Book Nut

November Jacket Flap-a-thon

2009-11-30T09:49:00.028-06:00

It's Cybils time around here at chez Book Nut, which means this is the Middle Grade edition of the Jacket Flap-a-thon. I haven't forgotten about the drawing for the $25 gift card... you have until midnight (U. S. Central Standard Time) to enter. I'll pick a winner tomorrow. Follow the link to enter.

And without further blathering, the best this month:

Born to Fly (Delacorte Press): "Ever since she can remember, Bird has loved dreamed of one thing: becoming a P-40 fighter pilot. The fact that she's a girl has never seemed to matter. At least, not until the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor forces America into war and takes Bird's dad, the one person who believes in her, far away. When a Japanese American boy named Kenji comes to school, everyone is sure he's a spy or a traitor. But one night, after he saves her from drowning, Kenji and Bird accidentally discover a real spy in their town, one who's plotting something deadly. No one believes their story, so Bird and her new friend are forced to try to stop the plot on their own. Their adventure will shake their town, test their friendship, and, if they fail, change the future o the war -- and the world. This accomplished debut by Michael Ferrari, the winner of the Delacorte Yearling Price for a First Middle-Grade Novel, has everything: adventure, humor, a satisfying and nuanced portrayal of friendship, and a remarkable heroine who was born to fly."

This one caught my eye because it makes the book sound adventurous and exciting. Good thing the book really is.

Anything But Typical (Simon and Schuster): "Jason Blake is an autistic 12 year old living in a neurotypical world. Most days it's just a matter of time before something goes wrong. But Jason finds a glimmer of understanding when he comes across Phoenixbird, who posts stories to the same online site as he does. Jason can be himself when he writes, and he thinks that PhoenixBird -- her name is Rebecca -- could be his first real friend. But as desperate as Jason is to meet her, he's terrified that if they do meet, Rebecca will only see his autism and not who Jason really is. By acclaimed writer Nora Raleigh Baskin, this is the breathtaking depiction of an autistic boy's struggles -- and a story anyone who has ever worried about fitting in."

The best part about this jacket flap copy was that every sentence was written in a different font style and size. It's disjointed and confusing, and I think works brilliantly, drawing the reader into this unique book.

The Brooklyn Nine (Dial Books): "1845: Felix Schneider, a 10-year-old immigrant from Germany, cheers the New York Knickerbockers as they play Three-Out, All-Out. 1864: Union soldier Louis Schneider plays baseball between battles in the Civil War. 1893: Arnold Schneider meets his hero King Kelly, one of professional baseball's first big stars. 1908: Walter Snider, batboy for the Brooklyn Superbas, tries to sneak a black pitcher into the Majors by pretending he's Native American. 1926: Numbers wiz Frankie Snider cons a con with the help of a fellow Brooklyn Robins fan. 1945: Kat Flint becomes a star for the Grand Rapids Chicks in the All-American Girls Baseball League. 1957: Ten-year-old Jimmy Flint thinks bullies and Sputnik are enough to worry about-until the Dodgers announce they're leaving Brooklyn. 1981: Michael Flint finds himself pitching a perfect game during the Little League season at Prospect Park. 2002: Snider Flint tracks down the strange story of a bat that belonged to one of Brooklyn's greatest baseball players. One family, nine generations. One city, nine innings of baseball."

This one was difficult to write up, being a series of short stories. But I think the copy did an admirable job linking it all together. I especially like the two ending sentences.

Love, Aubrey (Wendy Lamb Books): "I had everything I needed to run a household: a house, food, and a new family. From now on it would just be me and Sammy–the two of us, and no one else. A tragic accident has turned eleven-year-old Aubrey’s world upside down. Starting a new life all alone, Aubrey has everything she thinks she needs: Spaghetti Os and Sammy, her new pet fish. She cannot talk about what happened to her. Writing letters is the only thing that feels right to Aubrey, even if no one ever reads them. With the aid of her loving grandmother and new friends, Aubrey learns that she is not alone, and gradually, she finds the words to express feelings that once seemed impossible to describe. The healing powers of friendship, love, and memory help Aubrey take her first steps toward the future. Readers will care for Aubrey from page one and will watch her grow until the very end, when she has to make one of the biggest decisions of her life. Love, Aubreyis devastating, brave, honest, funny, and hopeful, and it introduces a remarkable new writer, Suzanne LaFleur. No matter how old you are, this book is not to be missed."

There was a toss up between this one, Wild Things and Also Known as Harper. This one won, I think, not only because it was short, but also because it caught just the right tone for the book.

Other books read this month:
Joey Fly, Private Eye in Creepy Crawly Crime
Al Capone Does My Shirts
Neil Armstrong is My Uncle
Strawberry Hill
Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies
A Season of Gifts
Oracle Bones
Also Known as Harper
Wild Things
Fifth Business
Black Angels
Cotillion
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had

Love, Aubrey

2009-11-30T07:00:00.005-06:00

by Suzanne LaFleur
ages: 10+
First sentence: "It was fun at first, playing house."
Support your local independent bookstore, buy it there!

I've read about a lot of grief, trials, abandonment, and loss in the books this year for the Cybils. But few have touched me like Love, Aubrey did. Eleven-year-old Aubrey has suffered quite a bit in the past few months: her father and younger sister Savannah died in a car crash that left Aubrey and her mother alive, but scarred. And when, on a hot August day, her mother takes off and just doesn't come back, Aubrey feels like it's probably for the best. After all, if everyone's going to leave, who needs them? Only, when her Grams comes -- out of concern, since Aubrey's not answering the phone -- and discovers the situation, she whisks Aubrey back to Vermont, to real life, to friendship, to love, and eventually to the path of healing.

On the back of my copy there's a quote by Sarah Weeks, author of So B. It, that says, "LaFleur has a rare gift -- an authentic middle grade voice." I have to completely agree. The dialogue doesn't seem affected. The narrative -- which is punctuated by heartfelt letters from Aubrey to various people -- flows seamlessly. Aubrey grabs your attention in a way that's unique and heart rendering. The pain she feels -- at the loss of her beloved father and sister, and at the abandonment of her mother -- is palpable. It's a beautiful book.

But, it's not a sad one. Yes, it deals with death and abandonment, but most of all it's about love and healing and hope. Which is difficult for an author to get across without being preachy. LaFleur does so admirably: the adult characters -- aside from the mother, which becomes forgivable, or at least understandable, by the end of the book -- are present, anchors in Aubrey's world, and yet it's Aubrey who is propelling the action of the story, pulling the readers into her world.

In short: a perfect gem.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

Cotillion

2009-11-29T21:00:00.002-06:00

by Georgette Heyer
ages: adult
First sentence: "The Saloon, like every other room in Arnside House, was large and lofty, and had been furnished, possibly some twenty years earlier, in what had then been the first style of elegance."
Support your independent bookstore: buy it there!

Now this is quintessential Georgette Heyer. Silly, fun, captivating, and all-around good times: the Georgette Heyer that I would happily recommend to everyone.

Kitty is the ward of a grumpy, miserly old man, who has bequeathed his fortune to her under one condition: that she marry one of his grand-nephews. It doesn't sound like a bad deal -- Kitty thinks she's in love with one of them already -- except that the one that Kitty likes doesn't show up at his uncle's command to offer for her. She attempts to run away, and then runs into Freddy -- another grand-nephew -- and talks him into offering for her, mostly because she wants to visit London. Freddy -- an all-around good guy, and plain hilarious in the book -- agrees, they both away to London, where all sorts of adventures, misadventures and happenings, well, happen.

I did this one as a buddy read with Corinne at The Book Nest and we chatted a bit about it.

Melissa: A bit of background: I noticed that Corinne had had a less-than-positive experience with a Georgette Heyer book (as did I recently), and I thought it'd be fun -- since I was reading one for my in-person book group -- to see if we could both have a better experience with Heyer. We searched our collective libraries for a common book, and decided upon Cotillion (which I think was recommended to me by Heather at A High and Hidden Place). So... what did you think overall?

Corinne: OH HO HO!! I can now see why people are thrilled with Heyer this was a complete gem. Full of frivolity and love and match-making and characters that made me laugh out loud. Really, out-loud laughing.

Melissa: I totally agree! There were parts that just had me in tears... and I absolutely LOVED Freddy. He killed me. I loved the way he talked, though it occurred to me when I finished that he was a bit more 1920s than 1820: he reminded me of Bertie Wooster! (I dog-eared this quote as quintessential Freddy: "Dash it, Jack!" said Freddy, stung. "Any girl would rather marry me than Dolph or Hugh! No use saying Dolph's an Earl: he's run off his legs, besides being dicked in the nob! As for Hugh--lord!")

Corinne: I didn't think of Bertie, but of course! I totally agree. It slayed me every time he said someone was "touched in the upper works," or "buffle-headed." And of course, there ARE those characters that actually were "touched" - as Freddy says - Heyer's characters felt perfectly caricatured and yet...NOT annoyingly predictable. At first I worried that Kitty would be too simpering for me - but what a lovely surprise to have her be so scheming and forthright!

Melissa: That's a great point. They are pretty caricatured -- the innocent girl, the annoying rector, the simpering Earl, the frivolous lady, the cad (ooh, we must talk about Jack!). But I loved them all. And I loved how they interact with each other, too. There were some great character dynamics going on in the book. Did you have a favorite character?

Corinne: Freddy - to be sure, for reasons already mentioned. He's a riot, but deeper than you'd think. And to be honest, Uncle Matthew was also a favorite. Maybe I just have a soft spot in my heart for crabby and penny-pinching old uncles, but lines like this: 'Man's an idiot!' said Mr. Penicuik. 'Small fire be damned! Not when I'm going to sit here myself, clodpole!" We didn't get to see him much in the book, but I enjoyed our time with that guy. So, what did you think of Dolph, though? And Jack? Can you imagine a more opposite pair of cousins?

Melissa: No, I can't! I felt sorry for Dolph, being pushed around by his mother so much. And maybe he was a bit "dicked in the nob" but he was sweet, and he meant well. And, Jack, well... actually, I was surprised at what a cad he was. One of the things I find interesting about Heyer (as opposed to, say, Jane Austen) is her willingness to delve into the seamier side of Edwardian society. The fact that it was well known that Jack was a, um, libertine, was pretty surprising to me. Aren't they supposed all supposed to be pure and unsullied?

Be sure to check out her blog for the second half of the conversation!

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had

2009-11-29T08:27:00.006-06:00

by Kristin Levine
ages: 10+
First sentence: "I've been wrong before."
Support your local independent bookstore, buy it there!

It's 1917, Moundville, Alabama and Dit is not quite 13 years old. He's also the sixth of ten children, and tends to get lost in the crowd. All Dit wants to do is play baseball and earn enough money for the Fourth Hunt and do well at both, so his Daddy will notice him and not think he's just another one of the kids. Then Emma moves in next door -- her father's the new postmaster -- and Dit's life completely changes. Emma's the opposite of Dit: smart, bookish, an only child, and African-American. And yet, the two of them form a friendship that will last.

It's a remarkable book, from the voice -- Levine gets the Southern drawl without using dialect, and Dit's voice is so spot-on I could just picture him in my mind -- to the tackling of issues -- in this case race and racism in the South during the Jim Crow days -- without being heavy handed. The characters were incredibly sympathetic, from Dit's desire to just be noticed and Emma's desire to just be accepted in this backwater Southern town. It feels like a series of vignettes, though they are sewn together in a way that works toward a plot. And Levine wrote Dit's growth and acceptance of Emma as a friend, and the conflict that their friendship makes in this small town, in such a way to keep the reader involved and interested. There's also a sub-plot, again involving the conflict between black and white, which does get a bit melodramatic towards the end, but not so much that it derails the book. And, I have to admit, the end made me tear up.

Because, in the end, it's all about friendship and how -- no matter how different we seem -- friends make our lives better. And what can be better than that?

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

Black Angels

2009-11-28T15:39:00.006-06:00

by Linda Beatrice Brown
ages: 10+
First sentence: "Luke took the key out of the sideboard drawer in the dining room, took a rifle and put the key back very carefully."
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Support your local independent bookstore, buy it there!

Fiction about children during wartime is pretty overdone, in my humble opinion. Do we really need another book that illustrates the horrors of war, the trials that the children go through, the pain of separation? Probably not. But in this case, I'll make an exception: Brown's book takes the generic child-in-war story and moves it beyond the cliche to something else. Something more gripping, more lyrical, more -- dare I say it? -- poignant.

Luke is twelve years old. He hates his master, he hats the South, and he is running away to join the Union and fight to end slavery and free his people. Daylily is ten. She's been freed by her master, but in the journey north with her Gramma and Buttercup (whom we never really find out much about), the two are brutally murdered. We're never quite sure if they're murdered by Union or Confederate soldiers, but the fact of their murder renders Daylily silent and bruised. She's lucky to be left with her life, and she knows it. Caswell is seven, and he's the son of a wealthy landowner who's off fighting for the Confederacy. He's lost in the woods, trying to find a neighbor's house and his Mamadear who was carted away in the night because she was in labor.

The three manage to meet in the woods, going north, and make an unlikely trio. Yet dire circumstances make strange bedfellows. And when they meet Betty Strong Feet, things get even more unusual. The three children learn about survival, and working together, but most of all about love and friendship in the face of adversity.

The plot arc is huge: not only do we follow the children through the few months during their time in the woods and with Betty, but we follow their paths for the ten years after they got separated. This didn't quite work for me: I felt that the book got preachy and too altruistic near the end; on the one hand, it was important to see how the children had changed because of their experiences together, but -- on the other hand -- perhaps it would have been nice to leave that to the imagination.

Minor quibble with the ending aside, the book was lyrical, descriptive and quite powerful. A fresh look at a overdone subject.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

Book to Movie Friday: New Moon

2009-11-27T07:33:00.000-06:00

Happy Black Friday, everyone! You didn't think I'd pass up this opportunity to talk about this particular movie, did you? Admittedly, it has been a while since I've seen a movie based on a book, so I'm a bit out of practice... but giving it a good go.

If you recall (you probably don't, which is why I'm going to link to it), I didn't particularly like the book New Moon. But, it's been nearly three years since I read the book, and I honestly didn't remember much more than the basic plot overview.

Which is a good thing, technically, because I found that the movie worked on it's own terms, as a movie. It wasn't just highlights from the book; it actually followed its own plot arc (whether or not it was close to the book is really beyond my memory, but then I don't think it matters much).

That said, my reaction to the movie was much like my reaction to the book. I thought they did Bella's heartbreak when Edward left exceptionally well; you could really get a sense of her despair and depression, as well as the length of time it took her to begin to snap out of it. The best part of the movie was the Jacob part; Bella was more natural and less angsty around Jacob. He's still my favorite character, and even though he's 12, Taylor Lautner is quite nice to look at. I got ticked off when Bella began putting herself in danger for the sake of conjuring up visions of Edward, and told M (who went too) that if she ever does that for the sake of True Love I was going to pummel her. :-)

Like Twilight, the best part was the supporting characters. Alice is fun and intriguing and has an awesome wardrobe; it's good thing she's in this one more). I missed more of Carlisle; he was one of the better parts of Twilight. And Charlie was still lovable as Bella's goofy, clueless day. Edward is sufficiently sparkly and gothy and more irritating than I found him to be in Twilight. (Oh I love you Bella.... no wait! I don't want you... I'm going to kill myself... bleh!) The Volturi were intriguing; Michael Sheen was brilliant as Aro, and Dakota Fanning looked like she had a ball playing Jane. I think the director could have made the Volturi even more menacing, but I loved the underlying tension between charisma and repulsion.

It was an okay escape, not as fun as some other movies, but not a bad outing either.

Verdict: Better than the book. Which isn't saying much, IMHO.

To All My American Friends

2009-11-26T08:00:00.002-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a wonderful day. Eat lots of good food. Enjoy time with family and friends. Read a good book.

Be grateful for all the wonderful things in your life.

I know I will.

Library Loot #46

2009-11-25T11:54:00.003-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans out there. I managed to squeeze in another small trip to the library amid the cleaning and the visiting and the baking.

You didn't think I'd miss a week did you?

For A/K:
Goldilicious, by Victoria Kann
Katy Did It!, by Lorianne Siomades
A Book, by Mordicai Gerstein
Robot Zot!, by Jon Scieszka/Illus. by David Shannon

For me:
Umbrella Summer, by Lisa Graff
Road to Tater Hill, by Edith M. Hemingway
Love, Aubrey, by Suzanne LaFleur
The Wine-Dark Sea , by Leonardo Sciascia
The Heretic's Daughter: A Novel, by Kathleen Kent

The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

*Ones that M eventually read.
**Picture books we really liked.

The Brooklyn Nine

2009-11-24T07:59:00.006-06:00

by Alan Gratz
ages: 10+
First sentence: "Nine months ago, Felix Schneider was the fastest boy in Bremen, Germany."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

This book is one of the more unique ones I've read recently. It's not that it's tackling something different or controversial. Rather, it's quite the opposite: it's a sweeping portrait of a family, a game, a nation. Quiet in its execution, yet grand in its ambition, Gratz pulls off something I didn't think was possible: this book is a slice of Americana through and through.

The format is clever, too: it's a series of short stories, told in nine "innings", that travel through the years. Beginning in 1845, with a German immigrant, Felix Schneider, and going until present, the stories offer up a picture of how baseball -- and America -- has evolved over the last 160 years. Gratz touches on all the major highlights of Americana: there's a Civil War soldier, Vaudeville, gangsters, racism and the Negro League, the All-American Girls Baseball league, and the Cold War. As in the case of all short story collections, some of the stories work better than others: in my case, the further back in time, the better the story; the final two more modern stories felt a bit cliched to me. But, even with its unevenness, it's a fabulous undertaking. This is probably sounding like a sports book, and in some ways it is -- I think there are many baseball-minded boys out there who would love the book -- but, it's so grounded in history and in family that baseball becomes more a character in the story than just a game that people played. That, and the stories -- and especially the authors notes in the back, which I flipped to and read after every chapter -- make the game itself sound quite fascinating.

At one point, I thought that it would have been nice to read these stories backward, beginning with the present day, and working back to 1840s. But, that's just me being particular. This book really is a wonderful little story.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

My Geeky Best of 2009

2009-11-23T06:49:00.004-06:00

This week's geek is a reprise from last year: help the Weekly Geekers come up with a Top 10 for 2009. The basic guidelines:

This year, when you submit your novels, you must include the genre it is from as well. Last year, when I was trying to categorize everything, I had to guess on a lot of novels and I know there were some people who disagreed with my choice. If there are any contradictions in genres (say if a book was selected for two genres), then the Weekly Geek Staff will vote on where it goes (please?).

We're trying to gather as many lists as we can, so we can come up with a nice comprehensive list. You'll have two weeks to come up with your list before I begin compiling the voting booths. Then we'll put it to a vote. Last year, we ended up with over 1300 individual voters and I know we can make it just as big this year.

I'm sending out a personal plea: let's get some kidlit on this list, okay?!

So, my top ten that were published in 2009 (in no particular order...) (I also discovered that if it's not kidlit, then chances are I'm not going to read it new!):

1. When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead (sci/fi/fantasy/middle grade)
2. The Actor and the Housewife, Shannon Hale (ungenreable: chick lit? fiction? fantasy? what?)
3. Lips Touch Three Times, Laini Taylor (fantasy/YA)
4. Fire, Kristin Cashore (fantasy/YA)
5. Anything But Typical, Nora Raleigh Baskin (middle grade)
6. Liar, Justine Larbalistier (fantasy?/YA)
7. The Chosen One, Carol Lynch Williams (YA)
8. Wild Things, Clay Carmichael (middle grade)
9. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly (middle grade/historical fiction)
10. Babymouse: Dragonslayer, Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm (graphic novel)

Okay, there's my list. What's yours?

Happy Blogoversary to Me

2009-11-21T07:17:00.023-06:00

Five years.

When I started this blog, I had no idea that it'd develop into something I enjoy doing so much.

When I started this blog, I had no idea that I'd write more than 1,000 posts.

When I started this blog, I had no idea that I'd make as many friends and read as many books as I have.

Then again, five years is a long time! And as I am feeling generous, and because I want to thank y'all for reading my blatherings over the last five years, I'm doing a a drawing for a $25 gift certificate to a book store of your choice on November 30th. To enter, leave a comment with your favorite book (from the pastfive years). I'll give you an extra entry for tweeting the post, too (if Twitter is your thing...).

And, because it's been a project of mine this year, I'm also going to give you a full 100 things about me. It's mostly cobbled together from the posts I've done over the course of the year, but with 25 new things in there. Since, after five years, you really deserve to get to know me a little bit better.

1. I like to read.
2. Check that: I love to read.
3. I read on average four books a week.
4. Which breaks down to between 2 and 4 hours a day.
5. I don't watch much TV anymore. (30 Rock is about it. Though sometimes I watch Glee.)
6. Though there's a lot of TV I'd love to watch. (Mad Men, House, True Blood...)
7. I do watch So You Think You Can Dance pretty regularly now, thanks to Corinne.
8. I use the excuse that I love to watch dancing.
9. I do love to dance, too, though it embarrasses my girls.
10. And I took all forms of dance in college -- folk, modern, ballet.
11. My favorite was ballroom dance, though.
12. The best part of ballroom dancing is the competitions. (I was even in one, once! Got 5th place.)
13. And, yes, I love Strictly Ballroom.
14. Though it's not my favorite movie of all time.
15. That's probably one of the Jane Austen adaptations, though don't make me choose which one.
16. Because I love nearly all of them.
17. My opinion of the movies reflects my opinion of the books. Mansfield Park = bleh. The rest are good.
18. My favorites, if I had to choose, are the big two -- Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice -- and Emma.
19. Because I love the Austen Men: Colin Firth (Mr. Darcey), Jeremy Northam (Mr. Knightley) and Ciaran Hines (Captain Wentworth). And to a lesser extent Alan Rickman (Colonel Brandon... but he doesn't count since I've liked him since the horrid Kevin Costner Robin Hood.)
20. I appreciate them like I appreciate art (or dance!). I admire them. I enjoy looking at them. Watching movies they are in make me happy.
21. I am not a stalker. (Yet?)
22. I pretty much watch everything the Austen Men are in, because I'm that sort of person. Which means I've watched some pretty bad movies. (And have thought to myself: hey, Ciaran Hines/Jeremy Northam is in that; I should see it!)
23. Colin Firth makes the best case for himself out of period clothes.
24. In other words: no matter how bad the movie is, I still like him. The others, I seem to only like in period dress.
25. I have liked other actors -- most notably Viggo Mortenson (Aragorn), Orlando Bloom (Will Turner, not Legolas) or Richard Armitage (heck, I'll take him as both Guy Gisborne and John Thornton) -- but nowhere near as much as my Austen Men.
26. All this begs the question: what is it about dark-haired British men in period clothing?
27. Actually, if you REALLY want to make my day, what you need to do is get a dark-haired British actor to dress up in period clothing, have him drive me around in a minicooper (red, of course), and feed me cake.
28. Mmm... cake.
29. Love the stuff, but can't make it terribly well. Which is probably for the best.
30. Frosting, on the other hand, I do quite well.
31. I love decorating cakes. My girls love that I do, too. Makes birthdays fun.
32. In fact, I'm looking forward to doing their wedding cakes (if they'll let me).
33. I'm so taken with the whole period-clothing thing, that if I could go back and re-do my wedding, I'd make everyone wear period (preferably Regency, but I'd go for Renaissance, too) clothing.
34. Thankfully, I'm married to a guy who'd go for that. And who doesn't mind my actor-obsessions.
35. He laughs at me a lot, though.
36. I don't mind. I laugh at me a lot, too.
37. There is one exception to the British Rule: Brendan Fraser. He is dark-haired, but he's not British. He's not even a terribly brilliant actor. But he is imminently watchable, even in the really stupid movies he's been in.
38. And I think he's cute when he's dirty and sweaty and smiles that goofy smile of his.
39. Sometimes, I wonder if I ought to act my age.
40. I think that, too, when I tell people I love reading books for children and young adults.
41. Especially since I don't read them because I'm pre-screening them for my girls.
42. Or because I'm a children's librarian or a bookseller (though I have aspirations in those directions).
43. I read them because I like stories and good storytelling.
44. And I think they're fun to read.
45. I do read adult books, just not as many.
46. Mostly because I can't find as many that I like.
47. And I'm always surprised when I find one that I do like.
48. I find I'm impatient with the writing.
49. I have a better track record with non-fiction, though. Especially travel and food books.
50. Travel books are best in January. I hate January.
51. Food books are best all the time.
52. Especially if they're written so that you can almost taste or smell the food.
53. Because lately, my real passion (outside of books and blogging, of course) is food.
54. I'm not a gourmet or a foodie, and I'm no good at inventing recipes, but I love to cook.
55. I'm a weird that way: making dinner is one of my favorite things to do.
56. Maybe it's because my first job was working in the kitchen of a bar/restaurant. I started as a dishwasher and worked my way up to line chef.
57. Whatever it is, I find something calming and creative in the throwing together of ingredients to create something delicious.
58. Bad mom moment: even though I need to teach them to cook, I actually DON'T like it when my kids want to help.
59. It throws me off my groove. Don't mess with my groove.
60. My new hero is Julia Child. She totally rocks.
61. In fact, when I was in DC for KidlitCon, I made sure I I had time to go to the American History Smithsonian and see her kitchen. In a word: awesome.
62. General cooking is great, but what I really really love is baking.
63. Bread, rolls, cake, cookies, doughnuts, sweetbreads... if it goes in the oven, I'm SO there.
64. I used to say that there was no way I could do the Atkin's diet because I. Live. For. Bread.
65. I bake bread every week for the family to use.
66. I started doing this because there's high-fructose corn syrup in the store-bought loaves, and I'm anti-high-fructose-corn syrup as much as possible.
67. Which came about from reading a book.
68. But now I do it because I love baking bread.
69. Someday, I'll even own a baking stone and learn how to bake artisan bread.
70. Until then, I'll just keep frequenting Panera when I can.
71. I have had other hobbies: sewing (briefly), decorating (briefly), gardening (on and off), playing the piano (do it quite a bit still), and photography (not as good as I'd like to be).
72. And I did, once, fancy myself a writer of novels.
73. If I did write a book, it'd probably be some sort of travel book/memoir.
74. But that means I'd have to travel. Which we don't. Not really.
75. We do go places -- I do what my parents did: throw the kids in the car and drive to see stuff.

76. Mostly educational/historical stuff: I've never been to Disneyworld or Disneyland.
77. But my my childhood really was too ordinary to make a good memoir.

78. The most interesting thing I did was have a tumultuous teenage romance.

79. I've thought, in the years since it fell apart, that that relationship would probably make a good novel.

80. As an aside, the teenage romance is why I have problems with True Love and Love At First Sight and Pining After My True Love tropes in novels.
81. And it's also why I'll encourage my girls to make sure they marry someone who is a friend first. (Bah on Edward.)
82. Someone else will have to write that novel, though. (Someone probably has.)
83. The drafts I wrote are pretty painful to read, and not just because it's my past on the page.
84. I'm just not that good at fiction. Even though I took a class and everything.
85. I do think I'm creative. It's just that my creativity doesn't run in that direction.

86. I really am much better at writing my opinions about what other people write.

87. Which is what I went to school for in the first place: Journalism, with an emphasis in arts critique.

88. Instead of a newspaper, my outlet is my blog.

89. Actually, I started the blog because I have a bad memory and can't remember what I've read a week after I've read it.
90. I like to blame it on four pregnancies.
91. Though I think I've always been a bit scatterbrained.
92. Which is something my friends have teased me about over the years.
93. Maybe it's the blond in me coming out?
94. I was pale blond as a kid -- Scandinavian (Danish, mostly, with some Swedish and Norweigan) heritage (I have blue eyes, too). Though my hair is best described as "dishwater blond".
95. It still is that color, when I haven't dyed it some other color out of boredom.
96. Though I have an aversion to doing anything permanent to my body.
97. Hence, no tattoos, unless they're henna.
98. I was offended at the guy who called my hair dishwater blond.
99. But, I don't stay offended for very long. I'm actually a very forgiving person.
100. I find endings very difficult to write. So, sometimes, I just don't.

Wild Things

2009-11-20T07:29:00.004-06:00

by Clay Carmichael
ages: 10+
First sentence: "Humans were diggers and buriers, the cat thought, like dogs."
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

It's a familiar story: girl -- who has been forced, because of a crazy and neglectful mother, to mostly raise herself -- finds, after her mother's untimely death, herself under the guardianship of her odd, reclusive uncle. It's an uneasy relationship; neither girl or uncle, for their own reasons, are quite ready for other people in their lives. Over the short months in the book, they grow, they stretch and yes, they change.

But as Fuse #8 pointed out in her review, this is not a coming-of-age story. It's a story of wildness and freedom. Of love and trust. Of art and beauty. And about finding everything in a broken life.

And familiar though it is, Carmichael makes this story soar.

One of the reasons that this books works so well, is because, although it's familiar, it's not stereotypical. It's not the Carmichael makes them do the unexpected, it's that she breathes life into the familiarity and makes the characters real. Perhaps it's the chapters from the cat's perspective that makes it unusual enough, or perhaps it's because there's so many characters to love: from Zoe, wise beyond her years, but a total spitfire about it; her Uncle Henry, who reminded me strongly of a good friend, cranky, disillusioned, yet with great capacity to love; to Bessie, broken in the heart, but is not defined by her illness; and the Padre, the local priest with a loving and tolerant heart. Or the minor characters, who had me giggling and and smiling and loving every minute of it.

The other reason is that Carmichael holds the book together with a motif -- something that could backfire, if she had gotten preachy about it. Too often, it's easy to fall into the mundane with something as familiar as love, or the affairs of the heart. But, while the motif there and, yes, it's obvious, it doesn't overwhelm the plot or the characters or the simple beauty of the writing. Carmichael takes the motif, weaves it into the book and makes it work with the story instead of letting it overwhelm it.

It's not much to hang a book on: familiar characters and plot and a motif, but it's genuine and heartfelt. A book very much worth reading.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

Also Known as Harper

2009-11-19T07:04:00.000-06:00

by Ann Haywood Leal
ages: 10+
First sentence: "Winnie Rae Early followed ten steps behind me the entire way home from school."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Eleven-year-old Harper Lee Morgan loves to write poetry. It's possibly fate -- her mother named her after the author, after all -- but she thinks it's more that she just has words bubbling up inside her that need to come out. And come out they do: her short, observant, often touching poems are interspersed throughout the book.

Some people like things shiny and crisp
But I tend to like the things with the scraped up edges.
That way I can tell other people have liked them too.
They've torn them and spilled on them
or broken off a corner or two
As they went about the important business
Of their day.
Something smooth and straight and new
Has an emptiness about it
Because it hasn't been important
To anyone yet.

Because her life is full of fodder for poems. See, her Daddy took to drinking and eventually took off for good, leaving her Mamma, herself, and her little brother Hemingway with too many bills and too little money. Eventually, the family gets evicted from their home, and things go from bad to worse, as the family moves to a motel and eventually is kicked out on to the streets.

The word is overused, but this really is a poignant little book: Haper's full of spunk and spittle, anger and love, hope and disillusionment. The world that she and Hemingway encounter is a harsh one, but it's not black and white: Leal paints a gray picture. No one is "good", no one is "bad", and even the looming idea of social workers coming after them because they aren't in school isn't inherently evil. It's a world where no one is exactly what they seem -- whether it be someone who appears to be homeless, or the next door neighbor girl who is as mean as they come. It's a world where literature -- To Kill a Mockingbird, specifically -- provides hope, escape and a place of refuge.

It also provides a glimpse into the plight of the homeless, but does so without being preachy, which isn't an easy balance to achieve. Above all, it's a good story about a girl -- a family -- just trying to find a way to make it all work.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

Library Loot #45

2009-11-18T11:46:00.004-06:00

Um... it's not bigger. It's smaller. On the upside, I'm getting a lot more books in the mail, thanks to the Cybils.

For A/K:
Dora's Book of Words / Libro de Palabras de Dora : A Bilingual Pull-Tab Adventure!
Waiting for Winter, by Sebastian Meschenmoser
Two at the Zoo, by Danna Smith/Illus. by Valeria Petrone
One Fine Trade, retold by Bobbi Miller/Illus. by Will Hillenbrand
Eliot Jones, Midnight Superhero, by Anne Cottringer/Illus. by Alex T. Smith
Catfish Kate and the Sweet Swamp Band, by Sarah Weeks/Illus by Elwood H. Smith
The Last Polar Bear, by Jean Craighead George/Illus. by Wendell Minor

For C/me:
Outlaw Princess of Sherwood A Tale of Rowan Hood, by Nancy Springer
The Last Invisible Boy, by Evan Kuhlman

The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

*Ones that M eventually read.
**Picture books we really liked.

A Season of Gifts

2009-11-16T16:31:00.004-06:00

by Richard Peck
ages: 9-12
First sentence: "You could see from here the house was haunted."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I'm not a big Richard Peck fan. Sure, I've read his other Grandma Dowdel books, but while I think I found them charming, I think that's about all I found them to be. Not exactly thrilling or touching or even memorable.

That said, I really wanted to love this one. Perhaps it's because it's that time of year, and it's vaguely a Christmas book. Perhaps it's because I've heard so much good about Peck over the years that I wanted to see if I could figure out what I was missing.

It was a good book: charming, like I remember the others being; funny at times, poignant at others. It's full of fun and interesting and mildly skanky characters; historical details from the 1950s, from Elvis going into the Army to the Russian scare. There's a lovely, hilarious Christmas program and an overall moral to the story. There's bullies and new friends, there's adjusting to small town life by our narrator, Bobby, one of the new Methodist parson's kids. Yet -- like so often when you have expectations from a book -- there was something missing. Something to make the book soar. Becky has more thoughts on that -- and she hit upon much of what I was feeling.

Perhaps some of Peck's other books are better?

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

Fifth Business

2009-11-15T10:59:00.005-06:00

by Roberston Davies
ages: adult
First sentence: "My lifelong involvement with Mrs. Dempster began at 5:58 o'clock p.m. on the 27th of December, 1908, at which time I was ten years and seven months old."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I first became aware of this trilogy several years ago when Julie at On the Curve (Back then she was Bookworm...) told me I HAD to read it. I started it, once, got nearly a third of the way in, and then abandoned it because life got in the way.

Thankfully, my online book group chose it for this month's book, and I was able to sit down to thoroughly enjoy this book.

The first in a trilogy (I will read the other two... later...), Fifth Business is the personal history of Dunstan Ramsey: historian, scholar, Deptford boy. He's also a friend to Boy Staunton, recently murdered. The history seems almost pointless, aimless in its endeavor: why does Dunstan's connection with Mrs. Dempster -- the woman of the first sentence, and a fairly major presence for much of Dunstan's life -- matter in the ultimate rise and fall in the plot? I found that it didn't matter: Dunstan's story, mundane as it was, was immensely fascinating. The writing was at once elegant and accessible: Davies didn't go in for the long, flowery, overwrought descriptions that seem to plague many authors, instead choosing a first-person narrative that drew you in with simple, yet evocative language.

It was also surprisingly religious. I think I was expecting something more along the lines of the fantastical: magical realism and all that. What I got was an introspective, philosophical work about faith, doubt, and life's purpose. Dunstan's fascination with saints, his discussions with the Jesuit priest about a God to help him grow old; all incredibly fascinating, yet somehow didn't have much to do with the plot.

I wonder -- and this is why I'll eventually get around to reading the other two -- how the story all plays out, because this book felt very much like a beginning. While there was a story arc, the plot, the mystery, didn't kick in until near the very end of the book. Which makes me wonder in what direction the other two books -- The Manticore and World of Wonders -- takes the plot.

At any rate, Julie (if you're still out there), you're right: Davies is a brilliant writer, and this book is definitely worth the time. I'm just sorry it took me so long to get around to it.

Library Loot #44

2009-11-13T13:34:00.004-06:00

Because Veteran's Day was Wednesday, the library was closed. And because the library was closed, I didn't get to go on my regularly scheduled library day.

As a result, this is two days late and really small since we're going back in just a few days. Next week should be bigger (says the woman whose pile is getting a bit out of control...).

For A/K:
Curious George Seasons
Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli, by Barbara Jean Hicks/Illus. by Sue Hendra**
Only a Witch Can Fly, by Alison McGhee/Illus. by Taeeun Yoo**
Monkey with a Tool Belt and the Noisy Problem, by Chris Monroe
Those Darn Squirrels!, by Adam Rubin/Illus. by Daniel Salmieri
The Earth Shook: A Persian Tale, by Donna Jo Napoli/Illus. by Gabi Swiatkowska

For M/me:
Leviathan, by Scott Westerfield

For me:
Cotillion, by Georgette Heyer

The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

*Ones that M eventually read.
**Picture books we really liked.

Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies

2009-11-12T14:57:00.003-06:00

by Erin Dionne
ages: 10-13
First sentence: "'No way,' I hissed through the slatted dressing room door."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Celeste has never really worried about her weight. That's not to say she was super-skinny: she's not. But, she's comfortable in her track pants and hoodie, and she likes her chips, soda and cookies. It's not bothered her, and she's never really thought about it.

Until her cousin Kathleen chooses the Peach Monstrosity for her bridesmaids' dresses (of which Celeste is one). And then her mom and her Aunt Doreen conspire to enter Celeste into a HuskyPeach -- that's a clothing line for "plus sized girls" -- modeling competition. Suddenly, the idea of being a HuskyPeach is too much for Celeste. But how to get out of it? By losing the competition, of course: if she's too thin, she can't win. So, Celeste makes the life-altering decision to alter her lifestyle. And with it comes some unexpected consequences.

This book has an interesting balance, walking the line between "fat is okay" and "losing weight will get you what you want." On the one hand, Celeste isn't really that obsessed with eating, and her parents aren't really that hard on her eating habits. What bothers her more is that she's incessantly teased by the (stereotypical) pretty, mean girl at school. Perhaps it's just Celeste living up to expectations, because even though she has friends, she schlumps through each school day. On the other hand, once she starts the modeling competition, she's given role models (no pun intended!) of confident, healthy, pretty overweight girls and women, and she can see her potential. She decides to start keeping a food journal, as part of trying to lose the competition, and she realizes that being healthy is better. She gains confidence, in part through the competition and in part from being healthier, and she's able to conquer her demons and assert herself in ways she didn't before.

The writing was a bit clunky, and the characters are overly cliched, but overall, a good book.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

Oracle Bones

2009-11-11T06:59:00.002-06:00

A Journey Between China's Past and Present
by Peter Hessler
ages: adult
First sentence: "From Beijing to Anyang -- from the modern capital to the city known as the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization -- it takes six hours by train."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I picked this one up because I thought it was a travel book. I think I first saw it in Powell's, in the travel section, and upon reading the blurb, I thought it sounded interesting. I know little about China, and have a passing interest in the country, and this sounded like a good overview.

And in may ways, it was. A series of essays and vignettes about Peter Hessler's experiences in China, initially as a teacher and then as a foreign correspondent, spotlighting the people he met and their experiences in modern-day China, interspersed with histories of various artifacts from the oracle bones of the title to the development of Chinese language.

It was an uneven book for me: some sections -- his stories about his friend Polat, an Uighur who eventually sought refuge in America, or the chapter about Hu Xiaomei, a radio talk show host in Shenzhen -- were incredibly fascinating. The intersection between history, Communism and progress in China is a vibrant, conflicted, exciting thing, and there were times when Hessler caught that just perfectly.

Unfortunately -- and it may just be me -- there were many times in which what Hessler was trying to do just fell flat. I ended up skipping most of the Artifact sections; they were long, they were boring (to me), they didn't add to the arc of the narrative. And then there was the fact that I wanted a travel book. Yes, the people he met were fascinating enough, but I didn't come away with an overall picture of his experiences, his time in the country. Which disappointed me, in the end.

But, I'd be interested to hear the opinions of those who are actually interested in the area (Amira and Jennie, I'm thinking you...) to see if it was just me.

10 Questions for Aaron Reynolds and Neil Numberman

2009-11-10T06:19:00.008-06:00

Today, I get the very distinct pleasure of chatting with two very talented men, the author and illustrator of Joey Fly, Private Eye. Aaron's already got several picture books under his belt -- including a favorite around our house, Chicks and Salsa. Neil, on the other hand, is new at the trade; Joey Fly is his first book, though his first picture book, Do NOT Build a Frankenstein, was recently published.

This was fabulously fun for me, partially because I've never done an interview with picture books/graphic novel authors before, and partially because these guys make me look smart! Love them.

Oh, and they've said they'll be on hand for the next couple of days to answer any additional questions you may have for them; leave any in the comments. Enjoy!

Book Nut: A graphic novel about a bug detective is a pretty unusual idea... how did it all come about?
Aaron: Is it unusual? I guess when you write about roosters that cook and ice zombies, anything seems normal! It started for me with just a title…which was, at the time, Joey Off, Private Fly (get it, Off? Off bug spray?...get it?) Anyway, I loved the idea of a goofy mystery, having grown up with a steady diet of Scooby Doo and movies like Clue (and I’m a huge Agatha Christie fan). Bugs seemed the perfect cast of characters…all freaky and different, each with their own personalities and weird physical traits. From there, the story just took off.

Book Nut: One for Neil: this is your first book... congrats! Can you tell us a bit about how you got involved in the project?
Neil: Actually, there was quite a bit of luck involved! I received an email from an assistant editor at Henry Holt many years ago. As it turns out, she was in my second grade class in Medford, NJ! And she remembered me after all those years as the kid that never stopped drawing in class. She had stumbled upon my artwork by chance because one of her co-workers had a postcard of mine hung up at her desk, and she recognized the name. We met up after not seeing each other after seventeen years, and I bombarded her with my artwork (because how many opportunities will I get to eat lunch with an assistant editor at a children’s book publisher??) Once she vouched for me to her boss and editor of Joey Fly, I was given a sample of Aaron’s script. I did a couple pages for them, and a couple character sketches, and that was that! I got the job!

Book Nut: HA! It really does matter who you know. So, I know really little about how graphic novels are created... can you tell me a bit about the process? How does it compare to picture books?

Aaron: Some ways, totally different. Other ways, similar. The writing is much different, because I don’t write a manuscript, I write a script. Like, for a play. It looks like this:

Caption: And I was about to dig into a day-old corned leaf on rye, extra mayo…
Sammy: You gonna eat that?
Joey: Slow down, dustbuster.I haven’t even started yet.
Sammy: Just asking.
(A shadow blocks our view)
Caption: …when a shadow fell across the table.
Shadow: You are Mr. Fly?
Caption: The shadow was eight-legged and fuzz-covered.
Caption: It had the stench of death…or maybe it was the week-old aphids on the all-you-can-eat buffet. It’s so hard to tell the difference sometimes.

That’s a sneak peek from Joey Fly 2: Big Hairy Drama. I write the whole book like that, including stage directions and details about the action along the way. Then I break the scenes into panels, the way I think each shot makes sense for the telling of the story…like this:

Panel
Joey: Slow down, dustbuster. I haven’t even started yet.
Sammy: Just asking.
Panel
(a shadow blocks our view)
Caption: …when a shadow fell across the table.
Shadow: You are Mr. Fly?

So, the writing is much different than a picture book. But the process is similar after that. The book gets handed off to Neil, and I often have very little to do with it after that, just like is true of picture books.

Neil: For me, the biggest difference is how time-consuming a graphic novel ends up being. There’s so much more artwork involved! Not including the story for my latest picture book, Do NOT Build a Frankenstein, it only took about a month and a half for the artwork! Compare that to the two years I spent on Joey Fly! But at the same time, each piece is so much more important in a picture book, because there are far less pictures used to tell the story.

Book Nut: Speaking of which... do you two know each other? From your bios, one's in Chicago, the other's in New York. How did you two coordinate the story/writing/illustrating?

Aaron: Nope, we’ve never met. In fact, we had never even spoken or e-mailed until after the book was released. This is how it typically works for graphic novels and picture books when the writer isn’t also the artist (unless you’re Jon Scieszka, of course!). I write the story, the publisher picks Neil as illustrator, he illustrates the story. I’ll usually get to see it once the original sketches are done, and my editor will ask my opinion and ask for my feedback, but even then, I rarely have “approval” authority. Writing is a lot about trust. Trusting the process, trusting your editor, trusting this other artist that you’ve never met but are somehow collaborating with.

Neil: That’s right! It’s funny how many people will ask "So, what, you and your friend just made this and someone published it?" I wish it all could’ve been that casual! But in most cases, it’s not in that order. I actually like this approach, though, because it brings a third party (the editor) into the creative process, and she can oversee and make sure everything’s running smoothly.

Book Nut: One of the things I liked about the graphic novel is that there's something for everyone. The humor -- there was a lot of slapstick -- and the bugs (in general) obviously are aimed at boys, but there was enough in the book that two of my girls really liked it, too. Was that intentional (or do I just have odd girls who like bugs)?

Aaron: I really want to write books that have layers…layers of humor that are fun for girls, boys, adults even. I want to write books that talk up to kids, not down…that are smart in their humor and assume kids are smart enough to get it, while also being silly and slapsticky. For example, kids don’t know what "film noir" is, but the book is kind of a film noir spoof. I think they can go there and take it for what it is. So, it is intentional as far as that’s what I’m trying to create. How successful I am…that’s a case by case basis. If it leaves me cracking up and snorting into my milk, I tend to trust I’m on the right track.

Neil: I’m glad it’s appealing to both boys and girls, I certainly wouldn’t want to cut either party out! It would seem like boys would appreciate the general bugginess and hard-boiled detective story more… but as I show the book to more and more kids, I’m also meeting plenty of girls that love it!

Book Nut: There were a lot of detective/noir movie in-jokes (I got them as an adult; I think they flew past the kids, though.) Did you watch a lot of noir movies as research? Was it challenging writing a mystery aimed at kids?

Aaron: Again, I want adults to read it too, and get something at their level. The best examples of humor (I think of Shrek and Toy Story and Monsters, Inc.) play on many levels and have stuff that hits kids and other things that hit adults. I didn’t actually watch tons of Bogart movies or episodes of Dragnet, though these certainly work their way in. Moreover, I wanted to capture the vibe of these things, but then be really silly with it. It all goes back to Scooby Doo! I also wanted a mystery that had kid appeal, where the characters aren’t kids themselves. Bugs lets you get away with that. But the challenge is then to make it translate to a kids world. Besides the humor, the issues of jealousy over someone stealing your best friends (SPOILER ALERT!) that crops up as the root to the mystery is one that all kids get.

Neil: I watched plenty of noir movies, but the one I kept coming back to was The Maltese Falcon, starring Mr. Bogart. It’s definitely one of the more familiar film noir movies, but it also had everything I was looking for, from great compositions, costumes, and scenery, all of which I "borrowed."

Book Nut: Will there be more Joey Fly books? What kind of adventures do you see him and Sammy having?

Aaron: Joey Fly #2 is already written, as you know from the example I gave above. It takes place in a theatre and involves the kidnapping of a lead actress and Sammy’s accidental debut on stage. I’m currently working on books three and four.

Neil: Yep, and I’m just about done with the artwork for the second book. This one is going to knock everyone’s socks off! The characters are so well written and so much fun to draw. Watch out for a gigantic, hairy tarantula… that has a passion for the performing arts!

Book Nut: Who or what is your artistic/writing inspiration?

Aaron: I jokingly mentioned Jon Scieszka earlier, but guys like him inspire me…Neil Gaiman, George Saunders, Roald Dahl…these guys pull off some edgy quirky stuff, but in a way that hits right at the core of what kids love. They challenge me to keep pushing the edge and stay true to the kinds of books I think kids will respond to.

Neil: I love Martin Handford’s work, or as most people would know him, the creator of the Where’s Waldo books. He fits in literally thousands of stories in one piece, and while finding Waldo is a hoot, there is so much more to his work, including European historical references, and lots of people on fire. I also love comic book writer/illustrator Peter Bagge’s work. While his stories are wildly inappropriate for kids, his artwork and characters are so cartoony and stretchy. You can definitely see some of Bagge’s influence on me in Joey’s posture, if you look carefully. Book Nut: Is there a graphic novel or book that you would have loved to have written? What is your all-time favorite? Aaron: I wish I had written James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl. It’s my favorite of all time…in the first page, James’ parents are eaten by a rampaging rhinoceros! Not only is that ridiculous (rhinos are herbivores, FYI), but also a little dark. But so spot on. Brilliant and wonderful.

Neil: There are some Calvin and Hobbes strips that are so frustratingly simple, but so profound at the same time. And so dead-on to what childhood was like, fighting Dinosaurs or riding around in a spaceship, all on your mom’s best living room couch. That kind of stuff will definitely show itself in my work to come.

Book Nut: If you don't mind telling us, what's next for both of you?

Aaron: More Joey Fly stuff is coming. I also have a picture book coming out next spring called The Carnivore Club about a lion, a wolf, and a shark that all become friends because the plant-eaters are so spiteful and nasty to them.

Neil: Other than working on the second Joey Fly, I’m shopping a couple picture book ideas around, and in the very early stages of getting one started. All I can say for now is that it will be full of monsters!

Thanks so much to both of you for your time!

I'm a Prolific Author... Sort of.

2009-11-09T08:33:00.004-06:00

I did the whole YA author thing... and so when 100 Scope Notes introduced the Debut Picture Book Cover as part of his cover week, I decided I needed to have some fun with it.

Presenting, my picture book: Raymundo and the Spinning Balloon, by Tabitha Kibbey.
That's about as good as I draw, too. Though I liked the possibilities of the spinning balloon in this picture...

Anyway, the instructions if you want to play along:

1 – Go to “The Name Generator” or click http://www.thenamegenerator.com/

Click GENERATE NEW NAME. The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to “Picture Book Title Generator” or click http://www.generatorland.com/usergenerator.aspx?id=243

Click CREATE TITLE! This is the title of your picture book.

3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php

Type the last word from your title into the search box followed by the word “drawing”. Click FIND. The first suitable image is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop, Picnik, or similar to put it all together. Gettin’ creative is encouraged.

5 – Post it to your site along with this text.

Anything But Typical

2009-11-08T09:50:00.005-06:00

by Nora Raleigh Baskin
ages: 9-12
First sentence: "Most people like to talk in their own language."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Sherry at Semicolon captured my thoughts on this one just perfectly. This book takes you away, makes you think about your perceptions of people, makes you think about language, actions, reactions, and how we treat others.

It also made me cry. (Which is a rare and unusual thing, and also mildly embarrassing, since I was reading this while sitting in the salon waiting for M to get her hair cut...)

Twelve-year-old Jason is autistic. He's full of labels and letters -- ADOS, LD, HFA, PDD-NOS, NT -- and yet, those labels and letters and names don't define him. Or, at least, he tries not to be defined by them. Yes, getting through the day is difficult, and any little thing can set him off, often beyond his control. But, what he really wants to be seen as, defined by, is his ability to write stories.

(As an aside, I loved this quote:
"But really, if you ask me, there is only one kind of plot.
One.
Stuff happens.
That's it."
So true.)

He posts his stories on a fanfiction website, Storyboard, and one of them got a comment from PhoenixBird -- who happens to be a girl. Jason and PhoenixBird seem to connect; at one point, he tells people that she's his "girlfriend". Then, there's a Storyboard convention, and it turns out that PhoenixBird will be there. Jason -- because of past experiences, because he knows how people react to him when meeting him for the first time -- is anxious about going.

I don't want to give much more than that away. I've read books about autistic kids before, but never have I felt so involved in the life of one. Baskin stuck us, as readers, inside Jason's head -- and sometimes he was an unreliable narrator because his interpretation of events didn't always match up with what "actually" happened -- and let us live through his triumphs, pains, anxiety, hopes, fears, love. It's a beautifully written book; not because the language is poetic, though sometimes it is, but because it's spare enough, tight enough, there are no wasted words, no wasted pages.

Perfect.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

Neil Armstrong is My Uncle

2009-11-07T06:49:00.004-06:00

and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me
by Nan Marino
ages: 9-12
First sentence: "Muscle Man McGinty is a squirrelly runt, a lying snake, and a pitiful excuse for a ten-year-old."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Not quite sure where to start on this one.

On the one hand: it was an interesting story of loss and tension and dealing with differences. Tamara's best friend, Kebsie, has just moved out of her foster house and back in with her mother. Without saying goodbye to Tamara. In her place, Tamara has Muscle Man McGinty, who loves (loves!) to tell stories.

On the other hand: in a book that is so thoroughly driven by the main character, it helps if that character is sympathetic. I understand that she was hurting. I understand that she was resentful. I understand that she had annoying, stupid, bad parents. But. I. Hated. Tamara. Wanted to smack her upside the head and tell her to get a better attitude.

On the one hand: it captures the essence of a 1960s summer, from endless games of kickball, to the anticipation of the first moonwalk, to the tension about the Vietnam War, to the joys of sitting on a roof and howling at the moon.

On the other hand: I thought Marino could have been better with the middle one -- it was a small undercurrent that swelled in the last few pages. It was unevenly paced: I wanted more oomph, more tension, more -- oh, more like Shooting the Moon, which I thought captured much of these same themes but did it better.

On the one hand: It's a quick read. And some kids will really like both Tamara and Muscle Man's stories.

On the other hand: that kid is not me.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

Born To Fly

2009-11-06T07:53:00.004-06:00

by Michael Ferrari
ages: 9-12
First sentence: "Just 'cause I was a girl in 1941, don't think I was some sissy."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Eleven-year-old Bird McGill has always wanted to fly, particularly the P-40 fighter plane. It's something she and her dad have worked towards ever since she was old enough to reach the pedals. The fact that she's a girl -- and girls in 1941 weren't supposed to be interested in flying airplanes -- never seemed to matter to either her, or her father.

Then, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, and Bird's life changes. Her father gets shipped away to fight in the war, and a new kid -- Kenji -- comes to town. He's Japanese, in Rhode Island to live with an uncle because of the forced internment his family in California is facing. He's resentful, and -- interestingly, realistically -- faces much of the same resentment and racism that he'd faced in California.

Both being outcasts, Bird and Kenji form a tentative friendship, which is strained and tested when they inadvertently witness both the murder of a local draft dodger and the sabotage of a engine factory. Kenji's uncle is framed for both, and found guilty. And it's up to Bird to set things right.

It's partly a mystery, partly an adventure story, partly a tale of friendship and ignoring expectations. It tries to do a bit too much, and is a bit over-the-top, but Ferrari succeeded admirably on one account: it's a story with not only a strong female character, but a middle grade one who makes things happen. Sure, it's unbelievable that she would actually get to fly a P-40 plane, but by the end, who cares? Bird is awesome. Bird makes things happen. Bird -- in spite of, or perhaps because of, her faults, and insecurities -- rocks. She's inspiring.

In addition to a strong heroine, Ferrari unflinchingly tackles things like class and race and patriotism and makes it work in the context of the plot. Kenji is not just a cardboard 1940s Japanese character; he's got hopes and dreams and frustrations, all of which are quite palpable. Enough so that you cringe when people call him the "Jap" and tell him to go back where he came from. Enough so, that you want Bird to rescue him, to beat down the bad guys, to show up everyone in town.

Again, it's probably a bit heavy-handed to put so much in one book (I, personally, would have liked it if there was a bit less, and it did come off as a bit moralistic by the end), but overall, it works, and works well.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

Library Loot #43

2009-11-04T11:52:00.005-06:00

Four words: I need a bigger bag.

For A/K:
Abigail Spells, by Anna Alter
Good Dog Aggie, by Lori Ries/Illus. by Frank W. Dormer
Clarice Bean, That's Me, by Lauren Child**
Beware of the Storybook Wolves, by Lauren Child**
Paperwhite, by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Henry & the Crazed Chicken Pirates, by Carolyn Crimi/Illus. by John Manders**
Super Babies! (Dora the Explorer) (Obligatory Dora book. K wouldn't go for the Thanksgiving one, though...)

For C:
She finished Order of the Phoenix! Yay!
The Borrowers, by Mary Norton
100 Cupboards: Book 1, by N. D. Wilson

For M:
Chalice, by Robin McKinley. (She's read this before, but is using it for a book report, since it's the best example of Use of Symbols that we could think of.)
Prince Across the Water , by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris
Girl in a Cage , by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris
Queen's Own Fool , by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris
Endymion Spring, by Matthew Skelton
Daisy Chains (Friends for a Season), by Sandra Byrd

For me (and anyone else who wants to read them):
Regency Buck, by Georgette Heyer
The Deptford Trilogy, by Robertson Davies
Wild Things, Clay Carmichael
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had, by Kristin Levine
The Brooklyn Nine, Alan Gratz
Al Capone Shines My Shoes, by Gennifer Choldenko
Confetti Girl, by Diana Lopez
A Recipe for Robbery, by Marybeth Kelsey

The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

*Ones that M eventually read.
**Picture books we really liked.