Essential Baby Sign Language, Teresa R. Simpson

Essential Baby Sign Language: the most important 75 signs you can teach your baby, Teresa R. Simpson.
ISBN: 9781440560842

Read Sept 23, 2013

Slim volume with a brief and encouraging intro, a glossary of ASL letters of the alphabet, and a useful "troubleshooting" section at the end, is mostly comprised of clear b&w photographs of MOST of the 75 signs which are introduced here.

The signs are obviously selected to be of interest to a baby - milk, diaper, mommy, daddy, sister, brother, cat, dog, fish, airplane... Some interesting choices are on offer: we get options for cup, drink, milk, water, and juice.  We also get "pain" and "angry" which I don't see offered much, but are important for the baby's self-expression.  I would have liked to see a few options for zoo animals, as those are often highly interesting to babies, and maybe a few specific toy/encounter choices: ball, truck, blocks, swing, but overall these are obviously useful selections.

I did NOT like that there were several signs which didn't get photographs to illustrate - the directions for them are as clear as possible, but text instructing movement always has potential to be misinterpreted.  

Baby-signing is becoming mainstream, and it's a good thing, in my opinion.  This is an overall excellent choice for someone ready to try it out.

Off the Road, Nina Bawden

Off the Road, Nina Bawden

Read September 19, 2013

Juv/YA post-apocalyptic England.  

12 year-old Tom lives in an Urb, secure in the knowlege that he and all other children are the most important people in the world.  Malcontents and "bad people" were exiled from the Inside in his grandparents' days, and everyone here is happy, well-adjusted, and safe in their highly regulated lives.  His information is incomplete, as he'll discover when his grandfather makes a run for the Outside instead of passively relocating to a "Memory Theme Park" for old people.  Gandy has lost his wits due to age, Tom's sure.  Despite this, Tom still loves him, and he follows the old man of 65 into the frightening woods of Outside, to save him from the dragons and wild men that lurk there.

Very similar in themes and world concept to Shyamalan's The Village, and Haddix's first book Running out of Time.  Similar likewise in that too much deep thought after the book ends will bring headaches and irritation, despite an innocuous and forgettable plotline involving the messy nature of family, the balance of convenience and safety against freedom, and who the true movers and shakers of policy are, both In and Outside.  I know I read too much, and am often too demanding of the genre, especially for books aimed at younger readers, but I really do wish writers would apply behavioral science or simple economics to their dystopias and alternate histories.

For one example: Inside, a draconian one-child law is such the absolute reality that the very words "sibling" or "brother/sister" are considered foul language.  So how does that mesh with a child from Outside "visiting" the interior for the summer break, with the gloss from the book that "The Trusties don't run checks on children during the school holidays."  Right.

Violet Mackerel, Anna Bradford & Elanna Allen

Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat, Anna Branford (illus by Elanna Allen)
ISBN: 9781442435940.

Read Sept 20, 2013

This was a delightful book - I'll have to check out the others.  Violet is the youngest in her family, so she sympathizes with the little ladybug in the garden.  It probably suffers all sorts of hardships being the youngest, just like she does.  Her attempt to help backfires dramatically, and the rest of the book is a sweet (but not treacly) and deft handling of animal (ok, insect) death, mourning, intentions vs actions, and sibling interactions. 

I especially like how the B-plot dealt with her older sister's despair at the upcoming science fair - it's nice to see a girl character who doesn't immediately jump to crafts, and isn't shown as a font of endless spectacular ideas.

UPDATE: These books are so cute and amazing.  I just adore them.

First one is Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot.  ISBN: 9781442435858

Second is Violet Mackerel's Remarkable Recovery.  ISBN: 9781442435889

Third (the one I found first) is the ladybug one.

New (that I haven't read yet) is Violet Mackerel's Personal Space.  ISBN: 9781442435926

That one's plot summary has Mom and Vincent getting hitched and they all have to move to a new house.  This one has Dylan with the difficulties, instead of Nicola from the ladybug incident.  

I really like that not only does Violet have a difficulty herself in the A plot, but she is aware of and helps her siblings with their difficulties in the B plots of the various stories.  

Perfect for bedtime reading to a beginning reader (4-8ish) or for solo-reading for accomplished independent readers.  Violet herself is around 7 for this series.

Also, Brilliant Plot has poffertjes!  (Dutch dessert pancakes.)

Tatty Ratty, Helen Cooper

Tatty Ratty, Helen Cooper.  ISBN: 0374373868.

Read Sept 20, 2013

Picture book:  Shades of Knuffle Bunny, this dirty bedraggled well-loved bunny finally gets left on a bus and is gone for good - or is he?  Wise parents and imaginative childish ideas combine to show the wild adventures the bunny has before he's reunited (looking much different after his adventures, mind you) with his child at the "Kingdom of Bunny" store.

Really love the illustrations here, and the wild but soft-edged adventures the bunny goes on.  I do think he needs a new name at the end, he's "tatty-ratty" no more, at least not for a while!

Good not-so-subtle reminder for parents to buy back-up lovies for their little ones.   

Wind Child, Shirley Rousseau Murphy, Leo & Diane Dillon

Wind Child, Shirley Rousseau Murphy, Leo & Diane Dillon.

ISBN: 006024903X

Read September 13, 2013

Picture book.

The wind fell in love with a lady, and she died in childbirth, so in his grief he left the infant with an old lady and never looked for her or cared about her afterwards.  Meanwhile, the half-wind child (and young lady) didn't fit in on the earth, worked as a celebrated weaver, dreamed about flying, didn't like any earth-based men, and tried to construct more suitable lovers/partners for herself out of the elements, until a prince of the wind noticed her and carried her off into the sky with him.

Very odd.  I can't decide if the distant tone of the writing or the formal and aloof nature of the artwork is more offputting.  I would think something like this would be right up my alley, but it's really not.  I'm a bit sad about that.  Something is just really off about this work, and it just doesn't work for me.  

I do like that the townsfolk are effortlessly multicultural, and her "constructed" men are beautifully illustrated, but the Prince is dressed laughably - his capelet is just not well-fitted to the character.

The artwork is beautiful, if a little stiff and cold, and the story itself has no real objectionable elements - the heroine is self-possessed, creative, hard-working, and quick-witted, so there's that.  Just didn't resonate with me.  Sadly, this one's a miss.

Trio of Christian regency romances by Julie Klassen

Lady of Milkweed Manor, Julie Klassen, ISBN: 9780764204791

Read Sept 11, 2013

The Silent Governess, Julie Klassen.  ISBN: 9780764207075

Read Summer 2011

The Girl in the Gatehouse, Julie Klassen. ISBN: 9780764207082

Read Spring 2011

 

I first encountered this author when Girl in the Gatehouse arrived newish at the library, and so I checked it out, investigating a new to me author of christian/gentle romances (they're amazingly popular).  Liked it decently well, so when Silent Governess came across the counter a few months later, I read it also, to make sure the first wasn't a fluke.

I liked them both quite well, so when I saw Milkweed Manor, I was happy to pick it up for a quick read.  I didn't realize that this was the first of her books, and boy it showed.  It was super convoluted, with unheralded flashbacks from every point of view, and not any difference in the writing style to remind the reader who the character thinking is.  If I had read Manor first, I don't think I would have been at all inclined to pick up the others, so I'm somewhat grateful that I missed it when it came out.

All are regencies, very obviously Jane Eyre inspired.  Not in the sense of lifting plot (although there is a bit of that, there are only so many plots to go around) but in the sense of how the world and society is the focus, and the heroine is the one square peg who is just trying to get by, and manages to fall in love instead.

Gatehouse has a heroine who writes "trashy" novels, who got her real identity scooped, and was subsequently kicked out by her scandalized family.  She's reduced to living in penury in the gatehouse of an elder relative, hoping to be left alone to scramble for a living.

Governess has a mathmatically-gifted heroine who fights off her abusive father, and runs, thinking she's killed him.  She hides in the woods outside a great house, and sees something she shouldn't have.  Her throat is injured, but the lord in the compromising situation doesn't know that, and kidnaps her into service as a governess to encourage her to keep silent.

Manor features a Vicar's daughter who unwittingly "falls" with her beau, and ends up in a laying-in (maternity) hospital for unwed mothers.  Very melodramatic and over-wrought multi-way soap-opera ensues, with dead spouses and interchangable infants everywhere.   Not realizing this was her first endeavor, I wondered if the author had been inspired by the shenanigans on Downton Abbey!

Slightly Christian, a little on the gooey side, but not bad for light fluffy reading.  The religious elements in particular are very lightly applied, which makes me quite grateful.  Sometimes these things turn into very labored parables or sermons, and I just don't want to deal with that in my light reading.  I can't say that I'll go looking for more of these, but if they happen by, I won't be averse to picking them up for a quick sweet read.

The Land that Time Forgot, Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Land that Time Forgot, Edgar Rice Burroughs.  Nelson Doubleday, 1946

(no ISBN; hardcover book-club edition, movie tie-in trilogy compilation.)

Individual titles of the series: The Land that Time Forgot, The People that Time Forgot, Out of Time's Abyss.  Originally published in 1918.

I love the Barsoom books, and Tarzan is just fun, but somehow I never got around to these, so when I saw this absolutely awesome yellow and red hc published to promote the film (which I also want to see now, because I like hurting myself) I just had to have it.   (again, props to the Greenville Really Big Book Sale!)

Somewhere near Antarctica, there's a giant cliff-walled island.  Inside that undiscovered country is the freakiest weird-ass version of evolution I've ever seen in science fiction.  I won't spoil it, but it's seriously weird, and really impressive as a world-building conceit.  I have to give the guy props for going there in 1918 - I have neighbors in South Carolina in 2013 who can't deal with the concept, so it's a little dizzy-making to think about how ahead of the curve Burroughs was. 

Usual quibbles apply - the men are heroes, the women are victims (but at least once in each book they save themselves temporarily, or serve more of a function than looking pretty or delicate) and the villains are villainous.  The one scene with the cowboy "taming" a wild horse made me flashback to Jean Auel and my eyes near about rolled out of my head, but otherwise it was fun, fast, and seriously weird.  

The writing and plotting is about on the same level as the Barsoom series, but a little more manageable due to the length differences.  This is like a nice evening meal, that is more like an enormous southern Thanksgiving.  Either way, you're going to be eating good for a while.   

The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope

The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope.  ISBN: 0590460579

Read September 4, 2013

YA: Newbery Honor.  Bloody-Mary-era England mysterious castle and well-built fae.

Picked up a slightly-damaged paperback at the 10-for-$2 table at the Greenville Literacy Society's Really Big Book Sale.

 

I somehow missed this when I was younger, and I'm sort of sad that I did.  It's very Willow/Labyrinth/Dark Crystal feel, and the fae are beautifully done.

Kate and her sister are handmaidens to the Princess Elizabeth in exile while Bloody Mary rules, until Kate's impetuous sister writes a letter to complain of their treatment.  The sister gets dragged into Mary's court, but Kate (blamed for the complaint because she's not the pretty one) is exiled even further, to the Perilous Gard, all the way out near the Irish border.  

The castle is eerie and filled with servants who seem to have a divided loyalty.  The village is filled with traumatized peasants.  The forboding woods are filled with ancient oaks.  The lord and his younger brother are hiding a sad, dark secret.  Headstrong, stubborn, logical Kate is determined to find out how they're all related, even if it gets her kidnapped Underhill.

Really truly very good.  If I had been younger when I first encountered it, I have a feeling it would end up in the supreme favorites who-can-do-no-wrong list with The Hero and the Crown and the Alanna books.  As it is, as an adult, I notice the seams, so it downgrades to merely extremely solid. 

Saving Grace, Julie Garwood

Saving Grace, Julie Garwood.  ISBN: 0671744224

Read September 3, 2013

Romance: medieval. Traumatized English girl marries burly Scottish laird due to politics.

Read this one because it came up on the internet, and sounded so familiar to Warrior's Promise which I read just a bit earlier.

I don't read romances very often, but both of these were quite readable.  I like this time-period, and I don't know enough about it to be bugged by the (inevitable) screw-ups of period and language and action.

Comparing the two, I'd say that this is slightly more realistic and interesting as a read, it has a more complete secondary cast because it's in a single location, and is a bit more serious than the other.   Warrior's Promise is more of just a fun romp. 

Plot: 

Her first marriage was to an emotionally and physically abusive monster, and she's delighted to hear that he's dead, even though she doesn't quite believe it.  

Despite her uncertainty, politics, and a certain bit of information regarding Prince John, has her shipped off to the highlands to marry a Laird trying to consolidate two different clans into one peaceful settlement.  

He thinks she's delicate and needs to be protected.  

She thinks that she's going to die of boredom if she doesn't get to do something soon.

Foiled, Jane Yolen & Mike Cavallaro

Foiled, Jane Yolen & Mike Cavallaro.  ISBN: 9781596432796

Read August 28

 

YA Graphic Novel, urban fantasy, fencing heroine, first of series? 

 

Aliera Carstairs (excellent name, by the way) is a fencer; foil, not saber or epee.  But, she's not a rich fencer.  So when her thrift-store-obsessed mom finds a 2 dollar practice saber with a gaudy enormous gem stuck to the end, she's delighted to have it.  She's a little more conflicted about Avery - the new boy in school, and her lab-partner for frog dissection.  He apparently likes to stab and slice things.  (About the time of that revelation, the alert reader may also notice some interesting happenings with crows.)  The action here is pretty slow, mostly introductions to Aliera's regimented life, lofty goals for her foil-fencing, her conflicted feelings about Avery, and her relationship with her disabled cousin.  The end picks up dramatically, with a complication regarding Avery (which I really really like) and the resulting introduction to a colorful world that Aliera (and perhaps her cousin?) will be spending future installments learning about and adventuring in.  

 

The only quibble I have with the art is the occasional side-profile where people (especially their mouths) look just odd.  I also thought that the grey-scale went on for just a smidge too long.  I understand why it was done, and think it's really a powerful and clever application, I just was getting a bit dreary when faced with all the unremitting grey for so long.   

Goose Chase, Patrice Kindl

Goose Chase, Patrice Kindl.  ISBN: 978-1439515938

Read August 27

Juv-YA fantasy: Goose-girl embarks on a journey to escape marriage to either a stupid Prince or a murderous King who both supposedly want her for her recently-bestowed magical gifts of diamond tears and gold-dust that wafts from her hair.

Not amazing, but funny enough.  I especially liked the transition of the Prince from a stupid oaf to a sensitive and somewhat needy 15 year old boy with no mother or father.  That's not something done well or often with this age-category book, and it was refreshing to see.  I also particularly liked the sections with the Ogresses.  It could have done with a smidge tighter plotting, and some of the characters' motivations were a little unclear (especially the Baroness, at the end) but it's a fun romp through fairy-tale princess tropes, with a strong and stubborn main character who refuses to give in to her continually-dire although always-changing circumstances.

An Amish Garden, Laura Anne Lapp

An Amish Garden: A Year in the Life of an Amish Garden, Laura Anne Lapp. 
ISBN: 978-1561487929

Read August 26

Oversized photo-journal of Amish gardening practices and thoughts on life.  Photos by Jeremy Hess.

 

I liked this, and was interested in how many of the photographs showed the children's faces - apparently the not-being-photographed stricture is more for adults?  I also liked that the author was straightforward about her personal likes and dislikes, although I thought it was interesting that such an averred "bad gardener" would be so interested in doing a book about gardening. Apparently she likes flower-gardening better, but there was very little mention of flowers throughout the year's narrative.  Perhaps this is a cultural disconnect - with her insisting that she's "bad" at gardening to counteract the hubris of writing a book about it?  It was an odd note.

 

I was interested in the little ways that Amish lifestyles and culture slipped through the cracks of the story - mentioning that their house was designed for both Amish and English people, the eldest boy heading off to school on his scooter, the casual mention of eating on the porch because the house is hot during the summer (no electricity means no AC) and other little bits that just flit by without emphasis.

 

Interesting look at a part of Amish life that hasn't gotten much attention (that I'm aware of) so far.

A Warrior's Promise, Donna Fletcher

A Warrior's Promise, Donna Fletcher.  ISBN: 978-0062034663

Read August 26

 

Romance: Medieval Scottish Pseudohistory.

 

Charlie is really Charlotte, and she has to save her unworldly father from the usurper king who is convinced he holds mystical powers or alchemical abilities.  But she's just a young girl - what can she do alone?  Enter a huge brawny stereotypical Scottish berserker, who is totally flummoxed by this chit of an outspoken and educated and warlike girl.

 

The backstory is part of a 4-book series, of which this is the 3rd.  Honestly, it didn't much seem to matter.  Other characters were broadly hinted at having interesting backstories or character arcs, but they didn't interest me.  This was fun, but not enough to hunt down the others.

 

I had hoped that Charlie would spend a bit more time being Charlie, but even as a girl, she was fearsome and a fearless fighter.  Being the type of book that it is, I have to say it wasn't exactly realistic on the points of fighting or the damage sustained by fights, but I do give the author props for not being afraid to bruise up her heroine's face.

 

Amusing and diverting.