Category: Books

What I found at the Kerlan

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Sara is a student at the University of Minnesota (Ph. D. candidate) and through her studies she is familiar with the Children’s Literature Research Collection, which includes the Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature.  Knowing how much I love stuff like this, she arranged for items from the archives to be pulled so I could muck about in them.  This  was incredibly awesome.

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On our way to the reading room we were distracted by these great dioramas. I’m a sucker for a good diorama and these are excellent. Look at how the information plate folds out from being a side!

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And look!  The cases double as the stands.  Amazing!

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Because I’d been doing a lot of reading of Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy series, Sara requested boxes of hers for me to look at.  Settle in, this is going to be a long post, full of pictures of paper.

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A draft of Betsy and Joe, with edits. (A DRAFT OF BETSY AND JOE WITH EDITS!)

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An astute reviewer on Goodreads compared Lovelace to Tolkien, in that she so immerses her stories in details of her world that you don’t mind reading endless details about Merry Widow hats and pompadours or puffs, even if you don’t care about fashion or hair styles in real life.  Here is a page of research about such details.

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The Betsy-Tacy books that take place during the high school years open with Betsy’s family moving from their tiny house to a bigger one, just as Maud Hart Lovelace’s family did.  Here is a clipping about the house being torn down to make way for new college buildings.

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A page from Betsy and the Great World.

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After Lovelace wrote the Betsy-Tacy books she wrote an additional three books which are referred to as the Deep Valley Novels.  Though I happen to think that one should just read all of the books in chronological order. Here are notes Lovelace made before writing Winona’s Pony Cart.

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Random notes and remembrances.

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Notes for Emily of Deep Valley, another of the Deep Valley novels.

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Maud (who is Betsy in the novels) remained friends with Bick (Tacy) her entire life.  Here are notes from a letter from Bick.  The Decoration Day details appear in Emily of Deep Valley.

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More notes for Emily.

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I adore this personalized postcard.

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Here’s a note from Maud to a group of what can only be described as “fan girls.”  They had visited Mankato and tried to find all the Betsy Tacy sites.  This is her letter back to them.

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More notes.

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Though I did not love this book, it was fun to see a proof of it.

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There were a few boxes of Lois Lowery items. I requested the one with Anastasia At Your Service.  Which was apparently once titled Anastasia Atcher Service.  I read the Anastasia books throughout my childhood.  If you would like to get started with the first of the nine-book series. Anastasia Krupnik is where to begin.

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It was interesting to see the computer printout–I remember that font.

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Also the way her editor typed notes in yellow and taped them to the pages.  Sara also looked at this box and we guessed this might have been a new editorial relationship because the editor was very deferential.  And Lowery rejected a goodly number of suggested changes, which were then not made.

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Our time at the Kerlan was very well spent.

Now we are jetting out of town.

Books read in June 2015

When it’s kind of a grumpy time because a very exhausting school year is ending, why not disappear into a few books?

Recommended this month:
Picture–Pool
Middle Reader:  Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer, The Way Home Looks Now
YA–Prairie Fire, All the Rage, the Geography of You and Me
Nonfiction:  The Boys Who Challenged Hitler

Picture Books:
Pool
Jihyeon Lee
Read for librarian book group.
Picture-only book perfect for those who love swimming pools.

The Night World
Mordicai Gerstein
Read for librarian book group.
Picture book about how things look different in the middle of the night.

Middle Readers:
Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer
Kelly Jones
Read for librarian book group.
Very fun middle reader about the new girl town, if “town” is her deceased great uncle’s farm.  There, she comes across a catalog “Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer” and strange things begin to happen.  Told in letters written to the company, her dead grandmother and dead great Uncle, this is a fun and funny story.

The Way Home Looks Now
Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Read for librarian book group.
Written with a cinematic flair that had me thinking “this should be a movie!”  It’s quietly funny and also a good exploration of the ramifications of grief and families.  I also loved the ending, which was perfect and had me thinking this book shouldn’t be a movie, because they would muck up the ending.

Young Adult:
Prairie Fire
E.K. Johnston
The second in the Story of Owen, Dragon Slayer of Trondheim.  (Which is actually the story of Siobahn, bard to Owen, Dragon Slayer of Trondheim.) Once again, Johnston has her finger on the zeitgeist of this generation. Once again, she does amazing things, describing  things via musical terms.  This book appeared soon after the first one and I wonder if she rushed to write it?  The ending seemed to come from nowhere and wrap up very quickly, which was a disappointment.  Still, this was a grand contemporary fantasy set in Canada and well worth the read.

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly
Stephanie Oaks
I read an ARC passed on from a friend.
Points for contrasting settings (The past: a cult commune tucked away in the woods.  The present: juvenile detention/jail.) Points for interesting main character and strong supporting cast.  There were more than few major plot points I didn’t really go for, which made this only a so-so read.

Hold Tight, Don’t Let Go
Laura Rose Wagner
Read for librarian book group.
I can heartily recommend this book if you are looking for a first-person narrative of Haiti after the earthquake.  Or possibly you are interested in a story of two sisters (actually cousins) and how their lives change after the earthquake.  This book was very strong in those areas.

For me, this was a book to slog though.  I found that I was interested in the characters lives and what happens, but not in a way that I really wanted to keep reading.  I think I was rooting for them, but didn’t really care for them.  Is this a writing flaw or a personality flaw?  If you are interested in the setting or topic, feel free to read for yourself and report back your experience.

Recovery Road
Blake Nelson
Madeline is 16 and in rehab.  She meets Stewart there and the book follows their relationship through the next few years of their sobriety.  I liked the portrayal of addiction and how so many things can influence a persons dedication to their clean-and-sober path.  By the end of the book, it felt like the main character was just reporting, “and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened” which grew tiresome.  However, few books feature the city in which I currently live and the college from which I graduated, so that was fun.

The Duff
Kody Keplinger
I was charmed by the actors in the movie adaptation of this book.  I was not at all charmed by the book itself.  The writing is poor (although fine for a teenager, which the author was at the time) the plot is repetitive and the book needed a lot better editing.  On page 160 there is a great example where the writing suggests a character got out of a two-door car, shut the door, then opened that same door and got into the front seat.

Carney’s House Party
Maud Hart Lovelace
The book I should have read before Betsy’s and the Great World (grumble grumble, numbering system, grumble grumble) it primarily concerns Carney, a secondary character in the high school books, and her “house party” which apparently once upon a time had a definition meaning people coming to visit you for an extended time.  All sorts of things happen during the house party, which are quite enjoyable to read about.  There’s the usual singing, going on drives, chattering, hosting parties of every stripe.  Betsy shows up midway through and also we get to nicely tie up the Carney/Larry plot that simmered in the back of the high school books all those years.

The Ghosts of Heaven
Marcus Sedgewick
Read for librarian book group.
Four stories you can read in any order.  Or so I was told.  I chose the order of 3, 4, 1, 2 and came away underwhelmed.

Simon vs. the Homo sapiens Agenda
Becky Albertalli
Read for librarian book group.
There are a lot of characters in this novel and I was confused as to who everyone was for about the first fifty pages.  Once that sorted itself out, I was fine and enjoyed this novel.  I loved the family scenes, which felt very true, and the coming out process also felt very authentic (at least to this heterosexual).  The title flummoxes me, but does not detract from this enjoyable read.

All the Rage
Courtney Summers
Read for librarian book group.
I find the title to be unfortunate as I keep forgetting what this book is and have to remind myself by looking at the cover.  However, once I remind myself, I get very excited, because this is a great book.  Why is our main character on the outside of the cool kids she used to be friends with?  Why is she so obsessed with nail polish and makeup?  What is going on?  I’ll leave you to find out yourselves.

The Geography of You and Me
Jennifer E. Smith
Two teenagers trapped in an elevator during a power outage.  Things go from there.  I really liked the obstacles the teenagers faced in this book and found it a nice breezy way to avoid packing for my upcoming vacation.

Also, Sara Zarr interviewed Jennifer E. Smith for her podcast.  You can listen to it here:  http://www.sarazarr.com/archives/4593

Nonfiction:
The Boys who Challenged Hitler
Phillip Hoose
Read for librarian book group.
Engrossing book about Danish teenagers who decided to not just roll over when the Nazis came to town.  Aside from being chock-full of interesting details, I appreciated how the author discussed the aftermath of the consequences.

In Focus: Carleton Watkins
J. Paul Getty Museum
Watkins was the big Yosemite photographer back in the nineteenth century.  Check out this book for high quality reproductions of his work, which is then put in context.  There’s also a great picture of the Columbia River.  I’m really enjoying this In Focus series.

Books Read in May 2015

Obsessive tidying and other home projects cut into reading time this month.  Also, most of the Librarian Book Group books weren’t appealing to me, so there was a lot of wandering off mid-story and those books aren’t recorded here.  Here is a roundup of my favorites:

Middle readers:  The Imaginary
Young Adult: The Sky is Everywhere
Nonfiction: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Picture Books
My Pen
Christopher Meyer
Meyer tells us all the different places he can “go” by drawing with his pen.

Middle Readers
The Imaginary
A.F. Harold
Read for Librarian Book Group
The story of a girl and her imaginary friend from the imaginary friend’s point of view. this was a great combination of text and illustrations, with one illustration scaring the bejeezus out of me. I found this British book to be scarier than similar US texts, which is something to keep in mind.

The Trees Kneel at Christmas
Maude Hart Lovelace
Lovelace spent time with “Syrian” immigrants in the 1950s and from their stories wrote this tale of a little girl living in Brooklyn.  Both the text and the illustrations tread in and out of “treacle” and at some points the illustrations appear pages before the texts. However, it is a nice story of faith and might make a good read-aloud tradition in some families.

Young Adult
Under a Painted Sky
Stacy Lee
Read for Librarian Book Group
Our cast of assembled characters is happily diverse,  and this book is set in my favorite time period for historical fiction: Oregon Trail/Frontier America.  Aside from the above two reasons, there were many more likable things about this book: friendship between two girls; action and plot that whips the story along; calling out of how to exist in a white society when you are not yourself white; the difficulties of pretending you are a boy when you are sixteen and a girl.  At times, I found Andy’s dialogue to not be consistent, and overall the story felt long, but ultimately, its strengths outweighed its weaknesses.

Betsy’s Wedding
Maude Hart Lovelace
This is my least favorite in the Betsy series, mostly because Betsy gets married.  Joe becomes a cardboard “husband” character, one who is cheerfully determined.  Mention is made of his “blue moods” but they flit by in passing, and are never really explored.  Betsy too settles into the wifely role of her time.  It’s weird, after seven books of her bucking convention (I will be a famous writer!/I will travel the world!) to see her happily settle down and learn to cook and clean and budget.  At one point she’s offered a job doing publicity work and turns it down. There’s even a Betsy/Tacy conversation about needing to get Tib married off before it’s too late.

It’s also interesting to compare to the eighth of L.M. Montgomery’s books in the Anne of Green Gables series.  It’s set in roughly the same time period, but whereas Betsy and Joe in Betsy’s Wedding only mention the war raging in Europe from time to time, World War I is the central focus of Rilla of Ingleside and it’s a much better, deeper book.

Overall, as a conclusion to the Betsy-Tacy series, this book is a disappointment.

Emily of Deep Valley
Maude Hart Lovelace
I was in the mood to tear though this so-called “Deep Valley Novel” and I finished it quite speedily, unlike the others in the Betsy-Tacy series, which I mostly read one chapter per day.  Emily is two years younger than the Betsy-Tacy gang, and comes from different circumstances, being an orphan living with her grandfather at the edge of the slough.  The book begins with her graduation and her longing to attend college with her crowd.  Unfortunately, she  must stay to care for her grandfather.

It’s fairly obvious early on where this story is going, but anyone who has had periods of isolation or forced solitude will relate to Emily’s plight, which makes this an enjoyable story, even if the trajectory is rather obvious.

The Sky is Everywhere
Jandy Nelson
“If you are looking for a swooney romance, this is your book.”  So said a high school librarian, and if anyone should know a good swooney romance, it would be a high school librarian.

She wasn’t wrong.  Aside from a fabulous love triangle, our hero Lennon (people just call her Lenny) is dealing with the sudden death of her older sister.  The book is populated with fabulous characters and settings, with everything turned up just one notch brighter.  At the same time, it explores grief and ways people deal with loss in a way that seemed very realistic.

This was a book I consumed, stopping only to text my friend that she needed to put down whatever she was reading and pick this up instead.

Adult Nonfiction
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Marie Kondo
Kondo shows you how to change your life by sorting by category, not area and only keeping pieces that “spark joy.”  It makes many persuasive arguments for changing your life in this manner.  Read with caution.  You may find yourself clearing your schedule on a four-day weekend so you can tidy.

Not that kind of girl
Lena Dunham
Hilarious and heartfelt, this is an enjoyable collection of essays.  The book also has the prettiest end papers I’ve ever seen.

Body of Truth
Harriet Brown
Examines the many fallacies around weight, dieting, health and exercise.  A very good book, and one that made me mad because I’ve been duped just like everyone else.  For people who have a sneaking suspicion that something is rotten in the way we go about looking at weight and health, this is highly recommended.

Tidying Books, Papers and Kitchen Items.

Per the KonMari Method, I have  found all my books and put them in one spot on the floor.  I have sorted them into three basic categories and now will pick each one up to see if it sparks joy.  You might notice the yellow recycle bin in the foreground, as well as the paper shopping bag.  Shopping bag is for things going to Goodwill, recycle bin is for paper and I have a trash bag somewhere in the vicinity. IMG_3261

Here are some greatly loved books from my past that no longer need to stay with me.

I can no longer remember where I bought this book, perhaps at a thrift store, or used bookstore? But it was a seminal book in my young feminist life.  One story that sticks out is a girl talking about wearing pants to school to protest the rule that all girls must wear skirts.  My 1980s pants-every-day self was surprised to realize that fewer than 20 years prior, girls had to wear skirts or dresses to school every day.IMG_3262

Oh, how I adored this book, which told the story of a family that adopted many children from different countries in the 1940s and 1950s. I loved this book so much I stole it from my Reading teacher.  At least that is my memory, but I can’t quite make the memory of stealing it from my junior high school teacher jibe with the fact that it is stamped with my elementary school’s name.  Interestingly, I never felt guilty about stealing this book.  I think I knew that absolutely no one loved this book like I did.  And it looks like there is a new edition with an epilogue written by Helen Doss.  I could buy it for $26.00.    And here are some pictures of the family.

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This was another favorite, because it had tragedy built right in. I was a fan of tragedy in my youth.  Also, when assigned to interview someone who lived through the Great Depression in eleventh grade History class, I blatantly disregarded the instructions and presented a book report instead.  It felt too weird to interview my very kind neighbor, so I chose a different path.  Amazingly, I got full credit, probably because the teacher liked me.  Best story from that assignment?  One of the boys–a football player, I can’t remember exactly who–said he tried to do the assignment and failed.  He was at the grocery store and asked a fellow customer if he could interview her.  She told him to leave him alone.  After we finished cracking up, the class argued he should get some points for the attempt.  I really loved that class.  Both the subject matter and the mix of kids combined with the teacher into a fabulous way to spend a class period. IMG_3264

Childhood of Famous Americans!  I read a ton of these books growing up. IMG_3265

Though I didn’t own any of them, I got them at the library. I bought this book to represent my childhood affection. IMG_3266 They were fun to read and illustrated.  Plus, I got to learn a lot about history.  I remember reading the book about Jane Addams (founder of Hull House) and being confused because I thought she was related to either of the President Adams.  I didn’t notice the difference in their names. Interestingly, the series hasn’t wandered off to the story graveyard, you can still buy the books.  They have new covers and have added subjects, but Barnes & Noble has 120 of them for sale.  Huzzah! IMG_3267

The books that remain, sorted into category. I’m finally going to pull the trigger on the shelves I’ve wanted for the front room, so they will soon have a happy new home. IMG_3268

Onto papers.  This is papers of the filing cabinet nature.  Marie Kondo and I are in sync here.  She gets rid of nearly everything.  Even bills.  I happily followed her lead. Because do you know the number of times I’ve looked back at all my carefully filed bills?  Zero!  I have looked zero times!  I now only have seven years worth of tax statements, information about my cats, and a few other things and THAT is it!  I’m hoping to downsize that file cabinet to a two-drawer soon.  But someone will also have to go through his files. Here are some fun things I discarded:

How fun it was for me to carefully fill out the order form and send away the film in the postage-paid envelope, only to have my photos appear in the mail (the mail!) with pre-printed stickers and address labels for next time.  And look how cheap it was!  Only $1.95 per 24-count roll!

Last time I used these photo mailers?  Probably in 2007, which was when I bought a digital camera.  So they’ve been hanging out in my file cabinet for eight years.  No longer!  Interestingly, York Photo still exists.  I can’t tell if they process film anymore, but I might look into them for my limited digital photo printing needs in the future.

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Here is the carefully plotted and printed schematic for the quilt I made out of old pairs of jeans, favorite army pants and material from a favorite dress that I “grew” out of.  I definitely had more fun planning this quilt than making it. Along the way I learned that cutting and sewing together over 400 3″x3″ squares was all kinds of no fun.  I learned that making a quilt out of heavy material is a lot harder than making it out of cotton.

I had two parties to assist me in the finishing. One was a picnic in the park to baste the layers together. We had to do it in the park because my studio apartment wasn’t big enough to lay the whole thing out. One was a dinner for the MAunts to help along the tying off process, which also took forever.  After I was done, I was disappointed in how the colors came together.  The whole thing looked darker and the design didn’t pop like I thought it would.  However, said quilt is still in use today.  It comes out of storage every winter to add a warm layer to my bed.  I always cover it with a better looking comforter, but it’s the warm and heavy powerhouse in my bedding wardrobe.IMG_3272

Miss Kondo did not say that we had to go through all our food, but I was motivated to do so.  You know that food you really thought you were going to eat, but you just haven’t?  I wanted to do some culling.  This was a point where I felt overwhelmed, but the only way out was through (something I had to tell myself several times in this process) so I kept going and found my shelves neater than they were when I moved in. IMG_3275

I also took this opportunity to do something about my spice drawer which had grown out of control.  When we first moved in, I bought (too many) empty storage containers and carefully labeled them and kept them in a kitchen drawer.  But the drawer had grown messy and the some of the labels had fallen off and was I really going to eat those two huge containers of Sweet Paprika and Hot Paprika I was given in Hungary in 2008?  No.  So I dumped everything that I couldn’t remember using and put the ones I think I do still use in a container. Over the next couple of months I will move them back to the drawer as I use them.  Then, I can arrange the drawer more neatly and find a better labeling system.IMG_3276IMG_3277 After I did the food, I went though all the cooking devices.  That was overwhelming also, but ultimately worth it.

Books read in April 2015

I’ve been reading one chapter every night of the  Betsy-Tacy books, but this month I zoomed on through several of them.  Someone on Goodreads observed that, much like Tolkien, the world is so clearly imagined that the books are a pleasure to read, even if you could care less about Merry Widow hats and “puffs” and pompadours.

Highlights this month:
Picture:
Last Stop on Market Street
Trombone Shorty

Middle Reader:
Listen, Slowly

YA:
Betsy & Joe

Grownup Fiction:
The Grapes of Wrath

Picture
Last Stop on Market Street
de la Pena/Robinson
Read for librarian book group
Looking for a picture book depicting commuting via bus?  This is your book.
Earmuffs for Everyone
Meghan McCarthy
Read for librarian book group
I found the story to be interesting, the telling of the story rather random and chaotic and the illustrations to be sub-par.  “Man,” I thought to myself, “If I had written this and THIS was the illustrator they pared me with, I wouldn’t be too happy.”  But the author seems to also be the illustrator, so I guess she’s happy with her work.
Draw What You See
Benson/Andrew
Read for librarian book group
Story of the life of Artist Benny Andrews, who also illustrated the book.  Good, although Mr. Andrews seems to be no longer with us which was addressed in a weird way.  Present tense in the book itself, past tense references on the flap with the author/illustrator notes.
The Case for Loving
Alko/Qualls
Read for librarian book group
The story of the family whose interracial marriage brought them all the way to the Supreme Court.  Story itself was well written, but I found some of the illustrations random and odd.
Trombone Shorty
Andrews/Collier
Read for librarian book group
The story of Trombone Shorty, written by Mr. Trombone Shorty himself.  Good narrative, with illustrations I spent a lot of time looking at, but mostly because I found their construction distracting.  Really great historical photos in the afterward of Trombone Shorty when he was a boy.
Middle reader
Listen, Slowly
Thanhha Lai
Read for librarian book group
The story of a twelve year-old girl regretfully giving up her summer to accompany her grandmother to Vietnam to find out more about her grandfather’s last days as a soldier during the Vietnam war. Things I loved:  perfectly captures the outrage of the loss of summer, combined with the guilt that comes along with helping family members.  The main character’s descriptions of everything that was foreign about Vietnam (despite growing up in a Vietnamese immigrant family) were mostly funny, when they weren’t pulling on your heartstrings.  There was a great progression of maturity of feelings as the story progressed. I really loved every character in the book.
I was never, however, compelled to just keep reading more, which I found odd.  I’m not sure if this was because the story is such a good meander, or the writing wasn’t very gripping.
YA
Betsy was a Junior
Maude Hart Lovelace
Oh Betsy, you’ve finally decided to set your cap for the handsome and proud Joe Willard and what happens?  Not what you think is going to, just as with many of your exploits.  This is also the book where I learned that sororities aren’t such a great idea.  Not that I ever probably thought otherwise.
Betsy & Joe
Maude Hart Lovelace
Lest you think that life is smooth sailing for Betsy just because Joe has second billing in the title, think again!  It’s senior year for our friends and Betsy once again begins the school year deciding how things will be.  And then we get to read about how those things don’t quite come to pass.
 
When I Was the Greatest
Jason Reynolds
Read for librarian book group
Great setting, good characters.  Nearly complete lack of plot.  It took a long time to figure out what this book might be about and then what it was about felt very thin.
Betsy & the Great World
Maude Hart Lovelace
Betsy sets sail for Europe in 1914.  Guess what big event eventually brings an end to her year abroad?  I found the transition from the end of Betsy and Joe to this book jarring.  Four years have passed and the Ray family has moved from Deep Valley to Minneapolis, something that is referred to in passing and never fully explained.  I went back and looked twice, just to see if my skimming had something to do with it.  This may be because I should have read Carney’s House Party after Betsy and Joe, but I did not know to do this, nor is it listed in the series order.
Anyway, aside from that, Betsy’s adventures in pre-World War I Europe are interesting, and it has a great ending.
This Side of Home
Renee Watson
Read for librarian book group
YA fiction set in Portland, Oregon with a neighborhood level view of gentrification.  Good narrative, good characters.  For whatever reason, Jefferson High School and Alberta Street were renamed for this novel and I found it immensely distracting.
Adult fiction
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
Read for Kenton Library book group
I’ve finally made it to California with the Joads.  It was a very good ride.  For the first 200 pages I chafed at the sheer volume of words, but after that I settled in for the ride.  Someone in book group remarked how she thought about the characters throughout the day and I had the same experience.  So much of this book applies now that it’s almost as if more than 70 years have not passed. Alas.
Nonfiction
Aqua Net Diaries: Big Hair, Big Dreams, Small Town
Jennifer Niven
I adored Niven’s All the Bright Places and was eager to read her memoir of growing up in small-town Indiana, attending a large high school in the 1980s.  However, reading the actual book I spent a lot of time debating if I disliked the book so much because I would have not liked the author had I encountered her in high school. After much contemplation, I can say that I think my dislike stemmed partly from that, partly from jealousy (Niven was pretty, popular with boys, an only child with lots of privileges and her family was much wealthier than mine was) and also partly because the way she presented her stories from high school was not that interesting.  Have you ever looked at yearbooks from high schools that were not yours?  They are boring.  And that’s what this book felt like.  Boring stories told by a person I wasn’t too enamored of.
So skip this and read All the Bright Places.  It’s a beautiful story.
Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman who Challenged Big Business and Won.
McCully
Read for Librarian Book Group
Thoroughly researched book about pioneering journalist (and muckraker–though she rejected the term). Her coverage of the Standard Oil Company for McClures magazine helped bring about the trust-busting reform movement in the early 20th century.  Tarbell, aside from being an accomplished career woman in a time when few women worked outside the home, also was an Anti-Suffragette.  This made for a very interesting dichotomy later in her life.
This book was very complete and so incredibly boring to read.  It’s a great source for someone doing research, but otherwise kind of a snoozer.
In searching for the full title, I was pleased to discover the book that Tarbell published about the Standard Oil Company is online.  Though it sold quite well, it was very difficult to find copies in the decades after it was written, perhaps due to the Standard Oil Company purchasing and destroying the book.  You can read the book by going to: http://www.pagetutor.com/standard/

Books read in March 2015

Some good stuff this month.  It’s the rare month when I have more picture book favorites than any other categories.

Favorites:
Picture: Nana in the City, When Otis Courted Mama, Lucky
Middle Readers: nothing blew me away.
YA: Heaven to Betsy, My Most Excellent Year
Grownup Fiction: Bellwether Rhapsody
Young People’s Nonfiction: Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom
 

Picture Books

Nana in the City
Lauren Castillo
Read for librarian book group

Child visits his Nana who has moved to the city and is scared by all the very “city” things about the city.  Luckily, his Nana has a way to help him feel better.  Quite delightful and recommended.

When Otis Courted Mama
Appelt/McElmuny
Read for librarian book group

I felt a great surge of affection for this picture book because it’s just so darn cute.  Who knew that coyotes had to deal with blended families too?

Raindrops Roll
April Pulley Sayer
Read for librarian book group

Very nicely done story of a rainstorm in the garden.

A Fine Dessert
Jenkins/Blackall
Read for librarian book group

See blackberry fool being made over four hundred years.  Great for compare/contrasts purposes.  Also, this book let me know that the “fool” in question is an adaptation from a French word meaning “to squeeze” or “to press.” 

Lucky
David Macintosh
Read for librarian book group

Nicely illustrates the inflation of good news that so many of us experience.

Middle Readers

Mikis and the Donkey
Read for Librarian Book Group
Charming story of a boy on a Greek island and his love for the donkey his grandfather purchases.

YA

Heaven to Betsy
Maud Hart Lovelace

They’ve made it to high school!  And this is when the liking of Betsy-Tacy turns to adoration.  I was telling Matt how these books made the pre-teen me look forward to being a teenager.  I would have a Crowd!  We would ice skate and make fudge and sing along around the piano just like Betsy!  He laughed at this, and okay, so my teenage years weren’t exactly like a fictional heroine from 1907, but I did have a gang of friends and we did ramble from house to house and sure, there wasn’t singing along around a piano, but we sang a lot with the radio and even just a capella.
 

On this re-reading I loved how flawed Betsy was, how she spent most of the year boy-crazy over the tall, dark and handsome fella who only had eyes for her friend. I loved her sadness over leaving her childhood home behind for a brand new, bigger house and I liked how she foolishly squandered a writing opportunity.  She also does some classic adolescent forging of her own path by choosing to leave her family’s Baptist faith and become an Episcopalian.  I found a lot of this book to be very relatable, at least to my own adolescent experience of 20+ years ago.  And the illustrations are wonderful.  So Gibson Girl fantastic!

Betsy in Spite of Herself
Maud Hart Lovelace

The structure of this book isn’t the best.  A great chunk of it is taken up with Betsy’s visit to Milwaukee to visit her friend Tib over Christmas.  If you are interested in German American Milwaukee Wisconsin Christmas Traditions circa 1900 depicted in fiction, this is your book. However, when Betsy comes back, vowing to be dark and mysterious she sets her cap for the rich, auto-driving Phil Brandish and things pick up, lessons are learned, things happen.

My two favorite parts in this book: Betsy asks Julia, her worldly older sister, what Julia does when she wants guys to like her.  Julia’s off-hand response caused a bark of laughter.  There’s also a great passage about what to do if a guy gets too “spoony”.

Bone Gap
Laura Ruby
Read for librarian book group

Come with us to Bone Gap, Illinois, home of two brothers, a bee keeper and her daughter, the Rude brothers. It’s also the former home of Roza, who has disappeared mysteriously.  What has become of Roza?  This and other things kept me turning the page.

Cinder
Marissa Meyer

I like this book, despite wondering on page 44 if “X” happened to be the big plot twist.  And several hundred pages later IT WAS!  Given I rarely figure things out about books, I see that as a sign of weak plotting. Or possibly an editor’s encouragement to make the details more telling.  It’s my new favorite thing to blame editors, though I promise to stop when I finally get one.

The other interesting thing I noted is for how much of the book I refused to believe it was set in futuristic Asia, despite the fact that the city was called New-Beijing. I think my USA-white self just really wants all books to be set in the USA, despite all evidence to the contrary. 

I’m interested in where the next book will take me.

The Bunker Diary
Kevin Brooks
Read for librarian book group

Very visual book of a boy’s time being held captive in a bunker.  Gripping.  A true-to-the-tale (yet ultimately frustrating) ending.

My Most Excellent Year
Steve Kluger

The subtitle is: a novel of love, Mary Poppins & Fenway Park.  I would add a secondary subtitle of: (and musical theater!)  This was a fantastic read packed full of three different love stories. It’s about the families you are born to and families you create for yourself.  Every single moment was enjoyable. 

Near the end I started to question just how old these ninth graders were because they talked in very adult voice, and I question why the framing device of seniors in high school writing about their ninth grade year, but  those are small questions.  Overall this is highly recommended.

Graphic Novels for Grownups

We Can Fix It
Jess Fink

Main character uses time travel to attempt to fix her past mistakes.

Grownup Nonfiction

A Short Guide to a Long Life
David Agus

Inspired by Michael Pollen’s Food Rules, this is a book of rules, with each rule followed by three or so pages of why you should follow the rules.  My favorite was “embrace your OCD.”  Meaning, it’s a good thing to be fastidious about hand washing and keeping things clean.

 

Grownup Fiction

Bellweather Rhapsody

Kate Racculia

I’m not sure why this book appeared on my holds list.  I think maybe someone at book group recommended it because it was an Alex Award winner.  Those are the books written for grownups with teenage protagonists.  The teenage protagonists in question are twins who are attending an all-state music festival, the brother Rabbit playing bassoon in the orchestra and the sister Alice for chorus. We also follow the stories of their chaperone, the conductor of the orchestra, and the concierge of the very decrepit hotel.  Also a woman who witnessed a tragic event ten years before. It’s an excellent weaving of stories, very good writing (three passages made it into my Goodreads quotes pages) and it all comes together in an explosion of “Man, I didn’t see that coming at all!” If you were a high school musician, don’t miss out on this book.

Young People’s Nonfiction

Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom
Lynda Blackman Lowery
Read for librarian book group

You’ve seen the movie Selma (or perhaps not) now read the story of the youngest person on the march.  Lowery tells her story to the two authors and the book is also illustrated.  It’s a quick read, but yet another reminder of choice people made to fight for rights they should have had all along.

Dennis Lehane at Powell’s Cedar Hills Crossing

Thanks to Kelly, we rambled out to Cedar Hills Crossing to see Mr. Lehane, author of the Kenzie/Gennaro P.I. murder mysteries, Mystic River, Shutter Island, The Given Day and its two sequels.  I took several photos of Mr. Lehane, none of them great.  He’s a good storyteller, he is and while reading from the first chapter of his new book, you can see how he drew these people in.

I learned that he misses Boston terribly, (he lives in Santa Monica), he’s a Boston Celebrity (Lahane, you’re a treas-ah!), the Wire was only renewed for five seasons because HBO didn’t have anything else, and no, he still hasn’t found his dog.  I hope Portland showed him an okay St. Patrick’s Day.

Coming home the Rose Garden was lit up for the holiday.

Books read in February 2015

Cripes.  It’s March and I haven’t written nearly all of my February reviews.  So we are going to have a whirlwind review writing session.

My favorites this month:

Picture books: Waiting is Not Easy
Young People’s Poetry:  How I Discovered Poetry
Chapter books: Rain Reign
Young People’s Nonfiction: Separate is Never Equal
Grownup Nonfiction: How Sassy Changed my Life
YA: I Was Here, The Carnival at Bray, I’ll Give You the Sun, All the Bright Places

Picture
Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress
Neglected to note author name.  Not going to look it up.
Read for Librarian Book Group
The title says it all.  Morris wants to wear a dress that is not the kind of dress boys wear.  How will this go down?

Green is a Chile Pepper
Thong/Parra
Read for Librarian Book Group
A book to help you learn your colors.

A Boy and a Jaguar
Alan Rabinowitz
Read for Librarian Book Group
Picture book story of how someone who is different finds a passion that leads to a career.

Waiting is not easy
Mo Willems
Read for Librarian Book Group
Boy howdy is that true!  Pig and Elephant explore the concept of waiting.  I’m only lukewarm on Pig & Elephant, but this made me laugh, probably because I’m often impatient.

Little Roja Riding Hood
Elya/Guevara
Read for Librarian Book Group
It’s the familiar fairy tale recast.

You are (not) small
Kang/Weyant
Read for Librarian Book Group
Explores size differences.

Firebird
Copeland/Meyers
Read for Librarian Book Group
Beautifully book of how to become the type of dancer that is famous for dancing the Firebird dance. 

Young People’s Poetry:
How I Discovered Poetry
Marilyn Nelson
Read for Librarian Book Group
I’m not so hot on the let’s-tell-a-story-via-poems, but this above and beyond better than nearly all books I’ve read.  The poems are simple and really get a lot across.  The illustrations compliment the poetry beautifully.  Recommended.

Chapter books:
Mr Putter & Tabby Turn the Page
Rylant/Howard
Read for Librarian Book Group
This time (I say this time because even though I’ve never read them, apparently Mr. Putter and Tabby do a lot of things) they read at the library.  Very beginning chapter book.

Betsy & Tacy Go Downtown
Maude Hart Lovelace
The girls (Tib too, she got left out of the title) are twelve and thus can do things like walk downtown together.  Betsy gets her own library card to the Carnegie Library in town.  Interesting secondary story of Mrs. Poppy, the former actress and current wife of the hotelier, who is not accepted by the ladies of Deep Valley.

Rain Reign
Ann M. Martin
Read for Librarian Book Group
Practically perfect book about Rose, a girl with high-functioning autism and her dog.  Rose is obsessed with homonyms, with a side interest in prime numbers.  Hilariously straight-man narration by the main character reveals a rather meager existence, but for her Uncle and her dog named Rain (Rein, Reign).  Though I’ve never encountered a school district where someone with high-functioning autism has a one-on-one aide, I am happy to overlook this fact because this book was so delightful.  Recommended for children, especially early elementary students who read far above their grade level and everyone else who loves a good story.

Young People’s Nonfiction:
Separate is Never Equal
Duncan Tonatiuh
Read for Librarian Book Group
The mostly unknown story of the court case that said that Mexican children in California deserved the same education as White children. 

This Day in June
Pitman/Lotten
Read for Librarian Book Group
Need an easy way to introduce the concept of Pride to your child? This is your picture book.  Rhyme scheme broke down in a few places, but the illustrations were fun.

Neighborhood Sharks
Roy
Read for Librarian Book Group
Learn about the sharks that hang out regularly just outside of the San Francisco Bay.  The book did a good job balancing the sharks need to eat seals with the fact that seals get eaten by sharks.

Little Melba & Her Big Trombone
Russel-Brown
Read for Librarian Book Group
True story of Melba Liston, who was a trombone great in a time when women were not trombone greats.  Come to think of it, that time still kind of includes today.  But in Melba’s case not only was it a time when women weren’t trombone greats, but Black people weren’t welcome in very many places.

Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes
Herrera
Read for Librarian Book Group
Three-page biographies of just what the title promises.  Time period covers colonial times to present day.  Comes with a nice portrait of each subject.

Grownup Nonfiction:
The Wedding
Nick Waplington
“It was one of those cold, wet winter days when if you get stuck watching sport or an old movie, you can miss that short period between dawn and dusk altogether.” N. Waplington

Waplington is apparently known for a previous work chronically the everyday lives of a family living in a council house in England.  In this book he follows the family’s life once again, this time in the events leading up to the mother’s marriage.  Very interesting photos and worth finding just for the searing essay decrying institutional poverty written by the author of Trainspotting.

How Sassy Changed my Life
Jesella/Meltzer
History of the greatest magazine ever published for teenage girls.  Great behind-the-scenes action for fans of the heyday of Sassy.

YA
I Was Here
Gayle Forman
Book one of the inadvertent suicide theme I found myself on this month.  In this case, our main character Cody is living in the aftermath of the unexpected suicide of her best friend Meg during Meg’s first year at college. When Cody volunteers to pack up Meg’s belongings from school she finds some troubling details that sets her off on an investigation of Meg’s last days.  Addictive, with a satisfying ending, but as I noted in my review of Please Ignore Vera Dietz, books with suicide can never have a truly happy ending because the person who killed themselves is still dead.

Allegiant
Veronica Roth
I enjoyed hating this book which was truly horrible.  And very long.  Props to Roth for going the Joss Whedon path with main characters.  But other than that? What author can successfully change everything we know about the world in the third book?  Not this one, that’s for sure.  I think they get one big reveal.  That’s it.  Not the baker’s dozen that came with this plot. And really?  Were the cameras and audio feed really that good and the community never figured it out?  Really?  I could go on.  But I won’t.

The Carnival at Bray
Jessie Ann Foley
Read for Librarian Book Group
Book two of my inadvertent suicide-themed reading jaunt.  In this case, it’s a secondary character, so less overt tragedy there. It’s a sad book, but not overwhelmingly depressing.  Also, it has its feet planted firmly in the early 90’s grunge music scene, so fans of that will be happy.  Finally, the writing is powerful, the love story is worth the read and I was quite happy this was a Printz Honor Book.  Several passages of really great writing were transcribed into my Goodreads quote page. Recommended.

The Scar Boys
Len Vlahos
Read for Librarian Book Group
Great friendship/band dynamics are portrayed in the story of a boy hideously scarred from a childhood bullying incident gone wrong.  Parts of the book were likable, but overall, this author needed to go back through and revise all of his “telling” sections into “showing.”

I’ll Give You the Sun
Jandy Nelson
Read for Librarian Book Group
I am so happy this book won the Prinz award for 2014 because it’s a tour-de-force.  Alternating perspectives from a girl/boy set of twins.  The boy narrates the time when they were 13 years old.  The girl narrates the present-day age of sixteen.  Absorbing and layered, tragic and beautiful.  I love how everything comes together.  Recommended.  Thanks to Sara for recommending, so I could feel cool having it on hold before it won.

All the Bright Places
Jennifer Niven
Book three of inadvertent suicide-themed novels read in February.  Within these pages is a beautiful love story that sadly comes to no good end.  Which you probably could guess from the first page where our couple “meets cute” (I’m using the movie term, I don’t think it was actually cute) while standing at the edge of their school’s bell tower, both wondering what it would be like to end their lives.  I couldn’t help falling in love with both Violet and Theo and this was one of those books that I finished and two days later started reading from the beginning again.  The author’s note at the end really drives home the tragedy that is suicide on a personal level. Recommended.

Grownup Fiction:
The Residue Years
Mitchell S. Jackson
Read for Kenton Library Book Group
I’m the kind of girl who likes things explained clearly with beautiful and verbose prose, drawing clear pictures of exactly what is going on, so the vague, vignette style of this author’s writing was not really for me. I did appreciate a view into 90s-era Portland from the view of a black man.  I also appreciated it for being a lot grittier Everybody Reads selection than is normal.

Gayle Forman at Powell’s Cedar Hills Crossing

Powell’s has exiled the YA authors to the suburban enclave of Powell’s at Cedar Hills Crossing (once known as the Beaverton Mall).  Still, it’s Gayle Forman, YA author extraordinaire! I had to go, and thankfully friend Sunita was up for the drive.

I thought the reading room in this Powell’s would be bigger, because suburbia and all, but it was actually smaller.  And the folded chairs were very close together.  And the podium wasn’t as cool.  It wasn’t my favorite Powell’s experience.  But again, Gayle Forman! 

Gayle Forman was in conversation with Blake Nelson (author of, among other things, Paranoid Park).  The conversation was great, but was on the same level as the people in the chairs which meant a lot of leaning from side to side.  But again, Gayle Forman!

Gayle recruited someone for the audience to help with the reading from her new book I Was Here. A lovely young woman was happy to volunteer.

Blake Nelson was happy to read from the book.

The lovely young woman in question.

The audience was full of lovely young women, many holding books to be signed.

The lovely young women weren’t up to asking a lot of questions, so I got to ask two!  After, Sunita and I stayed to have our books signed and chat with Gayle.  It was a lovely evening. 

(Which is not to say it wouldn’t have been lovelier at the downtown Powell’s.  But again, Gayle Forman!)