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By Lindsey, January 31, 2013

The Library Academy Awards (Youth Media Awards) were announced at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting on  January 28^th.  Children’s Librarians from around the country (and world) donned their finest broom skirts, wooden jewelry, comfortable shoes, and sweeping up-do’s (buns) and waited anxiously while the winners were announced.

Your own Nashville Public Library’s Children’s Librarians had a little pool going to see who could pick the winner this year.  At stake?  Some of my delicious homemade chocolate chip hazelnut cookies to the librarian(s) who pegged the winner.  We only focused on the Caldecott (picture books) and Newbery (chapter books.)

Our picks for Caldecott were as follows:

Ms. Phyllis at Main: Georgia In Hawaii: When Georgia O’Keeffe Painted What She Pleased by Amy Novesky
Ms. Lindsey at Main: This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen*
Miss Terri at Green Hills: I Have a Dream Words by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
Ms. Angela at Edmondson Pike and Ms. Joy at Thompson Lane: Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger**
Ms. Ellen at Bordeaux: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce
Ms. Lin at Madison: Oh no, George! By Chris Haughton
Ms. Klem-Mari At Bringing Books to Life: Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett; illustrated by Jon Klassen**
Ms. Elaine at Donelson: And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Erin E Stead
Ms. Sarah at Donelson: A Home for Bird by Philip C. Stead
Ms. Tori at Edmondson Pike: Happy by Miles van Hout

And the 2013 Caldecott winner is:

This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

*  okay, so I might have changed my mind at the last minute in our official pool, however, I stated publicly here that this was my pick for Caldecott and my love for Jon Klassen is unparalleled, so I’m counting it!  I’m making the cookies afterall!

** these titles were 2013 Caldecott Honor Books

Our picks for the 2013 Newbery:

Ms. Phyllis at Main, Miss Terri at Green Hills, and Ms. Tori at Edmondson Pike: Wonder by R. J. Palacio
Ms. Lindsey at Main: See You At Harry’s by Johanna Knowles*
Ms. Angela at Edmondson Pike: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Ms. Ellen at Bordeaux: The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech
Ms. Lin at Madison: I Funny by James Patterson
Ms. Joy at Thompson Lane: Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage**
Ms. Elaine at Donelson: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Schlitz**

And the 2013 Newbery winner is:

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate:  I am about 1/3 of the way in and so far it is a lovely, if not a bit forlorn, quick read.  I have heard people call it “our generation’s Charlotte’s Web.” Those are some big pages to fill, so I won’t speak to the correctness of that description, yet.

* Again, I changed my mind at the last minute, but Wonder was getting plenty of love and I wanted to recognize See You at Harry’s, a heart-wrenchingly great book I will review here soon.

** These titles were Newbery Honor Books.

Kudos to ME! and Ms. Angela at Edmondson Pike for picking the winners (even if I cheated a little)

You can see the full list of the 2013 Youth Media Awards here.  All of which are available at Nashville Public Library (or will be soon!).

-Lindsey

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By Lindsey, January 10, 2013

Abe Lincoln’s Dream
by Lane Smith

Lane Smith, fresh off of last year’s Caldecott Honor Award for Grandpa Green, delivers a sweet, quirky tale about Abe Lincoln’s ghost.  When touring the White House, a young girl named Quincy discovers Honest Abe by the Gettysburg Address.  After exchanging jokes, she takes him on her own tour to show him the nation’s progress since 1865.  Smith uses a muted palette, but infuses the illustrations and text with a life of their own.  Parents and adults will probably find more appeal in this book’s sentimentality, but 4-5 year olds will appreciate the silly jokes and relate to Quincy’s confidence and initiative.

I Have a Dream
by Martin Luther King, Jr. illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Kadir Nelson’s evocative and bold oil painting illustrations are paired with Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in this picture book resulting in a powerful dedication to Dr. King. Similar to Abe Lincoln’s Dream, I think that adults will be moved by this book more than children, but I think that is the point of both of these wonderful books.  Young children, unlike adults, don’t need to be reminded that we are all equal.  However, Dr. King’s words are powerfully lyrical and when paired with Nelson’s beautiful illustrations, children don’t have to understand there is a message and history behind the words to enjoy the experience of sharing this book together.

Z is for Moose
by Kelly Bingham illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky

And now for something completely different…Z is for Moose is a current favorite in our household.  I’m fairly certain my three-year-old finds this book hilarious because my husband and I really get into reading it aloud.  This book begins as your basic alphabet book with Zebra directing the show “A is for Apple, B is for Ball…” unfortunately; his friend Moose is a bit overeager for his turn. When things don’t go his way, Moose does not take it well.  Hilarity ensues.  Young children will appreciate this as a read-aloud, but independent readers will enjoy “getting” the joke on their own.

Oh, No!
by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Eric Rohmann

Candace Fleming’s bouncy text tells the tale of a series of jungle animals who get trapped in a hole, facing the fate of becoming a tiger’s dinner…. “Oh, No!”  Illustrated by Eric Rohmann, using his characteristic relief-print style (which won him the Caldecott in 2003 for My Friend Rabbit) this book practically demands to be read aloud. And even the most rhythmically-challenged will find the cadence in the sing-songy repetition and onomatopoetic animal sounds.  A satisfyingly witty end round off this great picture book and put it on my short list of favorites for the year.

-Lindsey

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By Lindsey, January 3, 2013

Code Name Verity
by Elizabeth Wein

To be frank, this review is going to be inadequate.  Because I loved this book so much, I want to respect it by not revealing too much and it would be extremely easy to reveal too much, and yet I want to go on and on and on about it. So, here goes…

This historical young adult novel is about Queenie, a young Scottish woman who has been captured in Nazi-occupied France in 1943.  The reader discovers that Queenie has been working with the Resistance and her plane has been shot down.  The pilot of the plane was her best friend, Maddie, and through her confession, Queenie details her relationship with Maddie as well as providing other information to the Germans who hold her captive.

Through Queenie’s confession, we are able to watch her relationship with Maddie grow as the two become more entrenched in the Resistance movement.  However, when we get fully immersed in the comfort of their story, we are brought back to the “present” and Queenie’s treatment torture at the hands of the Gestapo.  Wein took very few liberties with historical possibilities; while names and places are fictional – this story almost could have happened.

But it doesn’t matter.  While a work of historical fiction, the story of friendship and survival are at the heart of this book.  Queenie is a spy captured by the Nazi’s and tortured for information- of which, there is only so much she can or can’t give. You know how this story will end. But you are so invested in these characters that, as a reader, you will it end differently.

I won’t say more than this and maybe even this is too much: but it will end differently than you expect.

I am so frustrated by my inability to properly review this book.  It is just that good.  It is historically respectful, exciting, tender, quite funny at times – yes, funny, emotional, frank and clever as hell.  The characters are incredibly likable, the plot is intricately woven and smart, and the book is constructed in such a way that you will want to read it again.

I believe this book will win the Printz award.  I feel more confident about this one than I do my picks for Newbery and Caldecott.

Bonus?  The audiobook is fantastically superb (to not put too fine a point on it.)

-Lindsey

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By Lindsey, December 13, 2012

Splendors and Glooms
by Laura Amy Schlitz

Set in Victorian England, this fantasy novel by Newbery medalist Laura Amy Schlitz (Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!  Voices from a medieval village) is recommended for grades 4-8, but is definitely on the darker side. Thirteen year old Lizzie Rose and eleven-ish Parsefall are two orphans “adopted” by Grisini, a sinister master puppeteer.  As in marionettes. A children’s book about an eeeeevil puppeteer?!  Yes, please!

Grisini and the orphans perform at a young rich girl’s birthday party and when the girl, Clara, winds up missing the next day, the trio is suspected of being behind her disappearance.  When Grisini also vanishes, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall are left to defend and fend for themselves; while also wishing to help find Clara.  I thought the plot would be pretty straightforward, and in some respects it is.  The orphans are plucky (of course) and good at heart.  Grisini is evil to a Dickensian level and the rich girl who has everything is really quite lonely and sad.  But then there is this whole other plot about a witch and her magic stone (which is actually a curse that is burning her alive.)  Schlitz manages to merge the characters’ plots fairly seamlessly by telling the story from the alternating points of view of the witch and all three children.

I wasn’t prepared for this deftly written book’s rich bleakness.  There were times that I didn’t want to get out of the car to stop listening to the audiobook (which is very well narrated) and times that I was almost uncomfortable in its gloominess.  Schlitz does not shy away from the grittier details of Victorian London so oft forgotten in period pieces.  She also draws unflinchingly evil characters and manages to create sympathy for them at times – a rather complex idea for a children’s fantasy book.

Of course, I had to read this book – it’s about an evil puppeteer.  But I was surprised by how strong my reaction to it was.  I highly recommend this book for less sensitive children.  The issues of wickedness, punishment, neglect, abuse and especially death are not skirted around and if the reader is mature enough to handle those concepts, they will be rewarded with a thoughtful, rich, engrossing story.

Lindsey

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By Lindsey, December 6, 2012

In my attempt to be the best children’s librarian ever, I pretty much only read children’s book.  My friends and family find this frustrating and have stopped asking me if I have read the latest piece of adult fiction/non-fiction/memoir/etc.   My nieces and nephews find it thrilling. I am trying to balance recent books with timeless classics.   Both of these “classic” books would make great holiday purchases for boys in your life and often appear on “Books for boys who don’t like to read” lists.  Girls will, of course, like them, too, but are often easier to please in the area of reading.

My Side of the Mountain
by Jean Craighead George
The world said goodbye to Jean Craighead George in 2012, but we have fortunately been left with a long list of titles to keep us remembering why we love her so.  My Side of the Mountain is about Sam Gribley, a young teenage boy who is dissatisfied with his crowded life in New York City.  So, he runs away to his family’s land in the Catskill Mountains.  Sam is knowledgeable about survival skills and doesn’t run away out of petulance or a misunderstanding of what he will face living off of the land. As a result, the reader learns survival skills and gains Sam’s appreciation and respect for nature.  Plus, there is a cool falcon in it.

Stay with me for this metaphor, but I felt like Sam when reading this book.  If current children’s fiction is Sam’s New York City, then reading this book is a departure.  In a good way.  And I can appreciate nature with the best of them, but I am not a camper or hiker.  I frankly expected to be bored by this book, being used to reading modern children’s books with magic, robots, suspense and the like.  But I wasn’t bored.  I was engaged and wanted to know how – HOW – Sam was going solve the mystery of creating a wood stove from river clay. My 7 and 10 year old nephews listened to the audiobook after I did and I’m happy to report that they enjoyed it even more than I.

Hatchet
by Gary Paulsen 
Hatchet was written almost 30 years after My Side of the Mountain and it contains more of the elements we have become accustomed to in modern children’s literature – suspense, plane crash, family drama…you get the idea. 

Unlike Sam, Brian does NOT wish to survive off the land and is not prepared to do so.  Unfortunately, he has little choice when he is the sole survivor of a plane crash and all he has to help him is the hatchet his mother gave him right before he boarded the plane.  This book has some pretty frightening situations and does not shy away from some of the more gory details.  Which, again, kids will love.

 Both of these books are riveting in their own right, hold up well despite being written in the late fifties and eighties, and best of all, have sequels so young readers can keep up with these characters’ stories.

-Lindsey

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By Lindsey, November 8, 2012

Extra Yarn
Written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen

When Annabelle discovers a box of colorful yarn, she knits herself a sweater. When she still has yarn left, she knits her dog a sweater, then a sweater for her friend and his dog. It appears that Annabelle’s box of yarn has no end and neither does her willingness to knit for everyone and everything around her, until an archduke with evil intentions comes to town. Dark, yet sweetly illustrated by my new favorite illustrator, Jon Klassen (see next review), this picture book has made it into my daughter’s nighttime ritual and it’s at the tip top of my favorite picture books for the year. Librarian geek note: look out for the cameo from another Jon Klassen book.

This is Not My Hat
Written and illustrated by Jon Klassen

Fans of Klassen’s I Want My Hat Back (hint: ME! I AM!) will also like This Is Not My Hat which tells a similar tale of a thieving culprit, but this time from the thief’s point of view. Unabashed in his thievery, little fish recounts how he took the big fish’s hat and brags that he’s going to get away with it – or so he thinks. The illustrations lead the narrative and are just as funny and unflinching as its predecessor. This ends the I’m-obsessed-with –Jon-Klassen’s-books part of this review.

I’m Bored
By Michael Ian Black; illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

When you read a book 850 times to your child, you really appreciate when a book comes along that is fun to read. That’s the case with this clever little book about a young girl who begins by bemoaning her boredom. Along comes a potato. Yes, a potato, who echoes the little girl’s cries of “I’m Bored.”  It is now up to the little girl to convince the potato that there is an infinite amount of fun to be had as a kid…or a potato.

Loveabye Dragon
By Barbara Joose, illustrated by Randy Cecil

This sweet book is about a girl – not a princess even though she lives in a castle – who longs for a dragon as a friend and a dragon who longs for a girl – not a princess – as a friend. Lyrical and repetitive, whimsical and sweet, this book will satisfy your child’s desire for more princess material without outwardly focusing on the inanity of monarchies and the complicity of the masses. (Oops, did my feminism just show? How (not) embarrassing.) Seriously, this book is sweet and Randy Cecil’s illustrations have a dark, but subtle and quirky modernity to them that make this book stand out from other fairy tale books. In a good way.

Nighttime Ninja
By Barbara DeCosta, illustrated by Ed Young

I admit, I’m a little torn about this book. I immediately wanted to like it because it’s about ninjas and who doesn’t love a good ninja picture book? But, aside from Ed Young’s amazing illustrations, I’m not really feeling it. It is minimal and the story is told mostly through the illustrations – again, which are amazing – but the text about a ninja’s nighttime adventure (spoiler: the ninja is a little boy up for a midnight snack) just doesn’t flow for me. I’ve tried playing with cadence when reading it and building suspense, but I couldn’t talk myself into liking the text.  HOWEVER, Ed Young is brilliant and it’s worth checking it out for the illustrations alone. (I would feel remiss if I didn’t point out my husband’s objections to the stuffed panda bear appearing later in the book.  He feels like this is a gross mix-up of Asian cultures.  I feel like a young Japanese boy can love pandas just as much as any other child, but admit, in a book rife with Japanese cultures and symbols, it is a little fishy.)

-Lindsey

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By Lindsey, November 1, 2012

Did you know that Mem Fox is coming to speak at the Nashville Public Library on November 5th at 6:15?  This is huge for two reasons.  1. She is from Australia and not always the easiest to catch on tour and 2. (and this is not to be understated) She. Is. Awesome.  Not only is Mem a versatile, witty, sweet, prolific and just great writer of children’s picture books; but, she is also an advocate for reading to young children early and often.  There is great joy (not to mention developmental benefits) to be had reading to young children and Mem makes it easy with an oeuvre of poignant picture books.  Here are some of my favorites.

Koala Lou, Wombat Divine, and Possum Magic
I shouldn’t lump them together so callously, because they are each wonderful in their own right, but these three books feature Australian animals and when read together make for some nice geographical and cultural teaching moments.  In Koala Lou, the title character competes in the Bush Olympics to gain the attention of her mother, who is busy taking care of her younger brothers and sisters. In Wombat Divine, Wombat wants to be a part of the Nativity play, but through a series of zany events, has a difficult time finding a role that is suited for him.  In my favorite of the three, Possum Magic, Hush’s Grandma magically turns her invisible.  When Hush decides she wants to become visible again, Grandma Poss must remember the correct combination of food that will turn her visible.  This sends the two on a journey around Australia trying out different Australian delicacies (yes, including Vegemite, mmmm.)

Tough Boris
The title character is an aptly named pirate, for he is tough, greedy, mean, big, and all of the things you want and fear a pirate to be…until his parrot dies. I admit, I almost like this book more for the illustrations, which have a story within the story; but, it also exemplifies Mem’s ability to say a lot with few words.

Boo to a Goose
Mem has said that she wrote this book after being inspired by the phrase, “Never say ‘Boo’ to a goose” and recognizing it’s lyrical potential, while realizing that picture books at the time (the 90’s) were getting too advanced for younger children.  The end result is a book perfect for toddlers and preschoolers with its bouncy, poetic text complimented by David Miller’s vibrant three-dimensional illustrations.

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
This book serves two wonderful and equally important purposes:  1. It has lots of beautiful babies illustrated by Helen Oxenbury in it – so babies and toddlers especially love it and 2. Any adult with a soul will find themselves involuntarily “Awwwww”ing at the sweet, simple words and emotions behind them.  Told in rhyming text with the repeating title, “ten little fingers and ten little toes,” this book is perfect for reading aloud to babies and toddlers.

Guess What?
Perhaps an odd favorite, I adore this book and love to bring it out this time of year (Halloween).  One of the great things about Mem’s books are all of the different illustrators’ interpretations of her text.  Vivienne Goodman’s illustrations (think of them as slightly demented Norman Rockwell paintings) in this tale of a crazy old lady named Daisy O’Grady, can keep a person delighted for hours with their details.  Fox’s words are simple and incorporate predictive question-and-answer text and can be read with little ones, but thanks to the illustrations, enjoyed by children much older.

Time for Bed
Time for Bed is one of my favorites for purely selfish reasons.  I must have read this book 300 times to my daughter, now 3, when she was between the ages of 12-24 months.  It was a must-read at nighttime, obviously, and I would set the rhyming couplets to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” much to my daughter’s delight and husband’s chagrin. Illustrated by Jane Dyer, this one is just stinking sweet.

Mem  Fox has many, many more titles available at Nashville Public Library and these don’t even touch on her Reading Magic book for adults on the importance of reading aloud to children (hint: reading aloud is important and fun.)

Don’t miss seeing Salon 615 present Mem in person at the Nashville Public Library on November 5^th at 6:15.

-Lindsey