Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Have you seen Anne Isaac’s Pancakes for Supper!, illustrated beautifully by Mark Teague? Aw, you need to. Isaacs, writing with great poise, is re-envisioning Helen Bannerman’s Story of Little Black Sambo but sets the story in New England. In an author’s note of sorts, we are told, “Isaacs blends elements from American storytelling traditions and Bannerman’s tale, while introducing animals indigenous to North America . . .” And, as the School Library Journal review put it well, it’s a “clever, respectful take on an iconic tale.” Read the rest of this entry »

Happy Children’s Book Week 2006! Yes, it continues ’til the 19th — that is, tomorrow — and we here at Team 7ITBB (as Eisha and my husband, who serves as our tech support, call ourselves when we have our cyber-water-cooler-team-huddles) haven’t missed it yet. It’s never to be forgotten, my friends, and it’s my personal favorite week of the year, book-wise and library-wise (sorry to Banned Books Week and Teen Read Week). Click on the logo to the left to visit the savagely cool Children’s Book Council (who really want to hire me as a Telecommuter Who Will Do Whatever They Ask; they just don’t know it yet) to celebrate. And, in honor of Children’s Book Week, let’s get right back to the huge stack of picture books I want to tell you about. More to come, but here are a handful for now . . .

*{Note: Visit Chicken Spaghetti for this week’s Poetry Friday round-up} . . .

For this Poetry Friday, I’ll briefly mention three new children’s poetry anthologies that are out, but I want to begin with Tony DiTerlizzi’s handsome new picture book, G is for One Gzonk!: An Alpha-number-bet Book, written in rhyming text as a tribute to the nonsensical rhymes of Dr. Seuss and Edward Lear. We meet DiTerlizzi’s alter ego, Tiny DiTerlooney, our young author/illustrator of this book, who tells us to “{s}ay goodbye to boring books/ where ‘bears can bounce a ball’/ and turn the page/ I’ve set the stage/ and nothing makes sense at all,” as he creates his “masterpiece” of an alphabet book. Yes, this is for all of you who have read so many alphabet books that you find yourself immediately wondering what the author could possibly come up with for letters “X” and “Z,” assuming it will be “xylophone” and “zebra” or “zoo.”

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If anyone was paying attention to my most recent post, I kind of left you hanging with the bold statement that I’d just read the best book I’ve read all year. Here it is — Sold by Patricia McCormick. This is the most powerful and emotionally compelling book I’ve read in a long time. And I’m not alone in my admiration for this book knowing no bounds. This one is a National Book Award Finalist.

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I am trying to do better about reading children’s lit in certain age ranges; I usually go to town on my picture books and YA titles, the two ends of the continuum. But — for whatever reason — I don’t read as many beginning readers and chapter books, in particular. So, I’ve been doing some reading lately in each age category (I don’t think I missed any, though — technically — board books aren’t represented here) and figured I’d do a post featuring one title for each one (my YA category, though, features two stellar titles I just finished). So, let’s get to it — children’s literature across the board, from picture books to the two best YA titles I’ve read this year.

Here’s a little gem for you: Hippo! No, Rhino by Jeff Newman, nominated for a Cybil Award in the Fiction Picture Books category. This is a sly, clever, hip, little slip of a book; it’s mostly wordless; and it’s got the look of a picture book that might have been the shizizzle when I was a toddler (in the ’80s — okay, um, the ’70s). Enter the zoo with a baffled zookeeper who doesn’t quite know his animals (and looks not unlike Cheech or Chong) Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, remember when Wired asked all those authors to come up with six-word stories?  (I heard about it through Fuse #8.)  Well, the other day I stumbled across a blog called Fussy, totally by accident.  And this blog’s author does five-word book reviews.  A-ha, I thought.  Brilliant!  That is something I can do, even with another paper due.  And it’s a great way to tell you speedy-quick about some of the new picture books I just got in at work last week.  But, this being 7ITBB, I have to give it a Seven-Impossible-style twist.  So, I bring you (drumroll, please):

The Seven Word Book Review! ™

Black? White! Day? Night! by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. 

Giant lift-the-flap* design makes familiar concept cool.

* Compound words joined with hyphens still only count as one word.  ‘Cause I said so.

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Whew. It’s been a while since I’ve posted about an adult title, since I’ve been doing my duty and reading picture book after picture book for the Cybils committee on which I serve. But what a rich title to return to after my little hiatus. Charles Frazier is back after a literary absence just short of ten years (his breathtaking and National Book Award-winning Cold Mountain — for which I have a great fondness, since it’s a nearly perfect and lyrically-written odyssey and since I lifted my daughter’s beautiful name from this grand, lovely piece of writing — was published in ’97). I dare say it’s been more than thirteen moons since we’ve heard from him; and thank goodness he’s returned, because he’s one of our finest contemporary American authors with a distinctive voice and capable of such evocative, unforgettable prose (according to this link at Wikipedia, Frazier was offered an eight million dollar advance for Thirteen Moons, all based on the success of Cold Mountain. Could it be true? Who knows, but if it is true . . . wow). Read the rest of this entry »

*{Note: Visit Journey Woman for this week’s Poetry Friday round-up} . . .

Howdy, strangers.  I know, it’s been a while.  As Julie mentioned, I’ve been kinda busy with school lately, and haven’t been posting nearly as often as I’d like to.  But thanks to Mistress Cybil, I’ve definitely been reading a LOT of excellent poetry for children.  I thought I’d use my share of the Poetry Fridays to highlight some of the nominees that I’ve been especially tickled about.  For example:

Hey There, Stink Bug!  by Leslie Bulion, illustrated by Leslie Evans.  This book is a complete package – excellent linoleum block-and-watercolor illustrations (love them, LOVE THEM!!!); clever, fun, and largely read-out-loud-able poetry; and fascinating facts about insects sure to please the budding entomologist, or anyone who likes trivia of the gross-out variety.  For example, did you know that aphids reproduce asexually, and already have new live aphids developing inside them when they’re born?!?  And that skipper caterpillars can “force-fire” their own poop over three feet away?!?  Dude… that’s just nasty.

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{I must quickly note — though unrelated to literature and related only to our site’s format — that we are finally ad-free! Woo hoo! Thanks, Blaine!} . . .

Get me. I recently admitted that I don’t read enough non-fiction, but here is a post about a couple more noteworthy non-fiction picture book titles I’ve experienced. Three in one week. Don’t pass out on me. (And I think I’ll throw in a few more in the way of poetry — technically, non-fiction, too, though I usually don’t have a problem getting my poetry).

This title you see on the left here is not only a good book, but the author, Patsi B. Trollinger, grew up in Tennessee (I was even told she’s a native of Sullivan County, not terribly far from where Eisha and I both used to live, in gorgeous East Tennessee). Trollinger’s Perfect Timing: How Isaac Murphy Became One of the World’s Greatest Jockeys — published in September of this year — became a reality after her interest was piqued when she saw a brief, six-line story about him in a local newspaper (she now lives in Kentucky), according to her web site.

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Mwahahahahaha. Eisha says I’m a Temptress/Bad Influence. She has a paper due very soon, but I convinced her to co-post with me on some of our favorite picture books of the year. What are friends for, if not to help you procrastinate?

In the many years we’ve been friends, there have actually been some books upon which Eisha and I have not agreed; in other words, she’s recommended one to me that I didn’t care for, and vice versa. But it doesn’t happen often. We have quite similar taste in books. So, it’s not a surprise to me that our favorite-picture-books-of-the-year-thus-far lists are similar. We’re going to say a bit about each one here. And I’d like to add that we are not superhuman librarians (well, I’ll speak for myself; Eisha did meet Jarrett J. Krosockza and told him he rocks!) who have read each and every picture book published in ’06, and the Paradigm of All Picture Books could be published right as we’re ringin’ in the new year, for all we know. But, for what it’s worth, we are huge picture book fans and pretty much read them like there’s no tomorrow.

Wolves by Emily Gravett —

Jules: Some wonderful things have been said about this book (published in ’05 but not until ’06 here in the U.S.) on some wonderful blogs that we often frequent Read the rest of this entry »