Books of Elsewhere: Spellbound - New Interview

Last year (2010), one of my favorite Middle Grade releases was The Shadows: The Books of Elsewhere by debut author Jacqueline West.  When I finished the book, I was eagerly hoping that there would be more stories of Olive, her strange home, and some unusual friends.  I was thrilled to find out that there would be a sequel.  Spellbound: The Books of Elsewhere #2 will be released in July 2011.  Just in case you are having trouble waiting, here is an interview with author Jacqueline West.



For more information about the Books of Elsewhere, check out the official website:  http://thebooksofelsewhere.com/

Hot Off The Press! New Picture Books (10)

This is a feature that I do weekly called Hot Off The Press!  based on my visits to Vroman's Bookstore and checking out their wall of new picture books.  Here are the 5 new releases that stood out from the pile this week:

Leap Back Home To Me
Author: Lauren Thompson

Illustrator: Matthew Cordell
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry (April 26, 2011)
Audience: Toddler/Preschool 

With a nod towards Mother's Day, this story celebrates the classic theme of developing some independence while knowing that mom will always be there.  This little frog goes leap frogging all over the place but mama frog is always waiting for him to return.

Itsy Mitsy Runs Away
Author/Illustrator: Elanna Allen
Publisher: Atheneum  (May 3, 2011)
Audience: Preschool


You can have a lot of fun around the "I'm not going to bed" theme and Allen does just that with Itsy Mitsy Runs Away. With a twist on "The House Jack Built" repetitive lines, children will enjoy all of the things Mitsy must do before she can "run away". Below is the official book trailer which gives you a taste of the book.  I think my favorite line was "LITTLE GIRLS don't mow lawns - GROWN-UPS do!"

Chamelia
Author/Illustrator: Ethan Long
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (May 3, 2011)
Audience: Ages 4 to 6 

There are a lot of picture books or stories that focus on being yourself/celebrating one's uniqueness.   Chamelia wants to stand out but sometimes this can be a challenge for making friends and participating in things at school.  Can Chamelia find a way to fit in that doesn't cause her to be the same as the others. This is an enjoyable story that does a nice job with a common picture book theme.
 

Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator!
Author/Illustrator: Mo Willems
Publisher: Balzer & Bray Books (May 1, 2011)
Audience: Ages 4 to 7 

Mo Willems does it again. I really enjoyed the 6-1/2 stories about Amanda and her stuffed alligator who is awfully busy for being a toy. Perfect for beginning readers.  Below is a great interview/book trailer which will tell you more about this new offering by Willems.

Ollie and Moon
Author: Diane Kredensor

Photographer: Sandra Kress
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (April 26, 2011)
Audience: Ages 4 to 6 

This has been on my list to read for several months and it finally is out. Though it wasn't exactly what I expected, I was still excited about this one.  Ollie & Moon have a great friendship and trying to guess what the end surprise would be kept it interesting too. I enjoyed the cartoon characters layered over real photographs.  Check out the trailer below. 

Book Review - The Pull of Gravity

Author: Gae Polisner
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (May 10, 2011)
Pages: 208
Audience: Young Adult
Source: Advanced Reader Copy for Review
Genre: Contemporary Fiction 
Read with:  Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck

Description from GoodReads:
While Nick Gardner’s family is falling apart, his best friend, Scooter, is dying from a freak disease. The Scoot’s final wish is that Nick and their quirky classmate, Jaycee Amato, deliver a prized first-edition copy of Of Mice and Men to the Scoot’s father. There’s just one problem: the Scoot’s father walked out years ago and hasn’t been heard from since. So, guided by Steinbeck’s life lessons, and with only the vaguest of plans, Nick and Jaycee set off to find him.

Characters you’ll want to become friends with and a narrative voice that sparkles with wit make this a truly original coming-of-age story.

Here is one of my litmus tests for a book that I really like - I pick it up to read and get interrupted but it stays in the back of the mind whispering for me to find it and finish reading it.  In the story, Jaycee and Nick are discussing foreshadowing in reference to Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.  Jaycee tells Nick:
"I guess. But that's what makes it so brilliant.  Because, if I closed the book now, you'd want to know what happens, right? Sure, you know something's is going to happen, but you don't know what.  And you care about them, so you want to know." (quote taken from p. 87 of the ARC)

Here I was suppose to be finishing a pile of books for a project, and I start reading The Pull of Gravity.  By about 50 pages in, I realized that I had to return to my book stack and reluctantly put it down. Yet, I was already attached to the characters in Gae Polisner's debut novel, The Pull of Gravity, and wanted to know what was going to happen.  I loved that Polisner managed in less than 50 pages to already make me care about the characters and that I knew this would be a book that I would go back to and read.

Likable characters are not the only thing I enjoyed about The Pull of Gravity.  I truly appreciated that the book had short, readable chapters and was only a little more than 200 pages.  With some teenagers, I have the challenge of trying to convince them to read a book.   If they already think they don't like reading and I hand them a book that is 400 pages long, I might lose them.  If I can read a couple of quick chapters to them, make them laugh, and hook them in, then I will usually be successful in convincing them to give it a try.   

The Pull of Gravity also has a boy narrator who actually seems like a 15 year old boy.  I spend a considerable amount of time with children and teens and the majority of the teen boys I meet do not seem like the suave, got it all together male heart-throbs in some YA novels.  Many are kind of geeky, awkward, and not sure what to do around a girl they might potentially like.  Nick (the main character and narrator) says/does/thinks a bunch of things that made me chuckle basically because it seemed real.  And yet despite all of the awkwardness, you really find yourself liking him.  He is paired up with Jaycee, a quirky classmate, who wears necklaces made of troll dolls and slinky bracelets.  Together they set out on a road trip guided by the lessons of Steinbeck, and with the mission of reuniting a first edition copy of Of Mice And Men with the estranged father of of their dying friend, Scoot.
 
If you have been counting, you'll notice there are several things about this story that I like (characters you care about and who seem real, short chapters, humor).  Here is another one, the road trip has a purpose.  By this, I don't actually mean why the characters went on the road.  Instead, the road trip has the purpose of helping the characters change and grow.  Road trips without purpose, no matter how fun or quirky it may be, actually irritate me.  This is probably my own personality quirks coming out but still, it makes my list of another reason I liked the book.  
 
I, also, have to admit not being exactly a true fan of contemporary fiction.  Partially because so much of it is filled with way too much high school drama.  Consequently, I can probably count on one hand the ones I really like.  Books such as Natalie Standiford's How To Say Goodbye In Robot or Allen Zadoff's Food, Girls, And Other Things I Can't Have stand out in my mind as contemporary fiction that I adore.  Polisner's The Pull of Gravity will likely appeal to fans of those books.

Finally, Polisner creates an ending for Nick, Jaycee, and the others that is right.  Not a perfectly wrapped up ending but one that feels right for the book and for the characters.  Polisner's debut novel is an enjoyable read and I certainly look forward to future offerings.
 
For more information about Gae Polisner, check out her website: http://gaepolisner.com/
On Twitter, you can follow her: @gaepol

Below is the official book trailer for The Pull of Gravity:

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday - Horton Halfpott

Author: Tom Angleberger
Publisher: Amulet Books (May 1, 2011)
Audience: Ages 9 to 12
Source: ARC from Midwinter ALA
Mystery * Humor

Description from GoodReads:
Tom Angleberger's latest, loopiest middle-grade novel begins when M'Lady Luggertuck loosens her corset (it's never been loosened before!), thereby setting off a chain of events in which all the strict rules of Smugwick Manor are abandoned. When, as a result of "the Loosening," the precious family heirloom, the Luggertuck Lump (quite literally a lump), goes missing, the Luggertucks look for someone to blame. Is it Horton Halfpott, the good-natured but lowly kitchen boy who can't tell a lie? Or one of the many colorful cast members in this silly romp of a mystery.

I was excited to hear that Tom Angleberger, author of Origami Yoda, had a new middle grade book coming out, and then fortunate enough to snag an advanced reader's copy at ALA Midwinter.  After finishing it, within days of picking it up, the book was already making the rounds starting with my niece and then select students at school.  The verdict - one very funny book.  Horton Halfpott: Or, the Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor; or, The Loosening of M'Lady Luggertuck's Corset or just Horton Halfpott, as I call it, is part Dickens, part Victorian mystery, and part Fractured Fairy Tales.  (For those of you too young to remember these cartoons, YouTube has a number of them.  Click here to watch one.) 

One morning, M'Lady Luggertuck's Corset is loosened unleashing a series of events around the Luggertuck's estate (Smugwick Manor).  Readers quickly learn that the Lord and Lady of Smugwick Manor are very unpleasant and their son Luther is quite spoiled.  There is no mistake about this.  When items go missing, the Luggertucks hire Portnoy St. Pomfrey to get to the bottom of it all.  As in most Victorian mysteries, things aren't always as they seem.  Is St. Pomfrey really such an amazing detective or just taking advantage of free food and housing?  Is the Luggertuck's lump really such a fabulous diamond?  Is Horton truly just a lowly kitchen boy who cannot lie?  Will Celia Sylvan-Smythe marry the conniving Luther, or his spineless cousin Montgomery, or will some other boy catch her eye?  And what does a gang of pirates have to do with this whole story?

Angleberger does a masterful job at getting the voice just right which is critical to the success of the story.  The short chapters, colorful characters, goofy antics, play on words, and twists and turns will engage readers.  The narrator reveals just enough information where the reader feels like s/he is in the know but not so much as to spoil the surprises.  Additionally, the book appears to appeal to both female and male readers.  It has been fun to see that both girl and boy readers sharing how much they have enjoyed the story too. 

Though vastly different from Origami Yoda, Horton Halfpott continues to show Angleberger's skill with writing humor and quirky characters.  Fortunately fans of Angleberger's won't have long to wait for another book, Darth Paper Strikes Back coming out in September 2011.   

For more information about Horton Halfpott, check out the official website.  I picked up a final copy recently (yes, it was spotted in the wild three weeks before the release date) and the windows on the front cover actually glows in the dark!

For more information about author Tom Angleberger, check out the following websites:  Berger & Burger or The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.

You can also follow Tom Angleberger on Twitter: @origamiyoda

* Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays were started by Shannon over at Ramblings of a Wannabe Scribe. You can check out her Marvelous Middle Grade Monday choice and Giveaway Post here.

Hot Off The Press! New Picture Books (9)

This is a feature that I do weekly called Hot Off The Press!  based on my weekly visits to Vroman's Bookstore and checking out their wall of new picture books. However, this is going to be a slightly unusual "Hot Off The Press!" post.  I realized that I never did a post on new books of poetry for children and National Poetry Month is almost over.  So I am going to compromise - two new releases (from the new release wall) and three new poetry books released in 2011 (featured on Vroman's National Poetry Month table). 

The Umbrella
Illustrators: Ingrid Schubert, Deiter Schubert
Publisher: Lemniscaat USA (April 1, 2011)
Audience: Ages 4 and older

This wordless picture book is beautifully illustrated by husband and wife team Deiter & Ingrid Schubert. It is a simple story of a small dog who finds an umbrella and thanks to the wind, ends up going on an adventure around the world. It is important to pay attention to the end pages as well or the reader will miss some important information.  I was so hoping that there would be a book trailer for this one, but alas, I couldn't find one.  

Meow Said The Cow
Author/Illustrator: Emma Dodd
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (May 1, 2011)
Audience: Ages 3 to 6 

A barnyard cat is tired of the noise in the morning by all of the other animals on the farm.  With a swish of his tail and a little spell, cat causes the animals to make different sounds.  Rather than experiencing the peace and quite that cat was hoping for, there is utter chaos.  Soon the animals know just who is to blame and cat returns their voices but not without getting a taste of his own magic.  Young children will enjoy the rhyming text and the silliness of all the animals making different sounds.  

A Dazzling Display of Dogs
Author: Betsy Franco
Illustrator: Michael Wertz
Publisher: Tricycle Books (January 25, 2011)
Audience: 

In 2009, Franco released A Curious Collection of Cats - a book of poetry for children and cat lovers about just that - cats.  Her newest release is for the dog lovers out there. Each poem captures the experience and all of the emotions of owning and loving dogs.  For more wonderful books on poetry for children, including one about cats, check out Betsy Franco's website.  For a fun experience, you can watch the video posted on YouTube by illustrator Michael Wertz who performs the poems to music.  

Lemonade: And Other Poems Squeezed From A Single Word
Author: Bob Raczka
Illustrator: Nancy Doninger
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (March 15, 2011)
Audience: Grades 2nd to 6th

When I picked this book up, I sat down with my 10 year old niece and we started reading it together.  Bob Raczka did an amazing job creating poems from just the letters in a single word.  The reader has the challenge of viewing the artistic arrangement of the words/letters and discovering the poem.  On the back side of the page, the poem is written out in a more straightforward manner.  I have shared this book with teachers and students.  I admire Raczka's ability to make something look so easy when I know with certainty that it isn't easy.

There isn't a book trailer that I could find for this book, but here is a link were you can take a peek inside the book.  Click here. 

Peaceful Pieces: Poems and Quilts About Peace
Author/Illustrator: Anna Grossnickle Hines
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company (March 29, 2011)
Audience: Grades 2nd to 6th

Anna Grossnickle Hines gets my praise on two levels.  One - this is a remarkable book of poetry, both serious and at times fun, centered around the topic of peace.  Peace both globally and in ourselves and our communities.  She also gets my praise for the quilted illustrations.  In another life and times, I would love to come back both as a poet and a quilter.  Rather than tell you about this book, I want to encourage you to watch the book trailer.  You will see why this book is so amazing.