Children’s Literature

All The Graphic Novels — OK Not All Of Them, Just Seven

2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

I didn’t manage to read all of the graphic novels from the Cybils shortlist on Sunday like I’d planned but I did finish a bunch of them on Monday and Tuesday. Here’s what I thought about seven of them:

Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller — I liked it. I wasn’t sure at the beginning. The first couple of pages were dark and confusing but once I settled into the art, and the jumping between Annie’s life and Annie’s life with Helen, it was good. Very good.

Hilda and the Midnight Giant was cute. I like Hilda and her mom.

Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Big Bad Ironclad was pretty good. I grew up with a history nut for a dad so I have a fondness for these kinds of stories. Humor was nicely added to help make the story less dry than history often is made to be.

Little White Duck: A Childhood in China was super interesting. I didn’t expect to like this one as much as I did.

Friends with Boys was probably my favorite of this round of graphic novels. (What’s with all of the memoirs on the list this time?) Homeschool to High School, teen angst, a ghost. It’s all pretty excellent. The drawings were good, too.

Marathon should have been good. Instead, I couldn’t even finish (I tried though. I tried hard.) The drawings should haven’t helped the difficult to follow story but they just made things worse.

Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White was my second favorite of the batch. I liked the art. I liked the story. Hispanic family in Alabama during the 60s? Not white but also not black? Tough situation and super interesting.

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Five Children’s Non-Fiction Books

2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction /

I’m finally getting to the stack of Cybils non-fiction books that have been sitting on my library cart since JMP was here. I’m fairly indifferent about most of them but I was pleasantly surprised by one…

When I have a stack of these, I usually read them in a very specific order — the ones I suspect I’ll like least, I read first. The one I have the most hope for, I will save for last. This is usually a good strategy because I’m not comparing books I’m inclined to not like with books I was pretty sure I would like. But, sometimes none of the books turns out to be what I’d expected. This was one of those times.

I started with Dolphin Baby because I don’t usually like sea creature books, particularly about dolphins. Too cute. They’re cute enough without any forced prose to try and make them cuter. This one — pretty much perfect. Nice illustrations. Information about dolphins was presented well. Not a lot of cute mommy baby, look how adorable they are stuff. This ended up being my favorite of the batch.

Next, Nic Bishop’s Snakes. I like Nic Biship but his books are all pretty much the same — great photos, basic info, same ole, same ole. That’s not a bad thing, but I do not like snakes at all. I made it through without looking too closely at the photos, a hard thing to do with a Nic Bishop book, and I don’t think I’ll have snake-like nightmares. If you need a book with great snake photos, this is your book. I don’t need that. Hope never to see it again, but I heartily recommend it to you if your kids are snake-crazy.

Then I read Island: A Story of Galapagos because I expected to find it ok but nothing to get excited about and that’s pretty much what happened. It does a nice job of explaining how species’ adapt to their surroundings. Finches with small beaks didn’t live long enough to pass that trait along, finches with larger beaks survived so they passed that trait along. Insect eating iguanas evolved to eat algae. Cormorants don’t need to fly so their wings are underdeveloped. Nicely done. I’d have liked it more with stronger illustrations, I think.

Then there’s Looking at Lincoln. How can you not like a book about Lincoln? That’s why I saved it for the end. But this one — gah. Throwing in things like Did Mr & Mrs Lincoln call each other cutesy names? Really? Was that necessary? Also, do children understand why people say “I could have stared at his picture all day.” I do not understand why so many children’s books about Lincoln include that tidbit. (Someone remind me to ask some kids about this the next time I’m in a room of 5-8 year olds.)

Last but not least, sigh. Mrs Harkness and the Panda. I had high hopes because I find Ruth Harkness to be fascinating. Unfortunately, all of the things I find interesting about her were missing from this book.

Ho hum.

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Tons of Children’s Fiction, Some are Cybils

1 Comment / 2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction /

Pretty much the only thing I had the energy to read while JMP was here were picture books — and boy we read a lot of those. I’m not sure this is the complete list (plus the ones I already blogged, a couple of weeks ago) but it’s a start. I’ll figure out the rest… later.

From the Usborne touchy – feely series, two books that JMP loved —  Diggers and Dinosaurs (that’s not one book title, that’s two books.) He loved them so much that I’m tempted to break my no Usborne books rule and buy the entire touchy feely series.

Hamsters Holding Hands came from the library and was an impulse check out on my part. I thought the hamsters might look enough like prairie dogs to interest him. He liked it but not that much.

Hippopposites is the most fascinating children’s picture book EVER. I’m ordering a copy of this one and you should, too.

The Pigeon Has Feelings Too — oy. I’m kind of anti-Mo Willems, generally speaking but I figured one pigeon book wouldn’t kill us. It didn’t.

Harry the Dirty Dog was one of my favorites when I was a kid and was one of my kids’ favorites. JMP likes it but he doesn’t love it (yet).

We bought Farts in the Wild from some bookstore or toy store long, long ago — and we’ve been holding it here until JMP is old enough for it. He’s not yet but our friend Emma who will be three in December loved, loved, loved it and JMP was fascinated by it, too.  It’s a great book.

TexasEbeth sent us “Who Flung Dung” and then we spent the next three weeks yelling “WHO FLUNG DUNG” and pushing buttons on the fart book I mentioned above. Hahaha. Want to know what to buy for a pre-schooler or kindergartener? Who Flung Dung and Farts in the Wild. HUGE WIN for the whole family.

Extra Yarn is a book from the Cybils Shortlist. I didn’t think JMP would like this one but he did. He sat all of the way through it without too much wiggling or trying to flip too quickly through the pages. I thought it was pretty cute, too.

Infinity and Me is a Cybils Shortlister and I loved it. JMP, not so much. Math is hard and too much for a 16 month old. We might try this one again next summer when we can really talk about Infinity.

Chloe and the Lion is a Cybils Shortlister and it caused me to roll my eyes. JMP liked the lion but that was pretty much it.

One Special Day is another Cybils book and it made me go awwwwww and then it made JMP’s mom say “maybe I should have another baby”. JMP didn’t love it or hate it. We’ll try it again if/when he becomes a big brother.

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4 Cybils, 3 JMP Approved

2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge /

Johnny Mac Pippin and I started putting a dent in the stack of picture books from the Cybils shortlist. He liked three of the four we read today.

Black Dog was his favorite — probably because he likes dogs and I said the word dog a lot, so even when he couldn’t see the dog (or couldn’t tell that great big thing was a dog) he knew this was about dogs. Fun story.

Creepy Carrots was amusing for me and JMP liked it, too — though probably because I used some weird voices to make the carrots creepy.

A Home For Bird was cute. He liked this one too, though I doubt he’s ever seen a cuckoo clock. He did enjoy saying Cuckoo, Cuckoo over and over at the end.

The book he didn’t enjoy was Balloons Over Broadway. We didn’t finish that one together. The illustrations weren’t enough to keep his attention and the story was beyond him. Older kids, particularly those who have seen the Macy’s parade will probably like this a whole lot more than JMP did.

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The One and Only Ivan

2013, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

I’m not big on animal stories — particularly those that are fiction but based on a true story and extra particularly those written for kids. They’re just … too much.

So I didn’t expect to love The One and Only Ivan. The only thing it had going for it, in my early opinion, was that it was written by Katherina Applegate (who I really like.)

Turns out, I’m a sucker for books about gorillas and elephants and stray dogs and such. I’m awfully sad that I didn’t go to the Atlanta zoo and see Ivan in person before he passed away. That would have been cool. It also would have been cool if Ivan had really done all of those things to get himself and Ruby to the zoo…

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Jake and Lily

2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature /

When I spotted Jake and Lily in the “new” carousel on my library’s website, I decided I wanted to read it. It’s been a zillion years since I read any Jerry Spinelli so it seemed like a good idea. And then I let it sit on my library cart for a good two months before I decided it was now or never (because it’s due back to the library this weekend, lol.)

Super fast read (and I stayed up til midnight to finish it) — while it’s no Maniac Magee, I liked it. I particularly liked Jake and Lily’s grandfather. I also liked that Lily is the twin who gets into trouble while Jake is more laid back and sensible. At least he was until he started hanging out with a gang of boys…

It all works out well and as it should. I liked that, though it seems like odds are slim that Jake’s storyline would have ended quite as well as it did for Ernie… but hey, it was nice.

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Errr, Seven Cybils: Children’s Poetry (Most, Excellent)

2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Poetry /

I have a love/hate with children’s poetry, so it makes sense that I have a love/hate with the Cybils shortlist books in the poetry category. I’m pleased to say that the first six I’ve read are mostly winners.

Let’s start with the “meh” books.

This is probably mostly me and my love/hate thing but it’s become clear that I just don’t love ocean/water animal poetry for kids. It makes me roll my eyes more often than not. So, while I didn’t hate these, I don’t love them either except for one. One of these puts it slightly above the others:

Water Sings Blue was fine. Ho hum. Seen one book of children’s ocean poetry, seen ’em a..

In the Sea‘s poetry tried a little too hard but OMG the illustrations make up for it. Fabulous. I’d read this one again — just for the illustrations.

Moving onto the books I loved, some of them I was really surprised to love. OK most of them I was surprised to love (see my love/hate issues above.)

Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs — hahahah, laugh out loud funny. If you have kids who love puns or want to teach them puns (and have no problems with death humor) this is THE BOOK. I must own this myself to read to JMP when he visits. hahaha.

UnBEElievables — I’m getting a little tired of books about bees but as soon as I feel that way or say that or type that, I feel guilty because … people, our bees are in trouble! I’d be tempted to put this in the same category with the ocean/water poetry above except… the poetry is pretty good, the tidbits about bees are just right and the illustrations are truly a work of art. *Love* I’d buy this one.

Book Speak — probably just me (and other bookaholics) but I loved it. I suspect most kids won’t love it. Librarians, teachers, parents who are avid readers will want them to but most… won’t. This is a book that has to hit exactly the right person or it falls flat. And kids are tough audiences for poetry.

Now, for the king of kings. Queen of queens. Best book of poetry in the world and everyone should drop what they’re doing and buy this because it means you’ll never have to buy, look at, read, pretend to like another book of animal poetry again. You also won’t have to buy a zillion non-fiction photo books about animals. This one does double duty and will save you money, time, and space on the shelf. I also can’t believe I’m saying this because this is the one I expected to really hate, hate, hate. National Geographic: Book of Animal Poetry. Amazing. Frost, Prelutsky, Dickinson, Lawrence are in here. The photos are National Geographic quality. It’s a high quality book. Best in breed, for sure.

Oops, overlooked Lies, Knives and Girls in Red Dresses on my library cart — it was excellent. Retold fairy tales, most definitely for older, mature teens. One of the best of the retold anthologies (and I’ve read a lot of them.)

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The Luck of the Buttons

2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction /

I have no idea how I ended up with The Luck of the Buttons. It’s not on the Cybils list and we never wander into the YA area of our library any more, much less the “juvenile” section. This is also not the type of book that ends up on the “New Arrivals” shelves at our library.

It’s a mystery.

I’m guessing a blogger of some sort mentioned reading it, so I reserved it.

Thankfully, it was a super short read because it’s not a book I really loved. I didn’t hate it either. It’s just one of those books adults like children to read but children (mostly) hate reading them. And those kinds of books make it hard for me to enjoy them, because my inner 8 year old is rolling her eyes mightily.

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Nancy Drew Sleuth Book

2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, From the Stacks Challenge, Nancy Drew Challenge /

Ages ago, Texasebeth sent me a copy of The Nancy Drew Sleuth Book and it’s been happily on my shelf of Nancy Drews ever since.

I finally made time to read it last night and it was awesome. I did not own this book when I was a kid so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Turns out it’s the best (worst) of all things Nancy Drew (from that era.)

– “She’s so fat, someone should put her on a DIET!”
– “Gypsy palm reading is against the law in River Heights!”
– “Don’t all the people in Chinatown have almond shaped eyes?”

I could go on, but you get the point.

It’s awesome in its horribleness. And, Nancy is a great teacher! River Heights is just crawling with girl detectives thanks to her little club!

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