Enormous Smallness

Enormous Smallness: A Story of E.E. Cummings by Matthew Burgess, illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo. Grades 3 and up. Enchanted Lion Books, April 2015. Unpaged. Review copy provided by my local library.

Booktalk:  When you look out your window, what do you see? 

When E.E. Cummings looked out his window, he saw all the small things that make up our beautiful world. He saw them and he noticed them and he wrote about them in ways that no one had ever written before.  

He's now one of the most famous American poets, but E.E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings wrote his first poem when he was three years old: 

"Oh, my little birdie, oh

With his little

Toe toe toe" 

His mother started writing down the poems he came up with in a book that she called "Estlin's Original Poems." 

As E.E. grew up and wrote more and more poems, he wanted to write in NEW ways. He played around with punctuation, he used lowercase letters where he should have used capitals. E.E. "wanted his reader's eyes to be on tiptoes". Some people thought it was too strange, but some people thought it was wonderful. 

This is a book for lovers of words. 

My thoughts: 

This spry little book will find a good home in poetry units for kids of all ages. I bet every kid who reads e.e. cummings is curious about what the e's stand for and why they're small. This book illuminates the life of a famous American poet. 

The illustrations pair very nicely with the text, featuring natural tones in browns and greens to reflect E.E.'s love of the outside world. Text is incorporated into the mixed-media illustrations for subtle effects that are reminiscent of the world of Melissa Sweet (one of my favorite illustrators!). A blue oceanic map is cut into ocean waves as E.E. sets off for France during WWI. Stamped text shows up in tree branches and puddles, evoking how E.E. saw poems in everything around him. 

The poems chosen as examples represent different styles and illustrate how E.E.'s poems were different from many other poets. They definitely keep the reader's eyes "on tiptoe" and will inspire kids who dig it to seek out more. 

A timeline includes significant dates in E.E.'s life. 

Readalikes: 

Lovers of words should also check out the following picture book biographies: 

Jump Back, Paul: The Life and Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar by Sally Derby, illustrated by Sean Qualls. 

The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jennifer Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet. 

A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jennifer Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet. 

The Hired Girl

The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz. Grades 6-10. Candlewick Press, September 2015. 400 pages. Reviewed from ARC provided by publisher.

What it's about: 

Sick of the demands and abuse her father heaps on her after her mother passes away, fourteen-year-old Joan runs away from the family farm to seek work as a hired girl in Baltimore. The year is 1911 and Joan ends up with a position in a society house. She's determined to take advantage of the city with all its cultural opportunities; her mother always wanted her to become a schoolteacher. But life in the city and life as a hired girl is much more overwhelming than Joan anticipated.

Inspired by the author's grandmother's journals, this is a rich story about turn-of-the-century society, religion, romance, and more.

My thoughts:

Oh, I loved this book, but with its early-1900s setting and plucky girl heroine, it was pretty much made for me. That's my favorite period to read about and the book reminded me of a couple of my all-time favorite books.

The beauty of this book is that it's written simply, but it delves into many complex issues without getting too weighed down by them. I completely bought Joan's voice and it really felt like I could have been reading someone's diary. The realistic voice immersed me in the story and I found myself not wanting to put the book down.

Joan is a little flighty, quite taken with all the new clothing she can buy now that she has a salary, but she's also a religious girl. Her quest to join the Catholic Church (her mother was Catholic) is sometimes at odds with the reform Judaism practiced in her master's home. Joan ends up learning quite a lot about both religions and dealing with conflicting feelings. This, also, speaks to the realistic nature of the book, as religious questions are something a lot of 14-year-old girls deal with.

I appreciated the glimpse into a 1911 Jewish household and really came to love every character in the book. Supporting characters are just as engaging as Joan herself and they're finely and completely drawn.

Overall, I just loved it and I would love to read more and more about Joan's adventures in Baltimore.

Readalikes:

Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster. This is an all-time favorite of mine, a classic that was written around the same time that The Hired Girl is set. It also features a plucky, intelligent heroine who longs to be educated and the book follows Judy's journey to college.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly. This is ANOTHER all-time favorite of mine (you can see why I feel that The Hired Girl was designed for me). Mattie Gokey's story about taking care of her family while longing to go continue her education hits many of the same notes as Joan's.

Check Out Our Felt Stories on the @ALSCBlog

Today, I'm over at the ALSC Blog, posting about our circulating felt stories that we check out to teachers. Please head over there and check it out!

Hello, September

Goodbye, August. Hello, September.

Next week, our regular programming starts back up. It's been a nice "break", but I'll be glad to get back into my storytime routine and see the kids again!

While patrons see the month of August as a break time, we youth librarians know that it's really a time for getting planning and projects done. Here are some of the tasks I accomplished this August:

• Okay, I did take a week of vacation in early August, my first extended time off since before my Newbery meetings in February. 
• I planned the fall session of baby storytime, including selecting, pulling, and labeling books, finding new rhymes and songs, and putting together all of the handouts. 
• I scheduled approximately eleven billion booktalking visits for the fall semester. 
• I learned that no, we would not be getting an additional part time person to help us cover and I would have to patch the schedule together as best I could to staff two desks now and all of this additional programming that we're doing. 
• I met with all my staff to touch base about their annual goals (and, in the case of my new teen people, set them). 
• I weeded the first third of the 500s, which is slow going because you have to look pretty carefully at that science info to make sure you're providing kids with accurate and current information. 
• I held two staff meetings - our regular department meeting, which included a debrief of the Summer Reading Club and was the first time we were all meeting together as the Youth Services Department, and our monthly Reading Wildly meeting. 
• I scheduled, arranged coverage for, or attended two staff training workshops - one on teen development (since we're now the Youth Services Department, which includes teens!) and one on reference interviews/skills/resources. 
• I presented a keynote speech and a breakout session at this year's CYPD Conference. 

In addition to all of these work accomplishments, the Fiance and I bought a house this August! So, we have been painting, painting, painting, and starting to sort through all our stuff in preparation for a move. Exciting!!!

So, next week, it's back to routine. It's back to baby storytime, afterschool visits, and lots of booktalking (although I took pains this year to spread the booktalking load a little more evenly, so it's not going to be quite as intense this year). I'm ready!

Symphony for the City of the Dead

Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson. Grades 9+ September 2015, Candlewick Press. 464 pages. Reviewed from egalley provided by publisher.

Book Talk:

Did you know that the USSR had the highest citizen deaths during World War II of any nation in the world? 27 million Soviet citizens died during WWII, making the Soviet death toll higher than the total deaths of ALL OTHER NATIONS COMBINED.

Over a million of those deaths were due to the Siege of Leningrad. Leningrad was the second largest city in Russia and the seat of the Communist Party before WWII started. When the Nazis attacked Russia, they blockaded Leningrad, cutting off supply lines and continually bombing the city. Rather than sending troops in to attack the city, their strategy was to wait it out and let the people of Leningrad slowly starve to death.

The Siege lasted 872 days, the longest siege in modern history.

And when people had no food, no fuel, no electricity, no way out, and the temperature was sometimes 40 below zero... music was one of the things that kept them alive, that gave them a reason to live.

Shostakovich lived through terrible times - the Great Purge of Russia when Stalin could have you executed at a whim - and he wrote music that spoke to the people. Could a symphony be enough to save a city from complete destruction?

If you are a person who believes in the power of art to change lives OR if you are fascinated by World War II and are looking for something that's different from other books you've read about it, pick up this book.


My thoughts: Holy cats, you guys. THIS BOOK.

It was recommended to me by once of my 2015 Newbery Committee colleagues and I am SO GLAD she did because I might not have picked it up and then I would be missing out.

This book is a masterpiece. There, I said it.

It's at once a fascinating biography, a testament to the power of music, and a riveting WWII story. I just want to talk about the horrors of WWII Leningrad all the time (which makes me really fun at parties). But seriously, there was so much to this story that I didn't know.

The one negative GoodReads review that I read of this title claimed that there would be no audience for this book. I agree that it's an ambitious book and one that might be intimidating to teens, who may not know who Shostakovich was (I kind of didn't) or what the Siege of Leningrad was (I definitely didn't). And that's where a good librarian comes in. Hand this to your performing arts kids. The recurring theme about the power of music to give life meaning and to keep people going will speak to these kids. Hand this to your kids who are fascinated with military history and WWII. This may be a WWII story that they don't know much about.

DON'T MISS IT.

Readalikes: 

As I was reading, I kept thinking about The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming, which may appeal to kids who are interested in reading more about Russian history.

Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin is ostensibly a middle-grade novel, but I actually think it's maybe best suited to kids who have an understanding about Russia and Communism. It's a poignant look inside the pervasive fear that the Communist regime inspired in Soviet citizens.

This might be a good choice for teens who devoured Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys and want to know more about the Russian society that could enact such atrocities.

Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible

Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible by Ursula Vernon. Grades 3-6. Dial Books, August 2015. 247 pages. Reviewed from ARC provided by publisher.

Booktalk:

Princess Harriet is not what you might think of as your typical princess. She is great at checkers and fractions and loves riding her quail Mumfrey and dreams of slaying dragons. Her deportment teacher tries to get her to act more "like a princess", but when he tried to make her walk around with a book on her head (for posture), he was found in the library with a book stuffed in his mouth and Harriet was grounded for a month.

But Harriet doesn't know about the curse that was placed on her at her christening. When she's ten years old, Harriets parents decide it's time to tell her about the curse. They sit her down and tell her about her christening when the wicked god-fairy Ratshade showed up and put a curse on the princess: when she is 12 years old, she will prick her finger on a hamster wheel and fall into a deep sleep.

But to her parents' surprise, Harriet is actually pretty thrilled about the curse! Since the curse won't happen until she's 12, Harriet knows the curse will have to keep her alive until then - curses are strong magic! She's invincible! So, Harriet sets off for the life she's always wanted: adventures, dragon slaying, hunting down ogres... But what will happen when Harriet turns 12? Can she find a way to escape the curse for good?

My thoughts:

This is a super cute and funny fractured fairy tale that is going straight into my booktalking roster for this school year. The graphic novel / prose hybrid will be very appealing to kids and the nonstop action makes this book quite a page-turner. Harriet is a kick-butt princess who is continually bucking the mold and taking offense when people tell her that she's not "princessly". She is a princess, so anything she does must be something a princess does!

In that way, I really appreciate the understated feminism in this title. Harriet never apologizes for being brash and physically active and brave. She doesn't keep it a secret. It's part of who she is and anyone who has a problem with it is not worth Harriet's time. The reader's not hit over the head with "Harriet's doing things that aren't typically what a princess DOES!" because there is no such thing as a "typical princess"; everyone is different and Harriet's just being Harriet.

Readalikes:

This book is Babymouse meets Whatever After and will appeal to fans of either series.

For another book on ladies who don't lay down and accept their fairy tale fates, check out Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale.

And readers who enjoyed the kick-butt princess of The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale will also love Harriet's adventures.

Readers looking for more fractures fairy tales might enjoy Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine or the tales of E.D. Baker.

Dumplin'

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy. Grades 8+. Balzer + Bray, September 2015. 384 pages. Reviewed from e-galley.

Summary:

High school sophomore Willowdean Dickson has never had a problem with being fat. Despite occasional criticism from her mom, a former beauty queen, Willowdean has always been confident about her body, her right to wear a bathing suit ("her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body"*).

But when she starts working at the local burger joint Harpy's, she meets Bo, a dreamy Catholic school boy on whom she forms an instant crush. When it seems like Bo actually likes her back, Willowdean is suddenly filled with doubt - about her body and herself.

She's also still a little shaken about the death of her aunt Lucy, another woman of size whom Willowdean had always looked up to. As her mom starts sorting through Lucy's things, Willowdean discovers a blank application for the local Miss Teen Blue Bonnet pageant and discovers that her aunt had dreamed of competing. As Willowdean contemplates this, she wonders what else Lucy didn't do because she let her size hold her back.

So she decides to do one thing that the fat and ugly girls in her town have never dared to do: enter the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet pageant.

* Quoted from publisher summary

My thoughts:

You guys. This book. THIS BOOK.

This book is the book I want all fat girls to read. No, actually, I want all girls to read it. NO, actually I want EVERYBODY to read this book.

This is an engaging story with a realistic, humorous voice and it's a body-positive story without being message-y. It's so easy to get fat girl books wrong, but this one gets it right. Willowdean is funny and sassy, but also occasionally vulnerable. She has some great things to say about being confident about your body, but she also has times when she doesn't love everything about her body, which makes her a realistic character.

Plus, it's just a fun story, a little campy at times with its Dolly-Parton-singing drag queens and all the pomp of the pageant world. It's a really enjoyable read.

Readalikes:

My next-favorite fat girl book is Big Fat Manifesto by Susan Vaught, which is another fat girl book done right but VERY different in tone.

Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Euhlberg also touches on the pageant scene as a plain girl deals with being overshadowed by her younger sister on the pageant scene.

Bayou Magic

Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Grades 4-6. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, May 2015. 239 pages. Review copy provided by my local library.

Summary:

Every summer, Maddy's Grandmere invites one of the grandchildren to spend the summer with her in the Bon Temps bayou. Maddy's older sisters have not been excited about this, telling Maddy that their grandmere is a witch, that it's boring in the bayou with no TV or electricity. But Maddy feels differently. Although she's a little intimidated to spend the summer so far from her home in New Orleans, she feels a connection with Grandmere as soon as she arrives.

As Maddy explores the bayou and learns about the legends of her ancestors, she comes to realize that she has a second home here and a special role to play. But as Maddy's dreams turn dark, dripping with oil, she fears that something bad is coming to the bayou and she can only hope that she will be brave enough to stop it.

My thoughts:

This book is a love letter to the Louisiana bayou. Vivid sensory details bring the flora, fauna, and folk of the Bon Temps bayou to life for the reader. You can taste the jambalaya and moon pies, you can hear the frogs calling, you can see the fireflies dancing through the trees. A strong environmental message comes through, urging young people to come forth as stewards of our world.

The book's a bit loosely plotted and I found myself wondering where it was going at times, but I enjoyed the ride. Maddy's role in the Bon Temps community is revealed as the story unfolds and her relationships with her Grandmere and with a neighbor boy Bear develop. This is a strong story about knowing your roots and embracing where you come from and your role in the greater world.

Readalikes:

Readers who enjoy the strong bayou setting may also enjoy The Time of the Fireflies or The Healing Spell by Kimberly Griffiths Little.

Armchair travelers who enjoy reading luscious descriptions of places may also like The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Readers who like reading about Maddy's journey to get to know a little-known family member and figure out where she fits in with her family might also enjoy The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond by Brenda Woods.

And readers captivated by the mermaid mythology may enjoy Ingo by Helen Dunmore.

The Sound of Life and Everything

The Sound of Life and Everything by Krista Van Dolzer. Grades 5-8. G.P. Putnam's Sons, May 2015. 262 pages. Review copy provided by publisher.

Summary: 


In 1950s California, Ella Mae's family is still dealing with their grief over losing Ella Mae's brother Daniel and cousin Robby in the war. When Ella Mae's Aunt Mildred responds to an ad in the paper claiming that scientists can bring Robby back if she has a sample of his DNA (which she does - the blood on his dog tags), Ella Mae thinks she's crazy. Crazier still is what happens next. It wasn't Robby's blood on the dog tags, but the blood of a Japanese soldier. When Takuma is brought back to life, lost and alone in this strange land, Ella Mae's mother ends up taking him in. But anti-Japanese sentiment runs strong in this small California town and it won't be an easy ride for anyone.

My thoughts:

This is a strange and beautiful little book. At first, I kept trying to wrap my head around what was happening, but eventually I just had to let go and enjoy the ride. This book combines a historical setting and characters and a science fiction premise in a really interesting way that harkened to classic science fiction stories like Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.

The small community of St. Jude, California (a fictional town) is still reeling from the war. Families are mourning their losses and anti-Japanese sentiment is strong. Imagine if a Japanese soldier was plunked down in the middle of this community. In addition to dealing with racism and battle scars, the townspeople must grapple with the fact of Takuma's "unnatural" origin. He was born a person and died and then was brought back to life in a lab.

Ella Mae quickly dismisses all of these issues as she gets to know Takuma and comes to care about him. Her older brother died in the war and Takuma is not only a brother figure, but he's someone who desperately needs her help. She's determined to teach him English so that he can express himself and maybe bond with others in the community.

I think this is a story that's going to stick with me and I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time.

Readalikes: 

This one was billed as a good read for fans of When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, and I think that's a good comparison.

Reading Wildly: Nonfiction

Woohoo! Welcome back to Reading Wildly! We had a nice little break over the summer because it is basically impossible for us to get together and meet while summer craziness is going on. Now, the kids are back in school, we are scheduling tons of booktalks, and it's time to pick up with our monthly reader's advisory training. 

Our topic this month was Nonfiction, and before we started sharing our booktalks, I asked for a show of hands who found themselves regularly reaching for nonfiction when it's not assigned as their RW topic. I had a few who seek out nonfiction (including myself), but the majority of my staff do not feel that they gravitate towards nonfiction. 

I have found that a lot of people have that disinclination. I don't know if it's just that they expect the books to be dry and boring or if the larger format of children's nonfiction is not as amenable to carrying a book around with you, or something else. But I am here to tell you that if you are avoiding children's and YA nonfiction, you are MISSING OUT BIG TIME!!!!!!

(Also, I was once like you. I set a goal to read two nonfiction books a month and I found some great titles that I loved and I have been loving it ever since!)

Ahem. When you get right down to it, nonfiction is an important part of offering a balanced booktalking selection and advising readers who prefer to read true stories. We shared some great titles this month, and I hope you will pick up a couple of them and give them a try! Here's what we read: 

• 5,000 Miles to Freedom: Ellen and William Craft's Flight from Slavery by Dennis Fradin 
• Aye-Aye: An Evil Omen by Miriam Aronin
• Bodie: The Town That Belongs to Ghosts by Kevin Blake
• The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Philip Hoose
• Enchanted Air by Margarita Engle
• Encyclopedia Horrifica by Joshua Gee
• The Giant and How He Humbugged America by Jim Murphy
• Lion, Tiger, and Bear by Kate Hurley
• A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me by Jason Schmidt
• Little Author in the Big Woods by Yona Zeldis McDonough
• Nelson Mandela: South African Revolutionary by Beatrice Gormley
• Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights by Ann Bausum
• Terrible Typhoid Mary by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
• Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower by Greg Pizzoli
• The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps by Jeanette Winter
• Who Was Queen Elizabeth? by June Edding
• The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir by Cylin Busby and John Busby

We didn't discuss an article this month because SUMMER, but I had selected one, so I passed it out as optional reading: The Dazzling World of Nonfiction by Donalyn Miller (Educational Leadership, November 2013). 

For our meeting in September, we will be discussing contemporary, realistic fiction and the article One Tough Cookie by Carey E. Hagan (The Horn Book Magazine, September/October 2011).