Children’s Literature

The Beef Princess of Practical County

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Young Adult /

I think I picked up The Beef Princess of Practical County because I liked the title and the cover. I can’t remember seeing it blogged anywhere or recommended by anyone. It’s a nice little book about a girl whose family has a cattle ranch in Indiana. She’s 12 and this will be the first year she raises her own calves and takes one to the fair – which means the heartbreak of sending her calves to slaughter… sniff, sniff.

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Front and Center

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Young Adult /

When my library re-opened, I spent awhile reserving books that were on my Amazon wishlist – books that were coming out but not available for reserve and sequels to series we’ve started but fallen behind on. Front and Center was from the series we’d fallen behind on – and I remember why we fell behind, I don’t really love DJ. I really liked her in the first book and liked her very little in book two. In book three… I barely liked her at all.  I am glad she made the decision that she did (finally) make about where to go to college.  I liked that storyline – I just wished I liked DJ better. 😉

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Bad to the Bone (Down Girl and Sit)

2 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This /

I finally got the RIGHT Bad to the Bone from the library – I reserved two other books with this title neither of which are on the Cybil’s short list. Who knew there were so many Bad to the Bones published for kids in 2009-2010? This one wasn’t great. In fact, it’s one of those kinds of books that I just don’t like. Dogs who think their masters need training and who think they’re “good”…. I just don’t get the humor. I guess if you like that kind of thing… it’s not bad. It’s just not for me.

 

One more book to go in the Cybil’s shortlist challenge… I’m going to have to buy it, aren’t I?

 

 

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Scumble

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction /

When I realized Scumble didn’t quite pick up where Savvy left off, I was a little disappointed. I wanted to learn more about Mibs and not about another Savvy family. Once I adjusted to the idea that this was a different sort of story with different sorts of kids – I loved it. I was sad about Grandma’s jars… and happy that Rocket finally figured everything all out. I hope we see SJ at some point in another book, I’d like to know how that whole mess turned out. And, I’m very very interested in Gypsy – though all of these books have needed a problem to solve and I cannot see Gypsy having a problem to solve. I think she fit her Savvy right into herself so what story is there to tell…?

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Chains

2 Comments / 2010, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

We listened to Chains on audio and it took a good bit longer to finish than I expected. For some reason I had it in my head that it was a short book, it wasn’t. It was pretty darn good, though. At first, I was skeptical. I like Laurie Halse Anderson’s contemporary YA fiction and I wasn’t sure she could pull off something about slaves just prior to and in the early days of the Revolutionary War but she did it. And she did it well.

I’ve got a little love/hate with the ending. I guess it did end as it should have (and goodness knows, she’d have needed another 400 pages to get us to another ending…) but I would really have liked to find out what happens next. Hah… good thing there’s a sequel… though reading the synopsis on Amazon leads me to wonder if I’m going to be happy with what happens next. I’m reserving it on audio now.

And with this book, I’ve finished the Middle Grade Fiction books from the Cybils Shortlist – they were all excellent choices, every darn one of them.

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Three More Cybils

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

All three of these were pleasant surprises. Very pleasant surprises.

Dinosaur Hunt is a short chapter/easy reader that’s way too easy to be in the short chapter book category – kind of like the Mo Willems books. It can’t compete with Mo, unfortunately, but I liked it an awful lot. A cute little dog heads out to hunt dinosaurs in the yard – and he ends up building a dinosaur out of every day stuff you find in the yard. I liked it. Fun. Cute. I like Max Spaniel.

And then there was Anything But Typical – I was not expecting such an awesome book in that particular package. It’s one of those softcover paperbacks that you see in school book order forms – Scholastic type. I hope a lot of kids read this, expecting it to be lighter and easier than it was. I loved the Storyboard storyline and the Storyboard convention. I liked the online girlfriend twist. I like that all of the characters felt very real to me. I think that’s tough sometimes when you’re writing about autism.

The biggest surprise of all was Heart of a Shepherd. I didn’t remember this being on the Cybils list. When it came out of the library bag, at first I thought it was a Christian fiction large print that we had grabbed for TW’s mom. But no, it wasn’t large print. It also didn’t seem like something TW would have just plucked from the shelf. I shrugged, but it on the cart and forgot about it… until I needed another book, checked my Cybils post and discovered that book was MINE. Huh.

It started on a ranch and felt like some sort of old fashioned “western” story. I thought that’s what it was for a few pages until the boy’s dad was being sent to Iraq.  Then I wasn’t so confused. And I was pretty much hooked. I have no idea why the author had the boys’ mother living in Italy but whatever, it’s a small piece of an otherwise excellent story. And in the end, it could have been a very nice large print Christian fiction for TW’s mom. If it had been in large print. I’m guessing there will be a lot of kids who turn their noses up at this one. Too bad because I liked it.

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Three More Cybils – All Good, For Different Reasons

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

First, Mr Putter & Tabby Spill the Beans is an easy reader that’s really, really easy. I tend to like these less than any other type of book and I felt the same way about this one except…. As Mr Putter and Mrs Teaberry are learning 100 Ways to Cook Beans, I began to think in my head “I bet there will be bean Jell-o”. I turned the page and…. Yep, Three Bean Jell-o and from then on, the book was a hit. That’s all it needed. Oh the real story about having to try new things (particularly things that don’t sound fun) because those new things will make someone else happy” is a good lesson and it’s told in a cute way. But really, if there had been no bean Jell-o, I’d have been bored. As it is, I’m thinking about buying this silly book. Heh.

Captain Nobody is a middle grade fiction that feels a little young for MGF but it certainly wasn’t an easy reader/early chapter book. Oy, genre classification is hard.  It started slowly but after The Big Tackle, it moved quickly and I was hooked. Captain Nobody became the town’s hero and his sidekicks get some of the spotlight too. Nice book. I liked it.

I’m a big fan of Roscoe Riley (and his rules). I particularly like #7 – Never Race a Runaway Pumpkin because it’s true! You shouldn’t. And I do not care what anyone says, bad stuff can happen if you break a mirror or if an evil black cat crosses your path (the problem is knowing whether a cat is evil or not, lol.)

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Four More Cybils

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

The last from the Fiction Picture Books, The Listeners. I like Gloria Whelan and this book was nice enough but it didn’t really grab me the way most of her books do.

Then, I jumped to Easy Readers and Short Fiction…

When I saw Mo Willems on the list, again, I wasn’t thrilled. I’m getting a little tired of Elephant and Pig but I was very pleasantly surprised by Watch Me Throw the Ball. I laughed. Out loud. And it’s been awhile since Willems has really made me do that.

I like Mercy and I really liked Mercy Watson Something Wonky This Way Comes – not just for the use of the word wonky, either. Maybe I’m just a fan of buttered toast?

Last but not least, How Oliver Olson Changed the World. Oy. Parents who worry too much about their kids. Parents who do too much for their kids. And the kids who hate it. Brilliant book. Brilliant story. Brilliant use of Pluto the non-planet in this tough story. I like. A lot.

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Two Must Reads from the Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Short List

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

First, Operation Yes – Goodness I loved that book. It’s probably the military family in me but who cares, it was awesome. Little green army men. Air Force (and one Army) “brats” at a small school in a small school in a small military town. What’s not to like? Particularly when there’s a great teacher involved. Heck, the book even made me like air shows and I really do not like air shows.

Next, The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis. Hah. We listened to this one on audio (and I do believe this is my preferred method of reading middle grade fiction) and at first, I was confused. How could a middle grade fiction book start in such a horrible, depressing way? It didn’t make sense. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a middle grade fiction book that started this way and I was pretty sure I was going to hate this book after listening to the first two chapters. But then… the Holiday Rambler appeared and the “vocabulary words from Velma” really got going and I just loved this story. TW loved it too and we were sorry to see it end – but very happy that it ended exactly the way it did end.

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