Tag: childrens book

Daydreamer

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McEwan, Ian. The Daydreamer. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1994.

Here’s how I got around to reading this (in two hours) – I had just finished Braun’s The Cat Who Saw Red and realized I had a small dilemma. I had nothing to read for the weekend. No new books had come in from other libraries nor were they going to by the time Saturday rolled around. So. I cheated. The Daydreamer wasn’t scheduled to be read for at least a year (there is something else in honor of McEwan’s birth month already picked out), but there it was. So, on a lazy Friday afternoon I was able to get through it.

The Daydreamer is an extremely cute book about a boy named Peter Fortune. He’s a good boy except he has a wicked imagination. His ability to daydream himself out of reality gets him into trouble all the time. My favorite “dream” was when he is finally, finally allowed to ride the bus to school. His parents have decided he’s not only old enough to take himself to school (at ten years old), but he is mature enough to take his seven year old sister, who goes to the same school, as well. Everything goes according to plan until Peter starts thinking about how he would protect his sister from anything…including a pack of hungry, drooling wolves. First he would take out his hunting knife, then his pack of matches, then he would…and before Peter knows it he is in the land of imagination, fighting off wild wolves. He is no longer riding a bus with his little sister on their way to school. It’s halarious.

Favorite lines: “That night Peter did not sleep, he ran. He ran through his dreams, down echoing halls, across a desert of stones and scorpions, down ice mazes, along a sloping pink, spongy tunnel with dripping walls” (p 89).
“She was one of those rare unhappy grown-ups who are profoundly irritated by the fact that children exist” (p 118)

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter, “Ian McEwan: Too Good To Miss” (p).

February (2009) Was…

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February started the month with a big ole bang. First, there was the Gee-I-Couldn’t-Have-Predicted-the-Winner-of-This-Matchup Superbowl. Then, there was me. Turning 40. Then, add in Smiley’s birthday, a rockandroll party and approval for financing, a memorial and a visit from mom… all in the first week! Like I said, February started with a bang! Then it turned into the wait and see month…which ended in a house!

For books it it was:

  • Cult of Personality by Annie Murphy Paul. A fun, informative read!
  • The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek by Barry Cunliffe. Not so fun.
  • The Good Patient by Kristin Waterfield Duisberg ~probably one of my favorites of the list.
  • The Color Purple by Alice Walker ~ really, really hard to read. So sad!
  • Fool by Frederick Dillen ~ very psychological.
  • The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman ~ very cute.
  • Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban ~ speaking of cute!
  • Not a Day Goes By by E. Lynn Harris ~ a very, very quick read in honor of Black History Month
  • A Reconstructed Corpse by Simon Brett in honor of National Theater Month even though the acting in this mystery doesn’t take place on a stage…
  • Tracks Across America by Leonard Everett Fisher ~ in honor on National Railroad Month
  • The Powers That Be by David Halberstam ~ in honor of Scholastic Journalism month

As you can see, I did a lot of reading during that “wait and see” time! In the end, February was full of emotions as well as books and finally, finally a house!

I didn’t get to A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and I started When the Time Comes by Paula Span – an Early Review book (review coming in March).

Bedtime for Frances

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Hoban, Russell. Bedtime for Frances. New York: Scholastic, 1960.

Sometimes it is difficult to reread something from your childhood. I hate to admit that. Really. To me, that implies a loss of something special. I hit a roadblock when I reread Bedtime for Frances. Simply put, it is a cute little story about a badger that can’t fall asleep. She finds many reasons to stay awake: she needs kisses from her parents, she needs another glass of water, she hears a monster, and she sees a monster. The list goes on and on. This isn’t a badger only phenomenon. As a kid I can remember not wanting to go to sleep and finding a million reasons why I shouldn’t. Once I overheard my parents watching a program in the other room. It was Billy Joel talking about piano lessons. When he demonstrated the exercises he remembered from childhood I jumped out of bed and came running; for those were the very same exercises I had been practicing just the day before. But, back to the problem with rereading some books for kids. Instead of finding Frances cute or even laughable I was annoyed with her dare I say, childish antics. I identified more with the parents who wanted to eat their cake, drink their tea and watch television in peace. I couldn’t understand why they gave into every little Frances whim and request! In the end Frances fell asleep despite having a real life distraction to really keep her awake.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lustin the chapter, “Russell Hoban: Too Good To Miss” (p 113).

November Was…

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Death of Spuke
November was an amazing election, the slow death of Spuke, an incredible Thanksgiving meal, a few birthdays missed, more houses than I care to admit to seeing, more paperwork than I care to admit to reading, and last but not least, a little bit of music (Sean!). We didn’t get the house and I had to take a few days to get over that…even though I wasn’t 100% in love with the house. How weird is that? Ah well.

For books read, here’s the list:

  • Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson ~ I went back and forth about this book…almost as much as the plot did.
  • The Darling by Russell Banks ~ Loved, loved, loved this book – full of suspense and great characters.
  • As I Live & Breathe: notes of a patient-doctor by Jamie Weisman ~ read this in one day!
  • Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark by Jane Fletcher Geniesse ~ such an amazing biography!
  • A Continent for the Taking: the Tragedy and Hope of Africa by Howard French ~ Very similar to The Darling. Same time period, same “characters” and events.
  • Best Essays of the Century edited by Joyce Carol Oates ~ while I only read a sampling of essays they were all good.
  • The Bronte Myth by Lucasta Miller ~dry and long.

For the Early Review Program (yay!):

  • Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back by Josh Hamilton ~ really fast but amazingly good read.

For fun:

  • Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson ~ a great story from my childhood about friendship. This was on my challenge list. I just decided to read it out of order one day.

Nine books…sort of. I’ll have a confession for next month 😉

Baby Sister for Frances

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BabySisterForFrancisHoban, Russell. A Baby Sister for Frances. New York: Scholastic, 1992.

Who doesn’t remember this one from their childhood? Originally published in 1964 this was a standard in my young life. I don’t remember if my parents bought this for me in preparation for my sister’s arrival, but I was certainly old enough to be skeptical (and more than a little jealous) of the little bundle everyone kept cooing over. This book would have made sense for that reason alone.

LibraryThing Review:
This is childrens’ book classic. Told from the point of view of a badger, Frances is jealous of her new baby sister, Gloria. Gloria seems to be distracting enough that mama badger is forgetting to do the laundry and shop for groceries. As a result, Frances feels neglected and needs to be noticed. Accepting a new sibling can be hard on anyone, even badgers.

There must be hundreds of self help books out there, all tackling the tricky question of sibling rivalry and what to do when a new baby comes along. All parents need to do is read A Baby Sister for Frances and they’ll be reminded of how the older child often feels diminished, neglected. Hoban hit that one on the head. How Frances “runs away” is hilarious. I know I did the same thing – only I think I didn’t run away long enough to be missed!
My favorite part is when Frances “calls” her parents from under the dining room table then comes “home” singing a rhyme. Very cute.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust and the chapter “Russell Hoban: Too Good To Miss” (p 113).

Little Porcupine’s Christmas

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Slate, Joseph. Little Porcupine’s Christmas. New York: Harper, 1982.

Cute. Cute. Cute! Felicia Bond illustrates this story and, for those of you who don’t know, Felicia Bond is the illustrator for another favorite of mine, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. This isn’t about a mouse. This time it’s a porcupine who can’t be in the school play because of his sharp and pointy quills. It’s a typical story about how cruel “kids” can be towards an outsider, But, but, but, in the end Little Pocupine prevails and proves his worth. The adult in me hates stories like this because the other animals are never corrected when they say “you’re too — to participate. You don’t belong,” all because he is different. I worry (too much) that kids reading the story will learn that it’s okay to push someone outside the popular circle because that someone is different. I’ve been there and it isn’t fun. But, that’s the stoic, always serious adult talking. Take the book at face value and it’s a cute story about someone who is unique finding his niche and belonging after all.
Note: This story is also called How Little Porcupine Played Christmas.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter “Christmas Books for the Whole Family to Read” (p 56). Pearl calls Little Porcupine “heartwarming.”

Polar Express

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polar expressVan Allsburg, Chris. The Polar Express. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.

Is it any wonder that The Polar Express won a Caldecott award? Is it any wonder that Hollywood made a movie out of it? This is a gorgeous book for adults as well as children. It’s fantastic to read aloud to a child because not only is are the pictures spectacular, but the storyline is wonderful, too. See, I can’t say enough nice things about this book!
It’s simply the story of a boy who takes a trip by train to visit Santa at the North Pole. He is given a special gift that proves his belief in all things Christmas – the elves, the gifts, the reindeer, the North Pole, and of course, Santa Claus himself. This book was such a treat that I now want to go see the movie!

“We climbed mountains so high it seemed as if we would scrape the moon” (p 9) and “Though I’ve grown old, the bell still rings for me as it does for all who truly believe” (p 29) are my favorite lines.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust  and the chapter on “Christmas Books for the Whole Family to Read” (p 55).

Twelve Days of Christmas

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12 days of ChristmasKnight, Hilary. Hilary Knight’s Twelve Days of Christmas. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2001.

On the surface this book looks like your average kids’ book. Cute pictures and a storyline you can sing. We all know “The Twelve Days of Christmas” – it’s that silly song that involves milking cows, egg producing hens, and ladies dancing among other things. What makes this book special is what is going on behind the scenes. There’s a whole other story unfolding in the illustrations.  On the surface Bedelia the bear is trying to tell you what her true love gave to her during the twelve days of Christmas (Dec 25- Jan 6) and then there is Benjamin, for those twelve days straight, bringing her the goods. In the background there’s Reginald the raccoon. He lives in Bedelia’s basement for some strange reason, and if you are observant, you learn that he pines for the perfect girl. Throughout Benjamin’s trips to Bedelia’s door with various (odd) gifts, you see Reginald struggling with something of his own.
In the end (and I won’t ruin it for you), you will want to go back and look at all the illustrations just a little closer. Everything has a meaning – beyond Benjamin looking to woo Bedelia with twelve lords a~leaping (my favorite). Seriously. Check out the lords. They’ll crack you up.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust and the chapter “Christmas Books for the Whole Family to Read” (p 55).

Father Christmas Letters

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Father ChristmasTolkien, J.R.R. The Father Christmas Letters. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.

Pure magic. I loved every minute of this book! I have always loved J.R.R. Tolkien’s imagination. From The Hobbit to The Two Towers I have always enjoyed submerging myself in his work. This book is something special. I think Nancy Pearl sums it up best in Book Lust “Tolkien wrote these letters for his children, beginning in 1920 and ending in 1939. Whimsical pictures complement the descriptions of Father Christmas’s life at the North Pole” (p 56). But, what Pearl doesn’t tell you is that Tolkien is posing as Father Christmas, and each letter (one for each year) is a continuation a story (involving a polar bear, elves and ) from the year before. The illustrations that accompany the letters are as captivating as the storyline. I can truly imagine being a child, caught up in waiting for the letter from Father Christmas.
The sobering thing about this book is that it ends the same year that World War II starts. Tolkien even makes mention of it on the last page “Half the world seems in the wrong place.” It seems like everyone needed to put aside childhood in 1939.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust  in the chapter “Christmas Books For The Whole Family To Read” (p 55).

Tuck Everlasting

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Tuck EverlastingBabbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting.New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1985.

Do I dare say this book was delightful? I read it in an hour over a tuna sandwich lunchbreak. It’s a cute story about ten year old Winnie Foster and her discovery of a family that has eternal life. At first it seems impossible, but after befriending the strange family, Winnie realizes it’s true. The one complication of the story? Someone else (aka “bad guy”) knows the secret and wants to market it for himself.

Favorite line: “The first week of August was asserting itself after a good night’s sleep” (p 86). I like the imagery of this, of August saving it’s energy during the night in order to roast the day.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust.

One Morning in Maine

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One Morning in MaineMcCloskey, Robert. One Morning in Maine. New York: Puffin Books, 1989.

Who doesn’t love Robert McCloskey’s books? For starters, all the illustrations are great. For another, I always loved One Morning in Maine because I could compare Sal’s life to my own growing up…She lived on an island in Maine, boat trips were something to get excited about and she had a younger sister…the differences were her family lived close enough to row over to the mainland (when their boat engine died) and her family could go digging for clams right outside their house. Our boat rides took over an hour, full steam ahead and I hunted for periwinkles in tide pools.
Even her parents reminded me of my own – always playing the Big Girl Card. Compared to my sister I was supposed to be more mature, more responsible. They used my elder status to get me to behave, “but you’re growing into a big girl and big girls don’t cry about things like that” (p37).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust. Pearl mentions in the intro (p ix) she started her obsession with reading with books like One Morning in Maine. Me too!

Allegra Maud Goldman

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AllegraKonecky, Edith. Allegra Maud Goldman. New York: The Feminist Press, 1990.

This was another one of those “kid books” – about a kid coming of age, I should say. I enjoyed this much better than the Angus book. Both have witty, sarcastic, growing up girl narratives only Allegra is Jewish instead of Catholic and lives in Brooklyn, New York instead of England. She isn’t afraid to use her mind, or speak it. A few of my favorite quotes:

“Just thinking about that whole library filled with ideas, things to mull over , all sorts of new people to get to know, boggled my mind.” (p88)

“”You’ll never be really happy as a woman,” Sonia said “until you have your own sweet baby at your breast.” I recognized this as something her mother was always saying to her, but I refrained from throwing up.” (p145)

I enjoyed this book a great deal. Allegra Maud Goldman is my kind of kid. Her sense of humor stands up and takes a bow in the face if that audience called insecurity that only growing up can produce.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter appropriately called, “Girls Growing up” (p 101). Pearl liked Allegra as much as I did saying, “…Konecky manages to write from a child’s point of view  without ending up sounding silly, condescending or false.” (p 102)

13 Clocks

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Thurber, James. The 13 Clocks.New York: Simon & Schuster, 1950.clocks

Even though it took me less than an hour to read 13 Clocksfrom start to finish I enjoyed every second of it. Illustrated by Mark Simont, this was fun to look at, too. Where to begin with this wonderful children’s story? It’s a fairy tale, it’s poetry in motion. For starters, it has a lot of alliteration however silly, “You sicken me with your chocolate chatter…” (p. 110). Huh? It’s clever and heroic, funny as a fairy tale. Typical story: beautiful maiden is locked in a castle. She is being held captive by her cruel uncle (not) and can only be saved by a prince. Of course there is the typical, impossible challenge her captive gives all suitors. Each in turn typically fails until one can outwit the captor. Which one does, of course. All fairy tales have to have a happy ending, right? There is even a “message” at the end. The happy couple is told, “remember laughter. You’ll need it even in the blessed isles if Ever After” (p. 120). Didn’t someone say that to me on my wedding day? But, I have to admit my favorite line was uttered by the villain, “We all have flaws,” he said, “and mine is being wicked” (p. 114). I told you I have a black cloud.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust under the chapter, “Not Only for Kids: Fantasies for Grown-ups” (p.175).

At War as Children (w/ spoiler)

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Reed, Kit. At War as Children; a novel. New York: Farrar, Straus & Co., 1964.kit reed

This is supposed to be a book for children. I’ve never read it, and it’s on the Book Lust list, so here I am.
Religion plays a big part in Reed’s novel, At War as Children. Told in the first person, Denny (Denise) tells the story of her only-child childhood. Her father is killed in World War II and as a teenager she is sent to a Catholic boarding school. I would have called this At War with Religion as Children because Denny struggles with religion throughout her entire formative years. As a child, she worries about going to hell for stealing a piece of candy. As a teenager her biggest fear is becoming a nun. Humorously, she prays to God she doesn’t become one, (yet in the end…she does). At one point she even baptises a childhood friend thinking he is dead. Overall, I can’t relate to the religious fears and constraints that Denny has throughout her life, but her general narrative is one of honesty and reality. When she says, “I make friends slowly, and I value them because I make them hard” (p.21), I know exactly what she is talking about. I operate the same way. My very best friends are the ones who have stuck by me for 20+ years. Another favorite line, “fall is the time of year when you want most to fly” (p. 191). I got married in September for that very reason.
At War as Children; a novel was a pleasure to read. In between reading The Blue and the Gray and Breathing Problems this was a breath of fresh air.

Book Lust Twist: From Book Lust, in chapter “My Own Private Dui”, Pearl says adults can feel “disappointed, betrayed, and embarrassed” by rereading certain books written for children (Book Lust p. 165). She goes on to describe At War as Children as a book that is better remembered than reread.

Banner in the Sky (w/ spoilers)

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Ullman, James Ramsey. Banner in the Sky. New York: Scholastic, Inc. 1954.

Banner I read this young adult book in one sitting. It’s cute and heroic and it won a Newbery Award. Basically, it’s the Swiss tale of a teenage boy looking to finish the challenge that finished his father – climbing the final, unconquered summit in the Alps, the Citadel. Rudi is a sweet sixteen rebel dishwasher who dreams of finishing what his father started, much to the dismay of his mother. Widowed and overprotective, mom relies on her brother to help keep her son in check. The only problem? Uncle is an accomplished guide with mountaineering in his blood. So is the kid’s restaurant boss. And his arch rival, 18 year old Klaus. Everyone looks to Citadel as the great lost challenge and Rudi’s leading the lack.

Spoiler: Rudi not only reaches the summit, but he also saves a more experienced, rival climber along along the way.

BookLust Twist: “Adventure By the Book: Fiction” (Book Lust, p. 7), Pearl describes Banner in the Sky as, “an adventure book that makes for good read for adults.”