30-Day Book Challenge - Day 22

Day 22 - The Book That Made You Fall In Love With Reading


According to my parents, I loved being read to. Even as an infant. My father loves remembering how my eyes would be fixed on him as he read to me in my crib. And then as I got older - on those nights when he was tired and tried to skip a page, I'd be paying such careful attention that I'd know. So, I think I was born loving reading. However, one book that my father read to me really sticks out in my memory.

Wow! I can't even believe I found this photo of it on the webs! Reader's Digest World's Best Fairy Tales. It belonged to my grandfather and he either gave it to me, or I rooted it out of his basement. There were a bunch of Reader's Digest (which I thought said Reader's Diggiest. As in, I dig reading) down there and I used to just pick something out and keep it. Anyway, I'd frequently request that my father read to me out of this lovely collection. 

30-Day Book Challenge - Day 21

Day 21 - Favorite Book From Your Childhood

I didn't actually own this book until college, when my roommate purchased it for me based on me over-telling the story about how much I loved this book and how hard it was to actually get my hands on when I was a kid. Neither the school library nor the public library ever had it on hand - that's how popular it was. But, man - when I finally did get to take it out! What a treasure! There's something so pleasing about lifting the flaps and reading all of the correspondence between fairy-tale characters. 

Purchase Now from Amazon: The Jolly Postman

New York, Phew York is here!

Via Tim Probert:

"It's here! New York, Phew York has arrived.  I received my copies a few days ago and they look snazzy.  And they smell snazzier.If you're interested in getting a copy, you can find them here - http://www.scentsationalbooks.com/ Thanks again to everyone for their support on this project!"

30-Day Book Challenge - Day 04

Day 04 - A Guilty Pleasure Book


I've got a tag on Shelfari for these as well, but unfortunately - it seems I've only ever tagged Nancy Drew titles. I'm not even sure what to put for this one - being that I'm so incredibly snobby about what I read. Last year, I went on a celebrity-bio rampage - Chelsea Handler, Tina Fey and Michael Caine. Those were all guilty pleasure reads, but they were also necessary for that period of time in my life, when I couldn't concentrate on anything heavier.

So, I think I'll go with Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries. I've not read them all - but I've read most. And I think they're great - funny and incredibly well-written. 

Purchase Now from Amazon: Princess Diaries 10-copy Boxed Set

30-Day Book Challenge - Day 03

Day 03 - Your favorite series


This one hands down has to go to Harry Potter. Though there are several other series that I love - Narnia, LOTR, Song of Ice and Fire - nothing even comes close to the unhealthy obsession I (and many others!) have when it comes to these books.

Not only are they magically addictive - but they're well-written, thought provoking, works of art. And I'll continue to unabashedly read/listen to them over and over and over, until the day I die.

Purchase Now from Amazon: Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-7)

30-Day Book Challenge - Day 02

Day 02 - A Book You've Read More Than 3 Times


I actually have a tag on Shelfari for all of the books I've read 'over and over again'. The Harry Potter series probably comes in first place. I've lost count of the number of times I've read and/or listened to the books in their entirety. Jane Austen's works in their entirety are another set that I return to time and time again. However, I think the one book I'd most like to mention is The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi.

Purchase Now from Amazon: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

Maurice Sendak - An Awesome Dude

Maurice Sendak - children's book author and fabulous curmudgeon - passed today from complications after a recent stroke. I'm sure I join hundreds of other bloggers, thousands of other readers whose lives were touched by Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen - just to name a couple of his fantastically illustrated and mind-bending stories.

Some tidbits for those of us who'd like to spend the day remembering:

The first book Mr. Sendak ever illustrated, courtesy of Collecting Children's Books.
Maurice's Interview with Stephen Colbert. 

Top 100 Children's Books

From Where the Wild Things Are to Joseph Had a Little Overcoat - Children's Books Guide.com has a thorough list of the best picture books of all time. Great for building a library.


I've added all 100 books, plus the ones that almost made it, to the bookstore. Every single one except I'll Love You Forever, a book which I reserve the right to hate unconditionally.

New York, Phew York

Looks like this is getting closer and closer to its release. I'm VERY excited about this. Not only did I grow up with illustrator Tim Probert and always knew he would make a fabulous children's book illustrator - this book just seems so fun! It's all the good and bad smells of New York, from Pizza to Sewer Steam. Yum! 

Battle of the Kids Books - A Spectator's Commentary, The Finale

Comments: Surprise! Remember when I called this? Okay for Now is back in the game. And now... the final stand.

Judge: Jonathan Stroud

Review Excerpt from Okay for Now: "Enraptured by the art, Doug begins to draw himself out of a bad place...[he] learns, through art, to engage with life: it's a slow, dedcated commitment to embracing the pain as well as the joys."  

Review Excerpt from Life: An Exploded Diagram: "It's all rationing, resentment, religious mania, sexual repression. Luckily our guide, Clem Ackroyd, has an eye for the telling detail that renders everything bright like crystal." 

Review Excerpt from Between Shades of Gray: "Ruta Sepetys has passed the message on to us, sketching the incomprehensible in plain, clear lines. She shows us love, hope and tenderness flourishing in hell, and in doing so has created an unputdownable book." 

Comments: Well... all I'm going to say is... this didn't turn out at all like I thought. And even though I want to read all three of these book, I still think that Between Shades of Gray is the clear masterpiece. Okay, so I haven't read and I don't really know. But I KNOW! 

Want to know the winner? Visit the SLJ Battle blog to read the full review and feedback from the Commentor, kid reviewers and other readers! 

Battle of the Kids Books - A Spectator's Commentary, Week 3

Judge: E. Lockhart
Review Excerpt from Chime: "And so for me, the incredibly romantic ending of Chime had great strength, because it wasn't a fantasy of a bad man tamed - it was the fantasy of loving a deeply good man, and how healing that can be."
Review Excerpt from Daughter of Smoke and Bone: "A terrific read that took me to several worlds I didn't want to leave. It is full of innovatively creepy monsters. The heroine, blue-haired and covered in tattoos, is satisfyingly violent and smart-mouthed."

Comments: I loved this review, from start to finish. E. Lockhart seems to share my views about this genre - "I like my men reasonably but not terrifyingly handsome, funny, and nurturing rather than powerful and remote. I am not interested in danger as an aphrodisiac. It quite turns me off." AND - she managed to completely change my opinion on Chime. It's gone from a book that I didn't care to read to one that I think I might be interested in. 

Want to know the winner? Visit the SLJ Battle blog to read the full review and feedback from the Commentor, kid reviewers and other readers! 

Purchase Now from Amazon: Chime

Purchase Now from Amazon: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Judge: Jewell Parker Rhodes

Review Excerpt from Drawing from Memory: "A full-fledged imaginative assault. Part memoir, historical narrative, graphic novel, Say uses drawings, photographs, and prose to express his journey from young boy to master artist, and how he immigrated to America and learned to "write a story...in the language of the people who were bombing" Japan."

Review Excerpt from Inside Out & Back Again: "Stunningly, it's Lai's precise language and characterization, which creates emotional restraint and makes an unbearably sad story, readable. Tragedy becomes triumph and I want Ha to tell me her story all over again." 

Comments: This battle is precisely why I can't take a back seat anymore. I pledge, here and now, to get my hands on and read ALL of next year's contenders so that I can properly comment. All I did with this one was race to the end of the review to see who'd won (had my heart set on Inside Out & Back Again). Drawing from Memory could have been the one that deserved this win, but I won't know until I read it. And until then, I'll keep being sad that I didn't vote for Inside Out to come back Undead.
Want to know the winner? Visit the SLJ Battle blog to read the full review and feedback from the Commentor, kid reviewers and other readers! 

Purchase Now from Amazon: Drawing From Memory
Purchase Now from Amazon: Inside Out and Back Again

Judge: Chris Lynch

Review Excerpt from Life: An Exploded Diagram: "The history of modern Britain, as it pertained to the regular Joe and Joan of rural Norfolk, is delivered with precision, exquistely judged detail, and above all sly, delicious humor." 

Review Excerpt from Wonderstruck: "Reasonably enough, the pictures take more time to accumulate as narrative, but they steadily gain in power and wind up having at least as much impact as the words." 

Comments: Again, I raced to the end of the review to get a glimpse of who won. And again, it isn't fair for me to throw a tantrum about Life taking the lead just because all I had time for this year was Wonderstruck. Still, Selznick's work is so unique and so impactful - I do hope it gets a chance to come back from the dead.
Want to know the winner? Visit the SLJ Battle blog to read the full review and feedback from the Commentor, kid reviewers and other readers! 

Purchase Now from Amazon: Life: An Exploded Diagram
Purchase Now from Amazon: Wonderstruck

Round Three! 

Judge: Maggie Stiefvater

Review Excerpt from Between Shades of Gray: "...is about a collective power: how filling yourself up with personal identity can be armor against everything but death, which is only the most obvious of enemies." 

Review Excerpt from Chime: "... is a personal sort [of power]: showing just how much damage we can do to ourselves." 

Comments: Poor Chime. It never stood a chance in this one, did it? I wouldn't be surprised if Between Shades of Gray won this whole battle. CALLING IT RIGHT NOW! Between Shades of Gray for the WIN. (Also, I've never read Maggie Stiefvater, even though I have all of the books on my shelf. I need to get on that.)
Want to know the winner? Visit the SLJ Battle blog to read the full review and feedback from the Commentor, kid reviewers and other readers! 

Purchase Now from Amazon: Chime
Purchase Now from Amazon: Between Shades of Gray

Judge: Ron Koertge
Review Excerpt from Drawing from Memory: "...a real visual experience. But, man, as far as the story goes he is really reined in. How did he eat? Did he go shopping and cook for himself? was the only friend he had another cartoonist who worked for Noro Shinpei?"
Review Excerpt from Life: An Exploded Diagram: "'Clem's father works for Frankie's father, so when the two kids fall in love and meet secretly they're playing with fire. If they're discovered, Clem's father is out of a job and Clem will never see Frankie again.' I finish with this, "And that's all set against the Cuban Missile Crisis. So Clem and Frankie's world is liable to explode and so is the real world."

Comments: Man-o, was this review interesting or what? Ron Koertge writes his review as a conversation between himself and two friends at the Turf Club. How refreshing! I mean, it's no real fault of the judges that many of their reviews start exactly the same - they are given two tough to judge books to pick from based on their own opinions - but still, this was a nice change right at the end of things. I want to read this guys books

Want to know the winner? Visit the SLJ Battle blog to read the full review and feedback from the Commentor, kid reviewers and other readers! 

Purchase Now from Amazon: Life: An Exploded Diagram

Purchase Now from Amazon: Drawing From Memory


Additional Comments Before the End: Well, tomorrow a book comes back from the dead. While I'm hoping it'll be one of the ones I read - Wonderstruck or Inside Out & Back Again - I'm going to guess that it'll be Okay for Now. And I'm still sticking to my earlier call on the winner - Between Shades of Gray. Again - Undead tomorrow. Then the whole battle comes to a head on Monday, April 2nd.

Happy Hunger Games! er... I mean.... Let the Battle Rage On? 

Battle of the Kids Books - A Spectator's Commentary, Week 2

Judge: Barbara O'Connor

Review Excerpt from The Grand Plan to Fix Everything: "So there you have it. Fascinating and unique subject. Indefinable genre. Sometimes lyrical. Sometimes campy. A Bollywood movie theme woven through ribbons of unbelievable coincidences culminating in an all-star cast of a scene worthy of the best fillum."

Review Excerpt from Drawing from Memory: "I don't feel as if I read it at all. I feel as if I experienced it...And the experience felt personal, intimate, and casual, as if Say might whip out a napkin and draw a sketch while talking, or pull out a few paintings tucked lovingly in a box from long ago."

Comments: It was amazing - the change in the tone of the review from one book to another. I knew who was going to win before I even reached the bottom. Though O'Connor gives The Grand Plan to Fix Everything a favorable review, it really does seem as though she feels rather 'meh' about it. It's incredibly apparent (to me, anyway) once you hit her review for Drawing from Memory - a book you can immediately tell she loved completely. I'm definitely looking forward to reading Drawing from Memory. 

Want to know the winner? Visit the SLJ Battle blog to read the full review and feedback from the Commentor, kid reviewers and other readers! 

Purchase Now from Amazon: Drawing From Memory
Purchase Now from Amazon: The Grand Plan to Fix Everything

 


















Judge: Sarah Weeks
Review Excerpt from Heart and Soul: This book is a history not only of the Afican-American experience in our country, but of Mr. Nelson's family. Though [the] characters are not actually based on members of Mr. Nelson's family, we are told that the book was inspired by stories the author's relatives passed along to him. Aside from the masterful artwork, what sets this book apart from the traditional history books is the voice of the narrator whose folksy tone is woven throughout the text."
Review Excerpt from Inside Out & Back Again: "The choices the author makes as to which moments in this difficult journey to show, demonstrates what a truly gifted writer she is. Every word and every image is there for a reason."
Comments: When I saw that Inside Out & Back Again was going up against Kadir Nelson, I panicked. Mr. Nelson is an award-winning picture book author, and deservedly so! Still, I loved Inside Out and I desperately wanted it to win.
Want to know the winner? Visit the SLJ Battle blog to read the full review and feedback from the Commentor, kid reviewers and other readers!

Purchase Now from Amazon: Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans
Purchase Now from Amazon: Inside Out and Back Again

Judge: Lauren Myracle
Review Excerpt from A Monster Calls: "...Damn if Patrick Ness didn't surprise me in the end with how he pulled everything togheter. Huge weepy kudos for that, as the book's conclusion turned me inside-out, which - frankly- is exactly what I was hoping it would do."
Review Excerpt from Life: An Exploded Diagram: "I did not predict that Life would suck me in as hard and fast and with such slurpy ferocity as it did, especially not on the tail of Monster. and yet, it did. It blew me away in large part because of its characters (beautiful and quirky), its scope (epic), and its humor (both broad and sophisticated), but most of all because of the novel's tight, vibrant, crackling language."
Comments: Both of these sound fantastic! I'm sure this had to be a really hard pick for Lauren Myracle - it certainly sounds like it was. I've read more books than most people do in their lifetime, and so - I'm a sucker for the distinctly unique. The very well written. Both of these seem to be exactly that. So, I'm down.
Want to know the winner? Visit the SLJ Battle blog to read the full review and feedback from the Commentor, kid reviewers and other readers!

Purchase Now from Amazon: Life: An Exploded Diagram
Purchase Now from Amazon: A Monster Calls

Judge: Jeff Kinney
Review Excerpt from Okay For Now: "Fourteen-year-old Doug Swieteck's voice rings clear as a bell, and by the third page, I felt like I knew him. In some ways, Doug is your typical middle schooler. He can be sarcastic and he puts up a tough front for his peers and teachers, but it's easy to see through these defense mechanisms to the basic goodness right below the surface. It's Doug's vulnerability that makes him the most appealing."
Review Excerpt from Wonderstruck: "Wonderstruck is told in simple prose and charcoal drawings, but its emotional impact is visceral. It's not often that I'm moved by a book... that's what movies are for, after all... but Selznick has created a new medium and mastered it all at once. His book, in a word: "Wondrous.""

Comments: I just adore Jeff Kinney. Please, please go to the SLJ blog and read his full review. He writes so well... I wanted to quote the entire review. Anyway, I read and loved Wonderstruck so I was gunning for it to win. I even voted for it to come back in the Undead Round - I'm desperate for it to never go away. But Okay for Now sounds amazing as well. I'll have to add it to my ever-growing list.
Want to know the winner? Visit the SLJ Battle blog to read the full review and feedback from the Commentor, kid reviewers and other readers!

Purchase Now from Amazon: Okay for Now
Purchase Now from Amazon: Wonderstruck

Round Two! 



Judge: Marc Aaronson
Review Excerpt from Between Shades of Gray: "... a novel, based on considerable research, which adds an important and tragic true story to the shelves of literature for young readers. Its power comes from bringing to light what has too long been hidden: Stalin's use of the gulag to crush the artistic and intellectual flower of Lithuania."
Review Excerpt from Amelia Lost: "...makes use of an innovative narrative structure more conventionally employed in fiction to retell the familiar story of the adventurous life and mysterious disappearance of Amelia Earhart.
Comments: An interesting round because, as Marc notes - "We have fiction whose largest claim is nonfiction, and nonfiction whose power comes from its resemblance to fiction." Wow, it's getting harder to comment in Round Two! I've already noted that I want to read both of these books. They sound fantastic. And Marc Aaronson's review makes them seem all that much better. Even without reading, I harbored a secret desire for Between Shades of Gray. I'm going to have to buy/borrow that one and read it sooner rather than later. It sounds like the kind of book that can put all other books to shame.
Want to know the winner? Visit the SLJ Battle blog to read the full review and feedback from the Commentor, kid reviewers and other readers!

Purchase Now from Amazon: Between Shades of Gray
Purchase Now from Amazon: Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

Battle of the Kids Books - A Spectator's Commentary

Judge: Matt Phelan

Review Excerpt for Amelia Lost: "As I read the perfectly balanced alternating chapters detailing Amelia Earhart's life up to the last flight and the tense hours after she vanishes, I felt the book pulling me along, leading me on her journey and then placing me in the search." 

Review Excerpt for Anya's Ghost: "[Vera Brosgol's] drawing delivers everything you need to know, every beat, every mood. She doesn't merely draw, she acts with her brush. If that weren't enough (and in graphic novels, it actually isn't), Brosgol can write. Her dialogue is sharp and funny and is always in service of moving the story forward." 

Comments: Both of these books seem incredibly read-able to me. I wasn't so sure about Amelia Lost prior to this review though. I understand the importance of interactive books in today's reading climate - but do I, as an already avid reader that doesn't need to be tricked into it, need that? However, it seems like avoiding this book because of that would be like cutting off my nose to spite my face, or whatever that old saying is. 

Want to know the winner? Visit SLJ Battle Blog to read the full review, and feedback from the commentator, kid reviewer and other readers! 

Purchase Now from Amazon: Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
Purchase Now from Amazon: Anya's Ghost

Judge: Gayle Forman

Review Excerpt from Bootleg: "...so much of Blumenthal's lively and often-funny book is about how everyday folk skirted Prohibitions strictures and how hifalutin folk didn't have to (during the height of Prohibition, upstairs at the White House was lousy with whiskey). Rule-breaking and hypocrisy? A glossary that includes terms like blind pig? What's not to love?"

Review Excerpt from Between Shades of Gray: "...a harrowing, page-turner of a novel that shines a light on a piece of history too long shrouded in the darkness." 

Comments: I want to read both of these! I've got the adult non-fiction novel Last Call sitting in the TBR pile on my nightstand. Pairing it up with the YA Bootleg might be a great activity. And Between Shades of Gray is a no-brainer, isn't it? Go read the full review - it sounds utterly fantastic. 

Want to know the winner? Visit SLJ Battle Blog to read the full review, and feedback from the commentator, kid reviewer and other readers!  

Purchase Now from Amazon: Between Shades of Gray

Purchase Now from Amazon: Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition

Judge: Sy Montgomery

Review Excerpt from The Cheshire Cheese Cat: "Which is what brings [Skilley] to Ye Old Cheshire Cheese, a popular London inn frequented by, among other characters, Charles Dickens (who we learn from excerpts from his diary, is having a dickens of a time writing the first lines of A Tale of Two Cities.) Skilled parodies of his writing, scenes taken right out of Dickensian London, and even names taken from characters of his novels make The Cheshire Cheese Cat even more fun to read."

Review Excerpt from Chime: "But when we meet Briony, she is suffering a fate worse than death. She's drowning in guilt and self-loathing. She thinks she caused the flood that nearly destroyed her minister father's house. She believes she set fire to her family's library. She's sure she killed her beloved step-mother. Her self-imposed sentence for all these sins? A lifetime of caring for her screaming, damaged sister while remembering, always, to hate herself."

Comments: I have to admit that I had no inclination to pick these two up before I read the review and still have no inclination afterwards, through no fault of the reviewers. Perhaps I'm doing what no one is supposed to do and judging the books by their covers. But, I'm not a Dickens fan (I know, right?) and I'm not a fan of talking animals. And, I'm getting really tired of paranormal teen romance. Nothing about it gushes - unique! I've already read the ones I like and I'm ready to get out of this genre-rut. Maybe I just need some more convincing. 

Want to know the winner? Visit SLJ Battle Blog to read the full review, and feedback from the commentator, kid reviewer and other readers!   

Purchase Now from Amazon: Chime

Purchase Now from Amazon: The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale

Judge: Sara Zarr

Review Excerpt from Daughter of Smoke & Bone: "It's a book for lovers of lush language and exotic locales, a velvet sofa of a book, something you sink into. Karou is a compelling heroine and the stakes for her story are high."

Review Excerpt from Dead End in Norvelt: "The book has a lot of charm, true laugh-out-loud hilarity, and is full of enough historical detail and information to keep any teacher or librarian happy. And I'm sure boy readers especially appreciate the thorough descriptions of Jack's chronic nosebleeds and his dad's cool World War II stuff, not to mention how he manages to save a deer in one of the funniest scenes in the book."

Comments: Again, I'm kind of done with the paranormal teen romance, the star-crossed passionate, eyes met across a classroom love. And again, Daughter of Smoke & Bone, from this review, really doesn't scream UNIQUE at me. But Dead End in Norvelt sounds like a book I could really get behind. I'll have to add it to the list. 

Want to know the winner? Visit SLJ Battle Blog to read the full review, and feedback from the commentator, kid reviewer and other readers! 

Purchase Now from Amazon: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Purchase Now from Amazon: Dead End in

Inside Out & Back Again - Thanhha Lai

Rating: 5 stars


Written in prose, Inside Out & Back Again is the story of 10-year-old Kim Ha, who escapes Saigon during the Vietnam War and moves with her mother and her three brothers to Alabama. Ha poignantly describes a war-time Saigon - her home, filled with family, photographs and plenty of papaya - and a peace-time Alabama, where she is bullied by her American classmates just for being Vietnamese.

I'm not typically a fan of poetry and prose, but I found myself sucked into this almost immediately. The sights, smells, tastes, and colors of Saigon are vibrantly brought to life by this innocent and matter-of-fact 10 year old. And then to juxtapose that war torn city with Alabama - a place that is relatively safe yet strange and unwelcoming... it was so incredibly beautiful.

One of my favorite passages is from the Alabama section of the novel, in which Ha is trying to ask their American sponsor, whom she refers to as "Cowboy", if he has a horse:

"To make it worse,
the cowboy explains
horses here go
neigh, neigh, neigh,
not hee, hee, hee. 

No they don't.

Where am I?" 

It's so simple, that passage - but speaks volumes. And that is what Thanhha Lai is able to do throughout this wonderful book.

Purchase Now from Amazon: Inside Out and Back Again

Wonderstruck - Brian Selznick

Rating: 5 stars
Shelf: 2012 

Described as, "A Novel in Pictures and Words," Wonderstruck tells the story of Ben and Rose, two children living fifty years apart, yet both secretly wishing their lives were different. Ben's story is set in 1977 and is told in words. Ben journeys from Gunflint Lake, Minnesota to New York City after his mother's death in search of the father he never knew. Rose's story is set in 1927 and is interwoven with Ben's though illustration. She runs away from her home in Hoboken in search of a mysterious actress that she follows through film and magazines. How their stories eventually intertwine will definitely surprise you.

With this book and Selznick's other novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, I found myself wondering if I was taking anything away from the illustrated parts of the text, which contain illustrations only and no text except for that which fits in with the picture - street signs, ads, etc. The reader is left to gather what they can from the motions and expressions of the characters. It's a strange experience, to look and flip and hope you're absorbing the story the author hoped to tell. And then you turn a page - the next drawing is just a face - and you find yourself so moved there are tears in your eyes...

Brian Selznick's mixture of words and pictures certainly has an effect beyond what you would imagine. It is masterful and incredibly moving.


Purchase Now from Amazon: Wonderstruck

Jan Berenstain Passes Away at 88

Via Flavorwire:

Sad news for the many generations who grew up reading Berenstain Bears books: Jan Berenstain, who co-authored and illustrated the books with her husband, Stan, has died. The Associated Press reports that the 88-year-old Berenstain passed away Friday after suffering a stroke on Thursday. Her career spanned half a century and produced over 300 books that have been translated into 23 languages and sold over 260 million copies. 

Visit the Children's Bookstore to purchase some Berenstain favorites.

Battle of the Kids Books - 2012

It's that time of year again! Battle of the Kids' Books starts in just a couple weeks. Sadly, this year - I've not read any of them. Starting a career in academic publishing - while I love it - has really pulled me away from the world of kid lit. I didn't realize how much until right now. I think I at least have Wonderstruck on my shelf, I'll get that read before the games. 

Anything good that you've read on this list? 

A Sick & Scary Harry Potter Love?

I've mentioned before that I have Deathly Hallows on CD and that I listened to it in my car... probably 4 times in 2011. It may have also be 5 or 6 times. In the beginning, it was because I was doing a lot of travel between Long Island and Albany and I was getting bored with finding new radio stations in the mountain areas. And dealing with my old music CDs skipping because I don't have an AUX and don't feel like buying myself a new radio/iPod connector. Then, I listened to it some more because the morning shows in the Albany area are pretty... awful? Yes. Awful. Then, my friend gifted me Half-Blood Prince on audio and so, of course, I listened to both books back to back.

I took a break from the HP listening to listen to Christmas music. My HP obsession is pretty level with my Christmas obsession. But, now that Christmas is over.... Listen, I tried giving the Albany stations another chance. But I hate them all. The jockey's voices irritate me on what should be a soothing car ride. So now, I want to use the rest of my Christmas money to buy Order of the Phoenix and start again.

Is that... bad?

Purchase Now from Amazon: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Brian Selznick

Rating: 4 stars
Shelf:  Reading Now 

Absolutely incredible. A mixture of mediums/genres - YA lit, graphic novel and historical fiction - Brian Selznick weaves a wonderful tale using everything he has at his disposal. The result is a fast paced novel that pays with all of the reader's senses, and draws us in more quickly than any traditional book could.

Hugo is an orphaned and abandoned young boy, living within the walls of a train station in France, and maintaining the station's clocks. He works diligently to bring an automaton to life - one that his father had been attempting to fix prior to his death. It isn't until the day that he meets an old toy-store clerk,  his goddaughter and a mystery drawing is unveiled that the wheels and cogs of Hugo's life start to click into place.


Purchase Now from Amazon: The Invention of Hugo Cabret

New York, Phew York

I saw this first on the illustrator's, Tim Probert, blog. I always knew his art would lend itself well to a children's picture book and what could be more fun that a New York City Scratch & Sniff!? The Proberts are a family I've known since the first day of kindergarten, so you can understand my delight when I caught the book on Gothamist.

Congratulations, Tim!