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I'm excited about the White House vegetable garden, although I have to ask: where are the tomatoes?
Thanks to Loreen Leedy, posting today on INK (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids), for the link to the White House Blog post "Spring Gardening" (3/20/2009), with photos and downloadable pdf of layout (see above).
No word yet on presidential Portuguese Water Dog Bo Obama's book deal, but while you're waiting you might like to read My Senator and Me: A Dog's Eye View of Washington, DC by Senator Edward M. Kennedy; illustrated by David Small (Scholastic, 2006). The story neatly combines a day in the life of the senator's dog, Splash, with a look at how a bill becomes a law. The text is somewhat self-congratulatory (it's Senator Kennedy's education bill, and "The schoolchildren are counting on us!") but otherwise just fine, and Small's watercolors of the city are gorgeous (that's his work on the cover of Our White House, too).
[Editor Cheryl Klein talks about this project in Scholastic's Book Focus, May 2006.]
We decorated eggs today. 84 of them! It's a big Anderson family tradition. I always pull out our copy of An Egg is Quiet for inspiration (Dianna Aston, illustrated in ink and watercolor by Sylvia Long; Chronicle, 2006). Its endpapers look like the blue speckled scarlet tanager egg pictured here; for a variety of eggs, see the first double page spread and the one for "An egg is colorful."
Other family favorite Easter books (mostly picture books, and one middle grade novel) listed here. Which are your favorites?
Betsy Bird (Fuse #8) announced The Top 100 Picture Books of All Time Poll on her blog at School Library Journal earlier this week. Details and deadline here; but in a nutshell, she's looking for your top ten personal favorites, in order of preference, by March 31. You can submit a justification for each book if you like. Then she'll tally up the totals and count them down from 100 to 1.
I've been thinking about what to include on my list (I haven't even gotten around to ordering it) and have decided to stick to personal or family favorites. That is, I'm not concerning myself with objective or even relative merit. Here's what I've come up with so far (in no particular order):
Yes, there are more than ten of them! Still, I would love to know what you would add to (or remove from) my list. Have you made yours yet?
Welcome to Nonfiction Monday at books together! I'm delighted to be hosting today. Please leave me a comment with a link to your post for Nonfiction Monday; I'll update this post to include your links at various times throughout the day. Thanks for visiting, and for participating in this edition of Nonfiction Monday.
Good morning!
At Just One More Book!, Mark and Andreachatted about two non-fiction children's books this week: Dr. White and There's a Babirusa in My Bathtub.
Great Kid Books reviews two nonfiction books for young dog lovers in Puppy Love.
Jennifer of Jean Little Library reviews White Owl, Barn Owl by Nicola Davies.
In honor of Read Across America, Lori Calabrese takes a look at "The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss!"
After lunch
MotherReader has a book review of Unite or Die.
Jen Robinson is in with a review of Bubble Homes and Fish Farts.
Anastasia Suen has a fiction/nonfiction pair plus activities inHappy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!
Valerie at Not Enough Acres Farm posted about a cute nonfiction polar bear book.
Another title (Eleanor, Quiet No More) is up on the ACPL Mock Sibert blog! (From Mandy.)
At Book Scoops, the Doublescoop of the month (where Cari and Holly review a book together) is Nic Bishop's Spiders.
Abby (the) Librarian has a post about seeing three history book authors (Sally M. Walker, Larry Day. and Candace Fleming) at an event last week in History Night at Anderson's Bookshop.
Amanda at A Patchwork of Books has three books today, all on dogs and cats.
Jone shares something professional: a great book for library media specialists about how to teach comprehension in the library.
Evening
Tricia highlights the NSTA's list of Outstanding Science Trade Books for 2009 at The Miss Rumphius Effect.
Kimberly at lectitans posted about Karen Kingston's Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui (not a kid book, says Kimberly, but kid-friendly).
Jennie kicks off Graphic Novel Week at Biblio File with a review of Journey into Mohawk Country.
Claire at StoryForce posts about Students on Strike: Jim Crow, Civil Rights, Brown, and Me. The voice in this one is so strong, says Claire, that "teenagers today will feel like they are marching, too."
Mr. X and I were in Baltimore this weekend (the Walters, romance) and checked out The Book Thing, where all the books are free. Really! There's no suggested donation, no limit on the number of books you can take (well, not a binding limit; it's 150,000), nothing but books. Most of them are categorized and shelved--all but the children's books, which are piled haphazardly in a dozen or so bins. Twice while we were there someone wheeled over a shopping cart full of children's books and flung more into the bins. The selection in that department wasn't great, but I managed to come home with about 20 books, including a copy of what is probably my favorite Frances book (and that's saying a lot, because I love them all): A Bargain for Frances by Russell and Lillian Hoban. For (ahem) Milly. Other highlights included a lovely hardcover edition of The Bronze Bow for Leo and a handful of L.M. Montgomery paperbacks for me. I was quite pleased. Free books!
Thanks to Charlotte, who tagged me for this irresistible meme (thereby snapping me out of my blogging funk). Now for my list. About a year ago, I was poking around in my parents' attic and found several missing boxes full of my childhood books, mostly middle-grade paperbacks. Most of the books on this list were in those boxes; they were the ones I read first.
1. Mandy by Julie [Andrews] Edwards. I loved Mandy's secret cottage and garden, and identified with her desire to care for a place of her very own.
2. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. I've written about the Shoes books here. Good news for Shoes fans: Skating Shoes is available for pre-order on Amazon!
3. The Christmas Dolls by Carol Beach York. I'm inordinately fond of this book and would read every Butterfield Square Story in the series if only I could find them (they're OOP).
4. Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden. I'm still waiting for someone to make me a Japanese dollhouse.
5. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. My childhood copy of this book, I'm sad to say, was not in the boxes. Perhaps it fell apart.
6. What Katy Did et al. by Susan Coolidge. I own these in an Octopus Books omnibus edition which was one of my prized possessions. I even had my school librarian wrap the jacket in mylar for me. It wasn't in the boxes, either: it was on my shelf. Surprise! There are no British orphans in it.
Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting by Kitty Burns Florey (Melville House, 2009) is part memoir, part history, part examination of handwriting's place in an increasingly digital world. Like Florey, I identify with my own script (13); and I found the whole thing fascinating (okay, I might have skipped the chapter on graphology).
The section on handwriting programs in Chapter 5, "Is Handwriting Important?" is particularly relevant to parents whose children are learning cursive in school. I'm now convinced that it doesn't make sense to teach kids to print and then a few years later switch them to cursive. Just teach them a sixteenth-century Italic hand right from the start, I say! [Note that this is not as crazy as it sounds; the Portland (OR) Public Schools have been using the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting System for 24 years.]
Any anecdotal evidence re:handwriting programs? Our county uses Handwriting Without Tears: I don't like it.
[Nonfiction Monday is at Charlotte's Library. Thank you, Charlotte!]
Question: How many of this year's Caldecotts (there are four, the medal winner and three honor books) feature decorated endpapers?"
Answer: Two. [The others have plain endpapers: A House in the Night's are marigold to match the illustrations; How I Learned Geography's are...brown, like a manila envelope.]
A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee (Harcourt, 2008). Susan has convinced me that A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever could have (and possibly should have) won the Caldecott Medal outright. Its endpapers feature photographs (the old-fashioned kind, with deckled edges on opposite sides) of the boys' activities at Nature Camp. We never actually see them at Nature Camp in the book--just in the car on the way there and back--so the endpapers are a bonus. They're different in the front and back (these are the front endpapers; the jacket is pasted down, sorry).
A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant; illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Eerdmans, 2008). These endpapers are a leafy green with some colored pencil and collage elements. Five of Williams's poems appear on the front endpapers (shown here) and four more on the back endpapers, nicely arranged so as not to be obscured by the jacket flaps (ahem).
But wait! Those aren't the only endpapers here. Many of Melissa Sweet's illustrations for A River of Words were painted or collaged onto the endpapers of old library books. She writes in an illustrator's note:
"[Then] I looked to a big box of discarded books I had from a library sale. One of the books had beautiful endpapers and I did a small painting on it. Then I took a book cover, ripped it off, and painted more. The book covers became my canvas, and any ephemera I had been saving for one day became fodder for the collages."
My favorite of these is the image of Williams stretched out beside the Passaic River (Gurgle, gurgle--swish, swish, swoosh!). Sweet incorporates the vining floral pattern of the endpapers into her painting; it's the meadow grass Willie is lying on.
I think that more than makes up for the other two.
Blair Lent died last week. Lent was probably best known for his illustrations for Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel (1968), which was a childhood favorite of mine (and perhaps you). I bought the Owlet paperback for my own kids before I even had any. They love it, too. Despite its problematic text.
Then last year I discovered Baba Yaga by Ernest Small; illustrated by Blair Lent (1966). I was in the process of reading every picture book retelling of a Baba Yaga story I could find at my library (there are many); this one--text and illustrations--was my favorite. It was only when I read Lent's obituary that I realized that author Ernest Small and illustrator Blair Lent were one and the same person. I don't think I've ever seen someone credited separately, by pen name and real name, for the same book, but I agree that Lent deserves a lot of credit.
I am whiling away my time on the hold list for Terry Pratchett's Nation
Oh no! Visitors to my blog have been experiencing technical difficulties. My apologies; everything should be working properly now. And thank you, Charlotte, for letting me know.
[Please click through to check out my latest project, Beginning and Endpapers. Trivia question: How many of this year's Caldecotts (there are 4, the medal winner and 3 honor books) feature decorated endpapers? Give me your guesses in the comments, and I'll post the answer tomorrow.]
So I think we can all agree that there should be a blog dedicated to children's book endpapers. It's just a matter of time until someone more qualified than I, someone with a bigger scanner (or a bigger readership) starts one. In the meantime, I'll do my best. And take recommendations.
The endpapers above are from Albert the Fix-It Man by Janet Lord; pictures by Julie Paschkis (Peachtree, 2008). They remind me of something the Rockwells might have illustrated (The Toolbox, maybe?). The black and white is a nice contrast to Paschkis's clear and bright interior watercolors. And these are actual endpapers, printed on a heavier weight paper with a matte finish. This is a very nicely made little book.
The endpapers below are from Sandy's Circus: A Story About Alexander Calder by Tanya Lee Stone; illustrated by Boris Kulikov (Viking, 2008). Also black and white, with a sketchier line; the endpaper art is from the book's first double-page spread (it's a wall of the Calder family workshop). The same sketchy black and white drawings appear to great effect in multiple places in the book, overlaid on full-color art. Note especially the rolls of wire, which Calder uses to make his miniature circus.
We just happened to have these two books out from the library at the same time (I love it when that happens). Any other tool-themed endpapers of note?
I watched the live webcast of the ALA Youth Media Awards yesterday morning, but I also got the Twitter feed, which was somehow a couple of seconds ahead of real time. Maybe someone noticed this, because ALAyma stopped twittering just before the big announcements.
But if you were following neilhimself on Twitter, you would have already gotten this series of tweets, earlier in the morning:
And you might have guessed. And been mightily pleased about it!
[Read Neil Gaiman's account of the phone call itself in this journal entry, (Insert amazed and delighted swearing here). If you need help with the swearing bit, try here.]
Caldecott: Beth Krommes for The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson (Houghton Mifflin). I'm delighted that this book won the Caldecott. Here's what I said about it in a post from last November: "It's a beautiful bedtime book, based on a cumulative poem found in The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book. I love the way the marigold highlights objects that are familiar yet fascinating to a preschooler--a key, a book, a bird, the moon." My favorite honor book this year is Uri Shulevitz's How I Learned Geography (FSG); post forthcoming.
Newbery: Neil Gaiman for The Graveyard Book, illustrated by Dave McKean (HarperCollins). I'm also delighted that this book won the Newbery! I read it last week and put it on my list of favorites; it was the only one on my list to be recognized by the committee. Of the honor books, I'm reading Margarita Engle's The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom first. Although it won the Pura Belpre Medal for writing today, too, I think I can safely say that it appeared on no one's Newbery shortlist.
Congratulations! And reactions?
The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman (Razorbill). This one hasn't gotten any Newbery buzz, but I liked it better than that other dystopian YA book people are raving about. Carry on.
When it comes to literary awards, the Newbery is my first love. These are the books I've loved this year. I don't know if they'll win any awards tomorrow, although I would be happy if they did. cf. The Newbery Award winners (and one Honor book) they reminded me of.
Masterpiece by Elise Broach; illustrated by Kelly Murphy (Henry Holt). cf. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski (FSG). cf. The Hero and the Crown.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman; illustrated by Dave McKean (HarperCollins). There is no comparison.
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf). cf. Thimble Summer.
The Porcupine Year by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins). cf. The Long Winter.
Now I'm off to read Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon and Schuster). I've been wanting to read it since it was named a finalist for the National Book Award, and I have a good feeling about its chances for a Newbery tomorrow.
See you in the morning!
From David Elliot's website, a poem written for On the Farm (illustrated by Holly Meade; Candlewick, 2008) that didn't make it into print:
The Robin
sings from her branch
but wants to roar--
small cousin of Tyrannosaur.
Of the 13 poems that did make the cut, The Bull and The Bees (also quoted in the Horn Book review) are my favorites, but all of them are witty and well-observed. I also like the old-fashioned farmyard feel of Holly Meade's woodcut-and-watercolor illustrations, their spaciousness and scale. Everything works together in this book--the poems, the illustrations, the design (large format, large font); it seems perfect for a preschool storytime. We liked it at home, too. A Cybils finalist in the Poetry category.
[For local folks: Kidwell Farm at Frying Pan Farm Park in Herndon, VA is a 1930s-era working dairy farm. Their spring birthing schedule is already up!]
There was an interesting short series of articles in the Washington Post Food and Home sections earlier this month on the possibility of transforming the South Lawn of the White House into a working farm, or at least creating a Victorian-style walled kitchen garden on the White House grounds. That's the South Lawn on the cover of the wonderful Our White House: Looking in, Looking Out (Candlewick, 2008), which features at least one related entry: "White House Colonial Kitchen Gardens" by Stephanie Loer, accompanied by S.D. Schindler's illustration of Thomas Jefferson taking a bite out of a tomato. I love the idea of growing food at the White House (I suspect kids would, too) and am pleased that there are presidential precedents for it: if you're interested, find out more at www.thewhofarm.org. And even more about the White House in the book and at its companion site. Welcome home!
I've been so busy reading that I neglected to post the last installment of my Cybils reading list, which includes middle grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction. That's precisely what I've been reading, too; in advance of the Newbery and other ALA award winners which will be announced on Monday. There is some overlap, although the criteria for the Cybils (literary merit and kid appeal) and the Newbery (most distinguished contribution to American literature for children) are significantly different.
Here's what I've read or am reading as part of my Cybils reading plan:
Middle grade fiction. I nominated Masterpiece
Young adult fiction. Young adult is too old for me. I haven't read any of the finalists in this category yet, although I've recently read some other YA books like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and the National Book Award winner What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell, and I've got John Green's Paper Towns on my nightstand (does that count?). Taking recommendations for this category; I'm growing into it.
Nonfiction. Since January 1, I read The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir by Cylin and John Busby (also on the strength of Jen's review!). And I looked at Ben Boos's Swords: An Artist's Devotion in the National Gallery gift shop (does that count?). I'd like to read both King George: What Was His Problem? by Steve Sheinkin and Lincoln Through the Lens by Martin Sandler, although that may not happen before February 14.
That's it! Now back to possible Newberys. I'll post that list tomorrow.