Finalists for the 2009 Cybils

The finalists for the 2009 Cybil awards are now online on the Cybils blog. Don't know what the Cybils are? Here is a brief description from the Cybils blog:

About The Cybils Awards

Our purpose is two-fold:

• Reward the children’s and young adult authors (and illustrators, let’s not forget them) whose books combine the highest literary merit and "kid appeal." What’s that mean? If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussel sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious.
• Foster a sense of community among bloggers who write about children’s and YA literature, highlight our best reviewers (and shamelessly promote their blogs) and provide a forum for the similarly obsessed.

We wouldn’t be a real awards if we didn’t have a whole bunch of complicated rules in tortured lawyerese. So maybe we’re not a real awards, because there aren’t any lawyers and only two rules:

1. You (and you can be anybody, even you) may nominate any book published in the contest year in English;
2. Only one book per category. We have ways of checking this, so play nice. Nominations open Oct. 1 and close Oct. 15.

After that, here’s what happens:

• We place all the authors names into a hat and pass our magic wand over it. After the rabbit pops out, we eat him and announce the winner, whom we have selected at random;
• Not really! Just testing you. We have panelists in each category who eat the rabbit. No, er, they read the books. They have until January 1 for that, which we hope and pray will be enough time. On Jan. 1 we’ll post the finalists;
• From Jan. 1 to mid-February, a second group of judges will read all the finalists and pick the winners, which we’ll announce on Valentine’s Day.

See? Easy. And no actual rabbits will be harmed in the process.

Take a look at the lists of finalists. There are some wonderful books here. I have not read all of them - as yet - but of the ones I have read these are the ones I would vote for:

Easy reader: Houndsley and Catina Plink and Plunk

Fantasy/Science Fiction: The Carbon Diaries

Fiction Picture Books: All the world

Graphic Novels: The storm in the barn

Mid Grade Fiction: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Nonfiction Picture Books: Keep on! The story of Matthew Henson

Nonfiction Middle Grade and Young Adult: Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

Poetry: The Monsterologist: A memoir in Rhyme

The School Children's Blizzard - January 12th, 1888

On this day in 1888 a terrible storm hit the plain states in America. People were caught unawares because the weather had been so warm, and when the storm hit many children were stranded in their school houses. Some children tried to make their way home and were lost in the storm. Numerous lives were lost, but there were also those lucky ones who found a haystack to shelter in, or who stumbled across a barn and who were thus saved.
Take a look at the books I have reviewed about this historic event in the School Children's Blizzard Feature.

Blog Book Tour - Calamity Jack

Not long ago I reviewed a superb graphic novel called Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale. Shannon has written many splendid books including Enna Burning, The Princess Academy and The Goose Girl. Now some of the characters whom we met in Rapunzel's Revenge are back in a new graphic novel adventure called Calamity Jack. Here is my review of this new title.

Calamity Jack

Shannon and Dean Hale

Illustrated by Nathan Hale

Graphic Novel

Ages 10 and up

Bloomsbury, 2010, 978-1-59990-076-6

Jack is the kind of fellow who fancies himself to be a bit of a “criminal mastermind.” He tries not to think to much about the wrongness of the things that he does, until they miscarry, which they often do. Then one day Jack decides to take on Blunderboar, a local businessman who just happens to be mean, powerful, and a giant. Blunderboar is a bully, and Jack decides to make him pay for his cruel behavior – by using some magical beans. Jack doesn’t think for a moment that tackling Blunderboar might not be such a good idea.

   Unfortunately, Jack’s plan backfires in a big way and Jack has to leave town. He goes out west and he has a fantastic adventure with a girl called Rapunzel. When the adventure is over and Jack is flush with success – and gold eggs – he decides to head back to his home town to redeem himself and help his mother. When he arrives in Shyport, he discovers that the city has changed dramatically, and for the worse.

   By combining fairytale, fantasy, and much more, Shannon and Dean Hale have once again created a memorable graphic novel that fans of this genre will greatly enjoy. Nathan Hale’s wonderful illustrations beautifully compliment the gripping and often amusing tale. You can read about Jack’s adventures with Rapunzel in Rapunzel’s Revenge. 

Please visit the other bloggers who are participating in the book tour:

Sally Apokedak, Reading is my Superpower, firesidemusings.blogspot.com, Through the Looking Glass Book Review , Booking Mama, Cafe of Dreams, Becky’s Book Reviews, The Hungry Readers, The Friendly Book Book, My Own Little Corner of the World, Book Blather, GreenBeanTeenQueen, Book Crumbs , Abby (the) Librarian, Dolce Bellezza, Homeschoolbuzz.com, The Book Cellar, Carrie’s YA Bookshelf, Bookshelf Monstrosity, Everyday Reading, Frenetic Reader, KidzBookBuzz.com, Maw Books

Story time for me: A new interactive book experience on the Web

Story Time For Me has launched a new interactive children’s reading website that promotes literacy worldwide while providing a place for children to read and listen to enjoyable and interactive online picture books.  The site is suitable for both toddlers and children in early elementary school.  The original episodic content will foster a love of reading and improve a child’s cognitive development and reading skills at the same time.  As the company itself is donating its product to many city schools, a significant goal of Story Time For Me is to raise funds for foundations through specially designed gifting programs that the company has designed.

Unique to Story Time For Me, all of the stories include tracking technology that highlights the narration as it’s being read.  This technology gives even the youngest child the tools to follow the words as they are read. Additional technology balances entertainment with proven learning techniques to provide children with hours of educational reading enjoyment. The Story Time For Me e-library offers compelling storytelling with inspiring and memorable characters that will stimulate any child’s imagination.

“Story Time For Me was developed in order to give kids who want to be on the internet, a wholesome and educational place to go,” says Andrew Gitt, owner and founder.  “As I am a father to four young children, I was concerned about the violent video games and inappropriate material that is on the internet today. I knew that there was a huge market for an educational internet product that would give parents a proper comfort level …We have created this inStory Time For Me.”

There are many enjoyable activities at Story Time For Me that both parents and their children can do together, as well as things that young readers can do by themselves. Present and future marketing includes hand painted personalized books as well as a series for infants up to age three.

New Issue of Through The Looking Glass Book Review

The new issue of the Through The Looking Glass Book Reviews is now online, and when I say new I mean really new. After months and months of work, the new site for TTLG is now ready. I hope you will find the site easier to use and navigate. One thing to keep in mind is that not all the content of the old site has been moved over to the new one. Manually tinkering with almost 5,000 (I kid you not) reviews is taking me a long time to do.   I hope everything will be moved over by the summer. The good news is that you can still get to the old content without any difficulty.

This month I chose to special feature books about pigs. I have a fondness for these animals (having had a pet pig for many years) and thought that it was high time that I focused on some piggy books. I hope you enjoy my selection. As always I have a Bookish Calendar full of interesting material, a list of author and illustrator birthdays and much more.

Happy New Year everyone.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!! Best wishes from TTLG

Happy Holidays

To see this greeting card more clearly please click on it.

One more Christmas Book

Christmas is only a few days away, and I just I would throw one more book idea at you before it is too late. The book below is just a delight to look at, and I am sure readers of all ages and their families will enjoy it.

The Twelve days of Christmas

Gennady Spirin

Picture Book

Ages 4 to 8

Marshall Cavendish, 2009, 0761455515

   For many people Christmas would not be Christmas without Christmas carols. They love the beauty of “Silent Night,” the joy of “Jingle Bells,” and the exuberance of “We wish you a merry Christmas.” Then there is “The twelve days of Christmas,” a song that is packed with images, and that has been sung during the holiday season for several hundred years.

   For this picture book Gennedy Spirin has created stunningly rich and beautifully detailed illustrations showing “a partridge in a pear tree,” “seven swans-a-swimming,” and all the other gifts that someone gives their true love for the twelve days of Christmas – which last from Christmas Day to Epiphany on January 6^th. This is a title that families will be able to share during the holidays for years to come.

Two wonderful gift idea titles.

At this time of year I am always looking for titles that would make great gifts. Here are two that I just looked at and reviewed.

Oceanology: The True account of the voyage of the Nautilus

A.J. Wood, Emily Hawkins Illustrator: Wayne Anderson , Gary Blythe , Ian Andrew , David Wyatt

Novelty Book

For ages 7 and up

Candlewick Press, 2009 ISBN: 0763642908

It is 1863, and Professor Pierre Arronax is going on a very special expedition of “adventure” traveling on a

vessel called the Nautilus. The professor invites his nephew, Zoticus de Lesseps, to join him in what he hopes will be a journey that is “not only beneficial to ourselves,” “but to the scientific community at large.”

The journey begins on April 3^rd, 1863, and two days later the professor and Zoticus see the Nautilus for the first time. They discover, to their amazement, that they are going to be travelling under the water instead of on top of it. Never having been in a submarine before, the travelers are slightly nervous, but they soon forget about their concerns when they are given a warm welcome by the captain of the Nautilus, Captain Nemo. The captain is delighted to have “like-minded adventurers” on his ship.

The Nautilus is an extraordinary vessel, and very soon Zoticus and the professor are able to see and hear all kinds of remarkable things. Whales swim around the submarine, and Zoticus gets to go out in a bathysphere. This allows him to see stingrays, seals, penguins, and sharks up close. He is able to get even closer to the undersea world when he and the professor don diving suits to explore the Great Barrier Reef. Captain Nemo

explains that “the ocean is like a mirror of the land, with the coral reefs being the rain forests of the seas.”

In this fascinating book, the authors and illustrators combine fact and fiction seamlessly. Readers will not only be entertained by the gripping story, but they will also learn a lot about oceans and the creatures that live in them. With a gripping ending and many novelty features to explore, this book would make a great gift for anyone who likes to read about adventures.

Peek-a-boo What?

Novelty Board Book

For infants to age 3

Begin Smart, 2009 ISBN: 1934618500

Little children have, for the most part, very little control over their lives. Of course, they can cry when they need something, but they don’t get much of a say in what they do. This book gives little children something special because it allows them to stick fingers through holes, turn pages by themselves, and when they open a fold-out page they make something magically appear. When they close the page, they make something magically disappear.

Each double page spread presents little readers with a peek-a-boo situation. For example, the second spread shows us a little blue fish swimming across the page. We can see something behind the fold-out page through the peek-a-boo peep holes. What’s there? When the page is opened, children will see an array of blue fishes and the word “blue” written across the fold-out area.

With interesting associations to discover, words to learn, delightful collage pictures to look at, and novelty features to explore, this is a book that will give little children hours of fun.

Winter Solstice Books

In just a few days it will be the winter solstice, the longest day of the night. This year I reviewed two delightful books about this special time of year, The longest night and Snow Party. My reviews are below.

The longest night

Marion Bauer

Illustrator: Ted Lewin

Picture Book

For ages 4 to 8

Holiday House, 2009 ISBN: 082342054X

It is the longest night of the year. Snow lies thick on the ground and “the world is still” and cold. The mice and the bears sleep, but there are some animals that are still out and about, despite the “bitter wind.”

The crow, the moose, and the fox are all sure that one of them will be able to bring back the sun so that light and warmth will come to the land once more. The wind knows better though. The wind knows that someone else, someone small and unassuming, will be the one to call the sun back.

With a lyrical text and Ted Lewin’s beautiful paintings, this picture book about the longest night of the year is a joy to read.

Snow Party

Harriet Ziefert

Illustrator: Mark Jones

Picture Book

For ages 4 to 8

Blue Apple Books, 2008 ISBN: 1934706280

It snowed all night long, and in the morning, everything is covered with “beautiful snow.” Out of the snowy landscape come snow men, snow women, and snow children. Each one of them carries a bag or a box. Happily they set up tables, string lights, and prepare for a “special party.” The little snow children look at a large wrapped gift, wondering what might be inside the colorful wrapped package.

At long last all is ready. The tables are set, the food is ready, the musicians have arrived, and on this shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, the snow people begin their wonderful snow party.

In this special seasonal title, Harriet Ziefert’s simple text is beautifully complimented by Mark Jones’ lovely illustrations. After reading this book young readers will be keen to have a snow party of their own, complete with icy treats, glowing lamps, and festive cheer.

A few years ago I reviewed a nonfiction title about the winter solstice. Here it is:

The Winter Solstice

Ellen Jackson

Illustrated by Jan Dacey Ellis

Nonfiction

Ages 7 to 9

Lerner, 1994, 0-7613-0297-2

Long ago people did not know what made some months colder than others. They did not know why the sun would hang so low in the sky in the winter and why the days grew so short. They would grow afraid that the sun would disappear all together and that they would all die of cold and starvation. And so, in an effort to protect themselves from the evil spirits that they were sure lurked in the darkness and to make sure that the sun would return, they held special ceremonies and rituals. In some cultures sacrifices would be made to appease the gods.

Over the centuries people have held all kinds of celebrations on or around the winter solstice. Gifts were exchanged, special foods were eaten, bonfires were lit, and unique ceremonies arose.

Today we know why winter is a colder season and are not frightened by it. We don’t usually have special ceremonies on the winter solstice any more but many of the traditions that used to be held on the solstice are now ones that we enjoy on Christmas or Hanukkah. Just like the Romans during their solstice celebrations we light candles, exchange gifts, and eat special foods. Like the people of Northern Europe we decorate our homes with evergreen and mistletoe.

As they read this book children will be interested to discover that so many of the traditions of their holiday season come from very ancient winter solstice traditions. The author looks at winter solstice ceremonies and rituals from around the world and she ends her narrative with a Cherokee solstice story.

Carefully researched and beautifully illustrated, this is a picture book which provides its readers with a wealth of information.

You can find more winter books on the Winter Days feature on the TTLG website. Happy winter solstice everyone!