Tag: books

In a (vain) attempt to catch my reading blog up with my actual reading, I’m going to spin the “Five on Friday” theme a bit. Here are five more books my family brought home from last weekend’s Fish Tales, Tugs & Sails festival and which we have been reading together this week:

ACROSS THE WIDE OCEAN
by Karen Romano Young
Greenwillow, 2007
I wish this gorgeous and unique introduction to oceans and ocean travel had been available when I was writing TRACKING TRASH, because I would have suggested it as further reading. In fact, if you happen to own a copy of TRACKING TRASH, open to page 54 and add ACROSS THE WIDE OCEAN to the list of “Books to Enjoy”.

A DROP AROUND THE WORLD
by Barbara Shaw McKinney
Illustrated by Michael S. Maydak
Dawn Publications, 1998
Barbara Shaw McKinney had a great rapport with her audience …

PASS THE ENERGY, PLEASE
by Barbara Shaw McKinney
Illustrated by Chad Wallace
Dawn Publications, 1999
… and I love her topics.

SHELLS! SHELLS! SHELLS!
By Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Marshall Cavendish, 2007
This book caught the eye of my beach-loving daughter the moment we arrived at the festival. Nancy Elizabeth Wallace went on to mesmerize my little one further with her reading and with her gifts for the audience (shells, of course!). I was captured by Nancy’s tales of turning recycled products (bill envelopes, bar codes, clementine sacks, etc) into art for her books.

IBIS, A TRUE WHALE STORY
By John Himmelman
Scholastic, 1990
John Himmelman was shocked when my son showed up at the signing table with our tattered and old paperback edition of this story. It has been a family favorite for years (and years and years) and we were all thrilled to have it inscribed by the author. Thanks, John!

 

ZUZU’S WISHING CAKE
By Linda Michelin
Illustrated by D.B. Johnson
Houghton Mifflin, 2006

Category: Picture book

Zuzu’s got a new neighbor and she wants to get to know him. But the new boy doesn’t come outside to play or respond to Zuzu’s attempts at friendship. In fact, it is very possible the new boy doesn’t speak English. These obstacles might stop an ordinary kid, but not Zuzu. With a loaf of bread, a jar of jam, and a lot of flair, Zuzu creates a gift no one can resist … not even her new neighbor.

I met the creators of this book over the weekend. Linda Michelin and D.B. Johnson are a kind, generous, and creative couple; it is easy to see where Zuzu got her virtue. I look forward to reading this one to my little niece, for whom it was purchased, and pointing out the author’s inscription:

“Wishing works!”

And I am wondering if another little girl I adore–a little girl who happens to be stuck with Mom all day tomorrow while her big brothers go off swimming with a friend–might dig a wishing cake for lunch …

 

HENRY HIKES TO FITCHBURG
By D.B. Johnson
Houghton Mifflin, 2000

Category: Picture book
Awards: Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, 2000

There is so much goodness wrapped up in my copy of HENRY HIKES TO FITCHBURG.

Firstly, it is a marvelous book. Daniel Pinkwater called it, “A masterpiece … the finest illustrations I’ve seen in years and years”. I agree on both counts.

Equally important to me is the fact that our copy of HENRY HIKES TO FITCHBURG was a gift from dear friends. Sam and Ben were two years old when it arrived in the mail (I just peeked in on them, sleeping in the wee hours, and they are so long and lanky that I can hardly believe they were once two year-olds) and we were living within walking distance of Fitchburg. Our friends Hans, Carolyn and Jordan wrote inside the book: “May you enjoy many hikes!”

About a year later, D. B. Johnson visited our local library. I brought the boys, then three, and they loved watching D.B. draw Henry on his big, white artpad. Ben was particularly mesmerized … and he has not stopped drawing since. D. B. wrote in the book, just over the first inscription: “Enjoy the blackberries!”

On Saturday the boys and I got to meet D.B. Johnson again at the Fish Tales, Tugs & Sails festival in New London, Connecticut. This time I was a published author, too, and appeared alongside D. B. and his wife, author Linda Michelin. D.B. and Linda were kind and encouraging. They came to my presentation, smiled all the way through, and then bought a copy of my book. In a stunning example of above and beyond, these two generous people returned to the author tent late in the day, at the time allotted for D.B.’s presentation, to tell me they had read and enjoyed the first two chapters of TRACKING TRASH.

And so you will surely understand how I feel about my beautiful copy of HENRY HIKES TO FITCHBURG. This book has grown layers of meaning over the years; when I hold it I want to sing about friendship and creativity and kindnesses. I don’t, of course (I cannot sing a whit!), but I think about all of these things before I open the cover and read:

“One summer day, Henry and his friend decided to go to Fitchburg to see the country.”

Oh, the journey!

 

NIGHT
Written by Elie Wiesel
Read by Jeffrey Rosenblatt
Audio Bookshelf, 2000

Category: Memoir for Young Adults and Adults

I listened to NIGHT while driving from Massachusetts to Delaware this past Sunday. I’ve been meaning to read it for ages, especially since I noticed, recently, that I have been reading a lot of Holocost-themed books. And now that I have heard it read out loud, I have to agree with this jacket quote: “undoubtably the single most powerful literary relic of the holocaust.”

There isn’t much that truly scares me. Oh, I have my fears, of course. The thought of harm visiting my children leaves me choking on my own breath; I worry about the health and well-being of my sister, my friends, and my extended family; I am anxious about global warming and the state of our planet; I do not dig traveling alone. Most days I calm these fears by focusing on the awesome complexity of life on Earth, the diversity of form and function, the incredible breadth of experience we humans are privy to, all that I know which is good and right in the world. As I was driving, though, and listening to NIGHT, my one true fear came into sharp focus: a world without Humanity.

That is a world I couldn’t bear.

That is the world Elie Wiesel survived.

I highly recommend you read his story.

 

A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT
By Linda Urban
Harcourt, September 2007

Category: Middle-grade fiction

I must admit at the outset that it is hard for me to separate the fabulous-ness of this book from the fabulous-ness of its author…

I sat in on a workshop that Linda Urban gave at the 2006 New England SCBWI Conference, Creating Great Bookstore Events, and was struck with her sincerity, her straightforward manner, and her sense of humor. A year later, at the 2007 Conference, I spent an evening eating and talking shop with Linda (and several equally fabulous local writers). Sincere. Straightforward. Funny. My first impressions of Linda were borne out.

And now that I have read Linda’s debut novel for young readers (Thank you Cynthia Lord!), I am not at all surprised to report that it is also sincere, straightforward, and very funny.

Zoe Elias is a little girl with big dreams … piano-prodigy-playing-Carnegie-Hall-in-a-diamond-tiara dreams. And she is pretty sure that the only things holding her back are her wheezebag organ (so NOT a piano), her agoraphobic Dad, and her workaholic Mom. I loved the snappy format and the clever way the chapter titles and text worked together*. I loved how recurring elements crept up on me and, well, punched me in the stomach**. I loved how the book made me look at the perfectly crooked parts of my life and smile***.

Hooray for you, Linda!

* Reluctant readers will love this, too.
** Writing teachers will love this, too.
*** Who won’t love this?

 

THE LANGUAGE OF GOD, A SCIENTIST PRESENTS EVIDENCE FOR BELIEF
by Francis S. Collins
Free Press, 2006

Category: Adult Non-fiction

Francis Collins heads the Human Genome Project, a government-supported research program charged with sequencing the entire human genome. (This incredible feat was accomplished–with help from many national and international contributors–in 2003.) His book has been in my TO READ pile since its publication, but I have passed it over time and again. Why? Well, because this is a book I wanted to dwell on. This is a book I wanted to read slowly and carefully and with my full attention. This is a book I wanted to think about.

And here I am. Vacationing. Dwelling. Thinking. It’s bliss…

 

THE CHRISTMAS MENORAHS, HOW A TOWN FOUGHT HATE
By Janice Cohn
Illustrated by Bill Farnsworth
Albert Whitman and Company, 1995

Category: Illustrated story

Christmas in July? Well, sort of.

I am doing some curriculum work this summer. Firstly, I am working on a curriculum guide for TRACKING TRASH. Secondly, I am writing several curriculum stories based on the history of my Unitarian Universalist (UU) church. Both have been rewarding, if somewhat difficult, projects. It was while working on the UU lessons that I came across THE CHRISTMAS MENORAHS.

The book is based on actual events that occurred in Billings, Montana during the 1993 holiday season. A rock was thrown through the menorah-lighted bedroom window of a boy named Isaac Schnitzer. Isaac is shocked—to say nothing of frightened—to learn that his family was targeted simply because they are Jewish. When the local paper prints full-page menorahs, the Billings community responds in force: thousands of menorahs are displayed in windows—windows of all classes and all creeds—across the city. Take that, haters!

I like this book as a tool for framing discussions about hate crimes and standing together against bigots. And I like it for reminding me to stand up, too … in my own small way in my own small life.

 

THIS IS A POEM THAT HEALS FISH
By Jean-Pierre Simeon
Illustrated by Olivier Tallec
Translated by Claudia Zoe Bedrick
Enchanted Lion Books, 2007

Category: Picture book

So busy around here these days! And hot, too. Very hot.

We are still working our way through HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE in anticipation of the release. And I have been playing “Who Should Illustrate My New Picture Book?” … so have been reading lots of picture books. THIS IS A POEM THAT HEALS FISH was one of my recent favorites.

The cover caught my eye from the top of the bookshelves of the library Children’s Room. It shows a young boy, forlorn, head resting across a table and arms wrapped around a fish bowl. The image was irresistable, especially when coupled to the that title. A poem? That heals fish? Okay. I’ll bite.

The fish is named Leon.

His boy is named Arthur.

Arthur thinks Leon is dying of boredom, and he asks his mother, frantically, for advice. She offers this:

“Hurry, give him a poem!”

The problem is that Arthur doesn’t know what a poem is, or where to find one. For the rest of the book, the adults in Arthur’s life (and a bird named Aristophanes) share their notions of poetry, abstract and beautiful descriptions that, unfortunately, mean nothing at all to Arthur …

The text is beautiful. The illustrations are gorgeous. The story is, hmmm, what is the word I want here? Unexpected. That’s it. The story is unexpected. I like it more each time I read it.

 

WOLVES
Written and illustrated by Emily Gravett
Simon & Schuster, 2006

Category: Picture book, 2007 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honoree

Sorry for being so quiet this week, but I have been working. Hard. So hard that I nearly met my self-imposed July 1 deadline for polishing and mailing my Work-In-Progress. I mailed it on July 2, and it felt GOOD!

My first thought was to clean the house, which has been sorely neglected these past few weeks. But there is a pile of books needing attention, too, and reading is much more fun. So instead of vacuuming this morning, I lost myself in a book about … losing one’s self in a book.

Perfect.

In WOLVES, Rabbit goes to the library and gets himself a book about wolves. Strike that; it is not just any book about wolves, but a fascinating and intriguing book about wolves. Rabbit is into this book; really into it. I can’t tell you what happens, but I can guarantee a happy ending.

Sort of.

 

I AM THE WALLPAPER
By Mark Peter Hughes
Delacorte, 2005

Ever felt invisible? I have, and I think that is why I AM THE WALLPAPER resonated with me. The protagonist, thirteen-year-old Floey Packer, is a background girl: she blends in, is often overlooked, and never gets noticed … she feels like, well, wallpaper. Until her rotten cousins come to town and make her front page—web page—news. I think adolescents (and ex-adolescents) will recognize in Floey a lot of the joy, conflict, angst, and hope that makes growing up so … so … fun. Yep. Fun.

I didn’t plan this, but it is fitting that I read I AM THE WALLPAPER this weekend. Its author, New Englander Mark Peter Hughes, is launching a cross-country book tour (“two adults, three small children, one minivan, and a shoestring budget”) today. And he will be featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” tonight. Check out his new blog or his website for more info …