The Dragonfly Pool

Eva Ibbotson's new book, The Dragonfly Pool, is vintage Ibbotson. The heroine is smart and caring, the villains heartless and full of self-importance, and the setting is both England and an imaginary central European country. The heart of the story is Tally, the daughter of a poor, hardworking and beloved by his patients doctor. With WWII looming on the horizon, Tally's father is relieved that Tally has received a scholarship to a boarding school in the country. Tally doesn't want to leave her father and London behind but once she is in the Devon countryside with a whole school full of children who need her concern, she is happy to be there. It is Tally who organizes the children and persuades the school authorities for a folk dancing trip to the country of Bergania. And that is where the real adventures begin--when they meet the crown prince of Bergania and help him escape from Nazi kidnappers. Coming in September.

Girl Power

Justina Chen Headley, one of the divas at www.readergirlz.com, writes about girls finding the power to be themselves. In North of Beautiful her main character struggles with issues of self image and family. Terra's dad is verbally abusive to the whole family. Her brothers are old enough to have moved away from home leaving Terra to be the buffer between her father and her cowed mother. Terra has other problems too--one side of her face is covered by a wine colored birthmark. She covers it with makeup and dreams of a treatment that will finally get rid of it altogether.

Her journey of self-discovery is illustrated with references to map making. Years before this story takes place, Terra's father had staked his academic career on an ancient Chinese map that turned out to be a very good fake. This event echoes through the whole story. Terra's oldest brother works as a high priced lawyer in China. Her father displays maps in their house--but none of Asia. And most important, Terra meets Jacob, whose Goth sensibilities challenge how she views the world. With Jacob and his coffee buyer mom, Terra and her mother travel to China to visit Terra's brother and the orphanage that Jacob lived in as a baby.

Beautiful.

Real Characters

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban could be any other story about a sixth grade girl whose family isn't perfect and who doesn't quite fit in at school and yet it's so much more. What sets it apart? I think it's characterization. Zoe's oddball dad and hard working mother are presented in a loving and exasperated way that makes them extremely real characters. They don't seem to have quirks because the author thinks that will make them more memorable but because that's who they are. So, who are they?

Well, Zoe is a girl who really wants to play the piano. Unfortunately for her, her dad gets overwhelmed when he goes to the mall to buy the piano and ends up with an organ. But Zoe is a kid who knows how to make the best of things and so she starts taking organ lessons and ends up competing in an organ competition. Along the way she loses her best friend and makes a new friend who comes home after school to bake with her dad.

Her dad is the kind of guy who doesn't like to leave the house because he might get lost. Her mom is careful and detail oriented.

A great first novel.

Paper Towns, by John Green
Q has known his neighbor Margo Roth Speigelman since they were both little kids. Once they were close friends but as high school comes to a close they move in completely different circles. Q hangs out with the band nerds and Margo Roth Speigelman (you always have to use her full name) is one of the coolest of cool kids. But one night, Margo Roth Speigelman knocks on Q's window, forcing their circles to intersect. After a night of righteous pranks designed by Margo Roth Speigelman to right some wrongs and punish wrong-doers, Q thinks maybe, just maybe, they can be friends again. But then Margo Roth Speigelman disappears. The longer Q looks for her, the more he discovers about who she really is and how the surface Margo Roth Speigelman is not the whole picture at all.

Although there are some very funny moments, this is not a primarily funny book. Those funny moments balance out discussions of philosophy and poetry, real angst about what has happened to Margo Roth Speigelman, and thoughts about the meaning of friendship.

Old Stories, Retold

Impossible by Nancy Werlin
One of my favorite kinds of books is the fairy tale retold. Impossible by Nancy Werlin is a story based on the ballad "Scarborough Fair," a song which is haunting me now that I've read the book. Nancy Werlin has written a version of the song where the girl must complete three impossible tasks in order to be free from her Elfin admirer and then written a story around it. In the story, Lucy is seventeen and living with her very loving foster parents. Her life seems perfect. Perfect until she finds out about the curse on the women of her family. A curse she must complete three impossible tasks to escape.

This is a can't put down read. The love story is compelling, the evil chilly, and then tension is high.

Coming in September.

Poetry Month Addendum

Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech
Right at the end of poetry month I got an advanced reading copy of Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech. Even though poetry month is over now, I have to gush about this book. It's a sequel to Love That Dog and is told in poems too. Jack and his favorite teacher, Miss Stretchberry, are back. This time we learn about Jack's deaf mother and how they communicate and Jack learns to appreciate cats--even the horrible black cat who scratches him and is the inspiration for the title. Here is the first poem in the book:

I hate that cat
like a dog hates a rat
I said I hate that cat
like a dog hates a rat

Hate to see it in the morning
hate to see that
F A T black cat.

There is discussion of onomatopoeia and alliteration, what his uncle Bill calls "real writing", and the poetry of William Carlos William. You will be inspired to read more poetry and maybe even write a poem or two of your own.

Day 29 Poetry Month

The Tortoise
I wear a helmet
On my back.
It's hard
And guards
Me from attack.
And if I wheeze,
Or sneeze,
Or cough,
The shell I dwell in
Won't fall off.
It's glued without
A screw or mortise.
I'm born with it,
For I'm a tortoise.

From lizards, frogs, and polliwogs by Douglas Florian

Poetry Month, Day 24

From Flicker Flash by Joan Bransfield Graham, a little sun for you since the sky is so grey today.

Sun

"From

93.000,000

miles away I bring

you this dynamite, ring-

a-ding day. I'll shout in

your window and bounce

near your head to solar

power you out of

your bed!"

Poetry Month, April 22nd

Alphabet Sherbet
Alphabet Sherbet.
Have you ever heard of it?
I bought myself a gallon,
and ate about a third of it.
The A's are all amazing.
The B's are a beautiful blue.
The C's and D's
are cool and delicious.
The E's are enjoyable too.
The F's are fair,
but don't you fret--
the G's are great,
so go and get
a bowl of Alphabet Sherbet.
You'll love it,
I'm sure of it!

from Flamingos on the Roof by Calef Brown

Day 19, Poetry Month

Word Watch
Jittery seems a nervous word;
snuggle curls up around itself.
Some words fit their meanings so well:
Abrupt. Airy. And my favorite--

sesquipedalian,
which means: having lots of syllables.

From the most excellent Tap Dancing on the Roof by Linda Sue Park. A poem about words and their meaning seems most appropriate for poetry month.

Day 17, Poetry Month

Windshield Wipers

Windshield wipers wipe the windshield

Wipe the water off the pane

This way That way

This way That way

This way That way

In the rain

from The Llama Who Had No Pajama, by MaryAnn Hoberman

Day 15, Poetry Month

Job Satisfaction, by John Collis
I am a young bacterium
And I enjoy my work
I snuggle into people's food
I lie in wait--I lurk.
They chomp a bit and chew a bit
And say, "This can't be beaten"
But then in bed they groan and moan,
"I wish I hadn't eaten."

from Dirty Laundry Pile, Poems in Different Voices

Day 10, Poetry Month

Uh oh, I missed yesterday as well. Today's poem is from the book Imaginary Menagerie: A Book of Curious Creatures, written by Julie Larios and illustrated by Julie Paschkis. Both of them live in Seattle and Julie Paschkis's illustration style may look familiar to users of the library since she did some work for last summer's summer reading program. Anyway, here is today's poem:

Mermaid

Listen to the waves

break on the shore--

half song, half roar.

Listen to the beach

answer back--

half cry, half laugh.

Underneath it all,

you might hear a splash,

you might hear a call,

or you might hear a sigh,

long and low.

What does she say,

part woman, part fish?

I wish . . . I wish . . .

Day 8, Poetry Month

I meant to post a poem every week day of the month but missed yesterday. Oops. Here's a poem for today from Douglas Florian's Insectlopedia.

The Praying Mantis
Upon a twig
I sit and pray
For something big
To wend my way:
A caterpillar,
Moth,
Or bee--
I swallow them
Religiously.

Poetry Month, Day 4

Rain on the green grass,
Rain on the trees,
Rain on the housetops,
But not on me.

Mother Goose


Hope you're staying dry.

Day 3, Poetry Month

I walked by a willow that was leafing out yesterday and thought of the first line of this poem. So here it is, just for you.

Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
-- Robert Frost

Poetry Month, Day 2

From Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz

Thomas
The Doctor's Son

My father is the noble lord's physician,
And I am bound to carry on tradition.
With every patient that my father cures,
I learn more medicine. Ordinary sores
Will heal with comfrey, or the white of an egg.
An eel skin takes the cramping from a leg.
I know five kinds of fever, and four humors,
Bloodletting, and the way to feel for tumors.

I know the stars and movements planetary.
With one whiff, I can sniff out dysentery,
And also, I am practicing the way
To soothe my patients--and to make them pay.
They swear at us when we demand our fee,
But what man can afford to work for free?
A healthy man is careless with a bill--
You have to make them pay when they are ill.

When first you see a sick man, feel his brow
And say, "You should have called me before now!
If given time, I vanquish all complaints,
But as it is, we'll have to ask the saints.
Make sure you pray, and that your heart is quiet,
And think of ways to simplify your diet--
That trencher full of venison I see
Is much too rich! Just hand it back to me!"

After the prayer, let the patient rest,
And tell his family, "I will do my best
To fight this sickness, but I fear his fate--
It may be that you called me in too late."
Then shake your head, look serious and wise--
This sort of talk protects you if he dies.
If he recovers, it was all your skill
That brought him back to life. And that's better still.

April is National Poetry Month

In honor of National Poetry Month, I plan to post a poem every day. Today's is from Jack Prelutsky's Pizza, Pigs and Poetry: How to Write a Poem.

A Piglet
I'm a piglet, pink and stout.
If I'm cold, I sneeze and sniff.
If I have to blow my snout,
I take out my oinkerchief.

Here's a writing tip from the book:
"Writing Tip #8
I never pass up an opportunity to write a poem."

Happy Poetry!

Ye Olde Bookes

A friend loaned me Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. (Why, yes, I do sometimes read books that aren't for children. Hard to believe, but true.) It's an amazing novel about the building of a cathedral in medieval England. It got me thinking about all the great books for kids set in that place and time. My all time favorite is Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman. It is the story of a girl whose father needs to marry her off advantageously. Birdy, on the other hand, wants to stay true to herself and her independent heart. It touched my heart and made me laugh--two things I really like in a book.

And that put me in mind of this year's Newbery winner: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz. Conceived as a series of monologues for students at her school who were studying the middle ages, this is a set of sometimes connected poems for one or occasionally two voices about medieval times. Each one is told in a different voice: the glassblower's apprentice, the glassblower's daughters, the knight's son, a beggar, and more. Interspersed are short informational essays about different aspects of medieval life. You can browse and read the ones that interest you or, do as I did, and read it from cover to cover. It was fascinating, informational yet fun and the illustrations are beautiful--mostly muted colors with reds and blues that pop from the page. Oh, and an extensive bibliography! It's fabulous and extensive (did I mention that already?). I'm planning to open up my library web page and put some titles on hold.

Do you have a favorite book about the middle ages? Or another historical period?

Animal Play

In Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett, a little girl and her stuffed animal pretend to be various animals. The text is rhythmic and repetitive:

Monkey and me,

Monkey and me,

Monkey and me,

We went to see,

We went to see some . . .

variously penguins, kangaroos, elephants and more. Each time you don't see the picture of the animal until you turn the page but you can guess what animal it is by the way the girl and her monkey are moving. The pictures are totally expressive and beautiful in a limited palette of black, white, brown and red.

Read Monkey and Me at your next story time and then take turns acting out your own animals.