The Winter Bride (A Chance Sister's Romance, Book 2)
Anne Gracie
ISBN: 9780425259269
Read May 27, 2014
I read and failed to review the first book in this series, the equally enjoyable The Autumn Bride, which came in as a donation to our library last fall. I read it without realizing it was only published that year (Feb 2013). It's probably just as well that I didn't know it was so new, because I would probably have declined to pick it up, being as it's quite obviously the first in a projected series about four young 'sisters' who take their destiny into their own hands, and find love and family along the way. It's saying something about the quality that when I finished Autumn, I immediately tried to request Winter, only to realize in frustration that it hadn't even been published yet!
Now Winter has been out for a while, but our library copy only just now made it through processing, and I was so happy to see it come through!
I have to say that I enjoyed it just as much as I did Autumn.
There was only one editing mistake that I noted (a mis-directed aside), and the plotting and story were beautifully paced and executed. The language is beautiful and specific - curricles and pelisses and tigers - and the main characters are all well-drawn and enjoyable to read about. Chapters are headed with Jane Austen quotes, characters refer to the horrors of the marriage market, and traumatic histories are unearthed for both our hero and heroine, all along a sweet path towards a growing friendship and eventual passion.
Now the only question is who will be the Spring Bride?
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Tuesday Storytime: Dragons!
This is my last free storytime before the Summer Reading Program starts. I decided last year that I was going to have my storytimes for the little kids match up with the programs for the big kids in the Summer Reading Program, and I don't regret that - I love all the books and crafts that I've chosen - but I do feel a twinge that it will be AUGUST before I get to choose another personal, only at this library storytime theme (and before you ask, yes, I have already chosen them and picked out the books: swimming, going to the beach, and back to school).
So for the last storytime before we get to exult in science: Dragons!
(As a bonus, ALL THREE of the books I read this time got taken home by patrons - I LOVE when that happens!)
Me and My Dragon
David Biedrzycki
ISBN: 9781580892780
Bright red comically-exaggerated non-threatening dragon, and a mundane kid and environment
Some kids want puppies, some goldfish, but this kid - he wants a dragon! He adopts a nice fire-breathing red variety from the pet store, gives it a place to sleep (a cardboard castle with a drawbridge) and teaches it how to fly (pushing it off a cliff) and takes it to obedience school, settling down to enjoy life together. This could also very easily go into a Pet Ownership theme with Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy and Shirley Hughes' Dogger.
Waking Dragons
Jane Yolen, illustrated by Derek Anderson
ISBN: 9781416990321
Soft-edged pudgy oversized dragons are woken up and taken through their morning routine by a diminutive knight.
So little text to this story, but it's very sweet, and lots of fun. The only weird issue I have with it is that in my accent, "syrup" and "cheer up" are nowhere close to a rhyme, and that always makes my brain hurt a little bit. This is like the platonic ideal of a middle of storytime read - interesting pictures, minimal text, short or no plot, and no big drama.
Hiding Hoover
Elise Broach, illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith
ISBN: 9780803727069
Thin, spiky, exaggeratedly elongated characters in a brightly colored world.
Daddy says "No pets!" so when the duo finds Hoover (a thin, spiky, elongated, green flappy dragon) in the back yard, they know they're going to have to get creative in order to keep him. Hoover is hidden in bed, in the closet, tries on their clothes, ends up as a coat-rack, a stepladder, a chandelier, a vacuum, an armchair, and an umbrella, each time fooling poor Daddy, who never notices a thing. Until the end, when there's a fairly big hint that maybe Daddy has noticed Hoover after all.
So for the last storytime before we get to exult in science: Dragons!
(As a bonus, ALL THREE of the books I read this time got taken home by patrons - I LOVE when that happens!)
Me and My Dragon
David Biedrzycki
ISBN: 9781580892780
Bright red comically-exaggerated non-threatening dragon, and a mundane kid and environment
Some kids want puppies, some goldfish, but this kid - he wants a dragon! He adopts a nice fire-breathing red variety from the pet store, gives it a place to sleep (a cardboard castle with a drawbridge) and teaches it how to fly (pushing it off a cliff) and takes it to obedience school, settling down to enjoy life together. This could also very easily go into a Pet Ownership theme with Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy and Shirley Hughes' Dogger.
Waking Dragons
Jane Yolen, illustrated by Derek Anderson
ISBN: 9781416990321
Soft-edged pudgy oversized dragons are woken up and taken through their morning routine by a diminutive knight.
So little text to this story, but it's very sweet, and lots of fun. The only weird issue I have with it is that in my accent, "syrup" and "cheer up" are nowhere close to a rhyme, and that always makes my brain hurt a little bit. This is like the platonic ideal of a middle of storytime read - interesting pictures, minimal text, short or no plot, and no big drama.
Hiding Hoover
Elise Broach, illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith
ISBN: 9780803727069
Thin, spiky, exaggeratedly elongated characters in a brightly colored world.
Daddy says "No pets!" so when the duo finds Hoover (a thin, spiky, elongated, green flappy dragon) in the back yard, they know they're going to have to get creative in order to keep him. Hoover is hidden in bed, in the closet, tries on their clothes, ends up as a coat-rack, a stepladder, a chandelier, a vacuum, an armchair, and an umbrella, each time fooling poor Daddy, who never notices a thing. Until the end, when there's a fairly big hint that maybe Daddy has noticed Hoover after all.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Robin Sloan
ISBN: 9780374214913
Finished May 20, 2014
There are people who jump into swimming pools, or into the ocean. It's perhaps mid-April, she's on spring break, she's got her bathing suit on, and she is GOING. A shiver of antici...pation (shush, I had to), a quick run, a smallish hop, a splash, and she's IN.
I am not that person. I am the person who sits on the edge of the dock and pokes her toes in with a worried crease in her forehead, thinking about temperatures and wind-chill and leg cramps. I am the person who sits on the warm concrete edge of the swimming pool with her legs in - ONLY her legs in - and watches the rest of the group swarm around the water like mayflies.
I don't jump. I am not an "early adopter." Hype makes me nervous. The more people who shove a specific thing in my face with the breathless exhortation "My God this is PERFECT for you!" the more nervous I get, and the longer I hold off. In this case, about umpty billion people (even patrons whose names I don't actually know) shoved this book at me with frantic intensity.
It was too much. I couldn't take it. The book (already purchased, because I did read a review and think "I might like this" before I got shoved at by everyone) ended up in the purgatory that is the back seat of my car. For MONTHS. I bought this book NEW. In October. Do you want to count how many months that is? It's a depressing number.
I swung my legs in that pool for more than half a year.
Why? I was afraid. I don't like dreary. I don't like depression (scuse me: "realism") I have enough of that in my own life, thanks. I don't like to be wrapped up in a lovely story and have it fizzle out, or take a strange turn at Albuquerque. I don't like to fall in love with characters and have them beheaded or raped (looking at you, GRRM). I don't like gritty. I don't like "snappy dialogue" that's actually mean-spirited snark that comes from entitled or arrogant or superior bastards.
I worry a lot. As fast and as much as I read, you'd think that it wouldn't bother me this much, but I want to read things that are uplifting and heartwarming, and when I get a bait-and-switch, it's like being gut-punched. It's horrid.
I finally slipped into the water on Monday. God as my witness, this water is HEAVENLY.
Reviews elsewhere do the review thing. I just want to gush for a bit.
I'm so glad I bought it. I want to wander around for a week or so, clutching it to my chest and luxuriating in the happy fugue that comes from scarfing down a story that started great, stayed great, and finished with a beautifully satisfying ending AND AN EPILOGUE!
I'm revealing myself as a giant nerd here, but I spent my college days playing Mage, the World of Darkness game system developed by White Wolf. This book reads like a beautiful Mage chronicle, in the lightest grey World of Darkness possible. The synthesis of nostalgia for my college games (and, let's be honest here - my college years) and the breathless frantic intensity of the cutting-edge Google projects and post-recession uncertainty was like manna.
I swear, people should stop recommending things to me. I would get in a lot faster if people just stopped hassling me about how nice the water is.
Robin Sloan
ISBN: 9780374214913
Finished May 20, 2014
There are people who jump into swimming pools, or into the ocean. It's perhaps mid-April, she's on spring break, she's got her bathing suit on, and she is GOING. A shiver of antici...pation (shush, I had to), a quick run, a smallish hop, a splash, and she's IN.
I am not that person. I am the person who sits on the edge of the dock and pokes her toes in with a worried crease in her forehead, thinking about temperatures and wind-chill and leg cramps. I am the person who sits on the warm concrete edge of the swimming pool with her legs in - ONLY her legs in - and watches the rest of the group swarm around the water like mayflies.
I don't jump. I am not an "early adopter." Hype makes me nervous. The more people who shove a specific thing in my face with the breathless exhortation "My God this is PERFECT for you!" the more nervous I get, and the longer I hold off. In this case, about umpty billion people (even patrons whose names I don't actually know) shoved this book at me with frantic intensity.
It was too much. I couldn't take it. The book (already purchased, because I did read a review and think "I might like this" before I got shoved at by everyone) ended up in the purgatory that is the back seat of my car. For MONTHS. I bought this book NEW. In October. Do you want to count how many months that is? It's a depressing number.
I swung my legs in that pool for more than half a year.
Why? I was afraid. I don't like dreary. I don't like depression (scuse me: "realism") I have enough of that in my own life, thanks. I don't like to be wrapped up in a lovely story and have it fizzle out, or take a strange turn at Albuquerque. I don't like to fall in love with characters and have them beheaded or raped (looking at you, GRRM). I don't like gritty. I don't like "snappy dialogue" that's actually mean-spirited snark that comes from entitled or arrogant or superior bastards.
I worry a lot. As fast and as much as I read, you'd think that it wouldn't bother me this much, but I want to read things that are uplifting and heartwarming, and when I get a bait-and-switch, it's like being gut-punched. It's horrid.
I finally slipped into the water on Monday. God as my witness, this water is HEAVENLY.
Reviews elsewhere do the review thing. I just want to gush for a bit.
I'm so glad I bought it. I want to wander around for a week or so, clutching it to my chest and luxuriating in the happy fugue that comes from scarfing down a story that started great, stayed great, and finished with a beautifully satisfying ending AND AN EPILOGUE!
I'm revealing myself as a giant nerd here, but I spent my college days playing Mage, the World of Darkness game system developed by White Wolf. This book reads like a beautiful Mage chronicle, in the lightest grey World of Darkness possible. The synthesis of nostalgia for my college games (and, let's be honest here - my college years) and the breathless frantic intensity of the cutting-edge Google projects and post-recession uncertainty was like manna.
I swear, people should stop recommending things to me. I would get in a lot faster if people just stopped hassling me about how nice the water is.
Goodwill Find! The Girl in the Golden Bower, Jane Yolen, Jane Dyer
I might already own a copy of this lovely picture book, but for a hardback in pristine condition for 50 cents?
Mine.
The Girl in the Golden Bower
Jane Yolen, illustrated by Jane Dyer
ISBN: 0316968943 (reinforced binding)
Original fairy tale by renowned author (and personal favorite) Jane Yolen, about the power of love and family.
Oh this book is so pretty, y'all just don't know. Jane Dyer has that same lush richness as Kinuko Craft without the overdone sumptuous frothing, and the same scene-setting mastery as Paul Zelinsky without the rigidity of form. It just makes my heart happy to look at.
I love fairy tales. They are so simple, and so deep. Like still pools in a dark forest, reflecting the surface, and harboring secrets deep within their hearts. This one fits the old pattern beautifully - a sorcerer's curse, a ruined castle, a beast deep within the woods, a good-hearted woodsman, a beguiling woman with cat eyes and a green kirtle, sad untimely deaths, and not one, but two different pure-hearted girls who save the day by being their own sweet selves.
The only difference between this and a "real" fairy tale is that this one doesn't end with a wedding, or even a betrothal - in fact, there's not even a suitor! The omission is glaring, but in my opinion, it only enhances the innocence and sweet nature of the tale being told.
Not bad for 50 cents!
Mine.
The Girl in the Golden Bower
Jane Yolen, illustrated by Jane Dyer
ISBN: 0316968943 (reinforced binding)
Original fairy tale by renowned author (and personal favorite) Jane Yolen, about the power of love and family.
Oh this book is so pretty, y'all just don't know. Jane Dyer has that same lush richness as Kinuko Craft without the overdone sumptuous frothing, and the same scene-setting mastery as Paul Zelinsky without the rigidity of form. It just makes my heart happy to look at.
I love fairy tales. They are so simple, and so deep. Like still pools in a dark forest, reflecting the surface, and harboring secrets deep within their hearts. This one fits the old pattern beautifully - a sorcerer's curse, a ruined castle, a beast deep within the woods, a good-hearted woodsman, a beguiling woman with cat eyes and a green kirtle, sad untimely deaths, and not one, but two different pure-hearted girls who save the day by being their own sweet selves.
The only difference between this and a "real" fairy tale is that this one doesn't end with a wedding, or even a betrothal - in fact, there's not even a suitor! The omission is glaring, but in my opinion, it only enhances the innocence and sweet nature of the tale being told.
Not bad for 50 cents!
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Roses, G.R. Mannering
Roses
G. R. Mannering (Rose Mannering)
ISBN: 9781620879887
Read May 19, 2014
YA: High-fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
A note on the text: there are quite a few typographical errors and mistakes towards the end of the book - almost as if the last few chapters were rushed or not edited as carefully as the previous sections.
The author mentions somewhere that she loved Robin McKinley's dual retellings of Beauty and the Beast, and there are a few places where the homage gets uncomfortably close to the original. However, overall, the story and some of the characters are rich and complex, although I do feel that the Beast got quite short shrift in the retelling.
If it weren't for the map, I'd be half convinced that the country itself was named State, but the map indicates that it is named Pervorocco, and there is a single Neighbor country, where Magic walks the streets. Pervorocco is the home of a capital city named Sago, and a few outlying towns and villages, and a highland named the Hillands. Pervorocco tries to stay out of the politics and unrest festering between the humans and the magical beings living in The Neighbor, but the civil war spills out anyway.
In the midst of this upset, a strange silver-skinned child with violet eyes is born in a pauper's hospital in Sago, the rose amulet around her neck the only clue to her heritage. She is dutifully left with the only other member of her family, and treated as a freak because of her coloring. Her guardian insists, perhaps a bit too desperately, that the child has no magic affiliations.
One day, Sago is overrun by rebels insisting on the deaths of any Magic blooded people. The story follows the sarcastically-named Beauty and her adopted farrier father into the mountains of the Hillands, where her story becomes entangled with that of a mysterious Beast, prisoned in an enchanted castle with a strange courtyard of 100 beautiful blood-red roses that never cease blooming.
There are inset breaks that take the reader back in time to an earlier set of characters, but unfortunately the insets don't do enough to explain the background and the actions and motivations of those characters. Likewise, obtuse political affiliations, mysterious scriptures, and unclear magical abilities in the main text do little to explain the rationales and motivations behind most of the cast of main characters.
Perhaps, as with Marissa Meyer's Cinder, this will be the first in a larger series of re-tellings all wrapped around this Magic vs Human conflict. I hope so, because this one left me with the sense that the Beauty and the Beast story was simply a detour to the real story being told, of Magic and politics and love and death and fear of the unknown. If that is the case, then well and good. If not, then it's a bit of bad form to co-opt a beloved fairy-tale and then treat it so shabbily.
G. R. Mannering (Rose Mannering)
ISBN: 9781620879887
Read May 19, 2014
YA: High-fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
A note on the text: there are quite a few typographical errors and mistakes towards the end of the book - almost as if the last few chapters were rushed or not edited as carefully as the previous sections.
The author mentions somewhere that she loved Robin McKinley's dual retellings of Beauty and the Beast, and there are a few places where the homage gets uncomfortably close to the original. However, overall, the story and some of the characters are rich and complex, although I do feel that the Beast got quite short shrift in the retelling.
If it weren't for the map, I'd be half convinced that the country itself was named State, but the map indicates that it is named Pervorocco, and there is a single Neighbor country, where Magic walks the streets. Pervorocco is the home of a capital city named Sago, and a few outlying towns and villages, and a highland named the Hillands. Pervorocco tries to stay out of the politics and unrest festering between the humans and the magical beings living in The Neighbor, but the civil war spills out anyway.
In the midst of this upset, a strange silver-skinned child with violet eyes is born in a pauper's hospital in Sago, the rose amulet around her neck the only clue to her heritage. She is dutifully left with the only other member of her family, and treated as a freak because of her coloring. Her guardian insists, perhaps a bit too desperately, that the child has no magic affiliations.
One day, Sago is overrun by rebels insisting on the deaths of any Magic blooded people. The story follows the sarcastically-named Beauty and her adopted farrier father into the mountains of the Hillands, where her story becomes entangled with that of a mysterious Beast, prisoned in an enchanted castle with a strange courtyard of 100 beautiful blood-red roses that never cease blooming.
There are inset breaks that take the reader back in time to an earlier set of characters, but unfortunately the insets don't do enough to explain the background and the actions and motivations of those characters. Likewise, obtuse political affiliations, mysterious scriptures, and unclear magical abilities in the main text do little to explain the rationales and motivations behind most of the cast of main characters.
Perhaps, as with Marissa Meyer's Cinder, this will be the first in a larger series of re-tellings all wrapped around this Magic vs Human conflict. I hope so, because this one left me with the sense that the Beauty and the Beast story was simply a detour to the real story being told, of Magic and politics and love and death and fear of the unknown. If that is the case, then well and good. If not, then it's a bit of bad form to co-opt a beloved fairy-tale and then treat it so shabbily.
Storytime Potentials: Tap Tap Boom Boom, Elizabeth Bluemle
Tap Tap Boom Boom
Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
sketchy pastel and pencil figures over sepia-toned photograph collages of the city scenery
I'm always in the market for a good book about a rainstorm. I love storms, love thunder and lightning, and I love presenting books that represent them in a way that minimizes their potential as frightening.
This one is delightful. Rhythmic text emphasizes the sounds of the storm - the growing rumbles of thunder and the tap of the rain morphing into the harder louder dance of the growing storm, and then the waning energy revealing the blue sky and fresh air.
However, in addition to that, we're also treated to a very humanistic, very city-based representation of the storm, and for my rural patrons, that's something else that I'm very happy to represent as many times and an as many ways as possible.
Carts pop up to sell umbrellas on the sidewalk. Pedestrians huddle near the buildings to hide from the splashes of passing cars. When the storm picks up, they retreat into a subway terminal, waiting out the storm above in a temporary commune of like-minded and varyingly dry inhabitants. Pizza is shared, umbrellas are offered, smiles exchanged, and then up to the surface again to resume daily life, refreshed after a break from the ordinary.
I'd pair this with city-based rain books for a thunderstorm storytime, or with city-based musical books for a rhythm storytime.
Stormy Books:
Come On Rain, Karen Hesse
Monsoon Afternoon, Kashmira Sheth
Thunder Boomer, Shutta Crum
Rhythm Books:
Ruby Sings the Blues, Niki Daley
Max Found Two Sticks, Brian Pinkney
Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
sketchy pastel and pencil figures over sepia-toned photograph collages of the city scenery
I'm always in the market for a good book about a rainstorm. I love storms, love thunder and lightning, and I love presenting books that represent them in a way that minimizes their potential as frightening.
This one is delightful. Rhythmic text emphasizes the sounds of the storm - the growing rumbles of thunder and the tap of the rain morphing into the harder louder dance of the growing storm, and then the waning energy revealing the blue sky and fresh air.
However, in addition to that, we're also treated to a very humanistic, very city-based representation of the storm, and for my rural patrons, that's something else that I'm very happy to represent as many times and an as many ways as possible.
Carts pop up to sell umbrellas on the sidewalk. Pedestrians huddle near the buildings to hide from the splashes of passing cars. When the storm picks up, they retreat into a subway terminal, waiting out the storm above in a temporary commune of like-minded and varyingly dry inhabitants. Pizza is shared, umbrellas are offered, smiles exchanged, and then up to the surface again to resume daily life, refreshed after a break from the ordinary.
I'd pair this with city-based rain books for a thunderstorm storytime, or with city-based musical books for a rhythm storytime.
Stormy Books:
Come On Rain, Karen Hesse
Monsoon Afternoon, Kashmira Sheth
Thunder Boomer, Shutta Crum
Rhythm Books:
Ruby Sings the Blues, Niki Daley
Max Found Two Sticks, Brian Pinkney
Storytime Potentials: Sophie Sleeps Over, Marisabina Russo
Sophie Sleeps Over
Marisabina Russo
ISBN: 9781596439337
Flattened, slightly exaggerated bunny characters against white backgrounds or minimal scenery.
Sophie and Olive are best bunny friends at school, and Sophie is super excited to go to Olive's birthday party - her very first sleepover! Her parents offer good advice about what to bring, but Sophie doesn't want to bring her lovie - she's afraid Olive will think she's a baby.
Conflict looms when Olive's door is opened by a different bunny - Penelope - who claims that SHE is Olive's best friend! What's a bunny to do? Over the course of the afternoon, Sophie wavers between feeling like she's Olive's best friend to feeling like an unwanted third-wheel, and when the lights go out, she's way too worked up to sleep.
Resolution is a calm, moonlit meeting between Sophie and Penelope, who also is having trouble sleeping - it's her first sleepover too, and she's also a little worried about sharing Olive's friendship. When it's finally bedtime, the two of them have built a connection of their own, and are more at peace with the idea of being a trio, instead of two twoesomes.
This one is very much on the long side for me, but until complicated friendships and sleepovers are extinct, there's always going to be a need for sweet comforting informational books to help guide kids through their earliest forays into socialization.
I won't be using it for regular storytimes, but when I have a school tour or an older group, it's just about perfect. I will probably pair it with some of Kevin Henke's work, or the ever-maddening Betty Bunny by Michael Kaplan.
Marisabina Russo
ISBN: 9781596439337
Flattened, slightly exaggerated bunny characters against white backgrounds or minimal scenery.
Sophie and Olive are best bunny friends at school, and Sophie is super excited to go to Olive's birthday party - her very first sleepover! Her parents offer good advice about what to bring, but Sophie doesn't want to bring her lovie - she's afraid Olive will think she's a baby.
Conflict looms when Olive's door is opened by a different bunny - Penelope - who claims that SHE is Olive's best friend! What's a bunny to do? Over the course of the afternoon, Sophie wavers between feeling like she's Olive's best friend to feeling like an unwanted third-wheel, and when the lights go out, she's way too worked up to sleep.
Resolution is a calm, moonlit meeting between Sophie and Penelope, who also is having trouble sleeping - it's her first sleepover too, and she's also a little worried about sharing Olive's friendship. When it's finally bedtime, the two of them have built a connection of their own, and are more at peace with the idea of being a trio, instead of two twoesomes.
This one is very much on the long side for me, but until complicated friendships and sleepovers are extinct, there's always going to be a need for sweet comforting informational books to help guide kids through their earliest forays into socialization.
I won't be using it for regular storytimes, but when I have a school tour or an older group, it's just about perfect. I will probably pair it with some of Kevin Henke's work, or the ever-maddening Betty Bunny by Michael Kaplan.
Storytime Potentials: Following Papa's Song, Gianna Marino
Following Papa's Song
Gianna Marino
ISBN: 9780670013159
textured mulberry paper with gouache and gum arabic - vibrant color gradients
A young whale learns from her father to follow the whale-song on their great migration, and when she is distracted by a shiny flash from the deep dark below places of the ocean (beautifully visualized by color gradients) she listens for his song to find her way back up to the light of the surface and continue their journey.
It's a bit long and lyrical for storytime - perhaps a bedtime storytime would work better, but it is lovely, and the illustrations just beg for you to fall into them and think peaceful thoughts about the oceans and the beautiful humpbacked whales within. The rich greens especially just make me want to curl up in a happy comfortable ball and meditate.
Text is minimal and prose, with very few words per spread, switching from black to white over the course of the story to maintain contrast with the background colors.
Gianna Marino
ISBN: 9780670013159
textured mulberry paper with gouache and gum arabic - vibrant color gradients
A young whale learns from her father to follow the whale-song on their great migration, and when she is distracted by a shiny flash from the deep dark below places of the ocean (beautifully visualized by color gradients) she listens for his song to find her way back up to the light of the surface and continue their journey.
It's a bit long and lyrical for storytime - perhaps a bedtime storytime would work better, but it is lovely, and the illustrations just beg for you to fall into them and think peaceful thoughts about the oceans and the beautiful humpbacked whales within. The rich greens especially just make me want to curl up in a happy comfortable ball and meditate.
Text is minimal and prose, with very few words per spread, switching from black to white over the course of the story to maintain contrast with the background colors.
Storytime Potentials: My Bus, Byron Barton
My Bus
Byron Barton
ISBN: 9780062287366
So, the sad news first: the bus driver isn't Sam from My Car. I was very disappointed. Still, Joe is cute, and he drives around a bussload of cats and dogs (no, no conflicts here - this is Byron Barton!) to various different types of transport - cars, trains, planes, boats - until the end of the line when one extra dog follows Joe home (and there's a sneaky cat lurking around the bus on the last page!)
I love the colors. I love the blocky minimalist forms, I love that there's no conflicts or troubles, I love the short direct statements in oversized text.
Byron Barton
ISBN: 9780062287366
So, the sad news first: the bus driver isn't Sam from My Car. I was very disappointed. Still, Joe is cute, and he drives around a bussload of cats and dogs (no, no conflicts here - this is Byron Barton!) to various different types of transport - cars, trains, planes, boats - until the end of the line when one extra dog follows Joe home (and there's a sneaky cat lurking around the bus on the last page!)
I love the colors. I love the blocky minimalist forms, I love that there's no conflicts or troubles, I love the short direct statements in oversized text.
Tuesday Storytime: Wheels in the City
Got a fun new rhyming book in, and made an easy match with some of my perennial favorites.
Zoom! Zoom! Sounds of Things that Go in the City
Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Tad Carpenter
ISBN: 9781442483156
Personified objects and busy, sharp-edged, primary-color illustrations.
The main stanza rhymes are easy to find on each spread in a blocked-out section of the busy pages, but the same can't be said for the "sound effects" - which is my only quibble. The sounds are actually illustrated into the spread, and share the same saturation and color and design as the page around it - making them a little hard to find during a busy storytime.
Not too long, not too complicated, and a nice mix of types and varieties of vehicles - from skateboards to subways to concrete mixers - all experience a day in the busy city, from earliest morning of joggers and delivery trucks to latest night of home-going partiers and tired subway riders.
My Car
Byron Barton
ISBN: 9780060296247
Bright blocky childlike shapes, in vivid contrasting colors.
Sam tells the reader directly all about his car, which he loves, washes, cares for, fuels, and drives carefully into town to begin his work as a bus driver. (In our delivery this morning, we got a new Byron Barton book that has a bus on the cover. If this is a sequel to My Car, I'm going to be really happy.) Short, direct, straightforward, and still has lots of fun details - a breakdown of the parts of a car (body, chassis, wheels, steering wheel, engine) a nice snapshot of a gas station (with a really amusingly dated price tag for the gas), and a collection of street-signs to identify.
The Adventures of Taxi Dog
Debra and Sal Barracca, illustrated by Mark Buehner
ISBN: 0803706715
Reading Rainbow Book: illustrations are thick vivid oils over acrylic in grimy but vibrant colors.
This book has an ulterior motive - it's written to raise awareness of the plight of city strays. However, that simply forms the origin story of Maxi the Taxi Dog, and at about the halfway point, it moves from being the story of his rescue into the story of his life working the streets with his taxi-driver owner Jim. They pick up interesting fares: from the opera singer to the requisite wife having a baby to the even more requisite how-many-clowns-can-fit in the taxi scene. The story is written in delightful rhyme that I personally find super-easy to read with feeling and humor. There are sequels, but none are quite as good as the original.
Zoom! Zoom! Sounds of Things that Go in the City
Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Tad Carpenter
ISBN: 9781442483156
Personified objects and busy, sharp-edged, primary-color illustrations.
The main stanza rhymes are easy to find on each spread in a blocked-out section of the busy pages, but the same can't be said for the "sound effects" - which is my only quibble. The sounds are actually illustrated into the spread, and share the same saturation and color and design as the page around it - making them a little hard to find during a busy storytime.
Not too long, not too complicated, and a nice mix of types and varieties of vehicles - from skateboards to subways to concrete mixers - all experience a day in the busy city, from earliest morning of joggers and delivery trucks to latest night of home-going partiers and tired subway riders.
My Car
Byron Barton
ISBN: 9780060296247
Bright blocky childlike shapes, in vivid contrasting colors.
Sam tells the reader directly all about his car, which he loves, washes, cares for, fuels, and drives carefully into town to begin his work as a bus driver. (In our delivery this morning, we got a new Byron Barton book that has a bus on the cover. If this is a sequel to My Car, I'm going to be really happy.) Short, direct, straightforward, and still has lots of fun details - a breakdown of the parts of a car (body, chassis, wheels, steering wheel, engine) a nice snapshot of a gas station (with a really amusingly dated price tag for the gas), and a collection of street-signs to identify.
The Adventures of Taxi Dog
Debra and Sal Barracca, illustrated by Mark Buehner
ISBN: 0803706715
Reading Rainbow Book: illustrations are thick vivid oils over acrylic in grimy but vibrant colors.
This book has an ulterior motive - it's written to raise awareness of the plight of city strays. However, that simply forms the origin story of Maxi the Taxi Dog, and at about the halfway point, it moves from being the story of his rescue into the story of his life working the streets with his taxi-driver owner Jim. They pick up interesting fares: from the opera singer to the requisite wife having a baby to the even more requisite how-many-clowns-can-fit in the taxi scene. The story is written in delightful rhyme that I personally find super-easy to read with feeling and humor. There are sequels, but none are quite as good as the original.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Random Romance Reads: The Pirate Prince, Connie Mason
The Pirate Prince
Connie Mason
ISBN: 0843952342
Read May 18, 2014
As an aside, I was out shopping at a used bookstore and found a whole slew of romance novels in a bin out front labeled "Free" and I couldn't resist.
The bad: this is one of those really squicky romance novels where the girl says "no," means "no," doesn't consent at any point, and actively tries to resist, and the "hero" rapes her anyway, but it really isn't rape actually because it felt good/he wasn't using his penis/she's still technically a virgin/and really if she hadn't been raised to be frigid and hung-up about morality and sexuality, she would have said yes, and she ended up falling in love with him anyway, and he really loved her after all so it's all ok in the end!
I HATE that. It really raises my hackles. If it were presented as a tactic of the bad guys, that's one thing. But to have it be the accepted "seduction technique" of the character we're supposed to empathize with and lust after? It's disgusting and wrong, and it's a terrible example to set. Any writer ought to be ashamed of themselves for not being able to do better than that.
The story:
The hero is an Ottoman Turk named Dariq who turned pirate when his older brother assumed the throne and began his rule by killing everyone else who might challenge him for it. Dariq's mother (an English lady) saved his life that long-ago night, and he'll do anything to save her, especially after his brother threatens to kill her if Dariq doesn't return to be killed like a good responsible younger brother.
The heroine is named Willow (she's an English lady) and Willow's part in all this is that en-route to see her mother in France, her ship was captured by pirates, and she was sold into slavery and eventually bought to grace Dariq's brother's (you know, the Ottoman Empire's Sultan) harem. Except that Dariq knows that a certain ship is carrying a "treasure" his brother wants, so he steals it. Er, her.
Then comes the squicky rape parts, after which they fall in love, complications arise due to said love, and also to jealous concubines, and also to both of them having more hormones than braincells.
Willow's faith in her parents' rescue is well-placed, and Dariq also finds a formidible ally in his English mother, leading to a slight twist at the end that I didn't expect.
If you value your history, please expect a goodly portion of poetic license - if "Willow" didn't offer enough of a clue.
Connie Mason
ISBN: 0843952342
Read May 18, 2014
As an aside, I was out shopping at a used bookstore and found a whole slew of romance novels in a bin out front labeled "Free" and I couldn't resist.
The bad: this is one of those really squicky romance novels where the girl says "no," means "no," doesn't consent at any point, and actively tries to resist, and the "hero" rapes her anyway, but it really isn't rape actually because it felt good/he wasn't using his penis/she's still technically a virgin/and really if she hadn't been raised to be frigid and hung-up about morality and sexuality, she would have said yes, and she ended up falling in love with him anyway, and he really loved her after all so it's all ok in the end!
I HATE that. It really raises my hackles. If it were presented as a tactic of the bad guys, that's one thing. But to have it be the accepted "seduction technique" of the character we're supposed to empathize with and lust after? It's disgusting and wrong, and it's a terrible example to set. Any writer ought to be ashamed of themselves for not being able to do better than that.
The story:
The hero is an Ottoman Turk named Dariq who turned pirate when his older brother assumed the throne and began his rule by killing everyone else who might challenge him for it. Dariq's mother (an English lady) saved his life that long-ago night, and he'll do anything to save her, especially after his brother threatens to kill her if Dariq doesn't return to be killed like a good responsible younger brother.
The heroine is named Willow (she's an English lady) and Willow's part in all this is that en-route to see her mother in France, her ship was captured by pirates, and she was sold into slavery and eventually bought to grace Dariq's brother's (you know, the Ottoman Empire's Sultan) harem. Except that Dariq knows that a certain ship is carrying a "treasure" his brother wants, so he steals it. Er, her.
Then comes the squicky rape parts, after which they fall in love, complications arise due to said love, and also to jealous concubines, and also to both of them having more hormones than braincells.
Willow's faith in her parents' rescue is well-placed, and Dariq also finds a formidible ally in his English mother, leading to a slight twist at the end that I didn't expect.
If you value your history, please expect a goodly portion of poetic license - if "Willow" didn't offer enough of a clue.
Random Romance Reads: The Viking, Bobbi Smith
The Viking
Bobbi Smith
ISBN: 9781420108804
(Previously Published as "Passion")
Read May 16, 2014
Set in a really loose historical time with Vikings vs Saxons. Occasional editing and proofreading flubs, some characterization wiffles, but nothing really awful. Very formulaic.
Dynna is a Saxon widow being forced by her father-in-law to marry her late husband's brother. He's evil, natch.
Brage is a fearless Viking warrior, with an older and a younger half-brother who follow his lead on a stream of successful raids. His "battle name" is the Black Hawk, due to his Irish mother's heritage giving him odd black hair.
As a prelude, there is a stock old fortune-teller who casts runes to predict Brage's success, and a shadowy figure who betrays the Viking's plans for a raid into Saxon territory.
Dynna and her maid attempt an escape in peasant's clothing, and are intercepted by the beginnings of the Viking raid. With the info from the traitor, Dynna's evil intended easily mops the floor with them, captures the Viking, and re-catches Dynna as well.
Dynna is a healer, and is needed to make sure that Brage is well enough to ransom back to his father. She plots to use him as muscle to get her across country to her father's estate to escape her impending forced marriage. Brage just wants to not be imprisoned by the Saxons.
They fall in love along the trip (along with copious amounts of sex in the countryside) and get her safely to her parents, where evil wanna-be husband instantly attacks and recaptures them both, confining Dynna to her parent's estate, and bringing Brage back to be ransomed to his father (and incidentally also for all the Vikings to be killed by ambush).
After the requisite Viking victory, there's the equally requisite grave misunderstanding between the lovers, and Dynna is taken back to Viking lands as a slave, rather than as Brage's intended.
Once "home" in Viking-land, the traitor is revealed, Dynna makes a final loving sacrifice by taking a blade meant for Brage, and everything works out in the end.
There is a minor sub-plot where Dynna's maid and Brage's half-brother also fall in love.
Bobbi Smith
ISBN: 9781420108804
(Previously Published as "Passion")
Read May 16, 2014
Set in a really loose historical time with Vikings vs Saxons. Occasional editing and proofreading flubs, some characterization wiffles, but nothing really awful. Very formulaic.
Dynna is a Saxon widow being forced by her father-in-law to marry her late husband's brother. He's evil, natch.
Brage is a fearless Viking warrior, with an older and a younger half-brother who follow his lead on a stream of successful raids. His "battle name" is the Black Hawk, due to his Irish mother's heritage giving him odd black hair.
As a prelude, there is a stock old fortune-teller who casts runes to predict Brage's success, and a shadowy figure who betrays the Viking's plans for a raid into Saxon territory.
Dynna and her maid attempt an escape in peasant's clothing, and are intercepted by the beginnings of the Viking raid. With the info from the traitor, Dynna's evil intended easily mops the floor with them, captures the Viking, and re-catches Dynna as well.
Dynna is a healer, and is needed to make sure that Brage is well enough to ransom back to his father. She plots to use him as muscle to get her across country to her father's estate to escape her impending forced marriage. Brage just wants to not be imprisoned by the Saxons.
They fall in love along the trip (along with copious amounts of sex in the countryside) and get her safely to her parents, where evil wanna-be husband instantly attacks and recaptures them both, confining Dynna to her parent's estate, and bringing Brage back to be ransomed to his father (and incidentally also for all the Vikings to be killed by ambush).
After the requisite Viking victory, there's the equally requisite grave misunderstanding between the lovers, and Dynna is taken back to Viking lands as a slave, rather than as Brage's intended.
Once "home" in Viking-land, the traitor is revealed, Dynna makes a final loving sacrifice by taking a blade meant for Brage, and everything works out in the end.
There is a minor sub-plot where Dynna's maid and Brage's half-brother also fall in love.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Introducing "Random Romance Reads" posts
I don't read romance novels.
Now, don't take that to mean that I never pick them up and read them - I do. But some people pick up and read romance novels for their own sake, the way I read sci-fi and fantasy books. I read them more for amusement, or because I feel like I need to keep my oar in for professional development (sounds very noble, but really it just means I can justify having some silly fluffy stuff as my homework instead of another boring journal).
I'm also trying to log everything that I read, just for the heck of it.
And that makes a conundrum. I read these things for the laughs, and purposefully select the ones that I think I'll find amusing. That makes it really mean-spirited to actually review them, because I'm not reading them like their intended audience.
So for these, I'm going to make a couple of comments, attempt to restrain any snark, and give a brief plot description.
I'm not going to be concerned about spoilers, so reader beware.
Now, don't take that to mean that I never pick them up and read them - I do. But some people pick up and read romance novels for their own sake, the way I read sci-fi and fantasy books. I read them more for amusement, or because I feel like I need to keep my oar in for professional development (sounds very noble, but really it just means I can justify having some silly fluffy stuff as my homework instead of another boring journal).
I'm also trying to log everything that I read, just for the heck of it.
And that makes a conundrum. I read these things for the laughs, and purposefully select the ones that I think I'll find amusing. That makes it really mean-spirited to actually review them, because I'm not reading them like their intended audience.
So for these, I'm going to make a couple of comments, attempt to restrain any snark, and give a brief plot description.
I'm not going to be concerned about spoilers, so reader beware.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves, James A Corey
Interesting to discover that "James A. Corey" is a pseudonym for a duo of writers: Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.
Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves
James A. Corey
ISBN: 9780345546852
I didn't enjoy this one as much as Kenobi, but it was fun. I like reading books set during or between the original trilogy (yes, even Splinter of the Minds' Eye) because they don't get into the irritating spectrum of freaky weird and overly dramatic crap that started infecting the rest of the EU like a fungus. Especially now that Disney has declared that all of these books are "Legendary" anyway, I prefer to deal with "legends" of people that I know and love from the films (and ok, let's be honest, the older books) rather than "legends" of people that I might have started to like before they got all unnecessarily angsty and started killing each other for no good reason.
Sorry, that got a little ranty, didn't it?
Back to the actual book: Han is still on the run from Jabba and trying to come up with the necessary coin to pay him off, Luke is deep into x-wing pilot giddy excitement, and Leia is frantically trying to raise money and support for the Rebellion after their first victory. A call comes in for an extraction mission for a Rebel spy deep in the Core, and Han is the best pilot out there. Of course, the mission goes sideways, a plot to recover a galaxy-altering device is discovered, and our fearless (and endlessly snarky) heroes head out into the far reaches of the galaxy to save the day!
Things I didn't like:
The dialogue and descriptions were occasionally very clunky, and the plot-wheels were a little too thinly disguised at times.
The locations: we get a rebel base, a multicultural cityscape, a lot of bars, a swamp, and a temple complex. Does that line-up of locations feel sort of familiar to anyone else? Part of what's nice about Star Wars is that there are shitloads of planets and systems and habitations and settlements. Why is there always a temple and a swamp?
The characterizations were a bit on the thin side. I especially feel like Leia got really shafted: her planet and family JUST GOT EXPLODED, and there's no real effort made to represent the toll that would take on a person. Granted, the book is from Han's extremely self-centered viewpoint, but it was still grating as an omission.
The invented main character kept edging towards Mary Sue territory. She's pretty, she's smart, she's the best at her job, she's not interested in Han (because she's a professional) she speaks Wookie (ok, understands Wookie, haha, no human can really speak Wookie). Ok I get it, the DM's insert character is a little obvious. Don't get me wrong - I like her. Just, somewhat like my reaction to Corran Horn, I now have a deep and abiding desire to watch someone outsmart her and then punch her in the head a few times.
Now that's all out, here's what I did like.
Han's voice was pretty authentic throughout. I liked his snarky internal monologue. I liked how he constantly interrupted people. I liked the interrupting-and-understanding-and-finishing-each-other's-thoughts conversations between him and some of the other characters - that's very much like real human interaction, and it was represented well.
Likewise Chewie's snarls and growls and grunts were done well - that has to be really tough to accomplish, and it was expressive without being too cutesy or repetitive.
I felt like a certain character was a direct verbal translation of a certain pirate from a certain blockbuster Disney pirate franchise. This did take me out of the book a little, but it was amusing, and I enjoyed the character's dialogue more because of it. I will leave the interested reader to make their own connections, savvy?
I liked the running joke leading up to the rebel base on Hoth. It was very well-played, and not overdone.
I liked that Luke was competent, affable, and totally in the background, and that the Force was not really addressed (although he did add another impressive outline to his x-wing kill tally).
I liked that the invented character (Mary Sue tendencies aside) is a professional spy, AND a woman. Major props for letting her come and play, and very specifically for not relegating her to being a love interest or damsel in distress (cough cough Mara Jade cough) for a main character.
A fun, fluffy addition to what are now only "legends" of the Star Wars universe.
Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves
James A. Corey
ISBN: 9780345546852
I didn't enjoy this one as much as Kenobi, but it was fun. I like reading books set during or between the original trilogy (yes, even Splinter of the Minds' Eye) because they don't get into the irritating spectrum of freaky weird and overly dramatic crap that started infecting the rest of the EU like a fungus. Especially now that Disney has declared that all of these books are "Legendary" anyway, I prefer to deal with "legends" of people that I know and love from the films (and ok, let's be honest, the older books) rather than "legends" of people that I might have started to like before they got all unnecessarily angsty and started killing each other for no good reason.
Sorry, that got a little ranty, didn't it?
Back to the actual book: Han is still on the run from Jabba and trying to come up with the necessary coin to pay him off, Luke is deep into x-wing pilot giddy excitement, and Leia is frantically trying to raise money and support for the Rebellion after their first victory. A call comes in for an extraction mission for a Rebel spy deep in the Core, and Han is the best pilot out there. Of course, the mission goes sideways, a plot to recover a galaxy-altering device is discovered, and our fearless (and endlessly snarky) heroes head out into the far reaches of the galaxy to save the day!
Things I didn't like:
The dialogue and descriptions were occasionally very clunky, and the plot-wheels were a little too thinly disguised at times.
The locations: we get a rebel base, a multicultural cityscape, a lot of bars, a swamp, and a temple complex. Does that line-up of locations feel sort of familiar to anyone else? Part of what's nice about Star Wars is that there are shitloads of planets and systems and habitations and settlements. Why is there always a temple and a swamp?
The characterizations were a bit on the thin side. I especially feel like Leia got really shafted: her planet and family JUST GOT EXPLODED, and there's no real effort made to represent the toll that would take on a person. Granted, the book is from Han's extremely self-centered viewpoint, but it was still grating as an omission.
The invented main character kept edging towards Mary Sue territory. She's pretty, she's smart, she's the best at her job, she's not interested in Han (because she's a professional) she speaks Wookie (ok, understands Wookie, haha, no human can really speak Wookie). Ok I get it, the DM's insert character is a little obvious. Don't get me wrong - I like her. Just, somewhat like my reaction to Corran Horn, I now have a deep and abiding desire to watch someone outsmart her and then punch her in the head a few times.
Now that's all out, here's what I did like.
Han's voice was pretty authentic throughout. I liked his snarky internal monologue. I liked how he constantly interrupted people. I liked the interrupting-and-understanding-and-finishing-each-other's-thoughts conversations between him and some of the other characters - that's very much like real human interaction, and it was represented well.
Likewise Chewie's snarls and growls and grunts were done well - that has to be really tough to accomplish, and it was expressive without being too cutesy or repetitive.
I felt like a certain character was a direct verbal translation of a certain pirate from a certain blockbuster Disney pirate franchise. This did take me out of the book a little, but it was amusing, and I enjoyed the character's dialogue more because of it. I will leave the interested reader to make their own connections, savvy?
I liked the running joke leading up to the rebel base on Hoth. It was very well-played, and not overdone.
I liked that Luke was competent, affable, and totally in the background, and that the Force was not really addressed (although he did add another impressive outline to his x-wing kill tally).
I liked that the invented character (Mary Sue tendencies aside) is a professional spy, AND a woman. Major props for letting her come and play, and very specifically for not relegating her to being a love interest or damsel in distress (cough cough Mara Jade cough) for a main character.
A fun, fluffy addition to what are now only "legends" of the Star Wars universe.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Listening for Lions, Gloria Whelan
Another middle grade orphan story, but this one's set a bit later than Victorian times, and is half set in Africa, and half in London. This is one of those books that feels like it should be a classic written a long time ago, but no - it's actually fairly new, written in 2005.
Listening for Lions
Gloria Whelan
ISBN: 9780060581763
Read May 13, 2014
Rachel Sheridan is the daughter of missionary doctors sent to colonial Africa, and grows up among the Masai and the Kikuyu, learning Swahili and helping out in the rural hospital and the makeshift chapel. The influenza epidemic is growing closer, and (as these sorts of orphan stories often go, and sadly - as doctors in early times often did) her parents succumb to the dread disease while trying to save others.
The interesting twist is that Rachel shares a single trait with a neighbor - a wealthy plantation girl. Valerie Pritchard is a cipher, she's introduced and then dies almost instantly. The twist comes in the bright red hair that both girls share. With Rachel's parents newly dead, and the Pritchard's daughter likewise deceased, the nasty couple instantly ensnare the innocent missionary girl and make her part of their plot to wheedle and beguile a distant, England-dwelling Grandfather into passing on his inheritance to the Pritchards.
I have to say, these two are the most pathetic villains I have ever seen. They are worse even than the De Villes in the book version of 101 Dalmations. NOTHING they want to accomplish actually works, and they are so evil in such a pathetic venal grasping miserly sort of villany, that one almost feels sorry for them.
Obviously, good prevails, and unlike Peppermints, there are adults with functioning brains. Rachel and Grandfather triumph, and Rachel begins a new chapter in her life, enriched by good friends and good English estate money.
I like that despite the fact that Rachel is a missionary girl, and that faith and religious practice is important to her personally, it doesn't play a huge part in the narrative - it's simply part of the background, like the lush vibrant descriptions of Africa, or the winding streets of London. I greatly appreciated that the morals were allowed to stand on their own without being belabored.
Listening for Lions
Gloria Whelan
ISBN: 9780060581763
Read May 13, 2014
Rachel Sheridan is the daughter of missionary doctors sent to colonial Africa, and grows up among the Masai and the Kikuyu, learning Swahili and helping out in the rural hospital and the makeshift chapel. The influenza epidemic is growing closer, and (as these sorts of orphan stories often go, and sadly - as doctors in early times often did) her parents succumb to the dread disease while trying to save others.
The interesting twist is that Rachel shares a single trait with a neighbor - a wealthy plantation girl. Valerie Pritchard is a cipher, she's introduced and then dies almost instantly. The twist comes in the bright red hair that both girls share. With Rachel's parents newly dead, and the Pritchard's daughter likewise deceased, the nasty couple instantly ensnare the innocent missionary girl and make her part of their plot to wheedle and beguile a distant, England-dwelling Grandfather into passing on his inheritance to the Pritchards.
I have to say, these two are the most pathetic villains I have ever seen. They are worse even than the De Villes in the book version of 101 Dalmations. NOTHING they want to accomplish actually works, and they are so evil in such a pathetic venal grasping miserly sort of villany, that one almost feels sorry for them.
Obviously, good prevails, and unlike Peppermints, there are adults with functioning brains. Rachel and Grandfather triumph, and Rachel begins a new chapter in her life, enriched by good friends and good English estate money.
I like that despite the fact that Rachel is a missionary girl, and that faith and religious practice is important to her personally, it doesn't play a huge part in the narrative - it's simply part of the background, like the lush vibrant descriptions of Africa, or the winding streets of London. I greatly appreciated that the morals were allowed to stand on their own without being belabored.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Tuesday Storytime: Odd Ducks
Although there aren't actually any stories about ducks in this storytime. I'll have to re-think my titles or my book selections next time.
This one didn't mesh as well as I wanted it to - all the books are fun to read and enjoyable, but they didn't come together as coherently as I like to have my themes. I'll have to work with the books individually and see if I can't find them better partners for the future.
Elmer
David McKee
ISBN: 0688091725
2D cartoon elephants, unrealistic poses and shapes
I always love reading about Elmer, and I think my very favorite part of the book is the strange plant that grows "elephant-colored" berries. Really? Who ever thinks of that? Elmer is a patchwork elephant, the only one in his herd that isn't normal elephant color. He's also the herd prankster. Elmer has conflated his coloration and his role in the herd, and thinks everyone is laughing at him. When he comes back in disguise, he realizes that his desire to play jokes is inherent, and that the herd really does laugh because he's funny, not because he looks different. The end has an Elmer's Day Parade with all the elephants dressing up as something they aren't - with Elmer as the only "elephant colored" elephant that day.
Kangaroo and Cricket
Lorianne Siomades
ISBN: 156397780X
textured-paper collages against white backgrounds, "hidden" inchworm on each page
"Kangaroo and Cricket, both can jump." Each spread features two very dissimilar animals, but highlights the one way they are alike - mostly in movement. The narrator of the story is an inchworm, who confusingly changes colors and sizes through the book, and the "trick" ending is that as the narrator, he's been doing the same actions as the creature pairs all along, and thus he/she is just like ALL the other animals. Cute, short, colorful.
EDIT - Found Octopus Opposites (Stella Blackstone, Stephanie Bauer, ISBN: 9781846863288) to match with Kangaroo and Cricket. The exact same premise in mirror-reverse, and the illustrations are likewise wild and colorful and painterly, as opposed to the neat collage-work of Siomades' book. Excellent pairing, now I just need a third!
EDIT AGAIN - Was hunting down titles in our system office, saw and remembered Quick as a Cricket, (Audrey Wood, ISBN: 0859531511) which is a perfect third for this theme! Now I want to do it all over again, but I have to wait a while.
Good Thing You're Not an Octopus!
Julie Markes, illustrated by Maggie Smith
ISBN: 9780060284657
round-faced child contrasts daily toddler tasks with the difficulties faced by animal children
The reason you don't want to be an octopus is that you would have to put eight legs into your pants. The reason you don't want to be a shark is that you would have to brush 200 teeth. You don't want to be a kangaroo, because they don't get car-seats - they have to ride in mom's pouch. So forth and so on. It's pretty cute, but the premise is stated as "You don't like to [insert x]?" which can be a little negative for some parents. I liked the idea of comparing activities to animals enough that I overlooked it.
Next week's theme is going to be a complete surprise, because I've gone through all of my pre-selected themes and will have to pick out more from the stacks - always a fun hunting trip.
This one didn't mesh as well as I wanted it to - all the books are fun to read and enjoyable, but they didn't come together as coherently as I like to have my themes. I'll have to work with the books individually and see if I can't find them better partners for the future.
Elmer
David McKee
ISBN: 0688091725
2D cartoon elephants, unrealistic poses and shapes
I always love reading about Elmer, and I think my very favorite part of the book is the strange plant that grows "elephant-colored" berries. Really? Who ever thinks of that? Elmer is a patchwork elephant, the only one in his herd that isn't normal elephant color. He's also the herd prankster. Elmer has conflated his coloration and his role in the herd, and thinks everyone is laughing at him. When he comes back in disguise, he realizes that his desire to play jokes is inherent, and that the herd really does laugh because he's funny, not because he looks different. The end has an Elmer's Day Parade with all the elephants dressing up as something they aren't - with Elmer as the only "elephant colored" elephant that day.
Kangaroo and Cricket
Lorianne Siomades
ISBN: 156397780X
textured-paper collages against white backgrounds, "hidden" inchworm on each page
"Kangaroo and Cricket, both can jump." Each spread features two very dissimilar animals, but highlights the one way they are alike - mostly in movement. The narrator of the story is an inchworm, who confusingly changes colors and sizes through the book, and the "trick" ending is that as the narrator, he's been doing the same actions as the creature pairs all along, and thus he/she is just like ALL the other animals. Cute, short, colorful.
EDIT - Found Octopus Opposites (Stella Blackstone, Stephanie Bauer, ISBN: 9781846863288) to match with Kangaroo and Cricket. The exact same premise in mirror-reverse, and the illustrations are likewise wild and colorful and painterly, as opposed to the neat collage-work of Siomades' book. Excellent pairing, now I just need a third!
EDIT AGAIN - Was hunting down titles in our system office, saw and remembered Quick as a Cricket, (Audrey Wood, ISBN: 0859531511) which is a perfect third for this theme! Now I want to do it all over again, but I have to wait a while.
Good Thing You're Not an Octopus!
Julie Markes, illustrated by Maggie Smith
ISBN: 9780060284657
round-faced child contrasts daily toddler tasks with the difficulties faced by animal children
The reason you don't want to be an octopus is that you would have to put eight legs into your pants. The reason you don't want to be a shark is that you would have to brush 200 teeth. You don't want to be a kangaroo, because they don't get car-seats - they have to ride in mom's pouch. So forth and so on. It's pretty cute, but the premise is stated as "You don't like to [insert x]?" which can be a little negative for some parents. I liked the idea of comparing activities to animals enough that I overlooked it.
Next week's theme is going to be a complete surprise, because I've gone through all of my pre-selected themes and will have to pick out more from the stacks - always a fun hunting trip.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
How to Catch a Bogle, Catherine Jinks
I haven't read any middle-grade fiction recently, so I snagged this one off of a recommended reads list, and I'm glad I did.
How to Catch a Bogle
Catherine Jinks (author of Saving Thanehaven, which I also enjoyed)
ISBN: 9780544087088
Read May 9, 2014
Juvenile/Middle-Grade alternate Victorian London; urchins and magical creatures
This one goes right along that same alley as Kieran Larwood's Freaks, Y.S. Lee's Agency series, or for a more gritty "literary" take, Berlie Doherty's Street Child. Birdie is an orphan, but she's better off than most. Unlike the mudlarks digging in the filthy and dangerous Thames for shillings'worth of scraps, or the professional beggars getting rousted by the police, or the ragged street-thieves risking prison-time, or even the poor unfortunate souls getting used and abused at the workhouse, Birdie is a Bogler's Apprentice, and that gets her a good day's work, extra spending money (sometimes) and what's most important - a degree of respect in this hard-knock world.
And what's a Bogler's Apprentice? She works with the Bogler, to lure out and kill bogles. These nasty slimy dark nightmares like nothing more than a tasty child to eat, and only Alfred and Birdie can find them, lure them in, and destroy them.
Birdie loves her life, loves her job, and loves being important and needed. She very resolutely does not think about how dangerous her job is, but Alfred does. (Making this obvious is a very nice grace-note in the story.) It doesn't matter how dangerous it is, there's no real alternative for Birdie in the slums she calls home. Until the duo meets an eccentric armchair naturalist, who follows them out on a bogle hunt, and is promptly scandalized and terrified. Miss Eames is determined to save Birdie from her most likely fate as bogle food, but Birdie is equally stubborn.
The book jacket and the press indicate that this is the first of a trilogy, and I'm deeply satisfied with how they did it, because this is a totally complete story - none of this cliffhanger nonsense.
Parts of this are pretty creepy in the "things sneaking up behind you" sort of way. Otherwise, it's a delightful romp through the poor muckridden slums of London, with a totally accurate (and colorful) vocabulary.
An excellent read, and I'm looking forward to A Plague of Bogles, out in January.
How to Catch a Bogle
Catherine Jinks (author of Saving Thanehaven, which I also enjoyed)
ISBN: 9780544087088
Read May 9, 2014
Juvenile/Middle-Grade alternate Victorian London; urchins and magical creatures
This one goes right along that same alley as Kieran Larwood's Freaks, Y.S. Lee's Agency series, or for a more gritty "literary" take, Berlie Doherty's Street Child. Birdie is an orphan, but she's better off than most. Unlike the mudlarks digging in the filthy and dangerous Thames for shillings'worth of scraps, or the professional beggars getting rousted by the police, or the ragged street-thieves risking prison-time, or even the poor unfortunate souls getting used and abused at the workhouse, Birdie is a Bogler's Apprentice, and that gets her a good day's work, extra spending money (sometimes) and what's most important - a degree of respect in this hard-knock world.
And what's a Bogler's Apprentice? She works with the Bogler, to lure out and kill bogles. These nasty slimy dark nightmares like nothing more than a tasty child to eat, and only Alfred and Birdie can find them, lure them in, and destroy them.
Birdie loves her life, loves her job, and loves being important and needed. She very resolutely does not think about how dangerous her job is, but Alfred does. (Making this obvious is a very nice grace-note in the story.) It doesn't matter how dangerous it is, there's no real alternative for Birdie in the slums she calls home. Until the duo meets an eccentric armchair naturalist, who follows them out on a bogle hunt, and is promptly scandalized and terrified. Miss Eames is determined to save Birdie from her most likely fate as bogle food, but Birdie is equally stubborn.
The book jacket and the press indicate that this is the first of a trilogy, and I'm deeply satisfied with how they did it, because this is a totally complete story - none of this cliffhanger nonsense.
Parts of this are pretty creepy in the "things sneaking up behind you" sort of way. Otherwise, it's a delightful romp through the poor muckridden slums of London, with a totally accurate (and colorful) vocabulary.
An excellent read, and I'm looking forward to A Plague of Bogles, out in January.
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Memoirs of Lady Trent series, Marie Brennan (aka, a lady naturalist discovers dragons around the world)
I finished a writing project, so I took a bit of a mental health break and got some reading done. It's such a nice feeling to finish something and be proud of it, but it's even better to turn off my brain and just sink into a story for a while.
In other news, there's still 5 days left to exercise your own creative side and submit an invented type of dragon to become part of Marie Brennan's Memoirs of Lady Trent series.
That said, it shouldn't be a surprise that this review is of that series.
A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent
Marie Brennan
ISBN: 9780765331960
The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent
Marie Brennan
ISBN: 9780765331977
Both read sometime in the last two weeks.
I originally read and reviewed A Natural History of Dragons last summer and of course loved it immensely. I was not disappointed in it the second time through, and actually felt that the pacing wasn't as much of a complaint this time around - as I knew what was coming, I was more prepared for it.
I am happy to report that The Tropic of Serpents was a bang-up read as well, and in some ways, even better than the first. I loved the political and ethnographic asides, the commentary of a much older and wiser woman looking back on youthful indulgences and indiscretions, and I really feel they complemented the story so very well.
I also felt that the action and pacing was a bit more stable in this installment. I loved the swamps, I loved the people, I loved the "reckless pragmatism" of Lady Trent, and I'm happy to see her gain friends and mature through challenges. It was a shame about the pocketknife.
The next one on the docket is Voyage of the Basilisk, with an ARC release late this year, so probably an early Spring 2015 publication date. So excited!
In other news, there's still 5 days left to exercise your own creative side and submit an invented type of dragon to become part of Marie Brennan's Memoirs of Lady Trent series.
That said, it shouldn't be a surprise that this review is of that series.
A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent
Marie Brennan
ISBN: 9780765331960
The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent
Marie Brennan
ISBN: 9780765331977
Both read sometime in the last two weeks.
I originally read and reviewed A Natural History of Dragons last summer and of course loved it immensely. I was not disappointed in it the second time through, and actually felt that the pacing wasn't as much of a complaint this time around - as I knew what was coming, I was more prepared for it.
I am happy to report that The Tropic of Serpents was a bang-up read as well, and in some ways, even better than the first. I loved the political and ethnographic asides, the commentary of a much older and wiser woman looking back on youthful indulgences and indiscretions, and I really feel they complemented the story so very well.
I also felt that the action and pacing was a bit more stable in this installment. I loved the swamps, I loved the people, I loved the "reckless pragmatism" of Lady Trent, and I'm happy to see her gain friends and mature through challenges. It was a shame about the pocketknife.
The next one on the docket is Voyage of the Basilisk, with an ARC release late this year, so probably an early Spring 2015 publication date. So excited!
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Tuesday Storytime: Big Unusual Animals
This was another of those "this book is amazing and I have to use it, so what theme can I build around it?" storytimes. In this case, the book in question was Ernest the Moose Who Doesn't Fit, which we got recently, and I fell in love.
The Odd Egg
Emily Gravett
ISBN: 9781416968726
soft-edged pencil sketches filled in with watercolors, with a penultimate graduated-length lift-the-flap page like in The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Everyone lays an egg except Duck (and the sharp-eyed will realize why - Duck is a drake, not a hen) so he goes out and finds one. And he thinks it's the best egg ever. All the other birds give a serious side-eye to this hugely oversized green-spotty egg, but Duck just ignores them. Even when all of the other eggs hatch, Duck is not daunted, and continues patiently waiting. Until finally his egg hatches, and out pops a beautiful huge green scaly alligator baby. Surprise!
I especially like that the other birds are a pretty exotic collection; we've got the traditional chicken, and the new-traditional owl, but we've also got what I'm pretty sure is a robin, and a grey parrot and a flamingo.
The body language is stellar, especially Duck - he's just so adorable and persistent.
Clifford The Big Red Dog (Deluxe Anniversary Edition)
Norman Bridwell
ISBN: 0439403960
Bright colors, cartoony figures.
Do I really need to review Clifford? This is the classic original story, and the one I like best for storytime use, with Clifford the Small Red Puppy coming in second. There are lots of visual puns, and fun subversion-of-expectation events, and Emily Elizabeth is the perfect stone-cold straight narrator, giving no indication that she realizes the extent of the shenanigans going down. This Anniversary Edition is slightly oversized, and perfect for storytime with larger groups. If you can find it, it's worth it to get an extra copy to keep as a library-use-only book.
Ernest, The Moose Who Doesn't Fit
Catherine Rayner
ISBN: 9780374322175
pen-and-ink and watercolor washes, bright backgrounds, oversized fold-out last page.
The reason for this theme - This is a seriously cute book. The premise is simple: Ernest wants to fit into this picture book, but he's too big for all of him to fit in. After trying various positions and approaches (literally) his chipmunk friend gets a great idea, and off they go to collect tape and paper scraps, and they build the page up big enough for all of Ernest to fit in (and it does end up being four pages large when folded out). Mad props to the designers who put the text on the fold outs in sequence, and who also made the folds accessible and easy to operate in a storytime setting with the book held frontwards in front of the reader. The kids were suitably impressed, and it was a great closer.
The Odd Egg
Emily Gravett
ISBN: 9781416968726
soft-edged pencil sketches filled in with watercolors, with a penultimate graduated-length lift-the-flap page like in The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Everyone lays an egg except Duck (and the sharp-eyed will realize why - Duck is a drake, not a hen) so he goes out and finds one. And he thinks it's the best egg ever. All the other birds give a serious side-eye to this hugely oversized green-spotty egg, but Duck just ignores them. Even when all of the other eggs hatch, Duck is not daunted, and continues patiently waiting. Until finally his egg hatches, and out pops a beautiful huge green scaly alligator baby. Surprise!
I especially like that the other birds are a pretty exotic collection; we've got the traditional chicken, and the new-traditional owl, but we've also got what I'm pretty sure is a robin, and a grey parrot and a flamingo.
The body language is stellar, especially Duck - he's just so adorable and persistent.
Clifford The Big Red Dog (Deluxe Anniversary Edition)
Norman Bridwell
ISBN: 0439403960
Bright colors, cartoony figures.
Do I really need to review Clifford? This is the classic original story, and the one I like best for storytime use, with Clifford the Small Red Puppy coming in second. There are lots of visual puns, and fun subversion-of-expectation events, and Emily Elizabeth is the perfect stone-cold straight narrator, giving no indication that she realizes the extent of the shenanigans going down. This Anniversary Edition is slightly oversized, and perfect for storytime with larger groups. If you can find it, it's worth it to get an extra copy to keep as a library-use-only book.
Ernest, The Moose Who Doesn't Fit
Catherine Rayner
ISBN: 9780374322175
pen-and-ink and watercolor washes, bright backgrounds, oversized fold-out last page.
The reason for this theme - This is a seriously cute book. The premise is simple: Ernest wants to fit into this picture book, but he's too big for all of him to fit in. After trying various positions and approaches (literally) his chipmunk friend gets a great idea, and off they go to collect tape and paper scraps, and they build the page up big enough for all of Ernest to fit in (and it does end up being four pages large when folded out). Mad props to the designers who put the text on the fold outs in sequence, and who also made the folds accessible and easy to operate in a storytime setting with the book held frontwards in front of the reader. The kids were suitably impressed, and it was a great closer.
Monday, May 5, 2014
The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin
The Killing Moon
N. K. Jemisin
ISBN: 9780316187282
Read May 2, 2014
This book has literally been on my "To Be Read" pile for over a year. I don't know why I've not been in the mood for it, but I've been really weird about my fantasy reading recently - I'm picking up a lot of old favorites and fluffy reads. That probably says something deep and psychological about my life, but from my perspective, it was irritating, because I had heard good things about this book, I follow the author on Twitter, and this one seemed to be the book of hers that I would most likely enjoy - but I never got around to picking it up!
Until I did, last week, and it was pretty awesome.
We're on an alternate world in an Egypt-analogue country where magic energy is harvested from dreams and used to fuel everything from magical healing to a type of psychic awareness. The downside (of course there is a downside) is that the magic dream energy is 1) addictive, and 2) eventually makes the person harvesting it go incurably magically rabid. Yay!
So, as the genre-savvy people we are, we now know where this story is headed, and how it's going to go. And for the most part, it does go where it's expected to. There's a bit of a twist regarding the identity of a character that I probably should have seen coming if I had been paying better attention, and the ending is a bit on the pat side, especially compared to the focus on bureaucracy and petty politicking of the entire storyline.
All that said, I love the characters, I love the idea of the dream energy, I love that the downsides are so insidious and nasty (and totally hidden from the general public) and I love how the Dreaming Moon (the gas giant that this inhabited moon revolves around) looms in the sky.
Critical thoughts:
It was a little slow to get rolling. There are a lot of characters to cycle through viewpoints, and while I normally like that approach, I was about halfway through the thickness of the book before I really felt like the plot had gotten moving, and I think that the multiplicity of characters and views contributed to that. Now, that said, I obviously enjoyed the worldbuilding and the characters enough to stick with it for that initial half of the book, even though not much was happening, so there's that.
I felt like we never got a real solid justification for what was driving the Prince along his course of action. We learn that he's not actually crazed, but his ideas certainly seemed monomaniacal to me. Coming off of watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier earlier this year, I really felt like he needed more than just a Hydra selling point as his ultimate justification. I did like that he appeared to genuinely love his wife and children, but again, that personality trait was hard to square with his other actions and treatment of people. I guess I'm not the best judge of a character who was raised to think the universe revolved around him, but it felt inconsistent to me.
Really happy thoughts:
I really liked how the society had a laid-back approach to sex and relationships.
I loved the Dreaming Moon, and the concept of that magic and the source (the mythology there was especially interesting, and involved complex astronomy and meteorites, which I very much liked.)
All in all, I quite enjoyed it, and I'm glad I (finally) got it read.
There is a companion book set on the same world, The Shadowed Sun, and a projected third one supposedly out this fall, The Fifth Season.
N. K. Jemisin
ISBN: 9780316187282
Read May 2, 2014
This book has literally been on my "To Be Read" pile for over a year. I don't know why I've not been in the mood for it, but I've been really weird about my fantasy reading recently - I'm picking up a lot of old favorites and fluffy reads. That probably says something deep and psychological about my life, but from my perspective, it was irritating, because I had heard good things about this book, I follow the author on Twitter, and this one seemed to be the book of hers that I would most likely enjoy - but I never got around to picking it up!
Until I did, last week, and it was pretty awesome.
We're on an alternate world in an Egypt-analogue country where magic energy is harvested from dreams and used to fuel everything from magical healing to a type of psychic awareness. The downside (of course there is a downside) is that the magic dream energy is 1) addictive, and 2) eventually makes the person harvesting it go incurably magically rabid. Yay!
So, as the genre-savvy people we are, we now know where this story is headed, and how it's going to go. And for the most part, it does go where it's expected to. There's a bit of a twist regarding the identity of a character that I probably should have seen coming if I had been paying better attention, and the ending is a bit on the pat side, especially compared to the focus on bureaucracy and petty politicking of the entire storyline.
All that said, I love the characters, I love the idea of the dream energy, I love that the downsides are so insidious and nasty (and totally hidden from the general public) and I love how the Dreaming Moon (the gas giant that this inhabited moon revolves around) looms in the sky.
Critical thoughts:
It was a little slow to get rolling. There are a lot of characters to cycle through viewpoints, and while I normally like that approach, I was about halfway through the thickness of the book before I really felt like the plot had gotten moving, and I think that the multiplicity of characters and views contributed to that. Now, that said, I obviously enjoyed the worldbuilding and the characters enough to stick with it for that initial half of the book, even though not much was happening, so there's that.
I felt like we never got a real solid justification for what was driving the Prince along his course of action. We learn that he's not actually crazed, but his ideas certainly seemed monomaniacal to me. Coming off of watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier earlier this year, I really felt like he needed more than just a Hydra selling point as his ultimate justification. I did like that he appeared to genuinely love his wife and children, but again, that personality trait was hard to square with his other actions and treatment of people. I guess I'm not the best judge of a character who was raised to think the universe revolved around him, but it felt inconsistent to me.
Really happy thoughts:
I really liked how the society had a laid-back approach to sex and relationships.
I loved the Dreaming Moon, and the concept of that magic and the source (the mythology there was especially interesting, and involved complex astronomy and meteorites, which I very much liked.)
All in all, I quite enjoyed it, and I'm glad I (finally) got it read.
There is a companion book set on the same world, The Shadowed Sun, and a projected third one supposedly out this fall, The Fifth Season.
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