The subject of reviewing children’s books (how, why, which, etc) has been popping up all over the blogs I read – little wonder, as those blogs tend to feature reviews of children’s books.
Betsy Bird of Fuse #8 ponders the questions posed by a reader who wondered how she chose to review the books she did. Did publisher clout have anything to do with it? Is Betsy reviewing more “buzzy” books than she used to, rather than little-known gems? See her post for some musings on how she selects books to review.
Liz B. of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy presents a wonderfully sensible discussion of blog reviews vs. journal reviews (SLJ, Kirkus et al) in this post. There’s room for them both, she says, and I heartily agree.
Roger Sutton of Read Roger brings up the sometimes awkward way reviewers mention (or fail to mention) the skin color/ethnicity of characters in their reviews. Read his post for a fictional but hilarious example.
And my beloved Kidlitosphere colleagues have been discussing every detail of blog reviewing, from the mundane to the sublime. Blog reviewing is alive, well, and in great hands if these folks are any indication.
I’ve reviewed for School Library Journal for lo these many years (more than 10, less than 20 – more specific I simply can’t get), and now I also blog-review as well. There are only two important differences between these two types of reviews:
1. I read and review every book SLJ sends me, whether I like it or not, and therefore I sometimes write bad reviews on books for SLJ. Because I only read and review what I want for my own blog, I tend to write mostly positive reviews on my blog – after all, I don’t want to waste my time reading a bad book if I don’t have to!
2. My SLJ reviews have to follow a certain format – they can’t be too long and they must be rather professional. They are meant to provide librarians with some crucial information that they can use when making selection decisions. My blog reviews, however, are for whomever reads my blog – all five of you! I can be as long-winded and personal as I want.
But my reviews are all the same in these two respects:
1. If I plan to review a book, I read it all the way through at least once. No exceptions. No stopping half-way through and writing a bad review! No skimming!
2. I take my review-writing very seriously. I think hard about not just my own personal and immediate reaction to the book but also about the writing style, plot, illustrations, mood, and so on. Also, I have been known to feel lukewarm about a book that went on to become quite popular with kids (Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer being a perfect example), which has taught me that while my own reaction is valid as far as it goes, there are other possible viewpoints to consider, most notable those of potential kid readers. Thank God I gave a starred review to Harry Potter in SLJ!!!
I’m a compulsive reader of School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus, Hornbook, the book review sections of several major daily newspapers, and even the book review sections of Vogue and People. I also subscribe to dozens of review blogs. They all feed my addiction to books in essential and satisfying ways.
Now if only I could get paid for reviewing children’s books…!!!!!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Excellent and Eccentric Croatian Librarian
From Ginny's Writer's Block comes another missive about her journeys in Croatia; this one features the village of Sali on the Long Island (pictured above). In my next life, I want to be an eccentric librarian in charge of an off-the-radar branch who lives in a stone house with a red roof and green shutters in a gorgeous village on an island.
Okay?
Creepy Cakes
I don't subscribe to Cake Wrecks (trying to limit myself to Kid Lit blogs, of which there are already WAY too many great ones), so I forget about its sheer genius for weeks at a time. But when I remember to check on it, this blog always makes my day.
In honor of Halloween, here are a bunch of Creepy Cake posts. Be sure to scroll down past the Halloween-themed cakes to the even creepier cakes featuring prone babies, disembodied heads, and so on.
Good times...
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Two more favorite not-too-scary picture books for Halloween
Halloween storytimes at the library always seem to attract families with younger children, so it's necessary to read and tell stories that are thrilling but not too chilling. Here is an excellent new picture book that fits the bill:
The orange/black/white illustrations are stylish, yet have plenty of kid-appeal, and are dramatic enough to carry all the way to the back of the room. There is only a sentence or two on every page, telling a story that will appeal to every preschooler - a witch-girl rids a haunted house of unhappy-looking ghosts by catching them and allowing them to serve double-duty as blankets, curtains, a table-cloth, and the like. This reminds me of the satisfying ending to The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams, in which the pumpkin creature is overjoyed to find his true calling as a scarecrow.
Another great book for preschool Halloween storytimes is:
A skeleton with hiccups tries all sorts of methods to cure himself - until finally his own reflection scares them away. Laugh-out-loud illustrations and a simple text (with plenty of "Hic! Hic!" sound effects for children to join in with) make this a perfect preschool story - and not just for Halloween.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Review of Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O'Connor
Sometimes a book comes along that hits you in just the right way. It doesn’t klonk you over the head with its fabulousness, but rather it quietly sinks into your mind and heart as you read it, creating a mood that lingers.
Greeting from Nowhere by Barbara O’Connor (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008) is such a book. O’Connor’s previous book Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia was a highly pleasant read, but I must confess that I didn’t finish How to Steal a Dog – the conjunction of my mood and the style of the first 20 pages was not auspicious. Perhaps I’ll give it another try.
It isn’t often that a children’s book opens with the thoughts and actions of an adult character. Aggie and her husband Harold have run the Sleepytime Motel in North Carolina for decades, but now Harold is dead and Aggie is old and the Sleepytime Motel is run-down. Aggie decides to sell the place and move in with her sister.
Willow’s father, at loose ends after Willow’s mother leaves them, decides to buy the motel sight unseen, and he drags an unwilling and despondent Willow to the Great Smoky Mountains to make the transaction.
Meanwhile, Kirby’s fed-up and high-strung mom is driving him to what amounts to a reform school in a last-ditch effort to get him to behave. Her hair-trigger temper and apparent lack of affection for Kirby make it clear why Kirby is not exactly a delight of a boy. They are not far from the motel when their junker dies along the side of the road, and so they get a room until money arrives to fix the car.
Finally, Loretta receives a mysterious package that contains small keepsakes from her long-lost birth mother, who has just died. One of the treasures is a charm bracelet with charms from various parts of the U.S., including the Great Smoky Mountains. Her parents suggest that they visit these places, one at a time, and so they head off. When night falls, they find themselves at the Sleepytime Motel.
As the families arrive, one by one, Aggie’s second thoughts about selling her motel become stronger. This place has been her whole life! But she knows she can’t keep it going any longer. She fills out the paperwork reluctantly to sell the motel to Willow’s dad, and tries to keep her mind off leaving by getting to know the three kids who are staying at the motel.
The interactions between Aggie and the children, between the children and their parents, and among the children themselves are the heart of this tale. Kirby is antisocial and feels deeply trapped by the negative way the people around him (in particular his mom) feel about him, Willow has been uprooted from everything she knows and is desperate for any word from her mother, and Loretta – well, Loretta is such a ray of sunshine, with such amazingly sweet and supportive parents, that nothing much is ever going to keep her down.
These three kids behave toward each other as children do toward kids they don’t know – with varying degrees of wariness, friendliness, or shyness, depending on the child and the situation. Aggie likes kids, all kids, and doesn’t hesitate to bring pull them into her orbit, by gentle force when necessary. Without Aggie, they all might have stayed apart, but Aggie is a wonderfully cozy and nonjudgmental hub. They talk, play, and eventually all pitch in together to make the motel ready for a tour group. Not much goes on, but all the conversations and thoughts we overhear are right on target.
The three families are only at the motel a few days before two of them move on, but quite a bit goes on underneath the uneventful surface of their visit. Aggie’s agitation about her own impending move strikes a chord with Willow, who knows what it’s like to leave what you love; doing something to help Aggie brings a lot of healing to Willow herself. Kirby gets to experience the restful and satisfying feeling of being around people who like and value him rather than fear and resent him, something that may make his stay at the boarding school a bit more successful than it would have been otherwise. And Loretta - well, Loretta and her parents already knew how lucky they are.
So – a quiet tale, a humble setting. Nothing earthshaking happens. The characters are regular folks. Somehow, though, thanks to some wonderfully understated writing and a keen knowledge of how people think and talk, it all comes together in a satisfying package.
For grades 4 - 6
Greeting from Nowhere by Barbara O’Connor (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008) is such a book. O’Connor’s previous book Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia was a highly pleasant read, but I must confess that I didn’t finish How to Steal a Dog – the conjunction of my mood and the style of the first 20 pages was not auspicious. Perhaps I’ll give it another try.
It isn’t often that a children’s book opens with the thoughts and actions of an adult character. Aggie and her husband Harold have run the Sleepytime Motel in North Carolina for decades, but now Harold is dead and Aggie is old and the Sleepytime Motel is run-down. Aggie decides to sell the place and move in with her sister.
Willow’s father, at loose ends after Willow’s mother leaves them, decides to buy the motel sight unseen, and he drags an unwilling and despondent Willow to the Great Smoky Mountains to make the transaction.
Meanwhile, Kirby’s fed-up and high-strung mom is driving him to what amounts to a reform school in a last-ditch effort to get him to behave. Her hair-trigger temper and apparent lack of affection for Kirby make it clear why Kirby is not exactly a delight of a boy. They are not far from the motel when their junker dies along the side of the road, and so they get a room until money arrives to fix the car.
Finally, Loretta receives a mysterious package that contains small keepsakes from her long-lost birth mother, who has just died. One of the treasures is a charm bracelet with charms from various parts of the U.S., including the Great Smoky Mountains. Her parents suggest that they visit these places, one at a time, and so they head off. When night falls, they find themselves at the Sleepytime Motel.
As the families arrive, one by one, Aggie’s second thoughts about selling her motel become stronger. This place has been her whole life! But she knows she can’t keep it going any longer. She fills out the paperwork reluctantly to sell the motel to Willow’s dad, and tries to keep her mind off leaving by getting to know the three kids who are staying at the motel.
The interactions between Aggie and the children, between the children and their parents, and among the children themselves are the heart of this tale. Kirby is antisocial and feels deeply trapped by the negative way the people around him (in particular his mom) feel about him, Willow has been uprooted from everything she knows and is desperate for any word from her mother, and Loretta – well, Loretta is such a ray of sunshine, with such amazingly sweet and supportive parents, that nothing much is ever going to keep her down.
These three kids behave toward each other as children do toward kids they don’t know – with varying degrees of wariness, friendliness, or shyness, depending on the child and the situation. Aggie likes kids, all kids, and doesn’t hesitate to bring pull them into her orbit, by gentle force when necessary. Without Aggie, they all might have stayed apart, but Aggie is a wonderfully cozy and nonjudgmental hub. They talk, play, and eventually all pitch in together to make the motel ready for a tour group. Not much goes on, but all the conversations and thoughts we overhear are right on target.
The three families are only at the motel a few days before two of them move on, but quite a bit goes on underneath the uneventful surface of their visit. Aggie’s agitation about her own impending move strikes a chord with Willow, who knows what it’s like to leave what you love; doing something to help Aggie brings a lot of healing to Willow herself. Kirby gets to experience the restful and satisfying feeling of being around people who like and value him rather than fear and resent him, something that may make his stay at the boarding school a bit more successful than it would have been otherwise. And Loretta - well, Loretta and her parents already knew how lucky they are.
So – a quiet tale, a humble setting. Nothing earthshaking happens. The characters are regular folks. Somehow, though, thanks to some wonderfully understated writing and a keen knowledge of how people think and talk, it all comes together in a satisfying package.
For grades 4 - 6
Friday, October 24, 2008
One Week Until Halloween
Ever since I grew too old to trick-or-treat, I've had a love/hate relationship with Halloween; the costumes are fab and so are the spooky stories, but the sheer sugar-fueled frenzy of it makes me want to go curl up with a book until it's all over - and those darn kids keep ringing the doorbell!
Still, as a children's librarian in a busy branch, it was easy to get caught up in the excitement. Decorations, crafts, costumes, and most of all, the deliciously spooky/funny stories - the holiday is really a children's librarian's dream.
When I became a Branch Manager, things didn't change much. Not only did I continue to wear a costume on Halloween, but I gently (no, honestly! it was completely voluntary!!) encouraged my staff to wear costumes as well, or at least a Dr. Seuss hat. They patiently obliged me.
Now I'm a Senior Children's Librarian - but I no longer work directly with the public. Last year I got to fill in for a children's librarian who got sick on Halloween, but this year my one opportunity to do a Halloween storytime for a brand-new children's librarian fell through when it turned out to be a parent workshop instead. Phooey! And what is the point of wearing my oh-so-coveted Tooth Fairy costume if only my fellow administrative colleagues will see it? Although possibly they could use the guffaw it would surely generate...
If you are looking for an easy children's literature-related costume idea, Wizards Wireless has a few suggestions (plus a fun Mo Willems survey).
There are dozens of sure-fire stories and books out there to tell at a Halloween program. My own all-time favorite is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams, as it works well both in picture book format and as a participation story for younger kids.
For a scary story for older kids, nothing beats "The Peculiar Such Thing" as told by Virginia Hamilton in The People Could Fly. There are also several picture book versions - my favorite is Jan Wahl's Tailypo.
Oh well - my library Halloween activities may be curtailed, and my teenaged daughters may be too old to go trick-or-treating, but at least I can count on a few kids knocking on my door next week. Better find those teeth-bracelets and iron out my ribbons and wings!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
A public library in Croatia
For a glimpse into the children's area of a public library in Croatia, check out this post on Writer's Block, written by a Well-known Personage in Children's Librarianship (but who apparently wants to remain somewhat anonymous, as she is known in her blog as "Ginny").
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