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Tennessee librarian (and SLJ blogger) Diane Chen has been working with her library classes to create reviews of books, and since she knows that we love to get reviews from kids, she sent this along. It’s a great review that a fourth-grade girl wrote about our book Yikes, It’s a Yeti!

I read a book called Yikes, it’s a Yeti! by Karen Wallace with pictures by Mick Reid. It was a book about a boy named Norman who had a normal, boring life. One day his mom says he gets to go “camping” with his grandma. Norman’s mom says it so loud that all his friends hear and start making fun of him. Then his grandma takes him to the Himalayas in search of a Yeti. They find one and Norman brings home a Yeti tooth. All his friends think he’s crazy until he pulls out the Yeti tooth. Just at the moment he pulls it out, he sees his life isn’t so boring after all! I think you should read this book if you like comedy.

Diane’s kids are also reviewing other books, including our sister company Capstone Press’s Ballroom Dancing. We hope she’ll send us more! Do your students write reviews? If so, please send them to us! We love to hear what kids think.

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It’s become pretty trendy to talk about being green, reducing one’s carbon footprint, recycling. It’s harder to actually do the things you need to do to feel better about the imprint you’re leaving on the world. It never quite feels like enough. Since we’re a book publishing company, and, you know, books are made out of paper, we are always thinking about ways to tread more lightly on the world.

For example, this year both Stone Arch Books and our parent company, Capstone Publishers, sent out e-cards as our holiday cards. Seems like a small thing, but just think of all the paper we saved by not printing cards, or putting them into envelopes. Now multiply that by the energy it takes to ship those envelopes all over the world. A small step makes a huge impact.

We also print our books and ancillary materials on recycled paper that contains post-consumer waste. And we strongly prefer electronic submissions to the old-fashioned paper slush pile.

We are always trying to come up with more ways to be eco-friendly. What are some of the things you do?

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Here's how we play: first I pick a book. Then I pull a question card from my Table Topics cube and answer the question (the book gets chosen first so I don't cheat and choose an easy answer). Then, it's your turn. You pick a book and answer the question for your book in the comments. Though I will always choose a multicultural title, you certainly do not need to.

Today's Book: Lowji Discovers America by Candace Fleming
Today' Question: Was the writing well-paced?

Yes, definitely! Especially with humorous books, the timing needs to be excellent to achieve true hilarity. I thought Candace Fleming did an excellent job in portraying Lowji as a truly funny, yet thoughtful, boy. Each short chapter in this easy middle reader forwards several aspects of the story at once: Lowji's adapting to a his new country (moving from Bombay, India to a small town in Illinois would cause anyone pause!), his summer boredom without any friends, his hope for a a pet, and the mystery of the five-toed footprints. Throw in a crotchety old neighbor, wonderful parents who understand the balance of Indian tradition with American culture, and a whole bunch of funny animals, and Fleming gets it just right.

Even on a sentence-by-sentence level, I love the pace of the humor.

"Landlady Crisp," I say.

"Are you still here?" she asks. Her words snap like the firecrackers Bape and I light every Indian independence day. "What do you want?"

I take a deep breath. "A pet," I say. "A dog."

"No pets!" says Landlady Crisp. She scrubs the floor.

"A cat?" I say. "A cat would be nice."

"No pets!" she says. She scrubs harder.

I pause. I do not think I should ask for a horse, so instead I say, "A hamster? A gerbil? A teeny, tiny mouse?"

Lowji is such a cutie. And the book is more about being new, finding friends, and making the best of your situation (in his case, no pets!) than about being an immigrant. But Lowji's Indian culture, language, and way of thinking pervades the book without you noticing, making the book a wonderful combination of the two.

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Robert Solomon was the Quincy Lee Professor of Business and Philosophy and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He was the author of over 40 books, including The Little Philosophy Handbook which provides a concise look at perennial philosophical questions.  Questions everyone asks like “Who are we?” and “Why are we here?”.  In the excerpt below Solomon looks at the concept of consciousness.

For many people, the beginning of philosophical curiosity might be summarized in the French exclamation Voilà!—“Here it is!”— a sudden sense of wonder at just being alive and being here. What this means, however, is not easy to spell out. What is, is you, your being here in the world. But in coming to appreciate your being here in the world, something else, even more amazing, has happened. You have become self-conscious, not just in the sense in which you look in the mirror and become aware of the toothpaste on your chin or that you look really good in that green dress but in more of a global sense, that you come to understand and be thankful for the very fact that you are alive here and now. (more…)

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Here's how we play: first I pick a book. Then I pull a question card from my Table Topics cube and answer the question (the book gets chosen first so I don't cheat and choose an easy answer). Then, it's your turn. You pick a book and answer the question for your book in the comments. Though I will always choose a multicultural title, you certainly do not need to.

Today's Halloween-Themed Book: Behind the Mask by Yangsook Choi
Today's Question: What are the principle flaws of the main character?

Well, obviously, Kimin is a procrastinator. The story opens two days before Halloween and he still hasn't decided what to be yet! (Of course, this is exactly what happens to me every year too.) But seriously, Kimin's real problem is that he is afraid of anything that has to do with his grandfather because of an incident in Korea that scared him.

It turns out that Kimin's grandfather was a mask dancer in Korea before he died, and what scared Kimin when he was little was grandfather dressed in costume. That same costume is now in a trunk with all his things... so, you can guess what Kimin did for Halloween.

Not only did all of Kimin's friends think he had the coolest costume, but Kimin realized that his grandfather's trunk was full of fascinating things, not scary at all.

Hope everyone has already decided what they're going to be for Halloween!

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I hope that the Saipan Casino Act will not get the 2/3rds majority of qualified voters' votes in the upcoming election.

But I have a question about the mechanics of the Act. Call it professional curiousity. I haven't been able to figure out what is supposed to happen in regards to the stock if the proposal becomes law. The proposed law, as written, seems confused and incomplete.

Article III, Section 2 says:

(a) The commission, upon this Act becoming law, shall issue the casino license only to the Northern Marianas Descent Investment Corporation (NMDIC). The license shall be perpertual.

(i) The NMDIC shall be a profit corporation established in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
(ii) The incorporators, directors, officers and shareholders of the NMDIC shall be persons of NMD.
(iii) NMDIC shall issue shares of common stock duly subscribed in Five Hundred Dollar (US $500.00) par value per share and preferred stocks duly subscribed in one dollar ($1.00) par value per share to natural NMD persons only.
(iv) No natural person of NMD shall own more than one (1) share of common stocks and twenty-five thousand (25,000) of preferred shares.
(v) Any natural person of NMD, who is eighteen (18) years of age or older may subscribe to only one share of common stock and not more than twenty-five thousand (25,000) preferred shares of NMDIC, and pay for such share in an installment amount to be determined under a share subscription agreement with NMDIC. Each common stock shareholder shall be entitled to one vote during shareholders meeting or other events and business of NMDIC. However, for the purpose of computing, declaring and paying dividends per share to be paid, it shall be based only on fully subscribed and paid share.
(vi) Authorized Stocks. NMDIC shall authorize number of capital stocks to meet the current and growing NMD population in the Commonwealth pursuant to this Subsection.

So my first and basic question is what happens to a person's stock when he or she dies? Can it only be inherited by someone who is also NMD? What if all heirs already have their own one share? Or there is no NMD heir? Is it bought back and the money paid for it inherited? Does the share disappear?

The whole thing about the number of stocks also seems financially troublesome. Is there a fixed number of shares, open for purchase, or is it that all NMDs have a right to purchase one share of common stock?

It seems as if any and all NMDs have a right to buy into the NMDIC. It seems as if the number of shares will constantly fluctuate and increase with population. But if that's the case, then as NMDs reach age 18, they can automatically purchase a share of common stock, constantly diluting the shares of those who already have one.

Or will it be that as fewer and fewer people meet the 25% NMD blood requirement that there will be fewer and fewer who are eligible to own the stocks?

On a different note, and issue: the people who control the NMDIC can let friends and family have a share without paying, to give those friends and family a vote at (important) meetings. Do they have to let all NMDs have the same access to an unpaid share? Isn't it interesting that people can vote without paying for their share?



Anyone with ideas, feel free to clue me in.

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Here's how we play: first I pick a book. Then I pull a question card from my Table Topics cube and answer the question (the book gets chosen first so I don't cheat and choose an easy answer). Then, it's your turn. You pick a book and answer the question for your book in the comments. Though I will always choose a multicultural title, you certainly do not need to.

Today's Book: Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman, illustrated by Julie Pschkis
Today's Question: Did this book reaffirm or change opinions you hold?

Boy, was this book an affirmation! If you're familiar at all with Shen's Books, you know that there are many, many versions of the Cinderella story from all different countries. Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal is like a patchwork quilt of Cinderella stories from many countries. Fleischman takes the structure of the story and fills it in with details from around the world. Practically every sentence is taken from a different tale, so that Cinderella must, for example, pick a handful of lentils out of the ashes as she does in the German tale. And then, she must scour all the pots, as she does in the Appalachian version. Each moment is illustrated as if it were taking place in that country, and the country's name is indicated next to the illustration as well.

Fleischman has a clever idea here-- a Cinderella mashup, if you will. It's interesting to see all the different details in the same story. A solid confirmation of the power of a single story.

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Welcome to the first ever Book Question of the Week Game! Here's how we play: first I pick a book. Then I pull a question card from my Table Topics cube and answer the question (the book gets chosen first so I don't cheat and choose an easy answer). Then, it's your turn. You pick a book and answer the question for your book in the comments. Though I will always choose a multicultural title, you certainly do not need to.

Today's Book: The Arrival by Shaun Tan
Today's Question: How could the conflict have resolved differently?

There isn't so much a conflict in The Arrival as there is a situation. Or maybe it's just that the situation, rather than characters, provides the conflict. So the situation could certainly have turned out differently.

The Arrival is a wordless book, or graphic novel (are they different?), in which the foreign arriver is not the little creature on the cover, but the man who is studying him. This is an immigration story set in a fantasy world-- an incredibly beautiful, majestic, full, and foreign fantasy world. It was also the first time that I truly understood what it was like to be an immigrant while reading a book. Because the man's new home is like nothing here on earth, I felt like a new arrival myself. I couldn't read the signs, and I didn't understand the culture. At the same time, Tan used his amazing wordless pictures to convey how much the man missed his family back home.

The book ultimately has a happy ending, like many real-life immigrant stories. I think that people are extremely adaptable, and there is no doubt that with time, this man would settle in and feel comfortable in this strange new world. In real life, however, the story of his wife and daughter may not have resolved so wonderfully as it did in this book. There are so many families that are not able to join the members that first moved to another country.

The ending of The Arrival was the best possible one for this immigrant and his family (and made me cry); it certainly could have turned out much worse.

Now, it's your turn! Write an answer for a book of your choice in the comments.

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Last week I bought one of those Table Topics cubes. Have you seen these? It's a hefty cube made of some sort of heavy plastic that is full of cards. I suppose that because it's called Table Topics and the cube is sort of pretty in a MOMA kind of way, it is intended to sit upon your dining table or coffee table. Then, when you're sitting around starving for conversation, you can choose a card and read the thought-provoking, ice-breaking, conversation-starting question printed upon its face.

Anyway, I bought the Book Club Edition. Which means that every card poses a book-related question, like, "Do you agree with the point of view of the author?" or, "Was the writing style appropriate to the story?"

I propose that every Monday, I will use this cube of query to post a Book Question of the Week. I will choose a book and instead of writing a normal review, I will answer the question. Then, you, dear reader, get to play along. You pick a book, too, and answer the question for your book in the comments. Though I will be choosing a multicultural book, you certainly don't have to.

I will also choose my book before reading the question in the cube. That way, I can't cheat and choose something easy to write about.

Got it? OK, let's play. We'll start tomorrow.

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On the way back to our classrooms after dismissal yesterday, my colleague asked me, "Is it really quiet on your morning walks?"

At lunch, a whole table of us had been talking about how hard it is to preserve time for ourselves once school starts. There had been the usual surface level amazement that I continue to get up at 5:00 a.m. and walk for a half an hour at 5:30, even though there is no longer a dog to make such an activity mandatory.

My colleague's after school follow-up question was far from a surface level question. She came at my morning walk from an unexpected and thoughtful direction. And she got more of an answer than perhaps she expected, because when you walk in the dark, you pay closer attention to the sounds around you. My walks right now are loud with insect sounds -- crickets and tree crickets, buzzing, chirping and whirring. As winter comes, my walks will be more and more silent, until I have the chance to listen to the different sounds of snow underfoot. Late in February or early in March, I will hear the first robin singing in the dark, and my spring and summer walks will be loud with birds singing territory-marking songs.

Her question felt like the metaphorical unplugging of a dam of talk in me. I felt myself light up when I knew I had a great answer to her question. After I shared, her affirmation of my day-to-day scientific way of living in the world made me feel really really good.

And now I'm wondering, how can I do this for my students? How can I find the right questions to ask each one of them?

• I know the lists of possible writing topics we are making and sharing in early writers' workshop will help me. I need to model listing in a way that gets beyond, "I love pizza. I play soccer."
• I need to listen carefully. Then I will hear two boys singing songs from "baby TV shows" on the way to the buses, I can ask about this, and learn that when they go home, they have to watch Barney and Teletubbies with their young cousins.
• I need to watch. I need to notice how my fourth grade siblings interact in such kind and thoughtful ways with their kindergarten brothers and sisters when they see them in the hallway.
• And I need to learn to ask questions that go beyond the obvious or the surface, questions that dig into a topic, or approach it at a slant, or come in the back door so that my students can have the feeling I had of the dam breaking and the light coming on when they answer me.

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By Anatoly Liberman

Thanks to the correspondents who commented on the earlier posts. Some time ago, in discussing the origin of Georgia cracker, I could only refer to some inconclusive derivations of this slang phrase. Craig Apple writes: “My understanding (and I absolutely can not document this) was that a ‘cracker’ was a turpentine distiller, the process of rendering turpentine from pine tar being analogous to the cracking of crude oil to produce, say, gasoline. Crackers… went off alone into the woods for months to boil pine tar—they came out with a wagon full of casks…. So, like ‘redneck’ it became a general term of opprobrium for poor rural whites.” (more…)

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Earlier today we shared an essay by Elizabeth Beck, one of the authors of In the Shadow of Death: Restorative Justice and Death Row Families. Beck has been kind enough to answer a few questions for OUP about her experiences with death row inmates and their families.

OUP: Do you think there is a theme that ties the defendants on death row together, other than their alleged crimes?

Elizabeth Beck: Yes, I have intimate knowledge of the psychosocial background of close to 20 capital defendants. I often say that the murders can almost be viewed as a logical occurrence to psychosocial histories riddled with mental health and family backgrounds that lined up in an unique and devastating confluence. (more…)

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Yesterday, Peter Heather the author of The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Roman and the Barbarians taught us about the Battle of Hadrianople. Today he has kindly answered a few questions for OUP.

OUP: Have you always been interested in Roman history? What inspired you to write this book about the fall of Rome, rather than tackle an easier Roman period? (more…)

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It's been a while since I've had a giant sighting. But all you need is one to bring back the memories. This one has a particular Texan flavor, don't you think?

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Eisha (with Anna) New Friends like:
Lily (a big Year of the Dog fan!)

and Scott Magoon

And old friends like:
Mike and Nancy (who came from Texas!)

Throughout the party, Ki-Ki and the blue rose girls were working the book table, selling lots of copies of Lissy’s Friends:


I kept getting unnecessary but extraordinarily lovely gifts from people. Thank you!

And Lolly from the Horn Book was podcasting:
See her trying to deviously pretend she’s not recording?

Kids seemed to like the cupcakes:
and the flowers:
And no one seemed to notice the lack of punch:

But I was still a bit scrambled. Time passed in a blur! I forgot to publicly thank the girls for all their help, do a book reading or even acknowledge the Lissy doll! I do remember that I did urge everyone to eat cupcakes, that I raffled my painting,and The Blue Rose Girls (sans Meghan) had a photo op:


So, I think Lissy and I had a pretty good birthday! Thanks everyone for celebrating with us!

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After a late night, I woke up bright and early to prep for the party waking up Ki-Ki and Alvina (who slept over). Ki-Ki was particularly difficult to awake. The overload of sugar the night before left her in a state of food coma and I wasn't sure she was going to make it out of bed.

Now how does one transfer 144 cupcakes? I have a feeling I am one of the few people who have attempted this so I will just tell you the answer. You do it with the help of great friends like Anna and Elaine who are willing to chauffeur them and this cool gift from Alvina:


It's a Cupcake Courier! It can carry up to 36 frosted cupcakes at a time...and it does so perfectly. The cupcakes made it to Spark Studios (where my party was) in pristine and beautiful condition:



Other things that I was gratified to see make safely? The fruit arrangements:


And the books and dolls. Those were rushed in the day before from ChinaSprout. They had told me they weren't sure if my order was going to arrive in time...I guess just because a product is released on a certain day doesn't mean you actually get the product that day. But I begged and pleaded, as it is a little silly for me to have a Lissy's Friends Book Party when the book isn't there!



I rather enjoy this picture as it is the Lin sisters all together: me, Ki-Ki and Lissy, as a doll. Glad we all made it!

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I think I just realized that throwing a book party is like getting married; or at least having a wedding. Or maybe it's just the way I do things--what's the book party equivalent to bridezilla? Book partzilla? Parthra (a la Mothra)?

And just like having a wedding, the success of the party is dependent on good friends pitching in. Lucky for me, I have those.

Alvina flew in straight from the International Reading Association conference in Toronto to Boston and pitched right in. Gosh, I needed her. Not only did the gift bags need to be finished (not everyone got chocolate rats; I had to start making chocolate faster so I was using all my molds--turtles, pigs, roses, seashells. Not very themed, but oh well!); I had cupcakes to make!!


144 to be exact: 48 carrot cupcakes, 48 pink velvet (supposed to be red velvet but I ran out of red food coloring) and 48 lemon. We used 3 boxes of butter! Alvina and I spent the day baking and I finally feel justified in having a fancy mixer.

Then after work, Ki-Ki, Anna, Bruno, Luke and Ranida came over to help frost. This actually didn't take that long...




Okay, maybe it did.

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