Past bed time – again.  Oh well.
This is one of my favorite times of the year.  It’s award season in Library Land.  I have to confess that with all the changes my reading this past year hasn’t been as prolific as it usually is.  Time to get back on THAT horse for sure.  However, I believe I’ve read enough to have an opinion about what the best should be in children’s and young adult literature this year.  So let’s begin with the Caldecott Medal.  The criteria for this award can be found here:  http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottterms/caldecottterms.cfm  In brief the award is given to a resident of the United States for distinguished illustrations of a picture book.  This is a terribly abridged version of the criteria and the members of the committee spend long hours pouring over countless picture books.  It is not an easy task.  There has to be a marriage between illustration and text and a strong story line in the illustrations themselves.  My pick for this year’s win is a stunning piece by Jerry Pinkney entitled The Lion and the Mouse.  This nearly wordless book is a brilliant retelling of the Aesop’s fable by the same title.  I was hard-pressed to let it leave my desk for about two weeks after it came in and found myself returning to it again and again to find something new each time I opened the covers.  And it wasn’t until one of the children was looking at it that I noticed the cover illustrations complement each other as well – the front being of the lion and the back of the mouse.  I laughed out loud and we all stood around and oooo-ed and ahhhhh-ed over it.  The expressions on the animals faces are jewel-like in their precision and realism.  This is an absolutely perfect, perfect book.  Check it out at a library near you.

PS – I can’t remember how to post a hyper-link so here’s the long Amazon link for the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Lion-Mouse-Jerry-Pinkney/dp/0316013560
Take a look.  You won’t be disappointed.

Other illustrated literature of note:
NB:  Some of thse may not be award eligible because of the residency requirement but they are still fine, fine books and you should find them at your library!
Crow call / Lois Lowry ; illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline
Once Upon a Twice by Denise Doyen Illustrator: Barry Moser
The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School by Laurie Halse Anderson Illustrator:  Ard Hoyt
Let’s Do Nothing by Tony Fucile Illustrated by the author
Duck! Rabbit! / [text by] Amy Krouse Rosenthal ; [illustrations by] Tom Lichtenheld
A book / by Mordicai Gerstein  Illustrated by the author
Leaf / ideas, sound effects, and pictures by Stephen Michael King
Blueberry girl / written by Neil Gaiman ; illustrated by Charles Vess

And there’s another dilemma…I slept in my bed and because I was exhausted and not cramped and could stretch and roll about I slammed the alarm and slept until 7:30 and thanks goodness it’s a late start day and I have time to shower……and this is a run on sentence and that’s not good and I’ll add to this with book reviews and award predictions when I get to work…..and I’ve been spelling dilemma wrong my entire life.  Good grief!
This community ROCKS!  Thanks you all for your support and good wishes.  It means a lot!

So here’s the thing…In April I moved into my own place.  Years of a spouse’s alcoholism and broken promises and empty dreams finally became one day too many and so here I am.  A new address, a new home.  We’re all still adjusting, but we’re doing a decent job of it.  It’s new territory but exciting and scary all at the same time.
I was careful when I left to take only what was mine – purchased or inherited or gifted.  That meant that at least some furniture had to be purchased, including a couch.  I love my new little place.  It’s clean and neat, room enough for visiting children or friends.  Even doing dishes is fun because it’s only my mess I’m cleaning.  I have been able to put my favorite glass pieces along the window sill and the sun shines through the colors and makes me smile.  But the couch has presented a problem.
I have bookshelves – imagine that!  In fact I need more bookshelves.  The problem this presents is that I’d rather have books and shelves to put ‘em on than a full sized, three-seat couch.  So I bought a loveseat at my favorite used furniture/antique/secondhand store.  I didn’t love the loveseat but it gets the job done….well kind of….
I love sleeping on the couch.  I love reading and falling asleep with my book, or listening to a book on tape and falling asleep, or crocheting and listening and falling asleep and just staying where I am.  With a full size couch this was never a problem.  With a love seat it leads to cramped neck, crunched knees, and waking up at 3 a.m.  Once my feet hit the floor the dogs believe it must be time to go outside and in this weather that involves coats and hats and boots and scarves and gloves and …. Once I’ve done all of that I might as well stay up because it seems silly to go back to sleep until the alarm goes off at 5, which after all that bundling and walking and unbundling is only 45 minutes away.  So there I am at 4 a.m. folding laundry and writing and making coffee and wondering what in the name of Sweet Dreams I am doing awake.  I have got to train myself to get in my bed at night. 
It’s gonna be a long day.
And so it goes.

My world wakes differently when there is school.  Walking out this morning the world is still cold and white but there are more lights one.  Cars and trucks are running in driveways waiting for passengers.  Today is the real start of the work week.  Yesterday was an extra gift, found at the bottom of the stocking and all the more exciting because it is discovered after the fact.  The dogs are impatient with my lack of fur.  I can’t convince them that I don’t have a hidden fur skin somewhere.  They scramble and wiggle by the door while I put on layer after layer of clothing to enjoy the morning.  I learned a long time ago that the trick to enjoying winter is giving up the fashion plate thing and dressing in a million layers.  By the time I get bundled and open the door the canine excitement is off the charts.  And out we bound – actually two of us bound.  One of us travels carefully up the back steps, testing for ice and slickness.  Those with four legs bound and romp and then – most of the time – come back and wait patiently for leashes.  They are learning that if they listen they get longer run around time but once we reach the corner all bets are off and leashes must be attached.  And it is in rounding that corner that the oddity appears.
There is only one one-way street in this village and if I lived on it I think I’d refuse to pay taxes.  There is no distinction between lawn and street.  Does the road crew forget Plum St. exists? (How could it?  The Village is only 2 square miles.)  Maybe no one that lives there has to leave for work in the morning? (Nope.  I know people who have to leave early in the morning.) Maybe there’s been a petition and Plum St. doesn’t want to be plowed and cleared? (Now there’s a stretch.)  Nope, I’ve got it.  The whole population of that street is a snow cult.  Once the rest of the Village goes off to work and school, a vast population of snow bunnies pour out of the windows and doorways and roll around naked in the snow.  Nope.  Wait.  I’ve really got it this time.  They keep penguins and polar bears as pets on that street.  They need the snow.  They love the snow, and the unplowed street and unshoveled walks.  Polar bears and penguins.  If I live on Plum St.  I can have one.  Awesome!

And so it goes.

Many of the members of the cast of characters in my life are in different places now.  There have been a lot of changes in a year.  For the most part, it’s been a natural evolution.  Children grow up and move away and come and go in a different pattern than they did when they were  – well – not adults.  The husband and I don’t live together anymore but that is not today’s story.  Today’s story is about SNOW DAYS!
Yup!  We have one.  Yee HAW!
Sense memory is a funny thing.  There are no children at home to cover gently and whisper to quietly “Go back to sleep honey.  There’s no school today.”  The sure thing was that they would wake up wide-eyed and alert, “What!  Really!  Cool!  What’s for breakfast?”  Because no matter how bare the cupboard I managed a special breakfast on snow days.  My hands are itching right now to make gingerbread from scratch and fill this new home with that scent of excitement and giggles.  And after that I would make a big pot of split pea soup and a pan of cornbread that would serve as lunch and dinner and anything in between the sledding and playing outside because it is one of those days when the weather is perfect winter.  Deep snow.  No biting wind.  Bundle them up at daylight and send them out to play.  This is perfect.  But there are no warm bodies under covers and I doubt that my adult children would appreciate an early morning phone call to tell them to go back to sleep.  I imagine their response to be “Mooooom!  I have to go to work anyway.  This sucks.”  So I will wait to make the phone call until a little later and tell them to drive safely and leave early and give themselves plenty of time to get where they are going. 
The characters who have remained more or less constant are the dogs and they romped happily this morning after I shoved the back door through the snow drift.  Even the boy dog dachshund jumped and cavorted.  The wind wasn’t blowing for a change and the still air made him happy bounding through the drifts.  The Aussie girl dog loves this stuff.  She wants to stay outside for hours and roll and chase her ball except for one small problem – her ball gets cold and uncomfortable to pick up and return.  Still, she is valiant in her efforts.
So, in this changed life of mine, the dogs are curled up and the snow falls outside and life is full of giggles and hot coffee.
I just may make that soup anyway.  I can always put it in the freezer.
And so it goes.

I have a confession to make…
I am one of those people who like winter.  Yup, there it is.  In a state whose citizens are annually surprised that white stuff falls from the sky and sticks to the ground, I love the change of seasons.  I don’t do any of the winter stuff that winter afficionados revel in.  Don’t ski.  Don’t skate.  Don’t like hockey or basketball.I used to like sledding but having reached – or almost reached – that “certain age” the percussion of bouncing down the hill leaves my back in pieces for a week, so I don’t do that anymore either.  But all of that notwithstanding, I like the change of season, the quiet sleeping earth, blanketed in the blustery, frozen cold of northeast Ohio.  Our mistress, Lake Erie, brings us surprises on an almost daily basis and listening to the weather people is more to be able to make fun of rather than count on the accuracy of their forecasts.  They rarely get it right, especially because what is happening in one town is frequently NOT happening five miles away.  So, I bask in today, even as my fingers are just beginning to thaw from filling the car with gas.  My toes are still frozen and I appreciate the value of a good pair of boots – which I don’t own, by the way.  The world blusters away outside my window and as soon as the clock strikes the correct hour I am off to an antique store to look at some dishes and contemplate what furniture I want to buy and maybe pick up a new piece of glass for the windowsill.  Winter is a good time for color and light coming int he window on the rare days of sunshine.  And it’s a good time for reflection and thinking and discovery.  Soon enough it will be time to look for seeds and buy top soil and grow green things.  For now, this time, this searching and reflection are a necessary part of the seasonal landscape and I embrace it all with joy.

And so it goes

I can’t speak for anyone else, but in my own life New Year’s Resolutions are generally futile and just another way to disappoint myself.  In fact, while am sure a few people manage to make and keep them, I have never been able to.  I’m not very good at following reasonless mandates and that’s what those silly resolutions have always felt like to me.  However….

I have no problem at all with resolve. Resolve is active and somehow, in my little head, speaks to gifts rather than punishment. It’s like the difference between giving something up for Lent and being altruistic for Lent.  One is denial and one is a gift.  Resolve is a gift from me to me. 

As the beginning of anything seems like a good time for resolve, why not the first of the year.  (And don’t get me started on the beginning of the decade thing…it’s like the millennium which didn’t start when social conventions says it did but whatever and who cares?)

So, I hereby resolve…

• to read more
• to write about what I read
• to reflect and to write about those reflections
• A lifepath has been cleared; the snow shoveled away; the boulders moved to the side. I resolve to walk that path with eyes wide open, to see, to live, to be.

And so it begins.

There is a level of excitement when the newest picture book order arrives.  It’s rather like Christmas once a month.  When it happens around the holidays it’s even better, somehow.  Presents that I didn’t pay for and that I get to share.  Cool!

Jan Thomas’ The Doghouse is sure to delight children from birth to 8 at the very least and even older if it becomes a real favorite!   It begins on the endpapers (Psst.  Don’t flip to the back unless you want to spoil the ending.)  Our friends Cow and Mouse and Duck and Pig are playing kickball and “Oh no!  The ball went into THE DOGHOUSE.”  Mouse volunteers his friends, one by one, to retrieve the lost ball and they never come out.  Whatever could be happening to them?  Yikes! 

The text is clear and bold, with plenty of space on the brightly colored pages and delightfully expressive illustrations to entertain the lapsit gang.  The language is repetitive enough for the just beginning reader to master and crow proudly, “I can read this all by myself!”  Grab this one up at your local library and enjoy!

I have been a fan of Cynthia Rylant’s work for many, many years.  From When I Was Young in the Mountains to Missing May to Mr. Putter and Tabby, I have loved most of them and enjoyed them all.  Her newest picture book is a love affair just beginning. The language in Snow sparkles like the flakes themselves.  “And then there is the snow /that begins to fall/ in fat cheerful flakes /while you are somewhere/ you’d rather not be./ Maybe school./  Maybe work.”  Lauren Stringer’s acrylic illustrations bring further depth and dimension to Rylant’s story and the addition of the grandmother as one of the main characters makes this a perfect gift for an evening of falling snow, hot chocolate and curling up in Grandma’s lap.

I’ve never been much of a wanderer.  I like making a nest and staying in it.  I don’t have any overwhelming desire to climb Mt. Everest, go the Amazon or journey to the moon.  I’m not that kind of a dreamer.  But I understand, and maybe even envy a little bit, people who are.  The Moon Over Star written by Dianna Hutts Aston and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney takes place in July of 1969.  It was a month for dreamers and Mae was no exception.  She and her family follow the flight of the Apollo 11 crew on their journey to and landing on the moon.  Even Gramps, who has worked hard all his life and believes that all that money spent to go to the moon should be spent to help the people on Earth, gets caught up in the beauty and mystery of space flight.  Aston’s story is rich and layered and as always Pinkney’s ink and watercolor illustrations take readers to a different time and place, which he captures in the faces of his characters and the details of their surroundings.  This is a perfect book for dreamers of all shapes and sizes.

I cannot remember a time when I was not passionate about books.  I cannot remember a time when there were not books everywhere.  But I do remember not having easy access to a public library where the books could be borrowed and returned and I could spend my allowance on something frivolous like….another book.  In the world high up in the Appalachian Mountains, remote and hardscrabble, books and libraries are the furthest thing from Cal’s mind until That Book Woman and a very patient little sister introduce him to reading.  The text by Heather Henson and the ink, watercolor and pastel illustrations by David Small are a genuine tribute to the Pack Horse Librarians, women who dedicated their lives to bringing literature and books to the poorest of the poor.  “That’s gift enough.”

All of these are prizes and treasures but two books in the recent shipment stand out above the rest.

Allan Ahlberg’s whimsy is perfectly complemented by Bruce Ingrams’ pencil and acrylic illustrations in The Pencil, a rollicking adventure in which a Pencil draws a world and the Eraser tries to erase it all.  Every character has a name, including each of the ants.  This book is laugh-out-loud funny from start to finish.  The humorous and simple exploration of the creative process will appeal to authors and illustrators of all ages and sizes…..and names.

The flyleaf of The Black Book of Colors reads, in part, “It is very hard for a sighted person to imagine what it is like to be blind.”  However, with completely black pages, author Memna Cottin and illustrator Rosana Faria, make quite a successful attempt.  Each spread has a simple explanation of what a color “looks” like to a person who cannot see it on the left-hand page and raised/embossed black on black illustration on the right page.  The print text is supported by Braille text at the top of the left pages.  This book begs to be touched and explored with eyes open and closed. Held in the right light, the delicate raised illustrations are visible but readers’ finger will itch to touch each and every corner.  Both the author and illustrator are Venezuelan which eliminates this gem from the Caldecott race and that really is unfortunate because this is one of the most perfect books I’ve see this year.  Don’t miss it.

One of the advantages to the redecorating is that the stereo has been moved so that the reception is positively wonderful.  No fuzz, not static, no fading in and out.  Pretty cool.  Because of that I have had NPR on all day.  One of the annual events on Morning Edition is the reading of the Declaration of Independence.  If you have not heard it, I recommend it.  It is very, very moving.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92108861

Happy Fourth, America!

Often, in the world of literature and story hours and sharing books, we forget about old favorites in favor of the newest and brightest and shiniest.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with new books.  Indeed, I’d be out of a job if it were not for them!  But every once in a while I pull something off the shelf that I haven’t shared with the children for a very long time just to see how it plays.  I did that last week with Robert McCloskey’s 1958 Caldecott winner Time of Wonder and this one is a keeper.  The language is mesmerizing and quiet, hurricane notwithstanding.  The watercolor illustrations are dated but it doesn’t matter.  As readers and listeners, we get it.  This is a different time and place but, no matter where we are, – Maine, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nebraska, New York – summers still hold that magic, that time of wonder.  Borrow this one from the library and share it on a rain-filled evening. 

Still, new books roll in with alarming regularity, which can only mean that I may really be caught up with book orders.  How is that even possible?

I admit it.  I was a Fractured Fairy Tale fan growing up.  Prince?  Oh come now.  Who ARE you kidding?!?  So when a retold tale comes through I am incredibly picky and not just a little cynical.  Snoring Beauty by Bruce Hale fills the bill nicely.  I laughed out loud.  Mr. Hale’s characters are as tongue in cheek as they can be.  And just wait until you meet Beebo, the fairy no one invited.  Whoa!    One of my favorite sentences:  “And up at the main table with the king and queen sat seven of the funkiest fairies you’ve ever seen:  Hexus and Blexus, Nostrilene and Umpudine, Fleabitis and Tintinnitus, and Fred (who wasn’t really a fairy, but no one had the heart to tell him).”  Come on!  You know it’s funny.

Anita Lobel has been writing and illustrating children’s books for many, many years.  On Market Street won a Caldecott Honor. This time Ms. Lobel has presented us with another winner; a book that is absolutely stunning in its simplicity.  Hello, Day! shows the youngest child how each animal greets the day.  Four words on each page is just enough for babies and toddlers learning sounds, but the illustrations will enchant an older child.  These marker, pencil, watercolor and gouache pieces are simply breathtaking – bright and full and perfect.  The illustrations move this book from a baby lapsit to a book to share with children of all ages. 

Suzy Lee’s The Wave is lovely.  It’s a wordless book in which a curious little girl plays with a wave and the wave plays back.  Anyone who has seen a child do this will know that Ms. Lee has caught it perfectly – the fun, the tension, the giddiness, the joy.  The charcoal and acrylic illustrations are perfect.  This would be one of my top five except there is one bad gutter crop that someone missed.  I hope they correct it in subsequent printings because this could be a perfect little book.

As for music….I have discovered The Puppini Sisters and I have to tell you – you have not heard Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” until you have heard it in three part harmony ala The Andrews Sisters.  The kids and I have been giggling for about an hour.  In addition, on Betcha Bottom Dollar there are a couple of my favorites from the forties including “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” so how can one go wrong!  Enjoy.

And so it goes