Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

All across the country, this entire year, the weather has been unpredictable and difficult. But at least we haven't had to deal with storms of hamburgers, pea soup fog, and tomato tornados, like the folks in the little town of Chewandswallow. Thirty years ago, Ron Barrett's goofy illustrations lit up Judi Barrett's story of a place where "Everything that everyone ate came from the sky."

I have it on good report that four year old boys consider this book "hilarious".

SAQ #3 Where are the "deals" on used kid's books?

From cheapest to not so cheap:

1. Garage sales. (But who has time to wander around burning up gas?)
2. Public library periodic sales. (Semi-annually or monthly at most libraries)
3. Thrift stores. (Independent, like Treasures Two in Shelton WA)
4. Goodwill.
5. Discount retailers. (Like Half Price Books; they usually keep a close-out cart just for kid's books)
6. Used book stores.

We'll focus on Internet sources in another post.

Where have you found good deals on kid's books?

Queen of Hearts

I wish I could have sat and had a cup of coffee with Vera Cleaver. (She died in 1992.) I'd like to see how a woman who so obviously loved WORDS used them in conversation. She seems to me to be an example of the "greatest strength is also greatest weakness" principle; a stunningly crafted phrase will be followed a few lines later with a sentence so awkward that you have to read it twice. But the payoff is more than worth the effort.
Cleaver and her husband Bill are best known for the multiple award-winning Where the Lilies Bloom (1969).
Queen of Hearts finds "twelve-year-old Wilma being chosen as her willful and peppery grandmother's choice for a (live-in) companion." I won't forget Wilma Omalie Lincoln and what she learned about getting old and about growing up.
We all need to bury our plastic six-shooters at some point.
Quality = 4 out of 5; Acceptability = 4 out of 5.

Chronicles of Narnia "reloaded"

"The Narnia Chronicles are worth reading over and over by every child and in every family. They are profoundly good books on every level--theme, plot, characters, action, language."
Gladys Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart. p. 31

Do you agree?

SAQ #2 Do you post comments on every kid's book you read?

No.

Series Books....Part 2

"Series books" have been controversial from the beginning. But before going on, we need to clarify what we mean by the term. Anita Silvey offers a helpful distinction--"Perhaps the books should be termed "formula series" to distinguish them from literary works that also follow a continuing character through several volumes. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series and Beverly Cleary's Ramona books have three-dimensional characterizations, thought-provoking themes, and high-quality writing that sets them far above the series label. [This kind of] literary series is guided by an artistic vision, while the formula series seems to be driven by commercial considerations. Quantity, rather than quality, is the key for most formula series." Anita Silvey, The Essential Guide to Children's Books and their Creators. p. 407
To the worthy "literary" series list, we would add Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising (all fantasy).
What series would you add to this list?

What about "series books"? Part 1

A lot of readers don't know that many, if not most, series have been written by a stable of hack writers who crank out the formulas handed to them. (Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and others). This hundred year old pattern raises a number of issues.
"Creative writing of any kind must come naturally from well-springs within the author and it is improbable that any deliberately created collection of stories, uniform in length and treatment, but by a variety of authors, will produce writing of the first class. It may, and often does, produce adequate writing, in a recognizable set of books on which parents and other present-givers can rely if they are incapable of selecting for themselves, or unwilling to make the effort. But it rarely produces the best..." Frank Eyre, British Children's Books in the Twentieth Century, p. 73.

Amos & Boris & .....Scot

Amos is William Steig's mouse who loves to sail; Boris is a whale with a great sense of timing; and Scot, well, Scot is our Second Grade teacher. He decided to read this "faintly Aesopian tale" (who writes these reviews?) right up to the resolution, and then have his students write their own conclusions (before they heard Steig's). How about this for a seven year old--
"Amos thot and thot. then a ideaya came to him so he walked down the roed. he whent to a man's hous. when the man soa him he chased him down to wher Borus wus. the man got the hole town to the Beach. And thay helped Borus into the water. The man looked at Amos. "you did a good dead today my little frend. then Amus whent happly home and so did Borus the end."
The New York Times Book Review described this multiple award-winning story as "pellucid and profound." Pellucid? An unclear word that means "clear in meaning or expression". I prefer "full of wonder, full of enterprise, and full of love for life."
As Boris would say, "Holy clams and cuttlefish!"

Park's Quest

March 27, 2008-My first visit to the Washington, D. C. area includes an early morning stop at the Vietnam Memorial. As a (non-combat) Vietnam era vet, I was a little unsure of how it would go for me.
April 15, 2008- Reading Katherine Paterson's Park's Quest helps me humanize the shiny marble endless list of names; remember the men I knew who didn't return; and empathize again with my friends who came back alive, but have never been the same.
Although written at a sixth grade vocabulary level, this is definitely Young Adult material, with a few crude phrases and themes not for the under 15 crowd.
Gary Schmidt thinks Paterson (Bridge to Terebithia, etc.) is the most important writer for young people in the 20th century. What do you think?

Rembrandt's Hat

When you read this story aloud (and please do), be sure to give the little bear a low-key Eyore sound. This is a fairly recent picture book that will probably be around for a long time. Our sixth graders enjoy it as much as our six year olds. Rembrandt loses his hat, which results in "a frustrating predicament, especially as a bossy bird, a bored cat, and an outspoken rabbit decide to help."
I don't know who first thought of cataloging Picture Books as "E" for Everybody; Rembrandt's Hat is one of those precious few that is.

The Silver Swan

What do you get when an acclaimed British writer of Young Adult novels, namely Michael Morpurgo, teams up with a talented illustrator to produce a Picture Book, namely The Silver Swan? You get an intelligent, sensitive story of life and death in the natural world that will even hold the attention of a class of sixth-graders. Christian Birmingham's moody paintings contribute to the text.
We parents and teachers are missing a good thing in not reading more Picture Books with our older children. The Silver Swan proves why.