Ruth White, I bow down to thee

...Coming up soon is our big giant extravaganza Summer Reading Festival at World's Fair Park here in beautiful Knoxville, TN. I know I've reviewed at least two of the authors/illustrators who are coming to this insanely exciting (emphasis on the insane - - my colleagues and I are working the Kids Play Area)...event. Mo Willems, Merillee Liddiard, and now Ruth White. This week, I very extremely quickly read Tadpole and Memories of Summer, and let me tell you kids, this woman has a HUGE talent. She's won a Newberry Honor for Belle Prater's Boy in 1996, and I think her rich depictions of rural southern-Appalachian-American life in the 1950's rings true audiences around here. Go ahead and put her on the pedestal with Pam Munoz Ryan, for she is co-queen of the coming of age novel for youngfolks. And she's going to be at our festival! That means that's two Newberry honor winners. Rock. And throw in a Roll while you're at it.
So I work this weekend, so I'm missing Vestival. Which is a total bummer. They might even revoke my South Knoxville citizenship if I don't show up to next year's too. They can do that, you know.
But what I CAN do this Saturday and Mother's Day (yes, I work Mother's Day) is shop in my personal, secret used book store...I'm not sure this is a secret, or if I'm totally not supposed to be talking about this, but the Friends of the Knox County Libraries stores the 'zapped' books in the basement in the library I work in. There's also a new used book store upstairs in the Lawson McGhee that is really great and so much cheaper and easier to shop than McKay's...and you don't have to wait for the big Used Book Sale the Friends have just once a year. But since I am a library lady I can go down and buy stuff all the time. On my way to the restroom. On my way to get a Diet Coke. Before the public sees the books, I can snatch them up. And that, my friends and family, is where all your birthday and holiday presents are now going to come from. But it is seriously dangerous to let people who love books (people who work in the library system) have access to cheap, still in pretty good quality used books. We get lost. And broke.

J-Bio Thursday (even though it's Friday!)

I am fan of J.R. Cash, as I'm sure you are as well. I think that's one thing that we as Americans have in common. We love apple pie, baseball games, and Johnny Cash. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all...that being said, there has been an onslaught of bios, tributes, and now a film about the Man in Black since his 'rebirth' (even though he never went anywhere) and death in 2003. I've read a few, but NOTHING has compared to this little dusty gem of a biography written by Anne Neimark. And it was written for children... The book is Up Close: Johnny Cash and the impact on your impression of the man is HUGE. Since it's short (180 pages) it pares things down simply and to the point. Which is totally fitting for the complex man. It described his heroic battle with addiction, his sorrowful childhood after losing his brother, his first marriage, his rise to fame, his love for June, and his VOICE and TALENT in a way that will entice kids to put away the Hannah (maybe) and pick up one of their parent's (or grandparent's) Johnny Cash albums. I think boys around 11-12 will be especially influenced, due to boys' fascination with music, guitars, the Air Force, and total bad-assness that was Johnny's life. I truly feel this book will help entice a whole new generation of fans. I cannot emphasize this enough: READ THIS BOOK. It may not have all the minute details, but it grabs his essence more than any work I've ever read him. GET IT. It breaks it down RAW. Especially since the film Walk the Line, for all it's fantastic acting it featured, got the facts mostly wrong...it totally left out his activism for Native Americans and Prison Reform (for the most part)...and the book hails him as something of a warrior for both (which if you look at the research--he really did huge amounts of work and created change in both arenas...) It also emphasizes how BRILLIANT he was, not just in music and writing, but SMART from a very young age. Most people don't realize that, or appreciate that he did well in school...kids need to hear that...
Post is on the left. Seriously, get it from your library or purchase it.

J-(Non)Fic Thursday!

This week (well, actually last week) I read An American Plague, The True and Terrifying Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, by Jim Murphy....and yes, I know that's cheating (sorta) since it's non-fiction. But let me tell you something, you jaundiced readers, this stuff READS like a fantastic, disgusting, terrifying EPIC novel. Geared (and categorized) as "J" for "Juvenile", I was HIGHLY entertained and could not put it down. I must admit I knew very little about the Yellow Fever Epidemic in Philly way back when, only knowing a bit about the strain that hit New Orleans almost a hundred years later (and knowing little only because I am a HUGE Bette Davis fan, especially Jezebel which involves just that subject)...
Let me give you a bit of a history lesson. Not on the Yellow Fever Plague of 1793 in Philadelphia; but on the Plague of Chrissy Johnson's Obsessions With Plagues Thru History (being of the special variety of the BLACK plagues of Europe during the Middle Ages...)

Does anyone know/love C.O.S.I. as much as I do? C.O.S.I. is the Columbus Science and Industry Museum in Columbus, OHIO. I was involved in a lock-in during Girl Scouts, and my friend Alison and I, wanting to be apart from the rest of the group, stumbled on the "Time Tunnel" around midnight while the other 600 Girl Scouts had a dance (why would we want to dance with other girls? Dances were for one thing and one thing only. To cry about what boy wouldn't dance with us in the bathroom!)...The set up of the Time Tunnel was simple: about 12 diorama/life-size tableaus in wax figures of important events in time. Starting with the dinosaurs, etc. etc. My favorite, I mean my FAVORITE was Black Death: 14th Century...Wax figures dead in the cobblestone street with large, gruesome rats crawling all over them. I was freaked out and immediately in love. I have read and studied plagues ever since.
Here is my review of the book I started to talk about before the tangent started: I was as pleased with An American Plague as I was with that tableau almost 20 years ago. Link's on the left, click on it to read about scary black puke!

-C.O.S.I. website: http://www.cosi.org/
(and I just saw that the exhibit is no longer there! This is just one day after finding out that the Hitchcock Experience is no longer at Universal! My memories are being erased! Just like Back to the Future!)

J-Fic Thursday Book Review

The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World - E.L. Konigsburg

The first statement I'm going to make about this new novel from the writer of From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler ( a novel that has incited dreams and aspirations in all bookish/museum loving kids since 1967 )...is that Konigsburg proves she most definitely still has the ability to continue her ability to spin elaborate, suspenseful yarns full of intrigue that do not at all read like the typical juvenile fiction. But is there a typical juvenile fiction anymore? The answer is no, and thank goodness for that.
The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World mixes Nazi art theft, art curation, antiquities and estate sales, and former Opera Diva-eccentrics in an elaborate mystery that feels like Apt Pupil meets Bridge to Terabithia. The story centers around two adolescent boys, in almost a Country Mouse/City Mouse relationship, but never describes the locals as unintelligent or inarticulate: just full of colloquialisms. Also at the center is a middle-aged Godfather to one of the boys, who is curating an art exhibit of art that the Nazi's claimed were unnatural, unlawful, or pornographic (the artists include Picasso, Renoir, and Van Gogh). Rather than describe the entire plot (because I can't stand a review that tells you the entire story from start to finish) I'll just note that the awesome themes of this novel will hit home for kids and adults who read it. I think it might coincide with the grade/age that kids start learning about WWII and the atrocities of the Nazi party in school, and this will help them to understand a bit more about that horrendous time in history. I'd recommend this book to anyone of the age range of 10-110. A really exciting read from an always exciting writer.
(**see the link to the left to read more about the book, purchase it, or see it at your local library (something Konigsburg knows a little something about**)

J-Fic Thursday

('J-Fic' is my cheesy abbreviation for Juvenille Fiction, geared towards ages 4-7)

Feathers - Jacqueline Woodson

This itty little novel (only 208 pages) from Jacqueline Woodson is one of the strongest books I've read in the past few months, and that includes adult fiction. The voice is Frannie's, a sixth grader in the 1970's (I'm highly suspicious the voice is very similar to Ms. Woodson's at that age and era) and her pure sense of humor and candor is refreshing in an age of syrupy Hannah Montanas. Frannie and her family are extremely tight-knit - - which you unfortunately do not often see in a lot of fiction geared towards this age group nowadays. Her brother Sean is handsome, lyrical, and deaf; her mother, wise and beautiful (and a bit haunting); her father strong and supportive, even during his brief absences as a moving truck driver. A ghostly-spirit of a new-boy arrives in Frannie's class, and she finds herself hoping he's something more than the rest of them, something holy and new, from the beginning the seemingly Caucasian boy is dubbed Jesus Boy. To Frannie's surprise, he knows sign language, a connection that surprises and confuses her. I'm not going to give away too much plot, because this is a sweet little novel that I would love to see many people (adults!) read. Since it is so brief, a quick reading adult could sit down and read it in an hour or two.
What I'm taking away from this novel: Hope (the Dickinson quote "Hope is the thing with feathers..." is the theme and inspiration for the title of the novel...), a new voice in Woodson's Frannie and Sean, such inspired souls at a young age...and strong imagery that will last me longer than it took to read this little shiny feather of a book.
Read it. It's cute, you'll laugh, and be calmed by Woodson's thoughtful, quiet voice. Look for the link on the right to purchase, or check your local library.