One Upon a Baby Brother - A review

Last week I read a charming picture book that successfully looks at not one but at two themes. Sarah Sullivan looks at what it is like to have a new sibling in the house, and she explores the nature of artistic inspiration. Young writers in particular will enjoy this book, as the author shows us that material for stories can be found right under our noses, if we open our minds to the possibility. 




Once Upon a baby brother

Sarah Sullivan

Illustrated by Tricia Tusa

Picture Book

Ages 5 to 8

Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2010, 978-0-374-34635-5

   More than almost anything else in the world Lizzie likes to tell stories. She tells her mother and her father stories, and even Big George the dog gets to hear Lizzie’s tales – and he likes them too. Then one day baby Marvin arrives on the scene and Lizzie discovers that little brothers are not conducive to storytelling. Her parents are too busy to hear her stories now, and Big George is the only person at home who has time for her. Thankfully Lizzie’s new teacher, Miss Pennyroyal, loves stories too and she encourages her students to write and then share their stories. With her trusty Princess Merriweather pencil in hand and her Imagination Notebook to write in, Lizzie happily spins her yarns.

   Then the unthinkable happens. Lizzie is given a great writing assignment to do and she cannot come up with a single idea. Her head is empty and nothing, not even her Princess Merriweather pencil and her Imagination Notebook are able to get the creative juices flowing. Will Lizzie be faced with this terrible writer’s block forever?

   This delightful book not only looks at the problems associate with having a new little sibling in the house, but it also looks at the nature of inspiration. Sometimes inspiration can come from the most unlikely of places.

   With delightful illustrations and a deliciously creative text, this picture book is sure to be a big hit with readers who have a fondness for tales and storytelling.

Poetry Friday - Inspirational poems from around the world

For Poetry Friday I have a review of Come to the Great World: Poems from Around the Globe. This is a very special collection of poems that readers of all ages will enjoy.

Come to the Great World: Poems from Around the Globe

Selected by Wendy Cooling
Illustrated by Sheila Moxley
Poetry
5 to 8
Holiday House, 2004, 0823418227

All too often, children are encouraged to notice the differences that exist between different cultures, races, and nationalities. More often then not, left to their own devices, children will play with each other very easily even if they don’t share a common language and even if they don’t look alike. This collection of thirty-one poems was written by poets from “every corner of the earth,” and they “show what children share as well as reflecting the differences in their lives.”

Ross Falconer, who is from Australia, writes about the special “small world” where children live. It is a world that adults cannot enter because it has a wall around it that is twenty feet high, and “adults only have ten feet ladders.”

Gloria Guevra from Nicaragua tells us about “people in poverty,” and how children pick through the garbage in the town dump. You can hear the pain in her voice as she describes how the children fill old sacks “with rusty tins / worn-out shoes / bits of old cardboard boxes.” Teresa de Jesus’s voice is angry as she tells us that seeing poverty “makes me furious.” She perfectly captures the emotions many children experience when they see poverty. It simply makes no sense to them why poverty should exist.

With messages of hope and inspiration about the world’s problems and its riches, this collection of poems will give young readers a great deal to think about.

The last day of school - Graduation gifts

Tomorrow is the last day of school in Ashland, Oregon and my daughter is really looking forward to the end of the school year. She loves school, but she looking forward to summer camps, play dates with her friends, and a break from having to get up at six thirty in the morning! If you have a child who is 'graduating' in the next few days I have a wonderful gift idea for you. Here is my review:

Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Happy Graduation Gift Set

Dr. Seuss

Novelty Kit

Ages 5 and up

Scholastic, 2010, 978-0-545-20201-5

   Children and young people love to celebrate school graduations. Even children who are leaving kindergarten and who are going into “big kid” school like to have some kind of celebration to mark their elevation to ‘big kid’ status.

   In this wonderful kit, the themes and art from Dr. Seuss’ book Oh the Places You’ll go, are used to create a wonderful gift for school and college graduates. Included in the kit is a keepsake box, a graduation journal, a graduation banner, a diploma, stickers, a doorhanger, magnets, a magnetic photograph frame, a jigsaw puzzle, and a bookmark.

   This kit would make a wonderful gift for a graduate of practically any age. 

And for those of you who haven't yet read Oh the places you'll go, here is a review of this splendid book.

Oh, the places You’ll go!

Dr. Seuss

Picture Book

Ages 5 and up

Random House, 1990, 978-0-679-80527-4

   It is your special day and you are about to embark on a new adventure. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes,” and you can go anywhere you want to go. Of course, you may need a little time to figure out where you want to go. There will be times when you will have to decide “I don’t choose to go there,” in which case you may have to head into the unknown. It might be a little scary, but it will also be exciting. You’ll see “great sights” and “soar to high heights,” and have all kinds of adventures.

   There will be times when things won’t work out as you hope. After all, life is full of “Bang-ups” and “Hang-ups.” You’ll find yourself in a “Lurch” and in a “Slump” and it won’t be much fun. There will be tricky times ahead, but you will, in the end, succeed in whatever it is that you want to do “98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.”

   This inspirational and motivational picture book is perfect for anyone who is embarking on a new adventure. High school graduates, college graduates, and university graduates will all be encouraged and uplifted by Dr. Seuss’s words and his wonderfully quirky art. What is special about this book is that Dr. Seuss does not pretend that the future will always be rosy and perfect. He is honest about what the future might hold, and he offers encouragement and advice for those moments when life, that “Great Balancing Act,” is complicated. 

Finally, for those of you who like pop-up books, there is also an Oh the places you go Pop-up! For this title there are both single page and full double page pop-ups that are not only beautifully crafted, but that also (on some pages) have tabs to pull. 

The Alison Dare Double Blog Dare Tour and Contest

Alison Dare has been seen in pursuit of Baron

von Baron is Ashland,Oregon (note Mount Ashland

in the background)

Tundra books has released two graphic novels about Alison Dare, a young teen who has unusual parents and who has tends to have rather extraordinary adventures involving dastardly villains, lamps with genies in them, walking mummies and more. Here is my review of one of the titles.

Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures

J. Torres

Illustrated by J. Bone

Graphic Novel

Ages 8 to 11

Tundra Books, 2010, 978-0-99776-934-4

   Alison Dare has a very unusual family. Her mother is a world famous archeologist, and her father is a librarian who is secretly the Blue Scarab, an honest to goodness super-hero. Most of the time Alison is in school, but every so often she gets to go on special trips with her mother, Dr. Alice Dare.

   In the first adventure in this collection, Alison is on an expedition with her mother in the Sultanate of Shahrazad and she is bored to tears. Alison’s mother is busy working so Alison decides to take a peek at some of the things her mother has stashed on one of the tents. Inside a crate she finds a lamp which she rubs, thus summoning a genie. Alison knows that she has three wishes - as per tradition - and her first wish is to summon her friends Wendy and Dot. The girls are not, for some bizarre reason, delighted to be whisked away from the lives to join Alison in an adventure. They do warm up to the idea though when Alison accidentally summons 1001 knights. The knights lavish Alison and the girls with lovely clothes, fantastic foods, and other delights. Things are looking up, until the knights decide that Alison’s mother is an “interloper” who should be removed.

   In the second adventure we find out how Alison’s parents met and how her father, who was a scholarly librarian, was turned into the Blue Scarab, a superhero with all kinds of fantastic powers.

   Finally, there is the story of “Alison Dare and the mummy child.” In this thrilling adventure, Alison goes to the museum to see her mother’s new exhibit and to set up a family picnic there – she is hoping to bring her estranged parents together. Instead Alison finds herself in a power struggle between her parents and Baron Von Baron, a ‘bad guy’ who wants to take over the world (isn’t that what most of them want to do?).

   Readers who like an exciting story that is full of evil doers, superheroes, and a sprinkling of magic and archeology, will greatly enjoy this book. With tongue-in-cheek jokes and completely outrageous plots, the three stories in this book are highly entertaining and enjoyable.

You are invited to enter the Alison Dare contest hosted by Tundra books. This is what you have to do to enter:

1. Save the image above to your computer and then print it out.

2. There are two different poses for Alison Dare, but you only need to choose one (although if you wanted to do both, go for it!).

3. Please cut out the Alison Dare figure you have chosen. Feel free to colour and decorate.

4. Put Alison Dare in front of a famous landmark, in an exotic location, or in the face of danger. You can also be creative with common everyday objects.

5. Take a photo (or photos) of Alison Dare! There is no limit.

6. Send your photo of Alison Dare and witty caption to tundra@mcclelland.com before June 30, 2010.

You can see my Alison Dare photo at the beginning of this post!

Please visit the Blog Tour webpage to see what other bloggers are doing.

Here is some information about the author and illustrator of this exciting series:

J. TORRES is a Shuster Award-winning, Eisner Award-nominated writer whose credits include adaptations of Disney/Pixar’s WALL-E and CTV’s Degrassi: The Next Generation, the comic book series Teen Titans Go and Wonder Girl for DC Comics, as well as the graphic novels Lola: A Ghost Story and the YALSA-listed Days Like This for Oni Press. He has also written for children’s magazines, books, and television. The author lives just outside of Toronto, Ontario.

J. BONE is an Eisner Award-nominated illustrator of several critically acclaimed comic books and graphic novels, including Spiderman: Tangled Web, Batman / The Spirit, and Paul Dini’s Mutant, Texas. J. Bone lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Earth Calendar - Holidays from around the world.

Children love to celebrate holidays of all kinds. Of course they like the holidays that they are familiar with, but they also like to celebrate holidays from cultures other than their own as well. Here is a nifty little tool that you might like to explore with the child in your life. It is called the Earth Calendar and on it you will find holidays of all kinds from around the world. You can look up the holidays for today, and you can also look up holidays by date, by country, and by religion.

You are sure to find some interesting holidays during the year that will help you and your child or children to explore the history and culture of people who live on the other side of the world.

Enjoy!

Celebrate World Oceans Day with Dr. Seuss's fish - June 8th

 In honor of 50 years of Dr. Seuss’s One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish entertaining children around the world, Random House Children’s Books, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, The Ocean Project, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) are partnering to celebrate World Oceans Day, held annually on June 8th. Seventy-five AZA accredited zoos and aquariums across the country, and more than 600 Ocean Project partners worldwide will host fun-filled family events inspired by One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, with the goal of teaching children about our ocean’s great diversity of life and the important things we can all do to protect our shared world ocean.

Celebrating the Ocean’s Diversity with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish!

Participating locations will commemorate 50 years of One Fish fun on or near June 8th with birthday festivities that incorporate the 2010 World Oceans Day theme. “Oceans of Life” celebrates our ocean’s diversity, just as Dr. Seuss celebrated diversity with his colorful characters in One Fish. “From here to there, from there to here, funny things are everywhere.” Children will have fun getting to know the ocean’s funny things with Seussian games and activities. Since the 2010 World Oceans Day honors former La Jolla resident Dr. Seuss, visitors to San Diego County will be able to choose from a host of special events throughout the region, including the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Botanic Garden, SEA LIFE Aquarium, Birch Aquarium at Scripps, and many others. For more information about World Oceans Day, and to find events and materials, visit The Ocean Project Website. 

Random House Children’s Books is publishing a special 50th anniversary edition of ONE FISH, TWO FISH, RED FISH, BLUE FISH (Random House / 978-0-394-80013-4 / April 27, 2010 / $8.99 / Ages 5–8 / 72 pages) Originally published in 1960, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish remains a beloved Seuss favorite and has sold over 9 million copies to date. With fantastically funny creatures, this Beginner Book teaches the concept of reading with easy rhyme and identifiable illustrations. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish takes children on a wildlife adventure and, like all of Dr. Seuss’s books, makes learning to read fun.

World Oceans Day brings local attention to the global issue of climate change and its impact on ocean and animal life. The Ocean Project (TOP) advances ocean conservation in partnership with zoos, aquariums, and museums and leads efforts to promote and coordinate World Oceans Day worldwide. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of accredited zoos and aquariums in the areas of animal care, wildlife conservation, education, and science

Random House Children’s Books is the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher. Creating books for toddlers through young adult readers, in all formats from board books to activity books to picture books and novels, the imprints of Random House Children’s Books bring together award-winning authors and illustrators, world-famous franchise characters, and multimillion-copy series. Random House is also the longtime home of the beloved and bestselling Dr. Seuss books, which continue to make learning to read fun for millions of children everywhere. Random House Children’s Books is a division of Random House, Inc., whose parent company is Bertelsmann AG, a leading international media company. Explore the wonderful world of Dr. Seuss at Seussville.com.

Dr. Seuss Enterprises LP protects the integrity of the Dr. Seuss books while expanding beyond books into ancillary areas. This effort is a strategic part of the overall mission to nurture and safeguard the relationship consumers have with Dr. Seuss characters. Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) said he never wanted to license his characters to anyone who would “round out the edges.” That is one of the guiding philosophies of Dr. Seuss Enterprises. Audrey S. Geisel, the widow of Dr. Seuss, heads Dr. Seuss Enterprises as President.

About Dr. Seuss

Theodor “Seuss” Geisel is quite simply the most beloved children’s book author of all time. The 44 books he wrote and illustrated under the name Dr. Seuss (and others that he wrote but did not illustrate, including some under pseudonyms such as Theo. LeSieg) have been translated into 30 languages and have sold hundreds of millions of copies. Brilliant, playful, and always respectful of children, Dr. Seuss charmed his way into the consciousness of four generations of youngsters and parents and, to this day, his beloved books make learning to read fun for kids everywhere. Dr. Seuss’s long list of honors includes the Pulitzer Prize, eight honorary doctorates, and three Caldecott Honors. Works based on his original stories have won three Oscars, three Emmys, three Grammys, and a Peabody. For more information about Dr. Seuss and his works, visit www.seussville.com.

Galileo: A mini animated movie

I know that TTLG is all about books and bookish people and events, but I found this little animated movie online and I just had to share it with you. I am a huge fan of the Miyazaki movies and this reminded me very much of them.


Galileo from Ghislain Avrillon on Vimeo.

June First is the first day of the U.S. Hurricane Season

In the United States, June first is the official beginning of the hurricane season. For most people around the world this does not mean anything, but for many men, women, and children, hurricane season is a time of uncertainty. 

I never dreamed that I would ever experience a hurricane, but in 2003 I was in my home in Virginia when hurricane Isabel blew through, and it was a humbling and terrifying experience. At that time my husband was travelling and I was alone on our farm - in the middle of nowhere - with my three year old daughter. The storm hit in the early evening and we lost power soon after. Elise and I camped out in my bedroom with books, candles to read by, and all the animals. I was very worried about our biggest dog, Skye, because she usually became a nervous wreck during storms. However on this occasion she stood by the bed and guarded us - all night long. I remember listening as the eye of the hurricane passed over us and all was quiet for a time. Then the storm resumed and shrieking winds shook the house once more.

In the morning I could not open the front door at first. There were so many branches and other debris piled up against the door that it was hard to get the door to move. Eventually we were able to get out onto the front porch and we saw drifts of leaves and twigs all over the place. Luckily the tree branches that did snap did not fall on the house. We were very lucky to come through it with almost no damage at all. Many other home owners were not so lucky. 

The biggest problem we had was not having power. This not only meant no electricity, but it also meant that we had no water because the well pump ran on electricity. So, several times a day I had to lift the cement lid off the well head and use a bucket on a rope to get water for us to wash in.  We were lucky because it only took three days to get our power back. Some families in nearby Richmond had to wait for weeks. 

I had a terrible time finding food for us to eat because most shops were closed and because so many roads were impassable, like the one in the picture above. Everything that we had in the fridge was spoiled and had to be thrown away. Elise and I ate a lot of bread with peanut butter! When the power came back on I danced around the house with joy and relief. 

I now have a better appreciation for what it is like to live in an area prone to hurricanes. You can see the books I have reviewed about these frightening weather systems on the TTLG Hurricanes Feature Page. 

A Book Announcement from Roxie Munro

I just got an email from Roxie Munro, a wonderful artist, writer, and a lovely lady. This is what she told me. 

Dear Marya:

I'm thrilled to announce that "EcoMazes: 12 Earth Adventures" has received a Starred review in School Library Journal (June  2010), which says  "... This is truly a complete package: it’s engrossing and interactive, featuring finely and accurately detailed art and covering the basics of an organizational concept that is central to our understanding of the natural world."

What wonderful news! Getting a Starred review in SLJ is a big accomplishment in the book world. Here is my review of Ecomazes.

EcoMazes: 12 Earth Adventures

Roxie Munro

Picture Book

Ages 8 to 10

Sterling, 2010, 978-1-4027-6393-9

    All over our wonderful planet, there are ecosystems. They can be large, like a tropical rainforest, or very small, like the mini pond the lies at the bottom of your yard inside a forgotten bucket. All of these ecosystems are full of creatures of all kinds, fascinating creatures that interact in all kinds of ways. This unique book looks at twelve ecosystems that are found on Earth. For each ecosystem, Roxie Munro has created a beautiful maze that readers have to negotiate. As they ‘travel’ through each ecosystem, they are encouraged to find animals that are hidden in the illustrations.

    The book begins with a tropical rainforest. Readers are told that they are “a biologist checking on the monkeys” and that they have to find their way from the pier to the beach. As they trek through the forest, readers are invited to find an interesting selection of animals that are found in rainforests around the world.

   In addition to the rainforest, Roxie Munro has created maze pictures of a desert, a coral reef, a high mountain, the arctic, a wetland, the tundra, a grassland, the Antarctic, the savanna, a conifer forest, and a temperate forest. At the back of the book, there are pages that show readers where all the hidden animals are in the mazes. In addition, the author has also provide young naturalists with more information about each of the ecosystems that are featured in the book.

    With extraordinary pictures and a wonderfully informative and interesting text, this is a book that should be on every library and classroom shelf.

Congratulations Roxie!

May 27th - Rachel Carson was born on this day in 1907

I have to confess that I didn't know much about Rachel Carson until I moved to the United States in 1992. Since then I have read and been inspired by her books. Here is a review of a book that I read this week.

Rachel Carson: Preserving a sense of wonder

Joseph Bruchac

Illustrated by Thomas Locker

Nonfiction picture book

Ages 6 to 10

Fulcrum Publishing, 2004, 978-1-55591-695-4

When Rachel was a little girl, she lived in Springdale, Pennsylvania, “a town once as lovely as its name.” She had a deep love of books, and through them she developed a interest in the sea. Though writing was what she loved, Rachel studied biology in college. She finally got to see the sea in person and she fell in love with its moods and its stories. Later Rachel wrote about the sea in her first book, Under the Sea-Wind.

   All this time Rachel’s once lovely hometown in Pennsylvania, was being poisoned. The rivers were filthy, “the air was choked with smoke,” and poisonous agricultural sprays were killing animals of all kinds. Hearing about this terrible development, Rachel decided to write a new book. This new book, Silent Spring, angered a lot of people, but it also helped many others to see that it is important to protect the environment, and that we all have to do our part to safeguard our planet.

   In this truly beautiful picture book, a lyrical and powerful text is perfectly married to Thomas Locker’s gorgeous paintings. Readers will get a memorable picture of what Rachel Carson was like and how important her legacy has been for all of us.