Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

It’s really time I took a blog break for the holidays, but here’s a post which I’m slidin’ in right before all the gift-giving begins. These are the types of books I don’t normally review here at 7-Imp: They’re all what are labelled “novelty,” I suppose, in one way or another. But I thought I’d go ahead and cover them here for anyone who might be looking for last-minute gift ideas. These are Books Plus Some, the “plus” being pop-up features, fold-out pages, 3-D surprises, parts to assemble, some dragons, some ocean liners, even a tutu. Without further ado . . .

This would simply be a stinkin’ cool gift for someone. How’s that for professional-sounding? This is Dr. Ernest Drake’s (bah-dum-ching) purported scientific study of/field guide to dragons, including an introduction to dragon-spotting, the migration and habitats of the creatures, equipment and fieldwork notes, notes on dragon evolution and extinct dragons, and then sixteen pages of classified dragon species — from the European Dragon (Draco occidentalist magnus) to the Tasmanian Dragon (Draco semifascia). Lastly, there are four pages of an admittedly non-exhaustive list of Pseudo-Dragons (“{t}he keen field dragonologist may, if he or she is lucky and observant, come across various creatures that appear to be related to dragons but that are, in point of fact, not dragons”). The book itself includes pages designed to look fading, antiquated, yellowing — with details such as water drops and cup stains on the pages. The pages in the classification section also include little fold-up flaps on the bottom of each page, providing information about the egg of each species. And, best of all, there are the pieces to twelve dragon models included in little pockets all inside the book. And they’re not difficult to assemble. Recommended for your budding fantasy-lover who especially loves to construct models. More information can be found here at the Ology World site, complete with the nameless British librarian.

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Wait. Pssst. Before I get to these two short announcements . . . Did anyone else see yesterday that I am not the lucky winner of a Cow or Pig original painting by Jarrett J. Krosoczka in the Punk Farm Raffle? Bummer. But I’m happy for those who won, who seem to practically ALL LIVE IN THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS. HEY, UNFAIR! For serious, I’m happy for them, and all the money goes to two good causes. Apparently, the most tickets were bought for Cow and Pig (Pig was one I went after, since my almost-four-year-old daughter likes to walk around doing the RAY ROO and RAY REE that is Pig’s guitar-wailin’, so I guess the odds were stacked against me there). And, as it turns out, Cow is everyone’s very favorite; a whole slew, to be precise, of tickets were bought for her painting. It’s always cool to see such reverence for female drummers. BOOM CRASH. And, even though I didn’t win, it was worth it to watch the raffle of me losing, all for Jarrett’s cheesy game-show finger gun and wink at the close of his video.

The December Carnival of Children’s Literature is up at Big A, little a. Kelly Herold did a fine, fine job with it. The carnival this month is about biblio-gift-giving. Enjoy!

Also, Chronicle Books has announced two contests if you’re interested in trying to win some free books — or, bonus!, an author visit — for yourself or your classroom:

First is the Taro Gomi Squiggles & Doodles Creativity Contest. Here’s a bit of info on this contest: “Five Grand Prize Winners will be awarded a deluxe set of art materials, a limited edition print autographed by Taro Gomi, the Taro Gomi creativity collection of books from Chronicle Books, including Squiggles, Doodle All Year, and the phenomenally best-selling Doodles and Scribbles . . .” I’ve received a copy of Squiggles, and it’s pretty kickin’, very reminiscent of The Anti-Coloring Books of my childhood, as I mentioned previously at 7-Imp. Anyway, you or your child has to enter the contest if you wanna win, so go read all about it here.

The second contest is the Ivy & Bean Friendship Contest for elementary teachers and their classrooms in which you can win a school visit from author Annie Barrows (the Runner-Up will receive a classroom set of autographed books). Here’s the info. Very cool, especially for more financially-strapped schools.

Now, if you’re so inclined, go and try to win some free stuff for you or your child or your classroom or another random child who might be starving for some good-quality literature — and stuff to scribble and squiggle and doodle in, to boot.

Need some gift-giving ideas for the children and teens in your life? Well, you just know that you want to give them some poetry anthologies. And you need some advice on that, you say? Well, fret no more. We have another feature up at the Poetry Foundation, this one all about poetry anthology gift recommendations — ranging from audio collections to classics to contemporary anthologies — chosen from the Essential Children’s Collection at the Poetry Foundation’s site. Enjoy!

Eisha and I are pleased as punch to say that we’ll be interviewing Kimberly Willis Holt next week. I believe she’s on one of those so-called, new-fangled blog tours, meaning you’ll see her stop at a few other places, too, but we’re just happy she’ll be stopping here at all. We will take any reason to chat with her, as we’re both quite fond of her writing.

So, that interview will be next Wednesday, December 19th, and in anticipation and celebration of it, we (well, really Henry Holt and Kimberly Willis Holt) are giving away a copy of Piper Reed: Navy Brat, her newest title, which also happens to be a chapter book and which I also happened to review here, should you want more information on it. Best of all, Kimberly will be autographing this free copy of Piper Reed. Wahoo! If you’re interested in winning a copy, just leave a comment here. I suppose I can put all the names in a hat and convince my three-year-old daughter to draw a name from said hat when the day’s done. How does that sound?

Don’t forget today’s interview — just below this post — with the one and only Tasha Saecker of Kids Lit.

So, I have a love/hate relationship with the holidays. On the one hand, I loathe and absolutely dread the materialism, the sugary-sweet Christmas ditties that play well before Thanksgiving arrives, and the ads. Oh the commercials! I think each year that I will become numb to them, but I don’t. Everyone likes to talk up the Grinch’s epiphany — “‘Maybe Christmas,’ he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means a little bit more!'” (or, as it might appear in Latin, “Fortasse,” inquit “Laetitia diei festi ex ipsis muneribus non proficiscitur…Fortasse,” inquit Grinchus, “Laetitia diei festi non est res empticia, non est res quaestuosa!” Now, wasn’t that fun?) — but then we have things like this commercial from last year. Remember this?

I get (though it’s a stretch) that some people like her voice and all, but I don’t get why this family isn’t screaming, get the creepy Celine out of our living room floor! It’s 3 a.m., for *$#*!’s sake! This ad plays like a horror movie in my world.

But then, on the other hand, I love trimming the tree with my girls; hearing a really kickin’ Christmas song (that is not sung by the sinister, barely-clad, perfume-spraying, living-room-usurping Celine); baking cookies with my family; finding just the right, perfectly special gift (that is not Celine Dion’s new fragrance) for the people you love; and I have to see “It’s A Wonderful Life” every year. Must. I know, I know. There’s this gem and this gem. And many others. But I have to see the moon-lasso bit (“What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You-you want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey, that’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon…Well, then you could swallow it. And it’ll all dissolve, see. And the moon beams that shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair…Am I talking too much?”). And when Harry comes back to town and says, “to my big brother George: the richest man in town,” well . . . it gets me every time. Blast it! Now, when Zuzu chimes in with “Look, daddy! Teacher says, every time a bell rings, an Angel gets his wings,” it’s a bit much for me, but the richest-man-in-town bit I gotta have. Oh, and every year I have to just, ahem, excuse that “she’s an old maid, and she’s a librarian!” bit {dramatic score follows} when George is looking into the future at the poor, poor Mary. Ah well. No movie is perfect. (Mary, the poor spinster librarian, is pictured above).

See how I’m torn on the holidays?

I also love a challenge. That would be why this year — again (I made a half-hearted attempt last year) — I will be rounding up some new holiday titles. And here’s where I need your help: Read the rest of this entry �

In case you missed this on Sunday, where we first mentioned it, the Poetry Foundation feature Eisha and I wrote has been posted. To read it, go here and click on “Lunchbox Poems.” We got a huge kick out of writing for the Poetry Foundation, and we hope you enjoy reading it, if you’re so inclined to do so.

I’m posting that particular lunchbox image just for Eisha, who I’m pretty sure was a Monkees fan as a wee one.

Eisha and I want to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. I posted these words last year, but I’m sorry, they’re the most kickin’, most supreme thanksgiving words there could ever be. Maybe I’ll just post them every year, for that reason. These are the words of Thoreau, writing to H.G.O. Blake, once a Unitarian minister, in December of 1856:

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite — only a sense of existence. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.

If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance, like flowers and sweet-scented herbs — is more elastic, starry, and immortal — that is your success.”

Now go and eat — like Harold — nine kinds of pie that you like best.

Just a quick post (that is probably shorter than this massive image, but isn’t it purty?) to say that Cybils nominations close at midnight Chicago time on Wednesday, November 21. Yes, that is today, friends. So, if you haven’t already nominated your favorite title from this year in every category, go do so!

We will each soon have our final lists of books-nominated in our respective categories — Eisha, Nonfiction Picture Books; Jules, Fiction Picture Books — and we’ll try to share them with you later. Keep checking the Cybils blog, too, where nominations in every category will be posted soon after nominations close.

That’s it for now. Until later . . .

No 7-Imp interviews today in the Winter Blog Blast Tour, but below are the other interviews lined up for today. We’ll be back tomorrow with our interview with the. one. the. only. Jack Gantos.

Before that, though, we want to quickly say (and hope she doesn’t hate us for announcing it loudly here):

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COLLEEN, BLOG-BLAST-TOUR-ORGANIZER-EXTRAORDINAIRE!

• Lisa Ann Sandell at Interactive Reader
• Christopher Barzak at Chasing Ray
• Julie Halpern at The Ya Ya Yas
• Micol Ostow at Shaken & Stirred
• Rick Yancey at Hip Writer Mama
• Jane Yolen at A Fuse #8 Production
• Shannon Hale at Bookshelves of Doom
• Maureen Johnson at Bildungsroman
• David Lubar at Writing & Ruminating
• Sherman Alexie at Finding Wonderland

Some of you may have read about this already at A Fuse #8 Production this week, but we’re going to post the same content, as passed on to us from author Rose Kent. Here is an announcement about November being National Adoption Month, in the words of Ms. Kent:

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Jules: Happy Halloween! I am starting this post, to which Eisha plans to add some comments. And let me tell you that when she sees this image, she just might kill me. It’s taking a great deal of courage for me to post it to begin with.

That’s an image from the Bell Witch legend, a story, according to that link, which is “America’s Greatest Ghost Story.” Or so says Dr. Nandor Fodor, a researcher and psychologist. Or, if you grew up in middle Tennessee, it’s the “One Story That Will Scare the Holy Utter Crap Out of You for the Rest of Your Life,” or so say bloggers Jules and Eisha. The image you see there (in the public domain) is an artist’s sketch of Betsy Bell. Perhaps the most widely-used “Bell Witch” photo in existence, it was created in 1893. (The printing plates were made by Sanders Engraving Company out of St. Louis, MO and were used for M.V. Ingram’s 1894 book, An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch).

And as for the book cover image below and what it has to do with the Bell Witch, well, I’ll get to that in a moment.

If you saw the movie “American Haunting” last year, you may know the basic story of the Bell Witch. Author and historian Pat Fitzhugh will tell you everything you need to know about the legend at this site (and, specifically, on this page). Here’s the basic summary, as found on this informative Wikipedia page: “The Bell Witch is a ghost story from American Southern Folklore. The legend of the Bell Witch, also called the Bell Witch Haunting, revolves around strange events allegedly experienced by the Bell family of Adams, Tennessee, in 1817–1821.” And this might help (from this site), which will tell you a bit more:

“The spirit identified itself as the ‘witch’ of Kate Batts, a neighbors of the Bell’s, with whom John had experienced bad business dealings over some purchased slaves. ‘Kate’ as the local people began calling her, made daily appearances in the Bell home, wreaking havoc on everyone there. People all over the area of soon learned of the witch and she made appearances, in sounds and voices, all over Robertson County.

The ghost became so famous that even General Andrew Jackson decided to visit. He too experienced the antics of the witch and his carriage wheels refused to turn until the witch decided to let them.” Read the rest of this entry �