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Children’s authors hard at work!

I’ve enjoyed torturi . . . um, inspiring my writing and illustrating colleagues over the course of the last nine years with a short writing exercise at each schmooze. This year was no exception. It is during this time, since I get to inflict . . . um . . . lead the activities, that I have a few free moments to take snapshots of my friends giving in to the muse. (The writing prompt also gives me time to hit the dessert table once again while no one is looking.)

I was delighted by the laughter and advice freely shared, and all the good food y’all brought. (OMG: the Peruvian goat cheese! I was so glad Monica was gracious enough to leave me the leftovers. I was contemplating offering to arm wrestle her for it.)  And I am so pleased at the boxes of books donated for the Martin County Library. Oh my! Five boxes full. (Diane-you are a doll!)

Finally, it was great to be able to put faces to the names that crop up on the Michigan SCBWI listserv and to welcome so many “old” hands and new faces to the playhouse. Keep on writing . . .

Many hugs from your devoted task master,

Shutta

This year I worked with Learning Leaders to visit NY classrooms and share my work with kids. I did 8 visits between two classes over the course of 4 consecutive months. For the activity portion of my visit we made single sheet books where the kids had to tell a story with pictures only! It was a challenge in the beginning, but the kids got into the mode of thinking very quickly and made some really impressive books. Most kept their books for themselves, but a couple of the students gave theirs to me!

This is a super confidence building activity for children who struggle with writing. It also helps sharpen their ordering skills.

Here is one of the finished products. Enjoy! (click on the pages to enlarge)

Sarah Stewart and David Small’s The Gardener and Peter Brown’s The Curious Garden would be great additions to Camille’s library!

*Also of note*
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art has offered me a complimentary membership to the museum as a token of congratulations! How cool is that?!?! I can’t wait to go, who’s comin’ with me?

Like many books I review, I'll read a mention of the book from some lucky bookseller who has an advanced copy.  I'll get excited about the book, rush to my neighborhood bookstore or library and then realize the book doesn't come out for several months.  Sigh.  

Princess Ben was one of these books so I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived at my library.  And promptly settled down to read it...

Princess Ben is about a young free-spirited and slightly overindulged princess, who after her doting parents are tragically murdered, is left to the devices and education of her cruel aunt.  Her aunt, Queen Sophia, becomes more frantic about the quest to cultivate Princess Ben with hopes for making her marriage material when the neighboring kingdom (the chief suspect in the parents' deaths) begins to put pressure to overtake the kingdom.  After one particularly bad interaction between the Queen Sophia and Princess Ben, she is shut up in a cell behind her aunt's room.  However, the room holds an unexpected escape by way of a secret passageway that leads to a mysterious magical room...

Princess Ben started off with a bit of an angsty feel and, when coupled with the tragic circumstances, I steeled myself for a typical tortured heroine fairy tale.  However, by the Part Two of the book, I realized that this story was far from the typical fairy tale!  For start, the heroine isn't a delicate golden-haired beauty or even a feisty brunette beauty.  She's a sulky, strong-willed girl with a voracious appetite.  Her maturing and growth throughout the book is only one of many; it amazed me that characters that I made immediate judgments about (oh, she's the villain, he's the love interest) would change through the story as the narrator, the irrepressible Princess Ben, changed.  Catherine Gilbert Murdock's clever interweaving of fairy tale references only add to the cleverness of the story rather than serve as distraction.  

This story was deeper than the average "fairytale retelling" genre and delivered humor, adventure, and dare I say it, a valuable moral.

Penderwicks-lovers: don't despair as you wait for book 3!  This lovely out-of-print gem will tide you over with its funny, charming and everyday slice-of-life stories. 

Family Grandstand centers on the Ridgeways, Susan, George and Irene (called "Dumpling" because of her "roundness in the middle").  It's football season in Midwest City and, seeing as their father is a professor at the university and they live in a house that overlooks the football field by means of a tower, the three are very involved in the excitement of it all.  From the first game of the season to homecoming, a lot else happens at the Ridgeway household including Susan learning how to deal with babysitting the Terrible Torrences, George adopting an immensely oversized dog and five very discontented turtles for his birthday, and Dumpling trying very, very hard to be very, very good after misunderstanding an overheard conversation.  All this is told with Carol Ryrie Brink's brand of dry humor and gentle literary slapstick.

I have been reading Ms. Brink's books since I was little, and this one, as well as the second in the series, Family Sabbatical, are among my favorites.  Her characters are completely three-dimensional and entirely identifiable.  I know there are plenty of children's book readers who don't like "old-timey" books and I imagine that they would probably categorize this book in that group.  But I guess I'd use the clichéd word "timeless" for this book; it's proven to be that for me!

It seems perhaps redundant to write a review about a series that has been on the bestseller lists for a while.  However, I was so thoroughly enthralled by the series that I can't help but write an entry for the latest books to completely eat up hours of my day!  

Delicious Summers with Healthy Meals
by Brynn Smith-Raska
Editorial Assistant

It is an indisputable fact that every season has a distinct smell. Fall is imbued with the rich aroma of falling leaves. Winter is bitter and harsh with the its essence of snow. Spring time tantalizes the nose with flowers and freshly cut grass. All these wonderful smells of nature permeate the world around us for 8 months out of the year. Then summer rolls around and the scents that waft through the air become strangely less natural and much more – delicious!

Anyone who has suffered through a long and sweltering summer knows the oppressive heat and glaring sun are all worth it because of what the warmth brings with it – outdoor dining. May through August have long been famous for being the seasonal hosts to barbecues, picnics and baseball games; hot dogs and ice cream cones and lemonade and potato salad are the star players of these warm month past-times.

Unfortunately, despite their scrumptiousness, these famous summer meals leave something to be desired in the nutrition department. Combine the unhealthy nature of the junk food which we often indulge in during the summer months, with the long and sometimes unregimented days that kids enjoy while out of school, and you have a recipe for disaster!

A recent study from Ohio State University has found that, contrary to what one might expect, kids often gain weight in the summer. When kids are no longer in school, under the watchful eye of teachers and coaches, their eating habits get off track and their lifestyles can become sedentary. Schools have made great strides in keeping junk food out of classrooms and hallways, but when kids are left to their own devices, apples and granola are quickly replaced with popsicles and soda.

In the study, researchers measured the increase in the BMI of students during the school year as compared to the summer months, and found the number rose more staggeringly during the summer break. The best way to reverse these findings is to eat healthfully and exercise. But everyone knows talking about living well is a lot easier than implementing healthy choices into a daily routine, especially without the vigilant eye of Mom, Dad, teacher or coach.

That's why YUM: Your Ultimate Manual for Good Nutrition is such a fantastic tool for living well – aimed at kids, it puts the power in their hands. In addition from providing information about food (where it comes from, how it grows), author and registered dietitian – and mom – Daina Kalnins offers kids-friendly recipes for healthy snacks and alternatives to unhealthy favorites.

There are some really interesting facts about eating and hunger, too. Did you know that sometimes when you feel hungry, you might in reality just be thirsty? Especially in the summer when we all sweat from the sun's hot rays, it's easy to become dehydrated. So next time your child goes to grab a bag of chips, suggest that they take a drink of water and see if the hunger goes away. They may be surprised to find they don't want that snack anymore!

My favorite part of the book (and one kids are sure to love) is the “What Celebs Say” section: we learn from Zac Efron about his efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and the NBA's Tony Parrish's strategy of living well by avoiding a lot of sweets and working out. If busy celebs can find the time to stay fit through the summer months, why can't we all give it a go?

With recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with great ideas for working out and feeling good, YUM will seamlessly guide your child (and the whole family) through the delicious summer months. Here are five tips from Daina Kalnins and YUM to kick start a healthy lifestyle this summer:

• When having a picnic or a barbecue, try using whole wheat bread and buns with your sandwiches, hot dogs and hamburgers.
• Calcium is crucial for everyone, especially for growing bodies. Luckily, frozen yogurt is a great source of calcium, and deliciously refreshing, too.
• Try something new! It's no secret that football players sometimes take ballet classes to improve their balance and agility. If you play basketball during the school year, why not try diving classes? And if you figure skate in the winter, maybe you could give tennis a swing. Your body will feel great, and who knows, maybe you'll discover you have a knack for kick-boxing!
• I'm sure you've heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it's easy to forget about it when you don't have to wake up early for school. But that doesn't mean breakfast isn't just as important in the summer. Eating a healthy breakfast is a meal with two perks – it will make you more energetic and give you a healthy level of body fat.
• Instead of firing up the grill and making hamburgers, try YUM's more nutritious – and delicious! - recipe for Lentil Burgers. They're sure to be a hit!

Lobster Press and City Parent are giving away “Summer Reading Book Bundles” of Lobster's most popular kids' books.

Enter to win the “Summer Reading Book Bundles” for ages 3 – 7, for ages 8 – 12, and for ages 13 – 17, by Sunday, July 20th.

When I began this blog, my intention was to review not only new releases, but also some favorites that have been out for years- even out-of-print titles- to bring awareness to the marvelous books that nobody talks about.  However, I've been mostly reviewing more recently released books because there have been so many great ones released.  So, in time for summer, I'm reviewing a great summer read that was released years ago but is still completely wonderful!

A brief history of my reading Linda Urban's A Crooked Kind of Perfect: I had prepared myself not to like the book; I'm not a big fan of drama in kids' literature and the content lent itself to drama (mother works all the time, father has OCD, she's an outcast at school) so I feared that the book would take itself too seriously.  But one of my favorite bloggers, ShelfTalker, raved about it so much that I grudgingly checked it out of the library.

Okay, I just finished this book and I loved it!  Iris, Messenger, by Sarah Deming, tells the story of a middle schooler named Iris Greenwold who lives with her mother in Middleville, Pennsylvania.  Iris, like many other protagonists, hates going to school and really doesn't have any friends but she loves daydreaming and does her best to just get through the day avoiding detentions.  Which she is not very good at.  

This quirky and action-packed story is about a ten-and-a-half-year-old girl named Alex (who is constantly being confused with being a boy because of her short hair, feisty attitude and dislike for skirts) who lives with her kindly uncle and goes to a prestigious private school (because her uncle is on the Board).  Although she loves learning, she dislikes school because of her shallow classmates and her old-fashioned teachers.  But this all changes when she gets a brand-new teacher, Mr. Underwood, just as she begins sixth grade, who teaches her to fence and use correct grammar.  Alex and her uncle befriend the teacher and he reveals to them that he is heir to an enormous hidden treasure garnered by his piratical great-great-great-grandfather, the infamous Wigpowder.

I actually had the opportunity to meet Avi in person at a book talk and I told him that my absolute favorite of his books was The End of the Beginning.  He sighed resignedly (clearly he has heard that before) and said it was a book he wrote over the course of several days.  He was trying to help a friend and aspiring author by telling him how easy it was to write, saying that he could complete a book in one day.  He said that although he wasn't quite able to finish it in one day, he did finish it within a week!

I wanted to write a blog about all the wonderful children's books I've read (at least some of them) because often I'll finish a fantastic book and think, "Oh, I so want to talk to someone about this!"  But fellow children's book fanatics are difficult to find, so I thought I'd go online and find a (hopefully) gentle and enthusiastic audience...  

The Missing Piece Meets the Big O – 25th Anniversary Edition
Author: Shel Silverstein
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060256575
ISBN-13: 978-0060256579

There are several reasons this book has been around so long. It’s great. It’s simple. It’s charming. It’s powerful. It deals with a common issue for both children and adults, that of fitting in and of self-esteem. With simple line drawings and laconic but eloquently poetic text, it conveys a strong message with gentleness and humor.

I first bought this book years ago, in its first printing. I bought it for my then three-year old son Albert who saw it at a bookstore and wanted it. When I read it to him that night, I was so struck by the truth of the book that I cried. The book touched me deeply and made me see something about myself that I had never really looked at. You see, I was the painfully shy child, the quiet one who hid behind books, never raised her hand in class and rarely spoke. My friends now will laugh and think I’m telling a fib, but no, that was me. I entered into a marriage far too young and it ended early and badly. Shel Silverstein’s book helped me to heal and grow as a person and find myself, my self-esteem and become the woman I am today.

Over the years, I’ve bought this book more times than I can count. Each of my children owns a copy as do my grandchildren. I give it away to nieces and nephews, children of friends, strangers on buses, you name it. I always seem to find a person in need of this book and it finds its way off my shelf and into those eager and waiting hands. I just go out and buy another, and another, and another…

So enough about me and onto what makes this book a classic. The Missing Piece Meets the Big O tells the story of a little triangular piece sitting all alone.

"The missing piece sat alone
waiting for someone
to come along
and take it somewhere...."

The story goes on to tell about the pieces that didn’t fit, or fit but couldn’t roll, or grew annoyed when the piece started to grow. The piece meets the Big O who says he isn't missing a piece but the piece is welcome to roll with him if he likes. By the end of the book, the Missing Piece is rolling on his own and has become his own complete self.

Each page is a simple and compassionate lesson. The book tells you to be yourself, of how important it is to be who you are on your own power and that you don’t need someone to complete you. You can BE who you want to be all on your own initiative and determination. That’s a strong message and an important lesson. A lesson most of us have a hard time learning.

In these days of girls and boys feeling so compelled by plastic surgery, weight loss, fitting in, cutting, peer pressure and so many things to deal with, this book becomes all that much more important for children of all ages and adults to read.

This beautiful children’s book changed my life. It taught me that I was somebody. That just finding myself then being myself was enough. I wonder just how many people this book has changed just so. I’ll forever be grateful for it and the difference it made in my life and that of my children’s. Any book that can cause change for the good is a classic in my mind and this one especially deserves that honor and more.

This summer, First Book asked people from all walks of life to help them in celebrating their 50 a millionth book to children in need by answering the question: What book got YOU hooked?

The campaign invited readers nationwide to recall the books that sparked their love of reading and then share the magic with children in need by voting for the state to receive 50,000 brand new books.

How cool is that?

I filled out the form at their booth at BEA and am happy to see the book I chose (Little Women) on the final Top 50 list. Here's the link to the list.

The First Book site is filled with information and fun facts. There's a poll of all the voting, celebrities choices and lots of other fun stuff. I think I'm going to use the Top 50 List as part of the Reviewing the Classics of Kidlit series and try to get all those 50 reviewed in the next few months.

Read my review over at AmoxCalli.

The Mark of the Horse Lord
Author: Rosemary Sutcliff
Publisher: Front Street; 1 Reprint edition (February 2, 2006).
ISBN-10: 1932425624
ISBN-13: 978-1932425628

The Plot: Phaedrus is a gladiator in second century Britain; a bloody, violent fight to the death in the arena results in Phaedrus killing his best friend, winning his freedom, and having no idea what to do next. What does a slave know about living as a free man?

Phaedrus is approached with a scheme involving the tribes to the North, in Scotland; the king died seven years ago. His son, Midir, went missing; and Levin's half-sister, Liadhan, seized the opportunity to bring back goddess worship and set herself on the throne.

The thing is, Phaedrus looks exactly like the missing Midir. Why not put him on the throne instead, and remove Liadhan from power? So Phaedrus pretends to be Midir -- pretends to be King -- and gets more than he bargained for as he begins to realize what it means to be a King.

The Good: Non stop action. Chapter One, we get a mother's suicide, gladiator fights, freedom; Chapter Two, a drunk night on the town resulting in fights, stabbings, and fire; Chapter Three is prison and the Midir plan. There's barely a place for Phaedrus or the reader to breathe. Yet, within all that action, Sutcliff includes many details about the second century Britain.

Once Phaedrus agrees to the plan, there's a lot he has to learn. And he keeps finding out that that there is even more involved than he thought.

Since this was written in 1965, I was a bit concerned about how the goddess religion would be treated. To be simplistic, it seems like all books about it written before a certain time depict it as Evil; and all written after a certain time depict it as The Golden Age. Silly me; Sutcliff does almost the impossible by making no modern judgments. Yes, the faction that Phaedrus sides with wants the sun centered god religion, rather than the moon centered goddess; and the goddess religion shown involves human sacrifice. But it's done rather evenhandedly; and the religion dispute is more a side issue, with the real dispute being about power, and who has it.

What else? There's a map! I love maps; and a brief historical note intro, letting the reader know a bit of the historical context and clearly stating that this is fiction, but here's the true history part.

As for the true history part, I love that Sutcliff looks at a bit of history that does not get much written about it. Seriously, how many other books sent in second century Scotland are there are about the Dalriad?

The brutality of the time is genuinely shown; what really happened to Midir, for example. My clues; he's alive; and remember, that a maimed man could not be king. If you don't want to murder a child but do want to make sure he never becomes king, what do you do?

Age: I think today, this would be a YA book or an adult book. Phaedrus is about nineteen; there are wars, bloody battles, even a bit of a romance. Part of what Phaedrus has to face is the difference between the best choice for himself; and the best choice for his people. But are they his people -- isn't he just pretending to be King?

The cover: isn't that cover great? I read the original hardcover, boring black, but there is a mark on the cover that is supposed to be the mark of the horse lord that Phaedrus gets tattooed on his forehead.

Quotes: "[Essylt, Phaedrus's mother] had used the slim native hunting dagger that had served Ulixes as a papyrus knife; but there was not much blood because she had stabbed herself under the breast, not cut her wrists as a Roman woman would have done." In one sentence, Sutcliff tells us how Phaedrus's mother killed herself, also revealing how the native / Roman cultures mixed yet did not mix.

On fighting to the death as a gladiator: "Like the sudden opening of a cavern in his head, reality burnt upon Phaedrus, and in that ice-bright splinter of time he understood at last that this was a fight to the death, that he was fighting, not his comrade Vortimax, whom he had fought scores and hundreds of times before, but death -- red rending death such as the stag's had been, and the hooks of the mercuries in the dark alleyway." Again, awesome detail; and lovely how Sutcliff creates a world where you "know" what it is those mercuries do without her ever really saying.

While I liked how Sutcliff had the opening note, I would have loved to have the titles of her actual source material. I wonder if the marriage ceremony shown is accurate, and the same for the Women's War Dance.

Finally? Amazing, amazing ending. Entirely true to the book and the characters, yet still unbelievable and almost shattering.

Now all I want to do is read all of Sutcliff's other books.

Links:
Wikipedia article on the Dál Riata
Interview with Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff: An Appreciation blog, with The Mark of the Horse Lord review
Teacher Resource File for Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff: blog by godson (here, also)
I Speak of Dreams blog review
1985 Phoenix Award Winner

The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Author: E.L. Konisburg
Publisher: Atheneum
ISBN-10: 068985322X
ISBN-13: 978-0689853227



When I reread The Mixed-Up Files, I can hardly believe it was written in 1968. Though the amount of Claudia's allowance and the price of The New York Times reveal its age, few books from that era retain such a contemporary feel.


For those who aren't familiar with the book, The Mixed-Up Files is about Claudia and Jamie Kinkaid, two suburban siblings who, fed up with the rest of their family, run away to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The adventure becomes a mystery when they become determined to discover the true origin of a statue named angel, reputed to be the work of Michelangelo. Claudia's careful planning makes their escape and survival plausible. Jamie's practical nature and eye-rolling attitude keep Claudia from getting too romantic. The siblings complement each other and form a partnership that is at first grudging, later affectionate, making this a book with both boy and girl appeal.


I still think this is a nearly perfect premise for a middle-grade novel. It may not grab immediate attention, but in its simple plot, there are elements to appeal to many different segments of child readers: mystery lovers, kids intrigued by the romance of big cities, kids who like art and museums (such kids exist; I was one of them), and the nearly universal appeal of a story about running away.

And yet The Mixed-Up Files is so much more than its plot. Konigsburg works philosophy into these pages: ideas about secrets, learning, our need for comfort, and the isolation of modern life. Most importantly, she explore what make someone an individual rather than a member of a school class, a member of a family, or someone who defined simply by the motions of their daily lives.

Each detail in The Mixed Up Files is carved as carefully as Michelangelo's fictional angel. I remember precisely such images as the strip of white flesh between Jamie's jacket and sagging trousers when he fills his pockets with change, the deep black tub with golden faucets, the meals they eat from the Automat. The language is equally thoughtful. Decades after I first read this book, sentences such as, "Bedtime is the worst time for organized thinking," still ring in my mind.

Far from being outdated, The Mixed Up Files becomes increasingly relevant. Jamie and Claudia are described as siblings who were so busy with activities that they never really spent much time together, a situation that is certainly even more common today than in the sixties. They're suburban. They're consumers, with Claudia's spending of her paltry allowance described as "her biggest adventure each week." And they feel the emptiness of their busy lives. That is why they run away—as Claudia puts it, to "come back different."

By the end, she is different, and so are we.

About a month ago I posted a Call for Guest Bloggers on AmoxCalli to review and recommend those wonderful old books we grew up with, books I consider classics of kidlit. I got some responses and lists of books people wanted to review which were fantastic. I knew of most, some I had never heard of and I'm looking forward to finding out more. I'm pretty excited about this new series, The Classics of Kidlit.

A couple of days ago, Liz B posted a link on her blog, A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy (one of my favorites) to my Call for Guest Bloggers post and already I've recieved some lovely comments and responses with even more lists of great books. Today, another lovely comment from Becky at Farm School Blog as well as a post on her site about the series.

To all of you who responded to my call, to Liz for nudging it along, to all you wonderful bloggers, librarians, homeschoolers and everyone that loves YA and Kidlit, thank you, thank you, thank you! It's been a dream of mine to do this and I so appreciate everyone's contribution to that dream. I'm so looking forward to your wisdom, your insight, your wonderful ways of seeing things in books and most of all, sharing those great books and your thoughts about them.

If I missed anything or anyone, let me know.

This is going to be so much fun!

Gina