Tag: books

THE TREE OF LIFE, A Book Depicting the Life of Charles Darwin Naturalist, Geologist & Thinker
By Peter Sis
Farrar, Straus & Giroux (Frances Foster Books), 2003

Category: Picture book biography

Happy Darwin Day!

Yes, today is the 198th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and scientists and laypeople around the world are marking the occasion with celebrations of science and humanity. How do I know this? Well, because there is this web site detailing such events the world over. And, perhaps more importantly, because I will be attending a Darwin Day event myself. Tomorrow, at my Unitarian Universalist church, Worcester State College professor Sandy Paracer (a friend of mine!) will lecture on Darwin and his ideas. I will be there, in the front row, clutching my copy of THE TREE OF LIFE.

There is a book for every day, I tell you, and a day for every book. I love it.

THE PULL OF THE OCEAN
By Jean-Claude Mourlevat
Translated from the French by Y. Maudet
Delacorte Press, 1999

Category: Middle Grade Fiction

My friend Jane, librarian extraordinaire, handed me this book the other day and said, “This is a very odd little book. It made me think of you.”

I was offended, of course. (I am not THAT odd!)

But I took the book. I read it in a single sitting and I have to agree with Jane. This is the most oddly compelling book I have read. Ever. In my entire life. I cannot stop thinking about it. What does it all mean? Who is this book written for? Why did Yann do it? Why? Why?

Okay, let me back up.

THE PULL OF THE OCEAN is the story of Yann Doutreleau, a ten-year old midget (that is the term used in the book) and the seventh son of Marthe and Louis Doutreleau. The other Doutreleau boys are twins, three sets: Remy and Fabien (fourteen), Pierre and Paul (thirteen), Victor and Max (eleven). Yann? “Yann came last and alone. Like the period at the end of a sentence.”

The story is told through a series of first-person testimonials from the people Yann saw or who saw him as he led his brothers on their flight to the ocean. Their flight, somewhat mysterious to the reader, is clearly a matter of life and death to the Doutreleau boys. Mourlevat deals insight slowly, letting the story of Yann and his brothers unfold in small moments of shocking revelation. Several times I whispered—out loud and to myself— “Good Lord!” I was watching a tragedy unfold, I knew it was going to be horrible, but I could not look away. I can’t tell you more without spoiling the story; you will have to read it.

And I am hoping you will. Then you can tell me what it all means, who the book is written for and why (Oh, Why?!) Yann did it …

FOSSIL FISH FOUND ALIVE
By Sally M. Walker
Carolrhoda Books, 2002

Category: Middle Grade Non-Fiction

Reading this book was an awakening for me. It was while turning its pages that I finally realized I could combine my passion for science (not to mention my years of training) and my love of story. It seems obvious now that I was destined to write about science for children, but it was glaringly unobvious for most of my early adulthood. Science was what I did during the day, writing was what I did in my spare time. But In 2003, after reading FOSSIL FISH FOUND ALIVE, all that changed. I started writing about science and the scientists who most intrigued me. Four years later, my first book is about to hit bookshelves, and I will always credit Sally Walker’s book for its part in that miracle.

Imagine my excitement, then, when I found in my Inbox the other day an email from … Sally Walker. I kid you not. She wrote to congratulate me on TRACKING TRASH, and to tell me how much she enjoyed it. Sally Walker wrote to me. And she said, about my little book, “Congratulations! It’s totally fascinating.”

Woo-hoo!

So, of course, I had to re-read FOSSIL FISH FOUND ALIVE. The story intrigued me all over again:

In 1938, a museum curator in South Africa stumbles upon an unusual fish in the market, and she brings it back to her museum for further study. There is something about the fish that tickles her memory; it reminds her of fossil fishes she learned about as a student, fishes long thought to be extinct. In hard-to-resist narrative, Walker takes readers from the shores of South Africa to the islands of Indonesia to the depths of the oceans to discover if the coelacanth, a fish that predates dinosaurs by millions of years, is actually still alive. This is one fishing trip you don’t want to miss.

TOYS GO OUT
By Emily Jenkins
Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky
Schwartz & Wade Books, 2006

Category: Elementary/Middle Grade Fiction

The life of a toy is an awful lot like the life of a kid: spectacular one moment, traumatic the next, fraught with hard lessons—some of them scary—but quite bearable when teachers and protectors stay close. In TOYS GO OUT, Emily Jenkins explores the joys and sorrows of childhood … through the tiny, painted eyes of a “knowledgeable stingray, a toughly little buffalo, and someone called Plastic.”

This, dear readers, is a family story for the ages. Read it out loud and remember the animals you loved as a kid (Sheepy-Sheep was my own favorite), and remember what it was like to know in your heart that they felt your pain.

KIMCHI & CALAMARI
By Rose Kent
HarperCollins, 2007

Category: Middle Grade Fiction

I haven’t read this book … but only because it hasn’t been published yet. When it is available, however, I plan to be first in line. Because I had the great pleasure of meeting Rose Kent at Rising River Retreat this past weekend and, I am telling you, this woman can write.

Rose read a chapter from her newest novel at the retreat. Within a line or two I knew I was in the hands of a grand storyteller. Rose’s characters are vital, their dialogue natural, their problems compelling. Her prose grounded me in a time and a place and, frankly, I didn’t want to leave it. Alas, she only read us the one chapter.

So, while I wait for the new novel to be born (Hurry, Rose, hurry!), I will satisfy my urge to experience more of her work by reading KIMCHI & CALAMARI. It is the story of Joseph Calderaro, a Korean boy adopted into an Italian American family and feeling, well, like an exotic combo platter. You can read a nice review of the book here and you can pre-order a copy, if you are so inclined, here.

THE LEMONADE WAR
By Jacqueline Davies
Houghton Mifflin, 2007

Category: Middle Grade Fiction

I spent last weekend at Rising River, a writing retreat founded by author Jacqueline Davies. It was an incredible three days of creativity, camaraderie, and celebration. If you are a writer looking for a working retreat that puts an emphasis on the needs of the individual writer, Rising River might be the place for you. (If, however, you are a writer on a diet, don’t go. Or at least plan to leave the diet at home. The food at Rising River is stupendous and you will be unable to resist second helpings, fresh-baked cookies at all hours, and fruit crisps with hand-whipped topping. Sigh. I miss it already.)

In addition to finishing the first draft of my new novel (HOORAY!), I came away from the retreat with a list of books to read. One of the most exciting on the list is THE LEMONADE WAR, a middle-grade novel written by Jacqueline Davies herself. Check out this teaser:

“One brother. One sister. One bet. Winner takes all.”

And this trailer (click the link):

THE LEMONADE WAR trailer

How can you not want to read this book? Jackie gave me this overview of the storyline:

“During the five days before school starts a brother and sister get into an argument about who can sell the most lemonade. As each day passes, the competition gets tougher—and nastier—until the bet becomes an all-out, no-holds-barred war. How low will they go, and will this war ever end?”

I, for one, intend to find out.

THE LEMONADE WAR will be available on April 23, 2007. Check it out!

THE BOY WHO DREW BIRDS, A Story of John James Audubon
By Jacqueline Davies
Illustrated by Melissa Sweet

Category: Picture book biography

I am off to write for the weekend! I will soon be checked into a room of my own at an inn full of writers with my laptop, my favorite work-in-progress, and my most comfortable winter-weather-snuggle-in-to-work clothes. I’ve packed tea for the mornings, a bottle of champagne for a special evening (my writing partners and I are celebrating book releases this year), and some books to read for inspiration. I cannot think of a better way to spend three January days in New England.

What does all this have to do with THE BOY WHO DREW BIRDS? Well, the Rising River Retreat is run by the book’s author, Jacqueline Davies. I’m bringing my copy for her to sign, and I couldn’t help but re-read it before I tucked it into my suitcase.

THE BOY WHO DREW BIRDS is not a birth-to-death telling of Audubon’s life, but a glimpse at one special and formative year. During that year, young John James is intent on solving a centuries-old mystery: where do small birds spend the winter. The answers posed by scientists of the day ranged from outrageous (one scientist actually believed the birds flew to the moon!) to curious (another suggested small birds hibernated underwater for the winter). John James suspected small birds migrated, just as larger birds were known to do, and he took to observing and drawing the small birds nesting near his home in an attempt to better understand them. As the time for migration neared, John James had a marvelous idea, an idea that would help him partly solve the mystery of bird migration and which would lead, eventually, to a revolutionary technique for monitoring the movement of birds.

More about the retreat, and the author of THE BOY WHO DREW BIRDS, next week …

HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS
by Thomas Rockwell
Illustrated by Emily McCully
Dell, 1973

Category: Elementary/Middle-grade fiction

A boy named Billy makes a bet with his friend Alan that he will EAT fifteen worms in fifteen days for fifty bucks. With this hysterical premise, Thomas Rockwell (son of Norman, by the way) creates a story that screams to be read out loud. I love books that bridge the age and gender gaps in our house … girls, boys, kids and adults were giggling, giggling, giggling.

Have any of you seen the new movie adaptation? I’d love to hear what you thought. The kids are keen to see it, but I am not sure. The book is soooooo good.

IMMERSED IN VERSE, An Informative, Slightly Irreverent & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poet’s Life
By Allan Wolf
Illustrated by Tuesday Mourning
Lark Books, 2006

Category: Middle grade nonfiction

IMMERSED IN VERSE was the surprise find of my weeks as a Cybils judge. I never expected to find a book on writing poetry among the MG/YA nominees. And when Allan Wolf’s book appeared on my doorstep, I didn’t expect to love it. It’s about poetry, after all, and poetry scares me. (I’m not sure where this fear comes from, but I suspect my compulsive, neat, rational and literal personality is part of the problem. Poetry is hardly ever all of these things, at least not at the same time.)

Anyway, I’m cured. That is, I am not (so) scared of poetry anymore. And it is all because I read Allan Wolf’s book. With an enthusiasm that is hard to resist, Wolf’s book arms writers-to-be with important ideas (“Don’t write about love. Write about holding hands. Don’t write about hate. Write about the bullies who walk the halls at school.”) and tools (“Metaphors Be with You”) of the poetry trade.

The highest accolade I can give IMMERSED IN VERSE is this: I wrote a poem while reading it. Crazy, but true. The poem is about Monty, our temporary beta fish and no, I will not post it here. But writing it was fun and woke up some long-slumbering cells in my literary brain. I think there might be a few more poems up there. Who knew?

KRINGLE
By Tony Abbott
Scholastic Press, 2006

Category: Middle grade fiction

Epic fantasy is not really my thing. My boys, however, cannot live without it. Okay, perhaps I am being overly dramatic. The boys could live without epic fantasy. They just wouldn’t read as much. And they would spend a lot of time sighing and wondering what to do with themselves. Anyway, we came home from the library in early December with KRINGLE, the story of Santa Claus as told by Tony Abbott … in all its epic and fantastical glory.

In Tony Abbott’s version of the story, Santa is known as Kringle. He grows up parentless in a world inhabited by elves and goblins. It was fascinating, really, to watch the author weave the traditional myths of our modern Santa Claus into his story. And while I am still not a fan of epic fantasy, I have nothing but respect for the care and imagination with which Mr. Abbott created this one.