Tag: book review wednesday

Busy Writer/Mom/Triathlete Links on Life

Oh goodness. It has been over a month, a month? since I’ve posted and I’m so sorry. That means I’ve done NO book review Wednesdays for a month. Ack. (And I thought those would keep me blogging.) March has been a month of deadlines and to excuse my absence I quickly fill you in on some of the deadlines that I’ve been meeting and working towards. If you follow me on Facebook, you’ve probably see a lot of this already so my apologies.

March 1: Final illustrations for the book Fufu and Fresh Strawberries You can see some of those illustrations here.
Forum assignment for my Picture Book Certification Semester at Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA)

March 15: Final egg paintings for the Great Goose Egg Auction. You can see the eggs here.

March 17: My 2nd packet was due for VCFA

March 22: Forum assignment for my Picture Book Certification Semester at VCFA

March 23: I did my first multisport event. An indoor triathlon at the Naval Air Station Brunswick. The event was a 1000 meter row on an ergometer, a 5 mile bike on a stationary lifefitness cycle, and a 1.5 mile treadmill run. You can see pictures of me and Mike (the gentleman paired with me)  in the event and read more about it in the captions here. I used this indoor triathlon to train for an event that I am doing in May, The Tri for the Casco Bay Y. If you’d like to donate a small bit to the scholarship funds and to my team the MIghty Mamas, please take a look at our fund raising page where you can donate online. I’ll be swimming and cycling and my friend Rachel will tag off to do the 5K run.

This past week I’ve been revising and polishing the first 10 pages of my novel, working on the synopsis and query letter for the deadlines associated with the New England SCBWI spring conference critiques and quick queries. While the Friday and Saturday registration is full, there are still spots for Sunday so check it out.

I also just got back from the post office, where I was sending a picture book to for the April 1st scholarship deadline at VCFA and a trip to the library where I was stocking up with a new load of 25 picture books for VCFA Packet 3!

All of this with my husband out of state for the first three weeks of March and two kids who need me.

So you see, I’ve been an extremely busy Writer/Mom/Triathlete but we’ll see if April, with its extended sunshine hours, allows me to find more time to blog. Happy Passover to all who celebrate. Look for my Wednesday review of the book: The Matzoh That Papa Brought Home.


Shop Indie Bookstores

Book Review Wednesday: Picture Book Biographies 2

This is the second installment of a book review and discussion of picture book biographies. The first one is here, if you’d like to read it or I can just catch you up. Because PB biographies are so short, it is my opinion there needs to be a focus on language, and story over biographical information. Last week I talked about the hook and through line in the Joseph Albers book An Eye for Color, as well as the wonderful language in Susannah Reich’s José! Born to Dance. Today I’m going to discuss voice, and how illustrations can be used to create character.


Shop Indie Bookstores

We start with Lita Judge’s, Yellowstone Moran: Painting the American West. In the interest of full disclosure, I need to say that Lita is a dear friend but don’t let your knowledge of that fact minimize the sincerity of my praise.

An author writing a picture book biography has to, as any picture book author, leave space for the illustrator to add to the story telling. Lita is an author/illustrator so the evolution of her pictures and text happen in a more streamlined and dynamic way. Throughout the revisions, new art might change the text, new text might change the art.

In this book, the art is a key part of the characterization of Tom “Yellowstone” Moran. Moran was an artist who set up his easel in the wilds of the American West. Lita is also a plein air painter. Plein air painters paint outside catching the light and colors of the landscape moment by moment. Lita brings this skill to the book. Sweeping canyon and mountain panoramas are interspersed with framed inset spot illustrations. What does this have to do with PB biographies?

Lita’s paintings create character. Not only by what they portray but also by how she portrays the landscape. The reader understands the humility, dedication, and sense of mission in Tom Moran by the way the natural world is depicted. The text confirms this. The reader learns how Tom took a chance by leaving Philadelphia and coming out to join a scientific party with only a letter of recommendation. How he presses on through the pain of riding a horse for the first time, camping in difficult conditions, and forging new trails. Each of the inset illustration is a window into a more intimate aspect of Moran’s character. They let the reader glimpse his sketchbook, as well as quiet or difficult moments for the title character.

At the end of the book, the reader gets to see the actual 1872, Thomas Moran oil painting of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  The grandeur of the landscape literally dwarfs humankind, as Moran has included tiny figures in the foreground.

Many author’s notes in PB biographies give more facts and dates that the author couldn’t fit into the text. Lita’s author/illustrator notes relay more of her research process and personal connection to the story.


Shop Indie Bookstores

Jonah Winter is the author of many PB biographies and is so prolific that if you have an idea for a manuscript, you should check his list of titles first. His 2008 releases include books about Barack Obama, Roberto Clemente, and Muhammad Ali. In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor and the book I’m going to talk about today, You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!

The voice of Winter’s narrator for this book is chummy and knowledgeable. He quotes players and gives the reader a VIP view from the dugout. While the narrator is never identified, he seems like the crusty old guy you happen to sit next to in the cheap seats one day, the guy who keeps score of the hits, runs, and plays. Once you buy him a hot dog, he starts to tell you about how it was back in the day when he used to play as a Dodger.

The voice is so easy to listen to, the crusty old player is such a good storyteller, that the child listener/reader doesn’t even realize how long the guy has been talking. For those writers who obsess over word count, remember that first an foremost it is the author’s job to tell a good story. Winter packs the book with information from Koufax’s beginnings as an athletic teenager, to his Dodger debut, to how he sat out the World Series game that conflicted with Yom Kippur, to his surprise retirement. More information, in the form of baseball stats, peppers the pages of the book and give the info-loving kid plenty to read and memorize. A glossary of baseball terms finishes the book. The important thing here is that the voice Winter creates allows the reader to focus on story and take away those facts that seep in naturally.

If my voice sounds a little academic this week, it is because a lot of the text from the two blogs will be in my critical essay about Picture Book Biographies. Here’s a quick list of the books I’ve talked about and a few others that you may want to check out.

 ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL
{"uncited":{"12509":true,"7108":true,"268":true,"12092":true,"14401":true,"11576":true,"5197":true,"7925":true,"376":true,"5770":true,"14867":true}}
Bryant, Jennifer. A river of words : the story of William Carlos Williams. Grand Rapids  Mich.: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2008. Print.

Judge, Lita. Yellowstone Moran : painting the American West. New York  N.Y.: Viking, 2009. Print.

Reich, Susanna. Jose! Born to Dance: The Story of Jose Limon (Tomas Rivera Mexican-American Children’s Book Award. Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2005. Print.

Wing, Natasha. An eye for color : the story of Josef Albers. 1st ed. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2009. Print.

Winter, Jonah. Barack. Katherine Tegen Books, 2008. Print.

—. Dizzy. 1st ed. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2006. Print.

—. Frida. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2002. Print.

—. Muhammad Ali: Champion of the World. Schwartz & Wade, 2008. Print.

—. Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Atheneum, 2008. Print.

—. Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx / La juez que crecio en el Bronx. Bilingual. Atheneum, 2009. Print.

—. You never heard of Sandy Koufax?! 1st ed. New York  N.Y.: Schwartz & Wade Books, 2009. Print.

Book Review Wednesday: Picture Book Biographies Part 1

Thanks to those of you who have been nudging me to post on my blog again. Since there have been NO Book Review Wednesday’s for about a month, it is high time I get back to work. Get ready for a quick discussion of picture book biographies.

I’ve been immersed in PB biographies recently as I am working on one myself. I find that the most effective writing in this genre comes from authors who remember the importance of story and language without getting caught up in trying to relay too many facts. Thirty-two pages is not a lot of space. The author of a PB biography has to narrow her focus and find a logical and kid friendly entry point into the life she wishes to relate. In the two books below, the text is relatively simple but each book contains author’s notes or historical notes to tell the reader (or teacher or parent) more.

 


Shop Indie Bookstores

First up is An Eye for Color: The story of Josef Albers. Josef Albers was an artist and designer who studied with the Bauhaus school in Germany until the Nazis closed it. Albers moved to the US and taught at Black Mountain College near Asheville, NC and then Yale. His study of color interaction using large squares of color is taught in every modern color theory class. As a child, the author, Natasha Wing, was Albers’ neighbor.  

The text for An Eye for Color gives the reader a theme for Albers life and the hook for every kid on the first page of the book, “Josef Albers saw art in the simplest things.” The rest of the book explores some these things: doors, collages made from junkyard finds, artistic accidents, and finally the squares of color that became his life’s work. The illustrator, Julia Breckenreid, takes on a large part of the storytelling responsibility by conveying the work of Albers through her illustrations. Her use of large fields of color in various geometric shapes effectively demonstrates Albers’ theories on the interaction of colors and mimics his paintings. 


Shop Indie Bookstores

In José! Born to Dance, Susanna Reich uses lively, lyrical, rhythmic language that mimics Limon’s dance technique. Reich builds character by weaving Spanish phrases and words into the text. (A glossary appears in the front matter of the book but really the context of most phrases makes the Spanish understandable.)

Reich hooks the child reader by starting the story with 15 pages about Limon’s childhood. Instead of focusing on historic events that might seem dry to a child, Reich magnifies the feelings associated with the events: the happiness and energy of José’s dancing birth in Mexico, his quiet visits with his grandmother, experiencing new things such as theater, being scared during a bullfight, feeling left out as a new kid in America, and his feeling of inadequacy as an art student in Manhattan. Every child can relate to José’s feelings even if the events of his life are foreign. The event that changes José from an aspiring artist to an aspiring dancer takes place only four spreads from the end of the book.  Here, Reich still focuses on the emotion, José’s exuberance at finally finding the thing he was born to do.

I was wowed by the texture in the watercolor and color pencil drawings by illustrator Raul Colon. His color choices magnify the emotion in the Reich’s language.

I have a many other wonderful PB biography examples. Next week I’ll look at Yellowstone Moran: Painting the American West by Lita Judge and You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?! by Jonah Winter and André Carrilho. If you can’t wait until then, check out this archived post about Caldecott Honor winning A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams.

Creation

When one is creative, one must create. There are certain ducks that need to be in a row before the creation can begin. If you carefully follow my list of artistic preparation below, and you might be an award winning procrastinator artist. (Someday, I might too.)

Make sure your children are asleep. (They are bound to wake up as soon as you complete the list so don’t have high expectations.)
Let the dog out.
Let the dog in.
Feed the dog
Get dressed in your comfy creative clothes: Overalls (Mine are paint spattered with so many holes that one leg is almost severed.)
My overalls are paint spattered and have many more holes.
Comfy socks. (These are the ones I got for Chanukah.)

Something to hold your hair back (if you have hair). I like the Rosie the Riveter bandana look.

And you’ll need an apron.

Check your email.
Check your friend’s blogs.
Uh. Oh. What did I tell you? Now the kids are up and wanting breakfast. Maybe I’ll create something tomorrow.
"Book Review Wednesday" returns on January 6th! Happy Holidays.

Book Review Wednesday: Silly Tilly


Shop Indie Bookstores

Spinelli, Eileen, and David Slonim. Silly Tilly. Tarrytown, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish Children, 2009.

On my trip to New York for the Jewish Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference day at the 92nd Street Y, I met with the Marshall Cavendish art director. She was lovely, enjoyed my illustrations (hooray), and brought some wonderful Marshall Cavendish books to give away. Luckily, I ended up with Silly Tilly.

Eileen Spinelli is a hero and mentor in my journey to publication. When I met her and asked how she was able to find her own writing time while raising her children and supporting her husband’s writing career she explained, "It’s all about writing in the cracks." This has become my mantra and I often look for the cracks in my day when I can fit in a poem or a sketch or even a group of words that come to me. (Sorry, this was suppose to be about Eileen and not me.)

Nevertheless, Eileen has written a silly rhyme, a "daffy-down-and-dilly" rhyme about a goose named Tilly. (A silly goose, get it?) Silly Tilly brings fun and laughter to her farmyard with the silly things she likes to do. Silly Tilly takes baths in apple juice, wears a pancake on her head, tickles frogs and combs her feathers with a rake. When her farm mates get sick of her tomfoolery, they forbid her from any more silly stuff. Until, of course, they realize that the farm is "dullsvile" without her.

I bet right about now you are thinking of a silly toddler who would just crack up about Tilly’s silly antics. Trust me, if that toddler saw David Slonim’s acrylic paintings of Tilly soaking her feet in mayonnaise or sledding downhill on cookie trays they’d have giggles that just wouldn’t quit. Slonim layers his colors creating wonderful cool color shadows and warm highlights. He keeps his work gestural by outlining in pen and pencil.

If you have a silly goose 3-6 year old on your holiday list, check out Silly Tilly.

Five on Friday

1. I know it’s been a while since I just blogged for the pleasure of blogging. I miss it. I really do. Life has been quite hectic recently. I’m sure a few of you are going through the experience of having a spouse who works far away so that they can have a job. This is our situation. We have gotten use to the good-byes, the hello’s are getting a little easier too. Hubby has been a total trooper doing the "bag drag." He really has two jobs. One with a private defense contractor company and the other in the Navy Reserves. I was very proud to attend his Change of Command ceremony last weekend. It’s rare that we get to see our spouses in action (at work). It was lovely to see him in uniform, carrying himself with such grace and exuding leadership. His speeches were eloquent, funny, and well delivered. What a treat! Here we are with his Chief Petty Officer.

The week leading up to this was crazy. The brakes in the trucks failed while I was driving (we are all fine) and I had to do the mechanic thing. The next day, I locked my sweet puppy and my keys in the car. Huge thank you to the lady who used her AAA to save me and the Dad of I’s classmate who drove my son to basketball practice. The next day, to travel to the Change of Command, my Hubby rented us a car from Enterprise. I showed up at 12:10 not knowing that they closed at noon. Needless to say, there were tears. But all was well.

2. I’ve completed a full draft of my novel. I missed the JONOWRIMO check in, but happy to have reached this milestone. Of course, now I turn around and start to revise: put in, take out, look for emotional distance, inconsistencies, character arc, adult word choice. Someday. Someday.

3. I turn in Packet Five today. This is my last packet for the first semester of my Vermont College experience. It’s been– I don’t really know– arduous? time consuming? enlightening? I can certainly say that I am able to look at my work with a more critical eye than before this semester. I write and read all the time. I read more critically than I did before. My critical writing has improved markedly. In my creative work, there is no time for excuses. (Although here I am at 6:30 am blogging, without my last critical essay complete and the packet due today.) I’m really looking forward to being at the residency again. Seeing my cohort group and getting the workshop pages from others to critique. I’ll be doing the Picture Book certificate and I’m really looking forward to working with Sarah Ellis and Kathi Appelt. (Time to look for a back support cushion.)

4. My puppy is growing quickly and needs LOTS of love and attention. When Hubby came home Monday (after a week away), I grabbed my computer and books and said, "You are in charge here at home. I’m going to the library." Yesterday he asked me, did I notice that it’s really hard to get anything done with the puppy wanting to play all the time? Um….yes.

5. I’m afraid that I failed to post Book Review Wednesday this week. I’m sorry. It’s just been too crazy here. I have three authors out there waiting for their reviews and I promise I’ll do them over the next few weeks. The new year is coming quickly, if you have a 2010 release and would like to send me a review copy, leave a comment with your email (spell it out so the spambots don’t get you.)

Book Review Wednesday: My Uncle Emily


Shop Indie Bookstores

The spirit of poetry past comes shining through in My Uncle Emily, a 2009 release from Jane Yolen. We can always depend on Ms. Yolen to deliver a wonderfully crafted story. This one is stellar in its use of lyrical prose to capture the tone of Emily Dickinson’s poetry and time period.

Emily Dickinson’s nephew, Gilbert, is the child friendly entry point to Ms. Dickinson’s poetry. Gilbert wonders about the symbols in his "Uncle Emily’s" poetry. Gilbert must share her poetry with his class, but he is afraid the other students won’t like or understand it either. When he finally learns to decode her ideas he lights up, "like a lamp."

My Uncle Emily, has clear themes of honesty and peaceful resolution of conflict but none of them are preachy or heavy handed. The actions and reactions of the characters are true to the story and true to life. In fact, Ms. Yolen ends the book with a piece entitled, "What’s True About This Story."

Patti Lee Gauch of Philomel is the editor for this beautifully designed book. It is not often that the editor is cited in the front matter. However, Ms. Gauch is well known for her editorial achievements and her own use of lyrical prose in Thunder At Gettysburg one of the first "novels in verse."

Nancy Carpenter, a two time recipient of the Christoper Award, illustrates the book with pen and ink and digital media. The effect is of colorful engravings which perfectly fit the Amherst, Massachusettes setting circa 1881. I was especially enthalled by Ms. Carpenter’s use of negative space which frames the illustrations and focuses the reader’s attention to particular details. Her lovely muted palette, the patterning and texture, and her gestural line capture the costume, light and formality of the period.

Ms. Yolen’s book delightfully treats modern children to the spirit of poets past.

Book Review Wednesday: Bug Boy


Shop Indie Bookstores

Normal
0
0
1
245
1401
11
2
1720
11.1282

0

0
0

Luper, Eric. Bug Boy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009.

The crafts people and artists who make up my circle of friends amaze me. I feel lucky and proud to have Eric Luper in this circle. I know that I said I would only review picture books and books for middle grade audiences. I know. But I just finished Eric Luper’s, Bug Boy (which is a Young Adult book) and I couldn’t put it down.

What’s really wonderful about this book is how Eric works the plot arch. First the reader learns to love the protagonist Jack Walsh, a shabby horse exerciser and stable cleaner. He makes Jack’s desires crystal clear and provides the main character with enough know how, personality, and drive to get the job done. The reader routes for Jack 100%.

Next, Eric immerses the reader in the horse racing culture of Saratoga Springs in 1934. From architecture to wardrobe, racing strategy to jockey speak, the historic and racing details are amazing. The reader can hear the sounds of the track: skirts rustling, hooves pounding, bookies gambling– cigar smoke mixes with whiskey and horse manure. Lovely!

Finally, Eric ratchets up the tension by inserting well-placed obstacles for our hero. The obstacles are physical, psychological, and ethical and force Jack Walsh to make grown up decisions. As the tension mounts (get it, mounts), Eric reveals back story as smoothly as a spider exudes her webbing until he catches the reader on the edge of her seat. At one point of the story, I actually said aloud, “Oh no she didn’t.”

While the book is written for Young Adults I highly recommend it for adults as well. If this book isn’t optioned for a movie in the next few years, I’ll eat my riding helmet.

Book Review Wednesday: Soap, Soap, Soap


Shop Indie Bookstores

Dulemba, Elizabeth O. Soap, soap, soap = Jabón, jabón, jabón. McHenry, IL: Raven Tree Press, 2009.

Normal
0
0
1
349
1994
16
3
2448
11.1282

0

0
0

 

Soap, Soap, Soap, tells the story of Hugo and his trip to fetch soap for his mother from the market. The only problem is that Hugo keeps forgetting what he is supposed to purchase. Soap, Soap, Soap (Jabon, Jabon, Jabon) is Elizabeth’s first picture book as both the author and the illustrator. Raven Tree Press publishes the book in an English only and a Bilingual English/Spanish edition.

 

I enjoyed the bilingual addition very much and was pleased with how seamlessly the Spanish vocabulary (printed in red) was included in the text. I was actually hoping for more Spanish, perhaps a side by side translation and wonder what the editorial decisions were surrounding this issue.

 

I had a great time following the main character as he tried to accomplish his mother’s task through Elizabeth’s wavy, whimsical town, but I had a hard time believing that the main character would loose his train of thought so quickly. How could someone be so forgetful? However, this past week I have misplaced my keys, and my cell phone, forgotten an oil delivery, and left my wash to mildew for three days. I also had to have my own kiddo repeat, “Get dressed, collect my laundry,” three times this morning. And he still needed to be sent back upstairs to get pants. Hugo’s journey seems more believable now.

 

Elizabeth Dulemba’s digital illustrations have appeared in trade and educational titles and the SCBWI national bulletin. In Soap, Soap, Soap, Elizabeth creates a wonderful array of diverse and true-to-life characters. Hugo and his friend, Jellybean Jones, are especially animated. I love their expressions as they navigate the mud puddle (charco de barro.) Elizabeth uses her character’s body positions (angle, arm position, and visual balance) to convey their inquisitive attitude wonderfully. Perhaps my favorite image is of Hugo on the back cover hanging on the clothesline after his bath. His body is delightfully relaxed and shows so much movement. Kudos to the designer, I love the details in this book: the text design, the endpapers, the soap bars on the pagination.

 

Elizabeth is well well known on the blog circuit. She has designed cyber-school "Virtual Visits" so that schools with smaller travel budgets can access guest speakers. Parents and teachers can take advantage of her extensive activities and coloring pages also available on her website and the Raven Tree site.

 

Whatever you do, make sure that Soap, Soap, Soap is on your holiday shopping list. Don’t forget!