New at the Library - Part 2

A few more picture books available on our shelves now...

9780307978486

One of this year's Caldecott Honor winners, it delves into (without naming it until the afterward) Kandinsky's synesthesia. I have been fascinated by synesthesia since I encountered it in a sci-fi novel and discovered it is a real 'thing'. Sadly, I don't have a speck of it myself, but that alone may spark a youngster's interest in looking more closely at art.

9780544259003

Sniff. This seems to be the season for some of my favorite patrons to move away, and one such family just happens to have an affinity for chickens, among other things. I read this the very morning they left on their newest adventure, and I hope it goes every bit as well as Peggy's. (She comes BACK, btw. Just sayin'.)

9780375868320

Ooh, food will make me feel better! I love a book that makes me want to run out and cook something, and this one includes both a simple recipe AND historical notes. I do like the way the author and illustrator addressed the subject of slavery, giving plenty for parents to point out and discuss with their children as they choose - or, to just let soak in subconsciously.

9780689858086

Speaking of history, I wish other authors (or pseudo-authors - looking at you, Mr. Limbaugh) were as meticulous about researching their history as Laurie Halse Anderson is. Seriously, her books should cost a LOT more than they do, just for the sheer background work she puts into them, forget the actual stories. I also like books like this that give someone reading aloud the option of just hitting the highlights, or delving into the additional subject matter. Very busy pages, including a tiny-print timeline, but they work with the business of the events mentioned. 

New at the Library!

Ugh...I was doing so well posting several times a week, even had things scheduled ahead...then every single person in the house got sick. Not all at once, mind you! I finally feel human again, and happily came back to piles of books to catalog - our last order of the fiscal year. There are some great titles in the pile, so I am going to take a few posts this week to highlight just a few:

9780544252301

Applegate's chapter book, The One and Only Ivan, won the Newbery medal. This picture book gives younger children a gentle introduction to Ivan's life, as well as changing attitudes in our culture about wild animals in captivity. It begins and ends with the same sweet imagery of "gentle arms". A two-page spread at the back gives more of his history, and his main zookeeper shares some of her memories of his last few years.

9781419707957

Poor Jack! In the style of the old rhyme, "The House that Jack Built", our protagonist creates a really cool fort out of objects from all over the house - but then his family members start taking their things back! We can feel his disappointment and frustration, until Grandma steps in and saves the day.

9780810994911

Hee hee - "Hush Little Baby" is one of the songs I have always sung to my kids without changing the words, but you have to chuckle when mama dragon starts offering her little one a princess to eat, or a fresh magician - "don't mind the taste, he's good nutrition!"

9780399254529

Jeffers as usual hits out out of the ballpark in both text and illustrations. A young girl experiences loss, and decides to guard her heart by keeping it in a bottle. Of course, that means she doesn't experience any of the enjoyable parts of life any more, either...a fantastic discussion book to share with a little one in any similar situation!

9780545316156

Fly Guy is now in picture books! Buzz helps him search for the perfect pet of his own, with a predictable and satisfying conclusion.

9780810989726

Shy and/or lonely children are not a new subject, but this one touches on a few details and feelings I haven't seen much in books - but saw plenty of on the playground. Very sweet, with an annoying toad of a brother to add levity!

Review - Darkmouth: The Legends begin, by Shane Hegarty

9780062311252

For generations, Finn's family has protected Darkmouth from the fierce magical creatures known as Legends. Now the Legends are plotting a major attack, and it's Finn's turn to defend his hometown. So it's too bad he's the worst Legend Hunter in history.

A good solid beginning to a new middle grade fantasy series, appealing to kids who like hefty books (the first title coming in at just over 400 pages) with reluctant heroes and plenty of action. Spies, clumsy heroes, traitors, coming of age, the risk of disappointing parents, sly humor, bullies, and a myriad of fantastical creatures and impressive weapons - it's all there. The slightly-alternate world is believable in its simplicity - our world, just with monsters. Finn's dad fights Legends, his mother is a dentist. The school bullies always sit near you, you immediately embarrass yourself in front of the new girl, and the townspeople are intensely critical of those trying to protect them (yes, I went there!)

I liked both Finn and Emmie, who were both well drawn. Some mysteries were solved, others are teased at, and the ending will have kids immediately asking when the next one comes out (no idea yet). I predict this will become one of the must-have series, so thank-you to Harper Collins for making sure we were in from the beginning!

Review - John Green: Star Author, Vlogbrother, Nerdfighter, by Eric Braun

9781467775717

Does anyone else remember the old American Express commercial with Stephen King? In which he laments that, no matter how many novels he has written he isn't always recognized?

My guess is that John Green does not have that problem. Possibly because of his Nerdfighter and Crash Course vlogs. Maybe because of the conferences he and his brother, Hank, have run. Or, it could be because, when the movie version of The Fault in Our Stars premiered, he was just as much the focus of attention as the actors. At any rate, if he were to walk into the library at any given point in time, I would not have to cast about trying to figure out why he looked familiar, I would go into full-on fangirl mode immediately (feel free to test me on that any time you are in southern NM!)

As recognizable as he is, and as much as I enjoy his books and videos now, I really didn't realize how interesting - and, at times, rough - his earlier life was. He is very close to my age, and we attended colleges 15 minutes apart - him starting just about the time I was graduating. I have been finding out recently that several of my classmates had much more complicated lives than I realized at the time, and reading this short biography formed an immediate connection in my mind. I appreciate the fact that Green has been so open about the struggles in his life, and that Braun and Lerner chose to include more than a passing mention of them. Just as in his books, there is a lot here for kids (and adults) to identify with, and take encouragement from.

Heaviness aside, this is a short (less than 50 pages, including timeline, source notes, bibliography, index, AND further reading) but relatively meaty read, well-written and organized. My only quibble is the complete lack of pictures from Green's childhood - all we get are photos of cities where he lived, and authors he admired. Of course, thinking about the few surviving pictures of myself in elementary school, I don't know that I would release any of those to publishers, either!

Both paperback and hardcover are available now, and a great addition to any middle or high school library.

DFTBA!

Review: Nightmare Club series by Annie Graves, illustrated by Glenn McElhinney

Darby Creek (Lerner Publishing) has a great new series out for your reluctant readers:

9781467760423

9781467760461

These are the first two titles in what is so far a series of eight. The basic premise is that Annie, a 12-year-old with no parents who does whatever she wants, hosts an annual Halloween sleepover, during which each attendee must tell a suitably scary story. Each title in the series is one of those stories.

The books are written around a 3rd/4th grade reading level, and the covers look 'cool' enough that the average 3rd grader would not be embarrassed to carry them around. A child who doesn't like to read, however, and who has to pick something out for school, might flip through the pages and decide he can live with this one: 

Bonus: the dog eats the annoying kid.

Some spreads have a bit more text, but at just 50 pages (the arbitrary length some teachers insist on for book reports), they appear - and are - an 'easy read'. But, it's reading! Enjoyable reading! Sure, the stories aren't really scary, and there isn't a whole lot of plot and character development, but for the intended audience, these are perfect! Once they've ripped through the series, ease them into some Midnight Library, or Araminta Spooky, and watch them start devouring books. Or, at least, not complain about it so much!

S is for Science and Silliness!

When Christopher and Sheridan were learning their letters, we had fun taking a letter each week (or so), and seeing how we could explore with it. Logan recently started showing an interest, joining in with calling out things that start with a given letter, so we decided it was time to have some fun again!

Logan picked "S" to start us off. Actually, he picked "Q" first, but mean Mommy made him switch. We began with food, because - duh, food! The kids planned the menu for the week. I cheated and gave them a list of meals I wanted to make, and let them assign them to days. We talked about who would be home when, and which days we would have less time to cook. For the few lunches we would be home we planned sandwiches, Spaghettios, and soup with sourdough bread.

Alphabet soup, of course!

Please ignore mess on floor. Shane has discovered emptying shelves, and I gave up trying to keep up with him.

For supper we had sausage bake, sesame chicken, salad (with leftover chicken), smoked sausage-spaetzle-and-sauerkraut, Sloppy Joes, and spaghetti.

For dessert all week: snickerdoodles!

Which involved sifting and stirring, as well as sugar and salt. We shared some with our church family on Sunday. I also made a strawberry cobbler type thing, but that didn't get shared with anyone:)

I wanted to try the sand foam I have seen all over the internet, but I wanted to do it outside - cloud dough is one thing, but sand + laminate flooring = bad, bad, bad. Unfortunately, the weather did not want to cooperate. I thought, surely, if I just put a big rug down first, and stress to everyone that it needs to stay in the tub...

Some colored sand plus shaving cream...

a little mixing...

and then there was Shane. While everyone else was mixing, he was happily throwing handfuls of sand.

All over.

 And then he got up and left.

Still covered in sand. Ah, well, sweeping starts with "s" too, right? I decided to give him some water to rinse off with, and to keep him busy for a bit. I added some of his bath toys.

and, knowing what letter we were studying, he got into my tools and added two screwdrivers. He also added the lid to my deep fryer, but I took that out because a) doesn't start with "s", and b) water + deep fryer = bad, bad, bad.

Meanwhile, the new puppy snoozed through the whole thing. 

"S" is also for sisters, so we made sparkly sun-catchers to send to ours.

Logan got his all the way done and brought it to show me...and dropped the wrong end, so the beads went running everywhere. Poor guy! We got it all put back together, though, good as new.

Then, science, using the book I reviewed Friday! 

Daddy cut open the shiny stones (aka geodes) we got on our trip a few weeks ago. Look at them sparkle in the sun!

 One of our favorite parts of exploring a letter is going on a walk to look for things that start with it. We saw lots of stumps, including a two-seater,

We stopped to put on a silly show.

saw signs, sticks, stormy sky, 

and dozens of other things, and then got to a friend's house.

Ohmigoodness.

OhmiGOODness! When did you get THOSE?!

I took a million pictures, none of which turned out because everyone was moving so much.

Daddy kept teasing me that goats don't start with "s", but they are small and sweet, so there!

Kela wasn't so sure,

but the kids liked them,

 and Shane tried to take them home!

We also made word lists, watched Sesame Street, sorted shoes, and added a sparkly "S" to our Willy Wonka tree:

Next week: "G" is for Grandma!

Friday

I had today off, so I planned to stay home all day with the kids, get some house cleaning done, work on the letter "S".

But then Sheridan had a cute idea for a birthday present for Grandma, but we didn't have what we needed here, and Logan had outgrown his shoes and needed new ones anyway, so after everyone was finally breakfasted and dressed, we headed into town.

Our first stop was a thrift shop where I hoped to find some of the things I needed, much cheaper. While I was getting all the car seats unbuckled and everyone out, I noticed a giraffe in the window that would be great for my youngest granddaughter. Once everyone was ready to go in...I realized they didn't open for another hour.

So, back into the car seats, and on to Walmart, which of course didn't have what we needed for the present either, but did have something relatively close. When Sheridan realized Logan was getting shoes, she tearfully insisted that I HAD to get HER more shoes, because there was still room in her drawers! I suggested a new dress instead, since the ones she hasn't outgrown tend to look like they were worn to do messy art or to play outside (because - surprise - they were). She thought that was a GREAT idea. So, of course, Walmart has exactly one rack of really ugly dresses. But, they had fiddler crabs! Her name is Adila. I am still not sure how that one happened.

Back to the thrift store, which had some of what I needed, at half of Walmart's prices, but I had already bought most of it at Walmart. Almost forgot the giraffe, which was the only reason I went back there.  Found two play dresses. Then to the mall, for a church dress. This day at home with the kids was rapidly slipping away from me, but once I had promised a new dress, there was no way out without a meltdown. Fortunately, we found one we both agreed on, at a great price, right away. Pleased, I let them stop to throw pennies in the fountain.

Shane fell in.

Yes, all the way in. Briefly submerged.

That water is cold, fyi.

Carried a soaking child to the car, but only had dry diapers, not dry clothes.

Except for the dresses from the thrift shop. Sorry, kid!

Sheridan asked if they could skip naps when we got home, and since I now needed them to do that thing for Grandma's birthday, I said they could. She promptly fell asleep on the sofa. When she woke up, she felt a bit warm to me - 102.4. They started the project anyway, and soon Shane needed his second bath of the day. At least, this time, I was able to take his clothes off first.

Realized the poor crab was still in the plastic bag from Walmart. Pulled the old tank out and set it up. Light doesn't work. Don't particularly care right now.

Just as I started supper cooking, Sheridan started screaming. She had swallowed a coin. A coin. Really? Really??? Simultaneously made phone calls and Googled. Daddy got home from work at this point, and I think thought briefly of going right back out. E-mailed Grandma to inform her that, not only will I be bringing her a sick child tomorrow, but we will need her to save any poop that is produced. Ate supper. Encouraged Sheridan to eat a lot.

Got kids ready for bed. Discovered Shane was taking Logan's clean socks out of his drawer, one at a time, and throwing them into the toilet.

If anyone needs me tonight, TOO BAD! I will be in bed, with a pillow over my head.