Tag: books

THE PRINCE OF THE POND
By Donna Jo Napoli
Puffin, 1992

Category: Middle-grade Fiction

This is one of my all time favorite read-aloud chapter books; I have now read it to my kids twice. It is impossible to read without doing the voices, which explains why my kids spent most of both readings rolling on their bedroom floor belly-laughing. And that explains why I enjoy this book so much … all that rolling and belly-laughing makes me happy.

The story is told by a female frog, later named Jade, who comes across the craziest thing in the hag’s yard: a giant, clumsy, and very handsome male frog. She finds him on the slate walkway, right next to a pile of fancy human clothes. Although the big male has trouble hopping and croaking and even catching bugs with his tongue, he seems like a nice frog. Jade sticks with him, and so we are treated to a frog’s-eye view of the frog prince … um, I mean the fawg pin.

Our book picks for the rest of the week are banned and beautiful (we’ve chosen #14 and #21). Happy Banned Books Week to one and all!

 

RED KAYAK
By Priscilla Cummings
Puffin Books, 2004

Category: Middle grade fiction

Okay, that last post was a little … smug? Snarky? Presumptuous? Let me try again …

Brady, is a good kid. So are his friends, J.T. and Digger. They live on the Chesapeake Bay where they can crab and oyster fish together in summer, skate together in winter, and help one another with chores (endless chores) all year round. But even good kids make mistakes, and this book—this incredible book—shows readers how hard owning up to those mistakes can be.

RED KAYAK is intense, gut-wrenching, and difficult to put aside once you’ve begun. I have added it to my “Favorite Books Ever” list and cannot recommend it highly enough.

Now, as I suggested earlier … read this book!

 

BIG SLICK
By Eric Luper
FSG, 2007

Category: Young adult fiction

I’ve warned you. I’ve told you and told you again that this book was coming … and that it was a must read. And now I am back to tell you that BIG SLICK is here!

My copy arrived on Friday, and it has been an incredible weekend. I’ve been able to scour the cover, analyze the flap copy, giggle over the author blurb, marvel at the snazzy interior design choices, and, most importantly, read the book. It is a dizzying thing, to read in published form for the first time a book you watched grow from a short story idea into a debut novel … and to see in print for the first time the name of a person you know is destined for big things.

BIG SLICK is here. Read it!

 

CAMEL RIDER
By Prue Mason
Charlesbridge, 2007

Category: Middle grade fiction

Lately my boys have had a lot of questions about the war. The most troublesome for me has been this: “Why doesn’t it feel like we are at war?” I have mixed feelings when I tell them that nine-year-old boys living in Iraq today are probably experiencing a war more like the one my boys hold in their imaginations … armies, battles, scary times. It reassures them (and me) to know they are far away from the danger, but it inevitably reminds me how little I know about life in the Middle East. It was against the backdrop of these worries that we decided to read CAMEL RIDER; we were hoping for a glimpse at life in that part of the world.

CAMEL RIDER is the story of two boys: Adam lives with his family in an ex-pat community in Abudai, Walid is a slave, forced to race camels for abusive owners. The boys come from different cultures, speak different languages, practice different religions, and live completely disparate lives … but when war comes unexpectedly to Abudai, they are thrust together, alone and in the desert. Their only chance at survival is finding a way to work together.

The book did give the boys and me a better sense for the Middle East as a place, and we came away with at least an appreciation for the cultural differences between Arabs and westerners. Kudos to Prue Mason, and to Charlesbridge, for giving us a place to start.

One last note: the author uses both Adam’s and Walid’s points of view to tell the story, and the switches happen frequently, even within chapters. These point of view changes are marked in the text by font changes, but are harder to convey when reading the book out loud.

 

MARINE LIFE OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
By Andy Lamb and Bernard P. Hanby
Photography by Bernard P. Hanby
Harbour Publishing, 2005

One of the truly special aspects of writing TRACKING TRASH was the people I met along the way, and one of the truly special people I met was Bernie Hanby, an underwater photographer from British Columbia.

One of Bernie’s photographs, a walleye Pollock, appears on page 31 of TRACKING TRASH. The same photograph appears in on page 364 of MARINE LIFE OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, an encyclopedia of marine invertebrates, seaweeds, and fishes. The book is a compilation of Bernie’s lifetime of underwater photography, and it is simply astonishing. I’ve spent weeks lingering over more than 1700 color images, nearly as many textual descriptions, and a single, inspirational dedication:

“This book, reflecting a shared curiosity, is dedicated to all who are interested in the magic and wonder of the marine world, with the hope that increased interest will result in its preservation.”

Thank you, Bernie, for sharing your images with the world and for sharing this incredible book with me.

 

TRIANGLE
By Katharine Weber
Picador/FSG, 2006

Category: Adult Fiction

Library books on the seven-day shelf are not for me. First of all, books on the seven-day shelf are usually novels for adults, and I just don’t read many these days. Second of all, seven is not a lot of days; seven is a lot of pressure. But my friend Jane, reader extraordinaire and director of my local library, handed me a copy of Katharine Weber’s TRIANGLE and told me to read it. When I tapped the Seven Day Sticker taped to its spine and raised my eyebrows, she said “We’re closed on Labor Day, which buys you an extra day. Read it.”

So, I did.

The opening chapter is a fictionalized first-hand account of the 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York, and it leaves little room for turning back. The long shadow of this tragedy and, incidentally, of the 9/11 attacks, shades the rest of the novel. The author’s ability to use the former to evoke the latter surprised me, and reminded me how permanently the events of September 11, 2001 are embedded in my psyche. Weber’s characters are vibrant and, in one case, completely unexpected. I’m glad I read TRIANGLE (Thanks, Jane!) … and pleased to report I returned it to the library on time. No pressure, no fines.

 

DOG AND BEAR
By Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Roaring Brook/Neal Porter, 2007

Category: Picture book
Awards: Boston Globe-Horn Book Award

I sent my babies off into the world this morning, armed with an abundance of school supplies and a few true-blue stories …

Back-to-school week, the most thrilling and overwhelming week of childhood and parenthood alike, was the perfect time to share this picture book with the kids. Dog is brave, demanding and at times insecure. Bear is skittish, exasperated, and faithful. I saw a little bit of myself in each character, and I think the kids saw a bit of themselves, too.

Two friends. Three stories. Four thumbs up!

 

REALITY LEAK
By Joni Sensel
Illustrations by Christian Slade
Henry Holt, 2007

Category: Middle-grade fiction

The boys and I agree: this is an odd little book. But we couldn’t stop reading it, because it is odd in a reminiscent-of-Roald-Dahl, you-want-to-find-out-how-it-all-plays-out sort of a way. And the illustrations rock.

The town of South Wiggot doesn’t know what to make of its newest business, Acme Inc. But when the family dog turns up FLAT and the toaster starts popping up MAIL, Bryan Zilcher is determined to learn what is really going on over at Acme Inc. And what’s really going on is downright zany.

It is possible this is the last book we will read aloud this summer; school begins on Tuesday. How did that happen? (But, oh, I can finally sleep in again!)

 

YOU CAN MAKE A COLLAGE
By Eric Carle
Klutz, 1998

Category: Specialty book

This “book” consists of a collection of brightly painted tissue papers, created by the one-and-only Eric Carle, and instructions on how to use them to create collage. It is not a book you read, but a book you do. I bought it at the Gift Shop of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art two years ago and we have been saving it for a special occasion. The last Tuesday of summer, a dreary and blustery day of confinement (my littlest is still recovering), seemed a good day to explore the art of tissue collage.

It is not as easy as Eric Carle makes it look! But the results are stunning, don’t you think?

This image was created by the little patient; she calls it “Flower and Caterpillar”.

This image was created by me; I call it “Clue to Subject of My Next Book”.