Talk about the kidlit you're reading!

The newest favorites among my students: Nick Bruel's BAD KITTY series. He started with two picture books, BAD KITTY and POOR PUPPY. They wreck havoc through the alphabet, and that is one bad kitty. Hilarious illustrations. Now he's branched out into sort of graphic novel-chapter books. The newest is HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BAD KITTY. The one before that was BAD KITTY GETS A BATH. All I can say is somebody gets hurt--badly hurt--whenever Bad Kitty gets a bath.

Sorry, sorry. Wrong thread...

*must make this post meaningful*

Um, I recently finished reading "What Every Girl (except me) Knows," by Nora Raleigh Baskin.

I thought it was pretty good. It's about a girl whose mother died when she was small, and the things she feels like she needs to know to become a woman. The story also involves a possible step-mother-to-be, a new best friend, her relationship with her brother, and the mystery of her mother's death.

Reading Lisa Graff's latest, Umbrella Summer. Love it. I adore her books. And not just because she's practically my sister-in-law. She's a fabulous writer, especially for kids.

I’m reading three children’s books at the moment. Flax the Feral Fairy by Tiffany Mandrake is a hoot. Its about a little fairy called Flax Lilykicker, who doesn’t fit in at the Academy of Sweetness. She wants to go to a school for bad fairies instead. She wants to win a badge of badness. Other characters in the book are, a couple of water hags, and a tiny winged dog called a dog-fae.

It’s suitable for boys and girls. I found the writing brilliant and it’s certainly different. I actually bought it for a present for a seven year-old, but decided to keep it myself.

I’m also reading a great book called Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. That’s a great book too. It’s about a thirteen year old Mexican girl whose father gets killed by bandits. She has to flee her village with her mother and is determined to survive. I’m halfway through and thoroughly enjoying it.

I’m reading the Secret Garden again by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I’ve always loved that book.

And, I’m reading the Pet Finders by Ben M. Baglio. That’s about kids working in a pet finder business. I’ve just started that one.

Actually, I have too many to mention. I read children’s books at every opportunity. I have to learn, learn and learn some more.

Trish.

I can read for pleasure again - Hallelujah!

I've been reading quite a few things lately, which after a difficult summer, is in many respects heaven for me.

I've been reading a lot of picture books and easy reader type stuff. Partly because I love the instant gratification of finishing a good (But shorter) book, partly to enjoy the pictures, and partly because I'm doing everything in my power to learn how I can get my own non-novel stories to be economical.

Over the summer I discovered the Houndsley and Catina series and currently have two of the books in the series. The art is charming and I love how straightforward it is. It never feels boring, while at the same time has

I've always loved books by Candlewick Press, and these are no exception.

Also part of Candlewick's Sparks Line is Squirrel's World, which I admire for its playful (If frenetically helpful) title character, nice art, and fast gripping pace. Seriously, the story moves almost as fast as Squirrel talks, while still being understandable.

I'm still trying to figure out how the author maintained such a gripping pace without dragging the antics on too long.

I also started reading Judy Moody goes to college over the summer, but I didn't finish before taking it back to the library, I plan to buy my own copy next month. I can say this though, I wish I had this book when I was a kid; it would've made me feel less fearful and tyrannical about math.

That said, the fact that Megan McDonald could get a math-phobic like me EAGER to improve their math skills of my own conviction, long past third grade, is nothing short of a blessing. I'd recommend this to any parent of a school age kid who's finding math a real pain, along with those "Miss Math" books I've heard much about. They may still find math a pain, but they'll feel a lot better knowing they're not alone.

Note: As far as the Miss Math books go, if you can get your boys to look past the title, the lady on the cover, and fairly girl-centric subject matter, this book may give them more confidence in improving their math skills.

And like Judy Moody, remind them they're not alone, I'm sure even the world's most renowned mathematicians had moments of relentless frustration with math, even if they LOVE it. Kind of reminds me of us writers, but thankfully fiction doesn't have to be as black and white as most mathematics.


I just bought The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter, and it came in the mail on Monday. I haven't spent too much time with it yet, but I'm glad to finally have the one book everyone keeps recommending to me once they learn of my animal story obsession.



Skeptics say what you will. One thing that can't be denied is that woman could draw.
It's rare these days to see the level of detail she did in her artwork. She really had a talent for getting her vision as razor sharp in her art as well as her words. If I had half her skill, I'd illustrate at least some of my PBs myself. I've thought of taking an art class someday, at least so I can get a feel for it. I know I won't achieve art like this, at least not without years of practice, but I'm a firm believer that everyone has a style they're most comfortable with. The one that feels the most natural and semi-effortless. Be it in prose-writing, poetry, or art. I want to find mine.

Finally on the younger side of things, I've starting getting into the Flatfoot Fox Series by Eth Clifford (Don't know how to even begin pronouncing that name, no offense to the author in any way, mind you). These books rely on two key elements, simplicity, and pacing. The stories move fast and the while the structure is fairly linear, it never feels overly formulaic, partly because of the fast pacing, and in part because of the subtle wit and humor. My only two nitpicks is that I wish there was more to the mysteries themselves, at least one red herring or mix-up, and that the pictures were in color.
That said, the covers are nice and really stand out.

Otherwise, a solid 7 on a scale of 1 to 10.


As far Novels I go I'm really getting into The Daring Adventures of Penhaligon Brush by S. Jones Rogan. This is definitely an author I'm glad I discovered on my many hunts for cool and beautifully written books. This has it all, the action, the drama, intrigue, secrets, and just a splash of danger to keep even the most hyper readers entertained.

I'm currently halfway through it and I can already say that I haven't read something this well crafted since I plowed through the first three books in the Hermux Tantamoq series.

And just like the series mentioned above, I read a sample of it online at Barnes and Noble and bought the sequel that came out this year along with the first. I hope they'll be many more stories in this world.

I should note that this book is for younger readers and the subject matter isn't as mature as it is in the Hermux Tantamoq series, but perfect for readers who love stories of this type.

I'd recommend it to anyone who loves the Redwall series, but wants something different from the sword and sorcery fair, who love pirate stories, and high quality writing that won't go over your head. You may have to crack open a dictionary a few times though.

Speaking of Hermux Tantamoq, I also started the fourth awhile back, Time to smell the Roses. Still just at the beginning, but it's proving to be just as good as the other three, plus, no I can't mention that, it'll spoil the surprise. Like the book mentioned above, this has it all, plus romance, I couldn't ask for anything more. I maybe a guy, but I have no shame admitting I'm a love story fanatic. I've read many books I otherwise would be too afraid to even touch if the story didn't involve a romance of some kind. Even if the love is unrequited or "can't" be, it's a welcome break from the harsher qualities a story may have. While all 4 books stand alone, there is merit to reading them in order so you better understand the in-jokes and dynamics of the recurring cast.

At the very least, you might want to check out the first book, Time Stops for No Mouse, just so you understand certain key relationships without getting too lost. That said, the author does a good job of cluing the new readers in without boring those who've been along for the ride since the start, I want to learn that technique, since I rarely write many stand alone novels.

Every time I think I'm done with a character and that particular world, more stories flow out like the Cheyenne River. I sure hope M. Hoeye comes out with a new book soon, preferably another Hermux since there isn't indication that this was the last one in the dust jacket, but if the writing's as interesting as in these books, I'm more than willing to see what other worlds he can take us to.

Anyway, those have been my recent reading adventures, with more just around the corner.

I read Gossamer, by Lois Lowry, in one sitting last night (I meant to read a couple chapters before bed, but ended up reading the whole darn thing). It was very good, and original.

The story is about dreams and where they come from. In the story, there are dream-makers who bestow pleasant dreams, and Sinisteeds who inflict nightmares. One young dream-maker is given the task of bestowing dreams to a lonely elderly woman and the angry foster child living with her; unfortunately, the Sinisteeds have also zeroed in on the pair.

Anyway, it's good, and I'd highly recommend it.

Our librarian read us MEAN SOUP by Betsy Eviritt today. Delightful! Horace has a really bad day--he forgets the answer to question number three, and Lulu the Show-and-Tell Cow steps on his foot.

I am not leaving my classroom until I get a Show-and-Tell Cow. In a hula skirt.

And I mean it.

I'm about to read a lot because it's book fair week. Whoo-hoo! These things break my bank.

Just finished, The Tale of Desperaux and Ramona Quimby, Age 8.

Yep, she's awesome! I was worried that my students wouldn't like it as well as I did, but they really got into it!

Our third graders read some Ramona and some Henry Huggins. You'd think it would seem hopelessly old-fashioned to them, but it doesn't. The humor is timeless.

JudScotKev said:

Our third graders read some Ramona and some Henry Huggins. You'd think it would seem hopelessly old-fashioned to them, but it doesn't. The humor is timeless.

Click to expand...

Goes to prove that you can't underestimate what kids are interested in. It also proves how good books can transcend generations, despite being dated in some ways.

I personally have always loved the old fashioned stories, even as a kid, probably explains in part why finding modern stories I click with can be tricky at times.

But personally as a reader, I don't mind things moving at a slower pace as long as I get connected in the story's ordeal and the characters are alive for me.

I grew up at the start of what the internet is now, and as much as I was enamored with it, I still liked the simpler things. Heck, I'm the only one in my house who likes to bake from scratch.

Plus, I was always fascinated with things that would be considered antiques by now. Like cassette tape players. By the time I came around, CDs were just starting get popular and becoming the standard.

I also have always had a real soft spot for record players. CDs and music downloads may have superior quality, but it's not as tactile. It's hard believe that over fifty years ago that was the standard. Maybe one day I'll buy an old one, provided it still works, and hunt out a few LPs on Ebay.

Yep, Ramona is great.

Another book recommendation: Shug, by Jenny Han. Annemarie is starting junior high, and her world is falling apart. Her best friend, Mark, has a new set of friends. Her mother and father are constantly fighting. Her older sister already has one foot out the door.

On the surface, it seems just like countless other novels about junior high. But the voice is so damn good, and the author really captures the thoughts and feelings of a 7th-grade girl. It's one of the best books I've read this year.

Shug is the author's first book. Her second book was published in May of this year, and I'm definitely going to look for it.

Smish

I've been in the Halloween spirit, so I just finished The Stone Child by Dan Poblocki. I thought it was a great page-turner, especially for young boys. His monsters are pretty scary, and the plot is rather twisty with a great ending. About a family that moves to a new town. The boy has always been a loner, but he makes a couple of friends - one's a girl who has also been neglected by her peers. We find out the town is where the boy's favorite author once lived, but he disappeared thirteen years earlier. Some really weird, freaky stuff starts happening, and it never, ever stops, right up to the end. Highly recommend for anyone wanting a scare - anyone in middle school, anyway.

Also read The Beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson. it's not new, but it's a good mystery. The kids visit their relatives in Scotland, who live in an old castle or manor or something. The relatives have been trying ways to save the White Cattle who live on the estate, by having open days to the public. But it's not going well. When the kids discover that one of the relatives is actually a ghost, they come up with ideas of how to help out, but then the cattle are taken away to be destroyed because they supposedly have a terrible disease. Not scary, but certainly entertaining.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Sissy

I'm way behind, but I've been reading Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos with my daughter. It's about a girl in early 20th century London whose parents run a museum of antiquities. Theodosia is the only one who can see which items are cursed, and she has to deal with them. I love this book so far, and my daughter, who finds it hard to sit still sometimes, is a willing listener/reader

JudScotKev said:

The newest favorites among my students: Nick Bruel's BAD KITTY series. He started with two picture books, BAD KITTY and POOR PUPPY. They wreck havoc through the alphabet, and that is one bad kitty. Hilarious illustrations. Now he's branched out into sort of graphic novel-chapter books. The newest is HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BAD KITTY. The one before that was BAD KITTY GETS A BATH. All I can say is somebody gets hurt--badly hurt--whenever Bad Kitty gets a bath.

Click to expand...

BAD KITTY GETS A BATH is hilarious. I didn't realize there were others.

sissybaby said:

I've been in the Halloween spirit, so I just finished The Stone Child by Dan Poblocki. I thought it was a great page-turner, especially for young boys. His monsters are pretty scary, and the plot is rather twisty with a great ending. About a family that moves to a new town. The boy has always been a loner, but he makes a couple of friends - one's a girl who has also been neglected by her peers. We find out the town is where the boy's favorite author once lived, but he disappeared thirteen years earlier. Some really weird, freaky stuff starts happening, and it never, ever stops, right up to the end. Highly recommend for anyone wanting a scare - anyone in middle school, anyway.

Click to expand...

I'll have to look for this one!

I just read Water Steps by Alexandria LaFaye and thought it was beautifully written. It has mythical creatures which is not something I usually read, but it was great. It's the story of a girl who is rescued from drowning at sea (although the rest of her family dies) and then adopted by the 'unique' Irish couple that saved her. The couple is patient as they try to raise this girl to get over her extreme fear of water in any form, including showers! It is more deep and touching than you would expect from mg and Alexandria uses beautiful language that I think will inspire kids to want to try writing for themselves, at least it would have me wanting to write at that age. It's a quick read and worth the time.

JudScotKev said:

Just finished TANGERINE by Edward Bloor. One of the quotes on the back describes it as "American Gothic," and I think that's a good description. Some of what goes on in the family is truly dysfunctional. Intense, some horrific bits, but well-written.

One of the things I loved about it is that it's set in a Florida boomtown that could be the part of California that I grew up in. The citrus groves are being plowed under to make room for beautiful housing developments that are actually badly built and plagued with problems. Meanwhile there's the old part of town, where people of color still try to make a living with what's left. Bloor really captures the complexity of the setting, and the conflict between old and new communities.

Interesting to note: the RenLearn site lists it as MG, reading level 4.3, but my library shelves it as YA. The MC is in middle school, so...

Click to expand...

I'm a little late with the Tangerine discussion, but I just finished it last night. I would agree that it's upper-MG. The main character and the voice are definitely MG, but there are some very disturbing scenes that may not be appropriate for younger MG readers. Really, I wish I hadn't read one of the scenes... I was afraid I'd have nightmares about it last night!

It's a very good book, though, and for older MG readers (and MG-writing adults), I'd definitely recommend it.

Smish said:

I'm a little late with the Tangerine discussion, but I just finished it last night. I would agree that it's upper-MG. Really, I wish I hadn't read one of the scenes... I was afraid I'd have nightmares about it last night!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm still a little haunted by it, even weeks later.

Finished Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree, by Lauren Tarshis last night. Yes, I've been reading a ton lately!

The cover is gorgeous, first of all. Perhaps that's not particularly relevant, but I thought I'd mention it.

Emma-Jean Lazarus is a very odd girl. She's analytical and logical, and just doesn't understand the crazy, emotional behavior of her classmates. She's perfectly happy observing them from a distance, and never getting involved in their problems, until the day she finds Colleen Pomerantz crying in the girls' bathroom.

Emma-Jean is very charming, in her super-serious, no-nonsense way. I'd recommend it. (I say that a lot, don't I? I love MG!).

Smish

Okay, I HAVE to read that one. Since my own son is a bit like that, spends his recesses reading or just watching the other kids play and wondering why they enjoy the things they do. I think I'm moving that one to the top of the TBR list...

I just finished the last book in the LIGHTNING THIEF series. My 10-year-old just read the whole series straight through in about a month. So I guess that's a high recommendation!

Things that make it so good: He maintains the voice so well. On every page there's a turn of a phrase that is so true to the character and so funny.

He maintains the pacing. Excitement balanced with character development, no dull parts.

He allows for complexity. No one is completely good or completely evil. Smart people do stupid things, villains hesitate, some enemies are redeemed and some friends turn traitor. So you never really know what's going to happen next.

If you're trying to figure out what makes a bestseller become a bestseller, these are good books to study. They deserve their great sales, which you can't always say...

My daughter finished SAVVY recently, and it's on the top of my reading list. Glad to see it mentioned here.

I also really want to read the PERCY JACKSON series. When my daughter first finished them, she said she may have liked them better than HARRY POTTER. I understand the author outdid himself in the last book, and I'm sure that made it an especially satisfying series.

My almost 10-year old gets to read far more than I do, so I can at least tell you what she's reading. She's been trying to get through Cornelia Funke's INKHEART series for a long time now. They're long books filled with lengthy paragraphs. Still, she's stuck with them - she just often puts them down to read another book, and then gets back to Funke. But after seeing her struggle with it, I'm not sure it's a series I'd like to pick up myself, though the premise sounds very interesting to me.

Recent quicker reads include SENT (Book 2 of THE MISSING by Margaret Peterson Haddix; author of AMONG THE HIDDEN series which we both loved) and MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY AND THE PRISONER'S DILEMMA (Book 3 of the series) by Trenton Lee Stewart. She flew through the Haddix book - about young teens who are kidnapped from their proper time period in history and brought to our present day. In this particular book, two boys learn that they are Edward V, king of England, and Richard, Duke of York. History tells us that they were both murdered, so there's that little issue in setting things right. [No spoilers; this is all from the flap.] I'm eager to read this series.

In MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT, a group of kids are brought together by this ad, "Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?" in the first book. In this third book, the kids try to solve the mystery of an unexplained blackout in their town. I'm sorry I can't tell you much more -- my daughter left the book jacket home but took the book to school...

Smish said:

Finished Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree, by Lauren Tarshis last night. Yes, I've been reading a ton lately!

Smish

Click to expand...

Oh, Smish, you're reading some of my favorites. I loved Shug and Emma Jean (there's a sequel out now that I want to read). Those and A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban and the two Penderwick books were my favorite reads in this genre last year. Oh, and The Willoughbys.

I'm reading the latest Diary of A Wimpy Kid right now, because my son picked it up at the book fair. He loves them. Me? Yes, I do laugh out loud sometimes. But, honestly, the kid is just not nice at all. And he's really starting to annoy me with how mean he is to his friend. Not to mention the author seems to glorify the video game-loving, reading-hating youth of today. What do you guys think? Part of me says, if a book gets kids reading it's okay by me, but sometimes I wonder.