Search results matching tag 'authors and illustrators'

Books to Warm your Heart

mrsweasley@evpl — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:57:00 GMT

February is full of holidays and special events, and we have books for every occasion. Here are some heart-warming books for that chilly mid-winter holiday, Valentine's Day ( February 14) and a bonus book for Black History Month.

Dog meets Cat (and falls in love). They don't speak the same language. Are they doomed to misunderstand each other, or is there hope for this mismatched pair? Ahhh...but there is a universal language. Find out what it is in Woof: a Love Story by Sarah Weeks.

Henry in Love is another gentle story of young love. In this book, a blueberry muffin, a football player and a teacher's penchant for rearranging her classroom all figure in advancing Henry's dream romance. By Peter McCarty, the Caldecott Honor recipient for Hondo and Fabian.

"Silly as a seal/rugged as a moose/happy as a herd of hippos drinking apple juice...." Those are just a few of the ways your heart can feel according to author/illustrator Michael Hall in My Heart is Like a Zoo. Heart-shaped art graces the pages while nimble verse describes a range of emotions in terms easily grasped by children. Try counting the hearts, exploring the colors and shapes, or making your own heart-shaped art.

For Black History month, check out Back of the Bus by Aaron Reynolds. I've been a fan of Reynolds since his first book, Chicks and Salsa, a wacky barnyard tale complete with recipes for Mexican fare from this chef-turned-writer. In Back of the Bus he surprised me with his range as a writer, serving up a thoughtful, sometimes poetic retelling of the Rosa Parks story from the perspective of a young boy on that same bus. He deftly captures the thoughts and emotions of a little boy whose ordinary bus ride (and consequently, his life) is transformed by one courageous action. Back of the Bus is illustrated by the inimitable Floyd Cooper, whose warm, sunlit palette evokes a dawning of aspiration through the colors of a workday sunset.

New Jim Arnosky Book

bookmarkbeck@evpl — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:21:00 GMT

Jim Arnosky, naturalist and artist, shows how familiar he is with the oceans, and particularly the Florida Keys, in this quick, suspenseful read for the 4th-6th grade crowd. The title is The Pirates of Crocodile Swamp. Jack and Sandy escape from a bad home enviroment and end up bayside off Key Largo, Florida in a crocodile swamp. They fight off snakes, rats, a eleven foot crocodile, and a hammerhead shark. They are befriended by an old Cuban refugee and a young Key Largo conch named Mia. Through all the uncertainty and danger, they stand by their pledge to live a pirate's life, always be together, and never return home the way it was. The turning point of the story is a little shocking, but the resolution is happy. The story is believable, thanks to Arnosky's knowledge of the area and writing skill, but the characters seem too young to do all the brave things they plan and carry out. Imagination is what makes it fun. The Arnoskys have based several recent books, DVDs, CDs around trips on their boat Crayfish in the Keys and other coastal locations. All are informative and beautifully illustrated. Good reads!

Say That Fast Three Times!

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:06:00 GMT

Jon Agee has a new book called Orangutan Tongs, and the subtitle is a perfect description -- Poems to Tangle Your Tongue. I found myself wanting to read them out loud. Here's the beginning of a real tongue twister:

A three-toed tree toad tried to tie/ A two-toed tree toad's shoe. / But tying two-toed shoes is hard /For three-toed toads to do, /Since three-toed shoes each have three toes, /And two-toed shoes have two.

It goes on from there. I think my favorite, though, is "Purple-Paper People." I just like the idea of there being people "who use paper /That is colored only purple. /They are in the Purple-Paper People Club."

Agee illustrates each poem, and that adds to the fun. As for my favorite illustration, I'm torn between the Purple-Paper People and the picture of the unkempt camp.

Jon Agee obviously likes to play with words. One of his earlier books is Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!And Other Palindromes. But for several years now I have been partial to his Milo's Hat Trick, in which a bear saves a down-on-his-luck magician by jumping out of his hat.

We Are the Ship

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:16:00 GMT

Three cheers for We Are the Ship! I wrote about this book earlier, and said I thought it might be a good candidate for the Caldecott Award. It didn't win that, but it did win the Sibert Award, for the most distinguished informational children's book of the year, along with the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and it was an honor book for the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. Hurrah for Kadir Nelson, the author and illustrator! He writes this account of the history of the Negro League Baseball from the point of view of the old-timers themselves. Since it's about baseball, there are nine innings -- er, chapters, all illustrated with full page portraits of the baseball players in Kadir Nelson's beautiful artwork. Yes, it's a children's book, but adults will enjoy it, too.

Ghosts of the Past (and Present)

mrsweasley@evpl — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:22:00 GMT

Have you ever been haunted by a book? I was haunted by a book I couldn’t remember. My mother told me that when I was about three years old, I had a favorite book, one I checked out over and over again. I had absolutely no recollection of that book, and I wondered—what kind of book captured my imagination at that age? Was it a worthy book for a future children’s librarian?

Armed with a partial title, I searched Loganberry Books’ stumper database (http://www.loganberrybooks.com/solved.html ) and discovered Mary’s Scary House by Edith Thacher Hurd, illustrated by her husband Clement Hurd and published in 1956, the year I was born. Well, at least I had good taste! Edith Thacher Hurd authored many children’s books, some of which are still in print. Clement Hurd was the illustrator of the classics Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown, as well as many others.

My search grew cold. There were no copies of Mary's Scary House remaining in the EVPL system. A few copies (mostly ex-library) could be had from used booksellers at “collectible” prices. I yearned to know more about this book that had helped to shape my love of books.

At Christmas, my husband surprised me with a beautiful, gently used and AUTOGRAPHED copy of Mary’s Scary House.

I rediscovered a charming story of a little girl who lives in a haunted house with a reluctant little ghost. Mary decides to take over the little ghost’s job, but learns that it is, indeed, difficult to stay up all night haunting. The happy conclusion is that now the ghost can be her playmate during the day.

I was delighted to be able share the story with my grandchildren. I paired it with a recently published book, Ghosts in the House by Kazuno Kohara. I was struck by the similarties between my old favorite and Kohara's contemporary story and style of illustration. In this new book, an enterprising little witch finds a practical way to deal with the ghosts in her haunted house.

Did you have a favorite book when you were very young? What books do you love to share with your young friends?

Former Newbery Award Winner Coming Here!

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:49:00 GMT

I love to hear authors speak about their books. This March, Patricia MacLachlan is coming to Central Library as part of the Evansville Area Reading Council Young Authors Program. She is the 1986 Newbery Award winner (best American children's novel as selected by American Library Association) for Sarah, Plain and Tall. I heard her speak several years ago at Butler University and really enjoyed her talk. While traveling to a speaking engagement one time she was to be met at an airport by someone she did not know, but she headed straight to the right person --he was holding a sign that said, "Jeremy, Small and Short." In at least one of her books she has a character saving a handfull of dirt from a place important to them. This is something she does herself. I fully expect her upcoming presentation to be equally entertaining.

Patricia MacLachlan has written several books before Sarah and a large number afterwards, including a continuation of the adventures of Anna and Caleb and their family. Some of them are available on DVD, including Sarah Plain and Tall starring Glenn Close. When I heard her speak, she was trying to prevent her Sarah family from being made into a tv series the way Little House on the Prairie was, on the theory that it went on and on far too long and lost track of the original idea. It will be interesting to see if she has comments on the media that has been made from her works.

To see the books in EVPL by Patricia MacLachlan, click here.

So many of her books are so good! I really like Sarah, of course, and Through Edward's Eyes, a much more contemporary story. What's your favorite?

"Where has Tillie laid her egg?"

bookchick@evpl — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:26:00 GMT

Tillie Lay an Egg by Terry Golson is a delightful book about a hen who likes to do things a little differently than the other hens. Wait her turn to lay an egg? Bah! Tillie has more important things to discover. You can discover them too as you read this story and look for the eggs Tillie has laid in some pretty strange places.

Photographs of the hens and the Golson farm taken by Ben Fink use a beautiful soft light and props that take you back to a simpler time before electricity and all it's distractions.

But wait! We do have electricity and Terry Golson has set up a webcam in the chicken coop!

www.hencam.com

Read bios about each of the hens and watch them inside and out as they go through their day from their first feeding in the morning until they roost for the night.

There is also a beautiful lop-eared rabbit named Candy who has a hutch in the chicken yard. She's pretty quick but sometimes you can catch her running for a bite of apple.

I hope you enjoy this book and webcam as much as I did.

Do You have a Famous Relative?

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:34:00 GMT

Every family has a relative who is their claim to fame. Mine is Branch Rickey, the man who hired Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in major league baseball.

Now Kadir Nelson has written and illustrated We Are The Ship; The Story of Negro League Baseball, and he's even included a painting of Branch Rickey! Pretty realistic, too, although I think his eyebrows were even more bushy. And Nelson points out that Branch Rickey would not have been able to make his integrating hire if it were not for a new baseball commissioner being elected in 1944, A. B. "Happy" Chandler. Chandler was quoted as saying " If a colored boy can make it on Okinawa and Guadalcanal . . .[i.e., serving in world War II] he can make it in baseball." My family had never heard of Happy Chandler, but I sure heard about Branch Rickey.

The reviewers are saying great things about this book, and not because of my relative. Nelson's artwork shows individual portraits of star players as if they are on the baseball field. HIs pictures make you want to just keep looking at them. Looks to me like a good candidate for this year's Caldecott Award. I think this is the first book where he has also done the writing, and if so he's been keeping a great talent well hidden. It's written from the point of view of a Negro League player relating the experiences of everybody, what good players they were, how much they enjoyed it, what hard times they had, the indignities thrust upon them by segregation.

This book is located in children's nonfiction, but it's for older children, and adults would appreciate it as well. Even if you're not related to Branch Rickey.

What does it mean to be poor?

mrsweasley@evpl — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:50:00 GMT

People are talking about tough times economically, and many fear it will get worse. For an idea of what it really means to be poor, try reading Ruth White's Little Audrey. White writes in the forward that the story of four little girls and their parents living in a West Virginia coal mining camp in 1948 is essentially true. It is her family's story, told from the perspective of her older sister Audrey, who was 11 at the time.

The descriptions of a family coping with poverty remind me of the classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but this book is much shorter and could easily be read by a third-grader. There are people who enter their lives for only a short time, but leave a profound mark. Virgil is Audrey's friend who is teased by the other boys, but wisely uses his wits to survive. Miss Stairus is the teacher who wins everyone's heart, even the tough guys'. And then there is precious Betty Gail....

Who has made a difference in your life? Have you lived through a difficult time and come out stronger? You'll appreciate Little Audrey by Ruth White.

Honey Cake

mrsweasley@evpl — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:39:00 GMT

Every year, David's mother bakes a honey cake for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year celebration. Eating honey cake symbolizes the hope that the new year will be sweet. David's sister Rachel expresses the opinion of all Denmark in 1943: "A sweet year would be a year without Nazis."

For three and a half years, the Germans have occupied Denmark, and now word comes that the Nazis plan to round up Denmark's Jews. Even with the help of friends, can David's family find a way to leave the country before they are sent to a concentration camp? Secret messages, breathless escapes and courageous resistance will keep you turning the pages of this history-based story. Author Joan Betty Stuchner includes Mama's Honey Cake recipe to help you taste the sweetness of hope for freedom that David's family shared.