Spaceheadz review

Spaceheadz
by Jon Scieszka and Francesco Sedita, illustrated by Shane Prigmore
Simon & Schuster
June 2010

First line: "Michael K. knew his first day in a new school in a new city was going to be weird."

Scieszka is in rare form, with this fast-paced, humorous, science-fiction, middle-grade adventure. Newbie fifth-grader Michael K. gets stuck with the task of showing two other new kids, Bob and Jennifer, the ropes in Mrs. Halley's classroom.  He quickly realizes that they are both out-of-this world... literally, from another planet.  The only information that Jennifer, Bob and their hamster leader, Major Fluffy, have about planet Earth is from television commercials, beamed into space.  Media-savvy readers will recognize many of the catchphrases and slogans that Bob and Jennifer employ in their conversation.

The kids manage to stay one step ahead of bumbling Agent Umber of the Anti-Alien Agency despite his phalanx of super-spy gadgets, including the Pickle Phone, a box of cereal that turns into a laptop computer and a giant taco disguise.

Some of the best story content is featured on accompanying websites, full of Easter eggs and additional jokes and information, including www.mrshalleyscomets.com. This website is a brilliant send-up of many teachers' poorly designed efforts, complete with plenty of clashing colors, busy patterns, flashing extras, Comic Sans font and cheery "inspirational" quotes.  Agent Umber's somewhat official looking "government" website www.antialienagency.com has most links leading to an ominous pop-up reading, "Access Denied. You do not have sufficient security clearance to view this page."  However, some careful poking around will lead to case file reports of The Fried Santa Incident, and a rather silly set of highly bureaucratic forms, including Shoe Replacement and Suit Pocket Addition Forms. Plenty of varying fonts throughout the book are sure to grab readers attention.

Compare to:
Fat Men from Space - Daniel Pinkwater
The Day my Butt Went Psycho - Andy Griffith
Dragonbreath - Ursula Vernon
Take the Mummy and Run: The Riot Brothers are on a Roll - Mary Amato

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Bookish Links du Jour 1/8/15

Hurrah - Jane Austen themed nail art.

Wow, Maggie Steifvater creates Tarot cards inspired by her Raven Cycle series.

After more than 50 years, Harper Lee is publishing a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, and controversy ensues. Was she pressured into it? She says she's "happy as hell" about the new book, Go Set a Watchman. I think it's safe to say that no one could have seen this coming - I remember my high school English teacher lauding Harper Lee as the perfect example that everyone has "at least one" book in them.

Read in January 2015

This month I read the following books:

1. Salt & Storm - Kendall Kulper
2. Charmed - Michelle Krys



picture credit: Beatrice by Marie Spartali Stillman

Youth Media Awards 2015

The ALA Youth Media Awards have been announced!

Here are some of the winners, and I've highlighted everything that I had a prediction about or was on my radar as a potential winner in red. Too bad I wasn't in a betting pool this year! I could have cleaned up.

Newbery

The Crossover - Kwame Alexander

Newbery Honor:

El Deafo - Cece Bell

Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson

Caldecott:

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend - Dan Santat

Caldecott Honor:

Nana in the City - Lauren Castillo

The Noisy Paint Box: The  Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art - Barb Rosenstock,  illustrated by Mary GrandPré

Sam & Dave Dig a Hole - Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen

Viva Frida - Yuyi Morales

The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus - illustrated by Melissa Sweet, written by Jen Bryant

This One Summer - illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, written by Mariko Tamaki

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award:

Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson

King Author Honor:

The Crossover - Kwame Alexander

How I Discovered Poetry - Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Hadley Hooper

How It Went Down - Kekla Magoon

Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award:

Firebird - Misty Copeland, illustrated by Christopher Myers

King Illustrator Honor:

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker - Patricia Hruby Powell, illustrated by Christian Robinson

Little Melba and Her Big Trombone - Katheryn Russell-Brown, illustrated by Frank Morrison

Printz:

I’ll Give You the Sun - Jandy Nelson

Printz Honor:

And We Stay - Jenny Hubbard

The Carnival at Bray - Jessie Ann Foley

Grasshopper Jungle - Andrew Smith

This One Summer - Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki

Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award:

Viva Frida - Yuyi Morales

Belpré Illustrator Honor:

Little Roja Riding Hood - Susan Middleton Elya, illustrated by Susan Guevara

Green Is a Chile Pepper - Roseanne Greenfield Thong, illustrated by John Parra

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation - Duncan Tonatiuh

Sibert:

The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus - Jen Bryant

Sibert Honor:

Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, & the Fall of Imperial Russia - Candace Fleming

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker - Patricia Hruby Powell, illustrated by Christian Robinson

Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California’s Farallon Islands -  Katherine Roy

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation - Duncan Tonatiuh

Stonewall Award:

This Day in June - Gayle E. Pitman, Ph.D., illustrated by Kristyna Litten

Stonewall Honor:

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out - Susan Kuklin.

I’ll Give You the Sun - Jandy Nelson

Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress - Christine Baldacchio, illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant

Newbery and Caldecott Picks for 2015

The Newbery and Caldecott awards are going to be announced soon - all of the American Library Association youth media awards, actually, including the Alex, Printz, Morris, Coretta Scott King and Pura Belpre, Batchelder and Seuss Geisel awards. (along with a few more that I'm sure I'm forgetting!) But, the Caldecott and Newbery awards are the ones that get people really excited. I've put together a list of predictions - things that have been getting a lot of buzz. We'll see in a few days, if any of these end up as winners, or if the awards will go to some dark horse from a small press that none of us have heard of.

Caldecott Predictions

Sam and Dave Dig a Hole - Mac Barnett & Jon Klassen

     I loved this book. Will it strike gold?

Brother Hugo and the Bear - Katy Beebe & S.D. Schindler

Flashlight - Lizi Boyd

The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus - Jennifer Fisher Bryant & Michelle Sweet

     Super educational. Teachers and librarians will be so happy if this one wins. I like Michelle Sweet's illustrations a lot, even if they don't feel "strange" enough to win.

Draw! - Raul Colon

Firebird - Misty Copeland & Christopher Myers

Gaston - Kelly DiPuccio & Christian Robinson

Some Bugs -Angela DiTerlizzi & Brendan Wenzel

The Farmer and the Clown - Marla Frazee.

     Lots of good buzz on this nearly wordless picture book. I can see this one winning. I'm a longtime Frazee fan.

Grandfather Gandhi - Arun Ghandi & Bethany Hegedus & Evan Turk

     How great would it be if this was a winner? I love to think of generations of school children enjoying this title.

Have You Heard the Nesting Bird? - Rita Gray & Kenard Pak

Extraordinary Jane - Hannah E. Harrison

Firefly July - Paul B. Janeckzo & Melissa Sweet

Winter is Coming - Tony Johnston & Jim La Marche

Have You Seen My Dragon? - Steve Light 

The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse - Patricia MacLachlan & Hadley Hooper

     Another wonderful biographical picture book. I'm rooting for it.

Viva Frida - Yuyi Morales & Tim O'Meara

     Really distinctive.

Hi, Koo! - Jon J. Muth

     This book is such a charmer!

Baby Bear - Kadir Nelson

The Book with No Pictures - B.J. Novak

     I'm including this book, just to be ornery! I think it would cause such a stir to nominate this book for an award that goes to the best pictures.

The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky's Abstract Art - Barb Rosenstock & Mary GrandPre

     I think people will go wild, if the American illustrator for Harry Potter wins for this book.

Aviary Wonders, Inc.: Spring Catalog and Instruction Manual - Kate Samworth

     Such a strange and wonderful book. This could really be a winner.

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Best Friend - Dan Santat

Henny - Elizabeth Rose Stanton

Bad Bye, Good Bye - Deborah Underwood & Jonathan Bean

Stella's Starliner - Rosemary Wells

Newbery Predictions

Crossover - Alexander Kwame

     I love narrative poetry.

The Madman of Piney Woods - Christopher Paul Curtis

     Lots of buzz for this one. Will multiple award winner Curtis snag the gold again?

Glass Sentence - S.E. Grove

     Fantasy doesn't usually stand a chance, but maybe this one will come up with an award.

The Secret Hum of a Daisy - Tracy Holczer

A Snicker of Magic - Natalie Lloyd

     This is the kind of thing that I'd love to see win. Magical and fun.

West of the Moon - Margi Preus

The Riverman - Aaron Starmer

Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson

     Okay, you heard it here first. I think this book is going to sweep multiple categories. I'm hearing so many wonderful things about it.

Top 10 Book Club Books - Take 2

This week's topic from The Broke and Bookish is Top 10 Book Club Books. I'm lucky to belong to the best book club ever: The Not So YA Book Club, for readers who are adults, but still enjoy reading YA. It's hosted at one of my favorite book stores, Little Shop of Stories.

It's been a while since I've done a post about book club, but here are another 10 books that I really enjoyed reading with my book club. (with links to reviews, where appropriate)

Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson

All the Truth That's In Me - Julie Berry

The Darkest Minds - Alexandra Bracken

Salt & Storm - Kendall Kulper

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks - E. Lockhart

The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness

More Than This - Patrick Ness

Akata Witch - Nnedi Akafor

Jackaby - William Ritter

Noggin - John Corey Whaley

Are you in a book club? What are you reading?

Harry Potter news

Harry Potter news: new art has been revealed! I like how the characters don't look movie star perfect in these illustrations.


What?? This lady apparently has a beef with Harry Potter fans in her rant against this wonderful Golden Snitch engagement ring. I'm astonished! First, even if you don't know what it is, it's a lovely looking ring. Second, for folks who grew up with Harry Potter, there's so much positive symbolism there. As a huge nerd myself, I am all for book-inspired jewelry.

J.K. Rowling gives some writing advice on twitter.