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.

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