you could win a copy of Cybermage....third of the Worldweavers books

A book I read with great enjoyment for the Cyblis was the second of Alma Alexander's Worldweaver's trilogy, Spellspam. Although I wished I had read the first one before diving into Spellspam, I enjoyed it very much (after I had figured out who was who). It was a very entertaining mingling of computers and magic, not too childish for older readers and not too adultish for younger ones, and just as soon as I get my tbr pile down to bare wood, I hope to go back and read the first book, Gift of the Unmage.


Today I have entered to win the third book, Cybermage (which has just come out) at a new to me blog that I have just added to my fantasy blog list--Fantasy and Sci-Fi Lovin' Blog! You can enter too, by March 4.

misc. things

Sibylle, at In Training for A Heroine, has given me the Premio Dardos Award! I am tickled. Thanks! I will think about who to pass it on to that might not have gotten it already.

Re Kindle. I dunno if I will ever get one. Or want one. But I do know that I am so tired, just tired, of thinking about rabbits mating whenever I read the word. Remember? Watership Down? "Oh Hazel, Clover is getting ready to Kindle!" Does anyone else have this problem? Now that I am thinking more about it, I've decided I hate the word in general. It has a twee patronizing sound to it.

Re library book sales. I wish that someone else existed who would make sure the starting time on the flyer I mailed out was the same as the time that it said on line and in the library newsletter. It almost never is. I hate that part of the job.

Re the Zoning Board. We got a card in the mail telling us that the zoning board had sent us a certified letter. I immediately assumed it was a Warning about our Illegal Chickens (we aren't zoned for chickens, but the eggs sure come in handy in these Difficult Economic Times. They only owe us $22 in Costs at this point, so only 110 more eggs before they are out of debt). It took five days before the letter was actually in my hands, and of course, it was a non-issue seven houses down the street. Our chickens are safe. They had better stay safe until they produce those 110 eggs.

Pride and Predator (without the Prejudice)

Elizabeth Bennett is going to be facing a new challenge in this forthcoming movie.

"It felt like a fresh and funny way to blow apart the done-to-death Jane Austen genre by literally dropping this alien into the middle of a costume drama, where he stalks and slashes to horrific effect," Furnish told Variety.

Read more here at the Guardian.

Why not unicorns? Lydia could be gored.

My new fantasy/science fiction blogroll

I have just added a mini-blogroll of other places to find lots of middle-grade and young adult science fiction and fantasy. I am certain I have missed many fine blogs, and would love suggestions...

More fun with the Doofuzz Dudes! (and a chance to win a copy of their first adventure)

Last June I wrote about the Doofuzz Dudes, the heroes of a fantasy adventure series by Australian writer Roslyn J. Motter. These books are great for elementary school age readers--my own eight-year old loves these books, as do many of his friends. He was very happy that two more have since came our way! The Cobra Curse and Space Spiders continue the wild fun, as Toby and his friends revisit the magical land of Moondar and its neighboring realms, travel back in time, and head out into space! For more information about the Dudes, here's their website.

















So in order to share my son's pleasure in these books with another young reader, I'm giving away a signed copy of the first book-The Doofuzz Dudes Rescue Moondar! Please leave a comment by midnight, Saturday, February 21st to win! Open to all, regardless of location--Roslyn Motter has been incredibly generous in sending us multiple copies to share with my son's class and our library, so I'm happy to pass it on!

Is 12 sisters too many? Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George

It seems to me that there are two types of fairy tale novelization. On the one hand are the Re-Tellings, that stick so closely to the original that the familiarity of the story is a large part of what engages the reader. A classic example would be Robin McKinley's Beauty, her first stab at the story of Beauty and the Beast. Yes, it's fleshed out, but its plot is identical to its parent story. On the other hand are the Re-Imaginings, where the original story serves as catalyst and backbone for something wholly new, such as Elizabeth Bunce's Curse Dark as Gold, Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels, and Juliet Marillier's Wildwood Dancing. Like all generalities, these two categories don't hold every fairy tale novelization neatly, but I think it's a handy little heuristic device.

Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George (Bloomsbury, 2009), is a lovely example of the former category, following the traditional version of the story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses with hardly a wobble. George tells the story with verve and grace, adding enough to the background to make a satisfying context for the princesses and the soldier home from war without overwhelming them.

I would have just loved this book to pieces had I read it when I was twelve. And even my more jaded self thrilled to the bits of the story I knew--the soldier's meeting with old woman and the gift of the cloak of invisibility, the three nights he visits the underworld and the souvenirs he brings back, his weight making the boats he rides in heavy. Not to mention all the twelve sets of worn-out dancing shoes. I think the book is a success as a re-telling--it was a very pleasant read, one I'm happy to recommend-- but it doesn't have quite the power that one finds in the best re-imaginings.

Part of being a faithful re-telling is that you can't start axing characters to suite your story. It is a tricky thing, though, to take on so many sisters--only five of the twelve came alive for me. Perhaps twelve princesses is just too many.

I was reminded of a criticism that Noel Streatfeild got from John Galsworthy, regarding her second book, Parson's Nine (about the nine children of a parson). He said:

"...that she had managed something difficult to achieve in that book because all nine children came alive with the exception of the youngest--Manasses. That she must always remember that no character must come into a book unless he or she could stand on their own two feet, otherwise they were creatures of cardboard. (pp 50-51 of Beyond the Vicarage, the third book of Streatfeild's autobiography, 1972).

I myself can't remember little Manasses at all.

And now I am thinking about how many sisters a book can support. Three is easy peasy (Streatfeild's own Ballet Shoes). Four is no problem--(Little Women, The Exiles, by Hilary McKay, The Penderwicks, by Jeanne Birdsall). Five can be tricky. Even Jane Austen failed a bit with Mary, in Pride and Prejudice, making her, in my mind, too much a caricature. In Wildwood Dancing, mentioned above, the number of "princesses" is cut to five, which made the book stronger. Moving up in numbers, there's a rather obscure school story called Seven Sisters at Queen Anne's, by Evelyn Smith, that I think does rather a nice job with them all, although it's been a while since I read it. Brothers, being found more often in books for boys, I am less conversant with. The only book I read recently with lots of brothers is Zoe Marriott's Swan Kingdom, but since they turn into swans fairly early on and fly off stage, they are not a problem character-wise.

Speaking of brothers, there are twelve of those (one for each girl, of course) in Princess of the Midnight Ball. A few have names, and thus identities, but none have character, which I thought was a bit of a missed opportunity. Oh well, the last thing any of the good guys wanted was for them to come alive...but if George ever wanted to revisit this particular world (and I would like her too--it was interesting and engaging) it might be kind of neat if one of the blokes from the underworld were to take on a larger role. I want to know more about them!

small note: although this is more a YA book than not (primarily because the main characters are not children), there is nothing that will make the modest reader blush...

I have just had a nice time finding other reivews, which I had been carefully avoiding while thinking about mine: Becky's Book Reviews, Deliciously Clean Reads, Estellas Revenge, Presenting Lenore, The Magic of Ink, and Wands and Worlds.

Please, miss, may I have some more of that romance?

In honor of Valentine's Day, here is a story of thwarted romantic reading. It's about one of those books where the romance creeps up on little cat feet, until with a sizzle the sparks start flying and the reader is overcome with gleefulness...for about two paragraphs. And that's it.

Here, taken from page 218 of The Cygnet and the Firebird, by Patricia McKillip (1993), is the fictional romance that frustrates me most, because I can't stand that there isn't any more of it. The first speaker is a prince caught by an enchantment that transforms him each day into a firebird. The second speaker is the heir to her own holding, a young woman with the most insatiably curious mind for magic of any heroine I know, who is determined to break the spell.

"You used to look like a mage."

"What does a mage look like?"

"Like a closed book full of strange and marvellous things. Like the closed door to a room full of peculiar noises, lights that seep out under the door. Like a beautiful jar made of thick, colored glass that holds something glowing inside that you can't quite see, no matter how you turn the jar."

"And now?" she whispered. He came close; the light at their feet cast hollows of shadow across his eyes, drew the precise lines of his mouth clear.

"Now," he said softly, "you aren't closed. You're letting me see."

He slid his hand beneath her hair, around her neck. She watched light tremble in a drop of water near the corner of his mouth. He bent his head. The light leaped from star to star across his face, and then vanished. She closed her eyes and he was gone..."

Oh, I was so hopeful when this book, and its prequel (The Sorceress and the Cygnet), were recently republished as one volume (entitled Cygnet). It must, I told myself, mean that a third book is coming out, and they will actually get their kiss....but no joy yet.

Anyone else have a favorite frustrating fictional romance?

Cybilian Winners!!!!!

The winners of the 2008 Cybils Awards have been announced!

In my own dear category of Science Fiction/Fantasy, we have:

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman! (for middle grade):

And

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins! (for young adult):


Congratulations!

There are, of course, winners in several other categories, all very fine books indeed!

Wanting and Fearing books...

During my happy reading childhood, it became clear to me that I was lucky not to have been born 100 years earlier. I remember my horror at how thrilled Laura was to get her one book as a gift in Little Town on the Prairie--the thrill of it! and I have countless, unspecific, memories of children in books not being allowed to read fiction because of Satan, concomitant descent in to moral turpitude, etc.

Is this later phenomena is an American thing, a holdover from the Puritan mindset? Do we still, as a country, carry with us a vague fear that fiction (Harry Potter aside) will corrupt our youth?
I am thinking about this because of today's post at the Guardian Book Blog, that font of useful stuff for spin-off blog posts, entitled: "Warning: books may damage your health." (tongue in cheek) seems to suggest that a different mindset holds sway across the pond.

How can one not read all of a post that includes such thought provoking utterances:

"After last week's Children's Society report declared that Britain's youth were devolving into feral illiterates, the government insisted that what they need is a damn good reading." The author goes on to propose that "books – lumped together into a single medium, individual content unspecified – have come to be seen as the natural catalyst for wholesomeness."

Hmmm....

Judging books by their covers

In two days, we will know which books won the Cybils Awards. I have a tender interest in this announcement, as I was panelist for science fiction/fantasy. I thought that it would be fun to go back and take a look at the books nominated, and to judge them by their covers.

Here are my three favorites:

I think this is a beautiful cover. I just had to buy the book the moment I saw it. I like that Charlotte looks like an ordinary person, and I love the gold thread binding her hands...






I find the swirling action and fine detail very appealing here. I think it adds to the appeal that (I guess) Balsa is depicted in a very gender neutral way--boys won't be put off.





A cover that inspires daydreaming. Lovely.








And now, two covers that I so so so did not like. That I, in fact, hated.

Can you tell that this book is a fast-paced adventure focusing primarily on the exciting story of a gypsy boy with magical powers who must get an imprisoned girl out of France during the Terror? Can you tell that it is one boys might really really like? No? Neither can I. This is such an unfair cover to stick on a really great book. Grrr.




I loved this book. I loved the main character, the titular Stranger to Command. But what is up with the guy on the cover? He looks seriously wet. His long hair does not work for me. His posture has no zest in it. I can't imagine this guy being an effective leader even after he has gotten to know command a bit better. And why do we have to see him twice? It doesn't add to his appeal. I hate that he got shoved into my head as a mental image of the main character, and I still haven't quite gotten over it.



On a happier note, here's my choice for most beautiful cover girl. Isn't she lovely?









Edited to add:

My esteemed co-panelist Laini suggests that The Unnameables, by Ellen Booraem, could be included in the unfortunate covers category. I am not sure I agree. Sure, it gives absolutly no idea of what the book is about, but yet, having read the book, to me it convayes some of the wild magic of the Goatman, the catalyst for change on the island where the book is set, and the metaphoric embodiement of creativity. Or whatever.

Non-Fiction Monday is here!

Non-fiction Monday is here today--please leave a link to your post in the comments, and I'll add them to the list!




If you are looking for a truly great book about Leonardo da Vinci for a five to nine year old, here is our favorite-- Leonardo da Vinci by A. & M. Provensen. The Provensen's have taken Da Vinci's marvelous creativity and, with considerable creativity on their own parts, made it into a pop-up book. So the reader can, along with Leonardo, hoist a model of the church of San Giovanni up into the air, practice various flying contraptions ("By very good luck Zola was not hurt. Leonardo and his apprentices gave up flying for the time being"), turn the pages of Da Vinci's notebook (with varied detailed facsimiles of his drawings), and read a sentence of his disguised writing-- Evom ton seod nus eht. Da Vinci wrote from right to left, backward. It is great fun, and a beautiful introduction not just to Da Vinci but to Renaissance Italy.

Here are the other folks participating in this edition of Non-Fiction Monday, with more links to be added as they arrive:

At Book Moot, Camile looks at The Lincolns.

Tricia at the Miss Rumphius Effect has a post looking at two sets of Double Plays--two books on the same topic. One set of books is on the wolves of Yellowstone, the other is on Wangari Mathaai.

At Just One More Book you can find a chat about Animals At the EDGE: Saving the World's Rarest Creatures, which is an exciting look at work of the Zoological Society of London’s EDGE of Existence Program an engaging introduction to the science of conservation.

At Picture Book of the Day, you can find Ella: A Baby Elephant's Story.

A Wrung Sponge is offering Red Scarf Girl, a "true memoir of a 12 year old girl coming of age during China's Cultural Revolution" which looks fascinating.

At the Jean Little Library The Periodic Table: Elements with Style, which I think is right up my 8 year old's alley...

At Lori Calabrese Writes! Honda: The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars

Here's Callista's review of 10 Things I Can Do to Help My World posted at The Well-Read Child, and along the same lines, Amanda's news that Penguin has put out a really nice Young Reader's edition of Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin's bestseller, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World...One Child at a Time.

Becky has a review of Duke Ellington His Life In Jazz.

Abbey has a little roundup of nonfiction titles she's read lately over at Abbey (the) Librarian

Tweet! Tweet! at Simply Science offers a fresh look at the United Tweets of America, with activities (and gosh how my five year old loves that book. Just saying "western meadowlark" to him cracks him up).

Tying in nicely with the tweets is this post at Chicken Spaghetti, where you can find "Wonders of America: Yellowstone."

If you have ever wondered how handwritting is being taught in schools these days, head over to Books Together, where Anamaria looks at Script and Scribble, a book for grown-ups.

And at Sweetness and Light, there's a look at Graphing in the Desert.

Wendie's Wanderings lead us to Baby Animals of the Grasslands.

The Road of the Dead

The Road Of The Dead by Kevin Brooks (2006), shortlisted for the 2007 Carnegie Medal.

I knew from the first sentance that this was going to be Dark.

"When the Dead Man got Rachel I was sitting in the back of a wrecked Mercedes wondering if the rain was going to stop."

Ruben has always been able to feel things other people can't. Even though he is in London, miles from his sister, he feels it when she is raped and murdered on a rainy night far away on Dartmoor. Three days after his family hears officially that she is dead, fourteen-year old Ruben and his older brother Cole set off to bring her body home. But the police won't release her until their investigation is closed, and Ruben and Cole decide to travel to the remote village where Rachel was last seen alive to find out exactly what happened.

Nasty things are going on in that village, and soon the boys are caught up in a deadly tangle of violence and greed as they follow the ancient road of the dead across Dartmoor. It becomes clear that Rachel's death was not the work of one sick individual, and Ruben begins to wonder just how far Cole is prepared to go to find out the truth. And what he himself might be willing to do, for Rachel, and for his brother.

"I looked down at the hallway again. The doors were still closed, but I could feel something happening now. The silence had changed. It was a silence about to be broken. Then one of the doors slowly creaked open--and I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger." (p 240)

In a series of nutshells: Suspenseful and creepy. Violent. Lots of action. A remote gothic village, with a handful of very nasty people (a rather un-nuanced "gallery of bad guys). A slight subplot involving a gypsy girl. A bit of thought provoking-ness about what it means to deliberately decide to commit violent acts.

The first half of the book--the journey from London to Dartmoor, the set-up of the mystery, Ruben's psychic powers, and the relationship between the two brothers--was engrossing. Things got a bit much for me when the book became pretty much non-stop danger and violence and guns going off, and so, in a gender stereotype way, this is one I'd more happily recommend to a "boy" than to a "girl." Unless, of course, she's a girl who likes murder/thrillers in which lots of people get hurt.

Here's another review, at Vulpes Libris, with lots of interesting stuff in the comments.

postscript: I read this thinking it would fit into my on-going fantasy/science fiction way of blogging, but Ruben's paranormal abilities are so overshadowed by the mystery and mayhem that I'm not even going to label it as anything other than YA....

For members of Team Zombie

If you are a zombie fan, head over here to Tor, where a "Name that Zombie" contest could win you books about, yes you guessed it, zombies....

Team Zombie members might also be gleeful to read that Betsy over at Fuse #8 perdicts Evil Unicorns will be the next Big Supernatural Type thing saturating the market....Or perhaps they won't be that happy--even bad publicity is better than no publicity, and an Evil Unicorn is way cooler than a Good Zombie.

Two new Toon Books

We were very happy that Stinky, a Toon Book, was named a Geisel Award Honor Book a few weeks ago. We are very fond of it in our house (it gave my older son the title for his own blog, Pickled Bananas).

Last week two new Toon Books-The Big No-No, and Luke on the Loose-came our way, and we read them with great enthusiasm and enjoyment. They are pretty darn excellent young reader books for the child just getting going on independent reading, coupling good stories with lavish graphic novel type spreads of pictures. They are also fun to read aloud.

Luke On The Loose, by Harry Bliss, is a wild and wacky pigeon chase through the streets of New York. In Central Park one day, young Luke's father strikes up a boring conversation with another adult. A flock of pigeons catches Luke's eye, and with a blood curdling YAAH! he sends them flying. Off he goes in pursuit-YAAH! YAAH! flap flap flap through Manhattan and into Brooklyn, leaving a trail of feathers and startled byststanders. His father and the police and the firefighters set off to the rescue...Fun!

Benny And Penny: The Big No-No, by Geoffry Hayes, has less mayhem, but a more character driven plot. Benny and Penny, two mice siblings, embark on a series of no-nos that leads to a mud war with the new neighbor child. When the misunderstanding is resolved, they become friends.

We like them both lots--perhaps Luke more so, just because of the wonderful insanity of it...

Congratulations to the winners of my giveaway, and thanks to everyone who stopped by

Thanks to a random number generator, I now know that the winners of my blog birthday giveaway are Sharonanne and Anamaria! Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say happy birthday!

And if you want an arc of the new Ranger's Apprentice book, don't forget to enter that giveaway by Feb. 15 (link at right).

Moribito Vol. 1: Guardian of the Spirit, and a bit of a preview of Vol 2, coming soon!

One of the many fine books nominated for the Cybils in Science Fiction/fantasy, that we just didn't have room for on our short list, was Guardian Of The Spirit (Moribito vol. 1) by Nahoko Uehashi (translated by Cathy Hirano and illustrated by Yuko Shimizu). Aside from the gripping story, this is an utterly beautiful book qua book, what with all the decorative touches. So it was very pleasing to see it win the Batchelder Award last month.

Years ago, eight lives were lost so that a girl named Balsa could live. The girl grew up determined to pay back that debt, and so she honed her fighting skills and dedicated her life to saving others. Now she totally kicks ass--you could think of her as a medieval Japanese Katsa (of Graceling fame). So far things have gone as smoothly as they can for an itinerant woman warrior, but Balsa's life is about to get more complicated. For the boy she has just saved from drowning is the second prince, who has just become the morbito--the guardian of the water spirit on whom the prosperity of the land depends. And powerful people want him dead.

History is written by the victors, and in the official chronicles of this land the water spirit is an evil monster. What the histories don't say is that the true evil is the monster that seeks to kill the water spirit every time it is incarnated. So Balsa has her hands full as she leads the boy prince up into the wildlands at the edge of the realm, struggling to keep him alive (shades of Katsa again), and, in the process, beginning to question the violent course she has chartered for her own life.

Here are two other reviews, at Fuse #8 and The Ya Ya Yas.

I just learned today that the next book in the series (there are ten so far in Japan) is due out in a few months. So that is my Waiting on Wednesday book--Guardian Of The Darkness (Moribito vol 2). I hope it is as exciting, thought-provoking, and enjoyable as the first one!


Here's the description from Amazon:

"Balsa returns to her native Kanbal to clear the name of Jiguro, her dear mentor, who saved her life when she was six years old. But what should be a visit of truth and reconciliation becomes a fight for her life when she learns that Jiguro had been a member of King Rogsam's personal bodyguard. After Jiguro fled Kanbal with her, Rogsam sent the other bodyguards after them one by one--Jiguro's best friends, whom he had to kill to protect Balsa. Now, with the help of two Kanbalese children, Balsa must unwind the conspiracy surrounding Jiguro and the mystery of the Guardians of the Dark."

(editorial aside: I've labeled this one both middle grade and ya. Middle grade, because of the exciting plot and lack of Adult Content. YA, because of the complexity of the plot and the relatively mature heroine. I am not going to label it girl book or boy book, because it fits my criteria for both!)

Why I now want to read Fly Girl, and why I hope to get the chance to soon

Today over at Finding Wonderland I read a most thoughtful discussion with Sherri L. Smith, author of Fly Girl. By the time I had finished, I knew I wanted to read the book. Happily, the gods then pointed my mouse toward Reader Rabbit, who is giving a copy away...and I have now doubled my chances of winning!

A preamble about world building, leading to Viking Raiders for Non Fiction Monday

A few days ago, Jo Walton over at Tor wrote a post called "Real world reading for fantasy writers," making the point that the more you know about the time and place on which you are basing your imaginary world, the better your world will be. One of her suggestions was to look at children's books- "Children’s non-fiction almost always has illustrations, which can be very useful, and it’s usually easy to read and lets you know what it is that you want to know, so you can approach the adult books from a point of less ignorance. Also, children are assumed to be more interested in the practical details of life—I have no idea why."

My own eight year-old child is fascinated by world building--drawing maps of imaginary places, and pictures of the temples and castles and weapons therein (with a heavy emphasis on the weapons). I would love to see him start putting details of this kind into his stories as he becomes a more competent writer.

So today I have been wondering what specific children's non-fiction books to put in a list both for adult fantasy writers and for children just beginning to discover the joys of writing stories that have material foundations in the past. And I am thinking that this might be a nice thing to start exploring on non-fiction Mondays, gradually leading to a lovely Book List.

A book that came quickly to mind was Viking Raiders (Time Traveler), an Usborne book. The edition I have, by Anne Civardi and James Graham-Campbell, illustrated by Stephen Cartwright, was published way back in 1977. It was revised and reissued in 2003.

This is the sort of book that is just downright enjoyable. It starts with a hook for young readers--you are asked to put on a magic helmet and travel back in time. Next, you meet all the Viking characters you will encounter in Viking times--their lives provide a story arc for the non-fiction. Then things get really cool, with a bird's eye view of Earl Knut's Farm, in the year 890 A.D--lots of little things to see, lots of labels hither and thither, busy people (actually, come to think of it, a bit like Richard Scarry). Next a cutaway of the longhouse, the building of a Viking ship, launching a raid, trading, immigrating to Iceland, and more...all with wonderfully detailed illustrations.

At the end, as a pièce de résistance, there is a map of the Viking world showing lots of little Vikings and Viking ships going all over the place. As a coda, there is a two page, more text-heavy, spread on "The Story of the Vikings"--straight up fact for those who want to learn more.

We really like this book in our house. I shall read it to the boys again tonight, and maybe we can all draw Viking settlements and dragon-prowed warships and swords and shields afterwards....

Anyone else have any favorite non-fiction Viking books, good for world-building purposes?

Today's Non-Fiction Monday roundup is here at Picture Book of the Day.

Blog Birthday Giveaway

My blog is now 2 years old! Being an extrovert (see previous post) it would like to have an enormous party and invite everyone over...it will have to be happy with a book giveaway.

I started blogging after cruising around the various blogs looking for books I thought it would be fun to buy for my local public library. I'm the president of the Friends, and I reward myself for the long and dusty hours I put into the booksales by using a bit of the money to buy books I would like the library to have...Soon I decided that I wanted to be part of the blogging fun myself, so I started my own. Being too shy to leave many comments on other blogs, it took a while before anyone actually read what I wrote, which is perhaps a good thing, since I didn't know what I was doing (for instance, I didn't know that you had to click "resume editing" for the spelling mistakes to actually be fixed. Shudder).

It is gratifying these days that every month more people visit. It is even more gratifying that I have been able to pass on over 200 books to my library, courtesy of various publishers, to whom I am very grateful. I hope that people reading my reviews have gone on to enjoy the books; I know they've been enjoyed by many patrons.

To celebrate, here is a small book giveaway. There are three children's books, and one ya/adult book--if you want one or the other, please mention that in your comment, otherwise you'll be entered for both. Please leave your comment by 7:30am EST this Friday, the 6th of February. I'm sorry, but I can't afford to send the books overseas (will they ever bring back Surface Mail? I miss it so).

The children's books, courtesy of Little,Brown are:




South, by Patrick McDonnell. An utterly charming book in which Mooch the cat helps a lost little bird on his journey south.








Willow Buds #2: When Toady Met Ratty (No. 2), written and lavishly illustrated by Mary Jane Begin.








AMERICA: The Making of a Nation, by Charlie Samuels, an engrossing non-fiction book with lots and lots of pictures and flaps.





The young adult/grown up book is The Ghosts of Kerfol, by Deborah Noyes. This one is courtesy of Candlewick Press, who very generously sent out Cybils review copies (thanks!!!) I think this is the most beautiful piece of a girl on any cover of 2008.

Here's what I said about the book in an earlier post: This is a series of five stories, moving forward in time from Edith Wharton's classic ghost story, "Kerfol," which tells of a young Frenchwoman accused of murdering her jealous husband. His body was found at the bottom of the stairs, savaged by dogs. But there were no dogs alive at the manor house of Kerfol that day...Gothic horror combined with great writing makes this one a page turner. I am not at all sure why this is marketed as a Young Adult book, because I think it is a better fit for grown ups. Although certainly many teenagers, in particular those who like their books dark and Gothic, will enjoy it as well. Not a book to read on a cold, dark night, especially if you are staying by yourself in an old French mansion.

So. Thank you, everyone who has read and commented on my blog, and thank you, publishers who have sent me review copies!

Is your blog an extrovert?

I am an INFP, and proud of it (as Myers and Briggs said of me, "Metaphors come easily, but may be forced). But my blog, I just learned through a link at Librarilly Blond, is an ESFP.

I guess we are two different people, my blog and I. It leaps to answer the phone when it rings, and seeks out parties, where it stays late with increasing energy...