Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

Lynn: Ok - it is long past time for a rant. I’m sad and irritable this week but I’ve been grumbling for months about this issue and it is time to RANT! A listserv that I have long subscribed to is being ravaged by a dreadful disease. No I don’t mean H1N1, I mean Librarianship by Listserv. Who needs library school, cataloging classes or an online catalog? Just jump on the listerv and ask the world. No one else has anything to do and we all love having our mailboxes fill up. Hey - I think being able to ask questions of the “collective brain” is a great thing but it seems as if a scary number of people post questions without doing ANY work of their own first! These are actual questions recently posted:

Question: Can anyone suggest a good book for an 8th grade boy?

Me to my computer: Hundreds! What have you come up with so far? What resources have you used? Did you ask any readers advisory questions?

Question: Can anyone suggest a book set in another country?

Me to computer: Have you heard of doing a subject search? What books have you already found? What resources have you used? ACK!

Question: Can anyone recommend YA books set in schools?

Me shouting at computer: Every YA book published that isn’t a fantasy - and even some of THOSE are set in school. ARGH! (tearing of hair)

And then there are the people writing articles or teaching classes who seem to want the listserv to do their work…Cindy take over my blood pressure is rising.

Cindy: My blood pressure monitor just maxed out reading your post, but I’ll try:

Question: I’m looking for an article from SLJ by “this author” about “insert topic here.” Does anyone remember that article?

Me shouting in an email to Lynn: This person is from a state with free access to InfoTrac. This person is a librarian. Can she perform a periodical search on her own?

She didn’t have to. She posted to the list, someone did the search for her and posted back to the list within minutes with the answer she needed. But it’s embarrassing? Isn’t it? I’m embarrassed for our profession.

Everywhere we turn librarians’ jobs are being cut. We’ve got Google, who needs librarians? Perhaps some of these inane questions are not coming from librarians, but from clerks who are being asked to serve in librarian roles in places where the cuts have taken place, but I do worry that librarians are becoming lazy. The Internet has opened up a whole world of information but our searching skills are diminishing as we rely on the memory of others rather than our own abilities. For me, answering a reference question is like solving a mystery. The process is part of the fun. Half of the reader’s advisory questions that are asked (some by college literature professors) could easily be answered by consulting Novelist, Booklist Online, or, gasp, one’s own online catalog.

Question: Can you recommend a read-alike for Diary of a Wimpy Kid? I have some ideas of my own, but I’d like to hear what others think.

Me: Really, you have ideas? You’ve done some work on this? How about throwing us a bone and giving us the titles you HAVE thought of so that we are not wasting our time typing answers that include what you already have on your list. PLUS, you might contribute something to the reader’s advisory cause by SHARING one of your ideas.

Accuracy seems to have taken a back seat in Librarianship by Listserv too.

Question: I have a 6th grader interested in Ancient Civilization. He’s already read the Dragon Keeper trilogy by Wilkinson set in Ancient China. Does the collective brain have any suggestions for him?

Answer #1: How about the Dragon Keeper trilogy?

Answer #2: I loved Caligula’s Adventures by Hedon Istic. It might be a little mature, for him, but it fits the subject and it’s sooo good.

Me, banging my head against my framed diploma: If these librarians pay attention to their own reference and readers’ advisory requests as closely as they pay attention to the listserv generated ones, there is no hope for our profession.

You have to wonder if the time spent at the computer on the reference desk responding to listserv questions could be better spent in helping your own patrons who are in front of you…or in taking some reference refresher classes.

Cindy and Lynn: To our dear readers who made it this far, thank you for indulging our Friday rant. Feel free to add your own rant to the comment section. You’ll feel better. We do.

Cindy: I don’t know if I am up to the challenge of describing this delightful book. The Bog Baby (Random/Schwartz & Wade, 2009) has curled itself around my heart like the fiddle head ferns that line the squelchy edge of the magic pond in these pages. When two sisters lie to their mother and sneak away to the pond to try to catch a newt they get something much better, a Bog Baby! He is small and blue with boggly eyes and he floats on the water and sucks his toes. He is too cute not to take home. It’s fun at first, but Bog Babies are not meant to eat cake and be hauled to school for show and tell in margarine tubs. You know the drill, if you love something set it free…but the very subtle lesson I loved most in this book comes from the mother’s reaction to the girls’ deceit. Instead of screaming and punishing, she fondly remembers her own time of finding a Bog Baby, and the lesson learned is that maybe children can be honest with their parents when they find themselves in over their heads. At least that’s what I take from it, but then again, I never lied to MY mother.

Gwen Millward’s illustrations perfectly complement the story…the Bog Baby is adorable and the tiny details in the illustrations give plenty to pour over again and again. I live on a bayou and I’m hoping to find my own Bog Baby next Spring!

Lynn: I have two sons and two grandsons and so far nobody has caught a Bog Baby, but all sorts of other critters have been brought home. We have a 24 hour keep-and-release rule in our house. After one day, the captive has to go back to where it was caught. My grandsons loved this book and I think it helped them to understand why that rule is important. The last page of the book is labeled Notes About your Bog Baby - When You Find Your Very Own Bog Baby You Can Write About It Here. A list of fun questions asks about his favorite food and how many toes he has. Our focus group reached this last page and were suddenly not sure that Bog Babies were a fantasy. If they bring one home, we’ll post it here!

Lynn: Unfortunately the flu is spreading fast. Children are worried too and it is important to provide them with accurate information. This new book in the Gross Body Science series is about the body’s defenses and reactions to minute invaders. Crust and Spray (Lerner/Millbrook 2009) addresses this timely subject with humor and a high grossness factor appealing to kids while also providing solid information. The first chapter is titled Boogers, Snot and Sneezing and provides this icky but fascinating fact: our noses and sinuses produce about a quart of mucus every day. Yuck! Highly magnified pictures of ear wax, dust mites, and phlegm make this a book you don’t want to read over breakfast. Kids will find all this wonderfully disgusting but they will learn a lot too. (If even one child learns how and why to cough hygienically, it’s definitely worth the price) Cartoon sketches and close up photographs of noses, ears and eyes round out a book kids, especially boys, won’t be able to resist.

Gross Fact #2. Did you know that when you sneeze, the air (and snot) in your nose can come out at 100 miles per hour? Ew! Please sneeze into your elbow!

Cindy: Wish I’d read Lynn’s post before reading this book over coffee this morning. I nearly sent my coffee flying from my mouth at 100 miles per hour when I came across the picture of an infected ear oozing green stuff. Yuck! She always claims she reads like a 12-year-old boy, and when she recommends books like this one, I am sure she is right. This series is great, though, and kids will learn a lot about their bodies and how they function. Besides teaching vocubulary, the author encourages kids to use it in class. “Sputum alert! Sputum alert!” or “I’m going to sternutate!” That ought to turn some heads! The earwax section grossed me out the most, though, and reminded me of the Halloween my sisters-in-law dressed in light blue leotards and put cotton batten wigs on with peanut butter smeared on them, attending the costume party as dirty Q-tips! Double yuck.

Upper elementary and younger middle school kids will love this book with it’s interesting and funny writing and the zany drawings, photos, and computer generated art. Those who like this volume have more fun in store with the other books in the Gross Body Science series:

• Clot & Scab: Gross Stuff about Your Scrapes, Bumps, and Bruises
• Hawk & Drool: Gross Stuff in Your Mouth
• Itch & Ooze: Gross Stuff on Your Skin
• Rumble & Spew: Gross Stuff in Your Stomach and Intestines

Thank you to Bookstogether for hosting this week’s Nonfiction Monday blog roundup!

Lynn: Marcus Jordan, star quarterback of his previous team, is the new guy in town. To make things worse, the local football team was undefeated last year and no one sees any reason to change the starting line-up. Marcus makes the team but resigns himself to working hard and riding the bench for the year. The one bright spot is a curious connection with a middle-aged man, an amazing athlete Marcus meets in the park. Charlie turns out to be a legendary pro football player and he helps Marcus improve his game and learn to love the “pop.” But there is something extremely odd about Charlie.

Korman takes what could have been a formulaic story and turns it upside down with Pop (Harper/Balzer + Bray 2009.) The beautiful cheerleader is a master football strategist, the rival quarterback is hiding a horrifying worry and the game Marcus loves so much carries a huge price. The eye-catching cover and terrific sports scenes will draw in lots of male sports fans but this is a book that has something for everyone. The nuanced relationships are what drive the story and the characters are heart-wrenchingly real. Even the secondary characters have depth and interest and the central issue of the book will make every reader pause. This football story drives straight to the heart.

Cindy: I’m not much of a football follower, but I am a fan of Korman’s writing. He’s one of the best humorists writing for teens today, but this novel is a departure into more serious issues. Without giving away any plot spoilers, it is heartening to see a football story that deals with a health issue that is not related to performance enhancing drugs. Besides the football action, teen boys are going to enjoy the pranks that the odd couple play on the crabby business man near the park where they practice. Still, one of my favorite elements in YA lit is when the teens are faced with choices of right and wrong presented in a very gray situation. Is it okay to do something illegal if the act is one that is extremely important? Marcus is faced with that choice several times in this novel as he struggles to befriend a man who no one really understands anymore. The background noise of televised college football games accompanied my reading of this novel today and I was left wishing that Indiana University had a defensive line as good as the one Marcus played on. “Pop” could teach my Hoosiers a thing or two.

Cindy: This time of year makes me really miss my public library days. Halloween storytimes were so much fun. Sally Walker’s new Halloween pour-quoi tale, Druscilla’s Halloween (Carolrhoda, 2009) offers an explanation for how witches came to ride brooms. Aging Druscilla can no longer quietly sneak up on children by tiptoe to scare them–her knees make too much noise: “Snap! Crack! Creak! Pop!” One bad plan follows another as she tries to join her fellow witches, until finally a failure leads to an idea that just might work. Comedic illustrations and puns add to the fun in a story that will make a great read aloud with plenty of chances for young ghouls and boys to join in: “Snap! Crack! Creak! Pop!”

Lynn: A fun new book that will be wonderful for fall and Halloween story hours is Boo to You by Lois Ehlert (S&S/Beach Lane 2009). Two little mice, resplendent in blue handmade paper with seed pod tails, are planning a harvest party. All the guests are “edgy” about the meat eating cat who peeks out behind a vine just as the garden party is about to dine. A plan sprouts and in a wonderful fold out surprise, the cat is chased away. Ehlert adds a cornucopia of cut-out photographs of fall vegetables to her trademark collage. Bright colored gourds, squash and corn make each page a treat. Our focus group loved this book and had fun identifying the vegetables in the pictures. The large bold creations are nice for story hour but this is also nice for small groups where Ehlert’s inventive collages can be examined close-up. Boo to all of you!

Cindy: We’re getting lots of compliments on our Halloween bulletin board in one of my middle school libraries so I thought I’d share a photo. Tuck away the idea for next year…it’s quick and easy to make, doesn’t have to be perfect, and is visually striking–my favorite kind!

Lynn: When PBS aired The National Parks: America’s Best Idea in September I was glued to the television. I had my popcorn and I sat for six glorious nights marveling at what I was seeing and hearing. In true librarian fashion, I had checked out a copy of the accompanying book ahead of time. I know this could qualify as more than a little geeky but I was so glad I had the book at hand. I knew the show would provide glorious photography and fascinating history but I didn’t realize how eloquent those far-sighted park pioneers were. I turned again and again to the book to read the inspiring words. Here’s a sample from Theodore Roosevelt during a stop at the Grand Canyon before it was a park, “Leave it as it is. You can not improve it. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.”

John Muir called the Grand Canyon, “a grand geological library, a collection of stone books covering…tier on tier conveniently arranged for the student.”

There have been some wonderful recent books for our young readers that are outstanding connections to Ken Burns’ sweeping series. Camping with the President by Ginger Wadsworth (Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek 2009) relates a fascinating story also told in the film. In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt decided to visit the western states and view some of the wilderness areas. An avid reader and outdoorsman, Roosevelt hatched a scheme to have John Muir guide him through the Yosemite area. Ditching the attending crowds of aides, press and secret service agents, Roosevelt and Muir spent four days camping, hiking and riding through Yosemite. The two men sat up late each night talking with Muir sharing his vision of preserving and protecting wilderness areas. The text nicely reflects Roosevelt’s exuberance and the humorous illustrations will attract and engage young readers. Plenty of “Bullys” pepper the text and Wadsworth provides background information, notes and a bibliography. This picture book would be terrific to use with middle school science and history classes.

Cindy: Lynn started getting excited about this series early in the summer and it certainly lived up to our expectations. If you missed it, watch it soon on dvd. Years ago I listened to a great recording from storyteller Donald Davis called “The Grand Canyon.” Check your local library for that audio production. After hearing Davis’ humorous story about the mule trip into the canyon, I now like to imagine, just like Davis, that all of my federal income tax is going straight into the line item for the National Parks Service.

Before we had video footage of the scenic park vistas, the images were brought to the people via artists and photographers. Thomas Moran was one such artist that joined an 1871 scientist exploration so he could record the scenes at Yellowstone. Never mind that he hadn’t ridden a horse before; he was willing to brave all sorts of adventures to paint the incredible views. Lita Judge captures the excitement and the artistry in Yellowstone Moran: Painting the American West (Penguin/Viking, 2009) in pencil and watercolors that pay tribute to Moran’s artistic style. Young readers will be able to see one of Moran’s paintings, included at the end of the text. Moran’s sketches and small paintings were used to seek support from Congress for Yellowstone, and it worked. “On March 1, 1872, President Grant signed a bill making Yellowstone America’s first National Park.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Today’s Nonfiction Monday roundup is hosted by Wrapped in Foil.

Cindy: Over at 100 Scope Notes, cover controversies are unveiled on a regular basis. Featured are book covers that pose a striking resemblance to one another. I enjoy those features and just found a set of my own:

Both have a gold skeleton key placed below the the title, both feature their same keys on the spine positioned between the author and title, in matching locations, and both have a tone-on-tone background pattern on the cover. Now it’s early yet, neither of these books publishes until 2010, so the covers might change, but the interesting thing is the publisher in this case is copying itself. Both of these books are being published by Random House. Regardless of what they look like, both are on my towering to-be-read pile. Suite Scarlett was a favorite of both Lynn and me, and while we loved that cover, it doesn’t sell so well to teens. And Green sounds like a fun story with leprechauns, piskies, a cute boy and lots of gold. Can’t wait.

Lynn: Just to add to the fun here is another “key” cover.  Ok - I admit the key is displayed vertically instead of horizontally.  This one is from Houghton and published in February 2009.

Lynn: I’m convinced that our house has a sign clearly visible to all animal species that says, “Hopeless sucker lives here.” A mind-boggling array of creatures have wandered in over the years and many of them stayed. So with that and the fact that one of my sons served in Iraq, I knew I might not be entirely dispassionate about this book. Setting all that aside, I guarantee that even those of you indifferent to animal stories will be moved by Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine & a Miracle (Little, Brown, Nov. 2009).

Dennis, in a straight-forward, just-the-facts style, tells the story of a stray dog who found a friend and wouldn’t give up till they were together. Major Dennis befriended a stray dog in Iraq, naming him Nubs because of his mutilated ears. Each time Dennis left on patrol, Nubs attempted to follow. Finally the dog set off after the vehicles, following the trail across 70 miles of desert to their base. Large photographs and the simple words convey much beyond Nubs’ story though: the conditions in the country, the impact of war on everyone and everything, the connection humans have with animals and the caring heart of a tough battle-hardened soldier. If the story and pictures of the gaunt, exhausted dog and his heart-breaking loyalty don’t get to you, then Dennis’ simple concluding words will, ” The bigger miracle may be that this dog of war chose to become a dog of peace. Now Nubs has a name and a person to call his own.”

Our focus group loved this book from the moment they saw it and I am grateful for the stapled galley since we have read it nonstop. They don’t understand much about the war but older students will see what is between the lines and readers of all ages will be moved by this story of love and loyalty.

Cindy: “How far would you go to find a friend?”

This is a perfect book to share with young children as both a story of friendship and an age-appropriate introduction to the war in Iraq. It’s also a good reminder to all of us of the sacrifices being made for us by our service men and women. And, the dog doesn’t die in this book!

Update: Apologies for not mentioning the two coauthors on this book: Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery.

Lynn: There have been many outstanding books about the Dust Bowl but Marrin’s Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl (Penguin/Dutton, 2009) is a book that belongs in every public and school library in this country. Even in this year of extraordinary nonfiction, Marrin’s new book stands out with its exemplary writing. Marrin, as always, writes with such clarity that complex subjects become not only accessible to young readers but intensely interesting. Each element feels just right starting with the heart-stopping pictures that have been displayed with riveting effect in an outstanding book design. Marrin’s unusual approach also makes the book noteworthy. He focuses first on the ecology and the human actions that intensified the natural disaster, then examines the impact on the people and places the event in the context of the time. Lastly, he pulls the “Dirty Thirties” out of history and makes starkly clear that this can happen again.

Marrin paints a vivid picture of what the area endured: suffocated children, dust pneumonia, blinded starving animals and quiet desperation, using primary sources that speak vividly of horror and hopelessness. He concludes with the wise words of Chief Seattle who said in 1855, “Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it,” and warns that we should remember these words when we think about the Dust Bowl that was and the dust bowls that yet may be.

Just as I was finishing this book there were reports of huge swirling dust storms in Sydney Australia and in Arizona. Hand this book to your science teachers as well as your history teachers. It is a story our young citizens need to read.

Cindy: Before serving on YALSA’s Best Books for Young Adults Committee, I was not much of a dedicated nonfiction reader. I read the reviews, ordered the books that received stars, those that met curriculum demands, and high interest titles for leisure reading. I let Dewey Decimal numbers, and Sears Subject headings and face out displays do most of the readers advisory in this important area. I figured I needed to spend more of my time reading fiction that needed more hand selling. Boy, was I missing out–and so were my students. Now I read almost as many nonfiction books as I do fiction and incorporate nonfiction booktalks into any session I can, including individual readers’ advisory help in the stacks. For middle school students, a good hook for this book might be to start with the older woman who routinely took off her eyeglasses at meal time so she wouldn’t see the wiggling maggots in the garbage she was eating. “Why was she reduced to this, let me tell you…”

I learned so much about this time period that I’m almost embarrassed to admit what I didn’t know. I didn’t know the dust storms rose two miles in the air.

“Trillions of dust particles striking against each other generated static electricity. Sometimes there was so much electricity in the air that it knocked people down if they shook hands.”

I thought the storms occurred primarily in Oklahoma and Kansas, mostly because the fiction I’ve read about the time period was set in those states. I didn’t realize that Dorothea Lange’s iconic Great Depression photograph “Migrant Mother” was published in violation of the subject’s request and featured a woman who wasn’t necessarily the Dust Bowl refugee she came to symbolize. The story behind the photo is fascinating and I want to research more about that.

Perhaps the thing that is so haunting about this historic event, even more so than the haunting eyes in the photos of the people it impacted, is that we haven’t learned from it. We are still treating the earth and its ecosystems in a way that can have catastrophic consequences, all in the name of progress. We all need to read and talk about books like this one with our young people.

Check out this week’s Nonfiction Monday round-up at Lori Calabrese Writes!, this week’s host blog.

Cindy: Can an author really scare me in 30 seconds or less? The answer is yes when it is Margaret Atwood or Jack Gantos or M. T. Anderson or Art Slade. Yikes! Each story, poem, or graphic story in this slim volume can be read in less than half a minute. Lynn brought Half-Minute Horrors (Harper, 2009) in to show me last week and the clamoring from the students who glimpsed the creepy fun cover and heard her talk about the book was deafening! I had to immediately order two copies for each middle school and it won’t be enough. Good thing these are quick reads! Some of the stories are REALLY short, like this one called “Soup” from Jenny Nimmo:

I wish someone had warned me about Alice’s soup.
I’ll never get rid of these horns now.
Baaa!

R. L. Stine is no stranger to horror and he provides a great riff on the “monster in my closet” theme with a story that has an O. Henry ending. Most of the stories, even though they are short, contain a full story arc with setting and characters. Last week I loaned Lynn’s copy to an 8th grade teacher who needed a one day writing activity. She was going to read some of these samples and then have her students try their hand at writing their own scary tales. I’m eager to read what they wrote.

Oh, and here’s my display tip for the fall: We have a poster of a skeleton holding a sign that says RIP (Read in Peace). The scary story display circulates more books than any other display we do all year.

Lynn: Face it - we all love to be scared. Well, we love to be scared in the safety of our own homes. If I had even a penny for every time a student asked me for a book with scary stories, I’d be chartering my own private plane to ALA conferences. (I’m still holding a grudge for the whole paying for checked bags outrage!) Anyway this is a perfect book for kids grades 4-7 who want to be scared (older “kids” will like this too). The stories are quick to read and they are REALLY scary. They are also completely addictive. I’m warning you right now that reading just one simply isn’t possible. You’ll think, “Oh, they’re short - just one more.” Before you know it you are halfway through the book and dinner is burning.

I don’t think I can pick a favorite but don’t miss “Death Rides a Pink Bicycle” or “The Rash” or…well, they’re all wonderful. The cover is irresistible too. I had set the book on the circulation desk at school one day when I was in helping and every student checking out wanted it. I confess to giving in to my grandsons who begged for a story when the book arrived. I read them Allan Stratton’s “There’s Something Under the Bed” before sending them home to their father, heh heh!

Those of you on RSS feeds for Bookends might have seen the start of this post pop up yesterday. I wish I could say it was just a test to see if you were paying attention One of us (who shall remain anonymous) hit publish a tad early. Well we learn by doing and now we know how to retrieve a post that goes out too soon. Wait - maybe something ghostly and unseen made it happen! OOOOOH!