Welcome to the first stop on Gail Gauthier's blog tour! Gail is celebrating the publication of her second book of Hannah and Brandon Stories, A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers (illustrated by Joe Cepeda; Putnam Juvenile, 2008). The first, A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat was recommended to me by Jen Robinson (at PBS Parents) when I was looking for a chapter book for my second-grader to read to his sister. This tour is about chapter books in general as well as about Gail's latest book; in this interview, she answers my questions about what chapter books are (and are not) and some things to keep in mind when writing them. [See interview here.]
Millicent and Stanford (and Emily, too)
I'm reading two middle-grade novels by Lisa Yee right now: Millicent Min, Girl Genius (Arthur A. Levine, 2003) is my upstairs book and Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time (Arthur A. Levine, 2005) is my downstairs book. Reading them together makes sense given that they tell the same story from two different points of view. I'm a little surprised to find myself enjoying Stanford's book more than Millie's, but that could be because I identify too strongly with her (not necessarily the girl genius part, but maybe the uptight ultra-geeky part); it makes me uncomfortable. Stanford is just hilarious. So that's what middle school-aged boys are thinking. Good to know!
I also just discovered that if I had another floor in my house I could be reading So Totally Emily Ebers (Arthur A. Levine, 2007), too. See Lisa Yee's website for sample chapters of Millicent Min and Stanford Wong as well as a sneak peek at Emily.
Goodreads
I've been looking for a way to keep track of what I'm reading since January (see this post) and finally decided to commit to Goodreads. You can find me (and add me as a friend) there at www.goodreads.com/profile/bookstogether. If you're on Goodreads, please consider adding me as a friend; and if you're not, please consider joining. I would love to see what you're reading.
N.b, the Goodreads widget in my sidebar is showing someone else's books at the moment!
[Updated to add: I switched to a different widget. And, Goodreads is addictive.]
My Naughty Little Sister
The children are clamoring for more of the My Naughty Little Sister stories by Dorothy Edwards even as I try to write this post, so it will have to be short. We discovered My Naughty Little Sister at the library yesterday--I saw the title, recognized the work of illustrator Shirley Hughes on the cover, and dropped the book in the library bag. As it happens, Edwards's stories are favorites in England. We read the first of them last night ("The naughtiest story of all") and were instantly charmed. After all, I was a naughty little sister myself once, Leo thinks he's got one now, and Milly--well, let's just say that Milly likes the stories, too.
Our library holds the My Naughty Little Sister Storybook (published in the US by Clarion, 1990); but Egmont UK recently reissued the original collections, first published in the 1950s and 60s [warning: watch out for Her Irritable Father]. If you can't find My Naughty Little Sister, look for stories about Alfie and Annie Rose, written and illustrated by Shirley Hughes. We love all of those.
Happy birthday, Wilma
Today is Wilma Rudolph's birthday; she was born on June 23, 1940 near Clarksville, Tennesee, the twentieth of twenty-two children (I love this detail). Wilma was the first American woman to win three gold medals in an Olympic Games (Rome, 1960); she defeated polio and prejudice to get there. We re-read Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull; illustrated by David Diaz (Harcourt, 1996) today in her honor; she became one of Leo's heroes (and mine, too) when we first read this book before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. It's an amazing story; well worth reading before this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing, too.
[See more Nonfiction Monday posts at Picture Book of the Day.]
Elizabeth Ward's For Young Readers
It seems as if every week another Washingon Post columnist announces his or her decision to accept the Post's offer of early retirement. I don't know if Elizabeth Ward, who writes the Post's biweekly For Young Readers column, is taking early retirement or just moving on after "seven years worth of dragons," but her farewell is in today's Book World. According to Ward, "[a]bsolutely the best part of reviewing is discovery;" here she takes a look back at some of her most memorable discoveries in the field of children's literature. I was surprised to find that I hadn't read many (any!) of her favorites, but I have to agree with her on Kate Di Camillo's The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Read her last column here.
I wonder who will be taking over the For Young Readers column? Or might the Post replace it or even eliminate it altogether? Watch this space.
2008 BGHB Awards: The Arrival (and Grandfather's Journey)
The winners of the 2008 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were announced today (see the list of past winners and honor books here). The judges awarded a special citation, only the fifth in the BGHB's 40-year history, to The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine, 2007). On his website, Tan describes the book as "a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a forgotten time." The more I read about the ideas behind the book and the process of creating it (also on Tan's website), the more interested I am in reading it and the rest of Tan's work, none of which is available at my library. I hope that will change now.
Another book about the immigrant experience won the BGHB Award for a Picture Book in 1994. Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin, 1993) is a beautiful book, quiet and powerful; one of my favorites. It won the Caldecott earlier that year, too. Highly recommended.
Nonfiction Monday: Making Magic Windows
The night before Leo's third birthday party I stayed up late making banners of papel picado to decorate the house. I followed the step-by-step directions for folding and cutting in Making Magic Windows: Creating Papel Picado/Cut Paper Art with Carmen Lomas Garza (Children's Book Press, 1999). It was kind of like making origami snowflakes, only these papel picado designs (eight of them, rendered in cut paper on the cover of the book) are influenced by Mexican folk art traditions. They're festive and easy to make, even the one that looks like hummingbirds. Carmen's directions are excellent; you could use them to make papel picado with elementary school-aged children and get great results. All you need is brightly colored tissue paper, scissors, a pencil, and string.
We put up (and took down) Leo's banners for every household birthday from 2003 to 2007. After five years they were pretty tattered and faded, so I cut some new ones the night before Milly's birthday party last month. It's not a birthday at our house without the papel picado banners. Muchas gracias, Carmen!
[Making Magic Windows is the companion book to Carmen Lomas Garza's autobiographical Magic Windows/Ventanas mágicas (Children's Book Press, 1999), which won the 2000 Pura Belpré Award for illustration.]
G is for Goat
I got an email from Milly's preschool teacher this morning alerting me to the plight of neighborhood goats Carne (a Nigerian Dwarf) and Leche (a French Alpine). It seems that the county considers them livestock and their owners to be in violation of local zoning ordinances; find out more at www.SaveOurGoats.com. To be fair, we do live in Arlington, VA; just outside of Washington, DC; but my primary concern is that if the county allows it, the kids will want a pet goat, too. Or two.
We're going to visit the goats on Saturday morning (the owners are hosting a goat-petting party). In the meantime, we're reading Patricia Polacco's alphabet book G is for Goat (Philomel, 2003). It has bouncy rhymes and bright illustrations, and it passes the Q test ("P is for push, when goats just won't go. Q is for quit, when goats just say no"). Polacco's goats (they're in a lot of her books, come to think of it) are Nubians; read more about them in Oh, Look! (Philomel, 2004), the sequel to G is for Goat. Are there any other good goat books?
What Happens on Wednesdays
We read everything Emily Jenkins writes (for kids; she also writes for adults, but I haven't read all of that. Yet). What Happens on Wednesdays (illustrated by Lauren Castillo; Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007) was of particular interest to Milly, who is starting to pay more careful attention to the days of the week and the routines that correspond to each one. WHoH is as much about the preschool-aged narrator's (urban) neighborhood as it is about what she does there, and Lauren Castillo's mixed-media illustrations of Brooklyn in winter are warm with just the right amount of detail.
Jenkins writes (on her amazon.com blog) that "[her] hope is that readers and families will map their neighborhoods and write down their schedules, focusing not only on the events and locations that are important to the adults for navigation and structure, but on the things that matter to the children as individuals." And that's exactly what the kids started working on, without any prompting from me, as soon as we finished this book.
[Two new Jenkins books not to be missed: Skunkdog (pictures by Pierre Pratt; FSG, April 2008); and Toy Dance Party (pictures by Paul O. Zelinsky; Schwartz and Wade, forthcoming in September 2008).]
Baseball, gratis
We went to a Nationals game yesterday afternoon, our first game at Nats Park (thank you to Angie, my generous neighbor and loyal reader, for the tickets!). The Nats won! They always do when Leo goes to the game; it's been five games now, and counting. I hope we make it to a few more this summer; the Nats could use his help. And Milly likes to run the bases after the game.
Even though we didn't have to pay for our tickets (thanks again, Angie! We had a great time), this wasn't free baseball. That's a term for "a game that gives fans more than they technically paid for--extra innings or the second game of a doubleheader," as defined by Sue Corbett in her middle grade novel Free Baseball (Dutton, 2006). I checked this book out of the library for Leo and I to read together because it's about baseball (obviously), and because the main character, eleven-year-old Little League player Felix Piloto, is Cuban-American (so am I). I was hoping it would give us more than we technically paid for--more, that is, than just baseball. And it does; it's a fine novel about Felix's search for the truth about his father, a famous baseball player in Cuba, that also deals with the immigrant experience in general and the situation in Cuba in particular (where nothing, including baseball, is free). It was well-reviewed by Jen Robinson and Camille at BookMoot.
N.b., I was bothered by the mistakes in the Spanish words and phrases that appear in the book and its glossary. Some mistakes were idiomatic, others grammatical. In a few cases the constructions were just too formal. But each time I came across one, I lost confidence in the story and in Corbett's otherwise sensitive telling of it. It's true that most readers won't know Spanish, let alone the Cuban dialect, but I don't think that's an excuse for getting it wrong. Free Baseball deserves better.
Next up: Mike Lupica's Heat. Baseball book recommendations most welcome!
Nonfiction Monday: Ancient Egypt
Leo's second grade class has been studying ancient civilizations this spring, beginning with Imperial China in February. They recently wrapped up (pun!) a unit on Ancient Egypt. Here's a small selection of the Egypt books we read at home:
Mummies, Pyramids, and Pharoahs: A Book About Ancient Egypt by Gail Gibbons (Little, Brown Young Readers, 2004). A Gibbons book is always a great place to start. Leo read this one to Milly; it was her favorite.
The following three books are each part of a series that includes titles about other ancient civilizations, medieval Europe, and/or peoples of the Americas.
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Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Ancient Egypt by Joanna Cole; illustrated by Bruce Degen (Scholastic, 2001). Ms. Frizzle is an old friend of ours; here she shifts her focus from science to social studies. There are two other titles in this series (Imperial China and Medieval Castle); we hope there will be more.
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How to Be an Egyptian Princess by Jacqueline Morley (National Geographic Children's Books, 2006). The books in this series address the reader in the second person and conclude with an "interview" to determine his (or her, in this case) qualifications for the job.
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The Egyptian News by Scott Steedman (Candlewick). The History News books are very clever; Leo loves them all. [Aside: I wonder how long the newspaper format will be recognizable to kids? At least we still take a print copy of the Washington Post and read it over breakfast.
Finally, we highly recommend The 5,000-Year-Old Puzzle: Solving a Mystery of Ancient Egypt by Claudia Logan; illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Melanie Kroupa, 2002). Fiction and nonfiction intersect in both text (a fictional family joins an archeological expedition to Giza, 1924) and illustrations. I love Melissa Sweet's work; here she combines "acrylic and watercolor as well as collage including stamps, postcards, and archival documents and newspapers" (from back flap). This book was produced with the cooperation of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, whose collection of Egyptian art includes artifacts from the same expedition to Giza. Maybe we'll visit this summer (the MFA, not Giza!).
[N.b., I'm not an Egyptophile. And Leo, while interested in all the ancient civilizations (he now wants to be a history professor), definitely prefers the Greeks and Romans. Thankfully, because I think I've read enough about Egypt for awhile.]
Happy Birthday to Milly from Angelina and Lily
Yesterday (May 13) was Milly's 4th birthday. Even the sun came out in her honor, after days (and days) of rain. If you knew her this would come as no surprise. Anyway, it was a day in which all of the ordinary things we did (make breakfast, go to school, play outside, read books together) were somehow extra-special. And there were presents, too.
Milly loves Angelina Ballerina, so for her birthday this year I gave her a copy of Angelina's Birthday by Katherine Holabird; illustrated by Helen Craig (Viking, 2006; originally published as Angelina's Birthday Surprise, 1989). It's nice to share a birthday with a friend from a book. Sort of like reading a book about London while in London (unless, of course, you already live in London). Angelina's birthday is a particularly nice one, too (book and birthday, actually); after Angelina crashes her bicycle, she helps earn money to buy a new one by doing odd jobs for neighbors like Mrs. Hodepodge, but she doesn't make quite enough for a new bike in time for her birthday picnic. I like the way that Holabird emphasizes Angelina's growing sense of independence (she is allowed to ride her bike to the village on important errands) and responsibility in her birthday story. And Craig's delicate, detailed illustrations of the village and the countryside in spring make me want to ride my bike to Chipping Cheddar, too. Happy birthday, Angelina!
And happy birthday, Milly! I'm sorry I couldn't get you the Polly doll you wanted (I blame the eBay snipers); but you should note that Angelina's baby sister (book and baby, actually!) doesn't arrive until 1991. You seem happy with your consolation Henry, though.
[N.b., last year I gave Milly Happy Birthday to You, Blue Kangaroo by Emma Chichester Clark (Andersen, 2006), in which blue kangaroo feels left out of Lily's "I want everything to be pink!" birthday party. Both are highly recommended for preschool birthday girls who love pink, ballet, and birthdays. Maybe you know of one?]
Nonfiction Monday: Frogs!
Milly's preschool class is learning all about the rain forest. A few weeks ago they went on a field trip to the National Geographic Museum at Explorers Hall in Washington, DC to see Frogs! A Chorus of Colors. The field trip itself was an expedition to rival any of National Geographic's, but the exhibit was worth it. There were live frogs from around the world (our favorites were the tiny jewel-like poison dart frogs) in terrarium habitats right at the kids' eye level. We also saw this exhibit of frog photography by Mark W. Moffett (the images were blown up so that in many cases the frogs were bigger than the kids, which was fun). If you're not local, you can check out Moffett's excellent Face to Face with Frogs (National Geographic Children's Books, 2008), part of NGS's Face to Face series of kids' nonfiction. If you are local, the frogs are here til May 11. After reading the book, Leo wants to see them, too. Ribbit!
[We also like Red-Eyed Tree Frog by Joy Cowley; photographs by Nic Bishop (Scholastic, 1999). This one tells a day-in-the-life of a tree frog story with short, simple text (one or two sentences per page) and amazing close-up photos. Perfect for preschoolers.]
Fast forward
We've been busy reading and making, gardening and baking. All of it with support from our local library: I think we have a record number of books checked out. Okay, over a 100 (how many do you have out right now? I'm curious). I had several times that number checked out from the Grad Library at Michigan for years while I was writing my dissertation, so 100 library books doesn't sound like that much to me, but it seems to concern the librarians. We've never lost one yet! I tell them cheerfully when they remark on it. It's true: we keep them all in their own bookcase unless they're being read at bedtime. Bedtime books are on the nightnightstand.
I have been hanging on to some of our library books longer than usual, just so I could write about them here: please look for a lot of short posts this week as I try to catch up. Thanks for reading!
Nonfiction Monday: Gray?
These are the opening lines of The Secret World of Hildegard, a picture book biography of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) written by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Jeannette Winter (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007):
Hundreds and hundreds of years ago in a time known as the Middle Ages, men ruled over the earth. And these men were very gray. And the buildings they built were very gray. And all the towns were very gray. And all the gray towns were run by mayors who were men. Girls were not allowed to go to school, and most girls could not read. They were taught to serve and obey all the boys around them. They were taught to keep quiet and to be very gray.
Is this an accurate description of the Middle Ages? Is it how most people imagine them (not my former students, I hope)? Or does it function as a dramatic device, as the Horn Book's review (available here) suggests; one that allows the Winters to "set the scene perfectly: out of the dark, gray world of the Middle Ages shines the radiant light of visionary Hildegard." Is it acceptable (if also, I would argue, overly generalizing and negative in the extreme) for a nonfiction picture book?
I'm a medievalist. I would have loved this small square volume (I, or rather my kids, are probably its intended audience): Jonah Winter's writing is simple and elegant; Jeannette Winter's illuminations, done in acrylic and pen on watercolor paper, manage to be both medieval and modern (and gorgeous). There is a good author's note expanding on Hildegard's fame as a scientist and composer as well as a mystic visionary; and a bibliography. If I could only get past the first page.
Poetry Friday: Los zapaticos de rosa
The poem in my pocket yesterday was a childhood favorite: "Los zapaticos de rosa" by Cuban poet Jose Martí (picture book edition illustrated by Lulu Delacre; Lectorum, 1997). I chose it in honor of my mother, whose birthday was yesterday, too. When I was little I used to make her recite it to me every night before bed. She knows it by heart; the way, I suspect, many Cubans (and Cuban-Americans) do. These are the opening lines:
Hay sol bueno y mar de espuma
Y arena fina, y Pilar
Quiere salir a estrenar
Su sombrerito de pluma.
¡Feliz cumpleaños, Mami!
[This week's Poetry Friday roundup is at The Well-Read Child (which also happens to be one of my favorite kidlit blogs).]
Poem in Your Pocket Day
Tomorrow is the first national Poem in Your Pocket Day (New York City has been celebrating it since 2002). I love this idea in theory, and will put a poem (TDB) in my pocket before I take the kids the school in the morning, but will I read it to anyone? Probably not. Wait--the kids! I'll read it to them, and send them off with poems in their pockets, too (maybe Milly could memorize a short one).
If you're looking for a poem for your pocket, check out these pocket-sized Poem PDFs, some poems about pockets (love this idea, too), or just browse poets.org. It is National Poetry Month, you know.
A Spree in Paree
[We're celebrating April in picture book Paris. Please comment with your favorite picture books that are (even remotely) about Paris, and I'll add them to my list and post them next week. Merci!]
Thank you to Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect for recommending A Spree in Paree by Catherine Stock (Holiday House, 2004); we checked it out from the library last week and have toured the city alongside Monsieur Monmouton's farm animals many times since. The animals are typical tourists: the sheep go shopping on the Rue de Faubourg Saint-Honore, the goats enjoy the flowers in the Luxembourg gardens, the cows gaze at paintings of cows in the Louvre (that one cracks the kids up), and at the end of the day the pigs take everyone to dinner at a three-star restaurant. It's absolutely delightful, and you can read it right here courtesy of Lookybook:
Do the animals go to New York next? Yes, they went last year. A Porc in New York (Holiday House, 2007), is also available on Lookybook: note the parallels between the animals' trips to Paris and New York (this time the sheep go shopping at a famous New York department store, the goats ride the carousel in Central Park, and they all have dinner in Chinatown); and the promise that next time we see them, they'll be back on their farm with an American visitor for Monsieur Monmouton.
[I was just thinking I might like to see more of Monsieur Monmouton's little farm myself (with my husband and children, of course) when I noticed that author and illustrator Catherine Stock is essentially his next-door-neighbor. We might even rent her cottage in Rignac. Someday!]
The Edge of the Forest, March/April 2008
The March/April 2008 issue of children's literary magazine The Edge of the Forest went online yesterday. Here's what I had to read right away:
- Feature article "Fairytale in the Forest: A Friendship" by Candice Ransom that references beloved illustrator Trina Schart Hyman (I think remember that Cricket cover with the mushrooms, Candice)
- A review of Budge Wilson's Before Green Gables (in the new What? column for "books that just don't fit neatly into any particular category." Those are often my favorite books)
- And A Backward Glance (again by Candice Ransom) at Miracles on Maple Hill, which I reread this spring (during Pancake Week!)
There's lots more in this double issue of The Edge of the Forest; thanks to all of the contributors, and to Kelly Herold at Big A little a for putting it all together.