Back to School

The time has come....to talk about our new "back to school" books. Every summer, I order a handful of new picture books about school. We have some fun books perfect for new students and old pros.





Kindergators: Hands Off, Harry!

Harry is not having a good day at kindergarten. It seems that Harry has a hard time remembering to respect his classmates's personal spaces. How will Harry learn to keep his hands to himself and not tackle anyone? This is a cute story (featuring alligators as the characters) about a very common issue with young children. Hands Off, Harry is the first in a series by Rosemary Wells; looking forward to the forthcoming books!




Follow the Line to School

I *love* Laura Ljungkvist's Follow the Line books. They are very awesome. In Follow the Line To School, we follow the line through the many different places in a school. The first room we enter is the classroom: "Say hello! Hello! Hello to your friends and go to your classroom. Fred is the class pet. Can you guess what kind of animal he is? Look at the alphabet chart. What letter does your name start with? What sport would you play with the ball in this room?" We follow the line to the science corner, the library, the art room, back to the classroom, to the cafeteria, the playground, the math area, the music room, back to the classroom, and finally, out the door: "Follow the line out the door, because it's time to go...HOME! It's so much fun to learn new THINGS. I wonder what...TOMORROW brings."

You really need to see this to appreciate it. Just grade A, 100% perfect for sharing with a kindergartner on your lap and interacting with the book.





First Day of School

Most first day of school books are centered around a small child's actual first day of school, and all drama and happiness that comes with it. Of course, everyone who attended school knows that every first day of school, no matter if you are a kindergarten student or a college student, is fraught with excitement and no small amount of nervousness. The children in Anne Rockwell's First Day of School play together at the park during one of the last days of summer. They talk about getting ready for school (new haircut, shopping for backpacks and school supplies), hoping that they'll be in each other's class, and about last year's first day of school, now that they are older and wiser about such things. Dad takes the unnamed star of the story shoe shopping, where he meets his teacher from last year.

The last day of school is finally here; new teacher, new supplies, and an old friend in the classroom. Awwww. A sweet, realistic, and multicultural story (yeah!). Love it.

No More Slumping

Whoo hoo! I've read three terrific books in a row.





Lexie

Lexie is looking forward to her annual trip to the beach, even though this year is different due to her parents' divorce. This time, it's just Lexie and her dad. Or so she thinks, until she finds out that Dad's new girlfriend and her two sons are joining them. As you can imagine, Lexie is none too thrilled about these new developments, and everybody has to maneuver around each other rather awkwardly.

This is an honest yet positive story about blended families. Lexie's disappointment is acutely real, yet the baby steps that everyone takes in order to form relationships are sweetly awkward and realistic. As this takes place in the span of one week, not everything is resolved, naturally, but it ends with a satisfying conclusion. Audrey Couloumbis is a fantastic author; if you haven't read her other books, check them out (especially Getting Near to Baby and the Maude March novels).






Anya's Ghost

Oooh, you have to read this! Anya, a Russian immigrant, doesn't really fit in with the other kids at her private high school. She's embarrassed by her mother's Russian ways, doesn't particularly like school, and to make things even worse, falls down a well, where she meets the ghost of a murdered girl.

(Or, so she thinks!)

Taken in by the girl's sad tales of woe, Anya befriends the ghost, until she finds out that her story might not be entirely kosher.

The artwork in this graphic novel is tremendous, the story line has twists and turns that catch you by surprise, and it gets deliciously eerie. Oh, and there's a great section that takes place in the library (where Anya goes to research the ghost girl's murder). Highly recommended.





Bootleg

Bootleg is an eye-opening account of the Prohibition Era. Prohibition activists, gangsters, bootleggers, repealers, politicians, speakeasies, police and judges who looked the other way....it's all covered in fascinating detail. An epilogue looks at the effects of Prohibition and its repeal, including changes in legislation and advocacy (including MADD, or Mothers Against Drunk Driving).


Have a great weekend; stay cool!

Recent Reads Roundup

Well, I've hit it again. The reading slump. After reading several awesome books in a row, I'm not finding anything particularly inspiring. This tends to happen to me after reading books that really blow me away. No matter. I've requested some "older" 2011 books that I've been meaning to read, and meandering through the folktale and poetry aisles (which helps, but haven't found anything that I really want to blog about). This is what I've been occupied with:

A Garland For Girls

I'm getting back into audiobooks. This was the first on the shelf, so I grabbed it. Now, I've never been much of a Louisa May Alcott fan. Little Women was not a pivotal reading experience in my childhood; I read it, but never loooooooved it like some young girls and women do. I've tried to get into her other books, but no dice. Unfortunately, A Garland For Girls is reminding me why I don't like Alcott. The entire first CD consisted of girls working on needlework and talking about their charitable excursions among the less unfortunate of Boston (they seem particularly concerned with the well-being of shop girls). I am not kidding. The narrator is the recording's saving grace. She manages to bring to life these ridiculous girls. I am listening more out of curiosity than actual interest (it's rather amusing to listen to these silly girls' prattle); only the most ardent Alcott fan would enjoy this.






Smoky the Cow Horse

A reading slump is a good time to go back to my Newbery reading challenge. I've been avoiding the Newbery books from the 1920s because none of them appeal to me at all. Smoky the Cow Horse won the medal in 1927. Smoky is trained and beloved by his cowboy friend, stolen by horse thieves (he kills one of them), and becomes an attraction in a Wild West show. Other adventures and scenarios follow until he is reunited with his cowboy. Unfortunately, it does reflect the racism of its time (all the bad guys have dark complexions). The deliberate poor grammar and spelling was very distracting, and I'm usually tolerant of that when it's not overdone. But, yay! One more Newbery to cross off my list!






King of the Wind

Marguerite Henry is perhaps most famous for Misty of Chincoteague (1948 Newbery Honor), but King of the Wind is the book for which she won the 1949 Newbery Medal (Justin Morgan Had a Horse was a 1945 Newbery Honor recipient). King of the Wind tells the tale of an Arabian horse and the mute stable boy who cares for him. I was intrigued the moment I began it, for the story began at the end of Ramadan in Morocco. Quite an unusual setting for a book published in 1948. Henry's research on Ramadan, Islam, and Morocco is evident in her respectful descriptions of Islam and the Moroccan characters (she does refer to Muslims as "Mohammadans," but that's reflective of the times). A delightful surprise.






Letters From Rifka

Letters From Rifka chronicles the journey of a Russian Jewish girl to the US in a series of letters written to her cousin. Rifka's family flees Russia in order to escape persecution. While in Poland, they contract typhus; thankfully, they survive, but Rifka catches ringworm, for which she must stay behind in Belgium while her family travels on to America. While under the care of a kindly nun, she tastes chocolate and ice cream for the first time. Once she recovers, she continues to America, where she is detained at Ellis Island before finally being reunited with her family.

Based on Hesse's great-aunt's immigration to America, Letters From Rifka is an eye-opening and engrossing tale of survival, persistence, and hope. This is on this year's Battle of the Books list (elementary school); I'm delighted that Rifka's story will reach so many local students.

Up next: Lexie by Audrey Couloumbis. From the catalog description:

"When ten-year-old Lexie goes with her father to the beach for a week, she is surprised to find that he has invited his girlfriend and her two sons to join them for the entire week."

I'm a fan of Couloumbis, so I'm looking forward to reading this. Yay! Hoping that it will get me back on the reading track. (Wondering if Ms. Yingling has read this, considering that she just did a nice rant about leisurely summer books for kids.)

(More) Sizzling Reads for Summer

Looking for new summer reads? We have some terrific books on the way!

10 Rules You Must Absolutely Not Break if You Want to Survive the School Bus


Kyle is rather nervous about riding the school bus. His older brother gives him a set of rules, which he promptly breaks. At the end, he discovers that there's one rule that his brother doesn't know about! This received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and School Library Journal. Pretty impressive!

Blackout

Ugh, blackouts. Such inconveniences! A busy family's activities come to a screeching halt when the lights go out. When it becomes too uncomfortable to stay inside, they climb to their rooftop, where they find peace and enjoyment under the stars. This also received three starred reviews-Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal.

The Bridge to Never Land

This won't be released until August 9, but I'm anticipating that there will be a lot of publicity and interest once we're closer to the release date. Two fans of the Peter and the Starcatchers series discover that the books captured real events. Kirkus Reviews gave it an excellent review.

The Elephant Scientist

The Scientists in the Field series is exceptional, so I'm happy to see a new one coming soon! This one focuses on Caitlin O'Connor and her work with elephants in Nambia.






Forever

The final book in Virginia author Maggie Stiefvater's Wolves of Mercy Falls series. I'd recommend placing a hold if you want to read it ASAP. If you're not familiar with the series, it's about a human girl and her werewolf boyfriend. Verrry popular. No, no, no....don't draw any comparisons to Twilight. It's much better than that.




Frankie Pickle and the Mathematical Menace

I get a kick of out Frankie Pickle. We have a number of easy chapter book series featuring spunky little girls, but not nearly enough featuring young boys. In his latest adventure, Frankie tackles math.

Sidekicks

What would a superhero be without a sidekick? Captain Amazing is getting a little long in the tooth, so he needs a sidekick to help him out. He just doesn't expect his pets to fight over the position! This graphic novel is receiving praise for its humor and bright illustrations.

Sidekicks

Two books titled Sidekicks published in the same month? Luckily, one is a children's graphic novel, while this one is YA fiction. Bright Boy has been the crime-fighting Phantom Justice's sidekick for years. After meeting his rival sidekick, he realizes that Phantom Justice may not be the good guy that everyone thinks he is.

Star Wars Character Encyclopedia

It's a bit embarrassing how much I am looking forward to this book; I grew up watching the original Star Wars trilogy and dressed up as Princess Leia (Star Wars Leia, not Return of the Jedi Leia) for Halloween when I was a kid. This is a guide to all six Star Wars movies: "With stat boxes, expert text, incredible movie stills, and more than 200 profiles" according to the publisher. Geek out to your heart's content.

Total Sports

I have a grownup version of this book (it's very cool; covered in astroturf) that I appreciate very much, so I'm happy that a kid-friendly version is available. Total Sports covers every Olympic sport, so this will definitely come in handy for next summer's Olympics in London (yay!) and you're trying to figure out the ins and outs of curling or what the deal is with synchronized swimming. Extreme sports are also covered (cliff diving, mountain biking, etc) as well as more traditional non-Olympic sports (golf, rugby, American football, cricket, and motor sports). A section on the Paralympic Games (for athletes with physical disabilities) is also included. Rules and techniques are outlined; histories of the sports, key athletes, bizarre moments, major competitions, and geographical range of the sports round out this browse-worthy sports reference book.

That's just a sample of the books coming our way.

I'm also making more of an effort to read adult fiction. Here's what I have on tap:

The Peach Keeper-I'm very picky about Southern fiction. I don't like books stuffed with wacky Southern characters and their wacky Southern ways. Having lived in the South all my life, I've known my share of colorful characters (especially since I grew up in Louisiana), but reading about characters constantly acting wacky is tiresome. If someone talks about enjoying it with a tall glass of iced tea (or worse, mint julep) while swinging in a hammock on a gentle summer day, that's usually a sign for me to stay far away. Thankfully, this doesn't seem to be the case with this book. It take place in North Carolina and involves family secrets that are revealed when a historic house is renovated. Nice.

The American Heiress-Reviewers have said that this has shades of Edith Wharton; I'm a fan of Edith Wharton, so this has been on my radar for a few months. Cora Cash, member of a very wealthy American family, marries an English aristocrat. After their lavish New York wedding, they move to England, where even the servants look down on her. Oh, goodie.

A coworker noticed that I had returned Tolstoy and the Purple Chair and wanted to know my opinion on it. Regrettably, I had to tell her that I had to return it without finishing it, for I knew that several people had it on hold (she had already finished it). What I read was exceptional: after the death of her sister, the author sought comfort in literature and vowed to finish a book every day for a year. Once I'm in the mood for more reflective reading, I'll pick it up again.

Be cool, everyone. I mean that literally.

The Lost Crown

The Lost Crown

I think Sarah Miller is great. Her debut novel, Miss Spitfire, is marvelous. Whenever I get a historical fiction request, I regularly recommend this fantastic biographical novel about Anne Sullivan. Naturally, you would think that I would have flipped out once her sophomore novel was announced. Right?

It's about the Romanovs. Now, there are many people who have an interest....fascination....obsession with the assassinated Romanovs. And for a while, I shared that interest. It started when I read my grandparents' copy of Nicholas and Alexandra. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's a sweeping and grand account; the imperial extravagance, the sickly heir, the controversial Rasputin, and the drums of impending doom. I read it in high school; after that, I read every book on the Romanovs that I could find in the library (even Anna Anderson's "autobiography"). For a few years after that, I would read whatever new books came out about the Romanovs.

Eventually, that stopped. The truly objective biography on the Romanovs has yet to be written, although there have been several excellent and thoughtful books written about them (I'll list my picks at the end of this post). I'm not sure it's possible to be objective about the Romanovs, and even more difficult to not have your viewpoint on the family come across if you're writing about them (I'm certainly trying to hide my viewpoint in this post). And after a while, there's not much more to say about a particular subject that's been chronicled to the nth degree.

And then, a gifted author writes a young adult novel about the Romanovs. Let me tell you, although I was very eager to read it, I was also a bit skeptical when I picked up this book, despite my confidence in Sarah Miller's writing ability and judgment. Just as it's easy to romanticize the Romanovs, it's equally easy to paint them (the Emperor and Empress, at least) as monsters, and I was hoping that either side wouldn't be the case in The Lost Crown.


And THEN, it turns out that it's written in first person present narrative. Not my favorite. Writing in a character's voice in the present is tricky to pull off; I find it to be quite annoying at times.

Well, I'm happy to tell you that Sarah Miller does an excellent, superb, fantastic job in creating a story that's neither apologetic nor relentlessly harsh. Of course, focusing on the defenseless Romanov daughters was a wise idea; the Tsar and Tsarina are only peripheral characters. Miller brilliantly depicts their extremely limited worldview, the gilded cages in which they live, and the suffocating lifestyle imposed on them by their parents and society before the Revolution and by their captors after the abdication. Admittedly, since the chapters are alternately narrated by the four grand duchesses, keeping their identities and voices distinct can get confusing, but this is a minor complaint. The more salacious aspects of the family's story, such as Rasputin and rumors about the Empress Alexandra, are hinted at but not exploited. The sisters' close yet claustrophobic relationships are tenderly described, and the tragedy of Aleksei, the long awaited, beloved, spoiled, and hemophiliac heir, is breathtakingly rendered. The family's violent end is shocking, even if you know what happens, and revealed without sensationalism. Appendices include further information about the family, pictures, and a list for further reading. Brava.

My picks for further reading:

Anastasia's Album-This is pretty much it for children's nonfiction material about the Romanovs.

The Flight of the Romanovs-Covers the colorful and strange fates of the exiled members of the Romanov family. Published in 1999, it covers details that The Romanovs: The Final Chapter doesn't include.

King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War-This chronicles the intertwined lives of George V (England), Wilhelm II (Germany), and Nicholas II (Russia). Fantastic read.

Nicholas and Alexandra-although several decades old, this is still one of the best.

The Romanovs: The Final Chapter-This covers the finding of several Romanov remains in 1991, and the forensic disputes that followed. Reads like a detective story. Written by the author of Nicholas and Alexandra.

Oh, and War Horse? Finished it this week as well. The ending will leave you bawling. In a good way. Read the book before the movie comes out!

Currently Reading

Let's get caught up, shall we? I've been in a bit of a reading slump, and haven't found anything that I really wanted to blog about. Until now. Thank goodness! I'm in the middle of reading two fine books, and since I'm overdue for a new post, I'll just tell you about my latest great read!




My current obsession right now is War Horse. Avid readers undoubtedly know what it's like to be so engrossed in a book that you cannot wait to return to it. Arrgh! That's how I feel about War Horse. I can't wait to tell everyone I know about it, and I have a feeling that I will, because the trailer for the movie has just been released. Christmas
2011. Directed by Steven Spielberg. The trailer won't tell you much about the story, but take a look anyway:




War Horse is a rather slim novel, but its brevity belies its strength and maturity. When Joey, a young untrained horse, is sold to his new owner, he quickly bonds with the owner's young son, Albert. Albert's father, needing money to pay the mortgage, sells Joey to the British army. Heartbroken and too young to enlist, Albert vows to reunite with Joey as they trek separately trek over the war-torn lands of Europe.

I'll have more to say about it when I'm done, but I can tell you that this is a heartbreaking, moving, and sophisticated story. Alcoholism and poverty play a role at the beginning of the story, and I know that the conflict between the mounted British cavalry and the automatic guns and tanks of the Germans will also be significant factors. I'm really looking forward to the movie; as I'm reading it, I can see why Steven Spielberg was drawn to it (he saw the stage production in London; the Broadway version recently won the Tony for Best Play), for it has elements of his famous movies: parent-child issues, a coming of age story arc, and the effects of war.

(Unfortunately, the summary in the catalog spoils the ending. Don't read it if that sort of thing bothers you.)