Storytime Potentials: How the Stars Fell into the Sky, Jerrie Oughton, Lisa Desimini

How the Stars Fell into the Sky
Jerrie Oughton, illustrated by Lisa Desimini
ISBN: 0395587980

Billed as a "Navajo Legend" on the cover, the back flap reveals the text to be drawn from a National Geographic article.

I really like the illustrations here, and how the text is presented in a small confined area surrounded by white space, opposite lush, page-spanning illustrations in free brush patterns and undulations.

I don't like the story.  The Woman is obsessed with the "laws" and wants to put them out somewhere that everyone will see them and follow them.  She can't figure out where to post them where they won't be erased eventually by time and wear, and The Man suggests in the sky, by using her pile of jewelry/stars/flowers? that she has at her feet.

She starts, and the Coyote eventually joins in, but he's impatient, and finally just flings the blanketful of stars up into the sky helter-skelter, pissing off the woman, and forever making it so that people will never know or be able to follow the laws.

So - that's weird.  I think that if the idea had been to record stories or history or memories, it wouldn't have struck me as so prescriptive and weirdly angry and moralistic.  But the focus on THE LAWS just really turned me off.

Which is sad, because the artwork is beautiful, and the basic idea (coyote screws something up) is a common folk-motif that deserves to be used.

The Fire Lord's Lover, Kathryne Kennedy

The Fire Lord's Lover
Kathryne Kennedy
ISBN: 9781402236525
Alternate History Fantasy Romance
Read February 25, 2014

I actually read the last book in this series (The Lord of Illusion) sometime last year maybe?  It was an interesting take on alternate elven history, and I was just coming off of a Mercedes Lackey Elves on the Road kick, and wanted more weird stuck-up elves.

So this is actually the first book in a series (there's one in the middle, Lady of the Storm, that I may or may not read).  To be honest, The Fire Lord's Lover feels like a middle-of-a-series book, with lots of info and titles and relationships casually dropped in.  I was actually really surprised, and a bit taken aback, when I learned that it's actually the first book, because when I read the last one, it had a very strong sense of 'lets tie up dozens of loose ends from lots of different books and relationships that we've established over the course of this long series,' and I was really shocked to learn there were only three of them total.

So, the last one obviously wasn't awful, because I recognized this one as being related to it, and picked it up for a quick jaunt into weird-ass English elfland.

I have a lot of minor plot-related nits that I could pick (and have done in the privacy of my own mind) regarding the worldbuilding and the social relationships at play in this series, but my only major quibble with the book itself is the dialogue.

No one talks like that.  Everyone in this book is expository and declaratory, like really bad gradeschoolers attempting to write a Shakespearean soliloquy, and it gets simply ridiculous in places.  It makes it somewhat difficult to take the characters and their perilous situations quite seriously when they are declaiming at each other in a very 'doth mother know thou wearest her drapes' sort of way.  That said, when the characters aren't having big emotional moments, they usually manage to talk just fine.  It's only when they need to be emotionally wrought that it gets a little silly.

I can't really comment much on the 'adult content' except to say that it was there, it seemed more flowery than gritty, and it wasn't overly cringeworthy or eyerolly.

Characterization was decent, although again - I thought we were in a middle book instead of the first of a set, so take that into account.

The plot is obvious, but fun, and each character got a chance to grow and change, and to contribute towards the plot as well as towards the developing relationship.  Secondary characters were either total ciphers, or oddly, more finely drawn than the leads.

I really like the plot concept, and despite niggles, think it was worked out well.  I am a bit saddened that the overall plot was sorted out in three books, as knowing the finish makes it a little difficult to be worried about later sets of characters that might get written into the middle of the series in the future.

Still, lighthearted, fun, lots of girl power,some enjoyable revolt against evil crazy elven tyranny.

Good fun for an evening!

Picture Book: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile Storybook Treasury by Bernard Waber

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile (50th Edition Storybook Treasury)
Bernard Waber
ISBN: 9780547516189

Contains the following four books:

The House on East 88th Street
Lyle, Lyle Crocodile
Lyle and the Birthday Party
Lyle Walks the Dogs

Finally - a classic children's book that I remember from childhood!

Anyway.  I've loved Lyle forever.  He's so sweet and funny shaped and bright green!  These are the first four (I think) of the series, starting with the House on East 88th Street (featuring Hector P. Valenti, star of stage and screen!) and moving Lyle's sad tenure in the zoo (because of that mean old meany Loretta cat) his shenanigans at the birthday party that led to his hospitalization, and finally, his unfortunate dog-walking adventure (which is less of a story and more of a stretched counting rhyme, but it's Lyle, so really I'm not complaining too much here).

I didn't even know that there was a collected version until late last week, and I bought it on the spot.  It's just as cute as I remember, although one tiny niggle that I didn't notice as a child was the emphasis on Lyle's being so "helpful" and doing lots of chores for the family, and how he always feels better after focusing on other people's needs (which is actually psychologically true, but somewhat problematic as a character trait if taken too far).

I dunno - I loved these as a kid, and I won't have any troubles reading them to my own, or having them read them to themselves, but I do think as an adult that Lyle is a bit more codependent than is really healthy.  Although, if you're going to have a crocodile in a brownstone in a city, it's probably best to have a codependent one.  Even if he is addicted to Turkish caviar.

Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, Tony Cliff (or, how I finally read an adult book this month, dear god in heaven)

Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant
Tony Cliff
ISBN: 9781596438132
Graphic Novel (167 p)
Read Feb 24, 2014

I love it!  Can't wait for the sequel (which will be a while, sadly) Delilah Dirk and the Blades of England (tentative title) - I might have followed Mr Cliff on tumblr so I can keep up with the news of his adventures in sequelae.

So - we begin with this really epically unsuited for his job Janisarry Lieutenant.  Seriously, so mismatched.  Poor Erdemoglu really would be most happy just staying in a tea-shop and being meek and watching the world go by.  He's like a textbook "beta" male.  He gets the piss beat out of him in the weekly scrambles for their paychecks (Was that really a thing?  That sucks!)  He's a bit pathetic, and totally adorable.  And of course, he's going to get wrapped up in some hard-core adventuring, with a very recent prisoner of his court, who manages to get him nearly executed as a traitor during her escape.

So now poor Erdemoglu is stuck with this crazy woman (seriously - she's a killer! she has a flying ship!  she steals treasure from evil pirates!) traipsing across the wilderness with all the discomfort and hardship that entails... until he has a chance to regain a peaceful cozy life, and discovers that Delilah's zest for life is infectious, and just maybe, he's not going to be happy until he's on the run again.

Spunky heroines and clever problem-solving gents for the win!  Very similar in tone to Rapunzel's Revenge by the Hales, or to Girl Genius (if you're comparing the more crazy scenes from here with the less crazy scenes from there).

Tuesday Storytime: "Love My Library" Month, Week 4

Last week of our "Love My Library" promotion, and I feel like it's just flown by!

Saved the best (in my opinion) for last, of course.

The Library
Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small
ISBN: 0374343888
Read Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014

Words cannot express how much I LOVE this book.  When I read it the first time, it was like a religious experience for me - like this was the magical rhymed and illustrated re-telling of my life and pre-telling of my future.  It's just perfect.  Absolutely perfect.  Go read it.


 
Bats at the Library
Brian Lies
ISBN: 9780618999231
Read Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014

These bats do get around - they've been to the beach, the ballgame, and now they're at the library.  This is lovely, short, and sweet, with the kiddie bats being irrepressible, and the elder bats happily returning to old favorites.  Bats using the copy machine and projector are always good sidetracks.



Library Lion
Michelle Knudsen, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes
ISBN: 9780763622626
Read Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014

This book is so sweet and perfect.  Every library needs a tame lion.  The pictures are delightful and just smudgy and washed out enough to look fuzzy and velvety, and the expressions on people's faces and bodies are delightful from beginning to end.  Subtle sense of humor a definite plus.



And that's all she wrote for the Love My Library Storytimes - we'll be back with another batch (probably with many of these same delightful books) for National Library Card Sign Up Month in September, and then again next February.

Until then, next on the agenda is Mighty Ladies!  Larger-than-life women from legend, tall-tales, history, and maybe even your own household.

See you next week!

Andrew Henry's Meadow, Doris Burn

Andrew Henry's Meadow
Doris Burn
ISBN: 9780399256080
Read Feb 24, 2014

Another "classic" that I somehow never heard of.  I know I read a lot as a child, but I'm beginning to think that I just read the same few approved Christian books over and over and over again.  That and Childcraft and Disney storybooks.

This book is also a bit of an interesting case - apparently the original has much more intricate illustrations (which is frankly hard to believe given the ones seen in this edition) that were altered/zoomed in for the re-print.  Regardless, they are still nifty, and have lots of nice pen-and-ink scratchy illustrated details for readers to pore over.

Andrew Henry is an inventor, and he's also a middle child - his older sisters don't really want to associate with him, and his little brothers are too little to really be interested in his inventions.  So he runs away and creates a house for himself in a nearby meadow.  What's really interesting is that like flies to a honeypot, a collection of neighbor kids begin arriving in the same meadow - girls and boys alike - united in their need to have a place of their own to engage with their hobbies and interests.  Andrew Henry accomodates them all with a series of incredibly awesome personalized houses, and they live happily in their meadow for 4 days until their frantic families search them out and return them back home.

For Andrew Henry, his family gives him part of the basement for his workshop, and become much more invested in paying attention to him and his inventions.

(I would love to see a full-length children's novel or film written out that combines this and the picture book Roxaboxen, and Weslandia.  It would be epic.  Parents would freak, and kids everywhere would be so happy.

This book was recommended by The Read-Aloud Handbook

Two Times the Fun, Beverly Cleary

Two Times the Fun
Beverly Cleary
ISBN: 0060579226
Read Feb 24, 2014

Clearing out all of my little Juvie stuff so I can get back into the swing of YA and genre reads again.

This is a cute set of books.  I plan to add it to my personal bookshelf for reading to little ones of my own (if I ever get there).

Beverly Cleary had previously written these stories as individual easy-reader stand-alone works, under the following titles:

The Real Hole from 1960
Two Dog Biscuits from 1961
The Growing-Up Feet from 1987
Janet's Thingamajigs from 1987

Janet and Jimmy are twins, and they are four years old.  In these four independent stories, the twins each have a chance to show off their growing independence (and their abilities to drive Mom up the wall with their growing independence, but that's secondary).  The great thing about these stories is that they are totally real every-day events - no magic, no weirdness, no drama, no earthshaking conflicts or crisis - just two little kids growing up together and living together.

The Real Hole: Jimmy digs a hole - he likes "real" things - real shovels, real holes - and he's devastated when his hole is too big to safely keep in the yard.  Dad solves things with a tree.

Two Dog Biscuits: Jimmy and Janet are visiting next door and get dog-biscuits from the neighbor dog.  Mom takes them on a walk to find a dog to give the biscuits to, but none of them meet the twins stringent standards.  A neighbor cat is gifted with their bounty, and surprises Mom by actually eating the things.

The Growing-Up Feet: Mom thinks that the twins need new shoes (personally think Mom thinks she needs out of the house) but the shoe salesman disagrees.  The twins had been very much looking forward to the now non-forthcoming new shoes.  Upset averted by the purchase of stretchy red galoshes that fit over current shoes, and will stretch to fit new shoes also.  Bonus puddle party in the driveway while Dad washes the car.

Janet's Thingamajigs: Janet starts collecting little "treasures" and Jimmy handles this poorly.  Janet begins storing her treasures in sealed paper bags in her rail-sided bed.  Janet is now sleeping in a nest of rustly paper bags "like a mouse" so Mom goes ahead and buys them new "grown-up" beds (with no railings) so that the paper bags can't stay.  Twins are thrilled to be grown-up, and the treasures aren't missed.

This book recommended by The Read-Aloud Handbook