Author: Loree Burns

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New England Year

NEW ENGLAND YEAR
By Muriel Follett
Stephen Daye Press, 1940
Yankee Publishing, 1988

Category: Adult Nonfiction (Memoir)

The writing project that most challenges me at the moment is a middle-grade historical novel. This is my first attempt at such a beast, and, truth be told, it is more than challenging. It is terrifying! My rational self recognizes this terror as a good sign; if I didn’t think the work was good, I’d feel nothing but frustration. But the truth is I like this book a great deal. I believe it has a lot of potential.

I also believe it is far from finished. Sigh.

To keep myself focused and to help me stay immersed in the time period I am writing about, I have cleared my bedside table of all the books I planned to read this month. In their stead I have stacked books published between 1920 and 1940, and the pile includes NEW ENGLAND YEAR, by Muriel Follett.

Muriel and Rob Follett raised their two children on a working farm in southeastern Vermont in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1938, Muriel kept a diary of daily life on the farm and someone, bless his or her soul, saw fit to publish it in book form. NEW ENGLAND YEAR is filled with the sorts of details that will help me to set my book in a time and place that was gone before I was born. But NEW ENGLAND YEAR is more than just a research tool; it is a fascinating look at the ways our living (and loving and working and playing and parenting) have changed in the past seventy years. Follett’s delicate narrative is addictive and her experiences a convincing testimonial for country life.

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Stone Fox

STONE FOX
By John Reynolds Gardiner
HarperTrophy, 1980

Category: Middle-grade Fiction

This little book shocked me. It was recommended by our children’s librarian, who knows emotional books get to me, and who knows that a book with racing sled dogs on the cover would get to my boys. We read the book in two sittings and I’m still thinking about it three days later.

Little Willy is ten and lives alone with his grandfather on their potato farm. One morning he wakes late to find Grandfather still in bed. Grandfather’s eyes are open, but he is unresponsive. Little Willy runs for Doc Smith, who examines Grandfather and offers this cryptic diagnosis:

“There is nothing wrong with him.”
“You mean he’s not sick?”
“Medically, he’s as healthy as an ox. Could live to be a hundred if he wanted to.”
“I don’t understand,” little Willy said.
Doc Smith took a deep breath. And then she began, “It happens when a person gives up. Gives up on life. For whatever reason. Starts up here in the mind first; then it spreads to the body. It’s a real sickness, all right. And there’s no cure excpet in the person’s own mind. I’m sorry, child, but it appears that your grandfather just doesn’t want to live anymore.”

So Little Willy takes it upon himself to bring back Grandfather’s will to live. I thought I knew how this one was going to end. In fact, I was rather smug about how see-through the plot was. But the author slipped in a doozy of an ending that left me wondering whether I loved the book or hated it. I mean, if a book is technically flawed (and I think this one has several logistic holes) but the story pulls you in and keeps you turning the pages, if certain aspects of the plot bother you, but the story as a whole leaves you, at the last, in tears … well, then, can you criticize it? I think not.

If you’ve read STONE FOX, I’d love to hear what you thought.

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Tracking Trash

TRACKING TRASH
By Loree Griffin Burns
Houghton Mifflin, 2007

Yesterday afternoon was like any other around here. By three o’clock all three of my kids were home, plus an extra—a guest for the afternoon—and all was chaos. How can four children hyped up on Friday afternoon possibilities and playing in January air that smells like spring create anything but chaos? They were flinging coats and backpacks in my general direction and asking for snacks and choosing sides for the soccer game all in the same breath. Chaos.

And so I was distracted when the Fedex man showed up in his white van. I’ve gotten used to him turning up at this time of day since I began reviewing books for the Cybils award. The package he handed me was clearly a book. Nothing unusual. Except that my Cybils work is done and I wasn’t expecting any more books. Hmmm. The return address raised my eyebrows further: Houghton Mifflin. That’s my publisher. Hmmm. I stopped thinking about whether the kids would deal with clementines as a Friday afternoon snack and ripped open the package.

Can you guess what was inside? I can hardly believe it now, twenty-four hours later. It was my book. An actual hardcover copy of TRACKING TRASH, complete with a jacket cover sporting my name and, in the flap, my photograph. I knew it would come eventually, of course. I’ve pored over proofs and seen the ARCs and have recently been distributing bookmarks with the book’s cover on them. But none of that prepared me for actually holding this book in my hands.

Crazy.

There was a momentary lull in the din as my husband assembled the troops for an impromptu standing ovation. We celebrated in style: Oreos and milk all around. Then the kids went back to their Friday afternoon, my husband went back to work, and I started to thumb through the pages of this little wonder.

Crazy.

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Eleanor

ELEANOR
Written and Illustrated by Barbara Cooney
Viking, 1996

Category: Picture book biography

My daughter picked this book off the shelf today. With Christmas behind us and her brothers back to school and no sign of winter anywhere (to a five-year-old the one and only sign of winter is white and fluffy and falls from the sky), I think my little one was in a gloomy mood. I’ve always thought the cover art for ELEANOR gloomy and somber. Could my daughter have picked up on this, too?

The title Eleanor is none other than Eleanor Roosevelt, and this picture book explores her childhood. It was a hard childhood, a very sad childhood. How hard? How very sad? Here is the opening line of the book:

“From the beginning, the baby was a disappointment to her mother. She was born red and wrinkled, an ugly little thing. And she was not a boy.”

Ouch. My daughter wrinkled her brow and dropped her little jaw. “Mothers are supposed to love their babies,” she whispered. Indeed. Thankfully, there were bright spots in Eleanor Roosevelt’s childhood. Throughout the course of the book Father, Uncle Ted and Mlle. Souvestre (one of Eleanor’s teachers and perhaps the brightest of the bright spots) help young Eleanor to blossom. Barbara Cooney’s illustrations are lovely, the likenesses true, and the story, ultimately, triumphant.

My daughter was not interested in the Afterword, and so did not hear that Eleanor went on to become one of the most beloved women of her time. It was enough for her that Eleanor overcame her Mother’s disdain, her many fears and her shy nature … that Eleanor found people who loved her and who she loved in return. Once that happy ending was secure, my little love left me on the couch and headed back to the bookshelf. What was she after? “A book that is really, really, really about snow!”

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The Caretaker of Tree Palace

THE CARETAKER OF TREE PALACE
By C. Dawn McCallum
Illustrations by Morgan Doxey
Longhorn Creek Press, 2006

A writer friend once suggested to me that the best way to thank a fellow writer for wisdom shared or advice given is to buy a copy of their book. Duh! Why didn’t I think of that myself? Talk about a win-win … your colleague sells a book and you get a new read.

And so I bought myself a copy of THE CARETAKER OF TREE PALACE over the holidays. Its author, Cindy Dawn McCallum, has acquired a wealth of experience as she toured with her first novel in the fall … and she has generously answered my many questions about the process. I appreciate her kindness and look forward to cracking open her literary eco-novel.

Good luck, Cindy Dawn!

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Book Blogs

I thought my loyal readers (both of you!) might want to check out the blogs of the other members of the MG/YA Nonfiction Nominating Panel (see previous post). These four women are book lovers of the highest order … and were a pleasure to work with. (Mindy, by the way, was not a panelist. Her job was to keep the rest of us on target and elbow-deep in review copies!)

Emily

Becky

Kim

Ida

Mindy

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Cybils Finalists Announced

Happy New Year!

The 2006 Children’s and YA Bloggers’ Literary Award finalists have been announced!

Five finalists in eight categories (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Fiction, Middle Grade/YA Nonfiction, Young Adult Fiction, Picture Book Nonfiction, Picture Book Fiction, and Poetry) were announced yesterday at the Cybils website. The winners will be announced, well, soon. The date hasn’t been posted yet.

I served on the Nominating Committee for the Middle Grade/YA Nonfiction category and can tell you that wheedling a list of 37 excellent titles to a list of five finalists was an engaging–and difficult–task. I can only imagine what torture the past six weeks must have been for the panelists in the middle grade fiction category (63 nominations) or the Picture Book Fiction category (111 nominations!). So many fabulous books, so few awards.

The five finalists in the Middle Grade/YA Nonfiction category, listed alphabetically by title, are:

ESCAPE! The Story of the Great Houdini
by Sid Fleischman

FREEDOM WALKERS, The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
by Russell Freedman

IMMERSED IN VERSE, An Informative, Slightly Irreverent & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poet’s Life
by Allan Wolf

ISAAC NEWTON
by Kathleen Krull

TEAM MOON, How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon
by Catherine Thimmesh

These books represent the best in MG/YA Non-fiction for 2006. If you haven’t read them yet, get to it!

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The Higher Power of Lucky

THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY
By Susan Patron
Illustrations by Matt Phelan
Atheneum (Richard Jackson Books), 2007

Category: Middle-grade Fiction

Oh, la-La! This was a roller coaster read.

I picked it up off the new fiction shelf at the library because the cover art appealed to me. And the title was intriguing. What is the higher power of lucky, anyway? My finely tuned senses (ha!) recognized a book with potential; I took it home.

But, alas, the first chapters disappointed me. I had trouble getting into the story. I wasn’t sure I liked the protagonist. And, Good Lord, there were quirky characters appearing left and right! There was Lucky, the ten-year-old protagonist, who is an orphan with a penchant for eavesdropping on seven step meetings. Her friend Lincoln has a serious–almost creepy–affection for knots (yes, knots, as in tied rope), her friend Miles has a cookie fetish and an obvious issue with mother loss, her grown-up friend Short Sammy is a recovering alcoholic who lives in an abandoned water tower, her Guardian Brigette is a homesick French citizen who was once married to Lucky’s father and who apparently agreed to serve as Lucky’s guardian when Lucky’s mother was killed in a freak weather accident. This was all a bit TOO MUCH for me; I thought about quitting.

But then I read chapter four. It’s called “graffiti” and it contains some of the finest show-don’t-tell-ing I have seen in a while. In this chapter, the author showed me the very essence of Lucky and Lincoln and their friendship, and she showed me what life in Hard Pan, California is all about. In the process, she gained my trust. I realized I was in good hands and I committed to the author, her quirky characters, and their story.

The rest of the book was a lovely ride. Lucky believes Brigette is planning to abandon her in order to return to France, and the only way Lucky can think to stop Brigette from going is by running away. But in a place like Hard Pan, even the simple act of running away is quirky and complicated.

THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY is worth a read. If you give it a try, promise me you will hang in there at least until chapter four. And be sure to let me know what you think.

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Briar Rose

BRIAR ROSE
By Jane Yolen
Starscape, 1992

This has been a year of Holocaust books for me. From Jenna Blum’s THOSE WHO SAVE US to Jennifer Roy’s YELLOW STAR to Kathy Kacer’s HIDING EDITH (which I have not blogged about yet), it seems as if I am searching out these stories. If I am, it is a completely subconscious act. This weekend I read BRIAR ROSE, by Jane Yolen. When I picked it up I knew only that it was a retelling of Sleeping Beauty and that it was written by one of America’s most prolific writers of fiction for children. I didn’t know it was a Holocaust story.

In Yolen’s version of Sleeping Beauty, Briar Rose dies quietly of old age in America, leaving her granddaughter, Becca, with an urgent deathbed request: “Promise me you will find the castle. Promise me you will find the prince. Promise me you will find the maker of the spells.” Becca promises and subsequently finds herself drawn into her grandmother’s secretive (and scary) past. Becca’s journey to the castle and the maker of spells is replete with images that I will never shake. And I am profoundly grateful to the author and her colleagues for creating works of fiction that will keep all of humanity from forgetting the Holocaust.

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Pictures of Hollis Woods

PICTURES OF HOLLIS WOODS
By Patricia Reilly Giff
Random House (Wendy Lamb Books), 2002

Category: Middle-grade fiction (Newbery Honor Book)

Happy Holidays! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa! Merry Christmas! However you celebrate the joy of light during the winter months, I hope the festivities were fulfilling and that you were able to find some time for reading and relaxing. For the first time in two months–since I started reading Middle Grade/YA non-fiction books for the Cybils award–I curled up with a book of fiction over the weekend. As luck would have it, I chose an intense and fast-paced novel that was perfect for holiday reading.

Hollis Woods is twelve and she has had a tough time of it. Parentless and misunderstood, she is jerked from one foster home to another, (almost) never feeling at home and relying on her drawings for self-expression and survival. It is only when she lands in a situation that fits her, living with an elderly and eccentric art teacher named Josie, that Hollis is able to explore her recent past and the pain of losing the Reagans, a foster family that she adored.

Patricia Reilly Giff uses flashback so well in this book. The tension in Hollis’ new life with Josie (Josie’s increasing forgetfulness is making her an unfit guardian for Hollis) and in her old life with the Reagans (something happened to make Hollis leave the Reagan family, but what?) couple to make an intense and satisfying novel.