Silent Music - James Rumford

A Story of Baghdad
For: Kids
Published: 2008
Rating: 4.5
Read: Oct. 21, 2008
Endpapers: Dark Blue

Interestingly enough, James Rumford created the illustrations for this book in pencil and charcoal, then did all the enhancements on the computer. The book is filled with Arabic calligraphy, whether as a background embellishement or written boldly in black across the page..."the letters loop together and make beautiful shapes all by themselves." Arabic mosaics, Arabic designs, money, stamps, postmarks, motifs, are spread throughout the book so that the reader gets a wonderful mideastern feel from beginning to end. I love calligraphy, so the notion of creating this beautiful, flowing writing from right to left completely fascinates me.

The story is about Ali, a boy who loves to write and doodle, proudly practicing the calligraphy of his language as he continues to learn it. Although he loves to play soccer, dance, and listen to loud music like other kids, he is drawn to calligraphy, "I love to make the ink flow - from my pen stopping and starting, gliding and sweeping, leaping, dancing to the silent music in my head.". He tells about Yakut, the most famous calligrapher in the wold, who lived in the 13th century. The last picture is of Ali and his family, mom, dad, sister, grandad (cat and rabbit!), all in Iraqi garb and sitting on a bench with beautiful mosaics behind them. The entire books depicts Iraq and the middle east beautifully making this an expressive multi-cultural picture book on every level.

Addendum: January 24, 2009: I attended a five-hour workshop at the University of Arizona today, taught by Kathy Short and Seemi Raina. It was entitled MidEastern Culture Children's Literature. At the very beginning, Seemi, a doctoral candidate who came to the US eleven years ago from Pakistan, read this book aloud. Her lovely, lilting Urdu accent and added information made this a real treat. As the young boy is surrounded by fallling bombs, he calms himself by prcticing calligraphy..."I filled my mind with peace." At the conclusion of the day, Seemi wrote out each of our first and last names in Arabic calligraphy for us to keep. It was a fantastic five hours, including a wonderful lunch from Ali Baba restaurant.

M is for Mischief - Linda Ashman

POETRY
An A to Z of Naughty Children
Illustrator: Nancy Carpenter
For: Kids, not too too young, though
Published: 2008
Rating: FIVE
Read: Oct. 21, 2008
Endpapers: Purple

This is going to be a favorite. An ABC book with alliteration, sophisticated vocabulary, poetry, and illustrations that have a little extra something, a different technique, very subtle and very fun. Nancy Carpenter uses what appears to be photographs of real items as part of her drawaings. Now maybe I'm wrong, but check out the pink cowboy boots from Evesdropping Eva, the orange frisbee from Fiendish Frankie, the shrubbery in Hiding Hal, the first place ribbons and trophies from Blustering Buster. A close examination of each page is in order!

Six to twelve-lined poems using alliteration and incredibly good vocabulary tell the stories of 26 very naughty children. Cleverly. Very cleverly. The poems stand alone, but the illustrations are a blast. I just want to read, and examine, and share, share, share. The middle schoolers loved it. The humor, the rhythm, the rhyming, the wording. They wanted to read it aloud to each other.

I always look forward to the letter X. This can be very telling about the cleverness and ingenuity of a writer. Check out Linda Ashman's X:

Experimenting Xavier

Xavier gets excited mixing extracts in the sink.
Mama takes exception, says, "You'll make us all extinct!"
Explains to him explicitly, "You lack the expertise
To execute experiments as difficult a these."

Xavier exclaims to her, "It's just a simple potion!"
But Mama cannot hear him on account of the...
EXPLOSION!

and I love Eavesdropping Eva (and NOT because it's primarily purple and lime green pages):

Eva enjoys hearing every exchange.
She creeps up to eavesdrop at very close range,
While people are eating, or out on a date,
At public events, or a private estate.
A whisper, an echo, and Eva appears,
Eagerly listening, straining her ears.
She'll sneak under tables, or lean from a ledge -
Uh-oh! Now Eva's gone over the edge.

Definitely, one of my favorites of the year.

Blake Shelton

What's goin' on?
Sitting on my living room floor wrapping Christmas gifts last December, I nonchalantly flipped on the tv. Another reality show...Clash of the Choirs...was just beginning. It was to last four or five nights, featuring five different singers from five different American music genres who had hand-picked choirs from their hometowns. Okay. Nick Lachey is cool, the rest I could take or leave (Patti LaBelle, Michael Bolton), two I'd never heard of. One was Blake Shelton, whose Oklahoma City choir was diverse and interesting. And boy, they sounded great. I was taken by Blake Shelton's voice, and then his charm, and when I finally actually looked up from my wrapping---his...ahem...appearance...talk about beautiful packages! Yup, that's right. I actually said it. It all started then.

I have NEVER enjoyed country music. It was always twangy and drawl-y and, well, generally yucky. I would turn the channel or station immediately upon hearing that twang. But somewhere, somehow, last March or April I heard "The More I Drink" by Blake Shelton. Catchy, catchy , sing-along song. I looked it up on ITunes. I donwloaded the video, the song. I blasted it through the house and danced to it as I loaded the dishwasher. So I decided to actually try out a country music CD. I purchased Pure BS. I listened to it...over and over. And I couldn't get enough. I love this CD. It's the first time in years I've found a CD I love like this, and listen to it over and over. So I spread my wings and purchased the Blake Shelton CD, then the Blake Shelton' Barn and Grille. I download the videos of Some Beach and Old Red.

I.....WAS.....SOLD.

I love this guy. I love his music. I love his guitar playing. I like the songs he chooses to sing. My favorite is still The More I Drink. But I love Austin, and I Thought There Was Time, I Have Been Lonely and I Don't Care, She Wouldn't Be Gone and She Don't Love Me, She Doesn't Know She's Got It, and on and on. I can't think of one song I don't like. Great beat. Great rhythm. Great voice. I'm in love!

When Dede and I road-tripped across Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas this summer, Blake Shelton screamed from the open windows as we hit that Oh-My-God-Can-You-Believe-the-Speed-Limit-is-EIGHTY highway. What a blast! And the best news of all - he has a new album out on November 18th! It's called Startin' Fires. He sure starts mine.

Friday My Radio Flyer Flew - Zachary Pullen

For: Kids
Published: 2008
Rataing: 3.5 for kid appeal, 5 for my use as a teacher
Read: October 2008
Endpapers: Pale Cranberry
Very large/almost oversized

I love picture books. I love the art. When the text is good or more-than good, I celebrate. I look for text that I can use in my middle school classroom to draw out responses from kids when I'm teaching figurative language or genre. My fifth graders are always weak when it comes to identifying genre. This is a perfect book to use to begin that discussion. It's short and is full-full-full of alliteration and snazzy verbs to boot! I've ordered a copy, I just wish it would fit up and down on my bookshelf, but it's too tall.

One Saturday I searched... (yeah, elipses! I love elipses!)
...and my dad's old Radio Flyer surfaced.
That Sunday we went for a stroll.
Then on Monday morning I got motivated.
Maybe that old Flyer could really move. (Okay kids, let's talk about capitalization...)
So all day Tuesday...
...I tinkered....
...and by twilight my Flyer twinkled.
But Wednesday was wet. We had to wait.
On Thursday I tried to take off...
...but took tumble after tumble.
Finally on Friday...
...I focused...
...flew...
...and flew...
...and flew!

And oh, the illlustrations! Big and bold and in-your-face and FUN! I could look and look. They're done in oil paints and walnut medium. Now THAT'S interesting. Walnut medium? Zachary Pullen also illustrated The Toughest Cowboy (John Frank). I'm going to have to look for that one.

I took this book in to school a few days ago and shared it with my 8th graders. Two of the boys grabbed it immediately, and I'm not sure what they were looking for, but they quickly read it and put it aside. Would it have been different if it had been read aloud to them? I'm going to have to read it aloud to a class and see the reaction. And younger kids? I'll have to experiment with that, too.

So this book will go beside Weslandia, Violet the Pilot, Come On, Rain, My Mama Had a Dancing Heart, and Sleeping Ugly on my teaching bookshelf. Big grin.

The Day Leo Said I Hate You - Robie H. Harris

Illustrator: Molly Bang
For: Young kids
Published: 2008
Rating: 4.5
Read: Oct. 19, 2008
Endpapers: FRONT: Orange with messy chalk drawing of a frowning mom, BACK: Lavender with a purple drawing of a neat, smiling mom.

BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT
Textures are drawn to look like you should, and could, touch them. Mom's verigated sweater, Leo's colorful quilt and handknit socks add a subtle homey tone.

Imagine if all you heard all day was NO. Frustrating or what? Never mind that the NO's are for squishing tomatoes, dropping string beans into the fish bowl, squeezing toothpaste down the toilet, and drawing with crayon on your bedroom wall. Leo explodes! And after he tells his mom to go to her room for "one hundred whole days", the horrible "I hate you" flies out of his mouth in giant yellow/orange words on a very purple page - and he can't take them back.

After they have a good discussion about the difference between saying you hate broccolii and saying that you hate a PERSON, all is resolved with love.

No white! Great book.

Twenty-six Princesses - Dave Horowitz

For: Kids...and not just girls...
Published: 2008
Rating: 4/5
Read: October, 2008
Endpapers: Two shades of lavender, cut paper doll princess silhouettes holding hands, each with a letter of the alphabet across their body
Cute couplets.

Princess Alice. First to the palace. (Lots of frowing frogs at the door.)
Princess Betty. Still getting ready. (A frog is her servant.)
Princess Criss. Stealing a kiss. (Abominable spelling! Oh well. Frowning frog is pushing her away as her lips approach.)
Princess Dot. A lady she's not.
Princess Elle. Starting to yell.
Princess Flo. Waiting to go. (Frog repairman is trying to fix wheel as Flo frowningly watches.)
Princess Grace. Making a face.
.....and so on.
(Princess Nell. What's that smell? She's "toot"ed.)
Princess Zaire. Finally there.
Put 'em all together and what do you get?
A ROYAL PAIN IN THE ALPHABET!

The last two-page spread is everyone at the party - it's fun trying to pick out who's who. And all the guys are frogs.

No white space. large pages, illustration is in a center rectangle, outlined in a thin white line, the framed with a complimentary color to the edge of the page. The pictures aren't really exciting;, but they're fun.

Night of the Moon - Hena Khan

A Muslim Holiday Story
Illustrator: Julie Paschkis
For: Kids (and clueless adults)
Published: 2008
Rating: 5
Read: October, 2008 (during Ramadan!)
Endpapers: Blue/Aqua/Gold detail from Islamic tiles

Two wonderful things about this picture book - the illustrations and the information.

The illustrations. They remind me of batik, my very favorite fabric. The outline for each picture is done in an ivory/cream-colored line. How? It says they were "rendered in gouache and permanent masking medium on paper". I'm not sure what this means, but it sure is intriguing. And there's no negative space. None at all. Each illustration is framed by a shape; rectangles, tablets, mosque-shaped araches. And outside those frames, all the way to the edge of the page, is an Islamic tile motif...lots and lots of different designs in rich blues, aquas, turquoises. Camels and suns and leaves and flowers. Its almost like that thin ivory/cream line is the grout holding hundreds of pieces of ceramic together. Mmmmmm. Love it.

The information. The story is about Yasmeen, a Muslim girl living in the US. At the beginning of the month of Ramadan (the ninth month in the Muslim year) Mr. Sanchez, her teacher, introduces the holiday to his multi-racial class. Throughout the story we learn about fasting, special meals, partying, gift-giving, henna hand-painting, Eid, and how the moon and lunar calendar are the basis for the Muslim calendar.

I've been lucky enough to attend two different end-of-Ramadan feasts with Turkish friends. The food! The graciousness! Another wonderful culture to savor and enjoy. And this book celebrates this holiest of months in a gorgeous feast for the eyes. Great book.

The Black Book of Colors - Menena Cottin

Illustrator: Rosana Faria
Tranlated by Elisa Amado
Both author and illustrator are from Venezuela
For: Any and all
Publilshed: 2006
Rating: 5
Read: October, 2008, many times
Endpapers; Black - as they should be.

What an incredible premise. A picture book written to be touched. Black as a-night-with-no-moon pages. Short white font in the lower left is all we SEE. The rest we have to feel.

Above the one-sentence of text is the sentence written in braille. And then, the entire facing page is a raised illustration...an illustration to be touched. "Thomas says that yellow tastes like mustard, but is as soft as a baby chick's feathers." Fliuffy feathers float across the facing page, lovely to see when you can get the light just right, and SO difficult for the unaccustomed, desensitised fingers to feel. "Red is sour like unripe strawberries and as sweet as watermelon. It hurts when he finds it on his scraped knee." A huge, plump strawberry attached to its vine, with two smaller strawberries as well. "Brown crunches under his feel like fall leaves. Sometimes it smells like chocolate, and other times it stinks."

The last page is the braille alphabet. I cannot feel these dots. It all feels the same to me. How do people do it? This is one of the most thought-provoking picture books I've read in a long time.

MOVIE: Transsiberian

Rating: Hey, this was good!
Viewed: Thurs., Oct. 16, 2008
Crossroads Cheapie
Rotten Tomato Rating: 92%
Mine: Not quite that high, 80??
EW: B- cag: B+
Genre: Suspense Thriller
Released: July 18, 2008
R (1 hr. 51 min.)
Directed by: Brad Anderson

Woody Harrelson was cutely innocent and fun to watch. Eduardo Noriega, a 35-year-old Spanish hottie, was gorgeous, Kate Mara was intriguing. It's always fun to watch good old Ben Kingsley, too. I enjoyed the acting choices, other than Emily Mortimer. I think you were supposed to really "feel" for her, but I didn't. Since I didn't sympathize with her, I was ambivalent about her outcome, which made the storyline less suspensful for me, not a bad thing -- I just sat back and enjoyed all the plot twists without the nail-biting.

A youngish couple (Harrelson and Mortimer) are traveling from China to Moscow, across Siberia, on a six-day train ride. They are joined in their tiny sleeper by another couple (Oriega and Mara). Drug runners, good cops/bad cops, dour Russians, drunken Russians, a bit of intrigue, and lots of snowy miles later, an interesting story unfolds. What I liked best is that it's not so convoluted that you have to think and scratch your head and try to figure out how all the loose ends fit together. It works. And it was very, very entertaining.

52. When It Happens - Susan Colasanti

For: Young Adults (for sure)
Published: 2006
Setting: New Jersey
310 pgs.
Rating: 3.5 for fun
Read: Oct. 10, 2008
Read in one long sitting

This was a very satisfying, predictable, high school romance with a happy ending. Just what everyone wants and needs once in awhile, no matter how much they say they don't.....

The Washington Post says: "When It Happens is sort of like high school itself: The outcome may be predictable, but what's really important is what happens along the way." It is, indeed, a "fun romance", as it quotes on the back cover.

The story is told alternately between the two protagonists, both high school seniors, Sara, a very bright, hard-working young lady, and Tobey, a very bright self-proclaimed slacker who is a music afficionado. We go through Sara's crush on Dave, a really good-looking, popular jock who she discovers, very shortly after they begin dating, has nothing remotely in common with her, and at the same time we observe Tobey's yearnings for Sara. Tobey is a really sweet, sensitive, sexy too-good-to-be-true-or-bellieved young man that every mom wants to think is just like her own son.

Sara has two best friends with whom she shares all, Tobey has two best friends with whom he shares most, the popular crowd are typically mean and self-centered...there are no surprises here, but no frustrations, either....just an enjoyable read with a satisfying ending.... and doesn't everyone needs that kind of fix once in awhile, especailly on a Friday night before an extra long weekend?

51. Brooklyn Bridge - Karen Hesse

Illustrator: Chris Sheban
For: Middle Grades
Published: September 2008
225 pgs.
Rating: 5/5 Tops
Read and finished: Oct. 9, 2008
Endpapers: Map of Brooklyn with important places noted. I referred to this map often.

Five years since Karen Hesse has written a new novel, and it was well worth the wait. I can hear kids saying, "I don't get it", and I'll say...."you're not supposed to get it yet. You will, soon, and it'll be worth it."

There are two major and one minor alternating storylines happening. You could remove the minor one with no problem - I almost wish it wasn't included, but I guess I can see why it is. This minor story line happens at the end of most chapters, and is a quote from one of the newspapers of the time (New York Times and Brooklyn Daily Eagle) about Coney Island. For example: "Leaving the worries of the world outside the gate, visitors come to be entertained and to become part of the entertainment." -- The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Coney Island becomes almost a character in the story, a setting that drives our protagonist's feelings in many ways - desire, envy, jealousy, and, I guess, selfishness.

Joseph Michtom (rhymes with victim) lives in 1903 Brooklyn. Born there, the eldest son of Russian immigrants who have been lucky and "struck gold", he lives with his parents, baby brother and 10-year old sister in a crowded apartment in an apartment building in a Brooklyn neighborhood where everyone knows everyone else. His parents have created the first TEDDY BEAR, after they read about Teddy Roosevelt's refusal to shoot a bear, and it's an insant, overnight success. This throws the entire family into a bit of a turmoil, since they all have to pitch in and help.

There's a large extended family, three paternal aunts who live on the lower east side of Manhattan and, for some reason, refuse to cross the bridge to Brooklyn, a maternal uncle who is a "free thinker", and many, many interesting immigrants that the family befriends. There are many, many intriguing sideplots, including Joseph's sister Emily's opportunity to run a community library at their home, their baby brother Benjamin's almost fatal case of grippe (that's what my own grandmother used to call it when I got the flew as a kid!), different ways that hard-working people can help others, and buying and owning real estate in turn-of-the-century New York.

The third storyline is about the various abandoned/runaway/lost/exploited kids that live under the Brooklyn Bridge. Throughout the story we get to know these kids in eloquent, interesting short blurbs, and the reason is finally revealed at the end of the book.

Wow. Talk about weaving a book together! A quickish read, but much fodder for deep thinking and lots and lots of historical happenings thrown in (sheep and a shepherd in the park in Brooklyn in 1903, the Brooklyn Superbas baseball team - ever heard of them? immigrations from Russia, citizenship, and of course, Coney Island the way it used to be.

50. Fly on the Wall - E. Lockhart

How One Gir Saw Everything
For: YA
Published: 2006
182 pgs.
Rating: 3.5/Fun
Finished: Oct. 8, 2008

This is the third E. Lockhart novel I've read - all for the TARC YA Reading Group. Lockhart's audience is the female late middle-school/early high-schooler who likes romance novels. I recommended this book to an 8th grader who as been emrboiled in the Clique series (gag), and she liked it a lot. It's led her to others of this genre that are SO much better than the Cliques.

Gretchen Yee, a 16-year-old half-Jewish, Half-Chinese comic book artist, attends the Manhattan School for the Arts, where no one want to be normal or "average". This is tough for her, because that's exactly how she considers herself. Nonetheless, she dies her hair bright red in an attempt to fit in. She has a best friend, Katya, but holds herself off from many of the other students. Literature and Drawing are the two subjects she's having trouble with - Drawing because her art teacher is trying to get her to abandon the comic book style that she loves, and literature because....well, she really doesn't care about literature. The sophomore class is currently studying Kafka's Metamporhasis, and she could care less. She has a huge crush on Titus, a classmate that also appears to be a very nice young man, popular with the Art Rats (the sophomore drawing program), but laments that she doesn't understand boys at all.

One weekend she is magically changed into a fly in the boy's locker room, where she resides for a week, not understanding how she got there or if she'll ever be able to return to her own life. What she observes for this week will change her life, change her confidence in herself, and help her understand boys a whole lot more.

It's a great premise, and I like the way bullying and homophobia are handled. It's an entertaining story, seemingly lighthearted but with a couple of pretty powerful messages included.

Forever Young - Bob Dylan

Illustrator: Paul Rogers
For: Everyone, especially aging hippies
Published: Sept 23, 2008
Rating: 5 Now on my WISH LIST
Read: Oct. 5, 2008
Endpapers: White: FRONT has an illustration of Dylan with a sign: "Dig Yourself", BACK is the rear of a red VW bug (seen in the book) with bumper sticker: "Don't Look Back"

I want a poster of this book.

As we read the lyrics to this well-known song, we are treated to illustrations that not only follow Dylan's life, but are full of details and tidbids of many of his other songs and the times. Depicted are the famous places of the 60's folk scene, as wll as some of the personages. Nostaligic but not old-fashioned, I poured over the illustrations with gusto (or at least as much gusto as can be displayed in a busy Borders' cafe).

There's lots of negative white space surrounding the illustrations (which I usually don't like), but it works beautifully. This is for sure going to be on my wish list - and I'm writing to Atheneum/Simon and Schuster to see about a poster. They should have included a CD!

Mmmmmmm mmmmmmm good.

Wish - Roseanne Thong

Illustrator: Elisa Kleven ! !
For: Kids of all ages, families
Published: 2008
Rating: VERY cool....yup....5
Read: Oct. 3, 2008
Endpapers: World map with the fifteen locations and tiny drawings for each

Fifteen countries are depicted, first with a quatrain, followed by information about the "wishful" tradition that is being highlighted.

Guatemala, Japan, Iran (Persia), Russia, South Africa, Ireland, India, Brazil, Italy, China, Australia, Israel, Mexico, Thailand, and America's birthday candles.

Racing swiftly throught the graves
we launch our giant kites,
so they will carry wishes
as they soar to heaven's heights. (Guatemala)

In Jerusalem's old quarter,
family members big and small
place wishes into ancient cracks
along the Western Wall. (Israel)

There are lucky symbols hiding in the pictures. And the pictures -- well, I LOVE Elisa Kleven's illustrations, and these don't disappoint. Collagy and busy and softly covering the entire page except for the 4 x 4 white, quilt-framed text on each double page spread. The quatrain is done in a hard-to-read cursive font - it needs to be bolder or bigger of a different font. The explanation font that used following the quatrian words fine...

Families can use some of these with their own kids. It'd make a nice gift for the right family. Think I'll give it to Laura...

Wonder Bear - Tao Nyeu

Wordless Picture Book
For: Kids, I guess...
Published: Sept, 2008
Rating: 2.5 (Pictures nice, storyline blech)
Read: Oct. 3, 2008
Endpapers: Blue-on-white overlapping triple-lined scallops. Excellent.

This book has an old-fashioned look, reminds me of an old picture book, but I'm not sure which one. The cover has a really attractive sheen to it. Green, blue, mustard, orange and black on white.

Two kids plant seeds, go to bed, and dream. An amazing stalk grows, from which a magical white bear with a blue hat appears. He introduces himself to the children and pulls mustard-colored peanut-monkeys with black furry appendages one-by-one from the hat - dozens of them. Then the bear blows bubbles that are shaped like lions, each catching and carying a now-brown monkey into the air. From the hat come flowers which the white bear eats, blowing into the air comes streams of sea animals - dolphins, octopi, and seals, who all swim through the sky with the monkeys, the bear, and the children. They fall to the ocean, then swim back to land where they put the kids to bed and dssappear back up the stalk. The white bear climbs into the blue hat, which flies out into the sky.

Okay, it's a weird , magical dream. The illustrations are simple, colorful, fanciful, and imaginative. I wish there were more "plot" to the dream. Young kids? Probably not. Older kids? Perhaps. I'm skeptical - it's cool, but will kids get it?