Tag: books

BECKY’S CHRISTMAS
By Tasha Tudor
Viking Press, 1961

Category: Illustrated story

The holiday season overwhelms me, what with Christmas carols being played in October and mall traffic jams mucking up travel during November. The crush of images—in print, online, and everywhere in between—meant to define the perfect holiday are just so far from where I live that, well, I get grouchy. Thank goodness for books. This weekend BECKY’S CHRISTMAS cheered me up.

My copy of this out-of-print classic was a gift from my friend Jane. (That in itself makes me feel better. Jane, you rock!) The story is classic old-time Christmas … complete with real candles and greens, hand-made advent calendars and gingerbread ornaments, siblings who share chores willingly and make gifts for one another secretly. One might argue that this vision of Christmas is as far from where I live as those I try so desperately to escape this time of year. To which I would respond with a cold, cold glare: “Yes. You’re right.”

But striving for Tasha Tudor’s vision stresses me less than striving for decorative perfection (inside and out), greeting card impeccability (to say nothing of timeliness), and season-long, over-the-top domestic flawlessness.

So there.

Happy Holidays!

LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL
By Jo Knowles
Candlewick, 2007

Category: Young Adult Fiction

As you will recognize from my earlier post, today is a thinking day. In addition to thinking about my personal Everest and my favorite nonfiction first lines, I am thinking about this amazing book. I read it over the weekend in two intense sittings. And it is one of those books—one of those rare and unforgettable books—that makes you think.

Laine McCarthy and Leah Greene were childhood friends. Unlikely friends—Laine was quiet and awkward, Leah was popular and beautiful—but friends nonetheless. When the book opens, Leah is dead, and Laine (brave, beautiful Laine!) is not sure how to feel about it. After reading their story, I don’t know how to feel about it either. I am left wondering about cruelty and secrets and resilience. Especially about resilience. (Why are some people instinctually resilient and others not? Why? WHY?)

LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL will break and heal your heart at the same time. It is hard to read and impossible to put down. It is sad and liberating and scary and comforting all at once. It will make you think.

 

EMI AND THE RHINO SCIENTIST
By Mary Kay Carson
Photographs by Tom Uhlman
Houghton Mifflin, 2007

Category: Middle Grade Nonfiction

I know that my singing the praises of “Scientists in the Field” books is not likely to mean much anymore. I mean, I’ve written one and I am working on another; of course I like them! Even still, I just read the latest and I have to mention it here …

Emi, a rare Sumatran rhinoceros, was orphaned as a baby calf, rescued by conservationists, and brought to the United States in hopes of breeding her. Terri Roth is a wildlife reproduction specialist who helped her become a mother. (It was not easy.) Readers follow their story through intelligent text and stunning images, beautifully arranged, as always.

Congratulations to author Mary Kay Carson and photographer Tom Uhlman on a book well done!

 

UP CLOSE: ROBERT F. KENNEDY
By Marc Aronson
Viking, 2007

Category: Young Adult Biography

I am a student at heart, one of those people who would go to school forever if I could manage it. But since I have only recently finished paying for my existing degrees, and because my three kids will be college-age in a blink, I make do by learning from the people I meet and the books I read. Marc Aronson is my latest teacher.

Marc keeps a blog, Nonfiction Matters, at the School Library Journal website. The issues he raises there are important … and his thoughts (and those of his readers) are always insightful. I learn much, and am inspired to think.

Marc has also written this magnificent biography of Robert F. Kennedy, and reading it was a lesson in craft. I was taken by Marc’s passion for his subject—it was palpable—and I couldn’t help but wonder at the massive responsibility a biographer assumes. Telling the story of a life is one thing, but getting to know a person well enough to explain their lives … that strikes me as another thing altogether. I can’t remember another biography that has given me such a strong sense of the author’s commitment to this task.

Great book. Great blog. I recommend both to all students of nonfiction.

 

THE SECRET OF PRIEST’S GROTTO
By Peter Lane Taylor and Christos Nicola
Kar-Ben, 2007

Category: Middle grade non-fiction

I discovered this book on the Cybils MG/YA Nonfiction list … and now that I have read it I see why it’s there.

Priest’s Grotto is the ninth-longest cave in the world, part of an enormous gypsum cave system in western Ukraine, and the setting for an incredible true story. At the end of World War II, an extended family of Jews hid from Hitler’s soldiers in Priest’s Grotto. For nearly one year, thirty-nine men, women, and children (the youngest was only two) survived—barely—in the dark, damp cavern. Theirs is a powerful story of courage and survival. This a book for your MUST READ list.

 

UP CLOSE: RACHEL CARSON
By Ellen Levine
Viking, 2007

Category: Young Adult Biography

Early on in my research for TRACKING TRASH I picked up an old, weathered copy of THE SEA AROUND US, by Rachel Carson. It was my first exposure to her work, and I finished the book with not only a clearer sense of our world ocean, but also a deep admiration for the woman of words and science who told the epic story of its existence. I have for a long time—since I closed the covers of that slim volume—wanted to know more about Ms. Carson, her life, and her work. Finally, I do.

If you are at all interested in science, in literature, in preserving in word or spirit the natural world in which we live, in people of courage and conviction, you should read this book. I am utterly inspired; “Brava!” to Ms. Levine for portraying a fine life in fine style.

 

SPITFIRE
By Kate Messner
North Country Books, 2007

Category: Middle-grade Historical Fiction

I met Kate Messner at the New England Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators conference in 2006. I was in the conference bookstore (buying books, of course!) and she walked right up and said hello. As I struggled mightily to place her face she let me off the hook, “We’ve never met. But I read your blog.”

The phrase knock me over with a feather floated to mind, and then is she for real? and people read my blog?. We talked, and I came away with a very nice impression of this writer from upstate New York. And I have been reading her blog ever since. Kate’s debut novel, SPITFIRE, was released in September and my own copy arrived a few short weeks ago.

Now, I have to tell you that reading the work of a friend—particularly when that friend is new and someone you have grown to like and respect—is a scary proposition. What if … well, what if? You know what I mean?

But Kate let me off the hook again. SPITFIRE is a great read. My kids and I were drawn into the lives of Abigail and Pascal, twelve-year-olds who took part in a naval battle on Lake Champlain during the Revolutionary War … a battle, by the way, that moved grown men to tears. Kate weaves their points-of-view well, creating a gripping narrative that had us re-thinking history (was the brave Captain Benedict Arnold really a traitor?) and war (did kids really fight in the Revolutionary War?) and gender stereotypes (this from my boys, “did a girl really write this book?”).

Well done, Kate. Well done!

 

WHO’S HIDING?
By Satoru Onishi
Kane/Miller, 2006

Category: Picture Book

Every year I find a picture book or two that are simply irresistible, and these become holiday gifts for all the munchkins on my shopping list. This year I will be giving lots (and lots and lots) of copies of WHO’S HIDING?

The premise is simple: twelve animals appear in the same arrangement on each double-page spread. But with each turn of the page someone changes: readers are challenged to find “Who’s crying?”, “Who’s angry?” and “Who’s hiding?” After pages and pages of this everyone knows which animal is where … a good thing because the pièce de résistance is the spread on which the lights go out: “Who’s who?”

This is a fun one to share with the younger set and even with beginning readers, like my daughter, who love to interact with their books. Check it out!

 

THE UGLY PUMPKIN
by Dave Horowitz
Putnam, 2005

Category: Picture book

I was sure I’d be the only one to blog about this book today, but I was wrong. Oh, well. I’ll settle for being the only one to post an ugly pumpkin picture:

My daughter’s kindergarten homework last week was to create a pumpkin with personality. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find a pumpkin in our garden small enough to carry to school herself (we grow ’em big around here). She did, however, find the cutest little butternut squash you ever did see. We remembered THE UGLY PUMPKIN and, Voila!, homework that stands out from a crowd.

If you are wondering about the plot of THE UGLY PUMPKIN, consider the title, the picture above, and the catchiest line in the book: “Oh my gosh, I’m a squash!”

Happy Halloween one and all!