Cybils finalists are in!

Of all the Best Of lists, this one is my favorite. You'll see me in the Graphic Novels section. We had so much fun reading this eclectic mix of books, all of which were good and many of which we never would have heard of if we hadn't been on this panel. A fantastic experience all round.

http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/2010/01/2009-finalists-the-best-of-the-best.html

Thanks to all my fellow panelists!

Allen Mock Caldecott 2010 runoff

I don't know if you have any concept of my to-read shelf, but it was overflowing... and that was before I brought home three new bags of books to review for my 2nd grade annual Mock Caldecott. Egads!

I have a big double stack of 2009 picture books that have appeared on others' shortlists or have won other Mock C's this year. Since I don't seem to have the time or the wherewithal to sit down and review all these titles, here's a list of the books I'm looking at tonight. I'll post the culled list in a few days. If you have suggestions of anything to (eek) add, or subtract, please do post a comment.

In no particular order:

Only A Witch Can Fly - Alison McGhee

Tillie Lays an Egg - Terry Golson

The Composer is Dead - Lemony Snicket

The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau - Dan Yaccarino

The Lion and the Mouse - Jerry Pinckney

Hook - Ed Young

Robot Zot - Jon Scieszka

Boats Speeding! Sailing! Cruising! - Patricia Hubbell

Dinothesaurus - Douglas Florian

The Cuckoo’s Haiku - Michael J. Rosen

Mama Says - Rob D. Walker

I Need My Monster - Amanda Noll

One Beetle Too Many - Kathryn Lasky

Surprise Soup - Mary Ann Rodman

Dinosaur Woods - George McClements

14 Cows for America - Carmen Agra Deedy

Chicken Little - Rebecca Emberley

A Foot in the Mouth - ed by Paul B. Janeczko

Tortuga in Trouble - Ann Whitford Paul

Home on the Range - Deborah Hopkinson

Do Re Mi - Susan L Roth

Sleepsong - George Ella Lyon

The Song of Francis - Tomie de Paola

Willoughby and the Lion - Greg Foley

The Anne Frank Case - Susan Goldman Rubin

Just in Case - Yuyi Morales

All of Baby Nose to Toes - Victoria Adler

If Kisses Were Colors - Janet Lawler

Yuki and the One Thousand Carriers - Gloria Whelan

Redwoods - Jason Chin

Eleanor Quiet No More - Doreen Rappaport

Machines Go to Work - William Low

Moonshot - Brian Floca

A Chair for Always - Vera B. Williams

Honk, Honk, Goose! - April Pulley Sayre

Sweethearts of Rhythm - Marilyn Nelson

Mommy, Where Are You? - Leonid Gore

I’m Your Bus - Marilyn Singer

Billy Milly Short and Silly - Eve B. Feldman

Button Up! - Alice Schertle

Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem - Mac Barnett

Our Abe Lincoln - adapted by Jim Aylesworth

Living Sunlight - Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm

Written in Bone - Sally M. Walker

Marching For Freedom - Elizabeth Partridge

Thunder-Boomer! - Shutta Crum

The Sleepy Little Alphabet - Judy Sierra

What Can You Do With an Old Red Shoe? - Anna Alter

My Mom is Trying to Ruin My Life - Kate Feiffer

Open the Door to Liberty! - Anne Rockwell

Blueberry Girl - Neil Gaiman

Mystery Vine - Cathryn Falwell

Down Down Down - Steve Jenkins

Tell Me About Your Dragon - Jackie Morris

First Dog - J. Patrick Lewis

All the World - Liz Garton Scanlon

John Brown - John Hendrix

The Terrible Plop - Ursula Dubosarsky

Spot the Plot - J. Patrick Lewis

When Stella Was Very, Very Small - Marie Louise Gay

Waiting for Winter - Sebastian Meschenmoser

We Troubled the Waters - Ntozake Shange

Now that I've gone through them, I have a few sorted piles, but I have a bunch of reading to do before I decide for sure what goes where.

Nonfiction Monday: Honk, Honk, Goose!: Canada Geese Start A Family

Honk, Honk, Goose!: Canada Geese Start A Family by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Huy Voun Lee Ages 4-8 32 pages Henry Holt and Co., April 2009 978-0805071030

We have lots and lots and lots (did I mention lots?) of geese around here.  In mild weather, we sometimes run across six or seven or fifty in the pond, lawns, road and parking lots around our home.  Geese are, to put it mildly, pests.  They leave poop all over the lawn... and really, that's enough to label them as pests.  They are also pretty aggressive about protecting their admittedly cute babies.  So I was pleased to come across this nonfiction picture book about the darker side of geese.

The book is full of onomatopoetic expressions of daddy goose (er, gander) hissing and honking at all the dangers that threaten his young.  I can imagine my lively first graders enjoying making the noises right along with the story.  

I especially appreciated the way the illustrator clearly portrayed the goose family interacting with its environment, especially other wetland animals.  In a world of books with glorious Eyewitness white backgrounds, it's not always easy for children to infer context.  This book gave the geese a home.  I would use this as an introductory text when teaching about freshwater animals to older students, and ask them to identify some essential questions they might ask when researching their chosen animal or predator/prey pairs. 

Ivy liked the baby geese and the honking and hissing from the papa goose, and asked for it to be read again.  She wanted to know about the broken egg (would be fun to pair with Mini Grey's Egg Drop!).  We saw some parallels with one of her favorite board books, All My Little Ducklings by Monica Wellington -- another one done with cut paper, if I'm not mistaken.

Awesomeness: 6 - I felt like I was walking into a local wetland!

Wordsmithing: 6 - simple story and lyrical tone coupled with onomatopoeia make it perfect for large or small group sharing

Mesmerizitude: 5 - an enjoyable picture book

Illustrations: 6 - cut paper done well, with a simple and realistic color scheme

Factfulness (nonfiction): 6 - an introductory text about geese raising young, with a focus on the role of the father

Dragonbreath by Ursula Vernon and Happy Birthday Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel

Summaries from Amazon: "It’s not easy for Danny Dragonbreath to be the sole mythical creature in a school for reptiles and amphibians—especially because he can’t breathe fire like other dragons (as the school bully loves to remind him). But having a unique family comes in handy sometimes, like when his sea-serpent cousin takes Danny and his best iguana friend on a mindboggling underwater tour, complete with vomiting sea cucumbers and giant squid. It sure beats reading the encyclopedia to research his ocean report . . .Using a hybrid of comic-book panels and text, Ursula Vernon introduces an irresistible set of characters with a penchant for getting themselves into sticky situations. It’s perfect for both the classroom and the Wimpy Kid set."

"It's Bad Kitty's birthday, and you're invited! Bad Kitty's second illustrated novel is packed with deadpan humor, rich tidbits of cat information -- and even some suspense! Who took Kitty's presents? Why are Kitty's friends so bizzare? Readers will laugh out loud at Kitty's feline mood swings, and they'll be touched by the heartwarming visit from a surprise guest."

I can just see my third graders: "And I learned something, too!"  Both of these hybrid novels include lots of facts about their subject matter (ocean life and cats, respectively).  They're also both pretty funny, even to this jaded curmudgeon.  

Bad Kitty's format of the offscreen narrator having a conversation with BK was perfect for those reaction shots that kids love, complete with tongue hanging out of mouth and sproing-ing tail.  The book also contains plenty of gross smelly humor. There is truly inspired, footnoted commentary from Chatty Kitty.  And, BK manages to get through his entire birthday without once being nice to anyone... well, maybe one cat.  Add some facts on top, and you have a perfect reluctant reader sandwich.  

Dragonbreath is heavier on the text, with perhaps 1/3 of the story told in graphics and the rest in prose.  I think this book would have been equally successful as an illustrated chapter book, but of course I love the graphic novel components.  I really like the character interplay between Wendell and Danny; Wendell has the best one-liners.  I will enjoy seeing this one fly off the shelves as well.

Both books are super follow-ups to Wimpy Kid.  Enjoy!

The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang

Summary from Amazon: "From two masters of the graphic novel--Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese) and Derek Kirk Kim (Same Difference and Other Stories) come fantastical adventures through the worlds we live in and the worlds we create: the story of a prince who defeats his greatest enemy only to discover that maybe his world is not what it had seemed; the story of a frog who finds that just being a frog might be the way to go; and the story of a woman who receives an email from Prince Henry of Nigeria asking for a loan to help save his family. With vivid artwork and moving writing, Derek Kirk Kim and Gene Luen Yang test the boundaries between fantasy and reality, exploring the ways that the world of the imagination can affect real life."

Dang.  This one got me.  I guess I'm used to reading kids' books, which are inevitably predictable. This one had me guessing and marveling at every twist, of which there were several!  

I would say this is YA mostly because of the references younger students wouldn't get (Nigerian spam and genital prosthetics, for example), but it was refreshing to read a story with really nothing to be considered obscene.  Um, except for the genital prosthetics, but we never actually *see* those or anything... 

I am hooked and must go read more Yang!

I read this for the 2009 Cybils.

Awesomeness: 8.5 - this book exudes awesomeness!

Wordsmithing: 7 - clever and well plotted.

Personages: 7 - fascinating but not very likeable, though that is not necessary in short story land.

Mesmerizitude: 8 - it captured me.

Illustrations: 7 - three excellent stories in three excellent styles, all by one artist - very cool.  

Audiobook roundup

Here's what I've been listening to lately:

There's A Boy in the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar.  I will always have a special space in my heart for Sachar, filled with bottlecaps.  This is an old one I never read.  I guess I assumed it would be a comedy based on the cover.  Boy, was I wrong!  It's an insightful, multi-layered look at the life of a bully.  Not that there weren't funny bits, but really, I got choked up more than once.  

Powers by Ursula LeGuin.  Another author I'm fond of, and of course I knew I would love this one.   The depth of her world-building is truly fabulous.  I'm only a third of the way in, though, since it's quite long compared to the middle grade stuff I usually listen to.

The 100-Year-Old Secret by Tracy Barrett.  Now I have three art theft mysteries to recommend!  (Masterpiece and Chasing Vermeer - and its sequels - are the other two.)  This one is, unfortunately, about a fake artist, so it doesn't carry the same resonance as the other two books.  It's also written for a younger audience and there isn't such a sense of mortal peril for the investigators, but I still enjoyed it.

Nation by Terry Pratchett.  Not as laugh-out-loud funny as his Discworld series, but definitely full of Pratchett moments.  A great survival, clash-of-cultures story.  I really liked the reader.

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey.  I was hoping this would have aged more gracefully, but sadly, I barely cracked a smile.  I don't think I'll be recommending this one.

Amulet 1 & 2 by Kazu Kibuishi

Amulet 1 summary from Amazon: "After the tragic death of their father, Emily and Navin move with their mother to the home of her deceased great-grandfather, but the strange house proves to be dangerous. Before long, a sinister creature lures the kids' mom through a door in the basement. Em and Navin, desperate not to lose her, follow her into an underground world inhabited by demons, robots, and talking animals. Eventually, they enlist the help of a small mechanical rabbit named Miskit. Together with Miskit, they face the most terrifying monster of all, and Em finally has the chance to save someone she loves."

The most interesting part of this story is definitely Emily's relationship to the amulet.  Even in the midst of part 2, we still have little idea who or what the stone is.  I enjoyed watching her wrestle for control and dialogue with it, but she was a little too predictable and perfect in her response to the amulet's reaches for power.

This was a quick read with lovely graphics.  It reminded me of Bone in some ways, but was more cinematic, with a simpler story.  I can recommend it to my kids at school and know they'll enjoy it, but there's little beyond that. 

I read this as a nominated book for Cybils 2009. 

Awesomeness: 6 - points for a clean, sweeping fantasy story.

Wordsmithing: 5 - nothing too special here.

Personages: 6 - Miskit!

Mesmerizitude: 6 - eh, I'm vaguely interested in the way it comes out. 

Illustrations: 7 - this is my style of comic, but still only good enough