Kimberly Hirsh

Monday, October 15

• Randy Cecil at ChatRabbit
  
• Michelle Chang at The Longstockings
  
• Kevin Hawkes at Cynthia Lord's Journal
  
• Barbara Lehman at The Excelsior File
  
• Grace Lin at In the Pages

Tuesday, October 16

• Selina Alko at Brooklyn Arden
  
• Scott Bakal at Wild Rose Reader
  
• Alexandra Boiger at Paradise Found
  
• Paige Keiser at Your Neighborhood Librarian
  
• Janet Stevens at The Miss Rumphius Effect

Wednesday, October 17

• Rick Chrustowski at laurasalas
  
• Diane DeGroat at Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup
  
• Ilene Richard at Something Different Every Day
  
• Brie Spangler at Lectitans
  
• Don Tate at The Silver Lining

Thursday, October 18

• Brooke Dyer at Bookshelves of Doom
  
• D.B. Johnson at Lessons from the Tortoise
  
• Erin Eitter Kono at Sam Riddleburger
  
• Sherry Rogers at A Life in Books
  
• Jennifer Thermes at Through the Studio Door

 

Monday, October 15 

• Randy Cecil at ChatRabbit
• Michelle Chang at The Longstockings
• Kevin Hawkes at Cynthia Lord's Journal
• Barbara Lehman at The Excelsior File
• Grace Lin at In the Pages

Tuesday, October 16

• Selina Alko at Brooklyn Arden
• Scott Bakal at Wild Rose Reader
• Alexandra Boiger at Paradise Found
• Paige Keiser at Your Neighborhood Librarian
• Janet Stevens at The Miss Rumphius Effect

Wednesday, October 17

• Rick Chrustowski at laurasalas
• Diane DeGroat at Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup
• Ilene Richard at Something Different Every Day
• Brie Spangler at Lectitans
• Don Tate at The Silver Lining

 

Today I’m highlighting illustrator Brie Spangler’s snowflake for Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure. Brie’s snowflake is called “Blue-Haired Lady.” I love how the image the title brings to my mind - an elderly woman with wild hair - is not at all what I see on the snowflake. This is a vivacious young thing! With gold stars spangling her hair, I’m inclined to think she may even be a fairy.

According to her bio, “Brie Spangler is an author-illustrator originally from the Boston, Mass. area. She loves clambakes, baseball, and her pekingese, Lola. When not drawing pictures, Brie can be found avoiding direct sunlight, drinking too much coffee, and snuggling with her husband, Matt."

At Brie’s website, you can see a wide variety of her work. She’s very diverse! Her illustrations include educational work for the American Medical Association, children’s series like The Stinky Boys Club and The Caped 6th Grader, magazine illustrations, and pictures for companies like Capezio and Keds.

In June 2008, Knopf will release Brie’s book Peg Leg Peke, the first book on which she is both writer and illustrator.

To buy Brie’s snowflake, go here. The auction begins November 19 and ends November 23. Be sure to check out all the other snowflakes at Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure!

We're still blogging about snowflakes available in the Robert's Snow auction! Here are this week's posts:

Monday, October 15 
Randy Cecil at ChatRabbit
Michelle Chang at The Longstockings
Kevin Hawkes at Cynthia Lord's Journal
Barbara Lehman at The Excelsior File
Grace Lin at In the Pages

Tuesday, October 16 
Selina Alko at Brooklyn Arden
Scott Bakal at Wild Rose Reader
Alexandra Boiger at Paradise Found
Paige Keiser at Your Neighborhood Librarian
Janet Stevens at The Miss Rumphius Effect

PLEASE NOTE!  We can't possibly feature all of the illustrators participating in this event on our blogs.  That means to see all of them, you'll have to go to the Robert's Snow Site.
 

For the next few weeks I’ll be participating in Blogging for the Cure, which jules of 7-Imp sums up better than I ever will:

Upon seeing that two books I was sent review copies of months ago and haven't touched except to put on my TBR shelf are being released today, I began to feel guilty.  My number of posts has significantly dropped off, and for that I am very sorry.  I wanted to offer up a quick explanation of why this is, because no matter how much I try and make myself post, it doesn't look to be changing any time soon.

Posting a good entry requires brainpower.

I am working harder at my job than I ever have before.  I am investing more energy in it.  My hours are not the longest they've ever been, but during my contact time with students I am using the most energy I ever have.  This is having very positive results in the classroom and with my colleagues.

Unfortunately, it is completely exhausting.  It is exhausting to the point that my recent hobbies have become reading (but not writing), playing video games (mindless but because they give you tasks to do still gives a sense of accomplishment), and complaining (a rather unattractive trait, being a complainer).  I very rarely cook real food anymore.  A year ago, I was cooking myself a nutritious dinner every night.

So I've been doing the bare minimum here - participating in group events, and then making other posts as I have energy.

So when will you see posts from me?

A week from tomorrow on October 17 I'll be writing a feature about illustrator Brie Spangler and her work for Robert's Snow

In November, during the Winter Blog Blast Tour, I'll feature interviews with Kerry Madden and Dia Calhoun.

I have a whole schedule of things through May but I don't want to reveal them as they're all group events that we haven't begun to publicize yet.  In any case, you are guaranteed a post a month from me.  I know that's not a lot, but that will be there for sure.  Beyond that, you will get reviews when the mood strikes me to write one, commentary on days when I have the good fortune to read the other blogs, and participation in memes/regular weekly events when I get a chance to sit down at the computer.

I just wanted to let you know what was going on so you didn't think I'd disappeared entirely.

See you next week if not before!

I've started a new theatre journal:

http://mimula.livejournal.com

I'm not in the habit of writing about picture books, but there are some that still strike my fancy, in addition to the old favorites that hold a place in my heart.  Now it's October, my second favorite month of the year (July is the first because that's when my birthday is), and we kidlit bloggers are celebrating Bradbury Season.  For me this time of year is more marvelous than scary, but I like a tinge of the morbid even in my sparkles, and so I present you my choice for Bradbury Season: Robert D. San Souci's Cinderella Skeleton. 

"Cinderella Skeleton" is a fairytale retold for goths.  Our familiar friend Cindy isn't sweeping up the house anymore.  Now her chores include hanging cobwebs, arranging dead flowers, littering the floor with dust and leaves, and feeding bats.  Her stepmother and stepsisters are still evil, though, and when the marvelously dead Prince Charnel hosts a ball, they do everything they can to keep her away.  

You know this story, though, so you know that it all ends well.  When Prince Charnel finds Cinderella Skeleton he proclaims:

Cinderella Skeleton!
The rarest gem the world has seen!
Your gleaming skull and burnished bones,
Your teeth like polished kidney stones,
Your dampish silks and dankish hair,
There's nothing like you anywhere!
You make each day a Halloween!

That part always makes me cry a little, tears of joy.  I received this book as a gift from my boyfriend (he's so goth he's dead, except he's not really goth at all - just vaguely morbid, like me) and he inscribed it with "You make each day a Halloween!" at the front of the book.  

Where this version of the tale shines is not in the plot itself, which we all know.  It is in the details.  It's in the fact that Cinderella's coach driver is a black cat.  It's in the way San Souci deals with the glass slipper part of the tale.  It's in the fact that this Prince is Prince Charnel ("a building or chamber in which bodies or bones are deposited" - thank you, M-W.com!) instead of Prince Charming.  And it is in the phenomal illustrations provided by David Catrow.

"Cinderella Skeleton" is perfect for fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride (which it pre-dates by five years).  It is the whimsical kind of spooky that perky goths enjoy and morbid but not too serious children adore.  It is wonderful and beautiful, and it is my favorite Halloween book.

For more on Bradbury Season, see Colleen's post at Chasing Ray.

 

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my feed so you will get my other recommendation posts.

Buy a Friend a Book Week is October 1-7 (as well as the first weeks of January, April, and July). During this week, you’re encouraged to buy a friend a book for no good reason. Not for their birthday, not because it’s a holiday, not to cheer them up–just because it’s a book.

What book would you choose to give to a friend and why?

I would buy His Majesty, Queen Hatshepsut for just about any friend of mine.  I’d choose this one because it is the origin of my Hatshepsut-obsession; a female king makes me happy because I’ve always thought I should be one.  Everyone should read it, because it’s fun!

October Project #2 is here: community.livejournal.com/scriptita…

For today's Monday Misdirection, I shall simply point you in the direction of my first October Project Post.  You can find it here: http://community.livejournal.com/scriptitans/568.html

Each Sunday at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast,  jules and eisha ask us to talk about good stuff that happened in our week.

Here’s mine!

1. Work was low stress and high productivity.  It began with a teacher workday, which enabled me to get ahead on lots of planning.  I also made a push to get caught up on grading, and so now I won’t have much grading to do for the next week.

2. It was a musical theatre week.  I went to see two of my students in a production of Les Miserables.

3. And then I went to see Hairspray the movie of the musical based on the movie (it’s like The Producers that way) which was a lot of fun.

4. I got paid.  

5. Banned Book Week started yesterday!

6. In my unsuccessful quest to find a Nintendo Wii, I discovered that my BFF from middle and high school has a livejournal and friended her at my personal journal.  (And was friends with my housemate but not me.  Life is odd sometimes.)

7. Despite or perhaps because of a couple of little-sleep nights, I came up with the idea for my October Project.

In anticipation of NaNoWriMo, I’ve decided to set up a bit of a challenge for myself.

Here’s the deal:

Every day for the entire month of October, I will post some fanfiction over at

.  It can be as short as a 100-word drabble or as long as a serial story.  But it will be there, and it will be me writing.

The basic idea here is that to improve at writing, you need to write.  But I get hung up on all the world-creation parts of things.  This will give me the chance to write without having to worry about that; someone else has made the world and the characters for me.  Now all I have to do is get inside them.

You can expect to see writing in the following fandoms: Pirates of the Caribbean, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Final Fantasy (VII, X, or XII, most likely, though with perhaps some V or VI thrown in), Harry Potter, Star Wars, and perhaps others.  I’m open to requests, provided it’s something I feel fairly grounded in.

Care to join me?  Drop a comment on the entry linked here, and I’ll keep a list of who’s playing.
 

Welcome to Theatre Thursday!  Because plays are books too, I will be featuring each Thursday a play I’ve read that I think you should read.  After all, I got a degree in this stuff and it’s languishing.

So.  That’s the plan for Theatre Thursday.

On this fine Thursday I’m exhausted from too little sleep and a full day of work, so I’ll just give you a selection now and talk about why, later.

You should read William Shakespeare’s HAMLET.  Not just because it’s a classic, though that’s important.  But also because it’s a very SMART play, a very TIGHT play, and way better than most people would have you believe.

If, like many folks, you feel plays were meant to be watched and not read (and indeed this is true), then I strongly recommend the Kenneth Branagh HAMLET.  Because seriously?  All the others cut a lot of stuff out.  This is the only Hamlet movie with the WHOLE SCRIPT in it.  Yeah, it’s over 4 hours long.  But it’s 4 BRILLIANT hours.  And it’s out on DVD now, too.

We’ll talk more about why HAMLET is awesome another time.  For now, just take my word for it.  Here’s a quick snippet for you. 

Enter HAMLET, reading

LORD POLONIUS
O, give me leave:
How does my good Lord Hamlet?

HAMLET 
Well, God-a-mercy.

LORD POLONIUS 
Do you know me, my lord?

HAMLET 
Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.

LORD POLONIUS 
Not I, my lord.

HAMLET 
Then I would you were so honest a man.

LORD POLONIUS 
Honest, my lord!

HAMLET 
Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be
one man picked out of ten thousand.

LORD POLONIUS 
That’s very true, my lord.

HAMLET 
For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a
god kissing carrion,–Have you a daughter?

LORD POLONIUS 
I have, my lord.

HAMLET 
Let her not walk i’ the sun: conception is a
blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.
Friend, look to ’t.

LORD POLONIUS 
[Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my
daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I
was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and
truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for
love; very near this. I’ll speak to him again.
What do you read, my lord?

HAMLET 
Words, words, words.

LORD POLONIUS 
What is the matter, my lord?

HAMLET 
Between who?

LORD POLONIUS 
I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.

HAMLET 
Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here
that old men have grey beards, that their faces are
wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and
plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of
wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir,
though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet
I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for
yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab
you could go backward.

LORD POLONIUS 
[Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method
in ’t. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

HAMLET 
Into my grave.

LORD POLONIUS 
Indeed, that is out o’ the air.

Aside

How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness
that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity
could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will
leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of
meeting between him and my daughter.–My honourable
lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.

HAMLET 
You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will
more willingly part withal: except my life, except
my life, except my life.

Because I’m overly fond of alliteration, I’ve decided that in order to be able to make Thursday “Theatre Thursday,” I will be answering the Booking Through Thursday questions on Tuesdays.

So here’s the lectitans weekly schedule:
Sunday - Seven on Sunday
Monday - Monday Misdirection
Tuesday - Booking Through Thursday Tuesday
Wednesday - Open
Thursday - Theatre Thursday
Friday - Poetry Friday
Saturday - Weekend Wonderings

So today, Booking Through Tuesday:

Imagine that everything is going just swimmingly. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and all’s right with the world. You’re practically bouncing from health and have money in your pocket. The kids are playing and laughing, the puppy is chewing in the cutest possible manner on an officially-sanctioned chew toy, and in between moments of laughter for pure joy, you pick up a book to read . . .

What is it?

A Piers Anthony book, no question.  (I should note that last week the question was which book is your “comfort food,” to which my answer would also have been a Piers Anthony book.)  For the happier times, I want something Xanth, I think.  Xanth books are phenomenal to read when the weather is good.  If it’s a bad day, then I’m more in a Bio of a Space Tyrant mood.

I’ll explain on Thursday what I’ll be doing for Theatre Thursday.  Still looking for a topic for Wednesday.  Little Willow suggested good ones but I feel they’d be duplicating my Monday Misdirection and Weekend Wonderings posts. 

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I'm hoping to institute a theme for just about every day of the week here at

 . 

Let me show you what the week looks like so far:
Sunday - Seven on Sunday (Thanks, 7-Imp!)
Monday - Misdirection Monday
Tuesday - empty
Wednesday - empty
Thursday - Booking Through Thursday
Friday - Poetry Friday
Saturday - Weekend Wonderings (Remember those?)

Any suggestions for Tuesday or Wednesday?  Alliteration is always fun.  I want to keep reviews a possibility for just about any day, but until I find themes for Tuesday and Wednesday I'll try and be sure to post reviews on those days.

 

 

I’m trying to develop a theme for each day on my blog here, because that way I won’t agonize over what to write and instead end up writing nothing.  If I have a schedule, a routine, if you will, updates should be much more frequent.  (Very honestly, the day job has me wanting to avoid the computer.  It’s just that teaching makes me tired, and often looking at a computer feels like more work.  When I was in college, this never would have been a problem, and computers WERE my job, then.)

Because I take a musical theatre dance class on Monday nights, Mondays are a bit lean on writing time for me.  Because of this, I’m going to make Monday Misdirection my theme.  All this means is that on Monday I will post links I’ve collected over the past little bit (probably about a week or so).  Then I’ll post them here.  It’s misdirection, because it looks like I’m posting, but really I’m just directing you elsewhere.

On with the show:

Over at The Cybils, things are heating up.  Last week, they welcomed us to the 2007 Cybils.  This week, they’re profiling their volunteers.  There are five profiles up now, and more to come.  Nominations open a week from today, and anyone can nominate books published in English in 2007 - one nomination per category, please.

The September issue of The Edge of the Forest is now online.  This month you’ll find a feature article on the portrayal of Baba Yaga in Western literature, an interview with Barnstormers author and former teacher Phil Bildner, reviews of all shapes and sizes, and much more.

Hispanic Heritage Month began on September 15, and Scholastic is providing a Hispanic Heritage Booklist at their website.  They’ve also included a lesson plan, unit plan, an online activity, and a list of other resources.

Teen Read Week is October 14 - 20 and is being sponsored by ALA and YALSA.  In conjunction with YALSA, the Readergirlz are hosting an event called 31 Flavorite Authors for Teens; the Readergirlz will be hosting a different author chat each day for the month of October.  I hope they’ll have transcripts; I’ll probably miss some of the chats but would love to read them all!  I’m especially excited about Rachel Cohn.  You can read more about the event at the Readergirlz website.

That’s all I’ve got for this Monday Misdirection, but it’s only stuff I’ve put together today.  As the week goes on, I’m sure I’ll collect more, so stay tuned for next week!

 
If you would, please go to Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and read how you can help out with “Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure” blogging event. Anyone and everyone who has a blog is urged to participate.

Thank you.

As I gear up for this year's NaNoWriMo, I'm making reading lists.  I've never won NaNoWriMo.  I always run out of steam.  I don't want that to happen anymore!

I've chosen YA urban fantasy as my genre of choice this year.  So far I know I want it to be a story about a girl who has to save her sister.  I feel that's vague enough that I can express it without worries of anyone stealing my idea.  I have established a writing LJ parallel to this one, entitled

 , to chronicle my plans for writing.  I'm on NaNoWriMo as KimberlyH, should you care to be buddies.   

Here are my reading lists that I'm using as resources:
Bildungsroman: Fantasy Novels for Kids and Teens
Bildungsroman: Monster Mash
Bildungsroman: Vamping It Up
YALSA: Magic in the Real World

Anyone have any other list suggestions?  I'm looking for lists rather than titles, because it's nice to get lots of info in one place.

 

 

 

In case you didn't hear, Madeleine L'Engle has died.  I felt a quick pang of pain at this, and have found some poetry of hers to share with you.

http://www.technomom.com/reading/lengle.shtml

Here's my favorite bit from there:

 You are still new, my love. I do not know you.
Stranger beside me in the dark of bed,
Dreaming the dreams I cannot ever enter,
Eyes closed in that unknown, familiar head.

and all the rest of part iv of "To a Long-Loved Love."

 Each week at Booking Through Thursday, Deb asks a book-related question.  Here's this week's question:

Are you a Goldilocks kind of reader?

Do you need the light just right, the background noise just so loud but not too loud, the chair just right, the distractions at a minimum?

Or can you open a book at any time and dip right in, whether it’s for twenty seconds, while waiting for the kettle to boil, or indefinitely, like while waiting interminably at the hospital–as long as the book is open in front of your nose, you’re happy to read?

I am the latter kind, the anti-Goldilocks.  I will read anywhere and everywhere, for any amount of time.  I have been known to tear through books in the car and on airplanes; I read while I wait for webpages to load.  I read while I cook.  Audiobooks enable me to read when I drive, but more than once I've had a book in the passenger seat and been at a stoplight and had to work very hard not to pick it up and thus risk a wreck.  (Have you seen the episode of Family Guy where Peter keeps reading the Archie comic while he's driving?  I'd be like that, but with more words and fewer pictures.)  I read when people are talking to me.  I read when the TV is on.  I'd read in the movie theater if I could, sometimes.  I can read sitting, standing, or lying down.  I read while I'm on lunch duty.  The only thing I need to read is text; everything else is incidental.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LITTLE WILLOW!

First, an aside: you may have noticed in my posts that I tend to include anecdotes and that I am not especially impartial or matter-of-fact in my reviews.  The reason for this is that I started this journal to be a personal reading journal, and so I use it to chronicle my own experiences of books.  This is different than someone who writes exclusively for their audience.  I do try to be interesting and to consider my audience interests, but

 remains a personal journal, and so the content will always have a personal touch.

And now, on to the review.

In Dia Calhoun’s Aria of the Sea, Cerinthe Gale, a 13 year old resident of the kingdom of Windward, moves from her small island to the capital city in order to audition for the School of the Royal Dancers.  As she attends the school, though, Cerinthe finds that her late mother’s dream for her to be a professional dancer is in conflict with her own talent for healing and her devotion to the goddess the Sea Maid.  Cerinthe blames her own error in healing for her mother’s death, and so when her rival, Elliana, is injured, Cerinthe is reluctant to help because she fears another failure.  It is at this juncture that Cerinthe must choose who she will become.

I’m afraid to reveal much more of the plot than this, because I don’t want to spoil more for you.

There are quite a few things that Dia Calhoun does incredibly effectively in Aria of the Sea.  First, she conveys Cerinthe’s homesickness with startling accuracy.  I missed Cerinthe’s imaginary home island myself, reading about Cerinthe’s feelings.  Second, she paints a true-to-life portrait of teenage rivalry; while my art when I was Cerinthe’s age was theatre and not dance, I experienced hostility from multiple corners of my tiny theatre world.  Elliana very much reminded me of girls I knew, right down to the realization Cerinthe had that though Elliana may be wealthy, that didn’t mean she was truly happy.  Nobody wants to be married off according to her parents’ will, after all.  Third, Calhoun aptly describes the pain one feels when one’s faith has deserted her.  Cerinthe, who has always heard the voice of her goddess the Sea Maid, ceases to hear her once she comes to the capital.  Calhoun describes Cerinthe’s sense of abandonment with great intensity.

What Aria of the Sea does best, however, is demonstrate the difficulty that lies in a choice between two callings.  Cerinthe is a very talented dancer, and well-trained.  She is less well-trained as a healer, but displays more talent.  The choice between these two callings is heart-wrenching.

I would especially recommend Aria of the Sea to fans of fantasy, coming of age stories, and the arts.  I would more generally recommend it to anyone who likes a moving story.  I’d be especially likely to put it in the hands of girls in the twelve to fourteen age range, whom I think will identify heavily with Cerinthe.

Book: Aria of the Sea (Affiliate Link)
Author: Dia Calhoun
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Original Publication Date: 2003
Pages: 272
Age Range: Young Adult
Source of Book: Library

 A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy : The Vietnam books by Ellen Emerson White,

Big A, little a : to The Deep by Helen Dunmore,

Bildungsroman : the May Bird Trilogy by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Not Your Mother’s Bookclub takes a look at some recently revised classics,

Fuse Number 8 : Stoneflight by George McHarque

lectitans: Gentle’s Holler and Louisiana Song both by Kerry Madden

Chasing Ray fini: Kipling’s Choice by Geert Spillebeen,

Interactive Reader : A Plague of Sorcerers by Mary Frances Zambreno,

The YA YA YAs : Resurrection Men by TK Welsh

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast : Such a Pretty Face: Short Stories About Beauty edited by Ann Angel 

You can't feed a family of ten or eleven with just love and music, but they sure do make life more bearable.

In Kerry Madden's Maggie Valley Trilogy, Olivia "Livy Two" Weems narrates the ups and downs of her mountain family life.  The first book in the trilogy is Gentle's Holler.  Livy Two's Daddy is a songwriter and traveling salesman, waiting for that big banjo hit.  Mama has two babies (Cyrus and Caroline) sleeping in the dresser drawer and one in the cradle (Appelonia).  Emmett, Livy Two's elder brother, has dreams of running off to work at Ghost Town in the Sky, a new amusement park with an Old West theme.  (The book is set in the 1960s.)  Becksie, Livy Two's older sister, is bossy as can be, and Jitters, one of Livy Two's younger sisters, idolizes her, copying her every move.  Louise, another sister, is a talented visual artist.  And Livy Two herself is a songwriter like her Daddy, composing on the theme of family life, with titles like "Daddy's Roasted Peanuts" and "Grandma's Glass Eye."

Livy Two's three year old sister, Gentle, doesn't seem to see very well, but the whole family is in denial of it.  Until the appearance of the fearsome Grandma Horace, that is.  Grandma Horace comes to Maggie Valley from her home in "Enka-Stinka" (the town of Enka, NC, a town previously known to me only for its top-notch Latin students) and starts setting things to rights.  Soon, Livy Two is teaching Gentle how to read Braille and training Uncle Hazard, the family dog, to work as a seeing eye dog.

I'm afraid to say much about the plot of Louisiana's Song, the second book in the trilogy, because I don't want to spoil the ending of Gentle's Holler.  The two books flow very naturally together, seamlessly telling one story.  At the same time, a reader could easily pick up Louisiana's Song and jump right in without any confusion; the characters develop and shine in both books, and Madden manages to explain the background of the story without making it tedious for those who read the first book.

The greatest strength in these books, and what has made me fall in love with them, is the distinctness and authenticity of each character.  I come from mountain stock, and these people feel as though they could be my relatives.  Daddy reminds me of my grandfather, and I see a lot of myself in Becksie.  Gentle, with her sweetness and beautiful voice, reminds me of my own little sister.  Caroline and Cyrus, the twins, are delightful in their obsessions with fairies and mummies, respectively.  Grandma Horace is the kind of woman you have to fear and respect, a matriarch who, despite her criticisms, clearly loves her family.  Even Uncle Buddy, Grandma Horace's gambler runaway brother, is charming.  I love the Weems family.  I want to spend some time with them, even if it does mean going hungry or being overrun by so many children.

There's something magical and beautiful about the North Carolina mountains, and Kerry Madden captures it in both novels.  This is a place where if you look hard enough you just might see a mountain fairy, where the autumn leaves blaze orange, red, brown and gold, where the smell of honeysuckle can run away with your imagination.  Livy Two and her siblings have a great respect for and love of nature that endears them to me all the more.

The third book in the trilogy, Jessie's Mountain, will be released February 14, 2008, and I can't wait.  I love Livy Two Weems and her whole family, and I look forward to their next adventure.

In case you missed them, here they are!

A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy :Friends for Life and Life Without Friends, companion books continuing with the author celebration for Ellen Emerson White,

Shaken & Stirred: The Changeover and Catalogue of the Universe, both by Margaret Mahy,

Big A, little a: an interview with Helen Dunmore!

Jen Robinson's Book Page : The Treasures of Weatherby by Zilpha Keatley Snyder,

Bildungsroman: Swollen by Melissa Lion;

Miss Erin: Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye by Kaza Kingsley,

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Billie Standish Was Here by Nancy Crocker,

Fuse Number 8 : The Noisy Counting Book by Susan Schade,

Chasing Ray Juniper, Genetian and Rosemary by  Pamela Dean,

lectitans : Who Pppplugged Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf,

Writing and Ruminating : Hugging the Rock, by Susan Taylor Brown.

It's especially fitting that I'm bringing this book to your attention on the ninth anniversary of my first date with my boyfriend, because our love of the entire Roger Rabbit mythos is a large part of what has kept us together all these years (that, The Phantom of the Opera, Piers Anthony, and Ferris Bueller).  But let me take you back to a long time ago, almost twenty years ago, to 1988...

I was six years old, and my aunt worked for a major advertising firm.  (She still does.)  At the time, this firm had a big Disney account, which came with lots of perks for employees - promotional materials like posters, and pins.  My bedroom from ages five through twelve was decorated primarily with my aunt's Disney promo cast-offs.  Another perk she received from the company was preview screenings.  So before the movie was released to the general public, I got to see "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

I loved it so much.  So much I can't even explain how much.  The world was enchanting, the characters were charming, and Judge Doom was about the scariest villain ever conceived in my book (and remains so to this day).  I loved the movie so much that when it was released on video, watching it was a daily ritual, and I would recite the lines along with it.  It was in my top five favorite movies ever.  (It probably still sits there, too, only behind other 80s classics like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "The Princess Bride.")

I was ecstatic a few years later, when I was old enough to appreciate much of the humor that had been lost on me in that first viewing, to discover a literary sequel to the film.  (Reading reviews now I see it is not an actual sequel to the movie or to the book upon which the movie was based, Who Censored Roger Rabbit?  But we'll pretend it is anyway.)

Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit? does all that a sequel really requires: it takes favorite characters and puts them in new and exciting situations.  The book takes us back to old Hollywood, where director David O. Selznick is auditioning three actors for the role of Rhett Butler in his musical comedy "Gone with the Wind": Clark Gable, Baby Herman, and Roger Rabbit himself.  Ever jealous, Roger suspects his buxom wife Jessica may be fooling around with Gable, and hires Eddie to find out if his suspicions are grounded in fact and what his standing is with Selznick.  There are a few conflicts of interest, though, as Selznick himself wants Eddie to find out who stole a box from his office; Roger is one of the suspects.  Clark Gable wants Eddie to ascertain the identity of the individual claiming Gable is gay in the tabloids.  To make matters worse, a toon named Kirk Enigman is murdered with Eddie's gun.  Add in the search for Toon Tonic, which turns people into toons and toons into people, and encounters with Jessica Rabbit's twin Joellyn, a five-inch tall vixen, enormous amounts of punnery, and you have an incredibly entertaining book.

I would recommend Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit? to fans of the film, but also to fans of comic mysteries.  This is hard-boiled detective hilarity.  It holds a special place in my heart because of my love for the film and the characters, but it will entertain anyone who prizes silliness above all.

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