This week's question is rather light, and ties into my recent reading of Wildwood Dancing and The Various, and my less recent reading of Tithe and Love in Shadow.

(Have I mentioned that I provided Latin names for some of the sprites in Arthur Spiderwick's Care and Feeding of Sprites?  Occasionally, knowing a dead language leads to awesome things.  If Little Willow is your friend, anyway.)

What's the deal with fairies?
Why do these creatures captivate our imaginations so?  I don't know that I've had a day I felt more pleased with myself than at the most recent Ren Faire when little girls kept whispering to their parents "It's a fairy!" when I walked by.  Why did that make me feel so special?  Why are fairy stories written and rewritten in so many different ways?  What makes them so much more present in the collective consciousness than other fantastical creatures?

Last Week's Question:
In what ways do children's and young adult novels shape readers' notions of gender roles?  How can and do they present more options, especially to girl readers, for how to spend a life?

See the original post and Becky's Book Reviews for answers.  It's especially exciting that we received answers from YA authors Lorie Ann Grover and Janet Lee Carey.

Over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Eisha and Jules invite folks to post seven good things that happened to them in the past week.  I’m doing this for the first time today.  (You can expect a lot of posts this morning, because tomorrow my 48HBC post is supposed to be my last post for the day so I’ve got to say everything NOW!)

Without further ado:

1. Exams went relatively smoothly; even when I didn’t have quite enough copies of a test I was able to pull out the ones I’d given to seniors (who get to take their exams early) and thus salvage the situation.

2. One of my students said to me, “I really like you as a teacher and appreciate everything you’ve done for me."  That was nice.

3. I got lots of stuff in the mail, including a mini-trampoline!

4. I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End a second time.

5. While listening to Celia Rees’s Pirates! (you can expect a review sometime), I realized that I actually know a lot about pirates and should not set aside my plan to write the Great YA Pirate Novel in which two sisters are pirates together and Romantic Love Does Not Save The Day.  (I’m all in favor of romantic love, but sometimes I get weary of its effect in pirate stories.  cf. Tanith Lee’s Piratica.)

6. I decided to prep myself for writing my Great YA Pirate Novel, I should read lots of children’s and YA pirate novels, and also lots of pirate-related non-fiction, and was thus inspired to create Summer 2007: The Summer of Piracy, A Pirate Challenge.

7. I happened upon 

and , who I liked BEFORE I knew they had pirate-related LJ usernames; and in reading ’s posts about ALA and ’s profile revealing his interest in a possible library science career, made the joyful revelation that former students can be future colleagues.  (The distinction one must make between “student” and “friend” is pretty key in teaching, which is hard when you have AWESOME students as I often do.  Once they graduate, though, they’re totally fair game as friends/colleagues.  I had a couple students this year who claim they shall test my statement of this fact by coming back once they’ve been away for a year or so and asking to be my friend.)

What good things happened to you this week?

When Midge's mother goes on a tour with the London Philharmonic, she sends Midge to Mill Farm to stay with her Uncle Brian.  There, Midge finds an injured flying horse named Pegs.  As she helps Pegs, she is drawn into a world of small and magical people called "The Various."  The Various live in the woods near her Uncle's farm, and their livelihood is threatened both by the barrenness of the land and the possibility of the forest's destruction.

To say much more about the plot of The Various would be, I think, to give away too much.  This is a fun book, aimed at middle grade students and those a little younger (grades 5 - 7 according to School Library Journal and ages 9 - 12 according to Amazon).  It holds up well for anyone who likes fairy stories, though, I think.  It was interesting to read this right after Wildwood Dancing, as it handles a similar topic (the entry of a young girl into the world of fairies) but gives it a very different treatment (more modern, mostly).  

I enjoyed The Various and would recommend it to anyone fond of fantasy, especially the child-enters-secret-world genre.  (If that wasn't officially a genre before, I've just declared it one now.)  I could see giving this to a child who was in fifth grade, giving the same child Wildwood Dancing when she was in seventh or eight grade, and then handing her Tithe once she got to high school.

(Stats Below Are For the Whole Challenge, Not Just This Book)
Books Read: 4
Pages Read: 1243
Time Spent Reading/Reviewing: 18 hrs

****

This will probably be my last book of the challenge, as I don't think I can finish another book of the appropriate level/length in the next slightly-less-than-an-hour.

I interrupt my challenge posts to bring you this tidbit.

Several months ago, I filled out a form at UNC's School of Information and Library Science site to get the director of their school librarian program to contact me.  She finally got back to me recently, and I was pleased by her response, though it didn't exactly tell me anything new. (Emphasis Added)

Dear Ms. H,

You sent information to our school library interest database some months
ago but the database was in the process of being revised and I am only now
getting to the point of responding.  I apologize for the long delay.

You inquired about what you need to NC certification as a school media
coordinator (the official name for the school librarian) through our
program.

The state requires for this 076 certification a a valid NC teaching
certificate (which you have), a master's degree in library science with
specialized school library courses (which you don't have although you have
some children's literature courses), fieldwork (which might be waived for
experience) and a passing score of the PRAXIS specialty area exam.

The details of what is required are spelled out in more detail on the
following website:
<http://sils.unc.edu/programs/continuing_ed/slmc/licensure.html>

You meet the teaching certificate requirement.  Latin and mythology is a
good background especially for a high school teacher.  You would need to
enroll in a master's program in library science and take courses in the
school library specialty area to qualify for licensure as a school
librarian.

Let me know if you have further questions and again, apologies for the long
delay in responding.

Co-Director, School Library Media Program

Wildwood Dancing is a fairytale lover’s dream: familiar tales, retold and mixed with folklore, creating a new and entrancing story.  In this combination of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Frog Prince, and various eastern European folktales, 15 year old Jenica finds herself trying to manage her father’s estate as he goes to the shore to recover from grave illness.  Her cousin Cezar quickly appoints himself master of the estate, and sets about restricting the activities of Jena and her four sisters, as well as seeking his revenge on the folk of the wildwood, whom he blames for his brother’s death ten years ago.

The use of familiar stories in Wildwood Dancing is refreshing: Marillier takes care to make the stories recognizable but not predictable.  At several points I thought I saw where the story was going and every time I was a little right and a little wrong.  This is how a book should be: we get the thrill of having figured it out, without the boredom that comes with a more predictable story.  Wildwood Dancing is not only strong in its use of traditional tales, but also in its creation of characters.  The five sisters of Piscul Dracului are five different girls, each with her own whole personality.  At the same time, while Jena is “the sensible one” and Tati is “the pretty one” and Paula is “the smart one,” these girls are not pigeonholed by these roles.

Wildwood Dancing reminded me of Holly Black’s Tithe, which is odd because the moods of the two books have nothing in common.  I think it was just the notion of teenaged girls interacting with faeries that made the connection in my mind.  Still, there is a spiritual connection between them, somehow, and I feel that fans of one would certainly enjoy the other.

(Stats Below Are For the Whole Challenge, Not Just This Book)
Books Read: 3
Pages Read: 795
Time Spent Reading/Reviewing: 11 hrs

I found myself stuck at Barnes and Noble tonight while waiting to meet my family for dinner, so I sat down and read for a spell.  While The Coming Storm doesn’t meet MotherReader’s 200 page guideline, Amazon says it’s for ages 9 - 12, which is close enough to the 5th grade range that I’m going to go on and count it.

The Coming Storm is a quick read, and fun.  As a self-appointed Captain Jack Sparrow expert and enthusiast, I’m rather picky about folks getting him right.  Rob Kidd does an admirable job here, capturing Captain Jack’s voice and mannerisms so well that I actually pictured a 21 Jump Street-era Johnny Depp acting them out.  The book is very clearly part of a series, and while it could stand alone, there’s no reason you’d want it to.  It has its own arc and ties in with a larger storyline as well.  The book “sets up” familiar characters from the movies, including both Tia Dalma and Davy Jones.  Jack’s desire early on seems to be to rid the world of pirates, or so he tells his crew, and I’m interested to see if the other books explain his apparent distaste for his future profession.

(Stats Below Are For the Whole Challenge, Not Just This Book)
Books Read: 2
Pages Read: 388
Time Spent Reading/Reviewing: 4.5 hrs

Miracle got her name because, as her grandmother Gigi tells her, she was born from a dead woman.  Miracle’s father, Dane, was a prodigy and published his first novel at the age of 13.  Miracle likes to spend her days helping Gigi with her work as a medium, practicing dancing, and sitting in her father’s company.  One day, as Gigi is conducting a seance to contact Miracle’s dead mother, the Ouija board tells them that Dane is gone.  They rush to his room in the basement to find that he’s melted; all that’s left of him is a pile of clothes.

Dancing on the Edge explores how our family shapes who we are and what we believe.  Miracle strongly believes in the symbolism of colors and numbers, in auras, portents, and omens.  She starts to question her beliefs when she first meets her Granddaddy Opal and he tells her, “If your mama was dead when you were born, then you was never born."  I picked up this book because it was a readergirlz recommendation in May for Mental Health Month; throughout the course of the book Miracle loses and finds herself again.  By the end of it, I was sniffling and tearing up.  That is the mark of a good book.

Books Read: 1
Pages Read: 244
Time Spent Reading/Reviewing: 3.25 hrs

(You can expect longer reviews of most of my 48 Hr Book Challenge Books in the coming weeks.)

…

Interesting Tidbit: Two of the Challenge Participants were students in the split level 3/4 classes where I did my student teaching; they weren’t MY students as I taught level 4 and my mentor teacher taught level 3, but they are still in that “my former student” brainspace.  They happen to be on the list of top 10 coolest former students.  (I’ve only had about 200 students so far, being somewhat new to this whole teaching thing, but still.  Top 10 out of 200, not bad at all.)  I hope I can convince them to participate in the Pirate Challenge when it comes around.

My official start time for the 48 Hour Book Challenge is going to be 9:30 am.  I will go from 9:30 am today to 9:30 am Sunday.  There will be a few interruptions, mostly sleep I think.  And eating.  And probably a little house cleaning.  But not too many.

Have fun, all!

More pirate poetry for you today.  Today I have Sea Fever, by John Masefield.  I first encountered this poem on a gorgeous Captain Jack Sparrow wallpaper, and was not aware of its source.  I was delighted to find it today.

I MUST down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking
And a grey mist on the sea’s face and a grey dawn breaking.

You can read the whole poem at Bartleby.com.

The round-up is at HipWriterMama.

Pirates have been on my mind a lot lately, more even than usual, and I will be issuing a Pirate Challenge once the 48 Hour Reading Challenge is over.

 

I'll be participating in Mother Reader's 48 Hour Book Challenge starting tomorrow.  I'll begin at whatever time I happen to wake up or after I finish reading The Phoenix Dance, whichever comes first.  I'll probably take breaks for eating, making sure my boyfriend hasn't died of boredom while I've been reading, and this sort of thing, but I am hoping to spend most of tomorrow and Saturday reading.

Sound like fun?  To sign yourself up, go to the original post.

I don't have a booklist/pile set up, but here's what I expect I'll be reading tomorrow:

Dancing on the Edge, Han Nolan
Wildwood Dancing, Juliet Marillier
The Various, Steve Augarde

After that, it becomes a competition between Capt. Hook, my stack of borrowed books, and the books I bought at the library sale.

So come join us!