The Composer is Dead - Lemony Snicket

Illustrator: Carson Ellis
Music Composed by Nathaniel Stookey
2009
Rating: 4
Endpapers (back of covers): Silhouttes of composers

When the composer is found dead, the inspector is called in to interview all the usual suspects - the members of the orchestra. He starts with the strings, proceeds to the woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Their excuses were all plausible. And then the inspector remembered the conductor. "You've been murdering composers for years! In fact, wherever there's a conductor, you're sure to find a dead composer!" And then there's a long list of famous dead composers.

This is chock full of information about an orchestra and the instruments that make it up. I read the book at B&N, so I didn't get to listen to the CD - which was performed by the San Francisco Symphony. Looks like Tracks 1-9 are the story read by the author and tracks 10-18 are instrumentals. I'd love to hear it!

GREAT vocabulary; lurking, flamboyant, interrogate, weary, "on the contrary," crucial, treachery, alibis, boisterous, arrogant, ruckus, agitated, nostalgic, unison......

(Not my favorite illustrations, but they work with the book.)

Tuesday - David Wiesner

1992 Caldecott Winner
Published: 1991
For: everyone!
Rating: 5
Almost Wordless
Paper $6.95

On Tuesday evening around 8, all the lily pads holding frogs begin floating up...up...up into the air. Hundreds of frog floata cross town, peering into windows, getting caught in hanging laundry, even venturing inside a home where an old lady has fallen asleep in front of the TV. Ah, such fun. But as dawn arrives the lily pads begin dropping to the ground - and the frogs tumble down, too, hopping home to their pond. As daylight arrives we see the police investigating the lily pads where they've landed all over the ground. One of the inspectors is the same one that some of the frogs waved at as they cruised by his window the previous night! And the next Tuesday....think pigs.....

My 8th grade class had a "tea party" last week, where they all shared three Caldecotts they'd read. Three different kids read this one - it's a great hit with 14-year-olds!

Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude - Jonah Winter

Illustrator: Calef Brown
Published: 2009
For: Kids
Rating: Still mulling
Endpapers: Deep purple
$16.99

Okay, I've heard of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas and their marijuana brownies and interesting soirees with artists and writers, but I had no clue what kind of writer Gertrude was. This book let me know. At first, as I read, I wondered what in heck was going on, but it slowly dawned on me that this must be modeled by Stein's writing. For example:

"Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude. And Alice is Alice. And Gertrude and Alice are Gertrude and Alice. Well it's like this. You walk up the stairs, and there they are. They are sitting in chairs and there they are, staring where they are staring. Not the chairs. Chairs never stare. Chairs are where you sit and stare....."

In the author's note at the end, Winter states: "Her very famous writing was famous for being repetitive, playful, childlike, conversational, and often quite nonsensical. And her very famous writing has bee imitated by many other writers, including the author of this book, whose title is an imitation of her most quoted line: 'Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose......Often mocked in her lifetime, Stein is now praised for being among the most original and influential voices of the twentieth century."

Mentioned particularly are Picasso, Matisse, and Hemingway. But how much will kids get this? I bet there aren't a lot of ADULTS who would recognize her style of writing. Her name, perhaps, and the title of one of her books, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. But has anyone of this generation read it? I'm going to look it up and see if it's readily available, or at the library.....

I recognize Caleb Brown's work. His illustrations fit perfectly with the text and funky writing, full color from edge-of-page to edge-of-page. A fun book.

Ed Spicer writes a "rave" review on his blog, Reading Roadtrips. Check it out!

18. Leap - Jane Breskin Zalben

for: Tweens
Published: 2007
272 pgs.
Rating: 4
AUDIO 6 cd's (7.5 hours)
Recorded Books
Female reader: Jennifer Ikeda
Male reader: Jonathan Todd Ross

A story in two voices, Krista and Daniel, have been best friends until about a year ago. They're in middle school now, 6th graders. Daniel, a star swimmer, during a routine anesthesia for a tooth removal, has a reaction that leaves him partially paralyzed. Krista, who has a major crush on Daniel's best friend, Bobby, volunteers to help him practice swim. He can only shuffle around using a walker, needs to take a special bus to school, has a full-time aid. But, as we watch the year unfold, not only does he begin to recover, but they both grow up. A lot.

Krista's "journey" includes the friendships of her three closest friends, all very different (of course). Three stereotypical personalities - the gorgeous girl who all the girls envy and roll their eyes at and about, the sweet one, the jock who doesn't like anything frilly, and the protagonist. Nothing wrong with this, I guess, the story has its merits, its problems, its many things for readers to think about. What do you do with a 12-year old friend who has a fake driver's license and gets a tattoo? First kisses, first boy/girl parties, lots to think about.

MOVIE: Doubt

Rating: Time flew by
Viewed: Tuesday, Mar. 2; Crossroads with Sheila
Rotten Tomato: 78% Mine: 80%, almost the same
EW: C+ cag: B+
Genre: Drama
Realeased: 12/12/08
PG-13 (1:44)
Directed (& written by) John Patrick Shanley
Meryl Streep (Acad Award nominee best actress)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (AcAw nominee supporting)
Amy Adams (AcAw nominee supporting)
Viola Davis (AcAw nominees supporting) ***

I had never planned to see this movie - I was nervous watching the previews (I hate the very real problem about sexual abuse concerning priests, even if it is probably just a handful) , and I've always had a....problem.....with the Catholic church. But it was dollar night, with popcorn and soda two bucks each (hey, five dollars for dinner and a movie - who can pass that up?) I'm glad I went. There's a reason why movies get Academy Award nominations. The acting was just plain superb! Viola Davis had perhaps a ten-minute part, but OH MY GOSH! I feel like I can get in front of a class of kids and act it up, but this kind of talent is just awe-inspiring. I couldn't pick out one performance and say it was better or not as good as another.

The story: Sister Aloysius (Streep) is the hard-nosed principal of a NYC parochial school in 1964. Father Flynn (Hoffman) is the middle-aged priest of the church. The two have opposing views about "keeping up with the times." Young Sister James (Adams) is a new teacher who loves teaching history to her 8th graders. She's the one who goes to the principal with things that she's noticed about Father Flynn and one of her students - a black boy who is also an altar boy.

There's never any real proof about anything in this movie, we are left to our own imaginings - as are the protagonists of the story. I've never seen the Tony-Award and Pulitzer Prize award winning play, which is said to be better, but I did enjoy this film very much. And I don't think it's FAIR to compare a play and a movie, especially when they're written by the same person. You just have to sit back and enjoy the incredible acting for an hour and three quarters. It flew by. I'm glad I saw it.

Looking for Jaguar and Other Rain Forest Poems - Susan Katz

POETRY
Illustrator: Lee Christiansen
Published: 2005
For: Anyone interested in rainforest plants and animals
Rating: very nice, 4
Endpapers: Olivey green





In the Flooded Forest

The river carries us to the sky,
Where a tiny catfish spends its life in a tree.
Neon tetras dart among leaves,
And a sting ray ripples beneath a branch.

We paddle through the treetops
Past a colony of dangling, woven nests.
Orchids grow within our grasp,
And a monkey leans from a nearby limb to spy.

Here we see the forest twice.
Banana blossoms kiss their own reflections
A dolphin leaps past a parrot's perch
As we drift between worlds.

Mmmmm. Nice. Nineteen poems about rainforest animals and plants, some in free verse, some rhyming. I enjoy every one of the free verse poems. The rhyming poems don't leave me feeling quite so satisfied:

Walking Tree

More than anything else, I think I'd like
To watch this palm setting out on a hike.

Its long, skinny trunk isn't planted in ground,
So (unlike other trees) it can walk around.

Instead of legs, it grows roots like stilts,
And it edges along as each of them wilts.

Yet I've stood here peering for half a day,
And even the fronds at the top didn't sway.

I can't see it move though I stare and stare,
But ten years from now, It will be over there.

Fascinating information. But her imagery, alliteration, and cool word choices are so much more evident in her free verse.

The pictures cover the full page and are green, green green. The jaguar peeks out from amongh different leaves, The okapi turns back to look at you so you get a full view of it's interesting and very different stripes, the goliath frog looks.....round and big and froggy.

Time for one more poem. Years ago, when I was teaching fourth grade in Maine, I found a picture and explanation of a huge jungle flower that is supposed to smell like rotten meat or dead carcasses. There was a poem and an illustration in this book reminded me of this (and this rhyming, I'm happy to say, worked for me....):

Rafflesia

World's biggest flower, the giant rafflesia
Isn't a plant that tries hard to please ya.
Inside a vine, it grows from a thread
To be three feet across, a speckled bright red,
And sends out the fragrance of something quite dead,
Which gives it the nickname of stinking corpse lily.
It scatters its four million seeds willy-nilly
Till a pale orange cabbage (a bud in disguise)
Bursts through the vine, grows to basketball size
(To the vast admiration of beetles and flies),
And finally opens up with a hiss.
This is a flower you might want to miss.

How to Catch a Fish - John Frank

POETRY
Illustrator: Peter Sylvada
2007
Ages 4-8
2/25 B&N
Rating: 4
Endpapers: sage blue

Flowing rhyming poetry tells the story of different ways that people fish in many places around the world - Tobago; Columbia River, Washington; Gap of Dunloe, Irlenad; Baffin Island; Nagara River, Japan; Montauk Point, New York; Okavango River, Namibia; New Caledonia; Ishi Pishi Falls, California; Fraser Canyon, British Columbia; Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia; Kona, Hawaii; and northwest Florida. It ends:

We slack our reels to free some line,
and as I mull which rig to tie,
a knowing wink escapes his eye;
I made my choice of hook and weight,
we fasten them, we set our bait,
then raise our rods, set loose our lines
above the ocean, way up high,
the two of us, my dad and I...
And that is how to catch a fish.

Ice Fishing, Baffin Island, Nunavut:

We chop a hole in the Arctic ice,
and crouched in layers of skins and fur
to shun the frigid weather - b-rrr-rr-
we bait our hooks and lower our lines
and jig them, up and down, to stir
the fish below - but if they're near,
we'll sometime use a well-aimed spear.

Fishwheel, Fraser Canyon, British Columbia:

Propelled by currents swift and strong,
our fishwheel rotates round and round,
its soft metallic hollow sound
as rhythmic as a beaten drum,
three giant baskets scooping up
the sockeye, steelhead, coho, chum
and dropping them inside a pen ---
then circling back for more again.

Illustrations: hazy oil paintings with the remainder of the page a block of white from top to bottom containing the poem.

Erika-San - Allen Say

Published: Jan., 2009
Rating: 4.5
For: Any age
$17.00
Endpapers: Dark grey

This is a lovely book with a lovely story and wonderful illustrations. (I can't say lovely three times in a row!) I didn't rate it a 5 because the story seems a little implausible, though who knows, it may even be based on a true story. It doesn't mention that anywhere, though.

When Erika, an American girl, is young, she sees a picture of a lovely cottage perched on the water's edge on her grandmother's wall. She is told the picture was something her grandfather brought home from a visit to Japan. She loves this picture, and as she grows up she studies Japan and learns Japanese, always thinking about the beautiful picture. As soon as she graduates from college with a teaching degree, she heads off to Japan, for she has a job in Tokyo. But when she arrives in Tokyo she is overwhelmed by the crowds and finds a job three hours away. There she is still overwhelmed by too many people and takes the last teaching job available, one on a remote island. She loves it there. She immediately meets a young male teacher and he takes her exploring the island. And guess what. She sees a cottage that reminds her of the picture on her grandmother's wall. It is a tea house. The ending is very, very cute and satisfying, but I loved the good feeling it gave me, so I won't tell it here.

The illustrations are just delicious, showing modern Japan with so many details - people all looking down as they descend the stairs - all sorts of tiny touches that make me look and look. I probably should have given it a five. I enjoyed this book immensely. I can't wait to read it to a kid somewhere to see how he/she would enjoy it. Is it a kid book, an adult heart-tugger, or something in between?

Anne Hutchinson's Way - Jeannine Atkins

Illustrator: Michael Dooling
Published: 2007
Rating: 4
For: Gr. 3-6
$17.00
Endpapers: Crimson

Magnificent full page oil paintings. Text usually on the sky or the ground. Lovely to look at.

I'm so glad that this story is told, but it seems just a little bit awkward at first. The story seems to begin with Anne's point of view, but then switches to Susanna's, the youngest of her many, many children. But once the point of view becomes clear, the story flows very nicely.

Anne Hutchinson and her husband arrive with their ten or eleven or twelve children in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. Anne helps birth babies, raise her children, keep her household, and also reads scripture and "talks" with the women - and some of the men- of the community, to the disdain of Gov. Winthrop. This is not a woman's place! Within three years she is tried and told to leave. So she, with her entire family, move to an island in Narragansett Bay -- in Rhode Island.

The afterword tells of what happens to her in the years following; the story is told well and illustrated beautifully.

Wiil Waal - Kathleen Moriarty

A Somali Folk Tale
Illustrator: Amin Amir
Somali Translation - Jamal Adam
Published: 2007
Rating: 3.5
398.2 M824W
Endpapers: Blue

This is one of a few produced by the Somali Bilingual Book Project of the Minnesota Humanities Center (www.minnesotahumanities.org) . You can go there to download free online resources for use in an educational setting.

Edge of page illustrations, text usually in the sky - left page English, right page Somali.

DO YOU THINK THIS TALE IS TRUE?
Ma Waxay kula tahay in sheeko xariiradaani run tahay?

Pretty cool!

This is the story of how Sultan Wiil Waal was looking for a wise man to be his match -- and discovered that the only one to figure out his riddle was a clever young woman. The riddle: "Bring me the part of one of your sheep that symbolizes what can divide people or unite them as one."

Note: GULLET needs to be understood fully befoe reading aloud.

Napi Goes to the Mountain - Antonio Ramirez

Illustrator: Domi (wife of the author)
Translator: Elisa Amado
Rating: 4
Published 2006
Endpapers: Brown and white scene of nesting storks

The illustrations are water colors - browns with tie-dye-like slashes of color on main characters and the object being highlighted in the text. Faces are Picasso-y in a way. Very interesting!

The story is a dream-like quest story, deeply involving nature. When the father of a young Mazateca girl named Napi doesn't come home one day, she and her brother decide to find him. On their quest they become deer and can talk to other animals. It's not as hokey as it sounds - it's really quet a nice tor. It ends:

My mother walked over as soon as she saw us.
"Napi, did you go to school today?" she asked.
"No, Naa," I answered truthfully
Because even though, I never tell lies.

A great story to discuss!

Somewhere Today - Shelley Moore Thomas

A Book of Peace
Photos by Eric Futran
Copyright: 1998
Rating: 4
Endpapers: White

Somewhere today...
...someone is being a friend instead of fighting
...someone is visiting a friend who is old
...someone is planting a tree where one was cut down

In all, ten simple ways to make the world a better place. This is a gentle book - with wonderful photos of kids. This will be a great model for classes of every level. Make your own book!

Sleepsong - George Ella Lyon

Illustrator: Peter Catalanotto
For: very young
Published: 2009
Rating: 4
$16.99
Endpapers: Mustard

Mom, Dad, and small daughter prepare for bed on the top portion of the page, while animals in the natural world are depicted sleeping in the gray-lavender tones on the bottom portion of the page. Separated by an inch of sunset, the words dance across the page.

"Everthing yawns -- Shh shh -- When night comes on -- Shh shh
Hen on her roost -- cat on the bed -- you in may lap
Sleepyhead."

The music is included at the end and you can even hear it at georgeellalyon.com

Caldecott Awards & My Own Personal Challenge

3-17-09 Today at school my eighth graders had a Caldecott "tea." Each had read three Caldecotts, each book from a different decade, and we sat in a circle and shared them. We read some aloud, discussed illustrations and story, and compared techniques used. I realized I hadn't read a lot of them in a long while, so I've decided to begin picking away at them. As I reread each and write a review, I'll add it to my list. So I guess you could say that this is my own personal challenge, right?

10/25/09 On the Bri Meets website, she has introduced a challenge to read all the Caldecott books. With no expiration date, why not? So here I go...
Click here for ALA site's complete list of Caldecott winners.

I'll attach my review when I've read/written it. I've read a lot previously that I've never recorded. So here goes!

2010 Winner - Lion and Mouse (Jerry Pinkney)

2010 Honor: All the World (Liz Garton Scanlon) illustrated by Marla Frazee
2010 Honor: Red Sings from Treetops (Joyce Sidman) illustrated by Zagarenski

2009 Winner - The House in the Night (Susan Marie Swanson) illustrated by Beth Krommes, 5

2009 Honor: A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever (Marla Frazee) 5
2009 Honor: How I Learned Geography (Uri Shulevitz) 3
2009 Honor: A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams (Jen Bryant) illustrated by Melissa Sweet, 5

2008 Winner - The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick)

2008 Honor: Henry's Freedom Box; A True Story from the Underground Railroad (Ellen Levine) illustrated by Kadir Nelson, 5

2008 Honor: First the Egg (Laura Vaccaro Seeger)

2008 Honor: The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain (Peter Sis)

2008 Honor: Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity (Mo Willems)

2007 Winner: Flotsam (David Wiesner)

2007 Honor: Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet (David McLimans)
2007 Honor: Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (Carole Boston Weatherford) illustrated by Kadir Nelson 4.5

2006 Winner: The Hello, Goodbye Window (Norman Juster) illustrated by Chris Raschka

2006 Honor: Rosa (Nikki Giovanni) illustrated by Bryan Collier

2006 Honor: Zen Shorts (Jon J. Muth)

2006 Honor: Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride (Marjorie Priceman)

2006 Honor: Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems (Joyce Sidman) illustrated by Beckie Prange

2005 Winner: Kitten's First Full Moon (Kevin Henkes)
2005 Honor: The Red Book (Barbara Lehman) 4.5

2005 Honor: Coming on Home Soon (Jacqueline Woodson) illustrated by E. B. Lewis

2005 Honor: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale (Mo Willems)

2004 Winner: The Man Who Walked Between the Towers (Mordecai Gerstein)
2004 Honor: Ella Sarah Gets Dressed (Margaret Chodos-Irvine)

2004 Honor: What Do You Do with a Tail Like This (Steve Jenkins & Robin Page)

2004 Honor: Don't Let the Pigeons Drive the Bus (Mo Willems)

2003 Winner: My Friend Rabbit (Eric Rohmann)

2003 Honor: The Spider and the Fly (Mary Howitt) illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi

2003 Honor: Hondo & Fabian (Peter McCarty)

2003 Honor: Noah's Ark (Jerry Pinkney)

2002 Winner - The Three Pigs, (David Wiesner) 4

2002 Honor: The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins (Barbara Kerley) illustrated by Brian Selznick

2002 Honor: Martin's Big Words: the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Doreen Rappaport) illustrated by Bryan Collier

2002 Honor: The Stray Dog (Mark Simont)

2001 Winner: So You Want to Be President? (Judith St. George) illustrated by David Small

2001 Honor: Casey at the Bat (Ernest Thayer) illustrated by Christopher Bing

2001 Honor: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type (Doreen Cronin) illustrated by Betsy Lewin)

2001 Honor: Olivia (Ian Falconer)

2000 Winner: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat (Simms Taback)

2000 Honor: A Child's Calendar (John Updike) illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, 5
2000 Honor: Sector 7 (David Wiesner)

2000 Honor: When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry (Molly Bang)

2000 Honor: The Ugly Duckling (Jerry Pinkney)

(the rest have not been filled in except for the titles I've read and reviewed for this blog)

1994 Honor: Peppe the Lamplighter (Elisa Bartone) illustrated by Ted Lewin 2.5/4

1992 Winner - Tuesday, (David Wiesner) 5

1953 Winner - The Biggest Bear (Lyn Ward) 3.5

1949 Winner - The Big Snow (Berta and Elmer Hader) 4.5

Change Has Come

An Artist Celebrates Our American Spirit
Artwork: Kadir Nelson
Words: Barack Obama
Published: 2009
Rating: 5
For: Everyone!
Endpapers: Rust
$12.99

A tiny book, perhaps 5 X 7 - but one I picked up and read three times as it sat before me on the table at Borders. Simple colors - black/gray on cream. Powerful, unforgettable words. Sketches - of the Obama family, of Americans, of Pres. Obama, of the White House. Simple. Lovely. Special.

We're not going to settle anymore.
and
What began as a whisper has now swelled to a chorus that cannot be ignored.
and
Yes We Can.
and
Together, ordinary people can still do exraordinary things.
and
I believe that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices and meet the challenges that face us.
and more!

Such a hopeful book.