[Insert epithet here]

The Franchise Babe: A Novel by Dan Jenkins

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
It looked to me from the cover (as pictured) that they were trying to appeal to the sort of readers that like Carl Hiaasen or Tom/Tim/Jim Whatsis* - the Florida mystery guys. And who would that be, marfita? Oh, you know - Guys.

There isn't much of a mystery - that's more of an aside really. The story (and real mystery) is about how Dan Jenkins can get away with being deliberately politically incorrect by having his First Person spouting as much Republican WASP Country Club rhetoric passing as humor while the love interest winces, but still loves him.

I recommend this to anyone WITH a six-figure income, a three-car garage, and a country club membership or for someone who is HOPING for that life. You'll be absofrickinlootly delighted.

You know what I thought the best part was? The final golf tournament. And, you know what? I hate golf. It was genuinely exciting and I was really pulling for the vapid teenager.




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* I meant Tim Dorsey, just actually forgot his name. Usually enjoy his books as well as Hiaasen's, although I might like Hiaasen's a teensy bit better.

Write About It!/Ga Children's Lit Conference

Miriam ("Mimi") Rutland is a published author of a series of books about Miss Pistachio. Her session on teaching writing realistic fiction to kids using their own experiences interested me because of the Be Creative theme of this summer's reading program. I was already thinking about a poetry workshop. Maybe I could do this also or instead - maybe I should just go lie down.

Rutland uses a storyboard approach in her 3rd-5th grade writing clubs. She has them think of three people that are important to them, then three events: vacation, birthday, lost tooth. They have to pick one of the people (who doesn't have to be connected with the event) and describe the person: what they look like, what sort of personality. Then you put the person together with one of the events ... and embellish. Add little bits, like spices.

She says that the hardest thing to do is to start. Sometimes they need to have realistic explained to them (no flying cars or talking animals). Sometimes they need to brainstorm a special event: going to the beach, visiting a friend's house, making a new friend.

And she made us go through the process. She read some of the paragraphs we wrote "anonymously." She was careful to praise what she thought was good or interesting about the paragraphs, which of course reminded me of Mrs. Smith in Kindergarten and how she squashed a classmate's clay cat and told her she had done it all wrong and to "Start Over!" I had been looking at her method of dividing the clay into pieces and making the cat (we all had to make a cat that day - no creativity in that class!) out of them the same way you'd assemble a snowman: ball with smaller ball on top, tiny balls pinched into ears, another piece rolled into a long tail, etc. I looked at my cat, all pinched here and there and messy looking and then at her neatly assembled one and had been at the point redoing mine when Mrs. Smith waddled over in her grey wool suit, ruffled blouse, and black orthopedic shoes and squashed the snowcat flat. It's a lesson for all of us who work with kids. [Not to put too fine a point on it, the lesson is: Don't Do That!]

Rutland's presentation was simple and organized and fit exactly in the time allotted. So maybe there should be short sessions and longer sessions.

Reading Illustration/GA Children's Lit Conference

Art project done in conjunction with the book Flotsam by David Wiesner.

Shane Rayburn and Megan Reeves collaborated on a project to help first graders relate to reading through the illustrations in a terrific picture book. Flotsam is a wordless picture book that can't possibly be daunting to a struggling reader. I've used Flotsam in a storytime before (and I could have sworn I blogged about that, but I can't find it now), showing the pictures and talking about the story. Wiesner himself talked about the making of this Caldecott Award winner at the conference last year.

These children made art. They had disposable cameras to take home to take pictures of people and things important to them. Then each one had a Polaroid picture taken, holding the previous photo (if there was one), just like in the story. They painted a picture of themselves (enjoined to "use the whole page" and to leave the hands and arms where they could hold the pictures. One of the pictures they took at home was added to the painting as well as the picture of the child holding one of the Polaroid photos.

Okay, now I want to do something like this during the summer reading program ...

Storytime Goodies/GA Children's Lit Conference

One of the concurrent sessions was given by Kaleema Abdurrahman, who simply did not have enough time to share all she knew about fun ways to share books with children. This session was packed. They had to bring in more chairs.

Abdurrahman makes her own feltboards (to change the shape, size, color, make them more portable) and uses sandpaper for the backing, which is an interesting alternative to, say, velcro.
She works with stick puppets in something she calls Box Theatre, a medium sized box from which the top, back, and a bit from the sides has been removed. Inside, at the top of the front she has put the foam double-sided tape to hold the stick puppets still, when necessary. She replaces the protective paper on the exposed side to keep it fresh. OMG, what one cannot learn from this woman!

I had never heard of a magnetboard. Maybe that's what that white thing is on the back of our store-bought (I feel so wasteful now!) flannelboards. Does Abdurrahman buy some expensive magnetboard? No way! She brings in a cookie sheet and uses the back. She showed us the front side to prove it was actually used for baking cookies as well. Now you can put sandpaper and magnet tape on your shapes!

Here's an idea, before putting up posters, put some booktape in the corners (where you plan to use other tapes or adhesives) to protect the poster.

She also makes her own story aprons, tree trunks out of Pringle's cans for the squirrel puppet, a toilet paper tube for a candle to do "Jack Be Nimble" - and demonstrated for us jumping over it. You can just picture a whole roomful of kids jumping over the paper and cardboard candle. She hangs scenery around her neck and

She decorated a peanut can to look like a dog and then wrote the titles of stories about dogs on paper "bones" she put inside the can. Children could draw out a bone to determine what story would be told next. She made story cards out of discarded books (we have a couple of these).

And her Humpty-Dumpty egg with a fake "yoke" inside was a hilarious idea. Oh, and I laughed out loud when she did "Ten in the Bed" with the Little One (babydoll) in a homemade bed who was overcrowded with toys and she just tossed a toy out for each verse.

Some of these sessions should be a bit longer.

Georgia Children's Literature Conference, March 2009

Bryan Collier briefly at the podium to attach his lavalier mike. HA! Got 'im!

The photos this year are only slightly better than those last year, but there was one huge problem. For the most part, the presenters did not stand behind the podium where there was a spotlight to make them seen. They were given cordless mikes so they could roam all over the stage - except, of course, somewhere in the light. My supervisor and I sat up fairly close, and they were still fuzzy. Photos were just about impossible.

This was a lean year for the Conference. We heard from other librarians that some people could not get the funding to attend. There was no money for a storyteller at the final "Storyteller's Luncheon," so someone volunteered and did an excellent job. The conference itself had to ask the speakers if they could adjust their fees. The Buehners came all the way from Utah to accept the picture book award. I note that the winner of the children's book award did not attend. Perhaps there was a schedule conflict - we'll give that person the benefit of the doubt. [Raises eyebrow and pinches lips like Church Lady.] Other speakers were Paul Janeczko, Peter Sis (looking oh, so european with his jacket casually over his shoulders), Bryan Collier, and Gail Carson Levine. I remember last year that I wasn't so sure what the authors could do for me, but I was very impressed. It was the same this year.


Peter Janeczko made me want to do a series of workshops this summer on poetry writing.


Sis and his children - who don't appreciate his stories of the bad old days!
Peter Sis described his life and the development of his art.

Bryan Collier told how he made the decision between a possible career in sports or one in art. We think he made the right choice! He led us through the process of making the illustrations for Rosa by Nikki Giovanni. He made the effort to travel to Montgomery and experience the heat, which came out in the yellow of the illustrations. Everyone had heard the story of Rosa Parks who wouldn't give up her seat that day because she was tired - well, of course she was tired! Who wouldn't be in that heat? He interviews people as well, all for illustration.


Levine is not only in the dark, she doesn't stop moving for a second!

Gail Carson Levine was almost not an author at all. She had taken a creative writing course and her teacher had written "Your trouble is you're pedestrian" on one of her stories. It created the negative voice in her that took decades to overcome. She gave up writing entirely and went into art. Now she dedicates some time each summer to help kids find their own positive inner voice, creating more writers. She described the research that went into her latest book, Ever.


Mark and Caralyn Buehner express their gratitude for the award and describe the making of the book, Dex, the Heart of a Hero.

Cholera in the Time of Love

The Anatomy of Deception by Lawrence Goldstone

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
As a period mystery, this was a good one. I had one small problem with the plot - and maybe it's from recently reading about cholera in Ghost Map - but it was an impossibility that a doctor of that time would not treat what he believed to be cholera with the proven treatment of drinking untainted water to rehydrate. The author even referenced the discovery of the cause. I found myself screaming at the book things like, "No, no, nooo! You don't understand cholera at allllll!"

Oh, and the plot was about icky things, just to remind us that Victorian times were not some pure and halcyon days we've lost forever. The resolution was a bit clunky although nicely "shocking." I had made the mistake of turning to the back to see if there was some historical info and got hit in the face with a spoiler. So, Don't do that!


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Love That Crazy Eddie Muldoon!

Real Ponies Don't Go Oink! by Patrick F. McManus

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
There are two gut-wrenchingly funny stories in this book: "A Good Deed Gone Wrong," which I can't even think about without laughing, so I'm not going into it now, and "Zumbo and the Misty Mountain Ghosts." I love McManus's stuff. Some of the stories are funnier than others, but most of them make me laugh out loud. McManus, like Wodehouse, will set up a slapstick scene and then turn it around, or turn it inside out, and then walk you through each angle of the pratfall or of the flying pie, milking it for all it's worth.

I had people coming out to look at me to find out why I was laughing so uncontrollably. My husband has walked through the house and come out to the porch to see what was so damn funny.

And I don't even like huntin' and fishin' stories! I hope this man's a millionaire. He deserves it.


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Plum with a Wand*

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
That some things (like that mystery that started with the woman who was killed by ... nevermind) are a bit too intense for me. I had to stop this fairly frequently to calm down. The dangers and threats just a little bit too relentless. Rachel is a witch - but one who just seems to attract trouble. Outside of home, they're out to kill her; inside, her roommate can barely contain her vamplust. PICK ONNNNNE! Give the reader some respiiiiiite! After some time, I've decided I like the bad guy and the demon. I hope to see more of both of them - if I decide to continue with this series. First, I think I will need to read some fluffy stuff for a while.

Say, Anatomy of Deception.

*The heroine reminds me of Stephanie Plum, caught between a rock and a hard- ... [fill in the rest yourownself]. She's less silly, the comedy relief is less evident, and she's more capable, both as a witch and in law enforcement.


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Having Too Much Fun

Here I am having too much fun.

Hello, my name is Marf and I work in the children's room of a public library. The photo above is me with some puppets. I wish I had video, but I just don't have time for putting something like that together. But I bet people would watch it. I have had requests to go to other libraries and demonstrate how I use puppets, but I can't get away because of scheduling.

This is my job: buying puppets with taxpayer's money and playing with puppets during worktime. One half hour every other month or so, kids get to watch me play with them. We spend this money on puppets and my time because free puppet shows like this bring parents and children into the library.

Long about fifth grade, coming to a puppet show at the library starts to seem uncool. This is patently ridiculous thinking because I put in sly bits that appeal to the adults in the room and go right over a younger child's head. Adults tell me how much they enjoy our puppet shows. I have to appeal to them because they're the ones that drive the children to the library. But there is always the older kid who thinks this stuff is beneath him and starts digging in his heels about going to the library. The pre-teens and teens get their hormones on and the next thing you know, nothing an adult says is right.

Librarians have been casting around for decades for a way to entice these kids back into the library and one of the the ways they hit upon was video games. Some librarians (married to someone with a better income, no doubt) already had some cool video games at home that they could bring to work and share one night with the kids. The rest of us had no idea what these things were. Let's face it, most of the librarians are girls and most of us tend to think of girlie activities. Gaming does not always rise to the top of our fluffy little brains. I've been to demos at state library sponsored functions where a librarian talks about bring her son's Dance Dance Revolution pad and game to the library and how popular that was. But funding being what it is, some of the more rural libraries can't afford to invest in expensive games we don't even know how to play, much less set up.

Here's where our state library helps us out. They buy the games that are most popular for this sort of thing and then loan them out to their public libraries. But that still leaves us sort of in the dark as to how to use them or set them up. Most of us here need an IT guy just to take a new PC out of a box and set it up. Who ya gonna ask about how this goes together? The state library in Nebraska came up with an elegant solution. They made a promotional video showing how they set up the games (Rock Band right out of a new box) and how they are played and posted them on YouTube, a social site that hosts videos, so that the librarians in their state could preview the new acquisition and decide if it looked like something they were brave enough to try, because these gaming night things really work. They certainly made it look easy! And they sure look like they'll know what they're talking about if someone calls them and asks how it hooks up.

Pure genius! Unfortunately, someone mistook this for librarians having too much fun. The state auditor in Nebraska decided that buying, videoing, and distributing these games was inappropriate use of public funds. Further, use of social sites by librarians was also a waste of tax money. I can understand that in these difficult times, people are looking for ways to save money, but this was very little money and you have to look at the bigger picture.

The internet is a place where our customers spend more and more of their time. We buy bookmobiles to go to our patrons. We set up branches to put our libraries closer to our patrons. Our presence in blogs, on Flickr, and elsewhere on social sites (even Second Life, a virtual world I've bored people about elsewhere)is another way to make us accessible to our customers.

Social networking, by the way, can be used to save money. What wastes more time and money: librarians from all over the state driving to the state library for a class on how to use some new technology or each librarian sitting at a computer and watching a 10 minute video of the important stuff? Which leaves a smaller carbon footprint? The librarian would have to watch that video a whole lot of times to even come close to the expenses of driving, parking, having lunch (because there's no point in having someone drive for over an hour just to demonstrate something for 20 minutes - they have to work up a whole half day's worth of instruction), and the compensation for the hours wasted in travel time.

I use YouTube (well, not very often, but I know how and I have an account), I blog (look around you, this is a blog) which I use to share information, I created a social network on Ning for sharing ideas about programming for children in libraries, and I follow other librarians on Twitter (where I learned about this idiotic auditor in Nebraska). In a previous post I blogged all my notes from a conference I attended so that not only my co-workers but anyone else could learn what I learned. In another post I blogged about a conference I attended virtually in Second Life from my home that I would not have been able to attend at all. As far as I'm concerned, our state library should be using social networking more, especially Second Life which could save loads on travel costs to the annual conference. At least they had the good sense to introduce us all to the concepts. They probably don't use the social tools more because every year they have to cut back on their budget and everyone there is wearing so many hats they can't see straight anymore.

So, Marf, what's your point?

My point is, there is hardly any difference between my puppets and the video games. They are both used to entice a certain age group to the library and not everyone knows how to use them. A quick demonstration of how easy it is encourages the neophyte. And my final point? Well, that the Nebraska auditor is an ass, of course, and now I expect our state auditor to come after me and my puppets. Thank you so much, Nebraska taxpayer, for making our jobs just a little bit more horrible.

Climbing K2

My Kindle2 came in the mail yesterday (27 Feb.), just one day after Daniel's Amazon Prime account got his delivered. Not too bad!
I was shaking in delight and the mailman teasingly almost didn't hand it to me because he could see how anxious I was (I was on my way back to work when I saw that the mailboxes on the opposite side of the street had their flags down) and we all know what bastards the Post Office turns people into. The nice FedEx lady delivered one of my Harry Potter books on a Saturday morning and just beamed because she was making so many people happy that day.
In my excitement, I am pinning people down and showing it to them. It's not like the cell phone I'm ashamed to admit I have, this is cool. I tell people I got it for my husband who I believe doesn't read as much as he used to because his vision has gotten very poor. He'll be lucky to even smell it.
Anyway, I'm still all crazy about this gizmo and then I read Roy Blount Jr.'s op/ed in the New York Times about how the audio function of the K2 is ripping off authors ... or has the potential for same.
I have yet to listen to a book read by the K2 because I didn't buy it to listen to it. I'm here for the e-paper. The audio function may be yards better than the computer-generated reading done on the Gutenberg Project books, but when you get down to it, you don't buy the audiobooks just to hear someone drone through the book. You (or rather, I) buy them for the performance. Jim Dale brought Harry Potter to life for millions. Stephen Briggs is currently making Terry Pratchett's Discworld come to life. When I went to the Kindle Store, I looked at the Discworld books that I love so much ... and eventually rejected them because I already own both book and audiobook forms of most of them. And if I want to hear them read, I want Nigel Planer or Briggs (or even Tony Robinson who does a brilliant job with the unfortunately abridged versions) read them, not some computer. I want a performance, and that's what an audio-book is.
Where else can I listen to these Kindle-reads? Plug them into the car audio system for long trips? With one of those droning voices? I don't think so. On an airplane? What? Do I look like I have noise-cancellation headphones?!
No, the audio function on the K2 is a toy, a gadget. I bought the K2 for the e-paper. I enjoy reading. I can see using the audio function only if my eyes wear plum-out.
I'm glad that (the ordinarily cuddly) Mr. Blount is looking after his fellow authors and he's right to bring this to our attention, but it's just a sales gimmick, not a threat to audio rights. It can't be sold separately from the text. It's ephemeral and, let's face it, not that great. You should have heard the Gutenberg audio try to come to grips with the broad Yorkshire accents in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Any human could have done a better job with one lip tied behind their back. Of course, after a while even I managed to get into the story and ignore the hideous struggles with apostrophes.
Before I could finish this post (currently 28 February), Amazon.com seems to have balked. Sigh, just when I think I'm finally ahead of the curve! They will apparently leave it up to the author to allow or disallow this function on each book. Boy, that was fast! I would have thought that the lawyers would have worked all that out in advance, but apparently not - or else one side did not think far enough ahead while the other cagily did. Hmmmm.
A friend has pointed out that this audio function is no different that the book's purchaser reading it aloud. Good gravy, I hope I can read better than that!
I have since listened to the audio on the Kindle ... and it's no better than the Gutenberg reader. My favorite bit was rendering the Ms. (as in Ms. Smith) as "Millisecond Smith." This was from a book currently in print.
I now listen to the text-to-speech partly for the hilarity of these mistakes and partly because I get so into the material that when the time comes to drive somewhere, an appointment or something, I can't give up reading and I don't have to! I just turn on the text-to-read while I'm driving! You know, Mr. Blount, I'd never have discovered the joy of this function if you hadn't brought it to my attention.

Aww, Just SHOOT him, fer cryin' out loud!

Stalin's Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
audiobook version

I should have checked out the hardcopy as well, because I got partway through and then just wanted to get it over with.

There is a lot that's good about this book. It's not often we get to see a Moscow police procedural, or at least I don't. I'm hoping this has given me insights into the Russian character and the current conditions in Russia, but I don't have enough information on the author to vet his depictions.

Again, the only problem I have is that it's not my sort of "thing."

The characters, while more than two dimensional are drawn with a heavy pen. The reporter is not only Jewish ... but hunchbacked as well. The love interest is a doctor AND has Chernobyl scars. The filmmaker doesn't just make porn, he documents his own gang-rapes (in other words, he's not just pathetic, he's stupid). All this serves to make the narrative more "gritty," I suppose.

Setting the mystery in Russia gives the author a chance to explore all those hard-boiled 1950s-type scenes, but with a fresh coat of paint: cell phones, exotic locales, etc. Still, it boils down to people trying to kill the detective, the detective being misunderstood, losing the girl, getting the girl back, losing the girl, the obligatory hellacious family life that made him completely different from both parents (which seems so unlikely). All in all, it was good -

but setting up the gun assembling scene? That just killed it. The gun is now on the stage and I was just waiting for it to pay off. Hurry up, Smith, let's just get the gun put together and get it over with. It was pure torture waiting for that.

And, bad guy has a gun, why suddenly decided to use a shovel? Why bury someone to come BACK and kill them? I just wanted to bang my head on the dashboard. And he'd been doing so well up to then. (In my mind I drift back to that great scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Jones rolls his eyes and just shoots someone. The story goes that the scene was changed from a whip-duel because Ford was ill, but this was just sooo much better. Shoot them! You have a gun! USE IIIIIIT!)

Otherwise, it was pretty good. Reader was okay, but should probably lay off the whiskey and cigarettes.


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And That's the Truth! (phhhhbbblllllt!)

Truer Than True Romance: Classic Love Comics Retold! by Jeanne Martinet

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Whatta great scam! Take the old True Romance comics you read as a child that ruined your prospects for happiness by setting up unrealistic expectations in the romance department and, using the same artwork, totally rewrite them! This merited some actual guffaws! And that was just from the original material that was provided for the contrast! I mean, it took me several minutes to get it through my thick head that "NY Restaurant Menu Typist" was a career in the original, not the parody!
Ahhh, this really took the bad taste out of my mouth from the previous graphic graphic novels!


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Posts When Her Heart Stops Hammering

The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
This falls into that category of Wow, Good But Don't Make Me Read It Again. I'm familiar with "Der Sandman" by E. T. A. Hoffmann but I took a chance on this book anyway. O Weh's mir!

This was a bit gruesome for me and I'm sorta glad it normally hides in the Adult Graphic Novels because "graphic" really describes it. Okay, you have to use a bit of your imagination to finish the picture, but ...

I'd like to know if stories like this satisfy the reptilian part of our brain and when order is restored, we can then feel satisfied that a) we got to enjoy something really violent, grotesque, bloody, gratuitous and b) we know that it is wrong and those people are punished and we're better than that.

Or does this just encourage some of us to go out and do it?

Can't be the latter, or I'd run out now and find people's eyes to gouge out instead of huddling under an afghan hoping I can get the imagery out of my head.

Neil Gaiman, do you actually make this stuff up or do you just hunt for it in headlines? I don't know which is worse.

The story, though, is artfully crafted. There does seem to be a bit of extraneous storytelling (the guy who lives forever) that doesn't seem to have anything to do with this particular plotline. I don't think I'll be picking up any more of these to try to work that out, though.

The artwork doesn't have the grace and clarity of American Born Chinese and the layout strains the limits of my ability to follow. Parts of the narrative are not nicely laid out left to right, but we are talking about dreams. And I'm wondering ... is the Sandman drawing based on Gaiman?

Phew!

Well! Back to that nice, fluffy Stalin's Ghost! Only one serial killer there!


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Same Old Same Old ... Yum

Death of a Gentle Lady by M.C. Beaton

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
This is the reading version of Raisinets: nothing surprising in the bag, same old wrinkles larded up with familiar flavors, but gawd doncha love 'em?

Hamish's star system of babes grows ever larger, and while they have to die to escape his gravitational pull, they never seem to get close enough for a satisfactory relationship. I know I've said over and over that if you've got the sexual tension thing going, your biggest mistake is ruining it with a happy couple (see Sayers's Lord Peter series and the old Remington Steele program), however, it's been 20-some books now, Ms. Beaton! Time to move on! It's just painful now seeing all these women floating around him like so much debris.

This time Hamish goes outside the EU for fresh meat. Blair goes totally over the top. The victim is as unpleasant as ever, and an outsider (or Lochdubh would be a ghost town by now). And Beaton stoops to having the village put on a production of "Macbeth." Even using the same formulaic sentences (Hamish always going sibilant when angry - can guarantee that sentence will be worked into every single solitary book), the same failed relationships, the same characters (except murderers and murderees), Beaton somehow prevents this stuff from going completely stale. The villagers should only be two-dimensional cartoons, but I see them as whole for some reason. Maybe it's from seeing just one of the tv series with Robert Carlyle (totally wrong physically for Macbeth but so darn cute in that).

Oddly, I can't abide the Agatha Raisin stories, but I'll line up for these packets of sticky sweets each time.


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This man is soooo adorable .. when he's not playing a psychopath.

Newbery Winner

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really like books that don't flash the answers right at you. If I were a kid reading this, some of it wouldn't be quite so obvious (Ms. Lupescu, f'rinstance). And while we didn't get beaten over the head with the answers, the clues were obvious to Ms. Smarty-Pants-Me.
Some unfortunate Harry Potter parallels come up (unfortunate in that some know-it-all like me would say there were Harry Potter parallels: 11 year epiphany meaning it is now time to go to school, family killed, prophecy of a child defeating some evil power, blah-blah, yadda-yaddah). All of this is unfortunate because no one sat around saying dismissively, "Oh that Harry Potter story sounds just like The lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones." Now any story with supernatural elements and a kid in it is going to sound like Harry Potter.

But this book is not like Harry Potter. It's a one-off story that takes Bod from toddler to adulthood. He is raised by kindly folk (for the most part) and we learn it takes a whole graveyard to raise a child - ho ho ho. I love the fiddly details, ghosts that are introduced by the inscriptions on their headstones: "Thomes Pennyworth here he lyes in the certainty of the moft glorious refurrection was already waiting." There is much to like about the book even though this isn't really my type of book. I actually burst into tears when I heard on NPR that Gaiman won the Newbery ... even though I'd already heard about it from the ALA feed into Second Life. In fact, I was pretty much crying over all the awards that day. That the audiobook for Terry Pratchett's Nation had won an award really tore me up.

I came to Neil Gaiman through reading Terry Pratchett. They collaborated on a book and I've slowly worked into some of the Gaiman oeuvre. There is a lot of creative work that I think is brilliant, but I don't have to read/watch again (the original "Alfie" comes to mind) and this book falls into that category. If you know a kid who needs a quality book - especially those hard-to-find-reading-material-for creatures, boys - this would be a prime candidate. (Most of them will appreciate the girl in the book being trundled off and her memory erased.) [Suddenly Marf remembers she has a great-neph who loves Goosebumps and is in need of reading material - heh heh!:]

Our library's copy of this book is in the teen area - which comprises Grade 6 and up. I'm not sure about placement of this book. I suppose because everyone is murdered in the first few pages someone decided this should be a teen book, but it's no worse than the Grimm's folktales of fingers being cut off and people rolled in barrels studded with nails. We're more sensitive these days to exposing kids to violence, even though it's offstage (the murders were done before the book starts although the murderer still has one more to kill). I imagine someone picked this up, read the first two pages and tossed it aside saying "Teen book!" and that was that. Pish and tosh, say I.

Also, let me say that I have nothing against serial books or comics and I think kids should have access to plenty of that but an occasional "meaty" book like this is nice to stretch them. Please, please, though don't denigrate trashy reading and force kids to read hard stuff all the time!


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It's Not Your Father's Boobtube Anymore

Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Video games are getting more complicated and so are tv shows - and that makes our brains work harder, so Johnson says. [I suspect I read this before because it all sounded really familiar.] Guess it's that entropy thing again - You start out really simple and then things get all complicated and disordered. Our brains have to make sense of non-linear shows like The Sopranos or video games such as ... The Sims, I guess - not sure. I'm not really a gamer. And I don't call Second Life a game. I do understand that once you've defeated a game, you no longer have interest in it and need to move on to another challenge.

There are videos I watch over and over to get all the little references out of, which is what they aim for now, the after-market where it's not enough to watch something once, but over and over so you have to buy the whole video, watch it endlessly, watch it with all the foreign dubbings and subtitles (okay, maybe that's just me), and then blog about it or go to some website where they hash over the finest details (ever go to any of the Harry Potter fan websites?) and write fan fiction. Isn't that just a more adult version of the Whole Reading method?


Good writer; I enjoy his stuff.


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As an afterthought, I really enjoy the Goodreads site which allows me to copy my whole review I wrote there and paste it in a regular blog, bringing the cover along with it! Yay!

shelfmonkeys

I haven't cartooned in a while (other than the one of Michael Stevens taking a picture of himself in a bathroom - what's that all about, Michael?!). I usually do it to relieve stress, but I think that I've been under such stress the past year or so that I just haven't been able to do it. I hope it's starting to let up and I can do a few of these every now and then.
This was an error I made today. The little girl survived and her mom actually thought her bug-eyes were funny. What happens is, the headphones plugs are pulled out just a tiny bit and then the connection is broken and the sound comes straight from the CPU. This drives me absolutely insane. It's especially bad when both game computers are going like this at the same time. I allow it when more than one kid or a kid and a parent are using it together. Otherwise, I rise like thunder and pointedly poke the plug back in.
This time, some previous user had turned the volume all the way up on the headphones, undoubtedly because the volume seemed low (coming as it was from the CPU into ears blocked with headphones).
Oopsie!

Lookybook

I read about this website in the December School Library Journal and thought I'd take a look at it, having just recently reviewed some children's books on Goodreads (and here, of course, but more on Goodreads). I thought, "Oh, goody! A site that will let someone page through books and look at the illustrations!" but within seconds I was disappointed that two worthy author/illustrators were not on their list. /me goes all frowny-face. I know they can't have every author or illustrator listed (and they do have some great ones), but no Tedd Arnold?! Gah! How can I wax eloquent on the fun illustrations in The Roly-Poly Spider? There are currently only about 300 titles available. I might wait a while for the list to grow before using this website.

In the meantime, though, is this cool or is this cool? ...


As of April, Lookybook is no more. :(

On the Lighter Side ...

The Roly Poly Spider by Jill Sardegna

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have to review this book because I don't want people to think I go around looking for things (books, people, just ... things) that annoy me so I can excoriate them on the web. I do, I just don't want you to think that's all I do.

There are some books I like, really like, and this is one of them. I just used it today in a storytime and, as per usual, it went over great. I love it, kids love it, the rest of you can go soak your heads.

What is not to like about this book? First of all, you can pair it with the fingerplay "Eensy-Weensy Spider" (don't try to tell me it's "itsy-bitsy" - my mommy was never wrong) and if you sing the book, it scans perfectly. It's gross, it's funny, and I love Tedd Arnold's illustrations.

What did I learn from this book? Well, the lesson therein that I share with all the children is: "We Don't Eat Our Friends." 'Nuff said. Always keep a copy of this on hand. I do.


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Just Something That Annoyed Me This Morning

The Real Winner: North South Books by C. Neugebauer

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
Preachy, lame, didactic (but with cute pictures)- I don't think any competitive child would be convinced that winning isn't everything (and this book is preachin' to the choir) from reading this load of tapioca.

Rocky (the raccoon - and the author's probably lucky Sir Paul doesn't come gunning for her on that) has to win every race and complains if someone else is ahead with a predictable "Not fair!" His dopey do-good companion keeps stopping to rescue other animals allowing Rocky to win. In the end, Rocky seems to have learned his lesson with a fishing competition. The first one to get a fish wins! Rocky won't stop until he gets one, and when he does (SPOILER ALERT - as if anyone cares) the fish is too small. He's disappointed. He throws the fish back. Allegedly it's to let the little fish grow, emulating the altruistic behavior of Hippo-boy, but we all know it's only because it was too small to be worth keeping and that any real raccoon would have just eaten it as an appetizer.


The real reason not to be like Rocky is that he's such a whiner. It's fine to be competitive (hark at me! - everyone who knows me well is checking the authorship of this review on the strength of that one comment), kids really enjoy it and people love winners. The only one who doesn't enjoy it and is shunned is the one that loses all the time and whines about it. I should know. I was a professional loser for most of my young life and now find it really difficult to compete even though I am capable of winning at some things. "No one loves a whiner!" I was always told.


So what's my complaint: it's an unrealistic children's story about talking animals? Is this another one of my tempests in a teaball? No, it's not the right message and the characterization is garbled. Here's the competition message in a nut's (me) shell: Winners should learn to be gracious, losers should learn to not give up hope, and the mediocre should just get over it.

A better choice for a book about competitiveness is Mia Hamm's Winners Never Quit.



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