The deadline for Cybils nominations is rapidly approaching! You have until midnight EST (about 2 1/2 hours from now) to make your nominations, if you so choose. One nomination per person per category.
The young adult fiction list is already up to 80, and I expect to post the full list tomorrow (subject to some last minute decisions about which book belongs in which category, etc.).
So, head over to the Cybils site and make your preferences known!
Here are some children's literacy-related stories that caught my eye this week.
Happy Reading!
The Young Adult Fiction committee for the 2006 Cybils Awards has been hard at work weeding through the many nominations, reading books, and, when they can spare the time, writing reviews. These are the brave committee members who will be first whittling this list down the FIVE (the nominating committee's job) and then selecting a winner (the judging committee's job). Many thanks for all of their work so far, and all of their work to come! Links to their recent reviews of nominated titles are below.
Nominating Committee:
Judging Committee:
Here are links to reviews of YA nominated books written by Cybils YA committee members since the start of the awards process. This is NOT the complete list of nominations (and probably not the complete list of their reviews, though I tried). I'll be posting a full list of all of the nominated titles after nominations close on Monday. Currently the list is at 70 titles.
by Caridad Ferrer. MTV Press. Review by TadMack
by Adrienne Maria Vrettos. Margaret K. McElderry. Review by Tasha
by Patricia McCormick. Hyperion. Review by TadMack
by Garret Freymann-Weyr. Houghton Mifflin. Review by TadMackHappy reading
I finally had time to catch up with what's been going on in the kidlitosphere for the past week or so (or most of it anyway - after going back about five days in Google Reader my eyes glazed over, and I had to stop). Here are some things that caught my eye:
won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Thanks to Kelly at Big A little a for the information. I have to confess that just last night (before learning this news) I decided that I couldn't get through it. Something about the style, something about the pace - I don't know, but I fell asleep immediately every time I tried to read it, and I have abandoned it at page 100. I just have too many books in my to read pile to continue slogging through one that I'm not enjoying. So, I congratulate M.T. Anderson, but I've moved on to An Abundance of Katherines
.And that should be enough to keep anyone busy for a time. Happy reading!
In honor of this month's Carnival of Children's Literature, host Anne-Marie Nichols of A Readable Feast has asked participants to write about "What are you thankful for in children's literature?". My initial thought on this topic was: "What am I not thankful for? I would be at a loss without children's books." But I took some time to come up with a few specifics:
Happy Children's Book week, and (for next week) Happy Thanksgiving!
© 2009 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved.
Katie Brown from First Book sent me the following announcement about First Book's plans for Children's Book Week. As I've been very remiss in my attention to Children's Book Week (due to a combination of Cybils-related tasks and work-related tasks), I thought I would at least share with you what First Book is doing.
"You may not have realized it when you woke up this morning, but this week, November 13-19, is Children’s Book Week 2006!
Organized by the Children’s Book Council (CBC), Children’s Book Week has been a tradition since 1919. The purpose of Children’s Book Week is best described through the words of Frederic Melcher, one of the visionary organizers of Children’s Book Week:
"Book Week brings us together to talk about books and reading and, out of our knowledge and love of books, to put the cause of children’s reading squarely before the whole community and, community by community, across the whole nation. For a great nation is a reading nation."
You can read more of the history of Children’s Book Week and this year’s activities by checking out the CBC’s web site.
This year, the CBC is celebrating Children’s Book Week by initiating a nationwide book donation program called the "Great Book Giveaway" and, in association with its members, will donate more than 100,000 books to charitable organizations including First Book.
In addition, First Book has partnered with Candlewick Press to celebrate Children’s Book Week and Candlewick’s 15th Anniversary with a book distribution and a series of podcast interviews with several of Candlewick’s award-winning children’s authors and illustrators. Be sure to watch for new podcasts being posted daily!
First Book is grateful to both the CBC and Candlewick Press for their support. We look forward to sharing the joy of reading at the heart of Children’s Book Week to children in need across the country!"
First Book is a wonderful organization that gives new books to children from low income families. They have a great blog, too! Stop on by and see how they're celebrating Children's Book Week.
Say Please!
The illustrations in this book are a riot. The scene where the Princess wants her potty, and stands on her toes, with legs crossed, and a pained expression on her face, will be familiar to anyone who has known a recently toilet-trained child. Then the General and the cat stand at attention. On another page, there's a casually abandoned doll with a bandage on her face, and her head torn off. Ah, the callous indifference of youth! Overall, it's a simply story that makes a single point, but the illustrations make it enjoyable.
Book: Say Please! (Little Princess Books)
Author: Tony Ross
Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Publishers
Original Publication Date: September 2006
Pages: 28
Age Range: 3-5
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher
I'm so excited! My review of Hattie Big Sky, by Kirby Larson, is the review of the day over at the Cybils site. This is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed, and I'm happy to see it getting more attention. Thanks, Anne!!
Also, I didn't have a chance to mention this over the weekend, because I was out of town, but the Cybils got a nice write-up in the Publisher's Weekly Children's Bookshelf last week. Doesn't the logo look great? This led to many new nominations.
We're in the home stretch for nominations now (nominations close November 20th), so head on over to make your choices known, if you haven't done so already.
Kali And the Rat Snake
As we meet him, we learn that "Kali was getting used to things, but it was hard, and his walk to school grew slower and slower." He's ashamed to eat the foods that he loves, because he knows that the other kids find them unusual. (Fried termites!!). He eats alone.
But then Kali saves the day because of what he has learned from his father (saw it coming, didn't you?). And then everyone wants to be his friend. I found the ending a bit convenient (though I suppose a snake turning up at school in rural India is not unreasonable). But there are nice themes about people being unique, and about how one's own special talents can have a place in the world. The book includes a short glossary of Indian terms (food, money, etc), and offers a window into a culture that will be unfamiliar to most American readers.
The lush illustrations match the story well. The first page shows an overgrown jungle, with a beam of sunlight shining through the overgrowth. The colors blur into one another, with lots of greens and pinks. The language of the book is poetic in cadence, without actually rhyming. For example: "Arms and legs flew, bodies ran, tumbled over each other, fell, and ran some more." The quantity of text on each page, and the school setting, makes the book more appropriate for older picture book readers.
Book: Kali And the Rat Snake
Author: Zai Whitaker, illustrated by Srividya Natarajan
Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Publishers
Original Publication Date: September 2006
Pages: 32
Age Range: 4-8
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher
Singing Shijimi Clams
Eventually, the witch and Toraji start talking with the clams, and the clams cry when they learn that they aren't in the ocean anymore. The witch and Toraji have to undertake a major project to take the clams back to the sea. Along the way, the clams sing! "And every day, as the witch listened to the shijimi clams' sweet voices, she too began to feel happier, and less miserable."
I'm not such a fan of message books, and this one bears a pretty strong vegan message. But Singing Shijimi Clams is a lot of fun. The illustrations are deceptively simple, small black and white sketches rather than full page drawings. They convey the grouchy witch's gradual thawing, as she does something good for the clams. The cat is a riot, starting out callous, but by the end admitting "I will miss them when they go." The drawings of the little clams are priceless, with tiny faces, and lines to show movement and emotion.
This book grew on me. I thought that it was ok on the first read, but by the end of the second read I was quite attached to witch, cat, and clams. Because of the lack of color in the illustrations, and the relatively high text ratio, I think that this book will resonate more with kids on the older end of picture book range.
Book: Singing Shijimi Clams
Author: Naomi Kojima
Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Publishers
Original Publication Date: September 2006
Pages: 32
Age Range: 4-8
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher
Crazy Cars
You get the idea. I really loved this book. It brought me joy, looking at the exaggerated and complex illustrations, and reading the clever little asides in the text. I can see kids, especially boys, poring over this book, while their parents derive the occasional grin from the text.
Book: Crazy Cars
Author: Mark David
Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Publishers
Original Publication Date: September 2006
Pages: 32
Age Range: 4-8
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher
Happy Birthday Coco
This book is a gorgeous production with few words, thick pages, and soft colors. It includes occasional sheer overlay pages to add visual interest and complexity. For example, a translucent page with a faint net pattern overlays a picture of Coco playing with a tennis ball. A page showing the cage that Coco came home in has shiny reflective bars, like very narrow mirrors. Another page includes a cut-out of a word that can be read backwards or forwards. It's like the author is playing with the medium of picture book, just as Coco plays with balls.
The author is a graphic artist, and the book is more a visual delight than a narrative story. Coco's year passes as a series of incidents. She makes a friend, gets into trouble, loses her friend, plays in the snow, and goes for walks. The illustrations frequently reflect the mood of what's going on with Coco. For instance, there's an incident where Coco is yelled for misbehaving.
"Usually Coco likes to go for walks. After shouting, though, she just sits and looks."
The background is gray here,like a fog, and we can see clearly that Coco is sad. Coco is also sad when her friend goes away (presumably dying, though this is left vague). It's surprisingly profound for a picture book with so few words.
Overall, I found this to be an excellent, quiet sort of book. Happy Birthday Coco is well-presented, with subtle but meaningful messages about friendship and loss, and getting into trouble but still being loved. The book concludes "Coco will have many more sweet dreams, and many more friends, and many more happy birthdays." I certainly hope so.
Book: Happy Birthday Coco
Author: Oneones
Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Publishers
Original Publication Date: September 2006
Pages: 56
Age Range: All ages (picture book)
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher
Other Blog Reviews: Big A little a