Cover for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The cover of the highly anticipated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling's sixth Harry Potter book published in the U.S. by Scholastic, under the Arthur A. Levine Books imprint, due in stores on July 16, 2005. Once again the cover art is created by Mary GrandPré, the illustrator of all five previous U.S. editions of the Harry Potter books.

A House of Tailors

A House of Tailors by Patricia Riley Giff, 2004

Dina's stitches are small and straight. She has a sense for color and fabric. Dina's gift is sewing but she hates it. She longs to go to America and live with her uncle and his family but when she ends up having to flee to New York from her home in Germany she finds her dream and the reality of life in Brooklyn are far apart.

Giff can put the reader into the setting of a story better than any other writer. In her novel, Nory Ryan’s Song, we knew when the blight had overtaken the potato crop because we could “smell” it. In this book we sense the crowded streets, the cooking in the tenements and the soot from the fires of Brooklyn in the 1870s. The crowding, disease and long back breaking hours of labor that were part of the immigrants life are accurately depicted. The joys of the her new land include her first taste of ice cream, a new friend Johann, and her little niece and nephew. Dina longs for her home and family in Germany but finds she cannot imagine leaving her new family and friends. She finds great pride in her talent for hat and dressmaking and ultimately makes a place for herself in her new country. Dina is a wonderful character full of strength and love.

Giff wrote this story as a tribute to her great grandmother. Her touching afterward describes which stories from the book which came directly from her own family history.
Patricia Riley Giff is one of the most honest writers I have ever read. She is like an accomplished musician, every note of her books rings true and touches the heart.

For more information and books by this remarkable author, visit her site at Random House.

Virtual Vacation

Melanie Martin Goes Dutch : The Private Diary of My Almost Bummer Summer with Cecily, Matt the Brat, and Vincent Van Go Go Go, 2002

The Diary of Melanie Martin : or How I Survived Matt the Brat, Michelangelo, and the Leaning Tower of Pizza, 2000

With Love from Spain, Melanie Martin, 2004

It is spring break here and that makes me think travel. Sadly, a dream trip to Oxford for a certain literary festival is not going to happen so I will content myself with a virtual trip abroad.

The Melanie Martin Diaries by Carol Weston sweep the reader off to The Netherlands, Italy and Spain. Melanie keeps a journal of her family vacations and chronicles the highs and lows of family trips. Weston has an ear for middle school voices. Melanie is at once protective and annoyed by her younger brother, Matt the Brat. She is intrigued and bored by art museums; hungry for and alarmed by the "exotic" foods they try in restaurants. The reader "hears" the language (complete with pronunciation) smells the food and sees the sights through Melanie's eyes.

The story and reading levels make the books accessible to a wide range of young readers. I am happy to see my girl is back in the newly released, Melanie in Manhattan, 2005.

Author: Cynthia Kadohata

Nice article about the author of this year's Newbery Award book, Kira-Kira.

“Kira-Kira” ... is Kadohata’s first children’s book and her fourth published book. She began writing after graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in journalism in 1979.

“I had thought I could never be a reporter because I can’t really drive,” Kadohata said. “I still wanted to write nonfiction though. I moved to Boston and there were a lot of bookstores and I started reading lots of stories.”

Author: Beverly Cleary

From KATU, Portland, OR.

The Multnomah County Sheriff's Department is naming its newest boat after Beverly Cleary, whose children's books about growing up in Northeast Portland have been published in 14 languages.

Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival

The 9th Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival is April 10-17, 2005. So many wonderful events. I would HAVE to attend this session.

Henry Gee
The Science of Middle Earth
2.30 pm £5.50 Oxford Union
Henry Gee ingeniously reveals how contemporary science can explain some of the wonders of Middle Earth, where Tolkien’s marvellous fantasy creates a world with an insistent sense of reality. In The Science of Middle Earth, he delights in explaining such scientific conundrums as how Frodo’s coat of mithril armour can deflect deadly blows and how Legolas can count the Riders of Rohan across five leagues. Just because The Lord of the Rings is fantasy, he argues, this doesn’t prevent scientific explanations for its wonders. Henry Gee is one of the editors of Nature.

The walking tours:

Lyra’s Oxford - Jordan College to Jericho
Tread the footsteps of Lyra as she takes you on an adventure around Oxford from Philip Pullman’s book. Fans of all ages of His Dark Materials trilogy will enjoy discovering more about Jordan College and seeing Lyra’s favourite haunts as Pullman imagined them, while listening to readings from the book.

Oxford’s Secret Gardens
Behind the walls of the ancient colleges lie acres of beautiful gardens, some of which are not normally open to the public. Join design historian Helena Chance for one of her popular tours which traces the history of the gardens from the fourteenth century to the present day. The tour starts at New College with its famous mound, visits a tiny secret garden at Corpus Christi College and finishes with the private gardens at Wadham College.

Some of the children's literature sessions: Charlie Higson author of SilverFin (new young James Bond series,) Philip Pullman and his book, The Scarecrow and his Servant and G. P. Taylor, author of Shadowmancer and Wormwood.

Wow!

Flat Stanley

This week Stanley strolled up the red carpet with Clint Eastwood at the Oscars. Flat Stanley has also visited the White House.

I love helping out with Flat Stanley-type projects. I have taken "Traveling Texas Heroes" to football games and on vacations. One year I sent "Neil Armstrong" off to the USS Kitty Hawk and he got to fly over Mount Suribachi in an F-14 Tomcat and visit Japan.

"In the book, by Jeff Brown, Stanley gets squashed flat by a falling bulletin board," said Dale Hubert, a Canadian third-grade teacher who created the Flat Stanley Project. "Stanley's parents rolled him up, put him in an envelope and mailed him to his friend in California. And that just seemed like a way of communicating that grade-three students might enjoy."

The program is designed to improve the reading and writing skills of elementary school students while they learn about new people and places.

Gail at Original Content noticed that the Royal Mail has issued a series of stamps based on Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.

Royal Mail chose illustrations by a famous artist, Paula Rego, specially for this issue because she also looked at the 'dark side' of the story.

There are six stamps to collect, plus a First Day Cover, Presentation Pack and stamp cards.

The location of the "real" Thornfield Hall from Jane Eyre was discussed here in Dec.

Sound Effects

"Tom and I started out with a lot of free time as kids," is how Fred Newman describes Tom Keith's and his own beginnings as sound effect masters. Minnesota Public Radio has a fun interview, full of sound effects with these two men. Newman says his sound effects come from a tradition of storytelling in his family.

Tom Keith, sound effects man for A Prairie Home Companion. Fred Newman also contributes sound for A Prairie Home Companion. Newman appears on the PBS children's series Between the Lions. He's the author of the new book Mouth Sounds.

Author: Arthur Ransome

BBC News reports a story that sounds like a John LeCarre novel.

Arthur Ransome, author of Swallows and Amazons in 1930, married Trotsky's secretary and travelled widely in the Soviet Union for British newspapers.

He kept London informed of what he learnt and intelligence chiefs passed details to the King.

But it took MI5 20 years to finally concede Ransome was loyal to Britain.