Blackout

Its a typical night amid the hustle and bustle of New York City until . . .  pop, pop, pop . . . out go the lights.

Soon it is too hot to stay inside and people head out.  Some of them climb up to the roof where people are BBQ-ing  in the star light.  Others wander down to street level where vendors are handing out ice cream before it can melt and people are playing music on their stoops.  Up or down, people are gathered together.

This is a great together time book for cuddling and reading on the sofa or the glider.  The text is ultra simple, probably not much over 100 words in length but it tells the story beautifully.  One little boy wants someone to play a game with him, but everyone in his family is busy doing other things, each in a separate room, until the power goes out and brings them all together.

If you’ve ever experienced an outage, you’ll recognize that feeling in this book. Instead of sitting inside, air conditioners humming away, everyone heads out.  Neighbors cluster together chatting, kids play and everyone looks up at the sky.

If you’ve never experienced an outage, you can still experience the together time when you share this book with a special child in your life.

–SueBE

What to Expect When You’re Expecting Larvae

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked this one up.  I’d heard great things about the book from the agent who sold it — she simply couldn’t quit gushing about the fantastic humor.

A humorous nonfiction book about insects?  Could someone really pull that off?  The answer is “yes” if that someone is Bridget Heos.

Heos could have written a ho hum factual account of where insects of various kinds lay there eggs, how quickly the larvae grow, what types of insects pass through a larval stage, etc.  But that wouldn’t be this book.

Instead, she wrote a humorous question and answer.  The questions themselves are pretty straightforward:

• “What will my babies look like?  Will they resemble their mother or father?”
• “I fly.  My wingless larvae can’t come with me.  What will they do all day?”
• “How will I keep my larvae safe?”

The humor comes in with the responses and the illustrations.  Readers will laugh about larvae that look like bird poop, those that make bird’s vomit, and why book worms have had to find different digs. It is truly hard to do the humor in this book justice without simply quoting vast portions of it.

If you have a preschool insect lover, this book is probably too sophisticated.  They may get some of the humor (there are dung beetles, after all) but a lot of it will fly on by.  That said, if your child gets sarcasm, come this way.  You and your little book worm have found a new book to munch.

–SueBE

The Gollywhopper Games

First of all, a disclosure.  No, the book wasn’t a gift.  I checked it out from the library.  Why?  Because Jody is one of the writers that I know and run into.  That’s why I picked the book up, but it isn’t why I loved it.

Gil Goodson is a fantastic underdog.  He’s smart and a good athlete.  He’s kind and conscientious.  Why then is he an underdog?  Because his father was accused of embezzling money from his employer, Golly Toy and Game Company.  Accused, not convicted.  A jury of his peers found him  innocent.

But what about Gil’s peers?  They aren’t as certain and the outspoken ones have made his life really difficult.  Because of their harassment, he’s quit playing sports.  He doesn’t hang out with the other kids any more.  He pretty much just goes to school, mows lawns and goes home.

What a life.

Not.

Gil just wishes that they could afford to move closer to his aunt.  Then he could start over, with new kids who hadn’t seen the story on television.  He wouldn’t constantly be reminded of that whole horrible time.

And Gil has the chance to win the money.  All he has to do is win the GollyWhopper Games a series of challenges that include both logic puzzles but also physical feats.

In the end, Gil is a real winner, but not because he wins the Games.  But because he learns to recognize who his friends are and what makes someone a good person.

The whole time I was reading this, I kept thinking back to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Don’t bother.  The sense of fun is there but Gil is so much cooler than Charlie. Where Charlie wins by not being the worst kid there, Gil has to do so much more including being a true leader and using both athletic ability and his smarts.  Readers will also enjoy getting to solve the puzzles right along with Gil — something they didn’t get to do in Dahl’s book.

An excellent middle grade read that would be suitable for grade schoolers as well.  The book is high energy and clever and sure to win a place in classrooms and school libraries.  Use it to launch a section on puzzle solving, team building or ethics.

–SueBE

Metal Man

Whenever he gets the chance, Devon heads over to watch the Metal Man work.  His sister won’t go with him.  She’s scared of the noise.  Mama doesn’t even like what the Metal Man does.  According to her, it isn’t art, but junk.

But Devon sees something more.  He sees the work that goes into it and the heart.  Still, sometimes he isn’t sure what he’s supposed to see in the sculptures.     But this isn’t school and eventually Devon learns that with art there is no one right answer.

One day, he asks if he can try something.   The Metal Man won’t let Devon handle the dangerous torch but he follows Devon’s directions and before the day is out, Devon is holding the star-house that he designed.

Paul Hoppe’s mixed media illustrations are a perfect compliment for this story.  Bold black lines compliment Devon’s brass even as they also depict his complex emotions and the pure strength of the Metal Man’s craft.

But this isn’t a bold story.  The power is subtle.  Nothing is said about Devon’s father; all we know is that he isn’t in the book.  Is the Metal Man Devon’s mentor?  A Big Brother?  Again, nothing is said.  All we see is first his tolerance of the boy but also the care he takes when Devon wants to create something of his very own.

It takes nerve on Devon’s part to bring his creation home.  What is Mama going to think?  He views on the Metal Man’s work are outspoken and clear.  But Mama doesn’t have all the answers although she’s willing to see the art in what her son has created.

This book will definitely give you something to consider for quite some time.  Even after a week, I know that I’m still process it.

–SueBE

The Girl of Fire and Thorns

by Rae Carson
Greenwillow

Elisa hasn’t done anything impressive in her sixteen years.  Sure, she’s a princess but her sister is amazing.  She knows all about the workings of their father’s kingdom, rides horseback and can hold her own in any situation.

Elisa?  She eats.

In fact, that’s what she’s dreaming of doing as she’s fitted into her wedding gown.  She’s nervous about meeting the groom, Alejandro,  King of a neighboring land.  Elisa also wonders why it is so important that she marry right now.  What good could she be in helping the king of a threatened land?

Maybe it has something to do with her Godstone.  The Godstone, lodged in her navel, marks her as chosen by God.  It appeared on her wedding day and it tells one and all that she has been chosen for a great task.

Elisa only hopes that she’ll be up for it.  But until that destiny finds her she takes solace much as she always has — in her books and food.  Before she can make a position for herself in this new court, she is kidnapped and makes a long trek across the desert.  In a small village, she finds a group of desperate people who are sure that this bearer of the Godstone can save them from the war that has already taken so many lives, a war that her husband the kind doesn’t know is already being fought.

This is definitely a girls book, in spite of the battle scenes and fighting.  There is simply too much time spent on emotion and introspection to fully engage most boy readers.

Too bad for them.

Because this was a book I couldn’t put down.  In spite of all of her waffling about, Elisa is a character who pulls on your sympathy.  She takes solace in food.  She’s amazingly insecure.  She knows that most every woman is prettier than she is and that her brains aren’t going to score points for her with people who value pretty over smart.  She knows that life holds great things for her, if only she can figure out what they are.

Sound like anyone you know?  Me too.

If you’ve got a tween or teen who loves fantasy, sword and sorcery or adventure, this book is a must read.  If you love any of these things, take the time to read it yourself.  It is chock full of romance, intrigue and lessons on faith, faith in God and faith in yourself.

Take the time to read it during a few of this winter’s cold, dark nights.

–SueBE

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,500 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Coral Reefs 

In my opinion, one of the best picture book nonfiction authors around is Jason Chin.  Jason combines easy to understand descriptions of various ecosystems with amazingly detailed water color paintings to produce his books.  My favorite so far is Coral Reefs.

Our narrator pulls a book on coral reefs off the library shelf.  As she wonders through the library and reads, coral crops up first on table tops and book cases but soon it is creeping up the walls.  Before long, the water has gushed in and filled the library and the young reader is now swimming amid the animals that populate the reef.

It sounds fanastical, and the frame for Chin’s story is in that it isn’t strictly nonfiction.  But his painting are so realistic that I am confident that if I can’t tell a grouper from a grunt that the fault is my own.

Chin discusses both predators and prey so the book is realistic but it isn’t so intense that it would frighten most young readers.

The perfect book for an introduction to marine ecosystems or to share with the fish loving young reader in your own life.  Don’t be surprised if you find yourself gazing at the paintings and forgetting to read the text.

It happens, after all, to the best of us.

Just pick up this book and enjoy!

–SueBE

Most of us know that Benjamin Franklin was both a statesman and an inventor.  But the range of this man’s inventions is truly amazing.

From my very own bifocals to diver’s flippers, Franklin invented gadgets and gizmos galore.  But he also studied many things including the currents, the importance of citrus in preventing scurvy, daylight savings.  Yes, Daylight savings time.  It may not have been adopted until WWI, but it was recommended by Franklin as a way to save money by using fewer candles and also a way to give farmers more work time in the evenings.

Because the book covers so much, it doesn’t cover any of it in depth but the rapid pace will grab young reader’s attention.  As soon as I finished reading this, my son (yes, too old for picture books) picked it up and read it cover to cover.

This book would serve as a great introduction to Franklin but it is also a great stepping off point for discussions on motivation and the many rolls that a single human being can take on in the course of their life.

–SueBE

My Name Is Not Easy

“Take care of your brothers.”

Our main character takes this charge seriously but there is only so much that he can do when the priest decides to take his brother away.  Luke, Bunna and Isaac have been sent from their village to Sacred Heart School.  They know that Inupiaq  rules don’t apply here, but what are the rules in their new home?

When they are told Isaac is too young to go to school there, they are concerned but powerless to stop as the priest in charge puts the crying child in the car and drives him away.  Where is he?  All they can find out is that he’s been left with a good Catholic family.

And so starts Luke’s education outside his home village.  He learns about the Indians (Athapascan’s) he has been taught are his people’s natural enemies, the Catholic church and even the few white students at Sacred Heart.  He learns to survive, to trust, and how to stand up for himself in a world that devalues his way of life.

Edwardson tells the story of native students who were taken from their homes in the fifties and sixties.  They had to hunt to feed themselves, were beaten for speaking their own languages and were even experimented on by the U.S. military.  Like Isaac, many children were taken from their families.  I went to high school with one of these children although I didn’t realize what her adoption meant at the time.

It will probably be easier to get a boy into this book than a girl but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.  This is a story about the universal kinship of mankind, human rights and folly.

I’m taking my copy back to the library tonight and this is going on my wish list.

–SueBE

When Soo Min comes to a new family in the U.S. things are tough.  She speaks no English and her new family knows only four Korean words:

• mok-da = eat
• chim-dae = bed
• bahp = rice
• jip = house

Her new Apah (father) and Omah (mother) are good to her but the one that Soo Min truly connects with is Goyangi (cat).  After all, you don’t need language to know that rubbing and purrs mean love.

Then one day, Goyangi follows Apah out of the apartment.  Soo Min wonders if she will ever see her new friend again.

This is a touching story that honestly shows the confusion and difficulty of being adopted into a new culture with a different language.  But it just as clearly shows the love this family has for their new daughter and the pet who makes her happy.

Johnson and Fancher’s illustrations are a combination of acrylic and oil paints and patterned papers.  They intentionally selected paper designs that reflect the Eastern world where Soo Min began and her life as well as the Western world she later learned to call home — all because of one very special cat.

This book would be an excellent family read for anyone bringing a child from another culture into their home and is sure to spark discussions about belonging and love and family.

–SueBE