Noggin

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Katy K.

This is one of the Cybils Teen Speculative Fiction Finalists!  I was going to review all four of the remaining ones in one go, as I did the first three, but the library was busy today (yay! Even though the library’s main entrance is closed down and patrons are being re-routed to previously hidden doors) and I guess I have problems being concise.

Noggin Noggin by John Corey Whaley. Atheneum Books, 2014.
I don’t know what it is about me reading books with significant timing – but I ended up reading this book about a young man coming back from the dead five years after he died five years after my younger brother died.  Right around the two-year anniversary of his death, I read The Piper’s Son, about a family struggling to recover from a young family member’s death two years earlier.  That turned out to be tough but fabulous.  This one was maybe just the wrong book for me at this time, and I can’t really get away from that very personal reaction to it.  But on to the book.

Travis Coates was 16 and dying of cancer when he was offered the chance to have his head cryogenically frozen in the hopes of reviving him at some point in the future when technology was advanced enough to give him a new body.  That turned out to be faster than anyone expected – just 5 years in the future. Now he’s back with a taller, buffer body, ready to get back to life – only everything has changed.  His friends have graduated from college while he still has to finish high school.  His girlfriend is engaged to someone else, and things with his former best friend aren’t much better.  Whaley skates the line between serious and funny as Travis tries to make a new life for himself, as well as trying to recover some semblance of the old one.  The humor comes partly from the ridiculousness of a star classic video game player now having the body and muscle memory of a skateboarder.  As he and the people he love try to adjust, Travis has to ask himself if the price of his coming back wasn’t too high for all concerned.

This would be a great book to give to teens who normally read contemporary fiction who are looking for science fiction.  The premise is undeniably sci-fi, but the world is still ours and the sci-fi event within the realm of the possible.  The writing is zippy and the cover gives a good idea of what the book is about while being appealing.  I wasn’t sure that I bought all of the characters: Why is the former girlfriend getting married at 20? Why does Travis pursue her so relentlessly even when she tells him she’s moved on?  But this looks at some deep issues and there is a lot to think about and discuss, either in formal book clubs or just with friends.  That’s why, even though this didn’t work for me personally, it’s one I’ll keep in mind to recommend to teens at the library.

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Caldecotts 2015: Picture Book Biographies

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Katy K.

There were a lot of Caldecott honors this year – six, with the medal winner additional.  I’m still waiting on hold for one of them, but even so, I have too many books to talk about at once.  Here are three honor books that all happen to be picture book biographies, a type of book which teachers love but which public librarians sometimes complain are a hard sell.

 The Noisy Paint BoxThe Noisy Paint Box by Barb Rosenstock. Illustrated by Mary Grandpre.  Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.
This is a picture book of the Russian painter Kandinsky.  It starts with childhood and the delights of his paint box rescuing him from boredom.  It follows the course of his life in a fairly typical fashion, but breaks out of the ordinary in describing how Kandinsky sees colors in sounds and develops the first abstract paintings.  Mary Grandpre’s illustrations are really spectacular, showing both engaging pictures of the man himself and swirls of colors as sounds translate themselves to image. This was a huge hit.  My daughter wanted it over and over again, her class enjoyed it, and the art teacher read it to all the K/1 classes before having them paint music as Kandinsky does in the book.

The Right WordThe Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jennifer Bryant. Illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Eerdman’s Books for Young Readers, 2014
Again, this is a biography, showing how a shy and lonely boy raised between countries
found solace in words and lists, becoming known as a scientist before his children encouraged him to publish his thesaurus.  The illustrations are fabulous, as you would expect, with lists of words about different things related to the text woven into them.  It’s too much to take in on one reading – this is one you’d want to go back to over and over again.  The text is on the longer side, so that it took a couple of nights to get through it with my daughter.  She enjoyed it, but wasn’t so interested in hearing all the lists of words when she just wanted a little story before sleep.  It’s still a great book – just one meant for an early elementary audience rather than a preschool/Kindergarten one.

Viva FridaViva Frida by Yuyi Morales. Roaring Brook Press, 2014.
Skewing completely to the other end of the spectrum with the quantity of words, this book about Frida Kahlo has only a short, short phrase on each page, repeated in English and Spanish in different typefaces.  Scenes from some of Kahlo’s paintings are recreated in miniature, with a detailed tiny doll and props on vivid backgrounds that I took to be digital.  There’s no real story here, though, so kids who don’t know about Kahlo already won’t really learn much from the book.  The words are along the lines of “I see – I feel – I dream”, which felt to me more inspirational for adults than meaningful to kids.  There is an afterword that explained more about her, but it’s far too dense for the kids who’d have the attention span called for in the main text.  My daughter told me to take this book back to the library right away after I read it to her.  It’s really a shame – I love both the illustrations and Frida Kahlo – but it was a complete flop at my house.

Have you read any of these books?  What did you think?  Do you have any favorite picture book biographies?

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The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Katy K.

Still on the “life getting out of hand” subject, I just realized that I never reviewed this book that I finished on Valentine’s Day, though it’s still one of my favorites so far this year. I’ll give it a try now, and hope for life to calm down enough for me to catch up on all the other books I’ve been reading.

Story of OwenThe Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim by E.K. Johnston. Carolrhoda Labs, 2014.
It’s modern-day rural Ontario, in a world where dragons are real and dangerous. They eat carbon, and are likely to go after any large sources they can find – big factories and oil wells are naturally targets, but out in the country, a gasoline-fueled car is a likely target. Michigan was laid waste long ago, due to its too-heavy concentration of factories. (I would like to note for the record that Michigan is largely very productive farmland, despite its auto reputation. But it was still very chilling to read about it being inhabited only by dragons.) Dragon slayers mostly stay in big cities protecting the largest target, leaving those in smaller towns to fend for themselves. The titular Owen is the, son of two dragon slayers and mostly raised by his aunt and her wife – recently retired dragon slayer and sword smith now in the tiny rural town of Trondheim. Naturally, he’s in training to be a slayer himself, though he still has to go through high school.

That’s where our narrator, Siobhan, meets him. Their relationship evolves from her just tutoring him in algebra, to her learning some of the basics of dragon slaying herself, so that she can be his official bard. Siobhan is a musician through and through, describing both events and people in musical terms – I loved her sequences trying to figure out which orchestral instrument would best represent a person she was getting to know. The Viking traditions brought into the modern day and combined with sort of normal high school social issues was an intoxicating combination. I liked Owen and especially Siobhan as characters, and other secondary characters – people that Siobhan had been inclined to ignore herself – were also fleshed out more fully over the course of the story. I appreciated, too, that while it was clearly high school and the things that teens like to do and adults don’t like them to do were there – drinking, parties, romance – Siobhan is only interested in Owen as a friend, and they’re both fine with this. Yes, I like a good romance – but I also like to see stories about friendship between people who aren’t necessarily interested in romance.

All this would probably be background to someone who reads for plot more than I do – because there is an Exciting Plot, too. Dragon attacks have been ramping up dramatically, even in rural Ontario which shouldn’t have much to attract them, and teenagers in particular are going missing. Owen and Siobhan in particular take it upon themselves to solve the mystery, while trying to utilize their dragon-slaying skills and avoid being eaten themselves. This was highly satisfactory reading, so that even though I was saying yesterday that I should take a break from reading teen books for a bit now, I really, really want to read the sequel, Fire on the Prairie, which came out last month.

An obvious pairing for this is the more lighthearted The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde, while Martin Berman-Gorvine’s Save the Dragons puts yet another spin on the modern-day dragon thing.  Or head to Pern for music and dragons in a fantasy setting with Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey.

And now I need to go visit Ontario again. We took family vacations there growing up, from camping on the lake to the big road trip through Toronto and Ottawa and out to PEI. My Up with People cast went all over rural western Canada. Later, my love and I honeymooned in Stratford, and crossed the Bridge regularly to get British editions of the Harry Potter books. But that was when adults just needed a driver’s license and kids a birth certificate. We haven’t been back since they started asking for passports at the border, and I so miss it.

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State of the Book Basket – April 2015

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Katy K.

Apologies for the silence, friends. Life has been more than usually crazy – fortunately, lots of good as well as some bad. And while this isn’t the place to share it all, I now know a lot more about the music of the thirteenth century, which is exciting if you’re a medieval music geek like me. (Well, ok, I a) know lots of other music geeks and b) my enthusiasm is contagious.)

But here I am at work on a Sunday, and that means it’s time for me to share what we’re reading around my house. As usual, these are just the books we have checked out from the library where I work, not the ones from the local and school libraries, a not inconsiderable additional number.

The Daughter, age 5 ½
finedessertA Fine Dessert by Emily Jenkins. Illustrated by Sophie Blackall. – this picture book has been a hit both with the girl and her class.

A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time and A Crazy Day with Cobras by Mary Pope Osborne (audiobook) – back on the Magic Tree House ride – we just finished this, and are anxiously waiting for the next installment to be returned.

Feathers: not just for flying by Melissa Stewart – I know we already read this, but she has to do a nonfiction book project for school, so I took this home again. Now to figure out a project she can do with this that doesn’t involve looking for actual bird feathers which she shouldn’t be handling.

Lulu and the Cat in the BagLulu and the Cat in the Bag by Hilary McKay – yay, Lulu! She really enjoyed having me read her the first one, so it’s time to go on to the second.

Red: a Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall – silly fun with a serious message – she’s been going back to it on her own.

Sacred Myths: Stories of World Religions by Marilyn McFarlane – I had this out for my son when he was young. I really like this for having sacred stories from six different major religions, all respectfully told with beautiful pictures.

The Talented Clementine by Sara Pennypacker (audiobook) – I’m hoping she’ll go for this while we’re waiting for the next Magic Tree House.

Very Little Red Riding Hood by Teresa Heapy – a very silly retelling, with a self-assured toddler Riding Hood who won’t let the wolf be mean.

The most exciting news – just before I left for work today, she read me not one but two Elephant and Piggy books – I Will Surprise My Friend and Listen to My Trumpet!

The Son, 10
A Hero for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi (audiobook) – I don’t love the narrator on this series, and I might be having some issues with the series in general, but we’re halfway through book two of the trilogy and the boy is still really enjoying it.

Curse of the Were WienerCurse of the Were-Wiener (Dragonbreath) by Ursula Vernon – because Dragonbreath is always fun, and he still needs to work on his chapter book stamina.

Genghis Khan by Judy Humphrey and The Life and Times of Genghis Khan by Jim Whiting – so he can be Genghis Khan in his 4/5 class wax museum

Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab by Bob Pflugfelder – for in-class DEAR time.

Jinx’s Fire by Sage Blackwood – Finally! Hooray! We now own the whole series, and are very excited to find out what happens to Jinx.

My love
As You WishAs You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride by Cary Elwes (audiobook) – we love The Princess Bride – I’m really hoping we can both get through this book before it comes due, as I know there’s a wait list at the library. I’m really excited to hear this, with all the parts read by the real actors.

The Sculptor by Scott McCloud – I recently finished this deservedly hyped new graphic novel, and am passing it on to my love.

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe – This is by the XKCD creator. Really, I’m putting this for my love just because he needs more to fill out his space, but the boy and I have been dipping into it with great enjoyment as well. With lots of short sections, it’s perfect for reading just a bit at a time.

Me
Bone GapBone Gap by Laura Ruby (audiobook) – I’ve been hearing such good things about this from all my blogging friends, and was especially excited to see that we had it on audiobook. I’m halfway done, and really enjoying it so far.

Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge – Again, my blogging people have been praising Hardinge for a while now (see Brandy’s Top 10 Tuesday list from last week), but my library doesn’t have her most-praised books, so I’m starting with what we have. I’m reading this on my work breaks.

Hellstrip Gardening: Create a Paradise between the Sidewalk and the Curb by Evelyn J. Hadden – because this is pretty, and I am enough of a gardener to want to read gardening books in the spring, even if not enough to have done any actual yard work yet this spring.

Fly by NightLily and Lily and the Prisoner of Magic by Holly Webb – for mysterious reasons, my library’s copy of Rose and the Silver Ghost hasn’t yet come in, though it was supposed to be out last month. In the meantime, though, we did get this whole series in from the UK. I accidentally read the second one first.

Mortal Heart by Robin Lafevers – How did I not get to this when it first came out when I was so excited about it? It feels like I will never be done catching up with the YA books I missed last year. Oh wait… reminder to self: I never can read all the books I want to. This is the one I’m currently read at home.

Prudence by Gail Carriger – see above. But I think I’m a little faster on the draw with this one, even if the reviews haven’t been as positive so far. Hoping for the best…

Rethinking Positive Thinking by Gabreile Oettingen – recommended by my friend Dr. M.

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki – Another one I really meant to get to a year ago… it’s one of the two of this year’s Caldecotts I haven’t read yet.

At the beginning of the year, I said I needed to read more teen… now I feel like I’ve been reading nothing but teen, and while I’ve been enjoying it, it’s time to get back to some nice middle grade speculative fiction. What have I missed? What have your favorites been so far this year?

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Smek for President

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Katy K.

It took my son and I about two months to read this book aloud together – very good value for our entertainment dollar, even if means we’re starting on Jinx’s Fire a little later than we’d hoped. I am still anxious to make it to the theater to see Home, even if it can’t possibly be as good as the book.

Smek for President! Smek for President by Adam Rex. Disney-Hyperion, 2015.
More crazy adventures with aliens ensue in this sequel to The True Meaning of Smekday. J.Lo, Tip (now 13) and her mother are all living peacefully in a small town on a lake.  The slimy politician Tip caught trying to make a deal with the Gorg in the last book has now taken credit for defeating them, as Tip decided that she didn’t need the notoriety that would come with the world knowing that she and J.Lo actually drove them out. J.Lo is now part of the family, but he still wishes that his fellow Boov didn’t blame him for the whole Gorg invasion thing.  He gets it into his head that if he just journeys to New Boovworld, the moon of Saturn where the Boov are now living, and tells the High Boov Smek his story in person, that all will be well.

Tip, meanwhile, is chafing at her mother’s new attempts at involved parenting after a childhood where Tip did most of the nurturing.  That fuels her decision to travel to New Boovworld with J.Lo in a newly souped-up Slushious, without asking her mother first.  It’s just supposed to be a quick trip – but that hope fades as they find New Boovworld in the middle of its first-ever presidential election, pitting long-time High Boov General Smek against a new populist candidate, Ponch Sandhandler.  General Smek is on edge, and his reaction to J.Lo’s confession is (not to be too spoilerish) terrifying.  Wild adventuring ensues, the adventure going above and under-ground, with both Tip and J.Lo being chased both by official guards and an unknown assassin in black.  All the while, election politics carry on, with footage broadcast across screens everywhere.  And now that there is no clear way to get home, Gratuity would really, really like to see her mom again.

This isn’t quite the same level of social commentary that there was in The True Meaning of Smekday.  But it is still a lot of fun, and is still a winning combination of action and humor.  (My son, I’ll note, was slightly bored at the beginning, even for the space journey, until actual chasing started.)  There’s some relationship evaluating as well, both between Tip and J.Lo and Tip and her mother. This could be a fun introduction for middle grade kids to start looking at election politics and how far people will go to get elected.  My verdict: still well worth reading, even if we didn’t love it quite as much as the first one.

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Three for Picture Book Monday

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Katy K.

My daughter has been requesting chapter books more and more often at bedtime of late – but here are three picture books we enjoyed recently.

Have You Seen My Dragon?Have You Seen My Dragon? By Steve Light. Candlewick Press, 2014.
A little boy looks for his dragon in New York City.  Though the dragon is in every picture, the boy finds other things to count instead, going all the way up to twenty.  The illustrations are detailed pen and ink on white paper, with just the objects being counted filled in with bright color washes.  Maps in the endpapers show the route through the city.  The whimsical concept and detailed art made for a book that both my kids enjoyed looking through, and the hide-and-seek element made it one that my pre-reader could enjoy just as much on her own.

Maple & Willow TogetherMaple & Willow Together by Lori Nichols. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014.
This sequel to Maple, a Cybils picture book finalist, shows Maple and her little sister Willow now old enough to play together – kind of.  Willow certainly wants to play with Maple, but she’s at an age where destroying is much easier than building.  Still, the sisters do a lot together, exploring nature, speaking in pig Latin – and lots of fighting.  Plus making up when being mad at each other gets too lonely.  This manages to be sweet without downplaying the real challenges of living with siblings, good for preschoolers and up.

The Princess GownThe princess gown by Linda Leopold Strauss. Houghton Mifflin, 2008.
This came highly recommended by my colleague, Mrs. M., a favorite of both her and her daughter.  It’s a meatier story than the previous two, more for the early elementary audience than the preschoolers of the first two books.  Young Hanna watches the princess playing in her private garden with a pet squirrel.  She then races home to her family, where her father is putting the final touches on a masterpiece – a wedding gown for the princess, if it wins the dress competition.  All the Abraham family’s funds have been sunk into this dress, in hopes of winning the coveted title of Embroiderers to the Queen.  But as Hanna goes to put the last stitch into the gown that every family member has helped with, she notices a black smudge right on the front.  Is there a way to save the dress and her family’s business? Based on a scrap of the author’s family history, this is a beautiful story with (I think) casual diversity, as the Abraham family appears to be Jewish, though it’s never explicitly mentioned. The gorgeous pictures give a background to the beautiful dresses so many girls love.

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Enchantment Lake: Review and Giveaway

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Katy K.

Preus Tour BannerToday I’m honored to be the last stop on the book tour for the upcoming book Enchantment Lake. Thanks to the publisher for an ebook review copy for me, and for three signed hard copies of the book to give away to my readers!  Please see the end of the post for details on the giveaway.

preus_enchantment coverEnchantment Lake by Margi Preus. University of Minnesota Press, April 2015.
Teen TV detective Francie is in New York, about to audition for a new part, when she gets a crackly but urgent phone call from her (Great) Aunt Astrid.  It sounds like someone is trying to murder Aunts Astrid and Jeannette.  When neither police nor the grandfather with whom Francie lives takes her seriously, Francie ditches the audition and gets on first a plane and then a bus to get out to the tiny Minnesota town on Walpurgis Lake where they live.

Once there, she finds things both better and worse than she feared.  Her aunts assure her that they don’t consider themselves to be in any imminent danger – but neighbors have been dying off at a suspiciously rapid rate.  A development company is trying to buy up small cottages and build support for a large paved road instead of the boats-only access to the town, and Astrid and Jeannette are convinced that the real estate agent in particular is willing to stop at nothing to get his hands on potentially valuable properties.  They’ve told everyone that Francie is a real detective, not just a TV one, and seem seriously to expect her uncover the shady dealings and restore peace to Enchantment.

This shares a lot of appeal factors with the Nancy Drew books I devoured as a third-grader, though as people die (off-page) over the course of the book, I’d say it’s aimed at a slightly older audience.  Like Nancy, Francie is one of the cool kids, confident and wealthy enough to make her own way across the country without permission from any adults.  Both these and the older adults’ confidence in Francie’s ability to solve the mystery unaided reminded me of the heroines of early mystery series, clearly more wish fulfillment for kids than realistic. There are close calls, shady characters, midnight expeditions, and possible lost treasure.  But this is at the same time an ode to rural Minnesota (which sounds very much like rural Michigan), with the small, familiar town filled with quirky characters, kitschy souvenirs, and lots of loving described natural beauty.  There is more than one cute boy, as well, and a hint of middle grade appropriate romance.

Francie herself is more than the cool kid she appears at first – still trying to recover from her father’s unexplained death some years ago, normally living with her grandfather, she pictures her heart locked away in a silver box.  Even so, it’s her genuine affection and concern for her aunts and for the town itself that brings her back to Enchantment. This should appeal both to mystery lovers looking to move on from Nancy Drew, as well as fans of small town fiction.

This might pair well with the more whimsical A Snicker of Magic for those interested in the small town angle, while mystery fans might also want to look at Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery on Museum Mile.

Preus, Margi credit to Shirleen_Hieb_PhotographyCheck out the other stops on the tour for other takes on the book, interviews, excerpts, and more chances to win the book for yourself:

The giveaway for three signed copies of the book, one per winner, is open to residents of the US and Canada. To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment with your favorite rural north book for kids/teens OR your favorite kid/teen detective by midnight EST April 24.

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Brown Girl Dreaming and The Crossover

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Katy K.

There are years when I feel entirely unexcited about the Newbery and Caldecott awards… and then there was this year, when I looked up all the winners and honor books and got everything into my hands as quickly as I could.  I’d already read El Deafo, one of the two Newbery Honor books, and both of the two remaining books were already on my want to read list because of the love from around the KidLitosphere.  Both of these may be said to contain the dreaded Death by Newbery  I loved them both and was thrilled to see the Newbery committee paying attention to #WeNeedDiverseBooks. Because we do.

Brown Girl DreamingBrown Girl Dreaming  by Jacqueline Woodson. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014.
This book has been showered with book awards – it won the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King author award, and (closest to my heart if not media attention) was a Cybils poetry finalist, in addition to the aforementioned Newbery Honor.  So… does this autobiography in verse live up to the hype?  I myself was not disappointed.  In short poems, usually just a page or two long, Woodson tells the story of her growing up, from her birth in Ohio, to living with grandparents down South, followed by a move to New York.  There’s rich family history on both sides, as well as her relationships with her siblings and her friendships, the music they listened to and the Civil Rights activities that surrounded them.

The poetry made me want to read it out loud – I often did, though reading aloud over breakfast carries the risk of kids being late to school as I’m not finishing my breakfast or packing their lunches.  A poem describing Woodson’s grandmother’s garden in lush language – the colors, the curves, the scents – all destined to be side dishes – made the kids laugh out loud.  Woodson tells how her sister would curl up under the dining room table with a book, oblivious to the world.  Woodson herself struggled with reading even as she loved stories, another poem I had to read aloud to my dyslexic boy.  The mix of universal and particular is seductive, and I found myself pushing to read just one more poem until I reached the end.  I read about fifteen minutes to the boy when he went to bed too angry to sleep one night, and they worked beautifully to calm him down.  This would be a great book for classroom read-alouds, as the individual poems are short enough to fill tiny schedule gaps and the language is beautiful to listen to.

crossoverThe Crossover by Kwame Alexander. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.
My blogging friend and fellow Cybils panelist Brandy over at Random Musings of a Bibliophile first brought this to my attention.  Since her middle grade reading is largely fantasy, I pay extra attention when she’s as impressed by a realistic title as she was by this one.  Realistic fiction about basketball, no less – not really a passion for either of us – which maybe paradoxically made me more excited to read it.

Josh and Jordan are twins, and middle school basketball stars.  Their father is a former professional player, while their mother, vice principal at their school, keeps them equally focused on academics.  In poems that span a range of styles from rap to jazz or haiku and more, Josh (aka Filthy McNasty) tells the story of a momentous school year, the year that Jordan (aka JB) started ignoring him in favor of a girl, a very pulchritudinous girl.  At the same time, he sees his father ignoring increases signs of health problems, still taking the boys out for donuts after practice.  There is a lot of basketball, lovingly and energetically described. There’s also some really rich vocabulary – that “pulchritudinous” is straight from the text, and there are some meditations on “churlish” as well.  But the real focus of the story is family, from Josh’s so believeable 13-year-old perspective,with looks at the relationships between all of the characters, from the two brothers’ newly strained relationship to that of the parents, overheard through bedroom walls.  I read it straight through in one sitting and loved it.  Except the sad part.  But maybe, even if I’m tired of that kind of sad in middle grade and teen books, it wouldn’t have gotten the Newbery and therefore the attention it so richly deserves, without it.

Here is a very short video of Alexander taking the #SpeedRead challenge with a selection from Crossover.

If you’ve read either of these books, please let me know what you think!

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3 Cybils Nonfiction Finalists: Feathers: Not Just for Flying, Handle with Care, Chasing Cheetahs

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Katy K.

Time for more true confessions: as a child I was quite opposed to nonfiction books, and would even skip over nonfiction articles in Cricket, otherwise my favorite magazine. Then I had a son who will bring home nothing but nonfiction from the library given a choice.  And of course the real world is full of interesting things. It’s essential to find books that are able to convey to kids just how cool the world is, while of course sticking to accuracy. Here are three of this year’s Cybils Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction finalists, all guaranteed to keep kids hooked.

feathersFeathers: Not Just for Flying by Melissa Stewart. Illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen. Charlesbridge, 2014.
The winner, and for good reason! Large-type text compares different kinds of birds and the way their feathers help them to everyday objects in the human world: “Feathers can distract attackers like a bullfighter’s cape… or hide a bird from predators like camouflage clothing.” Smaller text goes a little more into detail on each of the birds and their feathers. Beautiful watercolor paintings form a scrapbook, with close-ups of feathers, pictures that look like photos of the bird in their natural habitat pasted or clipped into the book, and bits or pictures of the everyday items the feathers are acting like also on the spread – sponges, umbrellas, blankets and sunscreen. This book is immensely appealing to look at for all ages – I found both of my kids, five years apart in age, curled up looking at it. The large text makes it easily accessible to younger kids, while the smaller type can go more into depth for those who want it or are old enough for it. It made for a great read-aloud, with both kids listening again. This one could work from preschool on up, with even older kids finding new things to learn. Take a look at the interview with Stewart and Brannen on the Cybils blog for a look at the mind-blowing amount of research that went into this book!

handlewithcareHandle with care: an unusual butterfly journey by Loree Griffin Burns. Millbrook Press, 2014.
It’s fairly common for schools and museums to have butterfly pupae for children to watch turn into butterflies – but where do those caterpillars come from in the first place? Many of them from Costa Rica, it turns out, and Burns traveled to a butterfly farm there, El Bosque Nuevo, to see how it works. She’s able to give us the inside scoop on things like the sound of thousands of caterpillars eating all at the same time, and the large area of empty dirt needed around the caterpillar conservatory to keep the tasty little things safe from predators. There’s also, of course, good information on the butterfly life cycle with gorgeous close-up photos. The main text on this one is a little more advanced than that of Feather – still I’d say a great level for early elementary aged kids, and would work well read aloud to younger kids. This was a hit with my five-year-old daughter.

Chasing CheetahsChasing Cheetahs by Sy Montgomery. Photographs by Nic Bishop. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.
So often conservation stories can be depressing – it’s a real treat to find this story of how one woman’s efforts to save the cheetah are proving effective. The author and photographer traveled to Namibia to visit Laurie Marker at the Cheetah Conservation fund. A former farmer herself, she’s been able to talk with the farmers there to solve the problems that cause them to kill cheetahs – rather than just trying to leverage bigger and bigger punishments. This is a lot of information, and the photographs are gorgeous. It is not, however, one of those mostly-photo books that visual learners like my son can learn from without looking at the main text. That text is meaty, and the photographs are there to support it, not the other way around. It was too dense for him to get into by himself, but he listened avidly over several days as I read it to him, and even had Grandma finish one day when I was at work because he was just too excited to wait. Great information with a bonus section on how kids reading the book can make a difference themselves. This one is definitely more for the upper elementary to middle school end of the spectrum.

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Cybils Teen Spec Fic: The Living, Death Sworn, and Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Katy K.

Here’s the first half of the Cybils Teen Speculative Fiction finalists, with more to come. Three very different speculative fiction books, but all good solid choices.

gloryobriensGlory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King. Little, Brown 2014.
Glory O’Brien, aimless and disconnected, is about to graduate high school, while her home schooled best friend Ellie is not. Feeling crazy and directionless and having drunk a bit too much alcohol one night, they drink a powdered mummified bat. This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense even to the characters the next morning, but after drinking it, Glory starts to have visions of the future, a dark future in which a man called Nedrick the Sanctimonious takes over a large part of the US with a strong anti-woman agenda. Glory writes down these visions even as she tries to figure out what her near future should be, what to do about her father who has more or less lived on their sofa since her mother killed herself eight years earlier. She tries, not always successfully, not to be judgmental about Ellie being sexually active when she’s not. The visions of the future are dark and terrifying, the present bewildering, with both Glory and Ellie caught in understandable if annoying selfishness. There’s been a lot said about how we put too much pressure on female characters to be likeable – Glory would be one of those characters. She makes sense and works well for the story without really being sympathetic. I feel a little ashamed to admit that I really do prefer my characters likeable. I still couldn’t put the book down, and there’s a lot to think and talk about, so I think this would be a great choice for a teen book club.

deathswornDeath Sworn by Leah Cypess. Greenwillow Books, 2014.
Ileni is a trained sorceress of the Renegai, a group that has seceded from the Empire they consider to be evil. Every child of the Renegai is born with magical power, but in only a few does it last to adulthood. Ileni was supposed to be one of those few, and she was among the best in her training. But as she nears 20, her power has begun to fade after all. She’s bent on serving her people in the only way left to her: by traveling as a sorcery tutor to the secret cave hideout of the assassin clan which, by working to bring down the Empire, is an uneasy ally of the Renegai. The alliance is uneasy both because of the assassins’ methods, and because the last two sorcerers have gone missing. She’ll be the youngest tutor ever, the same age as her students, and the only woman.

Once there, the Master of the assassins gives her a brutal demonstration of the absolute power he has over the assassins. She’s given a guide, the handsome Sorin, who is fiercely loyal to the Master’s plan, even if he doesn’t know exactly what it is. And she begins to learn the politics of the students and teachers, concealing the limits of her dwindling magical powers even as she must use them to protect herself and solve the mystery of the dead previous sorcerers. Some of this mystery was easy for me to figure out – but so much of this was done so well that I didn’t mind. I loved the twist of Ileni having complete mastery over a tiny bit of magical power, and I so appreciated that she was able to enjoy a romantic relationship without subscribing to her assassin boyfriend’s belief system. I don’t have the book with me right now, but “I love you, but I don’t trust you” is what I remember her saying. And I really, really enjoyed Ileni’s maturing from seeing the world in black and white to a more nuanced view, all while staying true to herself. Plus, assassins and magic! I have the sequel, Death Marked, out right now.

livingThe Living by Matt de la Peña. Delacorte Press, 2013.
Shy Espinoza thought working on a cruise ship would be a great summer job: good pay, exotic locations, and hanging out with a diverse crew of other good-looking kids his age. He’s bonded especially closely with the beautiful but unavailable Carmen, who grew up like him in a poor Southern California town and also like him, lost a close family member to the new and frightening Romero disease. The close friendships with the other crew might come close to balancing out the classism and racism they experience from the vacationers on the cruise ship, but nothing is stopping the nightmares Shy now gets after unsuccessfully trying to stop a rich older man from throwing himself overboard.

And then disaster strikes. Shy is battling for his life, as the story quickly turns into a thriller, both survival and med tech.

This is the book that won, and I can see why. So often in thrillers, all other considerations are thrown under the plot bus as it barrels along, but de la Peña gives us characters to believe in and a lot to think about afterwards on top of that. I still resent it a little when books make me stay up late turning the pages – but this is really, really well done.

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