SYNC YA Audiobooks Summer Schedule

Generous audiobook publishers are partnering with SYNC again to offer a terrific schedule of FREE audiobooks to download and enjoy this summer 2012.  Mark your calendar so you will not miss a week.  As usual, their pairings are thoughtful and interesting.   Go to SYNC for more information.

June 14-20: The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch (Scholastic Audiobooks) and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, adapt. by Frank Galati (L.A. Theatre Works)
June 21- 27: Irises by Francisco X. Stork (Listening Library) and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (Tantor Media)
June 28-July 4: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (Listening Library) and Tales from the Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang (Naxos Audio)
July 5-11: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (AudioGo) and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (AudioGo)
July 12-18: Guys Read: Funny Business by Jon Scieszka (Harper Audio) and The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Stories by Mark Twain (Recorded Books)
July 19-25: Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter (Oasis Audio) and Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (AudioGo)
July 26-Aug. 1: Pinned by Alfred C. Martino (Listen & Live Audio); and a title to be announced (Brilliance Audio)
Aug. 2-8: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (Hachette Audio) and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (Blackstone Audio)
Aug. 9-15: Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, (Harper Audio) and Dead Men Kill by L. Ron Hubbard (Galaxy Press)
Aug. 16-22: The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera (Bolinda Audio) and The Call of the Wild by Jack London(Naxos Audio)

Chronal Engine

Chronal Engine by Greg Leitch Smith. Clarion Books, March 2012


UPDATE:  Since publishing this review Chronal Engine has been named as a Junior Library Guild selection!!  Congratulations to Greg!

It is always a joy to have a new book that no one knows about yet to share with the students and librarians.  I've been in that happy position this week as I've subbed in my district's libraries.  The short version of my book talk is: teens are forced back to the Cretaceous era on a rescue mission. This is no Land Before Time with cuddly, roly-poly baby dinos. These dinosaurs are looking for their next meal and would greatly enjoy a snack delivered from the twenty-first century. 

Soon-to-be-eighth-grader Max and his older twin siblings Emma and Kyle are resigned to spending the summer with their grandfather at his ranch while their mother is away on a dinosaur dig in China.  Soon after they arrive disaster strikes and Max must determine if the story of his great-great grandfather's Chronal Engine is true and if it really is capable of moving them back in time.  The reader can easily believe in the machine's abilities as Smith draws on his electrical engineering background to describe the electronics involved. It may be imaginary but is sounds technically feasible.. 

Of course there are dinosaurs, big dinosaurs, little dinosaurs, baby dinosaurs, flying dinosaurs and ginormous alligators. The action is fast paced and gripping as the rescue party discovers they are no match for the sheer mass of these animals, much less their claws and teeth. I admit to some audible gasps and "Oh NOs" while I was reading. OK, I may have even shrieked once.

Humorous shout-outs to Star Trek and Star Wars will tickle fans.  For Texans, there are landmarks, real and imagined, that evoke the Lone Star State. 

Smith demonstrated in his first book, Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo that he has a fine ear for youthful dialog and humor.  (Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo is an excellent audiobook. The performers who read the story are pitch perfect which is a tribute to Smith's writing. I highly recommend it.)

Young paleontologists will find much to enjoy as prehistory facts and knowledge weave naturally into Max's thoughts and comments.

The book is also enhanced with full page black and white illustrations by Blake Henry.  His style gives the story the feel of a graphic novel.  Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series saw a return to the illustrated adventure novel which works with science fiction stories like these.  When storytelling with larger than life creatures it helps to show their size and weight. Here, the heroes' Volkswagen zooms beneath the legs and tail of a sauropod and a T-Rex turns and stares menacingly into the reader's eyes. 

Although the ages of the characters are eighth grade and high school, this book will also work very well with upper elementary school readers. Readers of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and Red Pyramid series will be natural sells for this title. I would love to see the character Brick Heck (from the television series The Middle) reading this book.  I wonder how difficult it is to feature a non Hyperion title on that ABC network program?

Smith adds an "Author's Note" which cites many of his resources and reviews his efforts to accurately seat his story in current paleontology research.  Personally, I greatly enjoyed his discussion of the "Robinsonade" survival genre (Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, Gulliver, etc.) and how it has been a staple in literarture, movies and television.  Chronal Engine fits perfectly into this tradition. I am hopeful that there will be additional books to follow. There are many points in the story to continue and Smith would have time to develop and deepen his characters.   The family is dealing with the loss of their father in Afghanistan. There is much here to explore besides another place and time.

Check out the interview with Greg Leitich Smith at cynsations
There is also a reading/activity kit , including an extensive Dinosaur Word Search at GregLeitichSmith.com

Midnight in Austenland

Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale.  Bloomsbury, 2012

I'm afraid I am a sure-sell when all things Jane Austen. Hale's first book Austenland which I reviewed (here) in 2007 was entertaining Jane Austen fanfiction.  I savored the concept of a place like Disneyland for Austen lovers, hence the name Austenland.

The story was picked up by Twilight's Stephanie Meyer who is producing Austenland -- the movie which is in post-production according to IMDB.   If you wander back to July 2011 on author Shannon Hale's blog, squeetusblog, you will find her posting a bit about being on the movie set.

In this new book, Hale keeps the setting and some of the background characters including Mrs Wattlesbrook who manages the place, Colonel Andrews, who interacts with the visitors like a Disney Character at the parks, and Miss Charming, a perpetual guest at Pembrook. 

Charlotte Kinder is a divorced mother of two.  She is successful in business but feels alone and like a failure because of her divorce. When the opportunity to take a vacation presents itself, the travel agent suggests Austenland and Charlotte, who has only recently read Jane Austen's works, books the trip. 

Hale tells the story in a sort of pendulum swing fashion between the past and present.  The reader learns more about Charlotte's past as she tries to understand herself in an ongoing dialog with her Inner Thoughts. In the first story, Hale played off Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  Here she puts a spin on Northanger Abbey.  Has there been a murder at Pembrook Park or is Charlotte, like the NA character Catherine Morland, seeing things that are not there? 
This was a fun read for spring break.

As New Zealand discovered there is gold in fan loyalty.  This time around Peter Jackson et al are rebuilding Hobbiton for the filming of The Hobbit so it will be a permanent part of the New Zealand tourist trade for year to come. (See Hobbiton Movie Set Tours)  I wonder if a similar idea might be pursued to create a real Austenland type hotel for Austen fans.

The Great Spring Break Read-a-thon

I have decided to see how many books I can enjoy over Spring Break. It will be productive and edifying to devote a swath of time or maybe at least a small corner of time to reading this week.  We are enjoying local entertainments instead of traveling so I will enjoy a vacation of reading. 

As Emily Dickinson described it so well:

There Is No Frigate Like a Book
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!

On the Blue Comet

On the Blue Comet by Rosemary Wells.  Candlewick, 2010.

On the Blue Comet was a pure joy to read.  My childhood memory of pressing my cheek against the train board to gain a eye/ground level view of the trains was echoed in this story.   The story's main character, eleven year old, Oscar Ogilvie is a kindred spirit as he performs the same ritual. We both were trying to imagine ourselves into the small world of the trains.

When I was a child, we had a model train set up.  We did not have a basement but my father designed a over-sized folding platform for our HO model trains which included a train we had actually ridden on, the Santa Fe Railway Super Chief.

Wells sets her story during Great Depression. Oscar and his father share a love of model trains and they have an elaborate set up in the basement of their house.  Each year they add to their collection but the hard economic times have put a stop to that.  In fact, things are so bad that they must sell the train set to the local bank manager who uses the trains as a display in the bank lobby.  Oscar's father leaves to look for work in California, promising to send for Oscar when he finds some.  The kindly night watchman at the bank allows Oscar to visit and run the trains after the bank closes.  One night the lobby is invaded by bank robbers and Oscar escapes into time and an unlikely landscape.

This story mixes history, time travel, and fantasy along with cameo appearances by some famous people in history.  A great deal of the reading fun was identifying the people Oscar comes in contact with. 

Bagram Ibatoulline has contributed glowing paintings that have been meticulously researched.  Period fashion and architecture are reflected in illustrations which allow the reader to reach back in time too.

The book reminds me of how much model trains added to our childhoods. We learned -- hands-on --about electricity, direct current, transformers as well as trouble-shooting, patience and craftsmanship. 

William Joyce

Please stop what you are doing and watch this!
I had the pleasure of seeing William Joyce talk about his new series Guardians of Childhood at the Texas Book Festival.

Thanks to Alan Silberberg and Annette Dauphin Simon for sharing this link to The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from his Moonbot Studios. It has been nominated for an Academy Award.

Using a variety of techniques, including miniatures, computer animation, and 2D animation, award‐winning author and illustrator William Joyce and co‐director Brandon Oldenburg present a hybrid style of animation that harkens back to silent films and MGM Technicolor musicals.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

Award Winning Happiness

ALA Youth Media Awards Day is something like a high holy day in the Kidlitosphere.  -- The anticipation -- the predictions --and in my case the recognition that my TBR list grows ever longer.

When I heard the news that Jack Gantos had been awarded the 2012 Newbery Award for his novel Dead End in Norvelt,  I was elated and began firing off emails to other members of the entwood here to let them know the momentous news.

I highly recommend the audio version of the book read by Gantos himself. It  is an excellent way to enjoy this semi-autobiographical tale.  He knows where he put all the jokes, ellipses and tender moments and delivers them perfectly.

The Troika of Jack Fansanity  (Jules at Seven Imp, the brilliant Adrienne at What Adrienne Thinks about That and myself) was engaged in a day long happy-dance and conga line through emails and Facebook posts.

Jack has been recognized with Newbery honors and other awards in the past.  Last week Dead End in Norvelt was awarded the 2012 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

Winning THE Newbery Medal means that iconic gold medal will forever grace the cover of his book. It is a validation of his wonderful writing.  "Writing is hard work" Gantos told my students several years ago when he visited my library.  I am overjoyed his hard work has been recognized and rewarded.

Congratulations Jack Gantos!

Here is his presentation with the from the National Book Festival,  Fall 2011.
I know his Newbery Award acceptance speech will be a humdinger.  No one who hears him speak, ever forgets it. Listen to the crowd roaring with laughter here.

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins

My family room coffee table is covered with picture books of the season.  In honor of Hanukkah, tonight we read Eric Kimmel's marvelous Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins. This is one my very favorite read-alouds to share.  Eric Kimmel is a commanding storyteller. I treasure my signed copy of this classic.

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric A. Kimmel, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, 1989

Hershel is courageous and cunning as he faces some evil goblins who ruin Hanukkah for the town folk every year.  In order to break their evil hold over the village, someone must stay in the old synagogue for the eight nights of the festival and light the menorah there each night. Hershel volunteers for the job.This is a story that rivets young (and old) listeners. Kimmel relates this folktale with his full storyteller's voice.  The book won a Caldecott honor in 1990 for good reason. The story and the illustrations beautifully balance humor and "scary." Trina Schart Hyman's finely drawn characters and setting pull the reader into the danger. The shadows in the old building are deep.  Her goblins are at once comical and horrific. A dreidel playing goblin is grotesque with horns and multiple noses yet his dopey expression invites laughter. The skeletal hand of the King of the Goblins is silhouetted against a fire red background as Hershel (and the listeners and readers) look on with horror. Yet, Hershel outwits the demons and when he triumphs each night, the glow of the candles signals the power of faith over the darkness.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
The classic WKRP Turkey Drop.

Nonfiction Monday: Enrique Esparza and the Battle of the Alamo

Enrique Esparza and the Battle of the Alamo (History Speaks: Picture Books Plus Reader's Theaterby Susan Taylor Brown; illustrated by Jeni Reeves, 2011. (review copy)

Texas history is the focus of fourth grade social studies in the Lone Star state. That is a happy year for those students as they study the story of the state's founding and its struggle for independence. Texans regard their state's symbolic birth at the Alamo with a mixture of pride and reverence.  I have observed that by the time they revisit the story in 7th grade with its overlay of government and civics and junior high ennui, their enthusiasm wanes.
I am always on the lookout for books that embrace that high level interest in elementary school.
Susan Taylor Brown's Enrique Esparza and the Battle of the Alamo is part of the "History speaks" series from Millbrook Press. Brown focuses on the family of eight year old Enrique Esparza in the days leading up to and following the battle for the Alamo.  Enrique's father Gregorio Esparza was one of the Tejano defenders who fought along side of the likes of Bowie, Crockett and Travis.

The Esparza family joined Gregorio inside the Alamo for the thirteen day battle.  Gregorio died along with the other Anglo and Tejano defenders as Santa Anna gave no quarter for the fighters inside the mission. Esparza's wife and children survived.  The story acknowledges the role of Tejanos in the fight for independence and their role in shaping the future of the state.

Jeni Reeves uses a warm and vivid Southwestern color palette to illustrate Enrique's story.  She paints with broad brush strokes and captures the tension and fear in the family's faces as they endure the battle and the aftermath. Texas school librarians are always on the lookout for "Texas" books. The reader's theater adds another dimension to the story for classroom use.   This is an excellent addition to the Texas school library.  I wonder if it is available in the gift shop at the Alamo?