Expanding Horizons Challenge

I'm excited about participating in the Expanding Horizons Challenge started by Melissa at Book Nut.  I read a fair amount of books by authors who are not just white/non-white, but most of those books are by authors of Spanish or Latin American descent (full disclosure:  I'm Cuban-American myself).  For this challenge, I'm reading four children's or YA novels written by Native American authors.

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Little, Brown 2007).  As if I needed an excuse: this one's been on my hold list at the library for weeks.  I'll be reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Dominican-American author Junot Diaz (Riverhead, 2007; this one's for adults) along with it:  I think these two novels will have a lot to say to each other.
• The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich (Hyperion, 1999).
• The Winter People by Joseph Bruchac (Dial, 2002).
• Rain Is Not My Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith, (HarperCollins, 2001).

I tried to balance the list between historical and contemporary fiction, male and female authors, books I know something about already and books I'll be coming to with no prior knowledge.  The pages on Cynthia Leitich Smith's website highlighting children's and YA books by Native American Indian authors were enormously helpful in compiling this list.  Other helpful resources include Oyate and Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature blog.

I'll post a review or response for each book as I finish it as well as a wrap-up post when I've completed the challenge.  Thanks, Melissa:  I'm looking forward to it!

Fox and geese

Leo is learning to play Song of the Wind on his 1/8 size violin.  I like this folk song, and not only because it's not Twinkle or one of its endless variations.  Leo likes it, too.  Then his teacher (Miss Sarah) suggested that he sing along as he plays.  We didn't know the words (they're not in the Suzuki Violin School book we're using), so she sang them to us:

• Fox you chased the goose last night
• You picked the fattest one (picked the fattest one)
• Now I'm going to hunt you down and get you with my gun, gun, gun
• Now I'm going to hunt you down and get you with my gun.

Leo, who as you'll come to know is a sensitive little guy, and I must have been visibly shocked, because Miss Sarah suggested we make up our own words.  This is what we came up with:

• Then it pecked you on the nose and made you want to run, run run
• Then it pecked you on the nose and made you want to run.

Much better.  Anyway, the episode reminded me of this book:  The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night: An Old Song Illustrated by Peter Spier (Random House, 1961; it won a Caldecott Honor).  I first read it, appropriately enough, on a chilly night in New England, at my in-laws' house in Bristol, RI.  I wasn't familiar with the song (recorded by Burl Ives in 1945), but I loved Spier's lighthearted pen-and-ink (and watercolor, on alternate double page spreads) illustrations: detailed, historically accurate, funny (see the expression on the face of the terrified goose).  This is what autumn should look like.

I haven't read it to the kids on any of our visits to RI, thinking that Leo, unlike the fox, might mind the "quack-quack-quack, and the legs all dangling down-o."  I just noticed that the goose (and the duck) join the fox family in a sing-along at the end of the book, though; maybe we'll gather around the piano ourselves and sing it together tomorrow.  After we eat our turkey, of course.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Gobble, gobble, gobble.

[The Fox was also recorded by Pete Seeger on his collection of animal folk songs Birds, Beasts, Bugs and Fishes (Smithsonian Folkways).  We love folk songs; I'll have to check this one out.]

Lookybook!

I just found out about Lookybook, a new website that allows you to page through hundreds of picture books from cover to cover.  You can also register (it's free) to create a bookshelf of favorites and write comments about the books you've read.  Lookybook is still in the preview stage; read more about it here and in this article on the PW Children's Bookshelf.  Or just look at this book, A Beautiful Girl by Amy Schwartz (Roaring Brook Press, 2006) to see how it works:

[What happened to A Beautiful Girl?  Lookybook must be having technical difficulties.] 

For a few weeks last spring this was Milly's favorite book; we read it every night before bed.  Paging through it on Lookybook reminded me of what I like most about it:  Jenna's strong personality ("'Excuse me,' said Jenna.  'I am not a robin.  I am a big girl and this is my MOUTH.'").  I also like the way the story comes together in the end, with a special snack for everyone, playtime, and bed.  The illustrations, which after all are the point of Lookybook, are just right.

Lookybook works better for some books than for others, of course.  The magic of Laura Vaccaro's Seeger's First the Egg (also Roaring Brook Press, 2007) is lost (or at least compromised) if you can't look through the die-cut pages.  See what I mean:

I wonder how useful Lookybook will be?  Unless or until there are more books on its virtual shelves, I probably won't make it a habit to look for something there first.  But in the meantime, if I write about a book here, I'll try to add it to my bookshelf there.

If anyone is reading this post, please leave a comment and let me know what you think of Lookybook (note: I'm not affiliated).  Thanks!

John, Paul, George, Ben, and Betsy

We're home!  It was a quick trip.  We stayed at the Inn at Penn (thank you, Penn).  On Saturday, the kids and I took the trolley to the Franklin Institute and spent the afternoon there (meanwhile, Axel's talk was going very well).  On Sunday, we hit the highlights of the historic area:  Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and the Betsy Ross House.  I know these are the highlights because they're the most likely to appear on a postcard.  We even found one with all three pictured on it.  We bought it.

We may also have to buy this book:  John, Paul, George and Ben by Lane Smith (Hyperion, 2006).  It was by far Leo and Milly's favorite.  I had some reservations about reading it to Leo when it first came out (Smith "takes some liberties" with the historical record, and I thought it might confuse him), but I needn't have worried:  kids are always smarter than we think (and Smith sets the record straight in the end).  Leo thought the anecdotes about the "lads" (especially Paul Revere yelling about extra-large underwear) were uproariously funny.  More to the point, he remembered the trait each founding father was known for (Paul was noisy) and how it helped him serve the revolutionary cause.  I hope he got the message about working together, too, since it was the combined efforts of these men that led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  I know he didn't get the Beatles references ("Say, you want a revolution?"), but that's all right.  His mom did.

As you might imagine, I've had the opportunity to read John, Paul, George and Ben multiple times recently.  For all the off-the-wall humor, it's a carefully crafted book (it was expertly designed by Molly Leach) that rewards rereading.  My favorite detail:  the miniature portraits of young John et al., rendered in oils and modeled after their grown up-portraits by Copley, Stuart, and Wright.

Going to Philadelphia

Our family is going to Philadelphia this weekend:  Axel (my husband) is giving a talk at the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, and the kids and I are tagging along.  Not to the conference, thankfully (sorry, Axel):  we'll be visiting the historic area.  Leo, my second-grader, likes colonial and revolutionary American history, so he's particularly excited about the trip.  He and I have been reading about the people who lived in Philadelphia (mostly about Benjamin Franklin) and the events that took place there during that period (the signing of the Declaration of Independence).  What he really wants to see, of course, is the Liberty Bell; that, and buy a replica of it (n.b, there are a lot of children's books about saving the Liberty Bell).  Favorite Philadelphia books will be in this space on Monday.

Mary and the Mouse, MouseMouse and Maria?

Amazon.com's list of the Best Books of 2007 appeared in my Inbox last night. I was pleased to see that Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary by Beverly Donofrio, illustrated by Barbara McClintock (Schwartz and Wade, 2007) was one of their editor's top ten picture books of the year. We don't own it (yet), which makes it difficult to write about, but I love Barbara McClintock's work. When I saw Mary on display at Aladdin's Lamp a few days ago, I took a quick peek and was instantly charmed. I particularly liked the double-page spreads of the two houses, red brick Colonial and contemporary ranch, that the two generations of girls and mice live in.

Milly got two McClintock books for Christmas last year (Cinderella, which has become our favorite edition of that fairy tale, and Adele and Simon).  I think she may find another one under the tree this year.

Happy Birthday, Pippi Longstocking!

It's not actually Pippi's birthday today (November 14), it's Astrid Lindgren's.  It would have been her 100th.  In honor of her centennial, the House of Sweden in Washington, DC is hosting a series of events and exhibits with the theme Children First!  I took the kids (Leo, age 7, and Milly, age 3) last weekend, and we spent an hour or so in the Reading Room alone, looking at all the Swedish children's books (from Elsa Beskow and Sybille von Olfers to Lindgren and new favorites Lena and Olof Landstrom, as well as many others:  I'll be writing about some of them here).  The Reading Room is a cheerful, colorful place to spend a rainy afternoon:  besides the books, which are reason enough to visit, there are toys, games, and lots of bright red cushions to curl up on.  Or jump in.  I'm sure Pippi (and Astrid) would approve.