Juv Fantasy: The Castle Behind Thorns, Merrie Haskell

The Castle Behind Thorns
Merrie Haskell
ISBN: 9780062008190
A lush and leisurely re-working of Sleeping Beauty set in Brittany in 1518, with saints and magic and themes of family betrayal, friendship, trust, and forgiveness.
Read December 28, 2014

Lovely to read through, but it will be a very specific middle-grade reader to appreciate the vocabulary, dense thematic structure, and really superbly slow narrative pace.  It's fun for me as an adult, as a fast reader, and as someone who appreciates fairy-tale re-workings and historical fiction, but I think that it might easily fail to grab attention.

Sand (great name for a smith) wakes up in a fireplace, and realizes he's in the Sundered Castle, which has been hidden behind thorns since his father was a child.  The castle is still hidden behind thorns, but now they are keeping him prisoner as well.

I'll try to remain vague to avoid spoiling everything.

I loved the slow build of exploration and discovery.

I loved the focus on mending and repairing, especially how it relates to the other characters.

I loved the unapologetic hatred towards war and violence.

I loved the way that forgiveness was presented - not as a religious or civic duty, but as an act of self-preservation and personal mental/emotional health.

I loved the mending magic, the saints, and the Greek afterlife complete with Lethe, shades, and pomegranate seeds.

I loved Sand's enormous complicated blacksmithing solution.

I loved that the resolution was prosaic and mundane and that the "punishment" for the guilty was self-inflicted (although that was a little too perfectly settled, and I really feel for that priest and those poor knights).


The author has another fairy-tale re-working (12 Dancing Princesses) that I have almost picked up several times and just never felt like it grabbed me: The Princess Curse.  Now that I've read this one and have high opinions of the language and writing style, I might give that one a try even if the storyline itself doesn't seem as personally interesting.

New Picture Book: A Dance Like Starlight, Kristy Dempsey & Floyd Cooper

A Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina's Dream
Kristy Dempsey, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (A Beach Tail)
ISBN: 9780399252846
Lyrical text and dreamlike sepia-textured scenes show the inspiration of Janet Collins in 1951.

This is a perfect pairing for Firebird, and I foresee an influx of beautiful black ballerinas in years to come, inspired by these two lovely books.  (I'm already doing a storytime with these two and Amazing Grace - it's just too perfect not to.)

A young girl stands in the wings and imagines dancing along with the ballet corps, while her seamstress mother creates the fantastic ballet costumes for the dancers.  A sympathetic dancing master, and a mother determined to inspire her child bring them to the Met for the debut of Janet Collins dancing - four years before Marian Anderson's debut.

Again, the storyline is beautiful, and the racial issues, while apparent and clear, aren't judgmental or vindictive.  The entire work is hopeful and joyful, and I hope that it inspires others to reach for their dreams and to take courage from those who have gone before.

Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone

Three Parts Dead
Max Gladstone
ISBN: 9780765333100
Sf/fantasy/urban fantasy/alternate world fantasy.
Craft Sequence titles: Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, Full Fathom Five, and (upcoming book's working title: Last First Snow)

This is a world where Gods exist, and live in (mostly) symbiotic spiritual cohabitations with humans: humans provide worship (soul energy) to the Gods, and the Gods use (some of) that energy to protect and prosper their people.  The Gods also use the energy to protect and prosper themselves, and once they are strong and savvy enough (through worship and assiduous soul energy use) they also create complex power-sharing and alliance deals with other Gods.

A few generations ago, science finally caught up to religion, and Crafters were realized - essentially scientists realized that this soul energy could be measured, realized, and harnessed, and quite a lot of scientists became essentially mages who reaped soul energy from anywhere they could find it (usually destructively) as they tested the limits (pretty much non-existent) and abilities (pretty much endless) of their new power-source.  The Gods realized they were in danger from these atheistic power-hungry humans, and Craft-less humans realized that these upstarts were either going to 1) compete with their Gods for available soul energy (weakening the Gods by cutting into their power-monopoly), and/or 2) destroy the countryside in their mad scientific pursuit of knowledge (and, let's be honest here, more power).

So the Craft and the Gods fought a huge and bitter war, leaving many Gods dead, most normal people scarred by the flagrant abuse of powers on both sides, and the Craft hiding in the skies from the potentially pitchfork-wielding mobs.

Now, the Hidden Schools and the countries ruled by the elder statesmen of the Craftspeople do their best to stay hidden, to find and nurture young Crafters, and, secondarily, to provide services and scientific advances for the enclaves of the religious, and to the people in the countrysides.

Got all that?

Into this world, a traumatic and potentially catastrophic event: One of the few remaining Gods, Kos Everburning of the city of Alt Coulumb, is dead.  Gods are really not meant to die, and this specific death is being blamed on a power imbalance (the party line is that either Kos or his Church didn't adequately monitor the soul energy contracts he was involved in, and an unexpected call for aid precipitates his fall).  Our heroines are essentially soul-lawyers and Craft-investigators, and they have their suspicions.

I love this world, and the interesting balances of power and responsibility, and the differences in knowledge and worldview provided by different characters who are either religious or not, or who are conversant in Craft or not, are really clever ways to present information about the world that may or may not be so much fact as opinion.

On the downside, the way this world deals with nearly unlimited potential power-scales and abilities made it a perfect recommendation for my husband, which is a real shame because he devoured this one in two days and started on Two Serpents Rise before I could get my hands on it!  

Tuesday Storytime: African American Dancing Dreams

Chalk another one down for my absurdly specific storytime themes!

It's not my fault, really.  I ordered Firebird, and then A Dance Like Starlight came through as a new addition the same week, and I've loved Amazing Grace since forever (blame Reading Rainbow).

We started with Amazing Grace, because that one really is at the length-limit for my age-group, then I put Firebird in the middle, and A Dance Like Starlight at the end.  The entire storytime was a little on the long side, but they all went together so well that I felt it was worth it.  I did end up "abridging" Amazing Grace and Dance Like Starlight a little bit on the fly.


Amazing Grace
Mary Hoffman, illustrated by Caroline Binch
ISBN: 0803710402
Classic Reading Rainbow book about sexism, racism, and the power of acceptance.

Grace is an imaginative, dramatic girl who loves to act out stories.  When her teachers decides to do a class performance of Peter Pan, Grace wants to be Peter - but her classmates disagree - she can't be Peter because she's a girl, and she can't be Peter because she's black.  Her mother and grandmother disagree, and take her out to see a beautiful black ballerina performing in Romeo and Juliet.  Grace learns her lines, auditions with her whole soul, and the whole class ends up agreeing that she will be a perfect Peter Pan.  The final image of her in her costume is one of my favorite illustrations in a picture book.


Firebird
Misty Copeland, illustrated by Christopher Myers
ISBN: 9780399166150
Reviewed here,

I liked how it was so conceptually different from Amazing Grace, and the way the art and colors are so vivid and wild and surreal, but at the same time, very clear and understandable.


A Dance Like Starlight
Kristy Dempsey, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (A Beach Tail)
ISBN: 9780399252846
Reviewed here.

The sepia tones in this story felt much more drab compared to Firebird and Amazing Grace, but I don't think it detracted from the story.  The text doesn't seem very long on the page, but when reading, it goes a lot more slowly, and it isn't very intuitive and flowing (at least it wasn't for me).  I ended up eliding or abridging sections, especially because it was the last book and the wiggle-worms were out in full force.

Romance: The Captive, Grace Burrowes

The Captive
Grace Burrowes
ISBN: 9781402278785
PTSD and other scars of captivity and abuse are lightly, but coherently, glossed over as wounded warriors find comfort and family with each other.

This isn't going to be a review, more of a ramble, so if you don't like being thoroughly spoiled, feel free to enjoy the short version: it was enjoyable, written with proper language/relationships, and has an interesting emotional through-line connecting all of the major characters.

Now for the longer, rambly, spoilery bits.  You've been warned!

First-off, the author really ought to be careful including symptoms of PTSD in her stories without understanding how pervasive and debilitating it can be.  On the one hand, I don't like reading about tortured psyches and broken bodies, so I appreciated the light touch.  On the other hand, by glossing over the very real debilitating symptoms so lightly, the author runs a real risk of angering readers who are familiar with these real-world traumas.

Second, how delighted I am that the author actually uses proper (mostly) forms of address and names and usages.  So many "regency" or "historical" novels (romance and otherwise) use their setting and time-period about as well as a grade-school production of Shakespeare - a bit of window-dressing on the set, a few "quaint" mannerisms (that don't make sense in context and are actually from a totally different place and time), and a few misplaced attempts at formal speech ("thou" and "thee" misinterpreted as formal, or stilted phrasing substituting for actual dialogue).  While authors like Mary Robinette Kobal perhaps go a bit far in the opposite direction (she has an actual research dictionary and refuses to let her characters speak a single word that can't be sourced from the proper time and place) it is at least refreshing to read something in an admittedly fluffy genre that has enough pride to actually present the time-period's language and mores somewhat accurately.

Thirdly (it's a Monday, lists are necessary) I get into the strangely sophisticated emotional resonances between the characters.  The "Captive" of the title is most properly the hero: Christian Severn, Duke of Mercia.  He was captured and tortured by the French (we're set here during the time of Napoleon) and upon the war's completion, was released and made his way back home.  He is also the one suffering most obviously from what we see now as PTSD.  However, the other two main characters are also captives who are suffering from their wounds.  The heroine of the story is Gillian, Countess of Greendale (Christian's cousin-by-marriage), who has finally outlived her merciless abuser of a husband, and is suffering from her own wounds, which polite society and the requirements of politics mandates she keep secret.  It would be enough for the story to have these two characters bond and recover based on their similar fragile states and slow recovery (in story terms, this is nearly a perfect relationship - in real-life, such emotional wounds nearly require an undamaged and preternaturally patient and empathetic loved-one to act as a support).  However, these two aren't the only people involved.  Christian has a daughter, the only other surviving member of his family, and she is silent through the entire book, supposedly due to the trauma of her father's absence and the deaths of her mother and brother.  The real reason for her silence is revealed late in the story, showing that she too has been held captive.

I don't expect my fluffy reads to have much to them.  Somewhat coherent plots are nice, somewhat established characterizations are even better.  Emotional resonance is so far down that list that I don't even think about it - I just don't expect these books to have any real philosophical or emotional depth.  Perhaps that is prejudiced of me, but I don't feel that it's a lack, just something the genre doesn't tend to select for.  This book tho, it was interesting.  I wouldn't say that it impacted me emotionally. but the writer-mind that lives in the back of my head was clapping with delight at each discovery that reveals the characters have more in common with each other and the main theme.

Now, all that said, don't expect the villain or the plot to be any great mystery - it is quite clear, and rather straightforwardly laid out along the traditional pattern,  Likewise, the romance develops absurdly quickly, and several plot threads (or perhaps red herrings) are carefully laid out and then carelessly cast aside.  Despite this, I enjoyed the reading immensely, and it's nearly all because of the intricate interior relationships and understandings that the main cast had for each other.

For those interested, this is apparently related to three other titles:
The Soldier
The Heir
The Virtuoso      

New Picture Book: Firebird, Misty Copeland & Christopher Myers

Firebird
Misty Copeland, illustrated by Christopher Myers
ISBN: 9780399166150
Chunky, vivid, textural collage highlights an aspirational story of dance and dreams.

Misty Copeland is a ballerina, an African-American ballerina, a GREAT ballerina.  She came late to dance, and had many moments of doubt and hardship along the way (A Life in Motion).  In this picture book, she contrasts the vulnerability and fear of a young dancer with the pride and accomplishment of a career ballerina.  Misty dances through the pages as a professional, most notably in her role as the Firebird, but the focus is on a younger dancer, who is discouraged by the lack of role-models who look like her, who know her background, who feel her isolation.  By focusing on the student, Misty can offer herself as an example, a role-model, and a potential mentor without coming across as preachy or holier-than-thou.

Lots of celebrities and activists try to create picture books, but they often go horribly wrong.  While this isn't a masterpiece, it's a solid and inspiring read, and I'm glad to add it to our collection.  I look forward to using it in a storytime about mentors, dancing, or inspiration.

Tuesday Storytime: Let it Snow! (and commentary on religious/holiday storytimes)

So I used Blizzard a bit sooner than I had originally planned.

Christmas-time storytimes are a little difficult, to be totally honest.  I live in the Bible Belt of the USA, and Christmas is a cultural institution.  In many ways, it is a secular holiday - Santa Claus, Elf on the Shelf, and "presents under the tree" for all sorts of families.  However, around here, it is also a very VERY Christian holiday.  For many people, Jesus is the reason for the season, so focusing on Santa won't cut it.  

On the other hand, I have a feeling that there are a lot of people around here who are silent about their affiliations; Jewish, Muslim, atheist... and to have a public institution (a library, no less) featuring a specific religious holiday is unfair to the population as a whole - unless I also have the wherewithal to provide storytimes on Ramadan, Hanukkah, Solstice, and humanism (to be clear, I think most of my storytimes are humanistic) in order to balance the scales - and I can't do those because I don't have the necessary materials to do so.

Many libraries deal with the problem by simply not having storytimes around the winter holiday break - reasons given are that lots of staffers are on vacation, it's a dead time of year with patrons being out of town or hosting relatives - but I am here consistently, and I like to have the option available for people who need something to remain consistent and scheduled through the seasonal frenzy.  

So what do I do?  So far, I've ignored it completely.  I tend to do a "winter" theme - this year it's snow-storms.  I do feel a little sad that I can't read "The Night Before Christmas" to a group of adorable children, or that I can't show any of the beautifully-illustrated Nativity books to my families.  But I just can't bring myself to do it.  As a private person, I'll read those stories and love them, regardless of my personal beliefs, because I can appreciate the beauty in them as something separate.  If a patron requests Christmas books, I'll find them the best ones I can, and enjoy the recommendation process.  But with storytime, I have a whole group as a captive and un-knowing audience - they don't know what I'm going to read beforehand, and they really can't leave in the middle of things.  Because I can't know my patrons' relationships with religion, because they're stuck with my readings, I feel I need to stay scrupulously secular.

Thankfully, there are reams of excellent books to choose from, including the three I read today!

Started with Blizzard, reviewed yesterday.

Cat and Mouse in the Snow

Tomek Bogacki

ISBN: 0374311927

Series title, textural painted "furry" sibling cats and sibling mice play in the snow.

I use this pretty consistently every winter, because it's short and sweet and has lots of movement and flow in the narration.  The illustrations are grey and brown and white and could be dreary, but always manage to have enough energy and dynamic focus to keep from being bland.  A cat and mouse head out to play one morning in their meadow, but find a snow-covered landscape.  They search for the green meadow, but fall down a snow-mound and are covered in snow, whereupon their siblings (mice and cats) emerge and are frightened by the two "monsters" until they also fall down the snow-mound, are equally covered in snow, and proceed to play together all evening.  Sweet, no drama, no bad behavior from anyone.

Big Snow

Jonathan Bean (Building Our House)

ISBN: 9780374306960

A boy pesters his mom about an incoming snowstorm through the day.  Sketchy, color-blocky.

I love the opening and closing spreads of the neighborhood, comparing them before the snow (please note the sad sled being pulled in dead grass) and after the snow makes everything soft and indistinct.

I also love the mom, who is unfailingly kind to her distracted child even when his "help" with the chores simply makes her own work harder.  

I also love that the story managed to get some freaky snowstorm-inside-the-house imaginary scenes in there as a dream sequence - very Jumanji-like, but having it framed as a dream means the story itself remains very true to life.  

Good pacing, good character movement and posture, and a fun story as much about anticipation as it is about snowy days.  

  

  

New Picture Book: Blizzard, John Rocco

Blizzard
John Rocco
ISBN: 9781423178651
Norman-Rockwell Americana in a pint-sized snowy adventure.

This was adorable.  We're taken back to the past, when a freak blizzard blew through our narrator's town, burying it in over 4 feet of snow in one afternoon.  At first, this was a great treat (school let out early, snowmen and snowforts galore) but after a couple of days of being snowed-in, spirits start to settle, and the food starts getting tight.

In a heroic (and adorable) bid to save the family from gustatory boredom, our narrator sets out across the blizzarded neighborhood to fetch groceries for his family and for the neighbors.  A full-spread page of his perambulations through the neighborhood make it clear that this was not some dire mission, but an adventurous trek - there might be a few detours and digressions along the way.  Still, every journey must end, and the alert reader will be happy to note the grocers kindly phoning back home to report on the adventurer's progress.  Back home again, tired and thrilled with victory, and a reward of cocoa WITH MILK as the capper for the event.

The illustrations are really what makes this book.  It's like Rockwell illustrated a picture book.  Slightly tongue-in-cheek, laser focus on the simple joys of life and of a mythological "simpler time" in the past, a keen childs'-eye-viewpoint, and bright colors and traditional lines that manage to not be garish or overdone.

Really beautiful, and perfect for a storytime for our blizzard-less southern kids.  

Biography: Neil Patrick Harris, Choose Your Own Autobiography

Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography
Neil Patrick Harris
ISBN: 9780385346993
A biography of NPH that is, actually, in Choose Your Own Adventure format.

I used up so many sticky-notes on this book.

Way back in the mists of time, I read Choose Your Own Adventure books, usually of the Indiana Jones variety, and let me tell you - Indy is a super-hero, because I read those books with the movies in mind, and every choice I could make, I chose like Indy.  I DIED ALL THE TIME.  Every time, I died, usually before the adventure even started.  What the heck kind of adventure was this if an adventurous character couldn't even get into it properly?

The only way I could make it to a "good" ending was if I literally searched out ALL the endings, found the SINGLE GOOD ENDING (compared to about a dozen or so really unfortunate ones, and about three or so iffy ones) and proceeded to work backwards by marking page-numbers.  And you know what I found?  The only way to get to a good ending was to choose the most boring and non-adventurous answer there was, every single time.  That's bullshit.  

Thankfully, this Choose Your Own Autobiography is not bullshit, because NPH has had a wonderful life, and has made some really adventurous choices, and very few of them end up in tragic unfortunate demises (although you might want to watch out for a redux of Joss Whedon, or on Sesame Street - apparently trying to re-experience a magical collaboration is a death sentence).  My only complaint is that I think I killed a small tropical tree owned by 3M keeping track of my progress in order to make sure that I read the whole thing.

If you want to read bits-and-pieces of NPH's life and family and acting and hosting and singing and magic (although not much of the magic, as he plays his tricks close to his vest) then this is a perfect little book.  I almost want to seed it through waiting rooms across the country, as a protest against three-seasons-outdated-issues of WebMD's pamphlets, recipe-optional Woman's Days, and threadbare Sports Illustrated with defaced photos of sports players.  It was great to just read a few segments at a time and then set it down to work or live life myself.

If you want to actually go through his (scuse me, "your") life chronologically, then honey, you're in for a bit of work.  It should be possible, but I limited myself to simply being thorough, and after a very Time Traveler's Wife sort of life, went back and tried to re-assemble the actual chronology in my head (most likely super-incorrectly).  That approach alone meant that it took me a whole day longer to make sure I'd hit everything.  If you read slowly, or don't have as good a memory for what you read, it might be more frustrating (there are places where it doubles back and re-uses footage, as a good Choose Your Own Adventure does) but it's still a fun adventure.

I am happy to say that through grit, persistence, genre-savvy, and rampant cheating I got through unscathed (and un-quicksanded) to the grand musical finale.  Have to say, I'm pretty thrilled with the life!
    

 

Tuesday Storytime: Trucks

Yeah, I know, why pick this theme for this time of year.  I felt like it.  :)


Tough Trucks
Tony Mitton (Dinosaurumpus), illustrated by Ant Parker
ISBN: 0753456001
Anthro-animals work with slightly cartoonish trucks on jobs with very metered verse blocks.

I really like this one for the vocabulary: study, accelerate, "weave and wend," piston, liquids... really interesting and potentially unfamiliar words for little ones.  The rhyme is solid (sometimes a bit too solid) and perhaps a bit plodding, but it works for the measured pace of the very loose framework of "trucks and truckers working at jobs."  Because the characters are all various animals, there's no indication of gender, except for a waitress-cat wearing a frilly apron.  I would have preferred to see frills on a couple of the truckers/workers or a gender-neutral apron on the wait-staffer, but at least they are animals, so one can plead that they are multi-gendered.


I Love Trucks!
Philemon Sturges, illustrated by Shari Halpern
ISBN: 0060278196
Multi-gendered, multi-ethnic drivers and characters fill a tiny town full of types of trucks.

Our narrator for this very short and simple trucking celebration is a kid playing with trucks in a sandbox, describing various types of truckish jobs that get done while the blocky, primary-colored artwork keeps the environment simple and straighforward and very appealing.  The best-loved truck is an ice-cream truck, so if you're in a rural or ice-cream-truck-less area, be prepared for some really intense questions about trucks that dispense ice-cream.


Trucks Roll!
George Ella Lyon, illustrated by Craig Frazier (Stanley Mows the Lawn)
ISBN: 9781416924357
Abstracted and graphically-intense scenes in forced-perspective or otherwise intriguing compositions.

This is my favorite truck book from today, and might be my favorite truck book in general.  Frazier's graphic art is just phenomenal, and everything from the endpapers (in that bright burnt-yellow industrial corrugated-iron pattern) to the movement and energy blasting out of his pages just makes me so energized and happy as a reader.  The storyline isn't amazing - it isn't really a story, and is really very like Tough Trucks as far as ideas go, but here we stick with trucks on the road, and what they might carry (wild cargoes like rabbits or giant cookies under tarps) and it works much better to have our focus limited to road trucking.  What also works much better is the rhyme and cadence here - we get shorter rhymes and so less interesting vocab, but the words and phrases just leap out, with the coda "Trucks roll" becoming more and more impressive til we reach the end.  Finally, the idea of having the "Trucks stop" in the middle of the book, and ending at dawn (another bravura graphic design, with the shadows on the trucker, the steam on the coffee, and even the hood-ornament as a bird reaching for the sky, all with bright yellow and orange sun rays streaming across) is really brilliant, and a nice change from the usual choice of stopping at "bedtime."   Love this book.

New Arrivals: Juv Nonfiction/Picture Book: Some Bugs, Angela DiTerlizzi, Brendan Wenzel

Some Bugs
Angela DiTerlizzi, illustrations by Brendan Wenzel
ISBN: 9781442458802
Super cute, super short, and lively primary-colored pages with LOTS of energy and movement.

This one is going straight to the storytime list.  I can't wait to do another Bugs storytime to set this into as my middle book.  It's super short, and the pictures are amazing.  We're easy on plot this time around: just a continuing narrative that rhymes over spreads "Some bugs sting.  Some bugs bite.  Some bugs stink. / And some bugs FIGHT!"  We get lots of different kinds of bugs, in a vivid version of a natural habitat, and set up so that they're easily identifiable with the aid of the "What's That Bug?" page on the end (a brilliant idea, by the way).  We do have a spider or two (not bugs!) but given the aim for the youngest naturalists, I'll let that slide.  Expect to see this one coming up in the Storytime rotation sometime this spring when I get all naturalistic and inspired by the warm weather.

JuvFiction: A Different Twist, Elizabeth Levy

A Different Twist
Elizabeth Levy
ISBN: 0590332295
(Published originally by Apple/Scholastic in 1984, based on a teleplay by Dianne Dixon as an ABC weekend special by Scholastic Productions)

Found this via someone searching for an old book remembered from childhood.  I didn't read it myself back then, but it seems like it would have been right up my alley.

Basic bones: Christi is an aspiring actress/singer, and she's delighted when her actor crush Phil Grey comes to her hometown to direct a staging of Oliver! - until she learns that he's only casting local boys in the "urchin chorus."  She and her best friend Lizbeth hatch a plot for Christi to become Chris - which works perfectly well until Christi's scruples, as well as the more technical difficulties of playing a boy in a theatre environment (dressing rooms, close quarters) force her to reveal herself the night of the dress rehearsal.

Overall, pretty good, if really stereotypical and quickly paced.  I can tell that it was originally a tv performance, because of the very visual and action-oriented scenes that weren't really necessary - the wheelie and the constant prat-falling being the main tells.  I enjoyed the contrast in relations between Christi and Lizbeth, and between Chris and her new stage friends, and with her parents.

It even managed to not date itself horribly - there are no mentions of anything technological in any detail that would date horribly, and even the attitude towards ear-piercing is looked at as a personal view, not as a society or cultural thing.

A cute, light-hearted read.    

New Arrivals: Picture Book: Dragon's Extraordinary Egg, Debi Gliori

Too cute for words.

Dragon's Extraordinary Egg
Debi Gliori
ISBN: 9780802737595
First published in UK as "Dragon Loves Penguin"
Textural, close-up views, colorful drawn characters reminds strongly of Mo Willems' Pigeon books.

A penguin is telling her young chick a bedtime story.  This story is epic and filled with mystery and fantasy - a clan of dragons lives on top of a frozen volcano, while penguins live down below on the ice.  An eggless dragon spies an abandoned egg on the ice, adopts it, raises it, and teaches the very undragon-like creature (spoilers: its a penguin) how to live happily among dragons, until one day when the penguin notices a certain change in the temperature that the thicker-scaled siblings and friends don't notice.  At the end, a character returns in a surprise cameo, revealing a much closer relationship between the current happily-listening chick and the amazing story (or history) being told.

A bit on the long side for storytime, sadly.  It's hard to get adoption-friendly stories that aren't polemics or utterly treacly (sorry, I Love You Like Crazy Cakes, but the shoe fits) or really specific.  This one is just cute and outre enough to be enjoyable for most kids, but with a special pop of meaning for anyone adopted (or really, anyone who feels like they just don't fit in with their family).

New Arrivals: Picture Book: Three Bears in a Boat, David Soman

Three Bears in a Boat

David Soman (Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy)

ISBN: 9780803739932

Nautical and expressive bear cubs in soft-wash environments, navigating tricky emotions.

Our bear protagonists are siblings, and so you know from the start that there are certain kinds of trouble that it takes good friends or blood-relatives to get into.  After an accident, the trio heads out to repair the damage (and to prevent them from having to fess up).  The sailing isn't always smooth, and the relationship is strained by blame for the accident, but shared peril and misery are always great to put things in perspective.  Our intrepid wanderers come back, somewhat the worse for wear, and find what they were looking for was always right at home (which, in picture book land, is about as good of a moral as you can get).  Special props for the anxious and clingy mother bear at the end, who adults will realize has been much more exercised over the missing cubs than over the broken trinket.

Unsurprisingly from the deft creator of Ladybug Girl, these siblings have good hearts and good intentions, but we see in this story that emotions and circumstances can bring out the worst in even the best of us.  Showing how they rely on each other, forgive each other, and take responsibility (shared) for the inciting problem is a great visual (and so very visual - check out those postures and faces and emotional colorings) to give to little kids who are still figuring out all this complicated emotional and relationship stuff, with brains that aren't even done growing yet.  Sometimes I think that picture books like these that show empathy and emotional connections might even do a lot of grown-ups good.

  

Nonfiction: The Victorian City, Judith Flanders

The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London
Judith Flanders
ISBN: 9781250040213
An exhaustive overview of life for the poor and lower-middle classes in London.

This book has taken me AGES to finish, and it wasn't that it was uninteresting, it was that it was enormous.  424 pages of text, and another almost hundred more of notations, references, and indexing.  Good grief.

She covers everything, in a mostly organized manner (I never did quite figure out what relation the vignettes at the beginnings of each section were meant to have in common with the section itself) and is honest about sources and conjectures and what we think we know and what we actually do know.

If anyone is planning to write about the City during this time-period, this is a worthy investment, and seems to be the sort where if you can't find the exact details of what you need here, you'll certainly find the research to lead you where you need to go.

I'm glad I read it, and I enjoyed it, but I'm glad to see the end of it - I feel like I've been slogging through the City myself, and am desperate for some fresh air and a change of scenery.

Tuesday Storytime: Winter

Even though it rarely snows down here, I feel like it's important for storytimes to show different places and different experiences.  These are three fun, wintery, snowy-day stories to show how different the seasons can be.

It's Winter!
Linda Glaser, cut-paper scenes by Susan Swan
ISBN: 0761317597
Extremely detailed, slightly stylized scenes with bright contrasts focus on the natural world in winter.

A perky (possibly asian) girl is our host for this tour of winter in the Northern USA, beginning with late autumn and the first snow-fall, and ending with the barest beginnings of spring snow-melt.  We see a few human-centric activities (catching snowflakes, sledding, making snowpeople) but the focus is on the natural world and what the animals and environment is doing.  The illustrations are crazy-detailed, with a stylized edge to them that makes them just sharp enough to avoid being cutesy.  Really good overview for the length, and an excellent jumping-off-point.


Hibernation Station
Michelle Meadows, illustrated by Kurt Cyrus
ISBN: 9781416937883
Adorable fuzzy woodland creatures (and the odd frog) dress in jammies and attempt to cozy up.

This one is short and sweet, with much of the interest in the busy overstuffed illustrations (very similar in feel to Jan Brett) that show the various animals failing at falling asleep for the winter in their cramped communal log.  After much whining, protesting, last minute complaining, and general unhappiness, the bears (the conductors) marshal the troops, rearrange the sleeping quarters and roommates, pass out last-minute snackies, issue kisses and hugs and snuggles, and get everyone tucked in properly for the winter.  Did I mention that it was adorable?  I've done this one before, and I'm sure I'll do it again.  This one also got picked to go home to older siblings, which is always nice to have happen.


Winter is the Warmest Season
Lauren Stringer (Deer Dancer)
ISBN: 0152049673
Plump, cozy, fluffy illustrations show why winter is actually warmer.

This is a favorite, and it went over just as well today as usual.  Several kids caught the title, and were instantly disagreeing with the premise.  They enjoyed the slight cozy subversion.  Our narrator (gender ambiguous) walks us through their reasons why winter is warmer: from hot cocoa to fuzzy mittens to cats who deign to sleep on laps now that the windowsills are too cold.  These are usually contrasted with summer activities or analogues, so cold summer pools contrast with hot winter baths, and cold jelly sandwiches with toasted cheese.  A great ending to the storytime, and a fun read overall.

New Arrivals: Juv Nonfiction: Dozer's Run by Debbie Levy, Rosana Panza, David Opie

Dozer's Run: A True Story of a Dog and his Race
Debbie Levy with Rosana Panza, illustrated by David Opie
ISBN: 9781585368969
A dogs'-eye-view of the world makes this story of an unlikely marathon participant more vibrant.

I really like this book, but I don't think it's well suited for Storytime, because of all the questions it raises (which is a common difficulty with true-life books - real life being not inclined to wrap up nicely or explain itself handily in the confines of a picture book).  Despite that, this is an adorable story of a strange afternoon when a suburban dog decided to join the half-marathon in Highland, Maryland.  He jumped straight in from his yard, and ran to the finish line, then almost as quickly, vanished back home.  After donations flooded in under his name (people sponsored individual runners to raise money), the organizers tracked him down, and named him an honorary mascot.

The text is very much from a dog-like perspective, which is odd considering it isn't from Dozer's viewpoint (unless the author believes that dogs think about themselves in the third person) but does add a bit of charm and possible rationale to an otherwise un-explainable event.  The story incorporates information from runners on the route, from organizers, and from the family, to piece together how the run might have gone, and giving a basic narrative of events that is straightforward, even when it doesn't offer explanations.

The art is pleasant, but the people all have very oddly-shaped faces and heads.  Not really unpleasant, just noticeable.  Scenes are nicely composed, but perhaps less vital and active than they could have been.

New Arrivals: Juv Nonfiction: Ashley Bryan's Puppets, Ashley Bryan & Rich Entel

Ashley Bryan's Puppets
Ashley Bryan, photographs by Rich Entel
ISBN: 9781442487284
Poems and close-up photographs of "found-object" puppets and dolls.

As an adult, and someone who is overly invested in the re-use portion of steampunk creative philosophy, and someone who really enjoys puppetry and strange objects of art and play, this is a really interesting book.

As a child, I would have been freaked right out.  These puppets are some creepy creatures.  Many of them are made with old bones or shells or antlers or strangely twisted organic shapes of driftwood, with strange eyes (often pupil-less) and oddly distorted features.  They all have names and stories (which are also often odd), and come in groups organized by some underlying theme or through-line that I'm not able to discern.

I spent a good while poring over the creatures, and I really do like them.  They remind me strongly of the creatures built to inhabit the world of the Dark Crystal and Labyrinth movies, or of del Toro's strange imaginations.  For some, that might be a warning, for others, an invitation.

I don't know that I'd keep it from a kid if they were interested, but I think I would be prepared to deal with nightmares afterwards.

Very odd, very peculiar.

Photo-Biographical: Behind the Scenes, Judi Dench

Behind the Scenes
Judi Dench
ISBN: 9781250071118

A lovely photo book about a lovely and talented actress.  I've always looked up to her, and reading through this book of photographs and her anecdotes and memories about her family and her craft and her career (and her co-workers) was truly enjoyable.

Tuesday Storytime: Arrrr, Pirates!

There are a lot of pirate books out there, and it's always fun to read through them, and try to find ones that are short enough, funny enough, and different enough from each other to do an entire storytime.

How I Became a Pirate

Melinda Long, illustrated by David Shannon (Nicholas Pipe)

ISBN: 0152018484

The No, David! illustrator graphically (and sometimes grossly) caricatures ebullient pirates.

Jeremy Jacob is on the beach, digging a moat, minding his own business, when Braid Beard the pirate (love that name) swoops in, declares him a perfect digger for their treasure, and sweeps him off onto a pirate ship for adventures all day long.  No parents, no manners, no vegetables!  It's all fun and games until bedtime, where there's no story, no tucking in, and no goodnight kiss - and that's all before the giant storm that everyone's too busy to comfort him about!  Inspiration strikes, and Jeremy Jacob manages to get back home, and do the pirates a favor into the bargain.

The Night Pirates

Peter Harris, illustrated by Deborah Allwright

ISBN: 9780439799591

Lucky Tom gets to tag along with a pirate crew of little girls as they stealthily steal a treasure.  

Awake one moonlit night, Tom notices a band of pirates (little girl pirates!) stealing the front of his house as a disguise.  He tags along on a fairly straightforward short jaunt to a pirate island, where the grown-up pirates are routed, treasure stolen, and little girls return Tom (and the front of his house) back home safely.  Very interesting artwork - sort of collage-like with different paper patterns and textures with superimposed figures.

A Pirate's Guide to First Grade

James Preller, illustrated by Greg Ruth

ISBN: 9780312369286

Ghostly "imaginary" mateys accompany this young swab to his first day of school, narrated in pirate.

I love the "pirate" narration, and the illustrations are clear and open enough to carry the meaning when the words don't make sense to the little ones.  I love that the imaginary mateys are enthusiastic adults.  I love his green jolly-roger shirt, and "Old Silver" the Captain (teacher).  The characters are diverse without seeming to be effortful, the day progresses quickly, and the text is minimal (printed in "piratical" font, but in a larger-than-normal size to make reading to a group easier).  Really fun to read, and an excellently inventive concept that really stands out from the crowd of pirate fare.

New Picture Books: Winter is Coming, Tony Johnston

I saw a review for this earlier in the year, and have been waiting for it ever since.  I'm happy to say that while it isn't what I expected, it is absolutely beautiful, an amazing message, and a delight to read and pore over the illustrations.

Winter is Coming
Tony Johnston, illustrated by Jim LaMarche (The Carpenter's Gift)
ISBN: 9781442472518
Breathtaking colored pencil, acrylic, and ink artwork is utterly entrancing.  Beautiful.

This book is SOOOO PRETTY!  The premise is pretty slim - a naturalist girl (armed with sketchpads, binoculars, and notebooks) heads out into the woods as fall changes to winter, watching and recording the behaviors and appearances of the animals as they prepare for the rough season ahead.  Some of the thoughts and comments are a little bit stilted or odd, coming supposedly from a pre-pubescent narrator, but that is easily forgiven considering the underlying messages of peaceful observation, of awareness of the cycles and lives of animals in their natural habitats, and of conservation and protection.

But you guys, this book is flat out, drop dead, utterly breathtakingly heart-rendingly GORGEOUS.  The colors, the girl in her varied outfits as the days pass by, the animals and birds, the sketchy but detailed woods and fields.  Just makes my heart ache that I can't draw.

Unreservedly recommended.