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This edition of the Picture Book Roundup features three funny books, a hilarious cautionary tale, and a sweet bookish story to melt your heart. Enjoy!
Review copies of Night Animals by Gianna Marino (Viking, 2015) and In! Over! and On! by Ethan Long (Penguin, 2015) were provided by the publishers at my request. The Good Little Bookby Kyo Maclear (Tundra, 2015), Everyone Loves Bacon by Kelly DiPucchio (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2015), and Ragweed's Farm Dog Handbook by Anne Vittur Kennedy (Candlewick, 2015)
Okay, here is a fun guy, witty and sharp. I had the pleasure of meeting Richard at the annual Florida Writer's Association banquet. We shared a few laughs and talked shop (writers do that, ya know). So, I tell Richard that I write fiction, mostly fantasy. He tells me he writes metafiction.
What? What is that?
Oh, it's fiction that is aware of itself. As the kids say these days, "Mind=Blown". I must be living a sheltered life, I've never heard of it before that night. It sounds fascinating and I want to try it. In the meantime, here is Richard telling about his novel and a little about himself.
MINDWARP, A Novella …And Other Strange Tales
A committee of muses sits about the living room of my brain, discussing matters of no great import. A motley group they are, having just finished their pizzas—one pepperoni, one vegetarian, one combo—hold the anchovies.
“Why in the world is he doing this?” asks the chair-muse, finger-flicking crumbs from her robe….
Thus begins a journey into the mind of a “deranged author” (it says so on the back cover!) and his collection of short fiction, MindWarp, a Novella…And Other Strange Tales. Kirkus Reviews, the self-described “World’s Toughest Book Critics,” described the novella and accompanying eight short stories by author Richard Hébert this way:
This scintillating collection…uses offbeat character studies to wrestle with snaky issues of identity and self-knowledge. Hébert’s loquacious, usually anonymous narrators are obsessed with penetrating the riddle of the people around them.
In “MindWarp,” a nameless writer battens for inspiration on Guy, a working-class barfly who is almost elemental in his beaten-down ordinariness. Things get complicated when Guy begins an affair with the feisty, appealing Yolanda; the couple pushes back against the writer’s determination to “warp” their reality into a fictional celebration of heroic failure—until the writer himself seems to become the unstable, increasingly desperate creation of his own story.
Quirky, opaque figures abound in other stories; “Ana, Always,” about a Yugoslavian youth’s efforts to fathom the tragic mystery of a middle-aged woman, is a meditation on family and exile; “Silence,” a somewhat affected tale about a guilt-burdened war veteran who acquiesces in his wife’s affair with an ex-comrade, finds power in the evanescent fracturing of its hero’s personality. Only in “Azazel,” a comic gem about a mythical desert herdsmen who tends the world’s scapegoats until the powers that be decide he needs a ritzy California estate in which to receive humanity’s atonement, do we meet a man who thoroughly knows himself.
The author delights in mind games; the title novella is as much a commentary on the conundrums of fictional representation as it is a fiction. Fortunately, Hébert’s writerly conceits are rescued by the quality of his prose; his deadpan realism, mordant wit and acute powers of description ground his flights of abstraction in the soil of experience.
A beguiling blend of high-concept narrative and old-school literary chops.
Kirkus subsequently named the collection to its top 50 list of 2011 “Indie” books.
__________
Hébert is a former award winning investigative reporter and Pulitzer Prize nominee; a media relations manager and consultant; a nationally published magazine feature and documentary film writer, and world traveler. Many of his works of fiction, including the stories in MindWarp, were inspired by incidents encountered during his travels in Europe, Africa and North, Central and South America. He currently also writes a political blog – Richard’s Take – from his retirement home in St. Augustine, Florida.
His other published books include a memoir, Life Is Good; a novel, The Questing Beast, and Highways to Nowhere: The Politics of Urban Transportation.
OK, so I've been reading some wonderful books lately as part of my commitment to participate in the mock award blog, Newbery Blueberry Mockery Pie. Of course, this is a great way to read quality books and discuss them with colleagues
but,
I also remember that it's summer, that kids have summer reading assignments, and many (I'd guess most) kids do not care if the books they read are "distinguished books." They just want books they like. So, I am reminded of something every would-be librarian learns in library school - Ranganathan's five laws. I won't share all five with you, just the two that matter at the moment:
2. Every reader, his book. 3. Every book, its reader.
Simple, but profound, and particularly timely in the summer. So, taking a break from my mock Newbery reading, I share the following:
A new Dav Pilkey book is due out next month, Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers! (Scholastic) It won't ever win a Newbery award, but thousands and thousands of kids will be rejoicing over this latest installment.
and
here's a new book that should appeal to fans of Captain Underpants and Stone Rabbit:
Proimos, James. 2012. Knuckle & Potty Destroy Happy World. New York: Henry Holt (Macmillan).
When I saw this cover, I just had to read it. Any book with Knuckle and Potty as its protagonists just begs to be read. I wasn't the only one taken with the book. I'll leave the reviewing to Gene and Bill of Unshelved today. This hysterical graphic novel deserves a comic review from the masters.
Print this out from the Unshelved site, put it on display with the book and watch Knuckle & Potty Destroy Happy World fly out of your library in the hand of a young boy.
Watch a book trailer for Knuckle & Potty here. Coincidentally, I wrote this post last night, and today at work, one of my favorite young readers came in looking for Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers! I had to deliver the bad news that it won't be out until August 28, but I was ready. I had Knuckle and Potty in hand, and the boy and his mother took them home - laughing.
The (happy) End.
The moral of this story: (see rules 2 and 3)
0 Comments on Librarianship rules, #s 2 and 3 (or Knuckle and Potty save the day) as of 1/1/1900
Wordless and wonderful! Find out how Octopus escapes the chef's pot! Too funny! (Look inside)
Yaccarino, Dan. 2011. All the Way to America: the Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel. New York: Knopf.
When Dan grew up, he married Helen. These are my grandparents. Together Dan and Helen opened a market. They sold all sorts of wonderful Italian food. Now the little shovel belonged to Dan, and he used it to measure out beans, macaroni, and olives.
Dan Yaccarino's personal tale of immigration and tradition. A perfect introduction to genealogy, and a great choice for this summer's reading theme of One World, Many Stories.
Watt, Melanie. 2011. You're Finally Here! New York: Hyperion. This hilarious book has been waiting for you, and it's about time you showed up!
Pfister, Marcus. 2011. Questions, Questions. New York: NorthSouth.
Simple, thoughtful and artistic. Guaranteed to elicit questions.
How do birds learn how to sing? What brings summer after spring? What turns leaves from green to brown and sends them floating gently down?
Beaumont, Karen. 2011. No Sleep for the Sheep! Ill. by Jackie Urbanovic. New York: Harcourt.
Get ready for a long night -
In the big red barn on the farm, on the farm, in the big red
1 Comments on April picture book roundup, last added: 4/6/2011
I'm always happy to see a new Dan Yaccarino title. This one looks particularly intriguing. All of these titles are new to me so I need to head to the library. Thanks for sharing!
Here are a few of my recent favorites - mostly silly
Bardhan-Quallen, Sudipta. 2011. Chicks Run Wild. Ill. by Ward Jenkins. New York: Simon & Schuster.
The Caterpillow Fight (Candlewick 1997) was(is) an old favorite of mine. This is a similarly silly tale of siblings who run amok after Mama has tucked them in for the night. Of course, these aren't caterpillars, they're chicks. Mama gets increasingly angry after each time she checks in on them,
Wings on hips, she warns those chicks, "No more games and no more tricks!" One quick peck for each sweet child, she slams the door . . . those chicks run wild!
In the end, Mama beats them at their own game. The illustrations are bright and cheerful and funny. The chick in the over-sized black frame glasses is a riot all by himself!
This meta fiction picture book is funnier than its trailer. (see below) The cats discover the readers of the book and attempt to verify their identity,
It has come to my attention that someone other than a cat may be reading this book.
Shame on you.
Hey, you! Yes, you! You don't look much like a cat!
I’ve been clutching this video to my chest for months, just waiting, waiting, waiting for September to come around. Children’s literature related? Not unless funky puppets count (that puppet makes me laugh every time). Just consider this something to get your groove on today. September is here (yipes!) and if your weather is anything like New York’s right now then you are dwelling in sweet 62 degree heaven.
Close your eyes. Now think of the best book trailer produced between January 1, 2006 to July 1, 2010. Can you think of it? Fantastic. Now go and read Joyce Valenza’s post about the New Book Video Trailer Awards that are coming up. Not only can you nominate your favorites but you can also vote for the winners in each category.
Teen trailers will not be considered, so this next series of videos wouldn’t quite make the cut. To be honest, I’m not certain how I missed this on the first go-around. I suppose because they’re YA to a certain extent but since (A) Adam Rex usually works in the world of children’s literature and (B) They star Mac Barnett who is CLEARLY picture book and chapter book related, these count.
What’s important here is that you recognize the mad acting skills at work. Ye gods. Here’s where the cool kids are at. The cool kids with oddly slicked back hair.
Can you believe that as of this posting some of these have only gotten 526 views? What the heckedy heck?
Speaking of book trailers with shocking low views on YouTube, 368 right now for what may well be the most movie-like movie trailer I’ve ever seen. And that is saying something. Production value city going on here. Wow.
Those Fat Vampire vids are seriously the best thing ever. Who is that other fellow with Mac? When he rhymed “vam-pier” and “re-queer” I about lost my breakfast (in a good way).
Elizabeth Bird said, on 9/5/2010 8:38:00 AM
That’s an excellent question. He’s either a Jon Korn or a Shawn Harris but I was unable to get much info on either. Funny guy though, eh?
JMyersbook said, on 9/5/2010 9:19:00 AM
No, no, the race for Best Thing Ever is a tie between the FABULOUS dancing grandmother in the first video and the irresistibly cute/hilarious talking shell in the last video! One of the best Video Sundays EVER!
Adam Rex said, on 9/5/2010 2:37:00 PM
That’s Jon Korn. Shawn directed the videos. Thanks for posting them!
Philip Nel said, on 9/5/2010 9:55:00 PM
Thanks for the link & the encouragement! ‘Twas quite time-consuming to do (roughly 12 hrs’ work for 4 mins of film), but will do more in future!
Deborah Freedman said, on 9/6/2010 11:00:00 AM
I love the video too, because I’m a metafiction geek – not just because Scribble is prominently displayed! Thanks for the shout-out, Betsy.
Marcel’s Antecedent Perhaps? « educating alice said, on 9/6/2010 12:43:00 PM
[...] [...]
:paula said, on 9/8/2010 7:56:00 AM
“re-quyr” … definitely one of the funniest things I’ve seen all year. I bet about 125 of those views on YouTube are me!
"Yes, I Drank the Kool-Aid--and I Went Back for Seconds"
"Three Easy Rules for Impressing the Powers That Be (and Maybe Becoming One Yourself, A Simpleton's Guide)"
"The Pegasus Plan: How to Get the Job You Want, the Respect You Deserve, and the Employees You Need in Order to Succeed for Life"
Those are just a few of the imaginary self-help books that novelist Ed Park invented for his book, Personal Days. His office satire is jam-packed with exaggerated career advice from fictional gurus.
Today Park--a founding editor at The Believer and literary blogger over at The Dizzies--shows us how imaginary books can improve your fictional world. It's part of my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions.
In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog: Your book also features one of my favorite literary tricks--satirical imaginary books-inside-the-book. How did you craft these hilarious faux-self-help books? Any advice for writers looking to add some fake-book satire to their work?
Ed Park: I’ve always loved the vertiginous method of including fictional books within a work of fiction, whether the author provides tantalizing passages or just titles. Continue reading...
"Yes, I Drank the Kool-Aid--and I Went Back for Seconds"
I'm always happy to see a new Dan Yaccarino title. This one looks particularly intriguing. All of these titles are new to me so I need to head to the library. Thanks for sharing!