Poisson d'avril

We're going to Paris!

Ha!  No.  But we are reading about Paris during the month of April here at bookstogether.  I'm putting together a list of our favorite Parisian-themed picture books (there are quite a few); please comment with yours, and I'll add them to the list.

My favorite picture book about Paris is probably this one, the first in the This is... series by Miroslav Sasek (1959; reiussed by Rizzoli in 2004).  I love all of the Sasek books (we've read Paris, Rome, London, New York, and Venice):  the distinctive and delightful illustrations, the particular details of place.  For Paris, I especially like the cats; the concierge ("She is sort of a guardian angel, and there is one for many houses in Paris"); the Bird Market; the Metro (with ticket); the Louvre (with Mona)--I could go on, but I'm not really leaving anything out.  If you're planning a trip to Paris with your kids (or without them!), this should be the first book you read together.  Then Madeline.  After that, you tell me!

Nonfiction Monday: Mia Posada's egg book

When Leo was little he was obsessed with eggs.  We still read a lot of egg books.  Lately we've been enjoying this one, Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg by Mia Posada (Millbrook, 2007).  It's an especially good choice for reading aloud to kids of different ages (like mine, who are 7 and 3).  Milly still likes to guess what's in each egg, on the basis of a close-up like the one on the front cover and a little riddle like this one (from the back cover):

Under this feathered belly, it's cozy and warm.
The egg is safe from the icy Antarctic storm.

"It's a penguin!" she tells me excitedly, every single time.  When we turn the page, Leo can hear or practice reading aloud a short paragraph about penguins (or alligators, ducklings, sea turtles, spiders, or octopuses) while Milly patiently (or not) looks at a longer shot, taken in watercolor collage, of the newly-hatched penguin chick (alligator, duckling, etc.) in its natural environment.  Posada's other books are about dandelions, ladybugs, and robins--she knows what we like!

[Nonfiction Monday Round-up at Anastasia Suen's blog Picture Book of the Day.  Thanks, Anastasia!]

Miscellaneous Picture Books Now Organized by Color

This is the miscellaneous picture books shelf in our living room.  Yesterday there were about twice as many books all haphazardly jammed onto it; these are the ones that didn't get sorted into some other, more logical place or category.  I never (never!) thought I would organize books by color, but now I think it actually makes sense--for the miscellaneous picture books, at least.  The kids love the new arrangement, too: Leo helped me line the books up; and even three-year-old Milly can put them back (when she wants to, that is).

[If you think I'm crazy:  I saw this brilliant and beautiful book, Apples for Jam: A Colorful Cookbook by Tessa Kiros (Andrews McMeel, 2007) at Williams-Sonoma today.  The recipes are organized by the color of the food.  Thankfully, there's also an index (I checked).]

Children's Choice Book Awards

Children's Book Week is May 12-18.  This year, kids can vote online for the first annual Children's Choice Book Awards.  The nominees (5 in each category: books published in 2007 for grades K-2, 3-4, and 5-6; plus favorite author and illustrator) were selected by kids across the country.  I was a little disconcerted when I saw the nominees for favorite books, none of which I've read.  Am I completely out of touch with children's choices?  I hope not!

[Children's Book Week Official Poster by Mary GrandPre.  I love GrandPre's work: she illustrated the lovely Lucia and the Light (reviewed here) and some books about a wizard you may have heard of.  Posters are available from the CBC; see here for how to get one.]

Favorite Easter Books

Our favorite Easter books are of the bunny-and-egg variety, with the glorious exception of Brian Wildsmith's The Easter Story.  We own all of these (except for the Max and Ruby books), but we also like to look on the Easter shelves at the library: it seems to me that the best Easter books are the older ones.

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by DuBose Heyward; pictures by Marjorie Flack (1939).  A classic.  I loved this book when I was a little girl, especially the spot illustrations of Cottontail's twenty-one children doing the housework.

The Easter Egg Artists by Adrienne Adams (1976).  "There are Abbotts and there are Abbotts.  These Abbotts are rabbits.  The rabbit Abbotts make the designs on Easter eggs."

The Bunny Who Found Easter by Charlotte Zolotow (1959); re-illustrated by Helen Craig (1998).  Lovely to look at and read aloud; lots of seasonal details.

The Birds' Gift: A Ukrainian Easter Story by Eric Kimmel; illustrated by Katya Krenina.  A folktale about the origin of pysanky; gorgeous illustrations.

The Story of the Easter Bunny by Katherine Tegen; illustrated by Sally Anne Lambert (2005).  The kids really like it!

Max Counts His Chickens by Rosemary Wells (2007).  So much nicer than Max's Chocolate Chicken (the one where he steals the chicken and eats it all up).  In this one he and Ruby are hunting for hot pink peep-like chicks all around the house.  "Chick! Chick! Chick!" says Max.

And The Good Master, written and illustrated by Kate Seredy (1935), Chapter 4, "Easter Eggs."  I happily read this middle-grade novel and its sequel, The Singing Tree (A Newbery Honor book), many times; this year I read the Easter chapter, always my favorite, to my own little ones.

Happy Easter!  Happy spring!

The Andersons Go To Williamsburg--2008

We (the Andersons) drove to Williamsburg early Sunday and came back Monday afternoon.  It was a short trip, but we all had a wonderful time (more about that later).  Even the car ride was smooth.  Milly slept a lot of the way there; the rest of us listened to the first half of The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis; terrific performance by Levar Burton (Listening Library, 2005).  I think we identified with the Weird Watsons (minus "official juvenile delinquent" big brother Byron).  There's dad Daniel, who likes to "cut up;" mom Wilona, who never got used to the cold in Michigan; middle brother Kenny, the narrator; and his little sister Joetta, sleeping in the backseat.  Our favorite chapters were about Kenny and how he became friends with Rufus (we love Rufus); but it's the family and especially the sibling relationships that are at the heart of The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963.

We decided not to listen to the second half of the book on the way home after it became obvious that the Watsons were driving not just to Birmingham, but to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on a Sunday morning, 1963 (I know, I should have suspected it from the start.  I think the book is even dedicated to the four little girls, but I was listening to the audio version which doesn't include the dedication).  Anyway, I didn't think Leo was ready to hear it, but I'm going to make myself read the rest of it tonight.  Highly recommended.

[And Elijah of Buxton next.  I think the structure of EoB, the digressive first half and direct second, is similar to TWGTB-1963's; this time I'll be prepared.]

Weslandia in Virginia

Yesterday Leo announced that he wanted to start a new civilization.  This didn't come as a complete surprise to me:  he's studying ancient civilizations at school; and, more importantly, he thinks big.  There's probably no better book for him to read as he embarks on this project than Weslandia by Paul Fleischman; illustrated by Kevin Hawkes (Candlewick, 1999).  Actually, I've been waiting for just the right time to read it with him since I first read it myself.  If you haven't, it's about Wesley's summer project:  "[to] grow his own staple food crop--and found his own civilization!"  (Maybe this is more of a common interest than I thought.)  Wesley uses all the parts of a mysterious and magical plant that he grows in his suburban backyard to provide himself with food, clothing, shelter, and recreation; he invents a counting system based on the eight petals of the plant's flowers and even a 80-letter alphabet which he uses to record the history of his civilization's founding.  His summer project is a spectacular success.  And, once a social outcast, Wesley now has no shortage of friends.

Leo checked Weslandia out of the school library today and, after (finally!) reading it together, he started wondering what his civilization's staple crop might be.  Wesley may have "found it thrilling to open his land to chance, to invite the new and unknown," but if we did that we'd probably end up with a lot of pokeweed.  Maybe we could grow sunflowers in Leo-landia instead?  This civilization is open to comments and advice.

2007 Golden Kite Awards

The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) announced the winners and honorees of the 2007 Golden Kite Awards last week (I heard the news via cynsations).  The Golden Kite Awards are the only children's literary awards that are essentially peer-reviewed: the winner of the Fiction award is chosen by a panel of fiction writers, etc. (kind of like the SAG Awards for children's books).  Another interesting thing about the Golden Kites is that, for the purposes of the awards, they separate Picture Book Text from Picture Book Illustration.  How do they do that?

Some of my favorite books of 2007 were runners-up for a Golden Kite this year.  I loved Lauren Tarshis's portrayal of average girl Colleen Pomerantz (if Colleen had a superpower, she would want it to be Not Caring) in the middle-grade novel Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree (Penguin, 2007).  And I wrote a review of The End by David LaRochelle, who was a runner-up for Picture Book Text.

Oh, and the winners look good, too!  You can see them all here.

Seed Vault

There was a fascinating article by Adrian Higgins about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (and saving your own seeds) in last week's Washington Post ("Preserving Precious Seeds, in Norway and Your Way," 3/6/08).  The so-called "Doomsday Vault" keeps a worldwide selection of seeds safe from natural and manmade disaster deep in a Norwegian mountain.  Higgins suggests that "Svalbard may be the gardener's Valhalla: a gathering place for fallen heroes, not quite dead, as in Norse myth, but not quite alive, either."  I love this idea and think it would make a great post-apocalyptic YA novel.  Maybe someone's already written it (I haven't read a lot of post-apocalyptic YA novels); but if not, it might work!

[Somewhat related recommendation for the grownups:  The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.  I've lost track of who has my copy of this book (this has happened before; I think I'm on my third copy.  No one wants to give it back); otherwise I would look up the gardening reference for you.]

Wanted: Monsters

I have a recommendation request:  A friend of mine (Madelyn, also a children's writer) is looking for monster books to read aloud at her daughter's preschool fundraiser.  Friendly monsters preferred, for obvious reasons.  She'll be starting with Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak ("Because how could you not?")and Leonardo, the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems (coincidentally one of my favorite Willems books) and needs a couple more to round out the selection.

We don't read a lot of monster books over here ourselves:  Leo doesn't like them (monsters or their books), and Milly's not terribly interested (ha!), so I haven't been much help.  Now I'm curious, too:  What are your favorite monster books for read-aloud?  Just don't scare me!

And Maple Syrup Season

Happily, Pancake Week coincides with maple syrup season.  We didn't make it to a sugaring-off this year (they happen early in the mid-Atlantic), but at least we can read this book:  Maple Syrup Season by Ann Purmell; illustrated by Jill Weber (Holiday House, 2008).  We read Purmell and Weber's Christmas Tree Farm (Holiday House, 2006) many times last December:  it was a refreshingly different holiday book, one of my new favorites.  Leo and Milly were interested in how tree farming (as opposed to the more familiar vegetable farming) works, and they loved Weber's illustrations of pines, spruces, firs, and forest animals.  Like Christmas Tree Farm, Maple Syrup Season focuses on a family tradition--of sugaring, this time--and includes lots of back matter about what to pour on your pancakes.

[Newbery note:  One of my favorite Newbery Medal winners, in memory at least, is 1957's Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson; illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush.  I'm rereading it now, the same copy I read as a girl; and I'll post about it here and at the Newbery Project site if I can come up with something that is more review than just happy reminiscence.]

It's Pancake Week!

This book about celebrating spring arrived last week, just in time for Maslenitsa.  What is Maslenitsa, you ask?  It's Pancake Week!  From A New Beginning: Celebrating the Spring Equinox by Wendy Pfeffer; illustrated by Linda Bleck (Dutton, 2008):  "Families [in Russia] ate warm, round, golden pancakes [blini] that looked the sun.  The more butter they spread on each pancake, the hotter the sun was supposed to be during the coming summer."  We love pancakes over here and were thrilled to discover that Maslenitsa, a Russian folk and religious holiday, is being celebrated this week.  More pancakes, please!

Hmmm (mmm).  I wonder if How Mama Brought the Spring by Fran Manushkin; illustrated by Holly Berry (also Dutton, 2008) has anything to do with the Russian folk tradition of Maslenitsa (if not the religious one, obviously)?  I haven't read it yet, although I have read Elizabeth Bird's review at A Fuse #8 Production (2/22/2008).  In that book, Mama tells Rosy about how Grandma Beatrice once brought spring to Minsk by making blintzes (Rosy and Mama try the same thing in Chicago; good luck!).  Blintzes, blini:  it makes sense to me.  What do you think?

Bug magazines

The March issues of the bug magazines we're subscribed to arrived this week:  Ladybug for Milly, Spider for Leo (we also get Highlights and High Five; more about them later).  I love the mail and am always somewhat surprised that Leo and Milly aren't willing to drop everything and read their magazines cover to cover the minute they arrive (like I do).  Maybe they're just not that interested in magazines?  At any rate, I'm considering letting our subscriptions lapse, or at least transferring Leo's from Spider to dig: the archaeology magazine for kids (also by Carus Publishing).

There's always at least one thing they like in their magazines, though.  In this month's Ladybug it was the story "There's a Mouse in the House!" by Shirley Montgomery, with art by Taeeun Yoo.  Milly always likes "Mop and Family" (Mop is the dog) by Alex de Wolf, too.  Leo read only "Mighty Vesuvius Erupts" by Charles F. Baker and Rosalie F. Baker in Spider (he's still very interested in ancient Rome; see here for my review of a picture book about Pompeii).  This was a letter from Pliny (the Younger) to Tacitus; excellent choice, although I would have liked to have seen a source note somewhere in the magazine or on the website (again with the source notes!).

Both magazines came with an important message to subscribers:  Carus is simplifying its publishing structure so that all magazines will be offered at the same rate and will publish on the same schedule, 9 issues per year (for the bug magazines, that represents a reduction in the number of issues per year and, at $33.95, a very slightly lower price.  At the same time, Carus will also be expanding the bug magazines' online content and giving them their own websites.  Wait, they didn't have websites already?).

I still like the idea of kids' magazines, perhaps more than my kids like the magazines themselves (note:  I love the bug magazines!).  Do your kids like magazines, and if so, which ones do you recommend?  Any experience with dig?  Thanks!

Taro Gomi Squiggles and Doodles Creativity Contest

Our copy of Scribbles:  A Really Giant Drawing and Coloring Book by Taro Gomi (Chronicle, 2006) is filling up really fast.  Leo draws in it occasionally, but now that Milly has discovered it, we might need to buy a copy of Doodles, too.  I think Taro Gomi's open-ended drawing and coloring books are the best:  thick-and-thin line drawings accompanied by picture prompts (Who is looking out the windows?), sometimes arranged in a series (It's a beautiful day today/Today it's not so nice/Today there's a thunderstorm!).  There are some things to color and cut out (masks; stationery and envelopes), and a few puzzles and games, too; but most of Scribbles' 368 pages, like those of Taro Gomi's other coloring books, are made especially for drawing.

You can print out some sample pages from Scribbles and Doodles here.  And fortunately for us, Chronicle Books is releasing two new Taro Gomi drawing and coloring books:  Squiggles and Doodle All Year (in a smaller, square format featuring spring, summer, fall, and winter scenes).  Be sure to check out Chronicle's Taro Gomi Squiggles and Doodles Creativity Contest celebrating the release of the new books, too.  You'll need to print out one of four pages from Squiggles and follow the prompt to complete the picture.  I like Let's play in the mountains! best.  Good thing the contest is open to scribblers and doodlers of all ages, so Leo and Milly--and maybe even me and you!--can enter.

Apples in winter

We read most of our apple books in the fall, but somehow we've managed to read four in the last week.  I love this kind of reading coincidence and am always on the lookout for it: it's the idea behind bookstogether.  In this case, the apple books aren't about picking apples or making them into apple pie (both good things that happen a lot in apple books), but about making apple friends (slightly more unusual).  Here are two of them:

   

• In A Friend for Dragon by Dav Pilkey, a snake tricks Dragon into thinking a shiny red apple is his friend.  The two spend a wonderful day together ("You are a good listener," says Dragon).  But Dragon becomes concerned when the apple won't talk to him the next morning ("Maybe it's a crab apple," suggests the doctor).  What happens next is tragic and hilarious and ultimately very satisfying.  This is the first of five early readers featuring Dragon; we love them all, but A Friend for Dragon is my favorite.
• In The Apple Doll by Elisa Kleven (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2007), Lizzy is worried that she won't make any friends at school.  She turns an apple from her favorite tree into a doll she names Susanna, but her new friend isn't welcome at school, either (no food or toys allowed during class, except on sharing day).  Lizzy keeps Susanna at home, until she finds a way to make her into a real doll--and make new friends at school, too.  Instructions for how to make an apple doll are at the back of the book (thankfully, because both Leo and Milly now want to make one.  So do I!).  And I love the endpapers in this book:  apples in the front, apple dolls in the back.

In the other two books, Miss Hickory's body is made of an apple twig, and Little Little Sister grows from an apple seed.  Really, how many books about apple people can there be?

Nonfiction Monday: A New Beginning

I just ordered A New Beginning: Celebrating the Spring Equinox by Wendy Pfeffer; illustrated by Linda Bleck (Dutton, 2008).  I couldn't resist, not with the gorgeous early spring weather we're having today.  Milly even saw a robin!  I like Pfeffer's other books about the seasons, We Gather Together: Celebrating the Harvest Season (also illustrated by Bleck; it's in our fall book basket) and The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice (illustrated by Jesse Reisch; I posted about it here).  A New Beginning offers the same combination of scientific information about spring (when the days get longer, the growing season begins, and animals have their babies); and historical or cultural background about springtime celebrations around the world (including the Chinese New Year, Passover, and Easter).  Activities, crafts, and recipes at the back of the book.  I hope we have time to try some of these before spring arrives!

The Buffalo Storm

The Buffalo Storm (Clarion, 2007) is a beautiful book.  Beautifully written by Katherine Applegate in her picture book debut; beautifully illustrated in watercolor and pastel by Jan Ormerod.  The kids (and I) have wanted to read it over and over again, for different reasons:  I'm moved by brave Hallie's having to leave her grandmother behind when she and her parents go west to Oregon on a wagon train; Leo likes the part in Wyoming where Hallie rescues a buffalo calf and then faces the buffalo storm; and Milly likes the end, Hallie at home in Oregon with a new baby sister wrapped in her grandmother's quilt.  I think that covers the whole story!  Reviewed by Tasha Saecker of Kids Lit here; I remembered her excellent review when I saw The Buffalo Storm on the new books cart at the library (although I think I would have checked it out anyway; Ormerod's illustrations are breathtaking).  And highly recommended by me, here.

Podcasts!

I know, I know:  I'm late to the podcast party.  But this morning I had the bright idea of listening to Just One More Book! on the laptop while I worked on another project.  Thank you to Jen Robinson, who recommended Andrea and Mark's podcast of the Before Green Gables book launch at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada.  It was excellent (and I think the book will be worth reading, too; more about that later).  I went on to listen to a handful of other podcasts: some of them conversations between Andrea and Mark (recorded in Ottowa at their favorite coffee shop); others, interviews with authors or illustrators.  Thank you, Andrea and Mark!  You have one more loyal listener.

Nonfiction Monday: Vegetables

Sometimes a Gail Gibbons book is exactly what you (and your preschool-aged child) want:  colorful, concise, and informative.  This one is about The Vegetables We Eat (Holiday House, 2007).  It might be more accurate to say that it's about some vegetables we eat and some I wish the kids would eat more of, but in any case, it's just the thing to read alongside the big stack of seed catalogs that have been coming in the mail since December 24 (our favorite is Seeds of Change; the 2008 catalog focuses on urban gardening).  Now we know that there are eight different kinds of vegetables, grouped according to the part of the vegetable that is eaten (leaf, bulb, flower bud, root, tuber, stem, fruit, and seed).  Which ones do we eat?  Which ones will we grow?  Gibbons also covers how vegetables are grown (on small and "great big" vegetable farms, as well as in your own garden), where they are sold (at farmers' markets and grocery stores), and how they're eaten.  Watercolor and ink illustrations are bright and cheeful; I love the vegetables that spell out "Vegetables" on the cover.

[I can't resist suggesting that you pair The Vegetables We Eat with Caldecott Honor book Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens (Harcourt, 1995).  My kids just discovered this book (our library bought a new copy, I assume because the old one was worn out from being read so much).  It's a trickster tale with roots in slave stories of the American South:  clever Hare agrees to split successive harvests with lazy Bear, tops and bottoms.  Which crops does Hare grow for their bottoms?  Which ones does he grow for their tops?]

Notes from the Horn Book

Coming in March, the free e-newsletter Notes from the Horn Book: News About Good Books for Children and Teens from, well, the folks at Horn Book.  Click the link to sign up (did I mention that it's free?).  Via Horn Book editor-in-chief Roger Sutton's blog Read Roger.  Not to be confused with Mr. Duncan (Sylvester's dad, sitting on the rock that is Sylvester).  Mr. Sutton wears a bow tie.