PICTURE THIS!

There’s something so very special about getting a parcel in the mail – and something else special again when you know it contains books. My library got a lovely little package of books today and I was very tempted just to sit it on the circulation desk and gaze at it adoringly all day long. However (and even better!) both the library assistant and I knew it was full of picture books and neither of us could resist ripping into it and seeing what had been picked out for us.

And, honestly, who can resist reading their way through a stack of shiny new picture books? If you’re able to resist that you’re a stronger-willed person than I, that’s for sure. They were an eclectic collection today, and there were definitely some I enjoyed more than others, but there were one or two that I thoroughly loved and have already recommended to (read: pushed into the hands of) some students.

Title: Me and Moo

Author: P. Crumble and Nathaniel Eckstrom

Published: 2015

Pages: 23

This book has everything that makes for a winning picture book - adorable illustrations, an endearing narrator, and a simple, yet engaging storyline. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Moo, chuckling along at the small jokes and absolutely fawning over the pictures. A quick read, even for a picture book, I encourage everyone to go and learn about the heart warming relationship between Moo and 'me'. 5/5

Title: Those Pesky Rabbits

Author: Ciara Flood

Published: 2015

Pages: 40

Another example of illustrations that had me delighted - I loved the huge roundness of Mr. Bear, but those little bunnies? So cute. I tried to feel sad for Mr. Bear, being swarmed by these 'pesky' new neighbours of his, but, truly, I knew where the story was going to end up and I was eagerly awaiting his happy new outlook on life. I wasn't disappointed. Charming story, adorable illustrations, beautiful all around. 5/5

Title: The Underwater Fancy-Dress Parade

Author: Davina Bell

Published: 2015

Pages: 32

Normally with picture books, it's the illustrations that really draw me in. I, naturally, always love a good story, but usually it's the wanna-be-illustrator in me that's picking up the book in the first place. This is one instance where, despite enjoying the illustrations, it was actually the story itself that I found myself loving. The central character of The Underwater Fancy-Dress Parade, Alfie, is a young boy with a rather nervous disposition. He's all set to play Captain Starfish in the school play, but at the last minute finds himself unable to go through with it. Alfie is blessed, however, with wonderfully supportive parents, who provide him with the love and wisdom needed for him to make his own progress. I don't know whether it was my own identification with Alfie's fear and anxiety, or whether it was just the virtue of the story itself, but I adored this one and am already looking forward to reading it again. 5/5

Title: Ride, Ricardo, Ride!

Author: Phil Cummings and Shane Devries

Published: 2015

Pages: 32

You never really have to go searching too far for a war-themed picture book. There are some truly fantastic ones out there, as well as plenty of mediocre ones, but I often feel that the sheer number of them out there makes it hard for any new ones to impress. I can't say that Ride, Ricardo, Ride will make it to the top of my go-to list for this theme, but it did have some interesting features of note. I particularly enjoyed that the soldiers themselves are never seen, nor even referred to as soldiers, but simply 'shadows'. I enjoyed the art work, though found the contrast between the highly saturated, almost oil-painting like main pages and the simpler, vintage-looking (think Blyton) line illustrations to be an interesting choice. 4/5

Title: This is Captain Cook

Author: Tania McCartney and Christina Booth

Published: 2015

Pages: 40

I can't quite decide if I liked this book or not, which is an uncomfortable place to be writing a review from. I thought the way in which the story was told (through the format of a school play) was quite interesting and something I'd never come across before. I really liked the quite realistic portrayal of the families, among whose silhouettes the reader is watching the play from, but the story and the play itself was quite dry and not necessarily an interesting read. I wanted to like this book more than I did, but it managed three stars from me on the basis of it's structure. 3/5

Title: Green Tree Frogs

Author: Sandra Kendell

Published: 2015

Pages: 32

Unfortunately this was another example of a book that didn't quite hit the mark. It was an excellent example of alliteration and onomatopoeia if you're looking for something for your classroom, but the story itself fell short - both as an example of a text explaining the development of frogs from tadpoles, and as one relating the beauty of growing up in a nature rich environment. Again, a book I wanted to like more than I did. 2/3

The Moorchild

Eloise McGraw

Published: 1996

Pages: 241

Awards: Newberry Honor Book

It was Old Bess, the Wise Woman of the village, who first suspected that the baby at her daughter's house was a changeling.
For a time she held her peace. Many babies were I'll-favored, she told herself. Many babies cried with what seemed like fury against the world - though this little Saaski had not done so as a newborn. It even seemed to Old Bess that the child had not looked quite like this for the first few months, but somehow she could never quite remember.

Moql was one of the Folk, a young magical creature who spent her time learning the ways of her people and playing on the Moor. Except Moql isn't like the other young Folk. She isn't as skilled as they are - and that can get them all in trouble. Declared a danger to the band, half-Folk, half-Human Moql is banished, exchanged for one of the beautiful human children in the nearby village. She becomes a Changeling.
Banished to human existence, Moql becomes Saaski and quickly forgets the life she left behind. Unfortunately for Saaski, forgetting doesn't make her any more human, and her odd ways quickly make her a target for the other children's hostilities and causes no end of trouble for her and her 'parents'.
It is only on the moor, free to run and roam with her music and Tam, the traveling companion of a tinker, and her only friend, that she has any peace. But what happens when the village people are no longer willing to live with her oddities. What happens when she starts to remember?
I thoroughly enjoyed The Moorchild for it's innocence and old-world charm. Despite the darker passages dealing with poor Saaski's treatment by the other villagers (rather Grimm-like, I felt), the book on the whole had a wonderfully European fairytale atmosphere which was a far cry from the current slew of fairy novels written for children at the moment.
The books was rich in texture, layering local dialects (beautifully reminiscent of The Secret Garden) over old-world folktales to create a very authentic window into this folksy world.
Definitely recommended for fairytale lovers of any age.
4/5

Still following the Yellow Brick Road

The Marvelous Land of Oz Eric Shanower, Skottie Young, and L. Frank Baum
Published 2010; 192 pages

First cab off the rank this year is Eric Shanower and Skottie Young’s adaption of L. Frank Baum’s The Marvelous Land of Oz. Much like its predecessor The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (adapted by same), I was highly impressed by its loyalty to the original. Not only is its plot accurate, it has captured the spirit and youthful energy of Baum’s world superbly.

For those not familiar with the tale, The Marvelous Land of Oz tells the story of Tippetarius, known more commonly as “Tip”. Unlike Dorothy, Tip is a native of Oz who, when he runs away from the evil witch who is his guardian, finds himself entwined with the politics of Oz.

General Jinjur and her army of Ozian girls have marched onto the Emerald City, revolting against the Scarecrow King and the long standing patriarchal rule of Oz... which would be more impressive if the soldier-girls were a little more skilled in their work and noble in their intentions.

Tip and his magical creations Jack Pumpkin Head and Saw Horse join the Scarecrow and the Tin Man in restoring order to Oz.

As I said, this is a faithful adaption of Baum’s book, yet it possesses a charm unique to its form. Skottie Young’s highly stylistic artistry is beautiful and lends the perfect degree of whimsy to Shanower’s treatment of Oz’s political scene.

4/5

Magical tales…

M is for Magic
Neil Gaiman
published 2007; 249 pages

Stories that you read when you're the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you'll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit. (ix)

 

I was never a great fan of short stories as a whole until I discovered Neil Gaiman. And while I love all his writing, it is his collections of short stories that I have been devouring.

M is for Magic is a collection aimed at a younger audience. Though it appears to be marketed (and shelved, in my libraries case) at a junior level, it is probably more appropriate for a middle to YA level. With life-eating trolls, story-telling months and ghosts to boot, this collection is sure to please. The richness of Gaiman’s voice does not go lacking.

My only point of concern with the collection was that several of the short stories are found in other collections (Angels and Visitations and Fragile Things) – certainly not a problem, just something to be aware of. 3.5/5

 

 

Challenges

• 100+ Reading Challenge
• A-Z Challenge
• Neil Gaiman Challenge

A-Z Wednesday (M)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.).
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: M
Here is my “M” Title:

March – Geraldine Brooks
346 pages; published 2005

From Publisher’s Weekly
Brooks's luminous second novel, after 2001's acclaimed Year of Wonders, imagines the Civil War experiences of Mr. March, the absent father in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. An idealistic Concord cleric, March becomes a Union chaplain and later finds himself assigned to be a teacher on a cotton plantation that employs freed slaves, or "contraband." His narrative begins with cheerful letters home, but March gradually reveals to the reader what he does not to his family: the cruelty and racism of Northern and Southern soldiers, the violence and suffering he is powerless to prevent and his reunion with Grace, a beautiful, educated slave whom he met years earlier as a Connecticut peddler to the plantations. In between, we learn of March's earlier life: his whirlwind courtship of quick-tempered Marmee, his friendship with Emerson and Thoreau and the surprising cause of his family's genteel poverty. When a Confederate attack on the contraband farm lands March in a Washington hospital, sick with fever and guilt, the first-person narrative switches to Marmee, who describes a different version of the years past and an agonized reaction to the truth she uncovers about her husband's life. Brooks, who based the character of March on Alcott's transcendentalist father, Bronson, relies heavily on primary sources for both the Concord and wartime scenes; her characters speak with a convincing 19th-century formality, yet the narrative is always accessible. Through the shattered dreamer March, the passion and rage of Marmee and a host of achingly human minor characters, Brooks's affecting, beautifully written novel drives home the intimate horrors and ironies of the Civil War and the difficulty of living honestly with the knowledge of human suffering. (Amazon)

My review here

Dear Father...

MarchGeraldine Brooks
346 pages; published 2005

I think if I point out one more time that Little Women is my favourite book, this blog may just explore. So, instead, let’s just say that when I heard about Geraldine Brook’s March last year (this is a reread for me) I was both very excited and very scared to read it – I mean, what if it ruined it?

March tells the story of the abolitionist March, the father whose only presence in Little Women comes in the form of letters from the war. As a young man he made his way through the South as a pedlar – meeting people and learning from life and its range of inhabitants. Now, older but no less idealistic, March finds himself back in the South, but this time as a chaplain and soldier.

Determined to do what he can for the freed slaves he encounters, March teaches many to read and write. But, despite all his attempts, March is faced with the dogged reality of war time life at every turn. And he just may be forced to make a choice between what he holds most dear: his ideals or his family.

As I said, March was a reread for me (book club) and so it shouldn’t surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed it. In providing a back story for March (and Marmee) and recounting his war efforts, Brook found the perfect balance between loyalty to an old classic (which she had clearly studied closely) and telling her own story. Her representation of the war was, at times, painfully honest and her eye for detail could not be faulted.

Since this was a book club book, I will say that one of the elements fellow blogger and club member Wendy and I disagreed on was the portrayal of Marmee. While I loved the more natural, almost wild approach (as the forerunner to the tempestuous Jo), knocking her off her pedestal a little, Wendy (and others, no doubt) felt it was too far removed from her character. Perhaps you could persuade her to put forward her views…

Overall, I thought March a wonderful read; beautiful in language and engaging in story. It is with great pleasure that I issue my first full ranking of 2009 to this book. 5/5

Other Reviews
Have you written a review for this book? I would love to include it, comment below and I'll add your link!

House of Night

Marked (House of Night, Book 1)
P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast
306 pages; published 2007


So the good news is that I wouldn't have to take the geometry test tomorrow.

The bad news was that I'd have to move into the House of Night, a private boarding school in Tulsa's Midtown, known by all my friends as the Vampyre Finishing School, where I would spend the next four years going through bizarre and unnameable physical changes, as well as a total and permanent life shake-up. And that's only if the whole process didn't kill me. (6)


Zoey wants nothing more out of life than to feel like she really belongs… well, that and her vintage VW beetle. Ever since her mother married the People of the Faith Elder, John Heffer, Zoey’s life has been miserable. Her new step-father (the step-loser) is both clueless and controlling, and her mother is growing more distant every day. The routine dramas of school (the self-centred gossip of her best friend and drunken exploits of her almost-ex-boyfriend) have become her refuge in life, her only escape.

Until the day the very dead – sorry, ‘undead’ – man, a vampyre Tracker, turns up at her locker and flips her life upside down. She’s been ‘marked’. She’s now a ‘fledgling’ vampyre and, as such, has two choices: die, or move into the prestigious vampyre boarding school, House of Night, and possibly die anyways.

Informing her parents of her fate didn’t go so well and, feeling abandoned yet again, she heads to her Grandmother’s lavender farm for comfort. While there she falls and hits her head, during which she sees a vision of the goddess Nyx, beloved goddess of the vampyres. She tells Zoey that she has chosen her to be her eyes and ears in the new world she is about to enter.

Coming to, she finds herself at her new school, her new home. How well is she about to fit in a new school where she knows nothing about the students?


Do vampyres play chess? Were there vampyre dorks? How about Barbie-like vampyre cheerleaders? Did any vampyres play in the band? Were there vampyre Emos with their guy-wearing-girl’s-pants weirdness and those awful bangs that cover half their faces? Or were they all those freaky Goth kids who didn’t like to bathe much? Was I going to turn into a Goth kid? Or worse, an Emo? I didn’t particularly like wearing black, at least not exclusively, and I wasn’t feeling a sudden and unfortunate aversion to soap and water, nor did I have an obsessive desire to change my hairstyle and wear too much eyeliner. (3)


Things are made all the more difficult when Zoey realises that the mark indicating her new vampyre status indicates that of a fully-fledged vampyre, not of a fledging. She’s a freak amongst freaks.

Turns out that the House of Night isn’t all that unusual, however: dorms, cafeteria (oops, ‘dining hall’), weird teachers, dorks, cool kids… but if everything’s so ordinary, what is it that Zoey’s supposed to be keeping her eye on? and what is it that makes her so special?

I picked up P.C. and Kristen Cast’s Marked, the first in the House of Night series, as I was leaving the library last. They had a ‘If you like Twilight…’ display in the YA section and the cover looked interesting (tsk, tsk, cover picking). When I started reading it, the first couple pages repelled me instantly – it was full of teenage jargon, all gossipy friends and football boyfriends drinking on the back of a pick up truck. And then the vampire turned up, all imperial and old-world threatening in his speech and I started to gag. There was no way I was going to get through this book. Giving it the benefit of the doubt, however, I decided to keep going to the 50-page mark. Next time I looked up it was 3:30am and I was about 200 pages in. Wait? What just happened? Apparently I was hooked and I read it all in one sitting (well, lying, I was supposed to be asleep, after all).

Vampire books are all the rage at the moment, so when reading (yet another) one, I’m really on looking at three things: the writing, the characters, and something that makes it different.

Written by a mother/daughter team, the authors have created an attention-grabbing Twilight-meets-Harry Potter world. As the first book, Marked introduced an interesting – if somewhat clichéd – set of characters, and setting (the school) that should pave the way for the next few books. Their treatment of vampyres (spelling aside) had great potential – a genetic process bought on by the hormones found in a teen body, one that not everyone survives – but could have benefited from more than just a couple throwaway paragraphs. I hope they look into it further in the succeeding books.

All in all, Marked was a good FIRST book, it set up a lot for the series and left me wanting to read the next one. 3.5/5

Purchase Marked here.

Other Reviews
Have you written a review for this book? I would love to include it, comment below and I'll add your link!

Protect the Diamonds...

The Messenger

Markus Zusak

386 pages, published 2002

Protect the diamonds, surive the diamonds, dig deep through spades, feel the hearts... (tag line)

My full name's Ed Kennedy. I'm nineteen. I'm an under-age cab driver. I'm typical of many of the young men you see in this suburban outpost of a city - not a whole lot of prospects or possibility. That aside, I read more books than I should, and I'm decidely crap at sex and doing my taxes. Nice to meet you. (p. 6)

And so you are introduced to our narrator, Ed Kennedy who, as he points out, is the 'epitome of ordinary'. He lives in a poor town, the only one of four kids not to have moved to the city. He rents a fibro shack where he lives with his indescribably stinky dog, Doorman, with whom he has an almost psychic connection. His life consists of little more than work, his weekly card games and his 'nervous' unrequited love for his best friend, Audrey. What's more, he is quite aware that his life so far has amounted to nothing.

Until the day he inadvertantly stops a bank robber. Labelled a hero, he even gets his face in the paper ... and an unusual card in the mail: a playing card.

The ace of diamonds arrives with three addresses and little else. Deciding to see what this is all about, Ed investigates the addresses and the people who live there: an old woman, lonely and senile; a young girl, running barefoot every morning; and a husband who comes home drunk every night, forcing himself on his already broken wife to the cries of their small daughter ...

What is this? Why is Ed being targeted? And what is a no-hoper like him supposed to do about it? He can't just do nothing...

I really loved The Messenger. I picked it up because I had thoroughly enjoyed The Book Theif and, though I had little idea as to what Messenger was about, I had expected more of the same; I was wrong. While it still had Zusak's rich and unusual discriptions, it was also so much more humourous than I thought it would be.

"I said shut up back there!" the gunman shouts again.

"HURRY UP THEN!" Marv roars back at him. He's in no mood now. No mood at all.

He's face dowb on the floor of the bank.

The bank's being robbed.

It's abnormally hot for spring.

The air conditioning's broken down.

His car's just been insulted.

Old Marv's at the end of his tether, or his wit's end. Whatever you want to call it - he's got the shits something terrible. (p. 4/5)

You really feel for Ed; he's exactly what he's supposed to be (painfully ordinary) but at the end of the day he really has a good heart. I'd highly recommend it, a wonderful read. 4/5

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Gabrielle Zevin

288 pages, published 2007

In high school, no one knows who they are, right? Well in her book Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, Gabrielle Zevin takes this truism one step further. When Naomi Porter finds herself waking up in a hospital bed, stranger at her side, she truly has no idea how she got there - or who she is.

After the seventeen year old Naomi takes a tumble down the school stairs, she loses all her her memories after the age of twelve - she has no idea how old she is (though she "feels" older), doesn't know why her mother is not there to comfort her, and the boy sitting next to her bed - who on earth is he?

Thrown back into the dramas of high school, the usual teen identity crisis is made a little more difficult when Naomi has to relearn everything she's already struggled to attain. Suddenly her boyfriend isn't quite so appealing, her life-consuming work on the school yearbook a puzzle and, in a book that is "above all a love story", the question of love and loyalty a difficult one to answer. 4/5

Motherless Brooklyn
Jonathon Lethem
336 pages, published 1999


To be honest, I only found the story so-so – though I will be fair in admitting that I am not a great fan of detective novels. That being said, I would still recommend this book for it’s insights into the main character alone.

Set in the seventies, Lionel finds himself an oddity in an unkind world – a man suffering from Tourette’s before his condition has gained public knowledge. Told entirely from his perspective, the reader is exposed to the uncontrollable mind of the well meaning Lionel as he follows the clues to discover the killer of his boss and mentor.

Watching this poor man utterly incapable of maintaining control over the words he says or the manner in which he focuses his attention – and being filled with dread at the smallest things, knowing just how it will affect him - just makes one glad they are not put in such a position. 3/5

Death Takes an Apprentice

Mort (Discworld Novel 4)
Terry Pratchett
316 pages, published 1987

Terry Pratchett, a gangly-extra-elbowed boy, Death scaring away cats and lots of weird food. What more could you want from a novel? I’m very quickly becoming a proud Terry Pratchett addict – I really don’t know why I held out so long. I love any book where Death himself is a character, but I think that Terry Pratchett’s Death is coming to be my favourite (maybe he and the others I love can battle it out) and as such, this is my favourite Discworld novel to date.

In this book, Death (already established in the series by this stage) decides to take on an apprentice, so much of the story is about him, Mort, rather than Death. But occasionally we’ll see Death going off to the pub, trying out new and extraordinary food and generally scaring each and every cat that comes his way. 4/5