Madigan Reads

Sunday, January 29, 2012

ALA Midwinter 2012 Recap

ALA Midwinter, hosted this year in Dallas, Texas, is always a quieter, tamer conference than ALA Annual, held in the summer. I had a great time - I did my graduate work at UT Austin, so returning to Texas was a great opportunity for me to reconnect with a lot of my friends and former colleagues in Texas. I've already talked about my reactions to the Newbery, Caldecott and Printz wins.

I took fairly detailed notes on the whole trip - but rather than giving a blow-by-blow account, I decided to try to boil things down to the bare essence.

I had a Texas breakfast!

Saw a bluegrass band, playing for the opening of the Exhibit Hall.

Here's a quick overview of books that caught my attention last weekend. Unless otherwise noted, they are available now.

PICTURE BOOK BIOGRAPHIES:
I liked the looks of these.

Charles Dickens: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life - Mick Manning, Brita Granstrom
Levi Strauss Gets a Bright Idea - Tony Johnston, Stacy Innerst
Martin de Porres: The Rose in the Desert - Gary D. Schmidt, David Diaz (due out in June 2012)
First Girl Scout: The Life of Juliette Gordon Low - Ginger Wadsworth (due out in February 2012)

MORE NON-FICTION:

Beetle Book - Steve Jenkins (due out in April 2012)
Gifts from the Gods - Lise Lunge-Larsen, Gareth Hinds
Don't Sit On the Baby!: The Ultimate Guide to Sane, Skilled, and Safe Babysitting - Hally Bondy (due out in June 2012)
Knitted Dinosaurs: Tina Barrett

INTERESTING PICTURE BOOKS:

Over and Under the Snow - Kate Messner
Extra Yarn - Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen
The Woods - Paul Hoppe
And Then It's Spring - Julie Fogliano, Erin Stead (due out in February 2012)
Otter and Odder - James Howe, Chris Raschka (due out in October 2012)
Virginia Wolf - Kyo Maclear, Isabelle Arsenault (due out in March 2012)

NEW MOUSE SERIES FROM KEVIN HENKES:
It looks to be at a beginning reader level. It's due out in February. The first one is called Penny and Her Song.

NEW FANCY NANCY SPIN-OFF:
It's a chapter book!

Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth - Jane O'Connor, Robin Preiss Glasser (due out in April 2012)

FLANAGAN FRENZY:

This was to promote a summer reading program tie-in for the Ranger's Apprentice series.

The best part of this conference was, of course, all the wonderful people I met. As always, I feel refreshed, rejuvenated and recharged after the conference - ready to tackle whatever comes next.

Next week, I'll post pics of all the swag I picked up!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Ed Emberley video

Discovered this great video of Ed Emberley the other day.
I love this guy!

Getting to know Ed

Ed Emberley, Children's Book Illustrator | by Ed Emberley

View this entire course and more in the lynda.com Online Training Library®.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

2012 Comment Challenge Round-up

Hurrah! It's MotherReader and Lee Wind's annual Comment Challenge! I've participated in years past and it's always fun... I feel like I'm a commenting champ these days, and it's hard to remember that I used to be so shy. I've always been impressed in year's past with folks who keep track of every comment during the challenge -- I decided to try and do the same this year. So, here's to enjoying book blogs old and new.

I started listing these, and the list just seemed unmanageable. So, to try to avoid a tragic case of tl;dr, I've divided this up (roughly) by categories.

The lovely sponsors of the 2012 Comment Challenge:

Some of my favorites. These are my "go to" blogs. Love you guys!

My new favorites! I've found some new people to follow.

The creators: writers, authors, poets, artists, illustrators, etc.

Teachers, educators, school media specialists and parents

Miscellaneous awesomeness

Librarians and booksellers, a.k.a. "my people"

Known and loved around the book blogosphere

Amazing reviewers

Booky bloggers

Itty Bitty Baby Bloggers (aka, Brand Spankin' New!)

Unpacking the Power of Picture Books

Altogether, that's 101 blogs commented on! It's actually a lot more than 101 comments... because for many of these blogs, I left more than one comment. It's been great, starting some interesting conversations with a lot of these bloggers. I say it all the time: sometimes I wish the Comment Challenge was year-round. It's definitely more effort, but like most things, you get out of it what you put into it, and I've taken the chance to "meet" some really cool people this go around. And hopefully, we'll continue keeping tabs on each other. So, don't be a stranger, and keep the comments (and conversations) flowing, throughout the rest of the year!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Waiting on Fever

Right from the get-go there are a few things about this book that don't make sense. But that doesn't matter, because I am still super excited about this series and I can't wait 'til the new one comes out!

Fever
by Lauren deStefano
Simon & Schuster

February 2012

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.

In the sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price - now that she has more to lose than ever.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

ALA Youth Media Awards 2012

ALA Midwinter in Dallas was a wonderful long weekend celebrating the core of what being a librarian is all about - books, books, books and more books!

Here are my thoughts and reflections on this year's big award winners.

The Newbery Award went to Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, with Newbery Honors going to Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai and Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin.

Once again, I failed to call it - I'd heard so much buzz about Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, I assumed that it would win. And I must shamefacedly admit, that I haven't read Dead End in Norvelt, either! I did read Inside Out & Back Again, and felt in my heart that it was a Newbery contender. Hurrah! I'm so happy to see it honored. I've never even heard of Breaking Stalin's Nose.

Even though I haven't read Dead End in Norvelt, I can tell it's the "right sort" of book. Heartrending stories about kids in tough situations are to the Newbery Committee what heroic, drawn-out movie death scenes are to the Oscar Committee, right? I feel like there's a balance between winning books with a girl protagonist vs. a boy protagonist and we were "about due" for a "boy book" so I wasn't surprised to hear it had won.

This quote concerns me: "Who knew obituaries and old lady death could be this funny and this tender?” said Newbery Medal Committee Chair Viki Ash." Wow - that sentence does not have me rushing out to read this book. That sounds like a downer, quite frankly. But, I have read Hole in My Life, Gantos' autobiography for kids, which I found riveting. It's a cautionary tale about how he got caught up in drug trafficking, got caught and how serving time in prison gave him a big wake-up call and a second-chance just when he needed it. He wisely left out a lot of details about the political scene in the '60's, making it a much more accessible book for teens today. Knowing that Dead End in Norvelt is also a highly autobiographical work leaves me more interested. Shockingly, my library's reserve lists have not filled up on this title. Are people just slow to hear about the Newbery this year? Or is this book failing to draw them in?

The Printz award went to Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley. I hadn't even heard of this one. I hadn't heard of two of the Honor books in this category either: The Returning by Christine Hinwood and the somewhat critically reviewed Australian import, Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey. I had heard good things about the other two Printz Honor books: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman and Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.

A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka is the Caldecott winner this year. I vaguely remember seeing it around, but I hadn't expected it to win big. Honors were given to Blackout by John Rocco, Grandpa Green by Lane Smith and Me... Jane by Patrick McDonnell. I've been a fan of John Rocco for years. I met him at a book talk he gave right after he wrote his first book, Wolf, Wolf! and have been rooting for him to win since then. Hoorah! I'm so happy he got the honor for this one. I think any book that celebrates less computer time and more face-to-face interactions is sure to hit a sentimental note for a lot of older readers who don't see their digital and their "real" lives as seamlessly interwoven as the younger generation does. Grandpa Green and Me... Jane are two picture books that I've been dying to get at my library, but as our budgets have dwindled, sadly, picture books are some of the "easiest" to cut, since not having them doesn't provoke as much outcry as not having ample copies of adult New York Times bestsellers titles, for example. Now that they've both won Honors, hopefully, I'll find it easier to lobby for their purchase!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Mysterious Howling review

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling
by Maryrose Wood
Harper Collins
March 2010

This humorous take on orphans and their patient governess invites comparisons to Lemony Snicket, especially for its tongue-in-cheek style. 15 year-old Penelope Lumley, a graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, is pleased and surprised when she quickly and easily lands a job caring for three children raised by wolves, now the wards of Lord Frederick and Lady Constance Ashton. Lord Frederick hardly seems the fatherly type, neglecting even to name the children until pressed to do so. Barely more than a child herself, Penelope longs to prove herself a competent governess to "three clever pupils who both fear and adore me."

Maryrose Wood is an American author, but the feel of this book is decidedly British. Miss Lumley certainly owes a heavy debt to that other unflappable English nanny, Mary Poppins. My favorite scenes in the book are when Miss Lumley attempts to rally the children, Cassiopeia, Alexander and Beowulf, with proper lessons on Latin, History, and other fine subjects, and despite their unnerving animal-like behavior and obsession with chasing squirrels, she manages to carry on with determination and aplomb. The children have a habit of making wooo-ish howling noises which Miss Lumley comes to find rather endearing. The omniscient narrator presents the tale in equal measures of silliness and perfect propriety -- despite the cliffhanger ending, this is sure to be a welcome addition to any collection.

Compare to:
A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snickey
Mary Poppins - P.L. Travers
The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart
Enola Holmes Mysteries - Nancy Springer
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Joan Aiken

I borrowed this book from the library.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Inside Out review

Inside Out
by Maria V. Snyder
Harlequin
April 2010

In a dystopian future, Trella is a "scrub" responsible for cleaning and maintaining the pipes that service the "uppers" or higher castes. Everyone lives in a building only known as "Inside" - there are rumors of an "Outside" but no one's seen it in their lifetime. As a reader, you know that there are one of two possibilities: either they are underground, or in a spaceship. My money was on spaceship, pretty quickly on. Time is referenced to only in weeks, which gives everything a pleasantly alien feel - the characters refer to themselves as "x" weeks old, and seem to use the phrase "a hundred weeks" the way we'd refer to something as "a year or two." They speak about "one million weeks" the way we might say, "an eternity" and it's a commonly held belief that they'll find the way Outside when the clock reaches one million weeks. Children are raised in creches by their Care Mothers until they graduate to a job assignment. Overcrowding is a real problem on the lower levels, yet the "Pop Cops" still inexplicably test everyone to ensure that no one is making use of birth control. Failure to obey results in being fed to "Chomper" a.k.a. the ship's recycling system.

Cover thoughts: My copy had the original cover, a girl peeling through what looks like paper, which I wasn't terribly fond of. I'm not sure if the new cover is for the paperback, but I think it's a big improvement.

The story was a slow build-up to what for me was the super-obvious "reveal" of the novel. But I did like the character of Tris. She's petite, and not at all girly. She's a bit aloof from the other scrubs, hence her nickname, "Queen of the Pipes." Cogon, another one of the scrub workers, seems almost like a father figure to her. He arranges for her and her childhood friend Logan to meet with Domotor, a wheelchair-bound prophet looking for the Gateway which he believes will take them Outside. There is the mildest hint of romantic interest, when she meets Riley, one of the uppers who secretly agrees to help her search for plans to Gateway, which they hope will take them Outside. If this book was skewed for just a little older, I'd say we have the beginnings of a Trella/Logan/Riley love triangle, but that situation doesn't appear to rear its ugly head here. I'll recommend this for middle-grade readers and young teens.

I borrowed this book from the library.