The Masque of the Black Tulip by Lauren Willig Eloise is a Harvard graduate student, writing her dissertation on English spies in France after the Revolution. She’s in England, worming her way into old family archives to find the truth behind spies who, unlike the Scarlet Pimpernel, were never unmasked during their lifetime. Her modern-day dilemmas are the frame for the story of the spies she’s researching. In this second book of the series, our spies are Lady Henrietta Selwick and Lord Miles Dorrington. They are under great suspicion from France, as they are the little sister and best friend of Lord Richard Selwick, formerly the Purple Gentian. Either one of them could be or could lead the French to the Pink Carnation, the subject of the first book. In fact, the Pink Carnation is trying to get word to them that France has unleashed its deadliest assassin, the Black Tulip, on England. Both Hen and Miles are eager to help the Pink Carnation discover the identity of the Black Tulip. Miles is struggling with the realization that Henrietta is prettier than ever – and strictly off limits. It is equal parts intrigue and romance, with each cropping up at inconvenient moments for the other. The author, herself a Harvard graduate student, pays attention to historical accuracy, with a note at the back to explain where and why she changed things. This is delicious fun.
How to Become a Straight-A Student by Cal Newport If you are thinking that I am no longer a student and did not read a book on the topic when I was, you would be right. This was recommended to me for the time management system, which requires no more than five minutes a day and can be dropped and picked up again without a fuss. Here’s the basic idea: Your tools are a calendar and notebook paper. Every morning, write out your schedule on a piece of notebook paper. Include your obligations and your free time. Write in what you need and want to do, using time slots to keep you from over-scheduling yourself. Throughout the day, on this same piece of paper, write down any new things that might come up – new assignments or appointments and so on. In the morning, transfer the new things to your master calendar. At this point, pick days for each step of an assignment involving multiple steps and write them down there. Anything on your big to-do list that won’t fit into the next day should be assigned to other days, too. For M., the part that she liked best was not trying to write things down on the right day when you first hear about it. For me, I liked assigning times, to keep me honest about how much I can and can’t do. 
Deconstructing Penguins by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone The Goldstones ran a kids’ book club at the library, starting with second grade and going up. They believe that kids need and deserve good literature, not just a quick read, and that giving them the tools to dive into their reading will pay off. In this manual, they go over the key parts of analyzing a book – figuring out which characters are protagonist and antagonist (even when it’s not obvious), finding the climax, looking at the setting, determing the underlying message. For each of these aspects, they examine a couple of the works they’ve done with kids. They start with Mr. Popper’s Penguins and Charlotte’s Web, but include things like The Giver, The Call of the Wild and Animal Farm. They also go into some practical aspects of running a book club, like picking a time and how to get people to talk. I was a little disturbed at how their interpretations of books came out so final sounding, especially as they were talking about how literature can mean many things to many people. That may be a hazard of writing down a discussion as they do. Still, it’s good for its intended purpose, as well as talking about children’s classics and being a good overview of critical reading. Parents and teachers who want to pass on a love of reading take note.
Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Read by Natalie Moore It’s the summer between DJ Schwenk’s sophomore and junior years. She’s managing her family’s dairy farm, with both her parents unable to help and her little brother busy with Little League. Her two college-age older brothers are off coaching at a football camp. Busy, simple, boring. Then a family friend, the coach of the rival high school’s football team, asks DJ to coach his back-up QB. Brian is a rich and snotty quarterback already loathed by the entire Schwenk family. Naturally, DJ and Brian forge a connection as they’re running and bringing in the hay. But more than that, his casual insults make her think about what she does and why. DJ decides to find a way to do more of what she really loves – football. There’s also an interesting subplot with DJ’s best friend, Amber. This is a rare book with a protagonist for whom thinking and words don’t come easily. Natalie Moore brought DJ to life with a great Midwestern country teen voice. DJ’s humor and honesty with herself kept me going straight on to the second book, The Off Season.
The Knight Who Took All Day by James Mayhew A proud knight can’t get the golden-haired princess to pay attention to him. (Look carefully, and you’ll see her giving a handkerchief to the squire instead of watching the knight’s fighting.) The knight decides that defeating a dragon is the way to her heart. He looks all over without success. Finally, a dragon is seen ravaging the countryside. The knight primps for battle as the dragon gets closer and closer, dithering over armor choices until the dragon is at the castle. When he finally gets out, the princess, wearing his rejected armor, has already tamed the dragon. The princess marries the squire and they fly off for their honeymoon on the dragon’s back. It’s a fun twist on the classic knight-fights-dragon story.
Horace the Horrible by Jackie French Koller. Illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic Nobody is pleased when Minuette is sent to stay with her uncle, Sir Horace, while her father the king recovers from the flu. Minuette misses her daddy. Sir Horace wants to carry on defeating dragons, vanquishing armies, and rescuing damsels in distress. It takes Minuette all day to convince Sir Horace that feats of arms aren’t what she misses about her Daddy. Bright and expressive watercolors bring this story of the Power of Cuddles to life.
Lili at Ballet by Rachel Isadora This is a very basic book about ballet, which surprised me by being one of the two dancing books that Mr. FP asked for over and over again. Isadora, formerly a professional dancer, follows Lili through her ballet lessons – changing clothes, barre work, floor work, and combinations. Finally, she performs in her ballet school’s recital. The story seems to be a thin gloss for the technical description, illustrated with quite lovely watercolors. A ballet lover will eat it up and look for the other books about Lili.
The Alley Cat’s Meow by Kathi Appelt. Illustrated by John Goodell. It’s the swingin’ 1930s, in a world populated by truly cool cats. Red takes the B-train and Ginger takes the Catanooga Choo-Choo to that famous jazz club, the Alley Cat’s Meow. Sparks fly as they meet (the good kind) and their dancing wows first the club and then the world. Appelt’s rhyming text should appeal to the young, while Goodell’s detailed oil paintings make this a treat especially for lovers of classic swing.
Tessa’s Tip-Tapping Toes by Carolyn Crimi. Illustrated by Marsha Gray Carrington. Tessa is a mouse who can’t stop dancing – she’s even made herself tap shoes out of bottle caps. Her mother tells her to scurry and hide like a proper mouse, and Tessa tries, but she feels all wrong inside. Meanwhile, the owner of Tessa’s house has gotten a new housecat. Oscar loves to sing, but when the neighbors complain, Mrs. Timboni tells Oscar to be quiet and take naps like a proper cat. Oscar tries, but he feels all wrong inside. Then, one fateful night, there is a thunderstorm that results in happy tip-tapping, hip-hopping ending for everyone. The bright, angular illustrations – triangles for Tessa, rectangles for Oscar – bring together this celebration of dance and following one’s heart. Unfortunately out of print, but hopefully your library, like mine, will have a copy.
Once Upon a Mattress If you like old-fashioned campy musicals and revisionist fairy tales, take a look at this one. Carol Burnett and Tracey Ullman star in this Disney version of the Broadway classic. Burnett (who played Princess Winifred in the original Broadway production) stars as Queen Agravain, the queen of a fairy-tale land who won’t let her 40-something son, Prince Dauntless, get married. What she tells Dauntless is that a real princess would pass her test, which is different every time. But Lady Larken and Sir Harry need Dauntless to get married. No one else is allowed to get married until Dauntless is, and Larken is pregnant. Sir Harry goes on a quest to find a princess who can pass the tests and comes back with Princess Fred (Tracey Ullman) a moat-swimming princess from the swamp. Since the story is based on The Princess and the Pea, we all know how the story will end, but Dauntless and Fred are racking their brains to figure out what the test will be and how to pass it. Burnett wears fabulous sequined outfits with elaborate headdresses that look like an unholy cross between 1450 and Las Vegas, and of course, still commands the screen. Ullman’s Winifred is charming and stubborn, especially as she’s complaining about how Snow White had a seven men (practically a regiment, even if they were short) helping her get to happily ever after, while she’s on her own. There’s enough sexual innuendo here to keep the adults chuckling, between Fred wanting to be “satisfied” and Dauntless asking his literally dumb father to explain the wedding night to him, even as it’s quite sanitized enough for the kids not to notice. All of us enjoyed multiple viewings of this romp of a movie.-
Join 888 other subscribers
- Follow alibrarymama on WordPress.com
-
Recent Posts
- Little Monsters by Máire Roche for MMGM
- Continuing Gaslamp Adventures: A Waltz of Sinister Import, Stormsong, and Soulstar
- Fantasy Romance for Tough Times – Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter, The Book Witch, How to Lose a Goblin in 10 Days, and When the Tides Held the Moon
- Reflections on History: Charity and Sylvia and Deprived of Sense and Intellect
- Seasonal Reads for Elementary Readers: Greta Grimsdark and the Normal New Neighbor and Holidays at the Castle
Archives
Tags
- #OwnVoices
- Adult Nonfiction
- adventure
- African-American
- Armchair Cybils
- Asian-American
- audiobooks
- award winners
- bibliography
- book-review
- book reviews
- books
- contemporary fantasy
- cooking
- Cybils
- diversity
- dragons
- fairy tales
- Fantasy
- fiction
- ghosts
- graphic novels
- historical fantasy
- historical fiction
- humor
- knitting
- Latino/a
- Latinx
- LGBTQ
- Middle Grade
- mr. fp
- multiculturalism
- Mystery
- mythology
- parenting
- picture books
- pirates
- reading
- Romance
- science fiction
- steampunk
- teen
- teen fantasy
- teen fiction
- teen science fiction
- Top Ten Tuesday
- youth fantasy
- youth fiction
- youth graphic novels
- youth science fiction
-
Top Posts
-
© Katy Kramp and alibrarymama.com, 2004-2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Katy Kramp and alibrarymama.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
