School's out, or A scary magical adventure

Our last-day-of-school tradition involves a trip to the bookstore to sign up for the summer reading program (we signed up for the one at the public library already) and pick out a brand new book. This year Leo, who has always liked realistic fiction (think Andrew Clements), surprised me by wanting what he described as "scary magical adventure books." Scary? That didn't sound like Leo. It did, however, sound like some of his friends. Fortunately there were a lot of scary (but maybe not too scary) magical adventure books to choose from, and in no time he had acquired a tall stack and was inspecting them before deciding which one to buy. He decided on 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson, on the strength (I think) of its gorgeous green cover. He hasn't read it yet.

I wanted to show you a picture of the stack of books in question (so shiny!), but a bookseller politely informed me that photography was prohibited in the store. Company policy. To keep customers from buying the books online or checking them out of the library, maybe? I was mortified, apologetic, defensive, and finally understanding, if also unconvinced. Anyway, before I photograph the stack of scary magical adventure books we did check out of the library (ahem), please let me know what you would recommend in that genre, for an almost-9-year-old boy going on his very first one.

[Updated to add: Charlotte is looking for 70s-era fantasy books for a nine-year-old girl today.  I am partial to the 70s myself, having done some growing-up during them; and I think fantasy books cross over gender (and time) well.  Check out her recommendations!]

Welcome to Nonfiction Monday

Welcome to Nonfiction Monday at books together! I'm delighted to be hosting today (as always). 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!

Sarah N. of In Need of Chocolate posted about Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing Butterflies and Moths, one of her family's favorite books about butterflies.

Kim Hutmacher reviews The DesertAlphabet Encyclopedia at The Wild About Nature Blog.

Fuse #8 reviews The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand New Colors by Chris Barton.

Jennifer reviews Sea Cows, Shamans, and Scurvy by Ann Arnold at Jean Little Library.

Lori Calabrese reviews Swifter, Higher, Stronger by Sue Macy at Lori Calabrese Writes!

Shirley posts on Not a Drop to Drink at SimplyScience.

[We're off to pick strawberries and will update at lunchtime. Thanks again!]

Lunchtime

The ACPL Mock Sibert Blog has posted its first reading list of non-fiction books to be considered fortheir Mock Sibert Award, to be awarded in January, 2010.

Amanda of A Patchwork of Books has a review up of What's Inside?

Robin ofThe Book Nosher is posting about I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer.

This past week on INK: Interesting Nonfiction for Kids -- "Out of a Tunnel" by Cheryl Harness; "Let's Give 'Em Something To Talk About" by Linda Salzman; "Just The Facts, Ma'am" by Susan E. Goodman; "Figs" by Barbara Kerley; "Some Observations on the History and Future of Informational Books" by guest blogger Jean Reynolds; and "Writing Children's Nonfiction Made Simple" by Steve Jenkins.

[Thenext round of posts will go up later this afternoon. Time to eat the strawberries!]

Afternoon and Evening

There haven't been any additional posts this afternoon, but there should be plenty to keep you busy here. I'll round up one more time tonight, just in case. Thanks for visiting!

Nighttime

On Wendie's Wanderings this week, Wendie has done a review of Melissa Stewart's new series, A Rainbow of Animals.

Madeline's Birthday

We celebrated Milly's fifth birthday with a Madeline party at home.  I think even Ludwig Bemelmans (who never actually wrote a book about Madeline's birthday) would have been pleased.  Milly was!  Miss Clavel (that would be me) made twelve little girls-worth of Madeline coats and hats for Milly and the party guests; we did a dramatic reading of Madeline's Rescue featuring a special guest appearance by Lord Cucuface (Milly's dad); and we hunted high and low for Madeline's dog Genevieve, who turned out to be a dog pinata (retrofitted with pullstrings to avoid the appearance of animal cruelty).  Then we ate cake.

All of this was surprisingly simple to put together, I swear.  It did take some thought and time (and the writing of a bit of / bad Bemelmans-esque rhyme); but if your child has a birthday coming up, I would definitely encourage you to plan the party around the book.  And if your child's favorite book is Madeline, call me.

Joyeux anniversaire, Milly!

Nonfiction Monday: Mozart, The Wonder Child

Mozart is a perfect candidate for a picture book biography, and Diane Stanley's Mozart:  The Wonder Child, A Puppet Play in Three Acts (HarperCollins, 2009) is, in my view, a perfect example of one: informative and engaging text, well-chosen detail, lots of back matter, and--this is important--beautiful design.

Stanley, who has written and illustrated eleven other picture book biographies, is past master at this art.  She was inspired to present Mozart's life as a puppet play by the Salzburg Marionette Theatre (thus the strings).  I'm not convinced that this is a puppet play, although I like the three-act structure of the text; the art (minus the strings) is, however, exquisite, and of course everyone is lavishly dressed.  I particularly like the handwritten musical staffs that correspond to what Mozart is composing on a given page; and the way the footnotes, which are designated by quarter and eighth notes, are presented on scrolls by little cherubs.

With younger children, read Play, Mozart, Play (a play on words) by Peter Sis (Greenwillow, 2006).  For older children, pair this with Mozart: The Boy Who Changed the World With His Music (with reproductions of portraits and other paintings, and photos of places) by Marcus Weeks (National Geographic, 2007).

Most important, listen--or play!--some of Mozart's music.  After reading this together, Leo asked if he could learn to play something by Mozart on his violin, and was surprised to learn that Mozart had composed (variations on) his very first piece:  Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  Maybe you know it?

E.B White Read Aloud Awards

The winners of the 2009 E.B. White Read Aloud Awards for Picture Books and Older Readers were none other than my two favorite books in those categories last year.  I love it when that happens!

Picture Book:  A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton (Candlewick, 2008).  I bought this book the moment I saw it (which is saying a lot given my limited book budget), and we've read it aloud many times since.  Perfect pacing, charming and expressive illustrations, a lovely last line.

For Older Readers:  Masterpiece by Elise Broach, illustrated by Kelly Murphy (Henry Holt, 2008).  I'm thrilled that this middle grade novel about frienship, values, and art will have a shiny gold sticker of on it (even if it's not the Newbery).  Our next family read aloud.  And maybe yours, too!

 

Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards

I tend to like the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winners and honor books.  These are the 2009 winners (for books published between June 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009):

Fiction and Poetry:  Nation by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins).

Nonfiction:  A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary by Candace Fleming (Schwartz and Wade/Random House).

Picture Book:  Bubble Trouble by Margaret Mahy (illustrated by Polly Dunbar; Clarion).  You can preview this one at Google books.  Do the cadences of Mahy's rhymes remind you of Charlotte Pomerantz's The Piggy in the Puddle (illustrated by James Marshall), too?  They're both great fun to read aloud.

You can also read more about this year's Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards and see the list of honor books here.

Anticipating my Thirteenth Child

Patricia Wrede's Thirteenth Child (Scholastic, 2009) has been on my to-read list since early spring, when I first heard it described as Little House on the Prairie meets Harry Potter.  Since then, I've heard it described as a lot of other, more problematic things, primarily due to Wrede's decision to eliminate Native Americans from the North American ("Columbian") continent: there are mammoths and other megafauna instead.  [Pause.]  A copy is waiting for me on the hold shelf at the library; I'm anxious to read it, if not for the same reasons I had been, and judge for myself.

Reviews by Jo Walton at Tor.com (many comments), Charlotte's Library (I heard it here first), and A Fuse #8 Production (Review of the Day).

Have you read it yet?  If not, does this controversy make it more or less likely that you will?

Firebirds

Milly and I read lots of retellings of the Russian fairy tale Firebird prior to seeing the Center Dance Company's performance of the ballet this afternoon.  You might want to put on some Stravinsky and read them, too.

Best before the ballet:  The Firebird by Jane Yolen; illustrated by Vladimir Vagin (Harper Children's, 2002).  Yolen's retelling follows the Balanchine ballet, so if you see a performance inspired by Fokine (as we did), you might be surprised by the business with the magical egg.  I really like the way Vagin illustrated the story at the top of the page and its performance on stage across the bottom.  N.b., Jane Yolen trained at Balanchine's School of American Ballet.

Lovely to look at:  The Tale of the Firebird by Gennady Spirin; translated by Tatiana Popova (Philomel, 2002).  So the Firebird looks like a peacock: Spirin's illustrations, full-page watercolors and delicate, detailed borders, are exquisite.  This is an original version of the Firebird story adapted from three Russian fairy tales and features a gorgeous gray wolf and our old friend Baba Yaga as well as Koshchei and, of course, the Firebird herself.

Milly's favorite.  The Firebird by Demi (Henry Holt, 1994).  If you like Demi (and we do), you'll love her Firebird. It's all red and gold and there are little animals everywhere.  The art doesn't feel Russian to me, but the text is based on Ransome's translation of Afanasiev, and it reads aloud nicely.  The paperback edition of this book was for sale at today's performance; we didn't buy it, but Milly did get to bring home one of the Firebird's red feathers [thanks, Brenda!].

What's your favorite Firebird?

Lily-of-the-Valley Day

I remember three French customs from A Brother for the Orphelines by Natalie Savage Carlson (pictures by Garth Williams, 1959):  masks on Mardi Gras, the April fish, and lilies of the valley on the first of May:

"The first of May is Lily-of-the-Valley Day in France.  People gather the flowers in the woods and give sprigs to their friends for good luck.  Even the president of France gets one, because ever since the days of King Louis IX, the head of the French government has been presented with a lily of the valley on the first of May."

The orphelines look for their lilies of the valley in the Ste. Germaine Woods outside of Paris, where they live in a falling-down house with Madame Flattot and Genevieve to care for them.  A Brother for the Orphelines is the third in Carlson's series of books about them:  The Happy Orpheline, A Pet for the Orphelines (cats, 12 of them), A Brother for the Orphelines (Josine, the youngest, finds a baby boy in the breadbasket), The Orphelines in the Enchanted Castle, and A Grandmother for the Orphelines.  I seem to have liked French orphans, too.  Happy May Day!

People of the Book

From Geraldine Brooks's People of the Book (Viking, 2008).  Book conservator Hanna Heath is leaving the hospital room where Ozren Karaman, head of the museum library in Sarajevo, visits his young son.

"I pushed past him on the way to the door, and saw that he had a kids' book, in Bosnian, in his hands.  From the familiar illustrations, I could tell it was a translation of Winnie-the-Pooh.  He put the book down and rubbed his palms over his face.  He looked up at me, his expression drained.  "I read to him.  Every day.  It is not possible for a childhood to pass by without these stories."  He turned to a page he'd bookmarked.  I had my hand on the door, but the sound of his voice held me.  Every now and then, he'd look up and talk to Alia [his son].  Maybe he was explaining the meaning of a hard word, or sharing some fine point of Milne's English humor.  I'd never seen anything so tender between a father and his child."  (38)

I get the impression that, for Ozren, neither is it possible for fatherhood to pass by without those stories.

Poems in Your Pocketses

Tomorrow is the second national Poem in Your Pocket Day.  This year I'm choosing a riddle poem, thereby increasing the likelihood that it will actually be read aloud.  Most people are probably familiar with Bilbo and Golem's exchange of riddles in The Hobbit; Tolkien modeled these on the riddle poems in the tenth-century Anglo-Saxon Red Book of Exeter.  This one is my favorite of Tolkien's (also the easiest to solve):

A box without hinges, key, or lid
Yet golden treasure inside is hid.

You can answer it in the comments.  And tell me, what you have got in your pocketses?

Another Little Princess

If I were going to write a sequel to Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved A Little Princess, I wouldn't necessarily write it about Ermengarde.  Ermengarde, the "fat child who did not look as if she were in the least clever," never interested me much.

But Hilary McKay's Wishing for Tomorrow (Hodder, Fall 2009 in the UK) begins with Ermengarde's thirteenth birthday.  After I heard this (at the Guardian books blog, of course), I reread A Little Princess, for the first time in many years.  McKay's choice of Ermengarde makes more sense to me now, and I think McKay--author of the Casson Family books, all five of which I read in February--will make her rather less dull than she once seemed.

Now, if one were going to write a sequel to The Secret Garden, unnecessary as it may (also) seem, who would it be about?

Booklights

There are a lot of great children's book blogs out there, but Booklights, the new children's book blog at PBS Parents, promises to be one of the best and brightest.  Booklights contributor Jen Robinson has the details:

"I [Jen] am delighted to announce the launch of a new children's book blog from PBS Parents, Booklights. Pam Coughlan (MotherReader), Susan Kusel (Wizards Wireless), and I will be working with Gina Montefusco from PBS, along with various guest contributors, to bring literacy and reading content to the PBS Parents audience. The goal of Booklights, in line with the goals that Susan, Pam, and I have for our personal blogs, is to help people to inspire a love of reading in children."

[Me again.]  Up for discussion now are Pam, Susan, and Jen's top ten picture book lists (see mine here, although it's up to 13 books and still missing a few).  Check them out!

Byatt's Children's Book

No, A.S. Byatt has not written a children's book, she has written The Children's Book. I first heard about it at the Guardian books blog, where I get all my British book news ("The stories children's books tell about the world they're written in," 4/27/09), then tracked down the flap copy:

"Olive Wellwood is a famous writer, interviewed with her children gathered at her knee. For each of them she writes a separate private book, bound in different colours and placed on a shelf. In their rambling house near Romney Marsh they play in a story-book world - but their lives, and those of their rich cousins, children of a city stockbroker, and their friends, the son and daughter of a curator at the new Victoria and Albert Museum, are already inscribed with mystery. Each family carries its own secrets."

There's more, notably a German puppeteer, but that was enough for me.  The Children's Book is available from amazon.co.uk on May 7, and I'm tempted to order it from them now rather than wait for the US edition in October.  Maybe I could pick up Kazuo Ishiguro's Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall at the same time, just to make it worth it?

The reading habits of fictional characters

I just finished reading Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls (Viking, 2009), in which main character Lia reads a lot of Neil Gaiman.  At one point she "stay[s] up past midnight reading in the family room" (99); she's reading, in her words, "Neil Gaiman's latest work of genius" (100).  Other more-or-less contemporary authors mentioned include Tolkien, Butler (Octavia?), and Yolen (that would be Jane).  I wonder when characters in YA fiction are going to be reading Anderson.  Maybe they already are?

Moomins in the house

Question:  Anamaria's dream vacation involves a trip to which Scandinavian themepark?

Hint:  It's based on a series of children's books.

Answer:  Moominworld!

I love the Moomins.  They're part of my childhood canon, along with a surprising number of other Scandinavian children's books (you would be forgiven for thinking the answer was Astrid Lindgren's World).  PW reports that the Moomin books by Tove Jansson are being re-released for their 65th anniversary next year (by Square Fish, the Macmillan imprint responsible for repackaging the books in Madeleine L'Engle's Austin and Time series with new cover art by Taeeun Yoo).  There will be new preschool Moomin books, too.  I'm excited (I haven't read all eight of the original books and can't wait to get my hands on them) and a little bit anxious, too.

Do you remember the Moomins?

Menotti's The Unicorn and two other creatures

The kids and I saw the Bowen McCauley Dance performance of Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Unicorn, The Gorgon and the Manticore" this afternoon. Some of the dancers, notably the Mystery Man and the Unicorn, visited Milly's preschool a few weeks ago, and she insisted that we buy tickets to the performance. It was fantastic! I wasn't familiar with the libretto (the only Menotti I know is "Amahl and the Night Visitors"), but it's a fable about art and envy that, on at least some levels, children can understand. And they loved the animals.

Afterwards, Lucy Bowen McCauley, the artistic director, invited the children in the audience to come onstage, and she and the dancers taught them the characteristic movements of each animal and how they corresponded to the music. Nothing against the Gorgon and the Manticore, but the Unicorn was Milly's favorite. Highly recommended for young dancers.

[Aside: Milly is interested in unicorns, and I've been looking for books about them to share with her, with limited success. Can you recommend any unicorn books for younger readers and listeners? Team Unicorn people, I'm looking at you.]

Puzzle Party

Good morning, and welcome to Day 4 of Winston Breen's Puzzle Party!  If you're looking for the link to today's puzzle, you've come to the right place.  Here it is:

http://www.winstonbreen.com/Winston's Puzzle Party - 4 - Back and Forth.pdf

Wait!  Before you rush off, pencil in hand, to solve today's puzzle, here are some things to remember about the puzzle party:

• Answers should be sent to puzzleparty@gmail.com by midnight Eastern time, April 19th
• One random correct solver of today's puzzle will win a signed copy of The Potato Chip Puzzles
• Hang on to your answers, because you'll need all of them to solve the final puzzle. One random solver of that last puzzle will win every children's and YA book in G.P. Putnam's Sons Spring 2009 lineup, and a few Fall 2009 advance reading copies, too
• More details can be found here: http://www.winstonbreen.com/puzzleparty.html

Having trouble with today's puzzle?  Please feel free to leave a comment if you need a little hint, and I'll see what I can do.  This one's a word puzzle: my specialty.

Once you're done, check back here for more puzzle-related posts celebrating the debut of Eric Berlin's second Winston Breen book, The Potato Chip Puzzles.  And thank you for playing!

A Ring of Endless Light

The Austin family books by Madeleine L'Engle--Meet the Austins, The Moon by Night, and A Ring of Endless Light, plus two others we didn't own and I've not read--belonged to my sister, but I read them, too, and remember them fondly. I haven't reread them as an adult and wonder how they would hold up; they seemed very much of their time even then. My favorite was A Ring of Endless Light (it was also named a Newbery Honor Book in 1981).  I would have been on Team Adam, if Vicky didn't mind the sports metaphor.

This illustration by Taeeun Yoo is of Vicky riding a dolphin; it's on the cover of the Square Fish edition of A Ring of Endless Light published in 2008. I bought a print of it for Milly's birthday next month: she's far too young for L'Engle, of course, but she loves dolphins, and it reminded me of her. Yoo did the cover art for the other books in the Austin Family Chronicles (the illustration for The Young Unicorns might end up Leo's birthday present; I love Yoo's work), as well as for the Time Quintet (Square Fish, 2007).

Which I have never read (I must have read A Wrinkle in Time--it won the Newbery Award in 1963, and I read all the Newbery winners--but I don't remember liking it). I know! Convince me.

For Poetry Friday, "The World" by Henry Vaughan:

I saw Eternity the other night
Like a great Ring of pure and endless light,
All calm as it was bright ;
And round beneath it Time, in hours, days, years,
Driven by the spheres
Like a vast shadow moved, in which the world
And all her train were hurled.
[Read the rest here.]

[It's my mother's birthday today. She's not a book person, so I baked her a Bundt cake instead.  ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Mami!]

Winston Breen's Puzzle Party Starts Tonight!

We here at bookstogether love puzzle-mysteries, and one of our favorites is The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2007). The sequel to that book, The Potato Chip Puzzles, is available today, and author Berlin has devised what is possibly the best blog tour ever to promote it.  He also asked me to host one of the tour stops (Sunday, April 19).  I was thrilled, although I'm pretty sure that means I'm not eligible for the fantastic prizes.  Read all about Winston Breen's Puzzle Party below, and start solving: you have until midnight tonight to be entered in the first of seven drawings to win a signed copy of The Potato Chip Puzzles...and all week to work on the puzzles leading up to the final Grand Prize drawing.  What is the Grand Prize, you ask?  Read on: 

Librarians! Teachers! Booksellers! Parents!

Winston loves to puzzle his friends and classmates, and now he's got some puzzles for you! Solve the puzzles and submit your answers, and you can win...

• A signed copy of Winston Breen's latest puzzling mystery, The Potato Chip Puzzles.
• Or the grand prize: Every single one of G.P. Putnam's Sons Spring 2009 children's and YA books, plus advance reading copies of numerous Fall 2009 books!

Every day from April 16th to April 22nd, there will be a new puzzle waiting for you on a different blog:

April 16th: A Patchwork of Books
April 17th: Fuse #8
April 18th: Shelf Elf
April 19th:Books Together
April 20th: Bookshelves of Doom
April 21st: Chicken Spaghetti
April 22nd: Oz and Ends

Go to every blog! Solve every puzzle! Submit your answers by the end of each day to puzzleparty@gmail.com. Every day, one randomly drawn correct answer will win a signed copy of The Potato Chip Puzzles!

And save your answers -- you're going to need them to solve the final puzzle on April 22nd. One randomly drawn person who submits the right answer to that puzzle will win not only The Potato Chip Puzzles but over two dozen other books, courtesy of G.P. Putnam's Sons!

Get ready to start solving! The party begins April 16th!

Are there any questions?

How do I submit the answer to a particular puzzle?
Just pop it into the subject header of an e-mail and send it off to puzzleparty@gmail.com.

Can I submit more than one e-mail per day?
If you send in an answer that you later realize is wrong, feel free to send in a new e-mail with the correct answer. But please don't send multiple e-mails as a way to improve your chances. For one thing, it won't work.

What's the deadline to get you the answer to a puzzle?
Midnight (Eastern time) on the day it appears.

What if I miss a day or can't solve one of the puzzles? Will I still be able to solve the final puzzle and be eligible for the grand prize?
Probably. The final puzzle has been designed so you can miss one or two of the previous answers and still figure things out. But the more answers you have, the easier that final puzzle will be. The obvious solution is to join the party every single day!

I'm a kid. Can I play, too, or is this only for teachers, booksellers, etc.?
Everyone can play! But note that a couple of the puzzles will be a notch or two harder than they are in the books. Feel free to team up with other kids or an adult! I'm sure you can do it.

[Me again.]  You'll find the link to the puzzle for Sunday, April 19 right here at bookstogether; I'll post it at midnight so you'll have plenty of time to solve it.  In the meantime, I'll post my reviews of both The Puzzling World of Winston Breen and The Potato Chip Puzzles.  Thanks for visiting, and for participating in Winston Breen's Puzzle Party!