April Bobbie’s Books of the Month - Parents Express - Montgomery News

April Bobbie’s Books of the Month - Parents Express - Montgomery News

Book Reviews

Here's a link to the book reviews I wrote for the March issue of Parent's Express. March's Books of the Month - Parents Express - Montgomery News

         

World Read Aloud Day

Today is World Read Aloud Day, a grand idea. I don't do it often enough. I'll read some poems from Roots and Flowers: Poets and Poems on Family, edited by Liz Rosenburg. I'm re-reading all my picture books, now unpacked after 3 plus years in storage while we were travelling, and I'll choose a few of those to read aloud like Night Garden:Poems from the World of Dreams by Janet S. Wong and illustrated by Julie Paschkis. And I'm writing reviews today, so I'll read the text aloud (First Garden: the White House Garden and How It Grew & Planting the Wild Garden) to help me prepare.


What will you read aloud today?

Here, There, and Everywhere: The United States Board on Books for Young People cites 40 international books for its 2011 honor list

Here, There, and Everywhere: The United States Board on Books for Young People cites 40 international books for its 2011 honor list

I'm always interested in this list because I know I'll see titles that I've missed and want to read. This year I've seen/know about maybe half the titles. One of my favorite titles of last year is The 10 PM Question.

I couldn't help noticing that several titles are published by Groundwood. And that the majority of titles are from Canadian and British publishers. And there are few titles by the mega mainsteam publishers. If I had more time I'd look into this a bit more.

Bobbie's Books of the Month

Now that I've discovered how easy it is to share content on this blog, I'll start sharing the book reviews we do for Parents Express in Philadelphia. Bobbie began writing for PE over 20 years ago!

Bobbie's Books of the Month - Parents Express - Montgomery News

One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street

I just began reading an ARC for One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street by Joanne Rocklin. I like it. Has a bit of the feel of What Happened Fox Street, a 2010 favorite of mine, with younger characters. The story takes place in LA, but of course the title reminds me of Florida, where I had planned/hoped I would be during the month of February. Layers for at least another month.

One Day ...  pubs in April and maybe I'll review it then.

HarperCollins Signs Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis for 'Wildwood' Series

I like this news.
HarperCollins Signs Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis for 'Wildwood' Series

"The germ of this series goes back a long way," Meloy said. "For me, this is the culmination of a long-term collaboration with Carson, matching words and art. I grew up on a steady diet of Lloyd Alexander, Roald Dahl, and Tolkien; this is our humble paean to that grand tradition of epic adventure stories." Ellis commented, "Wildwood is a project very close to my heart - the collaboration that Colin and I have been dreaming about for years."

National Book Festival 2010

We had a great time at the National Book Festival this past Saturday. We were especially happy for the chance to see our client and friend Pat Mora in action -- she's an awesome speaker.

Pat Mora

 Katherine Paterson

Katherine Paterson

Anita Silvey

Jules Feiffer and Norton Juster



 Rebecca Stead with a young fan at the New York state exhibit in the Pavilion of States

Hunger, Satisfied

Is there ANYTHING more satisfying than finishing off a trilogy (or a duet, or a series) of books that you've been connected to over a period of time?

We were dying to read Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins, the final book in the trilogy begun in The Hunger Games. Thanks to our friend Diana, we both devoured it over the past few days. It did NOT disappoint!!

Yesterday I was talking about the book to my friend Heather, from our fabulous client Children's Book World. I told her that luckily I was sick last Saturday and spent the whole morning in bed reading the book, and I commented to her, "Oh, I guess you can't do that much, with two kids."

She got a crafty look on her face and said "I call books like that the BAD MOMMY BOOKS because I put in the Thomas videos, sit them down and say "Mommy's going to read now!"

So there, all you literary anti-TV folks. There is a good side to kids watching TV, after all...

StarCrossed, by Elizabeth Bunce

Well, now that I've read it, I can kick myself for letting this galley languish in my reading pile for the last few months. All the signs were there - it's published by Arthur Levine Books, edited by Cheryl Klein and recommended by my fantasy Queen, Tamora Pierce (she says it's "Splendid...a smashing read!") Tamora's right - it IS smashing, and I couldn't stop reading it once I started.

Bunce's main character, Digger, would be right at home with all of the lovely girls-who-fight, girls-who-steal, and girls-who-have-magic that Tamora's introduced us to over the years. She's just a great gal: a sneaky, fearless, compassionate little thief who finds herself keeping company with a noble family...Digger has a lot of secrets, but so does everyone else, and I just couldn't wait to get to the end to find out what they all were.

And the ending was SO gratifying...and yet...now I have to wait for the sequel, Liar's Moon. Aarrggh!!

Princess as Peasant

Confession time: I kept avoiding this book because even though I love Lois Lowry, I just kept thinking "not ANOTHER book about a princess who trades places with a peasant..."

Surprise! I should have trusted my Lowry-instincts...it was fun, clever and completely original. When bored 16-year-old Princess Patricia Priscilla decides to trade clothes with her chambermaid and go to school, she has LOADS of fun and meets a handsome schoolmaster to boot. When she invites her new village friends to her big birthday ball, things at the castle get a lot more interesting.

This experience made me remember the advice I always hear when I attend a writer's conference: even if you have the exact same idea(s) that other writers do, NO ONE can write your story the way you can. And in fact, Lois Lowry herself told me that very thing once. She was visiting The Children's Book World in Haverford, PA (Lois loves that store and so do we!) I found myself alone in the back room with her for a minute, and panicked, blurting out that I was a big fan, also a writer, hoped that someday I could write like her - and then she gently said something about how of course I would write like ME, not like her.

Sigh. Plus, she was the first author I wrote a fan letter to, way back in 1984, telling her I worked in a kid's bookstore and loved her. She wrote back to say that she was a fan of bookstore managers! No wonder everyone loves her - she is SO gracious.

B I N G O

I'm supposed to write about ALA today but instead I signed up to play B I N G O over at From the Mixed-Up Files of Jennifer Bertman; a special brand of the game called Creative Spaces Book Cover BINGO. You can play too, it's not too late to join in.

I believe I have the lucky card because there are FOUR covers by Julie Paschkis and she's a real favorite of mine. We'll see.

Jennifer says this may be an annual event -- so cool! More fun than the regular game I think, and you only need to manage one card.

A Day Out with an Author

Most of our work entails sitting in front of a laptop screen or walking around with a cell phone pressed to our head or, in my case, staring into space waiting for some bit of creative inspiration to light upon me. But once and awhile we're out and about, as we were last week when we visited the Loudoun County Public Library to see George Ella Lyon, one of our clients, give a presentation and reading. Bobbie met George Ella a while back, but it was my first meeting. I'm such a huge fan of her work and wanted to just gush, but I felt I needed to maintain some facade of professional demeanor. Anyway, it quickly became a time among friends and book lovers. In between talks at two different branches we had lunch.

(most of George Ella's books were checked out!)

George Ella's presentation included slides, readings, and props (she's an avid journaler & showed some of her journals) as well as a song. She has a lovely voice, strong & clear, and sang the lullaby that forms the text of her picture book Sleepsong. George Ella engaged the kids right away and I admired the way she was able to craft the presentation to interest the various ages present. The photos of her presentation turned out lousy but here's one of the three of us; George Ella's in the middle.

She told us she grew up in a house that had a library built by her grandfather. Doesn't that sound wonderful?

The two branches we visited were both amazing pieces of architecture and design -- one of reasons I love visiting libraries all over is to see the multitude of interior and exterior design and imagination. Here are some photos of the children's area at the Rust branch. I'm a sucker for a nature motif.

Review -- Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!

Today's my birthday and I'm celebrating by posting this review -- because not only is today MY birthday but it's my twin sister, Bonney's, birthday too!

Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same!
Written and illustrated by Grace Lin
Little, Brown & Co., $14.99, hardcover, ages 6-9


Ling and Ting are twins and share the same eye color, pink cheeks and happy smiles. “People see them and they say, ‘You two are exactly the same!’ ‘We are not exactly the same,’ Ling says” and Ting agrees. With humor and cleverness, the six short interconnected stories in this beginning reader point out the differences between the two as well as the clear affection they have for one another. The stories of magic tricks, making dumplings, visiting the library present simple text mixed with understandable wordplay for young readers. Clear, uncluttered pictures on each page, framed with colored borders will also suit beginning readers who are sure to want to read more stories about this fun and unique pair.

Read LGBT family stories to ALL kids

Since the principals of We Love Children’s Books are also 2/3 of the engine behind Two Lives Publishing, we thought we’d make a post in support of Blogging for LGBT Families Day. Two Lives creates and sells books for children that portray their families; we sell a lot of books to LGBT parents but we have also helped supply these books to schools, where we hope they are reaching kids who don’t have LGBT parents.

We don’t have kids of our own but we have, of course, read the Two Lives books to our nieces and nephews and our (straight) siblings have been good about having honest and supportive conversations with their kids when questions come up about our relationship. Lately we’ve been talking about our commitment ceremony with our 6-year-old niece, who is very interested in weddings at the moment, and we were tickled when my sister related the following story:

In Kyra’s kindergarten class, one of the boys said something about his boyfriend. He was immediately teased by another boy in the class, who told him “Boys can’t have boyfriends.” So Kyra marched right over and said to them, “Boys can marry boys, and girls can marry girls, because my aunt has a girlfriend.” Go, Kyra!

Only a few weeks later, I was babysitting Kyra and her 4-year-old brother Keane, and we were playing with the Anne of Green Gables paper dolls I had brought. One of the dresses was a wedding dress, but Anne’s beau Gilbert wasn’t included in the paper doll collection – only her best friend Diana – so Kyra & Keane decided that Anne and Diana would get married. I volunteered to preside over the ceremony, since I’ve always been kind of in love with Anne myself…the kids enjoyed it all and it never crossed their mind that there was anything wrong with the game. Go, Kyra and Keane's Mom and Dad!

Anyway, the point is, by mixing books featuring LGBT families in with other books in the classroom and in libraries, kids from all kinds of families will have a chance to read them, to see what different families have in common, and to figure out that it’s no big deal if you have two moms or two dads. And when those kids grow up and have kids of their own, the world will be a better place for their open-mindedness.