey by Celine Kiernan
The Eilis Dillon Award is awarded to a first time author or illustrator. The winner is:
The Butterfly Heart by Paula Leyden
Three additional awards were given this year:
The Judges Special Award went to My Dad Is 10 Years Old by Mark O’Sullivan
The Honour Award for Illustration went to Stuck by Oliver Jeffers
The Honour Award for Fiction went to Maitríóisce by Siobhan Parkinson
There is also a 2012 shortlist that features the best of Irish writing and illustration for young people. It includes the titles above and the following four:
A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle
Bruised by Siobhan Parkinson
O Chrann Go Crann by Caitriona Hastings, illustrated by Andrew Whitson
Will Gallows and the Snake-Bellied Troll by Derek Keilty
A Home for Bird by Philip C. Stead
Vernon, the toad, was out finding interesting things when he met Bird. Bird wasn’t much for talking, not responding to anything that Vernon said, not even when he introduced Bird to his friends, Skunk and Porcupine. Despite his silence (and his stiffness and button eyes) Vernon proceeded to show Bird around the river and forest. But when Bird didn’t react even to watching clouds together, Vernon started to worry that Bird was depressed. So Vernon and Bird set out to help Bird find his home. They looked at all sorts of homes, but none of them were right for Bird. Then they came to a small blue house where they decided to stop for the night. In the house was another small house, a cuckoo clock, up on the wall. And that was where Bird and Vernon spent the night. Until in the morning, Bird finally found his voice.
Stead writes and illustrates with a wonderful charm. His writing is so solid that it is a joy to read aloud. The story is carefully crafted and then playfully told, making for a book that is a pleasure to share. Vernon is a character that children will relate easily and happily to. Bird will immediately be recognized for the toy he is, but the story is less about that mistake by Vernon and more about the journey to find where Bird belongs.
The illustrations have a wonderful freedom to them, filled with swirls of color, that fill the air and cover the walls. Stead draws the main characters with detailed fine lines, but their world is a more childlike, looser scrawl that reveals trees, flowers and dirt. The way the detail plays against the less structured backgrounds adds to the cheer of the title.
Finding ones home, friendship and a grand quest fill this picture book to the brim and combine wonderfully with the charm of the illustrations. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.
Here are the links I shared on my Twitter and Pinterest accounts that you might find interesting:
For more general library, e-book and social media links, you can visit my list of tweets and pins on my Sites and Soundbytes blog.
A.A. Milne’s Real-Life "House at Pooh Corner" Hits the Market – Curbed National http://j.mp/JTSWMX I just need the other 3.2 million
B.J. Epstein: Harry Potter and the Ivory Tower: Children’s Literature and Academia http://buff.ly/KGqMnW #kidlit
CBC Diversity: Feeding the Demand for More Diverse Books http://buff.ly/KPqBGh
Elizabeth Laird’s top 10 books about tough stuff from out there | Children’s books http://buff.ly/KYz10f #kidlit
Giving Birth to ‘Bitterblue’ http://buff.ly/Jm1obr #yalit
Jeff Kinney on plans to write 10 books in The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series http://buff.ly/KYSq0X #kidlit
Minecraft in the Classroom and Library — The Digital Shift – and my teen son’s favorite game – http://buff.ly/KGkUed
Neil Gaiman Addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012 on Vimeo http://buff.ly/JVZdaE
Oh, The Places We Went: My Travels with Jean by Wendell Minor http://buff.ly/Jm2UKt #kidlit
Parents Encourage Creativity in Kids by Helping Them Tinker http://buff.ly/LDOmX4 #creativity
To Do: Gertrude Stein’s Posthumous Alphabet Book http://prsm.tc/dKi7ws
Top 10 Fantasy Novels by Female Authors inspired by ‘The Killing Moon’ | Kirkus Book Reviews http://buff.ly/KGGUWy – with lots of #yalit
Why I Write "Strong Female Characters"http://buff.ly/KJqKyW
Take What You Can Carry by Kevin C. Pyle
This graphic novel explores connections between generations and across races, in an innovative way. It is the story of two teenage boys. One is a Japanese American who is sent to the internment camps during World War II. His part of the story shows the displacement of his family, the loss of their rights, and the realities of the camps. In alternating chapters, we also get the modern story of a teenage boy who moves to a new community and gets in with the wrong group of boys. Soon he is robbing stores and eventually ends up in real trouble. The man whose store he robs was the Japanese teen, who also resorted to stealing in the camps.
At first, readers are not sure how the two stories will ever come together into one, or if they ever will. They seem so remote and separate from one another. Then when they do, there is a great satisfaction is realizing why the modern boy is given a chance to remedy what he has done. It is a story that deals with two very personal stories, but that also has a more universal message about displacement, theft and redemption. Both of the teen boys find ways to make things right in their lives, to accept their conditions, to rise above.
Pyle’s two stories are shown in different color palettes as you can see from the cover. The sepia tones work well for the historical story, also emphasizing the wasteland of the internment camps. The blues of the modern story give it a cool feeling that suits a story where a boy is not making the right choices and where his world is devoid of warmth.
This intriguing graphic novel is a compelling read that will show young readers not only about history but also about themselves and their own choices. Appropriate for ages 12-14.
Reviewed from copy received from Henry Holt.
The Year of the Beasts by Cecil Castellucci and Nate Powell
Told in chapters that alternate Castellucci’s writing with Powell’s graphics, this is the story of two sisters. When the summer carnival comes to town, Tessa, her younger sister Lulu and her best friend Celina get to go to the carnival without their parents for the first time. After meeting up with a group of boys they know, the three girls and the boys head to the sideshow tent with its darkness and opportunities. But Tessa’s plans don’t quite work out, and the boy she has a crush on, Charlie, ends up entering the tent with Lulu instead. Tessa is left to go in with Jasper, a boy who is known as a strange loner. When they exit, Tess has rebuffed Jasper’s attempts to kiss her, but something has obviously happened between Charlie and Lulu that has sealed them together as a couple. Now Tessa has to deal with her jealousies and their dark results.
Castellucci’s prose is lush and wild. The emotions in the book sizzle, coming right off the page. On page 97, there is a great example of this:
If there were such a thing as a dark cloud over someone’s head, Tessa had one. It was a stormy little thing. With hail and lightning and thunder. And no silver lining.
She explores the feelings of confusing lust and potential love, the ability for those same feelings to alienate and discourage, and the intensity of sisterhood. The book is character-driven with Tessa at its center in all of her confusion, desperation to not be jealous, and constantly feeling as if she is second best. There are no easy answers here, nothing is let go of easily, and emotions twist and turn. It is a beautiful storm of a book.
Then you have the other chapters done in graphic novel format that show Tessa as Medusa with her nest of snake hair. The graphic portion moves along in advance of the text portion, foreshadowing things that are yet to come. Medusa finds that her school is also filled with other monsters, her best friend is a mermaid, and Charlie is a centaur. She has turned her parents to stone with her gaze and now must live with the consequences of that unless she is able to reawaken as a human again.
The pairing of these two makes this book even more original and powerful. It also makes the book much more welcoming for reluctant readers or those who have discovered Castellucci through her graphic novels.
An emotional ride of a teen novel done with beauty and power, this book has an innate appeal thanks to its graphic novel portion and the dynamic writing. Appropriate for ages 13-16.
Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.
Here Come the Girl Scouts! by Shana Corey, illustrated by Hadley Hooper
Juliette Gordon Low, or Daisy as her friends called her, was nothing like the other girls growing up in the Victorian Era. While girls were meant to be prim and proper, Daisy instead loved the outdoors and adventure. Daisy traveled the world, but eventually wanted to be more useful. Then she found out about the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides in the United Kingdom and realized that America needed something that would get the girls there out in nature and exploring. So Daisy started what would become the Girl Scouts with just 18 girls in Savannah, Georgia in 1912. She taught them the rules, designed uniforms, planned excursions, and had them outside, active and learning. This book is about the impact one person with a purpose can have and also the incredible impact the Girl Scouts themselves have had in our society.
Corey looks at Victorian life very briefly and then jumps right in to celebrating the life of Daisy and her Girl Scouts. The tone here is one of delight in a life well-lived. Daisy is shown as a person unfettered by her time, but definitely not un-criticized by those around her. Daisy rose above the scorn and derision that her program faced, continuing her commitment to everything the Girl Scouts stand for.
Hooper’s illustrations have a wonderful playful quality to them. Done using printmaking techniques, the images have a hand-made quality that suits the subject matter well. Woven into the images are phrases from the Scouts that immediately incorporate their attitude towards life and service.
An impressive picture book biography of an incredible woman, this book will inspire young readers to dream big and work hard to achieve those dreams. Appropriate for ages 6-8.
Reviewed from library copy.
