Some Books Are Better Than Others

I am struggling to find something really compelling to read, now that I've finished The Cave Painters, by Gregory Curtis. That was a great book. I love the subject matter--the beautiful paintings of animals deep in the caves of France and Spain. And I felt the author wrote well and organized the material extremely well, combining the history of the discovery, exploration, and attempts to explain the cave art with solid descriptions of the caves themselves. It read like a mystery and yet was solidly grounded in fact the whole way. The author was very forthcoming with what were his opinions versus what is generally agreed on and he also made clear his allegiances in the politically charged world of archaeology. Must read more about this soon.

Meanwhile, I picked up Lorna Doone, a story I remember reading quite a while ago and getting totally engrossed in it. I have a friend named Lorna whose mother read this while pregnant, hence the name. I've gotten about 60 pages in, and while it is readable (though challenging, since it is written in dialect), I am not caught up in it yet and wonder if it is really worth wading through all 600+ pages of packed type. I looked it up on Wikipedia, learned that while it was inspired by historical events, it declines to pass itself off as "based on true events" like so many movies these days. It insists on calling itself "a romance." Will I finish this book or not? Should I keep in on the bookshelf or not?

So, while debating the virtues of reading Lorna Doone, I have become distracted by Chasing Cezanne, by Peter Mayle. A disappointing book, written almost entirely in generic or cliched descriptions. I think I'll finish tonight but it makes me question my previous intention to read a Year In Provence, if this is a sample of his writing.

Story Telling

I'm sorting out my front room and came across some notes I took on story telling. I do not consider myself a story teller. I read and I read aloud to my kids until they were in high school. I sang to them every night at bedtime and even made up songs for them. But I've never seen myself as a story teller.

"There is a story telling voice," I wrote in my notes. "There are gestures and facial expressions." And yet the best story teller I ever heard (and I haven't heard that many) did not use gestures, facial expressions, and she told it in her own voice. She stood very still, with her hands behind her back and spoke in a normal tone of voice. And I can almost hear her tell that story nearly 30 years later. Her connection to the story--letting the story take over the space--was so powerful that I remember her story and I have retold that story and it has changed my life in subtle ways.

It was a story about three brothers who set off to win the king's daughter. The older two muscled their way through the world, ignoring the small animals in their path, wreaking havoc wherever they went. The youngest brother took care not to harm the ants, bees, and ducks (if I remember this right) and even aided them. When the king set him three seemingly impossible tasks these small creatures came to his aid and he won the princess.

The story teller prefaced this tale with the story of one of her kindergarten students who requested that she retell this story. Normally the teacher would not retell a story so quickly, but the girl had a reason. A bee had been trapped in her window at home. Her mother set out to kill it, but the girl, inspired by the story she had heard at school, quoted the youngest brother, saying, "Don't harm it. It has done us no harm." She and her mother caught the bee and set it free outside. The teacher told us this anecdote to demonstrate the power of a good story. I too usually try to capture misplaced insects and bugs and set them free outside, inspired by the power of the girl's example.

Here are the notes I have from this wonderful teacher and story teller:

"Sit so I can see your eyes," she asks her class.

"All it [story telling] is is talking a story." She tells it in her own voice and the children listen.

The story is important and the telling is the most important thing--that it is being told.

"I only tell stories I like." Anything worth telling is worth retelling.

She suggested we read Amos and Boris to get started.
She said she reads a story 2 or 3 times.
Tells it to herself.
Reread.
Retell.
Practice at dinner time.

"Once you tell a story it's yours for life."

3 - 7 - 12 are the magic numbers

Story telling builds memory. The more you tell stories the freer children are to tell their stories.

True stories are marvelous.

Value of Mother Goose -- 11 good riddles [I'm not sure exactly what this last line means except I think it means Mother Goose is a good place to look for stories and telling riddles is a good way to get started.]

And now I can recycle this sheet of paper which has floated around my writing room for years and years and years. End of story.

Playing Catch Up

Books I’ve read this year but have not written up:

Mother Poems

Hope Anita Smith

Christy Ottaviano Books, Henry Holt and Company

New York, 2009

Torn paper illustrations

Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs

Ron Koertge

Candlewick

2010

at least as good as the first one—I love these stories, told in poems, about a 14 year old baseball player/poet.

I Never told and Other Poems

Myra Cohn Livingston

Blackberry Ink

Eve Merriam

Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!

Candace Fleming

Ill. by G. Brian Karas

Atheneum Books for Young readers

2002

The Old Woman Who Named Things

Cynthia Rylant

Ill. by Kathryn Brown

Harcourt brace & Company

1996

wc on Waterford paper

Just finished reading:

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

By Helen Simonson

Random House trade paperback

Copyright 2010, 355 pp., 25 chapters + Epilogue

I loved reading this book, and it fit very well with our recent SCBWI Oak Park network discussion on Reading Like A Writer, Francine Prose. Simonson obviously loves sentences. She writes really fun and beautiful ones. She has a great sense of humor which is totally in the repartee and unspoken thoughts, not in slapstick or coincidence. I have been rereading some of the book and am a bit more critical the second time around. Certain phrases are perhaps over-used, such as “acid tone to the voice.” And the word “Humpbacked” occurs at least twice in the 355 pp. as an adjective not referring to whales. I did not notice the repetition when reading the book for the first time. It is only because I made note of (what I think is) the second mention—a beautiful sentence describing the gibbous moon rising—that I was struck on rereading by an earlier occurrence of the word. This does not significantly detract from the book, but I think it is something to be aware of, especially when writing a longer book—we authors fall in love with certain turns of phrase and can repeat ourselves unwittingly. I know my vocabulary and sentence structure, just in writing this, have been influenced by the book.

And something I’m curious about—the main characters are 68 and 51. Does this mean that twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings will not respond to the characters and the story the same way I did? I remember having trouble engaging with characters who seemed so much removed from me in age, when I was younger. But I may have been a shallower reader. And certain books have reeled me in even against my will and made me care deeply about characters with whom I felt I had little connection—Color Purple, Beloved, She’s Come Undone, and Shipping News all come to mind as books with characters I felt had little in common with myself and yet I came to love them. And the reason is they were so well-written that I could not stop reading.

Also just finished:

I Am The Messenger

by Markus Zusak

Alfred A. Knopf

copyright 2002

Zusak also wrote The Book Thief, which is one of my favorite books of the last 10 years. I Am The Messanger is not up to The Book Thief, and it was written earlier. I felt I could see Zusak learning to use language in innovative ways, developing his unusual and appealing characters--he was learning a lot in writing this book that came together in an amazing way in The Book Thief. His themes include the power of small acts and the goodness of ordinary people. I have read The Book Thief twice. I feel that I Am The Messenger, while I'm glad I read it, is not a keeper for my over-crowded bookshelves.

Reading Journal July 8, 2011

The Boss Baby

Written and Illus. by Marla Frazee

Beach Lane Books, copyright 2010

Book design by Ann Bobco

Text set in Heatwave

Illustrations are rendered in black Prismacolor pencil and gouache on Strathmore 2-ply cold press paper

40 pages, counting the end papers, with pages 1 & 40 pasted down

The art for this book is tremendous, with great humorous touches and a wonderful “Mad Men” look, and the text is also full of humor, using many business terms (boss, perks, meetings, executive gym, 24/7, out of the box.) Told in a very straight-forward, tongue-in-cheek way, this book makes a wonderful read-aloud, which parents will totally love. That makes me wonder who the real audience for this book is. It is not the baby itself, who would be way too young to understand the terminology or the humor. It might well be an older sibling who feels displaced by the baby—this book would provide a way of laughing at the situation, while describing pretty much what has happened. And it might make a child wonder if he or she was a boss baby when first born.

Roller Coaster

Written and Illus. by Marla Frazee

Voyager Books, Harcourt, Inc., copyright 2003

Illustrations done in graphite and watercolor on Strathmore 2-ply hot press paper

From the CIP—“Twelve people set aside their fears and ride a roller coaster, including one who had never done so before.” There is almost no story-line. The author describes people waiting in line, checking their height, deciding not to ride, getting aboard, and the ride itself. The beauty and genius of the book is in the illustrations, where the twelve riders are differentiated and fleshed out in the drawings. Facial expression and gesture convey way more than the simple text as the ride is taken. This is a book to study for subtle characterization, esp. through pictures.

Very defined time-line—waiting in line, riding the roller coaster, and getting off. However, each of the twelve riders has been through a unique experience on this shared ride. The relationships of the 6 pairs are worth examining in detail.

You Can Never Read Too Much, Part 3

Moon Rabbit

Written and Illus. by Natalie Russell

Viking, a Division of Penguin Young readers group, copyright 2009

32 pages, counting the endpapers, with pp. 1 & 32 pasted down

Typeface—Perpetua

468 words of text

This is a very whimsical story with gorgeous illustrations in a muted palette of oranges, blues, grays, browns, and greens. The illustrations carry the story, which is slight, but engaging. A little rabbit enjoys her life in the city, but wishes to meet a friend. One day she meets another little rabbit in a park far from the city. They bond, but the little rabbit misses her life in the city and returns home, knowing that there is someone out there to be her friend and that he is coming to visit.

I think I would have loved this story as a teenager. Not sure how engaging it is for a child—is it reassuring to know there is someone to be your friend? The leave-taking is bittersweet—why must they part? But the other little rabbit will come visit.

Just what is this story about? Friendship? Loving your life? What does it tell us? I don’t know, but I love the visuals enough to stay with it and to study it. Publishers Weekly says, in a starred review, “Children (and adults) will appreciate this gentle take on the often-perplexing conflict between satisfied independence and the joys of companionship.”

Brown Rabbit in the City

Written and Illus. by Natalie Russell

Viking, an Imprint of Penguin group (USA), Inc., copyright 2010

32 pages, counting the endpapers, with pp. 1 & 32 pasted down

Typeface—Perpetua

A retelling of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse, this story feels a bit more satisfying than Moon Rabbit and the illustrations are at least as charming, in the same soft pallet. Brown Rabbit rides the bus to visit his new friend, Little Rabbit. Little Rabbit is so eager to show him the city that she rushes him everywhere, barely taking time to speak. She wears him out and when he slips away from the party without telling her she is sad and realizes how she has been neglecting him. She finds him at her favorite café. He tells her he didn’t come to see the city, he came to see her. The next day she takes him to a quiet garden where she has a present for him, a guitar. His bus comes and goes but he stays, playing with Little Rabbit because, “After all, they had all the time in the world.”

This story is about friendship, what it means to be a friend. And, unlike the fable, these rabbits are able to enjoy each other’s environments and styles of living.

The two books are produced in identical formats, trim size, typeface, palettes, style of illustration. And the rabbits are drawn in the simplest way, yet convey a lot of emotion. They are adorable. Would these stories be published if they were not accompanied by this great art? Not sure, especially the first one.

Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus

Written by Barbara Park, Illus. by Denise Brunkus

A First stepping Stone Book, Random House, copyright 1992

69 pages

The first in a series of Junie B. Jones books. Junie B. has a very believable kindergarten voice in this book. Somewhat like Clementine, she has a knack for getting in trouble as she acts on every whim. Full of action and humor, this lightly illustrated first chapter book, with a reading level of 2.0 should appeal to most kids. Although Junie B. is a girl, with shiny shoes and skirst like velvet, she gets in enough trouble that boys will enjoy her pranks, although they might be reluctant to be seen checking this book out of the library. I think part of the appeal and humor for the reader will be that he/she is older than Junie B. and will know things that Junie B. doesn’t know.

Moon Theater

Written and Illus. by Etienne Delessert

Creative Editions, an imprint of the Creative Company, copyright 2009

32 pages not counting plain endpapers

122 words of text, one line per page.

This is a book carried by its illustrations, which are intriguing. The Swiss-American artist is the illustrator of numerous books. I’m not sure if he’s written many other books. He has an edgy, European feel to the dark paintings.

It is books like this, which, fanciful as it is, perpetuate the misunderstanding that the moon “starts anew every night.” I have a hard time seeing beyond this aspect of the text. I think the story lacks any real story arc—it is about preparing to send the moon out into the evening, setting the stage of the night. Would I have liked this as a child? Probably yes as a teenager. The illustrations are intriguing to me. But now the text bothers me because of the fallacies inherent in it. Am I ruined forever?

Market Day

A graphic novel written and inked by James Sturm

Drawn & Quarterly, Montreal, copyright 2010

Dark earth-toned, very limited palette of many shades of brown and tan, tells a dark story of the demise of hand-made goods in Eastern Europe at the beginning of the 20^th century.

If I hadn’t read the back cover I wouldn’t have had a clue what the story is about beyond a tale of grave disappointment. I feel I am still learning how to read a graphic novel. The artwork of this is quite fine.

Stitches, a memoir…

A graphic novel by David Small

W. W. Norton & Company, New York, copyright 2009

329 pages

Drawn in scratchy line with soft sepia/gray washes, this book tells a bleak tale of the author as a child and his dysfunctional family. It is a tale of survival and ends with a happier prospect—we know (and he acknowledges) that the David of this story survives cancer and his non-loving parents. He grows up to marry and to become an award-winning illustrator. His art is the survival tool that helps him through the bleakest, darkest of times.

I read this book in one sitting, again feeling as if I don’t know how to read a graphic novel. There must be a balance between studying the art and pouring over the words to move the story along. It was a satisfying reading experience, as was Maus. Market Day was perhaps too bleak for my taste and the character never appealed to me. I lacked empathy or connection with him and his life.

You Can Never Read Too Much, Part 2

All You Need for a Snowman

By Alice Schertle

Illus. by Barbara Lavallee

Silver Whistle, Harcourt, Inc. copyright 2007

Illus.—wc and gouache on wc paper

Type—Berling

32 pp + plain gray endpapers

Clever rhyming text, good meter, good rhymes. Repeated phrasing, “and that’s all you need for a snowman, except….” I think the story follows the rule of three, but I’m not sure.

This is the 3d snow/winter book I’ve read from Harcourt.

Skippyjon Jones

Written and illus. by Judy Schachner

Dutton Children’s Bks, New York, copyright 2003

Lengthy text—good read-aloud qualities include song to clap to, wordplay, and Spanish words. Also invites using Spanish accent to read certain parts of the story. Humorous characters, a cat who thinks he’s something else, and his long-suffering mother.

Winter: An Alphabet Acrostic

By Steven Schnur

Illust. By Leslie Evans

Clarion Books, (Hourghton Mifflin),New York, copyright 2002

Illus. hand colored linoleum block prints

Text—19pt Galliard

Interesting concept: the Theme is Winter. The poems are acrostics of words in alphabetical order, each illuminating the season and overall, creating a story arc or moving through the season. The poems themselves are quite beautiful. Here are a few of the first words which create the acrostic poems: Awake; Bake; Cold; Deer; Ears; Flurry.

Here are two of my favorite poems:

Flakes so

Light they drift

Upward

Rise like smoke before coming to

Rest in the

Yard.

Midnight falls, and

Over rooftops and bare

Oak trees a

Narrow crescent rises.

The Moon Came Down On Milk Street

Written and illus. by Jean Gralley

Henry Holt & Co., New York, copyright 2004

32 pp + plain blue end papers

gouache and mixed media on Arches paper

Minimal rhyming text and many pages of pictures only, based on a quote from Mr. Rogers’ mother, “Look for the helpers,” (at the scene of an accident.) about 86 words. Despite the very important lesson contained in this book, it does not feel didactic. It is immensely reassuring. I think it was written at least in part in response to 9-11.

The pictures look like my sister’s Kindergarten class at play—building, helping, constructing, cooperating.

A good book for troubled times.

Cesar: Si, Se puede! Yes, We Can!

Text by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand

Illustrated by David Diaz

Marshall Cavendish, New York, copyright 2004

48 pp not counting plain purple (grape-colored) endpapers

Illustrations were rendered in Photoshop

Text—Goudy; book design by Patrice Sheridan

A detailed biography of Cesar Chavez, told in free verse poems, one to a spread, with Spanish language intermixed into the basically English text.

By using free verse the author was able to reduce the number of words, relying on phrases and descriptive passages and direct quotes. There is a wealth of back matter, including Notes referencing all quotes, a glossary of Spanish terms and phrases, a biographical synopsis, a chronology, and a list of sources including web sources, publications, and interviews. And finally the last page contains a series of extended quotes from Cesar Chavez.

The poems convey the emotional impact of the facts of Cesar’s life and times, emphasizing his childhood and family, although the story of the grape/lettuce boycott is told as is his death. The back matter gives a fuller picture of his life and the political context for his work.

The illustrations are rendered in Photoshop. They look like folk art created with stencils, in soft pastel colors that suggest the colors of the vineyards and farm fields where Cesar labored.

The text is filled with Spanish phrases and words, most of which can be understood in context, some of which are translated in context, and all of which are contained in the glossary at the back of the book.

This is a powerful non-fiction biography, filled with direct quotes from the subject.

You Can Never Read Too Much

May 3, 2011

I pulled out a bunch of Cynthia Rylant books. Although they were published over a fairly wide number of years, they all struck me as having a similar structure, being extended poems, some free verse, some rhyming, with little plot or story. Instead they comment on some aspect of the world which Rylant has warm feelings about. I definitely found some of these books more appealing than others. They are all related to her first book, When I Was Young In the Mountains, which also fits this form.

Snow

by Cynthia Rylant

illustrated by Lauren Stinger (author/illus. of Winter Is The Warmest Season)

Harcourt, Inc. copyright 2008

Text type—Perpetua; Display type—Monica Dengo

OK. I love snow. Would I have loved this book? Nothing happens. It’s like a longer free verse poem about snow—“The best snow / is the snow that / comes softly in the night, / like a shy friend / afraid to knock, / so she thinks she’ll / just wait in the yard / until you see her….” Or—“And the snow, / while it is here, / reminds us of this: / that nothing lasts forever / except memories.”

The illustrations are beautiful acrylic paintings on 140 Arches with crystal snow flakes and wonderful colors—a controlled palette, but broad.

Cynthia Rylant seems to be able to make picture books out of poems or compose poetic pb’s. Is she a poet and not a storyteller?

Long Night Moon

by Cynthia Rylant

illustrated by Mark Siegel (illustrator of Lisa Wheeler’s Seadogs)

Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, copyright 2004

Illustrations in charcoal, pencil, pastel on Arches paper and digital color

Typeface—Wendy

Disappointing text for C.R. 12 moons described sweetly. There are 12 ½ lunar months a year. This book perpetuates the myth of nighttime moons and moons fitting calendar months. Too simplified for my taste.

The Stars Will Still Shine

By Cynthia Rylant

Illus. by Tiphanie Beeke

Harper Collins Publishers, copyright 2005

32 pages plus 2 printed pages of end papers—or 40 pp counting end papers.

Simple rhyming poem of reassurance. Warm, colorful, multi-cultural illus. About 1 line of text per page. Could this be published now, in this tight market?

All In A Day

By Cynthia Rylant

Illus. by Nikki McClure

Abrams Books for Young Readers, New York, copyright 2009

Illustrations are cut paper with computer color

Rhyming poem turned into picture book. It is the illustrator’s first book, I believe. She may be a friend of Rylant’s. A disappointingly slight poem about living in the now. I prefer Philip Larkin’s, “Days Are Where We Live.”

From these 4 books I see a pattern in some of Cynthia Rylant’s work, of creating a single poem and stretching it over a picture book length. Of these four books, two work for me and two do not. Snow and The Stars Will Shine have more depth to them and I’m probably just not objective enough to really judge her Long Night Moon.

The OK Book

By Amy Kraus Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld

Harper Collins, copyright 2007

Using the letters O & K to create a stick figure, OK, this simple text lists many things that “OK” can do, though not well. It ends, “One day, I’ll grow up to be really excellent at something. I don’t know what it is yet… but I sure am having fun figuring it out.”

Text seems a bit didactic to me. The illus. play on the stick-figure shape of OK and are quite expressive. A very limited, muted palette of black, white, pale blue, mustard yellow, and spring green is pleasing.

I am not grabbed by this book (D.T. says “The OK Book is just OK.”), but it is quite clever and I wonder if certain kids will become enamored with the game of personifying OK.

The Island-below-the-Star

Written & illus. by James Rumford

Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1998

Type—Monotype Bulmer

Illust. Are wc on Arches (with some colored pencil lines)

Beautifully written folk tale of 5 brothers who sail from the Marquesas to Hawaii, using their knowledge of the stars, the waves, the clouds, the wind, and the birds to navigate these uncharted waters.

The story is suspenseful, playful, exciting, and satisfying. The interaction is between Manu, the youngest brother and the 4 older ones, who are portrayed almost as a unit. Without contradicting anything that is known of the discovery of Hawaii, Rumford creates a legend that could be true and attributes the discovery more to adventuresome spirit than to duress—in other words, these explorers seek the unknown for the same reasons Bird and Amundson explored Antarctic.

The wc illustrations are spectacular and highly appropriate for the subject—the sea and sky come alive. I see homage to Homer and Gauguin and maybe Turner in these wonderful paintings. The format is small, but the paintings are monumental.

The text seems long for a picture book, but holds the reader’s attention with it’s strong prose.

Diagonal lines give a sense of rocking sea waves. An afterward describes what is known about these first explorers of the Pacific.

Oscar and the Mooncats

By Lynda Gene Rymond

Illust. By Nicoletta Ceccoli

Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 2007

32 pp + endpapers

text—ITC Golden Cockerel

illust.—mixed media, plasticine, acrylics, and collage and computer graphics

Oscar the cat has a wild night and runs away to the moon. The cow there warns him that he’ll forget his boy if he drinks the cream from the crater. He’ll become a mooncat. Essentially a retelling of Where The Wild Things are, this story doesn’t quite work for me. Computerized graphics are also a bit jarring to the eyes and sometimes clash with the overlaid text.

A Good Way To Work

I've been meeting once a week for over a year now with a fellow writer/illustrator. We often catch lunch together, then usually end up at my studio where we work on our picture books. Debbie is quite disciplined about sketching, developing characters, laying out a dummy, building her portfolio. My work is a little more haphazard, and yet, every week I feel our time together has helped me to check in with where I am in my work, and it helps keep my stories on the front burner.

We do a lot of sharing of books we've discovered at the library and bookstore and we attend a lot of SCBWI and other events together. I have been a lot more prepared for these events, having looked at the books that Debbie has tracked down through inter-library loan. Her discipline has inspired me to do more research and reading.

Having a working buddy is a great way to stay focused. And we help each other see the books we look at in new lights. Two heads are definitely better than one. I'm not sure this would work in a larger group, but it's certainly working for the both of us right now. In our time together I have taken a half-developed picture book idea and transformed it into a new poetry collection. It is currently out, waiting for a reading from my editor. This project was stymied for a long time and our weekly meetings really have helped me to push through the wall.

Reading Journal April 27, 2011

Harry and Hopper

By Margaret Wild

Illus. by Freya Blackwood

Feiwel & Friends, New York, 2011 first US edition

Copyright 2009 (Australia)

Illustrations are laserprint on watercolor paper with watercolor, gouache, & charcoal.

Book design by Freya Blackwood

Typeset in Caslon

32 pp not counting end papers

Gorgeous illustrations with flawless touch—sketchy charcoal and a warm, limited palette of ochres, reds, oranges, grays, blues & judicious use of green and white.

The text is very direct—almost no waste words. Good handling of passage of time. Conversational tone—“And every evening….” “But one afternoon…” Plus careful use of incomplete sentences.

Warm, comforting, and sad story of losing a dog. Only characters are the dog, the boy, and the dad.

Reading Journal April 27, 2011

It’s really hard to keep up with all my reading—I’ve been reading a lot, mostly picture books and poetry for kids. I had 26 books checked out, but then I had to return them, having renewed them all twice, without really reading them as thoroughly as I had hoped. I have the printouts from the checkout machine, so I can track them down again. Meanwhile, this is what I’ve read most recently:

Sahara Special

By Esme Raji Codell

Hyperion Books For Children, New York, 2003

Middle grade novel, 175 pages, no illustrations

Sahara Special is the story of a girl who has to repeat 5^th grade. She writes in her journal that she wants to be a writer and her teacher, new to the school, writes, “I believe you.”

I love this book. I have read it 3 times. I study it to see how Esme has developed the characters—there is no “information dump”, as Arthur Levine called it at the recent SCBWI-IL Spring Thaw. We jump right into the story and into the problem of the story (Sahara misses her father, who abandoned her and her mother) and we are drawn to Sahara immediately by her unique and compelling voice.

Sahara is called “Sahara Special” because she was required to sit in the hall with the special needs teacher the year she failed fifth grade. The way the story is told, we, the readers, know something that the other characters do not. We share the secret with Sahara, that she is really smart and articulate, which we know through her first-person narration of the story. Her descriptions and ability to draw characters, and ultimately her essay about her name reveal her to be a gifted writer. But she hides this from all her teachers and classmates. It is only Miss Pointy, the new fifth grade teacher, who does not know Sahara’s history, who makes up her mind for herself, who suspects that there are sides to Sahara which have not been revealed.

This is a warm and unsentimental school story. I loved the setting—an urban school--, Sahara’s classmates, her teachers, and her mother. And I was rooting for Sahara all the way through. Even though I have never flunked a grade and my father never left us, I felt Sahara’s emotions and I identified strongly with her at every turn. It did not hurt that I, too, wanted to become a writer. This book is worthy of a Newbery.

Reading Journal March 30, 2011

Grandma’s Gift

Written and illustrated by Eric Velasquez

Walker & Company, New York, 2010

ALA recommendation/award

A very personal narrative about the author’s boyhood memory of spending Christmas vacation at his grandmother’s apartment in El Barrio. This particular Christmas vacation was spent shopping at La Marqueta for the ingredients for Grandmother’s special holiday pasteles and visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the newly purchased painting by Diego Valazquez of Juan de Pareja.

There is a very subtle story line in which the grandmother is totally comfortable in El Barrio, where she knows almost everyone by name. When she takes the author to visit the museum she feels like a fish out of water. She is uncomfortable with the language and there are no familiar faces—until she sees the portrait of Juan de Pareja. She recognizes him from her own school days and speaks to the painting by name.

The story concludes with Grandmother presenting the author with his first set of colored pencils and a sketchbook of his very own for Christmas.

In an afterward the author asserts that seeing the painting of Juan de Pareja, who was a freed slave of African descent, and who became a famous painter in his own right, inspired him to become as artist. It was the first time he had seen a picture of an artist who looked like he could have come from El Barrio.

Boogie Knights

Words by Lisa Wheeler

Pictures by Mark Siegel

A Richard Jackson Book

Atheneum Books for Young Readers

2008

397 words

Great language, lots of fun word-play, strong steady meter, and fun, playful illustrations make this a great read-aloud, esp. at Halloween.

No traditional story-line or problem—7 sleeping knights wake up one by one and join in the monster’s ball. When night is done they go back to sleep and dream of next year’s ball.

I’m guessing that she was inspired by the title Boogie Knights—(from the movie Boogie Nights) and started to wonder who these knights would be.

Reading Journal March 28, 2011

Poetry by Heart: A Child’s Book of Poems to Remember
Compiled by Liz Attenborough
Foreward by Andrew Motion, poet laureate, UK
The Chicken House, Scholastic, Inc.
Copyright 2001
124 pages

Wide ranging in subject matter, depth, length, and age-level, this collection contains many poems by “anonymous” and poems by Shakespeare, Yeats, Langston Hughes, Edward Lear and many more. From Limericks such as THREE LITTLE OWLS WHO SANG HYMNS:

There were three little owls in a wood
Who sang hymns whenever they could;
What the words were about
One could never make out,
But one felt it was doing them good.
Anonymous

to the wordplay of A FLY AND A FLEA:

A fly and a flea in a flue
Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
Said the fly, ‘let us flee!’
‘Let us fly!’ said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
Anonymous

to WALKING THE DOG SEEMS LIKE FUN TO ME:

I said, The dog wants a walk.

Mum said to Dad, It’s your turn.
Dad said, I always walk the dog.
Mom said, Well I walked her this morning.
Dad said, She’s your dog.
I didn’t want a dog in the first place.

Mum said, It’s your turn.

Dad stood up and threw the remote control
At the pot plant.
Dad said, I’m going down the pub.
Mum said, Take the dog.

Dad shouted, No way!
Mum shouted, You’re going nowhere!

I grabbed Judy’s lead
and we both bolted out the back door.

The stars were shining like diamonds.
Judy sniffed at a hedgehog, rolled up in a ball.
She ate a discarded kebab on the pavement.
She tried to chase a cat that ran up a tree.

Walking the dog
seems like fun to me.
Roger Stevens

this collection is full of poems I want to keep close by me.

Reading Journal March 24, 2011

Small Talk: A Book of Short Poems
Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Illustrated by Susan Gaber
Harcourt Brace & Company
Copyright 1995
48 pages
Illustrations done in watercolor and colored pencil on Strathmore Bristol board
Display type—Simoncini Garamond
Text type—Stempel Garamond

All the poems in this book are short—from 2 to 16 short lines, each poem fitting easily on a single page. Some of the poems are quite simple and some are thoughtful and resonant. All contain beautiful language. This collection will appeal to young children who enjoy words and to older children who will find the depth without struggling to read length. Most of the poets collected here are familiar—Carl Sandburg, Aileen Fisher, Eve Merriam, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Langston Hughes, et al.

Two of my favorites include:

WHAT ARE HEAVY? By Christina G. Rossetti

What are heavy? Sea-sand and sorrow.
What are brief? Today and tomorrow.
What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth.
What are deep? The ocean and truth.

And:

SUMMER COOLER by X. J. Kennedy

In the summer young Angus MQuade
Carried off to his castle of shade
Two cool soothing pillows,
The Wind in the Willows,
And an ocean of iced lemondade.

Reading Journal March 22, 2011

Firefighter Ted
By Andrea Beaty and Pascal Lemaitre
Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster
Copyright 009
Book design by Ann Bobco
Text is set in Bliss
Illus. are done in brush and ink, colored digitally
32 pages, not counting bright orange-red end papers. 594 words

Very dryly funny picture book about a bear who pretends to be a firefighter. The pictures carry much of the humor while the text is quite deadpan. For example—text: “Firefighter Ted looked everywhere.” Picture: Ted is shown looking inside his firefighter’s hat and bending over, looking between his legs.

Good use of repetition—“The crowd was speechless. ‘No need to thank me” said Firefighter Ted”—this is an event that happens 3 different times (rule of three). Also, Ted puts out fires at home, on the way to school, and at the science fair (again, rule of three.)

The book begins and ends with Ted in bed, covering the course of one day. Ted perfectly captures the imagination and energy of a young child.

Reading Journal

I just finished reading:

Stink and the Incredible Super-Galactic Jawbreaker
by Megan McDonald
illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
Candlewick Press copyright 2006

This is the 5th or 6th book by Megan McDonald that I have read in the Judy Moody and Stink series. She is a smooth writer with a great feel for the interactions and dialog between a bossy older sister and a pesty younger brother. The story unfolds quickly, with great humor and wordplay. This book emphasizes "Idioms", which Stink is studying in school. Also letter writing, another of Stink's lessons from school. So it has great curricular tie-ins while being an easy to read, high-attention, humorous book about family, school, and friends. What's not to like?

I do wonder if some of the language--slang--will date the book quickly, expressions such as "way cool." However, I think she makes up some of the slang, such as Judy's expression, "rare". Will these books have the staying power of Beverley Cleery's Ramona books? I don't think they have the depth, but they do have the humor.

Chasing Vermeer
by Blue Balliett
illustrated by Brett Helquist
Scholastic, Inc. copyright 2004

While the plot is a bit contrived, I found this a very satisfying book to read. It raises some very interesting points about coincidence and intuition and patterns. It's like The DaVinci Code for kids, only much smarter, better written, and with real characters. The portrayal of friendship is very true to a six grader's experience, I think. I read this a while ago and have forgotten some of the details. This is a book I would enjoy rereading. It values asking questions more than answering questions.

The Wright Three
by Blue Balliett
illustrated by Brett Helquist
Scholastic Inc. copyright 2006
edited by Tracy Mack
agents Doe Coover and Amanda Lewis

While the 2 main characters from Chasing Vermeer also star in this book, there is a third character and we see the story mostly from his point of view. Balliett is one of only a few authors I've read who can successfully shift point of view from one character to another and make it satisfying and convincing. I don't feel she does it because she doesn't know how to tell the story in a more consistent way, the way I usually feel when an author flits from one characters interior to another. She develops clear differentiation between her characters and putting the pieces together is part of the story. Again, this book is intellectually satisfying and challenging. And the characters' interactions are honest and yet surprising.

Changing Gears

One of the things I have learned (as I go) is that it is really hard to keep a blog. For me writing a blog is in direct competition with keeping a journal. I write my journal by hand, with a Pelikan fountain pen and special Pelikan Fount India Ink. I write only for myself--I rarely share my journals--and I try not to censor my thoughts or think of an audience other than myself. My journals are a conversation I am having with myself and in them I explore many issues and problems, projects and ideas. I organize my days, my life, my thoughts. I store my best ideas.

By the time I get to writing my blog, I am tapped out. I am overly aware that this is a public space, whether I have a real audience or not, and I lose my true voice and start to bore even myself. So I am changing gears, taking this blog in a different direction for now.

I read a great article in the SCBWI National Bulletin about keeping a reading log. It was suggested that you keep track of the title, author/illustrator, publisher, date, and editor and/or agent if possible (often the editor or agent is mentioned in the acknowledgments--more likely in a novel than in a shorter book). Then write about the book--what captured your interest, or, if you lost interest, why was that. The point, of course, is to read with the eye of a writer. So I have decided to keep my Reader's Log here, on my blog. This is just one more way I am learning as I go.