Book Fair Mea Culpa

The books I bought at the school book fair.

Classics, good.

Elephant and Piggie, good.
Lego and Star Wars, bad.

I was wrong.  I was $205.20 wrong.  That's how much I spent at the school book fair.  (To justify it to myself,  I donated some of the books I purchased to either the school library or my daughters' classroom libraries.)  The quality of the books was, overall, top-notch.  Yes, there were the usual character-driven books, especially for boys (Star Wars, Ninja-something-or-other, Lego).  But the vast majority were high-quality books (both in terms of literary and physical quality, both of which are lacking with Scholastic book fairs), including both classics and new releases, including many of which I, who spends her days reading book reviews, book blogs and scouring bookstores, had never seen or heard of before.  The book fair was run by Main Street Book Company, a book fair company, which gets books from many different publishers.  It even provided a few adult titles, including cookbooks, which I thought was a nice touch.  Main Street Book Company is apparently also a provider of specifically Jewish book fairs as well.  Who knew?  I didn't even know that such companies existed.  For those of you seeking to improve your own school book fairs, the parent-organizers of ours told me they were very pleased with the service.

Full reviews will have to wait, as we haven't had a chance to even read them yet, but here's what I bought for ourselves and some initial thoughts:

Greek Myths by Ann Turnbull.  I'm particularly excited about this well-reviewed collection of Greek myths, as it fills a gap in our home library.  I may also supplement it with this version for younger children.

My five-year-old's wish list

The Barefoot Book of Mother and Daughter Tales by Josephine Everts-secker.  I'm intrigued.  And their books are always so beautiful.

The Barefoot Book of Father and Daughter Tales by Josephine Everts-secker.  Ditto.

Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives  by Lola Schaefer.  As I paged through this quickly between my two parent-teacher conferences, I worried that this beautiful book might be too simplistic for my math lover.  But then I spied the notes at the end, which explain  concepts like averages, and decided to go for it.

Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library by Barb Rosenstock.  All I had to see was "library" in the title and I was sucked in.  Not to mention it was on my five-year-old's wish list.

My five-year-old's wish list, continued

My Dad Thinks He's Funny by Katrina Germein.  My husband and the father of my children does think he's funny.  And he is.  How could I resist?

The Relatives Came  by Cynthia Rylant.  A classic.  And so much better than the early readers she seems to churn out daily.

About Time: A First Look at Time and Clocks by Bruce Koscielniak.  Perfect for my daughter who's interested in time and time zones.  I don't know this author at all but his other books look equally fascinating, including one about Gutenberg and the printing press.

AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went First by Alethea Kontis.  Another book in which Z complains about being last.  Look for an upcoming post about a 200+ year-old version of this lament.

Winter Trees by Carole Gerber.  This beautiful book looks like a nice complement to the equally stunning Fall Walk by Virginia Brimhall Snow, which I recently purchased.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri.  A classic.

The Magic Half by Annie Barrows.  By the same author as the Ivy and Bean series.  Selected by my 8-year-old.

So, what did you or your children buy at their school book fair this year?

Growing-Up-itis

So I recently diagnosed my cranky and chronically tired daughter with what I called growing-up-itis.  The diagnosis was confirmed when all physical causes were ruled out, to my relief.  But as I talked to her about her malaise, a phrase from a book came back to me: "You have a bad case.  Of what?  Of growing up."  It took me a minute to place the quote and then, I knew.  It is from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, one of my favorite books of all time.

A quick perusal of my copy of the book turned up the exact quote, which I then read to my daughter (all italics are original):

"Everything was changing.  Francie was in a panic.  Her world was slipping away from her and what would take its place?  Still, what was different anyhow?  Sh read a page from the Bible and Shakespeare every night the same as always.  She practiced the piano every day for an hour.  She put pennies in the tin can bank.  The junk shop was still there; the stores were all the same.  Nothing was changing.  She was the one who was changing.

"She told papa about it.  He made her stick out her tongue and he felt her wrist.  He shook his head sadly and said,

'You have a bad case, a very bad case.'

'Of what?'

'Growing up.'

"Growing up spoiled a lot of things."

And that sums it up perfectly.

Library (and Bookstore) Round-up #12

Mini-reviews of some of the books we currently have checked out of the library or purchased recently.

Big princess.  Tiny king.

The Tiny King by Taro Miura.  There is something just incredibly charming about this book.  The illustrations are, as you can see, truly delightful.  I wish a toy company would sell blocks to resemble those seemingly used to "build" the tiny king's castle.  The story, about a lonely, tiny king, who marries a big princess, with whom he has 10 (size unspecified) children is a gentle tale about love seeing past physical differences and how material riches and power cannot take the place of family and love.  But it is never didactic. I love how the background changes from black to cheerier colors, as in the two spreads at below, as the king becomes surrounded with people who love him and whom he loves. 

Sad king.
Don't you wish they sold blocks like these?

Happy king.
I still want those blocks.

Bembelman's Bakery by Melinda Green.  The predictability of this tale of what happens when children are left to their own devices, only enhanced, rather than diminished, my daughter's enjoyment of it.  As soon as the mother instructed the children not to get in trouble while she was gone for a few hours, my daughter gleefully exclaimed, "Trouble!"  And as soon as the children determined to bake bread, she delightedly exclaimed, "Uh-oh!  Messy!"  But all turns out well in the end.  A shame this one is out of print.

What Is Part This, Part That? by Harriet Ziefert.  When I pulled this book off the library shelf, drawn to the bold, primarily primary colored art, I knew immediately that the illustrator had to be Tom Slaughter and I was right.  The art is done in his trademark style, not just reminiscent of but a cousin or even a sibling to that in Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow?  I was surprised to see the authors were different, because both books pose sorts of riddles.  Here though, the rhyming riddles are more metaphysical, reminding us that a conversation with a friend is "part listen" and "part say" and that a bath is "part wash" and "part play."  With flaps adding to the fun, this is a great read-aloud. 



Here I Am, story by Patti Kim, pictures by Sonia Sanchez.  The art in this wordless book about a young boy who is unhappy and even angry when he emigrates from Korea to the United States is beautiful but I could not follow the story and in fact, got certain plot points completely wrong.  I had to read the note at the end to understand that the red, cherry-like item the boy grasps is a seed from his homeland and I was sure that the boy had thrown it out the window at a little girl playing on purpose, rather than dropping it accidentally as the author writes at the end.  I think a wordless book is a failure (a strong word, I know) if the author intends it to tell a particular story and that story is not made clear from the pictures.  I am also a bit mystified that the "story" (not the text, as there is none) is by Patti Kim but the art by Sonia Sanchez.  Of course, without text there is still a story, but I can't remember any other wordless book where there is an author as well as an illustrator.  Perhaps that split accounts for the fact that I found the storytelling unsuccessful.  Is the failure on my part (entirely possible!!), or the book's?

The Bear's Song by Benjamin Chaud.  I love this book!  Here the reader follows a papa bear who follows his cub, who is following a bee, into the Paris Opera House (where they cause quite a stir) and finally, to the beehive and the honey he's been seeking.  The illustrations, on over-sized pages, are filled with detail and it is fun to search for the bee on every page.  A story of parental love and the new trend of urban beekeeping - quite a combination! 

London

New York

Dot to Dot by Malcolm Cossons.  The stories of a grandmother and granddaughter who share a birthday and a name (Dot) but who live an ocean apart are told from each of their perspectives - just flip the book over!  A sweet book about inter-generational bonds and modern, far-flung families. 

The Favorite Daughter by Allen Say.  In this, another winning autobiographical picture book from Allen Say, his daughter is torn between her American and Japanese heritages.  But she also grapples with a school art assignment, in which she has to depict one of the most-depicted structures ever, especially in her hometown, the Golden Gate Bridge.  Her father guides her through both challenges with his gentle wisdom.  With two photographs of his actual daughter, one as a toddler and one as a young adult, punctuating Say's artwork, this book is very special. 


The Cat at Night by Dahlov Ipcar.  This beautiful book alternates scenes of how and what we see at night with what a cat sees.  Just gorgeous. Unfortunately, not a single one of her books is available for borrowing from the NYPL.



What have you and your kids been reading?

Book Fair Meanie

Do you let your child buy books at her school book fair?  What about from those Scholastic book club catalogs that get sent home?  How do you do it?  By price (i.e. a dollar limit)? By number of books? 

I must admit, I'm really a book snob.  And cheap.  Or, as I like to put it, discriminating.   My daughters already know that some books are library books - that is, books that are not worth buying.  Her school is running the book fair differently this year (and with, admittedly, higher quality books this year and last (not Scholastic) than in past years).  The children come visit the fair, write down titles they want, and give the list to their parents, who are under no obligation to buy the listed books.  My daughter is so well-trained (or perhaps I am so cruel), that she wrote "(library)" next to some of her choices, telling me that she knows I won't buy them but that she'd like to take them out of the library.  However, I'll consider buying two of her better choices, both of which are books she's already read: The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies and The Magical Ms. Plum by Bonny Becker.

How does your school run its book fairs and how does your family participate?

Let's Start With Chapter... Seven?!?

My daughters' school rolled out their new ELA curriculum, Ready-Gen, yesterday.  By today, my 3rd grader was complaining about it.  And I don't blame her!  She told me that the teacher read aloud a chapter from The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies, an excellent book.  So far, so good.  The students were required to follow along, pointing with their fingers.  OK, I can see the rationale here, but my daughter hated this.  She said it was hard not to race ahead of the teacher.  Don't we want to encourage readers like her?  I can remember this type of frustration from when I was a kid - but even worse, other kids were reading aloud, much slower than a teacher would.  I always read ahead and then couldn't find my place when I was called on to read! 

The questions following the read-aloud were boring too.  They had to write something they "learned" (it is unclear if this means something they learned about a character or plot point or something factual)  and write down what questions they had.  Not scintillating.  Not inspiring.  Not thought-provoking.

But what really got to me was that the teacher read Chapter 7 - and only Chapter 7 - to the kids.  Really?  Chapter 7?!?  Why not Chapter 1?  Why not the whole book in fact?  This curriculum seems like a step backwards to the days (my days) of what were called basal readers - boring collections of stories and excerpts, rather than actual books.  No one learns to love reading by reading from a basal reader.

What do you think about this type of reading curriculum?  What type does your school or your child's school use?

I Love Hannah!

I love Hannah!  Hannah Diamond that is, the protagonist of Mindy Warshaw Skolsky's lovely, overlooked books set during the Great Depression.  Unlike most books I've read set during this time, these take place not in an urban setting but in a suburb of New York, in Nyack.  I read the books out of order and, in my opinion, started with the best one.  In Love From Your Friend, Hannah, the story is told entirely in letters that Hannah writes and receives.  Her correspondents include a boy in the Midwest whose life is very different from hers, an old friend who moved away, her grandmother, and even President and Mrs. Roosevelt!  Hannah's relationship with her grandmother is especially loving and it is fun to read about Hannah's experiences living behind the diner her parents own.

Having fallen in love with this articulate heroine, I went back to read the other books.  The first two, The Whistling Teakettle and Other Stories About Hannah and Carnival and Kopeck and More About Hannah, are written more simply and are not as engaging.  Both take place before her parents buy the restaurant featured in the later books.  Welcome to the Grand View, Hannah! (also published as Hannah Is A Palindrome) and You're the Best, Hannah! (also published as Hannah and the Best Father on Route 9W) are thoroughly enjoyable.  Hannah's problems and joys are timeless.

Hannah is an only child and her independence and her ability to be alone are striking.  She climbs up a nearby mountain, where she has a special, secret place that she goes to be alone and to think.

My daughter refused to read the first book because she claimed she did not like books that were "all letters."  (This was a good opportunity to teach her the phrase "epistolary novel"!)  However, having read and loved Welcome to the Grand View, Hannah! and You're the Best, Hannah!, I'm hoping she will be persuaded to set aside that prejudice.  (Interestingly, she does not like books told in diary format either, despite their huge popularity these days.)

Some of these books are out of print and even hard to find at the library, but they are worth searching for!

Do you or your children like epistolary and/or diary novels?

Library Round-up #11, Part 2: Chapter Books

Mini-reviews of the middle-grade chapter books we currently have out from the library.
 

Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park.  This book, about a Korean-American girl and her male friend who decide to enter a project about growing silkworms in the state fair, is really about much more.  MUCH more.  It's about racism (particularly mistrust and misunderstandings between Asians and blacks), ethnic identity and assimilation, what it means to be an American, sustainable farming, and novel-writing itself.  The chapters are interspersed with transcripts of "conversations" between the author and her protagonist.  My daughter gave this one 5 stars and I do too!  Also a fun book for those of us who are always on the hunt for books mentioned in other books.  The author actually lists the books mentioned in the text at the end, with the page numbers they are mentioned on, a great bonus since one of the books is identified only by a character in it, not the title, in the text.

Breathing Room by Marsha Hayles.  A historical novel set in a tuberculosis sanatorium in Minnesota in 1940.  The protagonist Evvy struggles to deal with the imposed isolation and rest (at the beginning she is not even allowed to sit up, read, or talk!!), her homesickness (and especially how she misses her twin brother and her father), the deaths of fellow patients, her own mortality, her difficult relationship with her mother, her friendship with the first Jew she has ever met, and the news out of Europe.  The historical note at the end about tuberculosis and the history of its treatment in the U.S. is very informative.  As a bonus, this book also mentions another book; Evvy receives Poems for Every Mood, compiled by Harriet Moore, as a Christmas present from her mother.  A fast-paced absorbing read about a topic most of us know little about.

Fun fact: the authors of Project Mulberry and Breathing Room are writing-critque partners.  (I know this since I always read the WHOLE book - foreword, acknowledgements, and all!)

The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyle.  This book has an intriguing premise: Barnaby Brocket is born without being affected by gravity.  That is, he floats.  His parents, who only want to be normal and avoid all attention (in rebellion against their own parents, who were attention-seeking), "accidentally" let him float away at age 8.  As we follow Barnaby on adventures around (and out of) the world, he - and we - encounter a series of characters, all who have been rejected by their parents for being different from them, from a pair of lesbians (the subject is treated obliquely and I'm not sure my daughter fully understood their relationship), to an artist whose father wanted him to join the family business. I read this book aloud to my 8-year old and the idea that parents might not love their children unconditionally shocked her.  While I thought the treatment of the subject was heavy-handed, with too many examples, she liked it and said "But that's the whole point of the book."  Again, I think I expect too much subtlety than is appropriate for the intended audience.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson.  I only discovered this classic when it's author died and it was mentioned in her obituaries.  The poor, wild. ignorant Herdman children bring an unintended touch of authenticity to this reenactment of the Christmas story by having the Wise Men bring Mary and Joseph a ham, and having Mary burping the baby Jesus.  Robinson manages to be funny and touching at the same time, not an easy combination to pull off.  I'm looking forward to reading The Best School Year Ever by the same author.

Family Tree #1: Better to Wish by Ann M. Martin.  The first in a series of books following a family through the generations, this one focuses on Abby, who is 8 years old in 1930, during the depths of The Great Depression.  A nice but ultimately forgettable historical novel.

Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee.  This story of an intellectually gifted but socially awkward 11-year-old who tries to change who she is to make friends but in the end finds it is best to be true to herself was a mildly entertaining but predictable read.

Have you or your children read any of these?  What did you think?  What middle-grade fiction have you been reading lately?