Cybil Challenge

Two Cybils SciFi/Fantasy

1 Comment / 2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I’m kind of ODing on middle grade and YA books. This is what happens when I don’t read enough throughout the year… gah. The end of the tunnel, I can see it. I swear!

Planesrunner, the YA scifi I thought I wouldn’t enjoy, particularly since I had so much trouble getting past the first chapter, turned out to be a lot better than I expected. Physics is not my thing. Neither are books where ONE paragraph is more than a full damn page. Other than that — it turned out to be a pretty fun book. The airships made it great (and the solid female characters, in a boy story, too.)

Geeks, Girls and Secret Identities is Middle Grade scifi/fantasy and I had a hard time getting started with that too… what’s with all of the comic book superhero stuff lately? After about 30 pages, I was in and enjoying it. I particularly liked what happened with Polly, Captain Stupendous and Vincent’s mom. Super female characters in what’s mostly a boy story.

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Three Middle Grade Fiction

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

Still playing catch up on my Cybils blogging but the end is in sight!

Fourmile — I liked it a lot which is unusual since it’s a boy book and boy books don’t always work for me. Watt Key, the author, is excellent though so I shouldn’t be surprised to have liked it. It didn’t feel so much like middle grade but more like YA. The violence seemed awfully violent for middle graders.

Almost Home was very middle grade fiction sort of trouble book. Homeless kid finds herself with a community of awesome adults (and kids). And, she has a cute puppy who seems to not prevent her from landing in a shelter, a group home, or a foster home. (Which would never happen, sigh.) A very feel good book, even though there are places that made me almost cry.

The Adventures of Beanboy was so much fun. I loved it. The development of Beanboy as a character… fantastic.

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Three Middle Grade SciFi/Fantasy Books from the Cybils Shortlist

2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Beswitched — I didn’t love it. In fact, for most of the book I strongly disliked it. I did not like Flora Fox at all. Not one little bit. Even as she “grew up” I didn’t find myself liking her much better than on page one. I didn’t like her grandmother either. I’m much more interested in the other Flora — the one who took her place and whose place she took. I’d probably like her better, I think.

The Peculiar is another one I didn’t love. I just didn’t care about any of the characters. Bartholomew – sure, but only a little. I’d have probably liked Hetty more if I’d gotten to know her. It wasn’t a bad book — just not great.

Finally, one I enjoyed — Cabinet of Earths. Pretty cool story. Solid characters. I even liked the ending, which is oh so rare, sometimes. Those three grains of “earth”… I’d be freaked out about that, too, if I were Maya.

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Vessel

2013, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I wasn’t expecting to like Vessel as much as I did — it sounded a lot like another book I read recently… the one where the girl had a gem in her navel and that marked her as… whatever it marked her as.

This book was sort of like that — but better, I think. I do have a little bit of the love/hate with the fables. They were good but sometimes a little mixed up and not quite right in places. But, overall, excellent fantasy.

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4 Middle Grade and YA Non-Fiction

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

More catch up book blogging — Cybil blogging, to be specific.

Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon was the book I didn’t expect to love because how many times can you read about this topic and learn something new or find it fresh and interesting. Or maybe that’s just me because chemistry and bombs are not my thing. However, this was better than I expected — not so much for the spy factor, but for the inclusion of the race toward the bomb that was happening in the USSR and in Germany. That made it more interesting than just a straight how we got the bomb (and used it) sort of thing.

I really enjoyed the Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War. I mean really enjoyed it. Those poor kids. I cannot imagine how confused they, particularly the older ones and not the babies, were.

I liked Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 well enough. It was a little long but Moonbird himself is awesome. Which reminds me, I meant to see if there had been any more sightings since this book was written.

I’m not a big fan of books about the Titanic but I liked Titanic: Voices From the Disaster more than I expected to. It, too, was a little long but not so boring that I didn’t read it straight through.

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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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11 Cybils and My #Readathon Totals

2 Comments / 2013, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Dewey's Readathon /

I made it through my 11 books from the Cybils shortlist….

Pinch and Dash Make Soup — it was cute but I felt like I’ve read it before. (48 pages)
Kenvin Henkes, Penny and Her Doll and Penny and Her Song. Typical Henkes, no complaints (32 pages each)
I loved loved loved Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot. LOVED (103 pages)
I also loved loved loved Ivy + Bean Make the Rules. I’d like to go to Camp Flaming Arrow. (125 pages)
A Trip to the Bottom of the World with Mouse — It was ok, not my favorite. (32 pages)
Eggs 1, 2, 3 — cute fold outs, nice illustrations. I liked it. (32 pages)
Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover. Cute but typical Rabbit & Robot (50 pages)
Bing & Gollie Two For One. Kind of cute. I liked the illustrations a lot. (96 pages)
Sadie & Ratz. I’m not a fan. (60 pages)
Marty McGuire Digs Worms — yay for saving the world in 3rd grade. And interesting people at school assemblies. (176 pages)

Final #Readathon count — 17 hours.
17 books (and the end of another.)
An hour of an audio book.
1,980 Pages.

Good night!

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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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