The Time Garden for Timeslip Tuesday

Time somehow got away from me last week, and there was no Timeslip Tuesday. But I am back again today, with the book that I am currently reading to my eight-year old--The Time Garden, by Edward Eager (1958, 188pp in the edition I have).


According to the wikipedia article on Eager that I just linked to, he made "a distinct contribution to children's literature by introducing a theme of magic into the lives of ordinary children." Ordinary American middle class, not at all well of financially, children, who almost universally love the books of E. Nesbit. His best known book is probably Half Magic (1954), but two of my favorites are Knight's Castle, and The Time Garden, that tell of the adventures that happened to the children of the children in Half Magic.

In The Time Garden, Roger, Ann, Eliza and Jack have been dumped by their parents at an old seaside house in Massachusetts. There they discover a very old, magical toad, who dwells in a garden of flowering thyme at the edge of the ocean. All his magic has gone into the ground, so the thyme itself has become magical--a magic of time travelling. Transported back in time, the children raise the alarm when the British are coming in the Revolutionary War, help slaves escape on the Underground Railroad, visit Jo March and sisters, and the court of Queen Elizabeth. They also, most magically of all, travel back in time to one of the magical adventures of their own parents (I get a kick out of self-referentiality in books).

Eager, as a writer, allows himself to stray right to the edge of farce. The language and the situations are almost tongue in check. I think, though, that the delight he himself is getting from his writing, a delight that is shared by the reader (ie me, and presumably other Eager fans). I think his books are funny. He also creates great kids--girls that are daring, girls that are afraid, but brave enough to go through with things anyway, and boys that have thoughtful sides. (Except Jack, who is the oldest, and who has begun to notice Girls). And although there are, of course, no cell phones, and such like, the people, places, and situations do not feel especially dated.

Timeslip-wise, the magic is unworrying to the reader (that is, it is not explained so much as to become strained), although the children do their share of worrying about their effect on the past. This is, as far as I know, the only timeslip book whose catalyst is a magical toad.

My only faint criticism of Edward Eager is that his chapters are too long. I suggest the audio versions.

THE CYBILS!!!!!

The Cybils are coming! Yes, the award that I think is the most fun, the most inclusive, and the most generally wonderful, is back for another year! The reason I think all these things is that the Cybils are for all of us voracious readers--we get to nominate those books we loved the most in the past year, in a variety of different categories. Nominations open tomorrow at the Cybils site, so head on over!


I am still musing about my own choices; here's what I have so far:


For best picture book: In a Blue Room, by Jim Averbeck (my interview with Averbeck)
For best easy reader: Stinky, by Eleanor Davis (my review)
For best middle grade fiction: Eleven, by Patricia Reilly Giff (my review. From the other reviews I've read, there are mixed opinions on this one. I think it's lovely).

For best YA: House of Dance, by Beth Kephart (my review)
For best non-fiction for younger readers: Seven Miles to Freedom: the Robert Smalls Story by Janet Halfmann (I, um, am rather fond of this one, as you can see in my review)

Added on October 1: I got all my nominations in, except one- I was beaten to Stinky by 100ScopeNotes...now I must find time for a period of quiet introspection, and ask myself if there is another easy reader I truly love.

I don't have a poetry book or an older non-fiction book picked yet...

And I'm not nominating anything in the sci fi/fantasy category either. Because I am on the panel! What fun! What a wealth of books I have in store for me!

Here is the entire line-up of us:


Organizer: Tasha Saecker Kids Lit

Panelists:

Laini Taylor Growing Wings
Charlotte Taylor Charlotte's Library
Alyssa Feller The Shady Glade
Em Em's Bookshelf
Lynette The Puck in the Midden
Tizrah Price The Compulsive Reader
Amanda Blau Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs



Judges:

Tasha Saecker Kids Lit
Anne Boles Levy The Cybils
Erin Miss Erin
Eisha Prather Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Tanita Davis Finding Wonderland, Readers' Rants

One of the best things about being involved with the Cybils is getting to know other bloggers. So greetings to all my fellow committee members. I look forward to meeting you!

Perfect Chemistry

I am a Bad Reader. I know perfectly well that writers put the ending at the end for very good reasons, but sometimes I just have to know how it all works out. I hit a new low while reading Perfect Chemistry, a new YA book by Simone Elkeles (Bloomsbury, 2008). I checked at least five times, because I kept getting anxious about the romance between the two main characters (not to be spoilerish or anything).

The romance is the central element of this book. Brittany seems like a perfect rich white girl, Alex seems like an archetypal Hispanic bad boy. But beneath their carefully crafted exteriors (crafted by themselves, that is, as well as by Elkeles), each hides a different, more vulnerable self. When their chemistry teacher makes them partners for the year, they are both appalled. But the chemistry between them cannot be stopped by stereotypes and misconceptions...although it does get awfully tense at times, what with gang violence and drug deals and family secrets. Which is why I had to keep checking the end.

Maybe this isn't the most realistic book ever, but it sure had me caring about Brittany and Alex, willing to suspend disbelief and enjoy.

Perfect Chemistry is told in alternating viewpoints, and I am wondering if having Alex as the narrator for half the book will result in any teenage boys giving this a try...and if they would like it. It's easy to predict that many teenage girls will eat it up.

There's another review here at the Ya Ya Yas.

Anatomy of a Boyfriend

So a while ago, Daria Snadowsky asked me if I'd like a review copy of her book, Anatomy of a Boyfriend (2007, Delacorte Press, 259pp), and I said, "Yes, please!" It came, I read it with enjoyment, and I began to think about the review I'd write.

My first thought was, "This is Forever for the text-messaging generation!" Like Judy Blume's classic 1975 story, the story concerns a teenaged girl (Dominique) achieving her heart's desire--a boyfriend (Wes), with all the, um, "fun" involved. And boy do I feel a little silly being euphemistic here, because, as it is in Forever, the fun is pretty explicitly described, making this book as potentially educational for the naive girl today (if such a thing exists) as Forever was for me....Then I read the promotional literature that came with the book. Surprise! My insight was not unique to me. And then there's the little fact that Anatomy of a Boyfriend is dedicated to Blume. So I put off writing my review, so as to muse some more...

But I left it till to late, because by the time I got around to almost writing my review, Liz, over at a Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy, had written her review, and it is a review of such comprehensive insight that there seemed little to add (this is your cue to go over to her place and read her review. Then you can come back). It gave me a feeling akin to what I once felt upon bringing a plate of home made cookies (and my cookies generally have a raffish charm all of their own, which is to say they are not crisp and professional looking) to someone's house, only to find that the party was catered and the deserts gourmet.

So thinking it over some more in the weeks that passed after that, I now offer what I hope is a Unique Insight. In case you did not go to Liz's blog as requested, here's a quote: "I'm not saying Dom isn't emotionally invested in her relationship with Wes; she is. I'm just saying she is emotionally invested in having a relationship, and Wes happened to be the person who was available." Which is why the plastic doll boyfriend is such a perfect cover image. My Insight: the shallow nature of Dom and Wes's actual friendship and understanding is perfectly illustrated by the fact that even after going out with him for a year and a half, she still doesn't get what his dog means to him (spoiler: the dog dies).

"Honestly, Wes, you were the best owner any pet could ever ask for."
Wes sits up and for the first time in our relationship looks at me hatefully.
"Owner? She was family."

So there you have it. In short, Anatomy of a Boyfriend, which is now out in paperback, is a frank, entertaining story that makes the important point that there is more to having a boyfriend then sex.

My husband, incidentally, came with a dog he adored. The first time I went to his house, it bit my nose. "Oh well," I thought, as the blood dripped from my right nostril. "At least I can show him how brave I am...."

Red Glass being given away....

About a year ago, I found out (to my great excitement) that I was going to be on the nominating committee of the Cybils Awards in the YA category (it got even more exciting as it became clear that we would have well over 100 books to read).

One of the first that I read was Red Glass, by Laura Resau (here's my review). Many of the books nominated were generously sent to us by their publishers, but for whatever reason, we didn't get our own copies of this one. So I read my library's copy three times.

But now I might win a Signed Copy! Yes, a signed copy is being given away at the blog of Yat-Yee Chong, as a follow-up to her great interview with Laura Resau.

nb: the deadline has been extended till October 8.

And speaking of the Cybils, nominations will be opening in October...anyone is welcome to enter their favorite books in a variety of categories!

Gee shucks!

Trisha over at the Ya Ya Yas has honored me with the following:

To which I say, "Right back at you!" and "Thanks a lot!"

Here are the rules:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog (check)
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you (check)
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs (seven seems excessive. Kind of check)
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog (check)
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs! (check)

Here are the blogs I'd like to honor in turn, I've tried to think of blogs that haven't been honored yet (although goodness knows I am not certain about much in this world, including whose gotten what award etc.):

Librarian Mom, who spent a whole post to which I am unable to link directly recommending a book just for me.

The Fidra Blog, because I love the books they're republishing and Vanessa's take on life as a Scottish children's bookstore owner.

A Patchwork of Books and A Year of Reading, because I know I can count on them both for good book reviews.

and Collecting Children's Books, because it makes for the best reading about children's books there is on line.

Toon Books -- a graphic way to interest the young reader

(Note to reader: I am going to overuse the colon in the post. Sorry).

Here's what, in my experience, kids who are learning to read like: graphic books. So I think this is an absolutely wonderful idea: graphic books designed for the early reader. This is the premise of a new series called Toon Books ("bringing new readers to the pleasure of comics"), and when the publishers asked if I would like three of these books to review, I said, "Yes please!"

So the following arrived: Stinky, by Eleanor Davis, Mo and Jo: Fighting Together Forever, by Dean Haspiel and Jay Lynch, and Jack and the Box, by Art Spieflman (yes, the same Art who wrote the Maus books). They are really beautiful, high-quality hardcovers, with simple stories and easy words to read. They were greated with much interest by my eight year old. It was the sort of happy interest that results in said child choosing to curl up on the sofa and read, followed by such strong pleasure in one of the books (Stinky) that he asked if he could start his own blog so as to write his own review of it (here)!

I liked Stinky very much as well. It's the story of a swamp monster, who regards humankind with loathing. When a boy invades the swamp, the monster tries to drive him out, but despite all the yucky swamp-ness he throws at the boy, the boy doesn't leave. In the end, they are friends. A very nice easy reader indeed.

Sadly, we both liked the other two titles less well. I found the Jack that lives in the box scary as all get out, and Mo and Jo, about two kids who fight each other while learning to use their super powers to work together to fight crime, not my cup of tea. But this is not to say that other kids might not like them lots, and I will be looking out for other titles in the series, because I do think it's a brilliant premise.


Here's the Publisher's Weekly article announcing the series back in 2007.
Here's a review of the first three in the series, from Comics Worth Reading.

LM Montgomery news

Here's a link to an article in the Globe and Mail (Canada) from Sept. 19th, with a sad revelation from L.M. Montgomery's grand-daughter. Such a pity that things never got better for her.

Misc. stuff, with a strong element of complaint

The September Carnival is up here at Jenny's Wonderland of Books, and contains many great posts about many great children's books. I'm especially pleased that Jenny mentioned that the book I offered, The Ghosts, by Antonia Barber, was a favorite of hers as well.

This was one of the few un-grumpy making things of the past few days. The chief reason for my grumpiness is that I haven't been able to do what I want, which is to read The Hunger Games gosh darn it because by now probably everyone else has and it looks really good and I read the first 31 pages and really liked it. The boys and I had walked to Barnes and Noble on Saturday, and all bought books (they didn't have the new Traction Man book, or the new Patricia Mckillip books, but they did at least have The Hunger Games, so I was happy, for a moment). And like I said, I read the first 31 pages with enjoyment.

But instead of reading pages 32 et seq. I have been stripping and priming nasty old Victorian kitchen windows from my nasty kitchen, which we kind of have to do before winter comes, i.e. soon. And the nasty toilet upstairs broke, so my husband had to fight it for hours, and couldn't help me, and as we were leaving the house this morning, the nasty ceiling fan kind of fell off the nasty ceiling.

However, thank you everyone who left comments over at my son's blog! They were appreciated. He is going to learn how to touch type in school this year (3rd grade), which should help his blogging....On the subject of comments, anyone that ever wants to leave me one, not that anyone would, of course, is welcome to.....

I Know an Old Teacher, by Anne Bowen

For Poetry Friday today, I have I know an Old Teacher, by Anne Bowen, illustrated by Stephen Gammell (2008, Carolrhoda Books), which arrived today from the publisher (thanks).

All right, I'm stretching things a bit to write about this book in a Poetry Friday post. It's actually a cumulative story (you know, the old lady who swallowed a fly deal). But heck, there are rhymes.

"I know an old teacher who swallowed a flea.
It fell from her hair and plopped into her tea."

And things progress--a spider, a fish, a rat, a snake...one by one, all the class pets make their way down Miss Bindley's throat, while her students outside watch through the windows in horror. Will one of them be next!!???!!!

This is gruesome stuff, but the yuck factor might well appeal to the strong-stomached child. I myself like the horrified asides of the children best!

"She's GOT our Lizzie."
"She can't have Lizzie!"
"Well, she's GOT her!"
"Going, going..."
"Gone."
"Poor Lizzie."

The illustrations are colorfully frenetic distortions of reality-- a great accompaniment to the story!

I am writing this at my local library, where it is Game Day (speaking of frenetic). I have just passed the book on to a random nine year old boy, who has his nose in it.....time passes...."Here you go," he says, giving it back. "Funny!"

Poetry Friday is at Author Amok today.

My Fair Godmother

My Fair Godmother, by Janette Rallison (Bloomsbury, 2008, 304 pp in ARC form, for readers 10 and up).

A fairy Godmother sounds like a nice thing to have. But what happens when your fairy godmother is only fair (cause of not doing so well at Fairy Godmother School), and she's a gum-chewing, cell-phone carrying, shopaholic to boot? Sixteen-year-old Savannah Delano gets to learn the hard way.

Savannah certainly needs help. In her own words:

"Here's my definition of a bad day: Your boyfriend of four months-who until 12 seconds ago, you thought was the most perfect guy to set foot on earth-breaks up with you.

My definition of a truly horrible day: The aforementioned boy dumps you for none other than your sister.

The definition of my life: He does all of this right after you inform him that you blew your last dollar buying your dream prom dress. he asks if you can get a refund. It turns out he'll be taking your sister."

So when fairy godmother wanna be Chrissy turns up, promising to make things end happily ever after, Savannah doesn't say no. Instead, she says, thinking out loud, "I just with that somehow my life could be like a fairy tale." And with a flash of her wand, Chrissy sends her off to be Cinderella. But this Cinderella still has months of drudgery to go until the ball...Her second wish lands her in the role of Snow White, which isn't much better. Will the third time be the charm? Her sister Jane and ex-boyfriend Hunter end up enmeshed in Savannah's medieval turmoil, along with another boy, one Savannah had barely thought about back in the real world, and together they must make the happy ending come true, or else risk never returning home.

This is a great romp through the cliches, pitfalls, bitter realities and ultimate romantic triumphs of fairy tale land. I'd give this one to anyone who loved Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted, or Sarah Beth Durst's Into the Wild. In short, I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a scintillating escape from reality.

Timeslip Tuesday: The Ghosts, by Antonia Barber

In my Timeslip Tuesday posts, I seem (generally) to have two broad categories of book--those that are recent, and new to me, and those that I read as a child--books that have haunted me ever since. Today's book is one of the later, one I read as a nine year old, and recently found again: The Ghosts, by Antonia Barber (1969 , ages 10 and up).* On the left is the cover I knew as a child, at the bottom is the modern reprint cover that is utterly and completely hideous and enough to turn anyone against the poor book forever.

On a cold and rainy night in London, a stranger comes to the home of Lucy and Jamie. He brings good news--the offer of a job for their mother, as caretaker to a country house. This comes as a godsend to the family, struggling to hold on after the father's death. And despite the strange circumstances, and the vague mystery surrounding the old man, the offer is good. Lucy and Jamie are ecstatic to have an old house and its garden to explore...undeterred by whispers that the place is haunted.

But it is haunted, in a way. Sarah and Georgie, two children from the past, have been travelling to the present in a desperate effort to find help. A hundred years ago, someone wants them dead, and judging from the two small headstones in the churchyard, that person succeeded. Lucy and Jamie are the first people the not-yet-dead children meet who aren't too afraid to listen to their story. Now they must find the courage to go back to Sarah and Georgie's time, to save them from the terrible fire that killed them.

The Ghosts is still in many library systems, and it's available quite cheaply used. I promise that if you have a child who likes time travel stories, and who will not quail at some rather scary bits (the fire is truly terrible), they will like this book. It's hard to promise to grownups that they will like a children's book, because of grownups having lost that first fine freshness, as it were. But when I, who am grown up, re-read it to review here, I was still all wide-eyed and trepidatious at Lucy's first meeting with the ghost children, horrified by the discovery of their graves, and flinching and face-making during the fire....I still love it. I had a look at the reviews on Amazon, and they almost all echo my sentiments. Except for one pedant who gets in a snit about the twisted logic of time travel. Hmph to him (or possibly her).

This book was reprinted in the UK as The Amazing Mr. Blunden, after a movie was made of it with that name in 1972. I deliberately did not try to explain Mr. Blunden or his amazingness in the review because it would have gotten too complicated and spoilerish.

So anyway, here's the lovely cover of the most recent edition:

Bother. It didn't come out very large--sorry. If you peer closely, you can see Lucy and Jamie's heads floating in a cauldron of time travel elixir...

As ever, if anyone has a review of a timeslip book up that they'd like to share, let me know and I'll put up a link!

*This post was up for about over a year, lacking the picture of the book from my childhood, because I hadn't been able to find one. Then, out of the blue, a kind reader sent me a link! Thank you, kind reader.

Remember This, by S.T. Underdahl

Remember This, by S.T. Underdahl (Flux, 2008, 275pp), begins with two girls, Lucy and Sukie, best friends for ages, practicing for the upcoming cheerleading tryouts. But despite this, I kept going (sorry everyone who actually likes books about cheerleading. They just aren't my thing). And, happily for me, the book was about much more. Unhappily for Lucy, she takes a hard fall on her tailbone during tryouts, and has to smile bravely as Sukie makes the team. Now her best friend is moving off into another social world, leaving Lucy facing a summer working evenings at a local Mexican restaurant and not much else.

But Lucy's summer becomes more complicated, when her beloved grandmother begins showing signs of dementia. Nana Lucy, who had always signed her letters to her granddaughter the same way--"remember this: I love you"-- has Alzheimer's. Now Lucy's life becomes focused on keeping her grandmother safe, while watching her slip away.

And things are complicated by the new dishwasher (very cute) at the restaurant. A text conversation two years ago made him Sukie's sworn enemy, but to Lucy (cue romantic music) he is becoming much more, throwing her friendship with Sukie into even greater jeopardy.

Very real (with the possible exception of the new dishwasher being a very cute, sensitive, smart teenage guy ready to fall in love; this never happened to me in high school), very absorbing, very moving. Nana Lucy never becomes less than a real person, with worth and dignity, and her namesake Lucy is likewise lovable.

An added bonus feature is an interview with S.T. Underdahl at the end of the book. During the weekdays, she's a neuropsychologist, specializing in dementia. During her lunch breaks, she writes (I have heard good things about her previous ya novel, The Other Sister, and, based on the quality of her writing her, I'm actively inspired to look for it).

For an interesting look at the World of Book Covers, here's an entry from the author's blog talking about the cover of this book.

And here's another review, at Reader's Rants.

Blogging his way to a more literate life

My older son just started his own book blog. In two days, he's written about three books, and is tremendously excited about the whole thing. And it's been great to see him sitting thoughtfully and laboriously pecking out words on the computer, and sitting on the floor of his room surrounded by his books, trying to decide what to blog about next. Although, actually, his next post is going to be about his favorite online game, but at least he'll be writing, without any outside pressure at all. I'm sure as he gets more confident his posts will become longer, until as a teenager (five years from now) he will be ready to more up to such august positions as Contributor to Guys Lit Wire.

Like so many of us, he's concerned about his blog stats. I'm not putting a link in my main page list, because I am find-able if one tries hard enough, and I don't want him to be too easily identified (he's chosen the cunning alias of "Book," so that's ok).

But just this once, until he's older, here's the link to his blog: Pickled Bananas. If you have a sec, head on over and let him know he's not writing to a vacuum--I would love to see him keep writing, and reading too of course!

Dead Girl Walking

I just finished reading Dead Girl Walking, by Linda Joy Singleton (Flux, 312 pages), not quite in one siting, but it would have been if little chores like feeding the chickens, feeding the children, etc. hadn't interfered.

I'm guessing that most of us wondered, back in high school, what it would have been like to have been someone else. Amber Borden, kind of dorky, kind of unpopular, kind of sneered at by the glitterati of her school, doesn't have to wonder anymore what life is like for Leah, the beautiful alpha female of her class. Why? Because Amber is living Leah's nightmarish life, trapped in Leah's body, and she wants out!
Following an unfortunate meeting with a runaway postal vehicle, Amber almost dies. After visiting the portal of the afterlife, she's sent back to earth again to rejoin her body. But, being one of the most directionally challenged people around, she gets lost on the way back, ending up in Leah's body instead of her own. Leah has just tried to kill herself.

Now Amber's the one with the fit and sexy body (but why the strange hardness of her breasts?) , the rich and successful parents (what has gone wrong with Leah's mother? What games is her sadistic father playing with her?) , the love of an ultra cute boyfriend (but Leah's journal tells a different story), and so on and so on.

It is not a nice life. Not at all. Amber desperately wants to be herself again, and go back to her own crowded, un-cool, loving life, chunky thighs and all. Escaping Leah's life, however, proves trickier than she thought it would be, and it becomes a race against time for Amber to get back to her body before that body gets taken off life support.

It's a nice mix of fun (mainly because Amber is an amusing character) and seriousness (because of the rather obvious message. In case you missed it, here it is: sometimes even rich and beautiful people have crummy lives). And, perhaps most importantly, it is a Good Read. The sort where you are surprised that time has passed while you were reading.

This is the first book of a series--the second book, Dead Girl Dancing, is due out in the spring of 2009.

Jen just reviewed it over at Jen Robinson's Book Page, where she says it's suitable for 10 and up. I would push it up a bit, to 12--it's not like anything happens that is shocking, but there are lots of innuendos that I think would make it a better read for older kids/teenagers.

Here are other reviews, at Michelle's Minions and Si, se puede! Yes we can.

Last day to enter for free ARC of Need, by Carrie Jones

If you'd to be entered, please leave a comment here! Carrie Jones is one of my favorite authors about girls in high school, but in this, her fourth book, there's more--inhuman creatures, both good and bad, prowling the wintry woods of Maine.

no Timeslip Tuesday today....

I wasn't able to write about a Timeslip Book today, because it was the Annual Meeting of the Friends of the Library, and since I am president I had to buy the cookies and cider etc. (anyone want any left over cookies and cider?) We (basically me and 2 other people) raised $4090, $2200 of which we spent on books. And many of the books came from reviews written by other bloggers--so thank you very much!

Most excitingly of all, we had two new Friends come with ideas and enthusiasm and a willingness to assume Offices. If anyone has any tips on how to recruit new active Friends and keep them happy and involved, please let me know!

Scattered authors of the UK have a blog...

I just learned, via the Fidra Blog, that there exists, across the pond, the Scattered Authors Society, comprised of about 150 UK writers of children and teenagers. For a few months they have had a blog going -- An Awfully Big Blog Adventure. Much good stuff! And so nice for those of us who periodically poke the blogosphere to find things to read (other than the Guardian, bless its heart) about books being published over there.

Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story

It is such a great pleasure to have the chance to write about a book that I unequivocally loved--Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story, by Janet Halfmann, illustrated by Duane Smith (2008, Lee & Low Books, Inc., 40 pages). And I am not alone in my strong feelings for this book:

"Awesome!" said my five year old. "Is there another book about him?"

"Cool!" said my eight year old. "Read it to us again."

I shall. This copy, that I was lucky enough to get from the publisher, will stay in our home library. And lest the publisher have any uncertainties about sending free books to bloggers, let me say that they are guaranteed at least one more sale, because I am buying it for my local public library.

So. There is young Robert Smalls, growing up a slave in South Carolina, getting a job in Charlestown, but having to send the money back to his master. He falls in love with another slave, they marry, and have children. But always there is the threat that they might be sold hanging over their heads. When the Civil War begins, there is new hope, but Robert is now working for the Confederate Army, piloting a river boat between the forts of South Carolina's rivers.

But when the white captain and crew of the boat fall into the habit of spending their nights ashore, leaving Robert and other enslaved African Americans on board alone, Robert dreams up a daring plan of escape--to take the boat, pick up their families from the shore, and escape past the numerous forts to freedom, seven miles away down the river, where the Union navy waits at sea. Robert knows the signal codes for safe passage past each fort, but with the sun rising, will the lookouts realize he is black, and open fire? And will the Union ships recognize them as friend, or foe?

This is a masterpiece of suspense, told in simple yet powerful words. All three of us were at the edge of our seats. And although Halfmann makes clear the evils of slavery, she does not fall into the traps of cheap rhetoric or over-emotional pity for the slaves whose story she tells. This is a great book!

I was so gripped by the story that I didn't want to stop and look at the pictures (sorry, Mr. Smith). And in a way I think this is a good thing. The eyes of my children were studying the paintings--bold brush strokes with little detail--but they were not the busy sort of pictures that work well in some books, but which can be distracting. In particular (going back after the fact to study the illustrations more closely), I loved the picture of Robert Smalls holding his first born--a tender picture of a black American father with his baby that the world of picture books is richer for having. Duane Smith is black himself, and it ends the book perfectly, I think, that his face on the jacket flap is the last picture one sees.

Janet Halfmann provides a densely written page telling what happens next to Robert Smalls and his family (more adventure, sorrow, hope, hard work, and great disappointment). There is a real picture of him, driving the point home that he is a real live person, despite the fact that his adventures are told in a picture book. She closes the book with his own words:

"My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be the equal of any people. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life." These words were spoken by Robert Small, former five-term United States Congressman, at the 1895 constitutional convention, at which South Caroline restricted the rights of African American to vote to such an extent as to virtually disenfranchise them.

So in the spirit of those words, don't wait till February, African American History Month, to read this book to your children, or put it in the hands of your teenagers, or place it, face out, in your library.

Here's another review from The Well Read Child who I was amused to see also didn't look at the pictures the first time through, and another from Fuse #8.

For more nonfiction, head over to Non-Fiction Monday, at Picture Book of the Day!

Madeline and the Cats of Rome

Fans of Madeline have cause for rejoicing. A new book has arrived--Madeline and the Cats of Rome (2008, Viking Juvenile, 48 pp), by John Bemelmans Marciano. He is the grandson of Ludwig Bemelmans, author of the original Madeline books, and carefully studied the art and words of his grandfather in creating his own.

It works! Madeline and the Cats of Rome is a book that fans of the series and new friends of Madeline should both enjoy.

In this story, Madeline, the other 11 girls, Miss Clavel, and their faithful hound Genevieve, exchange cold and rainy Paris for springtime in Rome (lucky them!). All goes well, as they enjoy the sights, until an urchin makes off with Miss Clavel's camera. Madeline and Genevieve chase after her, into the dark side of the city. At last they catch the thief, inside an abandoned house, filled with hundreds of stray cats...

It is up to Madeline to find a way to help the poor cats without resorting to crime, and she comes through triumphantly!

The artwork is close enough to the originals so as not to disturb (too much) the delicate sensibilities of avid fans (that would be me), and with sufficient charm of its own to entertain young readers who aren't quite sure who Madeline is (my boys). And the pictures are a nice introduction to the tourist attractions (not quite as glorious as the tour of France presented in Madeline and the Gypsies, and I with that this one, like that one, identified what we're seeing, but it's still nice).

The words with which this story is told are spot on, continuity-wise. It's that same sort of verse that is used in the earlier books--kind of awkward in places but still caries the adventure on swimmingly.

There was only one thing missing--Miss Clavel does not get a chance to run "fast and faster, to the scene of the disaster."

John Bemelmans Marciano is also the author of Bemelmans: The Life and Art of Madeline's Creator. He also, back in completed his grandfather's book Madeline in America, and Other Holiday Tales (1999), which started, surprisingly, as "Madeline's Christmas in Texas" -- you can learn more about that in this interview, and a few years later, completed Madeline Says Merci (2001), and, on his own, wrote Madeline Loves Animals (2005), for younger children.

Here's another review, from The Children's Book Review.