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.