It's All About the Book

Hoo-boy. It’s been awhile since I posted here, but never fear, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading. Been reading a lot actually….

A Gracious Plenty by Sheri Reynolds – I love storytelling. I am not a storyteller in the sense that I get up in front of groups of people and tell memorized, rehearsed stories, but I have been known to spin a yarn or two among friends. And I truly appreciate the skill it takes to tell a story as rich as this one. Finch Nobles is a caretaker of the dead, literally and figuratively. She tends the grounds of the cemetery in her town, but she also tends the souls of those people buried there. Finch is feared by the locals, mostly due to her disfigurement from a burn suffered when she was a child, but also because of her “I don’t give a damn” attitude. However, both obstacles are overcome by her relationships with the spiritual inhabitants of the cemetery and the live people who visit them. Reynolds weaves a gentle but riveting tale of love, hate and redemption that stretches the veil between the living and the dead. This is one I’ll remember for a long time…

Alphabet of Dreams by Susan Fletcher – I’m a sucker for well-known stories re-told from a different perspective, Wicked by Gregory Maguire being one of my favorites along with books by Donna Jo Napoli, so Fletcher’s novel caught my attention right away. As a former Catholic school girl, I know the New Testament story of the Three Magi pretty well, but Fletcher tells the story from the perspective of a Persian princess reduced to living in caves and stealing food after her family is slaughtered by her father’s enemies. Mitra discovers quite by accident that her little brother, Babek, can dream other people’s dreams, a skill that brings him to the attention of the Magus Melchior. Mitra and Babek journey to Bethlehem with Melchior and two other Magi to witness the birth of Christ, enduring all sorts of hardships and learning a thing or two about family in the process. I really liked Mitra — as my grandmother used to day, she has pluck! –and I found Babek’s gift fascinating and a little scary. The characters are well-drawn, especially the three Magi and the bodyguard who keeps Mitra and Babek safe. A lovely story all around…

Desperate Journey by Jim Murphy – I picked this one up because the Erie Canal is a featured character in the story, and because the girl on the cover looks a little like my great-niece Mariesa, and I was not disappointed. I give a lot of talks on the Erie Canal as part of my job, and many of those talks are to kids, so imagine my delight at finding a book that tells the story of 12-year old Maggie Haggerty and her family of canawlers. Maggie lives a much different life than other girls her age, spending all her time walking the Erie and guiding the mules that pull her father’s boat. She’s used to the hard life on the canal, but longs for a home on land, a place where she’ll fit in and be able to leave the “dirty canal girl” insults behind. When her father is jailed for fighting and with her mother feeling poorly, Maggie takes over the responsibility of delivering the load of stoves and plows on their boat to Buffalo. There are tons of local references in this book that will resonate with young readers — I especially liked Maggie’s memory of a beautiful white horse she saw galloping in a field when they were stopped just outside of Spencerport. Beautiful writing, gripping story.

by T.K. Welsh – I picked this one up because I love history and I love ghost stories, and this is both. I admit, I was also curious to see if Welsh could pull off what Katharine Weber couldn’t in Triangle — successfully combining authentic NYC history with a story that appeals to teens. I think Welsh has succeeded admirably here.

From the publisher:
Mallory Meer has just turned fifteen years old, and within an hour, thanks to the only boy she’s ever loved, she’ll be dead, a victim of the General Slocum steamship disaster. Bound by love to her grieving family, and outraged by the multitude of senseless deaths, Mallory haunts those responsible for the tragedy, determined to see that justice is served.

Young love doomed, a horrific tragedy, and a ghost bound to earth by the terrible event. What more could you ask for? I sped through the first few chapters and then read the end. This is the ultimate test of the “goodness” of a book for me — if I can read the end and then still want to go back and finish the rest of the book, it’s a good’un. The Unresolved is a great one. Mallory is the most well-developed ghostly character I’ve seen in a long, long time…maybe even since my Blossom Culp days. I can’t recall another story where I’ve felt so connected to the ghost, and I was particularly impressed with the way Welsh moved Mallory in and out of other characters and told their stories in that way. Welsh skillfully manipulates emotions and develops characters through the relatively short novel, and I found myself genuinely caring about these people.

My only quibble, and there’s always one, is with the names. We have “Mallory” and “Dustin” — both German, one Lutheran and one Jewish. The names just struck me as very WB and not in sync with the time (early 1900s). I did a little research and found the name Mallory is French, and didn’t come into regular use until the 1960s. Dustin is derived from the Scandinavian, but didn’t come into common use until the 1940s. It seems like Welsh just picked the names out of the air. But, this is a small quibble, and certainly not enough to keep you from reading this fabulous story.

I’m swiping this from one of my favorite non-library blogs, Creating Passionate Users. You can see the original challenge here. My challenge is a little simpler. I don’t want to know your reasons, unless you want to share. And you can list more than one book. Here we go…

What is the one book you wish everyone would read? It doesn’t have to be your favorite book, but a book that made some sort of impact on you and the way you live your life, or do your work, or treat your kids, etc. And you can modify the request any way you want.

My choices? For right now in this very moment of my career, it would be Sustaining Innovation by Paul Light. For my personal life, I would select Peace Like a River by Leif Enger for its themes of renewal, forgiveness and miracles.

So what are your choices?

I’ve been selected to serve as a judge for the first annual CYBIL Awards. This is new award for childrens and YA books selected by bloggers. I’m a judge for the YA fiction category, which means that I, along with four other brave souls, get 5 or so books in January to read and judge. I’m really pumped about doing this, not only because I love the YA genre but because I love things like this that make me read outside my comfort zone. Gonna be some fun….

Other YA judges are

• Leila at Book Shelves of Doom
• Liz from A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy
• Nancy from Journey Woman
• Tasha from Kids Lit

One of the clearest memories I have of elementary school is my 6th grade teacher reading the story of Persephone, Demeter and Hades to the class from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. The Greek gods captivated me from the start. After that day in class, I scoured the library for every book even remotely hinting of Greek mythology, so you can imagine my delight when I picked up The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. The gods, alive and well in Manhattan? Monsters and godlings among us? A dangerous quest? Oh yeah!

Percy Jackson isn’t like other kids, a thought that becomes fact when, in the first chapter, he turns his evil Math teacher to dust with a ballpoint-pen-turned-sword. His life goes from bad to worse when he’s sent home from boarding school with an invitation not to return next year. Living with his stepfather, Smelly Gabe, is even worse than boarding school, but life gets even more complicated when Percy and his mother are attacked by The Minotaur while fleeing to the safety of Camp Half Blood, a training ground for demi-gods. Percy soon learns that his real father is the god Poseidon, and he is potentially one of the most powerful “heroes” to come along in years. But all is not well on Mt. Olympus. Someone has stolen Zeus’ thunderbolt, a most powerful weapon, and all fingers point to Percy. To prove his innocence, Percy, along with Daughter-of-Athena Annabeth and a satyr named Grover, embarks on a dangerous quest to the Underworld, where he learns a thing or two about friendship, trust and self-worth.

Action abounds from the first pages of this book. Great characters, great story, superb writing. My only quibble comes from the feeling I kept getting that I was reading a Harry Potter book. We have a boy who never fit in, finding out he has remarkable powers, teaming up with a smart, sassy girl who has equally strong powers and a less talented but very amusing third boy — all sent off on a quest to recover something very powerful that, if in the wrong hands, could mean the end of the world. Throw into the mix a mysterious, powerful, and dangerous evil thing that everyone thought was dead and we have…..Sorceror’s Stone, anyone? Even the typeface used for the chapter headings was the same as in the HP books.

Despite the similarities to HP, The Lightning Thief was a fabulous read, and I can’t see any kid putting it down. Read the first chapter to a class and I guarantee they’ll be in the library looking for this one.

I just found this fab new extension for Firefox called Book Burro. Once installed, the burro senses when you are viewing a book online and pops up a little sidebar that, when clicked, will tell you the current prices for the book at a number of online shops, and also tell you what public libraries own it. You have to configure the WorldCat portion of the burro with your zip code to get the libraries to display, but once that’s done…away we go!

Thanks to Liz Lawley at RIT for blogging about this one!

Can I just say, this book R-O-C-K-S?!?! Jarrett Krosockzka has created a book for all the Riot Grrls out there who are now dressing their toddlers in leather and Baby Doc Martens. Jarrett K has taken the familiar standard “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” and turned it upside down and inside out with the addition of a band of punkified barnyard animals duded up in leather, sunglasses and headbands. The band takes the stage after the farmer goes to sleep, and they spend the night rockin’ the barn full of fourlegged critters. The text is spare but perfect, but it is the illustrations that make this book memorable. I especially liked the horses acting as bouncers/security. I’d certainly never mess with ’em! Cindy is going to do this one at storytime in a couple weeks and have Dave come in with all his instruments. And can I just say, was I surprised that Parma owned this book? Nope. Cathy, you ROCK, too!

There are a number of book bloggers out there who regularly post poetry on Friday, so I thought I’d join them this week.

Earlier this week, one of our patrons, Ward Worden, presented me with his new, and first, book of poetry. I’ve known Ward for a few years now, and knew that he was a sophisticated reader. He’s a gentle soul, quiet, polite, and pleasant. I had no idea he was a poet. He lost his wife a couple years ago, and I suspect that some of the poems are about her illness and death. So, for Poetry Friday readers, I present selections from Winter Robins by Ward Sheldon Worden.

Fanfare for Devon Maschke

Blow, you great pipes, shake the houses,
And the little timbrels, let them squeal with pure delight.
Your lovliest melodies, oboe, violin, I entreat you
And every tuned string, sing yourself out of sound itself,
While the double-bass beats time on the floor.

Listen now,
While ten pianos carol together.
Their silver flying chords keep on resounding
To the last faint overtone —
And then a woman’s voice — O pure contralto,
She sings of gratitude for life, for love, for both unending.

Hush now, for he must sleep,
Eyes shut in peace, with tiny fingers curled across the blanket,
Little Devon, darling of the families, in two countries.

Curled Up

Her time suspended, she’s in another time
Where space is curved– charmed beginnings, gentle endings,
Through a parade of chapters, each
With its peculiar fragrance. And everything
Is slightly out of focus except the one place. Significance reigns,
And the Moral Law, devious and disguised,
Always gets his man. She recognizes the people there,
So friendly and marvelously full of their lives.
They mostly have servants, ignore work,
And never go to the bathrooms. See how they fall in love,
Slay dragons, sacrifice themselves — all without
Leaving the plot they themselves have made.
And there’s that Other: He never leaves her side,
Liek Vergil, knowledgeable, condescending, pointing the way,
At times he’s annoying; she is never quite sure what e is up to.
She wakes,
Her finger still in the cleft where worlds collide.

The day is shot,
And there is nothing in the house to eat,
And that stain in the carpet looks different, larger now.

I have long thought that the reason I am so good at games like Trivial Pursuit and Jeopardy is because I picked up so many tidbits of information from reading Nancy Drew and other series books when I was a kid. Those books were packed with esoteric information. Every now and again, I pick up a Nancy Drew or Trixie Belden or Dana Girls book and spend a couple of hours reading and reliving those lazy afternoons of reading of my youth. I did just that a couple days ago, when I curled up with The Mystery of Lilac Inn. As I read, I came to a paragraph about lilacs, in which Nancy finds a note saying something like “Meet me at midnight by the blue pipes.” Turns out “blue pipes” is another name for lilacs. Who knew?

I first discovered Lane Smith way back when I worked in the MCLS Children’s Consultants Office and had the enviable job of unpacking and checking in all the review copies that came in from publishing houses. The day I pulled out a copy of Eve Merriam’s Halloween ABC was the day I fell hard for Lane Smith. And then The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs came out, and Stinky Cheese Man and I was unconditionally hooked.

I’m not sure whether it’s the resemblance of his illustrations to the Fractured Fairy Tales of my Sunday Morning Cartoon Watching youth — way back around 1969 or 1970, the only cartoons on TV on Sunday morning were Fractured Fairy Tales and Bullwinkle, which I really despised — or the sublimely snarky prose that captivate me. I don’t really care, just so long as Smith keeps turning out books like John, Paul, George & Ben.

Now, I wasn’t sure about this one, mainly because I was just coming off Wise Guy, a picture book about Greek philosophy which really left me cold. I thought, what could Lane Smith have to say about the “wise guys” who founded our country that hasn’t been said before, and say it in a funny way? Weh-eh-ellll. My worry was needless. Smith blends historical fact — did you know Paul Revere was a bell ringer? — with some really funny fiction. The piece about Revere selling extra-large underwear is hiliarious and will undoubtedly have storytime kids in stitches.

All the big players in the Sons of Liberty are here — John Hancock, Paul Revere, George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Tom Jefferson. I especially like Jefferson’s profile, with it’s Roman nose and strong chin…sooooo much like Hercules in FFT.

The writing and illustrations blend beautifully, making this one another Lane Smith must-have for the library, and for my own collection.