Children’s Literature

The Apps: From the Cybils Shortlist

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

I’m not going to commit to reviewing these next year. Not because they aren’t good, most are. But it doesn’t make sense to me to pay for apps that nobody in my house is going to use after I’ve played with them for a few hours. I’ll have to wait til JMP is stateside (and a little older) before I consider reviewing these again…

But, here’s what I thought about these:

Be Confident in Who You Are – This was my least favorite app. I’m not sure I’ve met a pre-teen or teen who would do much more than roll their eyes at this one.

BoBo Explores Light – This was fun and an app that some of the older kids might want to play with a little bit.

Harold and the Purple Crayon – I didn’t get to review this. I’m not a Harold & the Purple Crayon fan so I put it off til this month, only to find that the app is not available for download in the US. Oh well. 😉

Hildegard Sings – This was amusing but not THAT amusing. I found it a little hard to know which items you could manipulate within the pages so I was just touching everything.

Pat the Bunny – I loved this one. Could be that it’s because I love Pat the Bunny but I don’t think so. I was prepared to DISLIKE this app because in my head you need to be able to touch all of the different textures in the book. Which is true, but this app is so nicely done that it’s fun to interact with. I also love that you can record your own voice reading the book. If only I’d downloaded it on Jenn’s phone while I was in Hawaii… sigh.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore – This was a fun book for the iPhone. I won’t be uninstalling it.

The Monster at the End of This Book – I had this one installed before the shortlist came out, it was a free download from Starbucks and that’s the only reason I had the app. I am not a fan of this book so I didn’t expect to like it. I LOVE IT. The big kids all love it. GREAT fun app — better than the book ever was.

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Two Fun Children’s Books

2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites /

We love the Ladies #1 Detective Agency (and we prefer it on audio) so I thought it would be  fun to grab  The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe’s First Case on audio. And,  it was fun. The voices weren’t  “right” and it tries a little too hard to be a “teaching” book – re-pronouncing  “hard” names,  stuff like that. I’m guessing Alexander McCall Smith may not really know any 8-10 year olds? But it was fun.  A lot of fun for fans of Precious Ramotswe (and the great Obed Ramotswe).

Riordan’s The Mark of Athena was excellent. I’ve had some trouble really getting into the Greeks vs Romans or Greeks + Romans series but book three has helped a good bit with that. I’m falling into the flow of it and getting comfortable with the Romans. Poor Annabeth. Poor Leo. Poor everyone, pretty much. No happy ending quest in this book, which is a big change and now we have to wait how long for the next one? (Well maybe not that long since this book has been out for awhile and I’ve just now gotten around to reading it, lol. October 2013… I can wait that long and read it at this time next year!)

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Seven Non-Fiction Picture Books (Cybils

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction /

The best thing about non-fiction picture books is that they are fast and easy to read at night, when you don’t really want to start a new book. Heh. These were all nice enough non-fiction books but only one of them was one I’d buy or read again and again. I also have a wee fondness for another one…

All the Water in the World – nice enough, the illustrations were really the best, but there are a lot of better books about the water cycle.

Bring on the Birds – Hmph. It didn’t even include flamingos! The illustrations were nice and bright but it wasn’t even close to the best bird book for little kids.

Can We Save the Tiger? – This was interesting, but the italicized text about various extinct animals was a little hard to read – like the ink was disappearing along with the animals?

I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat – This is the best of the bunch. Elly spotted it and whined because I hadn’t told her I had it. It was interesting and funny. I’d buy this one for a kid.

Planting the Wild Garden – I liked this one pretty well. Good way to talk to young kids about how seeds are carried – by people, wind, animals etc.  But again, I think there are better books about this topic.

The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs – Here’s my sentimental favorite, having been to El Valle and to Chiriqui and seen a couple of golden frogs in the wild. It’s a horrible thing to think about them only surviving in captivity.

Thunder Birds: Nature’s Flying Predators — This is a nice book for kids who are really interested in birds. The pull outs were the best part.

 

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Dragon Castle

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Dragon Castle was a wee bit like Tuesdays at the Castle – just a wee bit. What was different was that Rashko’s parents are dumb, and his brother’s not so smart, either. At least that’s what Rashko thinks. What was also different was that the author seemed to be having a whole lot of fun. That’s really what made this book good – the reader never loses the fun.

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Nerd Camp

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

I’ve probably checked Nerd Camp out from the library three times this year and have never had a chance to read it. Or, more accurately, I always put off reading it. It just seemed like other books would be more interesting or more fun. Hah. Silly me. When I finally started reading it late last night, I couldn’t put it down.

I laughed out loud. I sighed deeply as Gabe tried to figure out just how cool he’d need to be in order to have his new step brother like him. I laughed out loud some more. And the happy ending made me smile, too.

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Behind On Book Blogging

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Women /

Ouch. I’ve fallen way behind on book blogging. How did that happen?

Let’s see…

Last night I finished Letters to Kurt. Oy. That was depressing. Not that I expected it to not be depressing. Writing letters about suicide and the aftermath to your, errr, friend who committed suicide – particularly when you’re Eric Erlandson – makes for depressing business.

Before that, I read Always Coca-Cola. Interesting. Translated from the original, (Lebanese? Arabic? I’ve forgotten.), I liked it. I liked the three women featured. I liked the contrast between them. I liked the cynical look at branding and identity.

And before that, a book that doesn’t really fit with the other two but hey, I’ve fallen behind and I’ve got to get caught up somehow.  A Street Through Time – children’s nonfiction. I have no idea how this ended up in our library bag. I probably snagged it from the featured non-fiction in the new release area, I do that a lot. Interesting but not quite as interesting as I’d hoped. I don’t know why it didn’t catch me as much as I thought it would. Elly must not have loved it either since she didn’t say anything about it at all when she put it back on the shelf.  Kind of ho-hum.

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The Notorious Benedict Arnold

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I like non-fiction books about the American Revolution – you can blame my father for that. I’m also a huge fan of Benedict Arnold, which you can also blame on my father. So, I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy The Notorious Benedict Arnold and I did. I really did. Poor guy. I mean I know, I know but really. The guy did some really great things in battle and without him, it’s hard to say for sure that we would have defeated the British at all. Gates was USELESS (or close to it) without Arnold, well, let’s not even think about what would have happened.

Also, how many guys decide to invade Canada and then DO IT? Not nearly enough, that’s how many (sorry Sassymonkey and the rest of you nice Canadians, but it was true. Very true.)

Too bad it turned out the way it did, for Arnold. It’s just a darn shame.

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Two Cybils Non-fiction

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I love all of the Cybils books but I think I really love the non-fiction short lists. The books selected are always so darn good.  Here’s two examples:

The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon  was super interesting. Learning how (and why) three realistic life sized models of Washington, at three different times of his life, were made – when we don’t REALLY know what Washington looked like.  Technology is amazing. It just is.

Speaking of technology, Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way By Land, Sea and Air.  What I liked best is that this book features explorers kids don’t always hear about. Pytheas, Zheng He, Mary Kingsley, and the Piccards are included along with the typical favorites like Marco Polo, Columbus, Cook, and Livingstone.  The pull-outs are excellent.

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Middle Grade Fiction, YA Fiction — One Cybil, One Not

2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

How the heck did The Encyclopedia of Me end up on my bookshelf if it’s not a Cybil? This is really not the kind of book I’d just pick up and nothing about the cover screams “must read” to me. So weird.  It’s not a bad book, just not my thing and I’m so far behind on my reading lists that taking time to read this one wasn’t smart. Oops. I liked bits and pieces of it but I found the encyclopedia idea a bit tedious. I’d have rather just had the story of Tink/Isadora and her family/friends without the encyclopedia entries because that part was good. (If you’re looking for a book about autism and families, this one is interesting.)

A YA scifi/fantasy that is on the Cybils list and was good, was The Shattering. It’s written by the same author who wrote Guardian of the Dead that we listened to earlier in the year? Last year? Recently. So we had some ideas about what it would be like – and it was, though less Maori mythology than I expected there to be. And, the same thing happened in this book that happened in the last one – it runs just a little long.

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The Inquisitor’s Apprentice

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Alternate reality fun! NYC in the early 1900s – magic is everywhere, so is anti-semitism. Houdini & Edison + J.P. Morgaunt + Teddy Roosevelt = fabulous. Throw in a nice Jewish boy who has a whole lot of magical power that he doesn’t know about and some awesome visits to Coney Island and you’ve got The Inquisitor’s Apprentice plus a really great book.

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