Author: Loree Burns

ABE LINCOLN CROSSES A CREEK
By Deborah Hopkinson & John Hendrix
(Schwartz & Wade, 2008)

Category: Picture book fiction

This is an interesting picture book, and if that children’s literature book circle I dream about existed—the one where a group of interested adults get together to read and discuss children’s literature over wine and chocolate—I would definitely choose this as a book to explore.

Firstly, is it really fiction? I mean, yes, there is made-up dialog, and that is typically a deal-breaker as far as biography goes. But the author uses a unique format to tell this story from Abe Lincoln’s childhood—a format that makes it very obvious to the reader that some of the details of the story have been lost to history. It is clear from the Author’s Note that the account is as historically accurate as is possible. Hmmm. I might maybe would have let this one be called a picture book biography. Might. Maybe.

Secondly, about that interesting presentation style. What do you think? Because I just can’t make up my mind. I love that the book makes readers think about history and how it slips away. I love how the author uses the format to both show and tell. And I think books that address the reader have an energy that is hard to achieve when that pesky fourth wall is intact. And yet … I found myself wondering if the style got in the way of the story.

Lastly, my favorite line:

“Remember Austin Gollaher, because what we do matters, even if we don’t end up in history books.”

It’s an especially great line, I think, when you read it in the context of the rest of the book; here, alone on the page like that, it doesn’t work as well. (Which, in itself, speaks again to the power of the author’s unique presentation style.)

Now, who’d like another piece of chocolate?

 

BROADSIDES FROM THE OTHER ORDERS, A Book of Bugs
By Sue Hubbell
Random House, 1993

Category: Nonfiction for Grownups

I ‘met’ Sue Hubbell when I read A BOOK OF BEES, and was enchanted by both her forthright style and the interesting way she sees the world. So, when I stumbled upon BROADSIDES FROM THE OTHER ORDERS while traipsing around the 595s at the library—in Dewey-speak, that’s the section for bugs—I couldn’t leave without it.

BROADSIDES is creative non-fiction at it’s finest, at least for someone like me who loves to learn about our world through the lives of interesting men and women who are out there observing it closely. Hubbell introduces us to entomologists from all across the country, and she shines as much light on their bugs as she does on their motivation.

If all this wasn’t enough to make me a Sue Hubbell fan, this was:

“I have over the course of a year and three camel-cricket generations learned something about the [crickets] in my terrarium. Each observation, however, has raised more questions than it answers, so the sum of my watching has caused me to grow in ignorance, not knowledge. None of what I have discovered has been published before, so it may be useful to record it here.”

Yep, she studies camel crickets. In her office. On her desk, in fact. And you can read what she has discovered in this enchanting little book of bugs.

 

THE MOON CAME DOWN ON MILK STREET
By Jean Gralley
Henry Holt, 2004

Category: Picture book

I picked this book up because of this review by Mary Cronin. We New Englanders have been dealing with calamity of our own, in the form of brutal ice and endless snow, and I wondered if this book that Mary spoke of so highly might help us—especially the youngest amongst us—to process this events of the past two weeks.

It will.

I was struck by the simple solace of the book’s frontispiece: “Fred Rogers has said that when he was a child, if he ever came across a car accident or some other terrifying scene, his mother would tell him, ‘Look for the helpers.’” In her book, Jean Gralley builds on this concept and creates a wonderful tribute to helpers everywhere … and the perfect antidote to scary times.

I’ll be using THE MOON CAME DOWN ON MILK STREET next month in Book Bunch, a picture book read-aloud class I run in the After School program here in town each winter. What a wonderful way for the students and I to reflect together on this wild and sometimes scary month.

Thank you Fred Rogers, thank you Jean Gralley, and thank you Mary Cronin!

 

THE PENDERWICKS ON GARDAM STREET
By Jeanne Birdsall
Knopf, 2008

Category: Middle Grade Fiction

It’s been more than a week since the ice storm of my last post, and I am still recovering. The schools in our town didn’t open until Thursday … and a giant snowstorm blew in and closed them again on Friday. It is very difficult to write—and to prepare for the holidays—when there is ice and snow everywhere and when your children are watching your every move!

On the upside, the kids and I have been reading up a storm of our own. THE PENDERWICKS ON GARDAM STREET was last week’s treat. I have to admit to a niggling worry about reading this book now, a full two years after the kids and I read THE PENDERWICKS together. The boys are ten, after all; would the capers of the Penderwick sisters still interest them?

Um, yes. Absolutely.

Even though their beloved Jeffrey didn’t have much of a role in the book. Even though they guessed the major plotline early on. Even though there was a lot of pre-teen crushing throughout. The boys (and their seven-year-old sister) were completely drawn in to the story. So was I.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jeanne in 2007, and I signed a copy of TRACKING TRASH for her. You will understand, then, why my breath caught a bit when I read this line, on page __ of THE PENDERWICKS ON GARDAM STREET:

[Hmmm. I returned the book to the library and cannot find the slip of paper on which I jotted the line in question. Ack! I will find the line and add it later. Suffice to say, it includes the words flotsam and jetsam, which, of course, litter my little book.]

Coincidence, of course. But it was kind of fun, just for a moment, to wonder …

 

© Loree Griffin Burns

This weekend I will continue to gather material for my CITIZEN SCIENTISTS book by heading to New York City’s Central Park for the 109th annual Christmas Bird Count. Some people think counting birds in the middle of winter sounds a bit crazy, whatever would those same people think of me, who plans to spend several days watching people count birds in the middle of winter?

This weekend’s weather promises to be frigid, but I know firsthand that Christmas Bird Counters are a hearty bunch; a little wintry weather won’t keep these dedicated citizen scientists from counting Central Park’s winter bird population. Also? A dusting of snow and overcast skies should make for gorgeous photographs.

In preparation for the trip, I’ve been reading up on birds and birding. There are a LOT of field guides and birding books out there, but I went back to my trusty FIELD GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, Second Edition (National Geographic, 1987) and the newer BIRDING ESSENTIALS, by Jonathan Alderfer and John L. Dunn (National Geographic, 2007).

I’ve scoured the shelves for birding books for younger readers, too, and found several I adore. Sadly, both these favorites are out of print:

NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY’S FIRST FIELD GUIDE BIRDS (Scholastic, 1998)
I really like this little field guide. The introductory material has just enough information to get kids excited about birds and how to spy on them, while the guide itself covers fifty of North America’s most common birds in easy-to-digest two-page spreads.

A KIDS FIRST BOOK OF BIRDWATCHING, by Scott Weidensaul (Quintet, 1990)
This is not a field guide, but a book for lingering over at home. It covers many of the popular North American birds with a little more detail than the guide above and includes a narrated cassette tape that I found marvelous. (Although I may be one of the few humans who still has cassette tape capability?)

I found both in the collection at my local library, though, and you may too.

Anyway, that’s what is up with me … all birds all the time, at least until January 5. Whatever you’ve got planned these coming weeks, I hope you are thrilled about it, too!