Let the voting commence....again!

VOTE AGAIN FOR NEXT MONTH'S CHOICE!



Maybe I should start putting these in the sidebar. I'll upgrade to the New Blogger soon.

Fevvyary

Okay, I cheated this time and put up winning books from the recent awards & honors up. OF MY CHOOSING. Sorry to get all non-democratic on you all, but Susan suggested it, and I do all that she suggests.

- - - - - - - [Jeopardy music] - - - - - - -

Um, we may have a problem getting these, as many are on backorder at Amazon and I can guess what that means at libraries and bookstores.

I'm looking at the Horn Book's Recently Announced Awards page. Suggestions?

We could choose a book from the less-publicized awards...I think the Newbery Award and Honor books will be v. hard to get.

Potentials:
+ Surrender by Sonya Hartnett (Meera, did you read this one already?) -PRINTZ HONOR
+ American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (I just read this tonight, as it came in on hold at the library, and would love to discuss) -PRINTZ WINNER
+ Copper Sun by Shannon Draper -CORETTA SCOTT KING WINNER
+ The Last Dragon by Silvana de Mari -BATCHELDER (TRANSLATION) HONOR

Do tell!

Green vs. Green

With varied levels of success, we read John Green's Looking for Alaska last year, and I read (and loved) his most recent An Abundance of Katherines as well. He and his brother, Hank, have committed themselves to Brotherhood 2.0 a video blog (short, like two minutes each) exchange for 2007. It's very amusing. I've spent much of this morning catching up on their January correspondence.

John's "NannyNannyRichKid" song is awesome.

Hank has a Narnia map on his basement wall.

(Okay, I have one, too, but it's in a box and I had it for when I was teaching.)
Anyway, it's great; they really do look like the brothers from The Proclaimers.

And, wholly unrelated to YA or books period, Making Fiends is also funny and a welcome distraction to a cold cold day.

Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, Sibert, etc., Awards announced

Our next several books have to be from this list, right? I want to read them all!

Kalpana's Dream

Oh dear.

I did NOT like this book! Was it supposed to be serious? Silly? Both? I spent much of the time asking myself what the hell was going on.

More when I have my notes in front of me--just wanted to get the topic open.

2007 Summer Symposium?

Anyone know anything about the Symposium this year? I did a quick search but could not find anything.

I haven't picked my copy of Kalpana's Dream yet; my copy is on hold but we're having ice issues and I don't want to brave the highways. People here don't know how to drive in icy conditions and I'm not risking their inexperience!

January Book

Kalpana's Dream it is!

MPH!

I heard him on Studio 360 tonight talking about The Wizard of Oz!

Not sure which clip he was in. Hmm.

Dammit; they are in RealPlayer only.

A new year, a new book.

Our list of contributors has shrunk; I hope three options is enough to get a majority.

New Year!

How about making a resolution (or, as I like to say, READOLUTION!) to read at least six of the Hedgehog books this year??? Hmmm? You can do that!

I'm putting up a poll tomorrow sometime. Be sure to vote!

Very Merry Poppins

Horn Book 2006 Fanfare (click)

The good ol' HB posted its best books of 2006. I've read four of them, three fiction and one non-fiction, and am adding some of the others to my list. Just not doing well on picturebooks this year.

To make it official

Just so you know, we'll be taking the month of December OFF and resume bookreading in January. A poll will go up later this week to choose the January book, giving you plenty of time to acquire and read it.

I'm going to clear out the Wish List books that have been voted down a few times and pepper it with some fresh blood. Add your own suggestions, please! What genres are we missing? (Nonfiction?)

Is getting the book a major obstacle for anyone? I'd love for more people to participate and, if that's the problem, we can easily switch to strictly paperbacks. I'm guessing that time is the issue, though.

If you know someone who might like to join, please invite them.

Better late...

Click the title to be whisked away to five (5) video segments of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards!

I haven't read ANY of those books -- not even the picturebooks! I miss hanging out with Simmons people at the bookstore and making intelligent picturebook conversation.

I found somethin' in the woods, pa...

The Body of Christopher Creed has a great hook -- there's the Title of Death and then Torey's Mysterious New Start at a new school where people don't stare at him. My mind jumped to all sorts of conclusions in that first chapter and was screaming with questions. Did Torey find the body? Was he responsible for the death? What really happened? Is Torey a reliable narrator? Etc. etc. It is an intriguing story -- even if Torey is a dumb nickname for a male high school jock.

I liked it, generally, though it's flawed; it reads like the first novel it is. Most of my frustration came from the writing style, with forced-seeming slang and oh-so-awkward dialogue. Plum-Ucci can claim some excuse for this, because, dude, Torey wrote the book; blame the amateur style on him. (As an English teacher, I'd mark Torey down for using "weird" and "weirdness" far too often.) That's not a valid excuse for me. If I'm cringing about the overuse of "DUDE" by page 23, that's probably overkill. Plum-Ucci was just trying too hard to be one of the cool kids. "Turbo-slut" was new to me, though the Urban Dictionary has three definitions; I thought she made it up.

Question: Is a high school student likely to remember a random (albeit dorky) kid using the word "winsome" way back in second grade? I'm not surprised that Chris Creed knew and used that word as a wee, nerdy second grader. What is out of character is self-professed dumb-guy Alex recalling that useage yonks later when he doesn't seem like the kind of person who even know what "winsome" means as a high schooler, much less a seven-year-old. There were multiple times when the personality of a character didn't match up with their actions or words.

I obviously have many bones to pick with Plum-Ucci's style issues. Moving on to structure, (oh boy!) the letters at the end were convenient devices. The last one successfully left me with a feel-good finish, but I don't think they were necessary. Hard to say now if I prefer the story without, but I don't know. Other opinions on Torey's replies?

The American Indian ghost stuff was...weird. No idea where that came from. I was very disappointed that immaculate decomposition is pretend. Or it is as far as I can tell; there are no references online.

I have many critiques about the book, but I did enjoy it. It's a thriller with a not-too-heavyhanded message.

We're all mad here.

Su Blackwell's art (book/cut sculpture) includes cutouts of copies of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Secret Garden, among others. Incredible.

It's what's in the bank

I was browsing Powells.com and discovered Random House is coming out with a 10th anniversary edition of The Golden Compass.

What?!

I adore this book (and already own two copies of each book in the trilogy) but this seems...is the word I'm looking for "money-grubbing?"

RH's site explains

Pullman created 16 pages of new materials (archival documents, scientific notes, and found letters of Lord Asriel) just for this edition, whcih [sic] has been illustrated and hand-lettered by renowned Bristish [sic again! Bad Random House!] artist Ian Beck. The deluxe edition also features a ribbon bookmark, colored endpapers, and Pullman's own chapter-opening spot art.

But with the movie coming out next year (and following movies in following years) there will be hideous MOVIE COVERS and all sorts of promotional garbage.

Can I get away with reading a library copy of all these new materials? Doubt it. RH wins and gets my money.

Meg Rosoff's top 10 adult books for teenagers

I've only read two of those and think it is cruel to have Catch-22 on this list. I should read some James Bond.

Over at Bookshelves of Doom, the conversation (spurred by Fuse#8) is about ChildLit books one does not like as an adult. I think we could build a HUGE list on that topic.

John Green article about "kiddie lit"

Presumably this is by the guy who wrote Looking for Alaska (unless there are two YA authors named John Green?). Written well, and interesting too, even though it's a few years old. And it made me feel smart because he says stuff like "You've probably never heard of..." and, of course, we have!

Kevin Crossley-Holland Interview and MORE!

Our favorite Simmons brunch guest has been busy!

Listen or read (click title) the Q & A about his new book, Gatty's Tale.

Did anyone here read his Arthurian trilogy? I only read the first one.

Also, Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is filming. Photos here. Nicole Kidman plays Mrs. Coulter; excellent casting, I think! Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, is Lord Asriel. Lyra is played by an unknown; no photos!

Furthermore, it looks like the November book is The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci, widely available at your library and in paperback.

Finally, I want to point out that Eunice added her part to the Nick and Norah discussion. Do check it out --