The latest Simmons magazine explains that Cathie is heading the 2009 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award Committee! Barbara Elleman is also on the crew.
If you don't remember, the honor is a sort of lifetime achievement award. Past winners:
2007: James Marshall
2005: Laurence Yep
2003: Eric Carle
2001: Milton Meltzer
1998: Russell Freedman
1995: Virginia Hamilton
1992: Marcia Brown
1989: Elizabeth George Speare
1986: Jean Fritz
1983: Maurice Sendak
1980: Theodor S. Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
1975: Beverly Cleary
1970: E. B. White
1965: Ruth Sawyer
1960: Clara Ingram Judson
1954: Laura Ingalls Wilder
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Poll Over
July will be Absolutely Positively Not by David LaRochelle and August is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
electricity
Zap by Paul Fleischman--
It sounds tacky, but this book was fun fun and I can honestly describe it as a ROMP. Fleischman's foreward left me dubious--cribbing seven plays into one? Sounds confusing. But he successfully took a mess of typical genres apart and slapped them back together. The cross-play travel reminded me of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books, if anyone else has read them.
I think my favorite part was when the actors broke character and/or allowed a layer of their personal reality to influence the scene. The fishbowl scene was hysterical.
This was a short book, so I don't have a lot to say besides I really enjoyed reading it and Fleischman continues to amaze me with his myriad storytelling abilities. So many genres, so many methods.
It sounds tacky, but this book was fun fun and I can honestly describe it as a ROMP. Fleischman's foreward left me dubious--cribbing seven plays into one? Sounds confusing. But he successfully took a mess of typical genres apart and slapped them back together. The cross-play travel reminded me of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books, if anyone else has read them.
I think my favorite part was when the actors broke character and/or allowed a layer of their personal reality to influence the scene. The fishbowl scene was hysterical.
This was a short book, so I don't have a lot to say besides I really enjoyed reading it and Fleischman continues to amaze me with his myriad storytelling abilities. So many genres, so many methods.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Photoshopped Children's Book Covers
These seem to pop up every now and then, but they are often amusing.
I like the version of Caps for Sale on page six.
No--The Tiger who Came to Tea is better. (page seven)
I like the version of Caps for Sale on page six.
No--The Tiger who Came to Tea is better. (page seven)
Friday, May 18, 2007
Monday, May 07, 2007
This month's book's author
Clicky on the title to be whisked away to Garret Freymann-Weyr's homepage. She gets my vote for Most Easily Misspelled YA Author.
Discussion begins the 15th! Do you have your copy of Stay with Me?
Discussion begins the 15th! Do you have your copy of Stay with Me?
Monday, April 16, 2007
Blown Moon
I was really excited about reading Blow Out the Moon. It's a boarding school book, part of a small genre, and it's the best kind: foreigner boarder! (I used to be really keen on these--the English girl at an Australian boarding school (and vice versa), English evacuees sent to the US because of WWII and then returning, etc. Classic fish out of water setup.)
Ach; disappointment! Was Koponen going for a story or a biographical account of her life? The book straddles an uncomfortable position between "this is what really happened" and fiction, settling for neither, leaving the reader (me, anyways) confused. Pick one or the other, please. Sometimes there was too much exposition, not enough character development. Other times, Koponen describes herself as a child--especially her thinking processes--in an apt, realistic manner.
Either way, clean up the cutesy writing and CUT BACK ON EXCLAMATION POINTS. We also know (how we know, how you repeat it over and over) that you really, really, really, REALLY like Henry. We don't know why (or really care), but we know you do.
It's a screaming "First Novel."
Ach; disappointment! Was Koponen going for a story or a biographical account of her life? The book straddles an uncomfortable position between "this is what really happened" and fiction, settling for neither, leaving the reader (me, anyways) confused. Pick one or the other, please. Sometimes there was too much exposition, not enough character development. Other times, Koponen describes herself as a child--especially her thinking processes--in an apt, realistic manner.
Either way, clean up the cutesy writing and CUT BACK ON EXCLAMATION POINTS. We also know (how we know, how you repeat it over and over) that you really, really, really, REALLY like Henry. We don't know why (or really care), but we know you do.
It's a screaming "First Novel."
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Gene Yang Interview @ Cybils
Gene: I think of American Born Chinese as fiction with autobiography sprinkled in. Parts of the Jin storyline are lifted directly from my junior high experiences. Much of the dialog of the Timmy character, for instance, came from a group of kids that used to torment me and my Asian-American friends. The three strands started off as ideas for three separate stories. Somewhere along the way, I decided to try to bring them together, almost as an intellectual exercise. They're thematically connected, but I wanted connect them in a more concrete way.
His next book comes out in the spring of next year!
Monday, March 19, 2007
Brotherhood 2.0: March 19th: Urban Exploration
Tobin's on the Brotherhood!
(And he has a scarf on, per usual.)
Food, Glorious Food!
Any other Simmons alums get something in the mail?
I'm tentatively planning to attend the Institute but am confused about the cost. Is there a separate cost for the Symposium vs. just the Institute? If there is, I can't find it.
FYI, the April book is Blow Out the Moon by Libby Koponen. Reserve your library copy now or buy it in paperback.
More FYI, I'm tweaking the page and will probably upgrade the template later this week. I sorted through the links on the right column and now they ALL work and lead to interesting sites with lots of reading suggestions.
I'm tentatively planning to attend the Institute but am confused about the cost. Is there a separate cost for the Symposium vs. just the Institute? If there is, I can't find it.
FYI, the April book is Blow Out the Moon by Libby Koponen. Reserve your library copy now or buy it in paperback.
More FYI, I'm tweaking the page and will probably upgrade the template later this week. I sorted through the links on the right column and now they ALL work and lead to interesting sites with lots of reading suggestions.
Friday, March 16, 2007
I hate self-referential books
[If you haven't read The Book of Lost Things yet, don't read this--SPOILERS ABOUND!]
I do, it's true. I almost lost my love for Stephen King's Dark Tower books when he appeared as himself in the last parts of the epic. Last week, I had to put Richard Powers's Galatea 2.2 down (instead of throwing it across the room; it was a library book) after discovering "R.P." was Mr. Powers himself. It's like the author wants to be patted on the head: now aren't YOU clever!
Granted, John Connolly is not David, the revealed author of The Book of Lost Things, but the text screams CLEVER CLEVER!!! at me. Also, DERISIVE! and CHILDISH! (Don't confuse that with childLIKE, a perfectly fine thing to have in a young-person's book.)
Alas, I am left puzzled. I still can't decide if I liked it or not. I didn't hate it, but it didn't ring any bells for me either. Technically, the book is published for adults (it won nominations for being a YA crossover) but it reads more like the sort of story an adult thinks hearkens back to oh-so innocent childhood. The stripped down narrative is merely a collection of snapshots from fractured fairy tales, most with pre-Victorian morbidness added back in--and then some. The portions of darkdark blood and guts did not mesh with the ridiculous bits, like the whole seven dwarfs scenario.
It frustrated me to no end how little the inhabitants of Fairyland/Dreamland/The Afterlife/whatever knew about their country. The first rule of fantasy is there must be rules--some logic, please! But a whole population of individuals who have no local or historical knowledge? Instead of rich characters, they become a whole lotta cutouts, reliant on what little of their personalities Connolly chose to include and what we know about them from general knowledge--Roland, for example. Here's a knight*** who cannot remember the order of kings and queens. And don't get me started on the dumb townspeople.
So David killed Rumpelstiltskin? Anansi? Coyote? Kokopelli? Loki? The Devil? Is all Heaven safe now--or was that Hell? Is the afterlife the stuff books are made of? Where is everyone else who died? Ack!
Why does the woman in the tower want David? Was she calling the whole time? Is she modelled after a fairyland character and I'm totally missing it?
Did anyone else know the answer to the troll's riddle? Hello! Labyrinth!
There's the whole copout with the plane crash, (COME ON--WHAT ARE THE ODDS???) meaning one could legitimately finish the book thinking David was just a nutty, dreamy man with an imagination and troubled childhood. (The plane crash also led me to believe David was in a Donnie Darko situation, dead and just ambling around the empty spaces in his mind--something he asks Roland on page 208.) On a whole, the book was too neat and tidy. David never has to work hard at anything; it all comes to him rather easily. All natural, no real effort or sacrifice. The Woodsman has Great Timing at the end, of course.
Maybe I've read too many fairy tales and fantasy stories to enjoy this rehash?
The end left a sour taste in my mouth. Not a bad book, but it had the potential to be better.
***Incidentally, Roland is the main character of Stephen King's Dark Tower books, as in R. Browning's "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." But he's a different sort of knight, one with pistols slung around his hips and grit in his teeth.
I do, it's true. I almost lost my love for Stephen King's Dark Tower books when he appeared as himself in the last parts of the epic. Last week, I had to put Richard Powers's Galatea 2.2 down (instead of throwing it across the room; it was a library book) after discovering "R.P." was Mr. Powers himself. It's like the author wants to be patted on the head: now aren't YOU clever!
Granted, John Connolly is not David, the revealed author of The Book of Lost Things, but the text screams CLEVER CLEVER!!! at me. Also, DERISIVE! and CHILDISH! (Don't confuse that with childLIKE, a perfectly fine thing to have in a young-person's book.)
Alas, I am left puzzled. I still can't decide if I liked it or not. I didn't hate it, but it didn't ring any bells for me either. Technically, the book is published for adults (it won nominations for being a YA crossover) but it reads more like the sort of story an adult thinks hearkens back to oh-so innocent childhood. The stripped down narrative is merely a collection of snapshots from fractured fairy tales, most with pre-Victorian morbidness added back in--and then some. The portions of darkdark blood and guts did not mesh with the ridiculous bits, like the whole seven dwarfs scenario.
It frustrated me to no end how little the inhabitants of Fairyland/Dreamland/The Afterlife/whatever knew about their country. The first rule of fantasy is there must be rules--some logic, please! But a whole population of individuals who have no local or historical knowledge? Instead of rich characters, they become a whole lotta cutouts, reliant on what little of their personalities Connolly chose to include and what we know about them from general knowledge--Roland, for example. Here's a knight*** who cannot remember the order of kings and queens. And don't get me started on the dumb townspeople.
So David killed Rumpelstiltskin? Anansi? Coyote? Kokopelli? Loki? The Devil? Is all Heaven safe now--or was that Hell? Is the afterlife the stuff books are made of? Where is everyone else who died? Ack!
Why does the woman in the tower want David? Was she calling the whole time? Is she modelled after a fairyland character and I'm totally missing it?
Did anyone else know the answer to the troll's riddle? Hello! Labyrinth!
There's the whole copout with the plane crash, (COME ON--WHAT ARE THE ODDS???) meaning one could legitimately finish the book thinking David was just a nutty, dreamy man with an imagination and troubled childhood. (The plane crash also led me to believe David was in a Donnie Darko situation, dead and just ambling around the empty spaces in his mind--something he asks Roland on page 208.) On a whole, the book was too neat and tidy. David never has to work hard at anything; it all comes to him rather easily. All natural, no real effort or sacrifice. The Woodsman has Great Timing at the end, of course.
Maybe I've read too many fairy tales and fantasy stories to enjoy this rehash?
The end left a sour taste in my mouth. Not a bad book, but it had the potential to be better.
***Incidentally, Roland is the main character of Stephen King's Dark Tower books, as in R. Browning's "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." But he's a different sort of knight, one with pistols slung around his hips and grit in his teeth.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Head North
The shortlist for the YA Canadian Book Award is up. I'm going to check library availability for some of their past award winners and add them to the WishList. One of my first classes at Simmons was on Canadian Children's Lit--JLiz and me! They've got some excellent authors up there.
Oooh; I'll look into Aussie ones, too.
Oooh; I'll look into Aussie ones, too.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Misc.
I will be posting a poll for the April book tomorrow--AND letting our new members know how they can add books to the Hedgehog Suggestion list.
Discussion for March's book, The Book of Lost Things, will begin the 15th!
Discussion for March's book, The Book of Lost Things, will begin the 15th!
Monday, February 26, 2007
The Cool Crowd
You know, I'd be such a better writer if I could meet up with fabulous YA authors at cafes in NY and write. Er, "write."
Ooo, bask in the Mac Love.
That reminds me of getting together with friends to "study" in college.
At least I have the right computer to become a famous YA author, right?
Ooo, bask in the Mac Love.
That reminds me of getting together with friends to "study" in college.
At least I have the right computer to become a famous YA author, right?
Friday, February 23, 2007
Virtual Contact
John Green responded to my comment!!
What do you mean you still aren't watching the Brotherhood 2.0 vlogs? --->They reformatted the main page, so it is THE one to read.
Comment by SarahHooray! I'm adding John Green to the list of author's I've met. I wonder if he knows Tobin Anderson? They seem like they'd get along swimmingly.
2007-02-23 17:37:22
Just cheering the Diana Wynne Jones book on the dresser. I want to be her when I grow up…even though I’m 29. There’s still time.
Love the book tour, Hank. (Any book recs from you two are very welcome and going right to my List.) Will we get the chance to see the rest of John’s book storage system?
Comment by John Green
2007-02-23 20:19:53
Sarah, you should see it shortly…
What do you mean you still aren't watching the Brotherhood 2.0 vlogs? --->They reformatted the main page, so it is THE one to read.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Optional but Interesting
I've been following the Brotherhood 2.0 vlogs pretty rabidly (I think John Green's personal site has a better format and the same info; the posts on the main page are out of order for the last few days). Every year, John's brother Hank posits a survey to friends and family. John answered it in two vlogs and Hank posted his responses just the other day.
What with new people joining up and in the interest of deciding the state of the self and sharing it, I'm posting Hank's list of questions here. You are welcome to answer none, some or all of them.
I've posted the questions in the comments section; COPY-PASTE the list into your own comment box to answer.
What with new people joining up and in the interest of deciding the state of the self and sharing it, I'm posting Hank's list of questions here. You are welcome to answer none, some or all of them.
I've posted the questions in the comments section; COPY-PASTE the list into your own comment box to answer.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
A. B. C. Rolling Ball & etc.
We are welcoming some new additions to the Rumpus, courtesy of Susie--welcome Beth and mundane4life! Please introduce yourselves! (I have met them both multiple times and can vouch for them, too. They are quirky enough to fit in, methinks.)
Regarding American Born Chinese, the discussion is open. I know Susie has a copy because I was with her when she bought it, so I'll post my very short initial blurb here and await further commentary!
One word review: wonderful.
The story was painful, amusing and thought-provoking, but you can NOT talk about this book without referring to the art, which I really liked—clean lines, excellent drafting.
V. nice how the storylines come together.
More when I don't have flying headache.
***Be sure to reserve a copy of March's book at your library: The Book of Lost Things.
Regarding American Born Chinese, the discussion is open. I know Susie has a copy because I was with her when she bought it, so I'll post my very short initial blurb here and await further commentary!
One word review: wonderful.
The story was painful, amusing and thought-provoking, but you can NOT talk about this book without referring to the art, which I really liked—clean lines, excellent drafting.
V. nice how the storylines come together.
More when I don't have flying headache.
***Be sure to reserve a copy of March's book at your library: The Book of Lost Things.
Friday, February 16, 2007
The Dark is Rising is a movie!
Hmmm.
I refuse to see the Bridge to Terebithia movie and Charlotte's Web. This one might have a chance...
More on casting here.
I refuse to see the Bridge to Terebithia movie and Charlotte's Web. This one might have a chance...
More on casting here.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
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