Bank Street Book List

I think finding your book on this particular list would be a tremendous honor. I've known some of the folks who pick these titles and know how hard they work at it and how discriminating they are. So congrats to all of the writers who made the grade. This is a terrific tool for school librarians, parents, anybody who buys kids' books= a list divided by ages and by genres. Here's how the website describes the book:

One of the most comprehensive annotated book lists for children, aged infant-14. The Committee reviews over 6000 titles each year for accuracy and literary quality and considers their emotional impact on children. It chooses the best 600 books, both fiction and nonfiction, which it lists according to age and category.

Put a Poem in Your Pocket today

Did you know today is National Poem in Your Pocket Day, something that was such fun to celebrate when I was surrounded by enthusiastic kids in my days of school librarianing. Have you shared a poem this month? Do you have a poem in your pocket today?

If I were still strolling the school hallways, carrying a favorite short poem in my pocket, ready to read or share at a moment's notice, this is what it would be, the final verse from So Much Happiness

Since there is no place large enough

To contain so much happiness,

You shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you

Into everything you touch. You are not responsible.

You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit

For the moon, but continues to hold it, and to share it,

And in that way, be known.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~


But if I should need a poem to inspire me today, though I hardly need inspiring on a day like this, I might choose this one, from e.e. cummings, to put a thoughtful end to Poetry Month:

may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile

~ e.e. cummings ~

The Sky Is Everywhere

Have you ever just not wanted to read a book? Maybe it's the timing. It might be the cover or the publicity material or the subject matter, but you can't seem to get past the title page.

I like Young Adult books, generally speaking, but I had read four in a row, actually five now that I think about it. I'd loved one (Natalie Standiford's How To Say Goodbye in Robot), halfway through I had put one aside to read later (Will Grayson, Will Grayson), I had reviewed one for publication and was zipping through another, a lighter fare for sure.

But this one was about a sister who had died, so even though the publicist who sent it to me and a member of my critique group whose judgment I trust both seemed to think it was going to be a hit, still I resisted. I just wasn't in the mood for a death book about a talented musician and a new boy in town. I couldn't seem to pick it up and read a single page.

Then I did.

Wow. This is without a shade of doubt one of the most beautifully-written novels I've read all spring, bar none. And to think of it as about death just doesn't do the story justice.

I love the way the story unfolds, the poems 17-year-old Lennie leaves on to-go cups, scrawls on tree branches, the backs of flyers--as tributes to her older sister Bailey. Bailey's death is handled tastefully, thoughtfully, almost off-screen as it were. It's what happens to the people who still love her that make the story so touching.

The true love story that's underneath the sad one is possibly the most realistic portrayal of young love I've read in a while. OK, maybe I don't read a ton of YA love stories, but I just sense this one is going to resonate with readers, girls and boys, their parents- anybody who picks up this book and finds themselves unable to put it back down.

Actually, there are many levels of love going on in The Sky is Everywhere. Lennie's grandmother surely must rate as the most intriguing, patient, understanding, interesting grandparent to grace a young readers' book in a while. She totally gets her granddaughter in a way that all inter-generational families wish they could, yet she knows how to let Lennie find her own way. Plus she's just one fascinating lady- an artist, a rose grower, a taker-in of lost and confused souls. And then there's the uncle who completes the family threesome, another multi-dimensional character if ever there was one.

But truly, in this book, it's all about the writing. Like this passage, when Lennie finally goes to the attic where she's packed up her sister's things:

I haven't been up here in years. I don't like the tombishness, the burned smell of the trapped heat, the lack of air. It always seems so sad too, full of everything abandoned and forgotten...This is what I've been avoiding for months now. I take a deep breath, look around. There's only one window, so I decide, despite the fact that the area around it is packed in with boxes and mountains of bric-a-brac, that Bailey's things should go where the sun will at least seep in each day.

Yes, there's teenage angst, a moment or two of sex, an uncle's pot smoking and growing, and a pretty funny night of drinking expensive French wine--normal teen behavior that's not really condoned or criticized by anybody other than the characters it affects most.

At heart this story is tender and--to use an old-fashioned word you don't often hear describing Young Adult novels anymore- even heartfelt.

So now when I receive a book from a publisher that claims it's an "extraordinary debut novel that celebrates love while offering a heartbreakingly articulate portrait of grief," I'll read over grief and focus on the celebrates love part if I'm in a place where reading one more book about a sibling's death isn't what I'm looking for at that moment.

I'm glad I eventually picked this one up. Because once opened, I couldn't put it down.

Doing the Dishes While Writing?

"The best time for planning a book is when you're doing the dishes." -Agatha Christie

I wonder if Christie had a TV in front of her sink like I do.

In the Old Days of Writing, I suspect there was more often a window with a view, perhaps a bird feeder, something outside worth pondering? Maybe mindless TV counts as silence though? If so, I have a lot of that in my life.

For more on the subject, click on over to Kristi Holl's Writer's First Aid blog on savoring silence. There's a link to follow and some good thoughts for writers:

"We live in such a noisy world. Whenever we’re driving or folding laundry or jogging, it’s tempting to always have our iPods or cell phones in our ears, or the TV or radio on in the background. How desperately we avoid having a few moments of silence!”

But these moments of silence are important. So much of the “writing” and “processing” that we do requires silence.

So, what's outside your window? What do you reflect on while washing dishes? I'm going to work on more silence, quiet time for planning writing.

This is my artist friend Eileen's birdhouse. Though it's inside for admiring, not outside her dishwashing window, if it were outside my window, I might be inspired just pondering that doorknob perch.



Related posts: Resolutions
Bookish Birdhouses

Friday Night Lights

Since my absolute favorite TV show started life as a book, I think I can justify this blog post.

I don't know how anybody who grew up under football's Friday bright nights could not love this show. All the drama of those high school games, the handsome quarterback (or in my case running back), the snobby cheerleaders (I was not one and none exist in my memory of our fighting Wildcats), the bands at halftime, the coaches. Oh, wow. If you love a good story, terrific writing and acting--whether you love high school sports or not-- it doesn't matter. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is just the best drama on TV, bar none.

And lucky you who love it as much as I, as the new season is about to begin on NBC, today's New York Times has the most terrific article about the show.

A few memorable lines from today's Times piece, in case you can't get to it:

“Friday Night Lights” stands out in other ways too. In a television world in which network shows are full of speeches, “Friday Night Lights” embraces the silences. “A lot of times on this show, it’s about what we don’t say, or what we are trying to say with our faces, not words, which is sort of how it works in life,” (a quote from one of the young actors)

And this about Coach Taylor and his wife,
And for all of the show’s hotheaded teen romances, it is the chronic love affair called marriage that gets the most air time. The relationship between the Taylors reminds many of the best parts of marriage, in which the injury to the one is felt by both, and victories, sweet and fleeting, are held in common.

Oh, and by the way, I've seen the new season on Direct TV and it may be the best ever. And if you've missed the previous seasons? Rumor has it you can watch on the show's website. But really, it doesn't matter. Just jump in with Season 4 on May 7. You won't be sorry.

My Day...

OK, when I started this blog, I promised: No Navel Gazing! No reporting in on what I was eating for lunch, how late I stayed up watching American Idol, or even what I was planting in my garden. I know, I know, I've broken that promise and deviated from my platform. But I've mostly stuck with writing, books, and whatever connection they make to my daily life.

So that's why this cupcake is here.

Today I met my writing cohort Teddie for a cupcake and, as my wonderful Irish friend Edel always says, a chinwag. I love chinwags. We caught up and munched on a red velvet cupcake and a lemon flavored one. We were not overly impressed, but there was a breeze and nobody was around but us and the checkers-playing old guys in front of the cigar shop. So we wagged our chins and enjoyed our day.

Then I came home and spent the rest of the afternoon reading what I predict will be this year's Newbery Award winning book. You heard it here first.

I'm reviewing it for The Christian Science Monitor. It's coming to bookstores May 1. I think the writer is coming to my favorite D.C. bookstore, Politics and Prose, very close to its release date, so if you're there and you want to meet her, check their website. Also, she's signing at Books of Wonder soon, a great kids' bookstore in NYC.

This book is the first of a trilogy of books about the 60s, for middle-grade and older, a documentary novel for kids that truly I couldn't stop reading. It's Deborah Wiles' amazing new book, COUNTDOWN. Wow.

An all-around super nice Friday. Doesn't get much better than that. How about you?

Quote of the Day

"We write by the light of every book we've ever read."
Great quote by a favorite kids' writer, Richard Peck.

Read more from him over at Irene Latham's blog.

Related posts: Gee's Bend by Irene Latham

SCBWI Maryland Weekend

Tinkers

As if in counterpoint to their scathing review of Solar, which I blogged about yesterday, today's New York Times has an amazing story of the winner of the Pulitzer Prize. After reading this longish excerpt of TINKERS, a debut novel published by a small independent press, I'm reserving the book from my library right now.

And of course, the story of its route to publication must give heart to all those rejected writers who are told their book doesn't fit the mold. Hooray for Independent Bookstores who pushed, cajoled, cheerleaded this book to fame.

NB: The New York Times Book Review didn't review this one... Somehow, according to the Review's bloggers, it missed their radar. With today's article, they made up for that, Big Time.

The New York Times Book Review, again

Most of my library career was spent on the East Coast, usually surrounded by readers of the New York Times, in particular, its Book Review. I was frequently influenced to purchase a book for my school library (Pre-school through Grade 5) which ended up a shelf sitter (i.e. never loved by the kids as much as it was loved by the reviewer). This was more often the case with picture books than with books for older kids.

But as a grown-up reader, I read their reviews just for sheer pleasure of the prose. Yes, I frequently find a book there I've never heard of and do read and adore (Case in point, Kate Atkinson's mysteries).

But what better description of Ian McEwan's new book SOLAR than today's review by Walter Kirn who calls it "a book so good-- so ingeniously designed, irreproachably high-minded and skillfully brought off-- that it's actually quite bad... It's impressive to behold but something of a virtuous pain to read." Later in the review he calls the book "a buttery, rich sauce ladled onto overcooked, dry meat."

Ouch.

But I do not need to read a virtuous pain of a book.

I've read another mediocre review of this book so even though I adored Ian McEwan's Atonement and kind of liked a couple of others, I'll wait for somebody to dispute Mr. Kirn's opinion before adding it to my To Read list. Because that review is just so dang fun to read, I have to trust it.


Related posts: The New York Times Book Review
Kate Atkinson, My New Favorite Series

More Favorite Libraries?

In honor of the end of National Library Week, check out this collection of the Most beautiful Libraries in America. You can even register your vote for your favorites.

Not on the list, but I would have added the Portland (Oregon) Library and the Chicago Public Library's big, new-ish downtown building. I might also have to include the Eudora Welty branch of the Jackson/ Hinds County (Mississippi) public library. Maybe not the most beautiful, but a sentimental favorite.



Related post: Beautiful libraries (be sure to follow the link to the world's most beautiful libraries!)

Reason #367

As if I needed a reason to fall off the Healthy Eating Wagon, how's this for a great excuse?

I'm reviewing a cookbook (stay tuned till late May for the link to that, however) and the editor of the online magazine I'm reviewing for says to include a recipe. The review is due next week. I needed a recipe. The book is about barbecue, and I'm not planning to smoke a pork side anytime soon. Also rejected the numerous, delicious-sounding desserts. Somehow Krispy Kreme Donut Bread Pudding didn't seem like it would fit into my attempted Healthy Eating Plan of the Month. Ditto 'Nana Pudding, though both were tempting.

Instead, in anticipation of weekend guests, I made a huge bowl of coleslaw to go along with the two pork roasts I'm marinating.

Guess what? Dinner guests changed their travel plans. I'm stuck with 8 cups of slaw. So I'm sitting here thinking about lunch today. Does anybody remember Hot dogs and Slaw? There's a little ice cream stand near my house with a hot dog with cole slaw on the menu called "Southern Hot Dog" so maybe it's a southern thing? When I was a kid, we actually somehow managed to leave school for lunch (aka noon dinner) and mosey over to Ward's Drug Store where they made these delicious hot dogs, piled with slaw and maybe catsup and mustard. Aha! All those ingredients were in my fridge, having recently entertained little ones who actually eat hot dogs.

Come to think of it, that slaw is extremely healthy. No mayo. Lots of cabbage. Even tomatoes, if you can believe that. Maybe they'll counteract the hot dog? Oops. Ignore the Zapp's Potato Chips I discovered squirreled away, hidden from anybody but me. Still, all in all, maybe not 100% unhealthy?

And the book? Thumbs up! It, and the slaw, get an excellent review.

Little known factoid from the book: The Dutch called it koolsla (cabbage salad) and brought it to Nieuw Amsterdam. The Dutch and Germans called it Krautsalad when they settled in North Carolina. Their descendants put it on the menus of barbecue restaurants.

I do love reviewing cookbooks.

Quote of the Day

Oh, how I love this! And Nancy Thayer's books aren't too shabby either...

"It's never too late, in fiction or in life, to revise." -Nancy Thayer

Gotta Love Your Librarians!

Children's writer Elsa Marston (see below) posted this letter on a librarians' listserv that comes to my email each morning. Since it made my day, I have to share. The letter appeared recently in the Bloomington, Indiana, newspaper:


Dear the government,

I don't like that you're firing our school librarians. I am a first-grader at Childs school, and I think that Ms. Williams is a great librarian. She reads wonderful stories, and her voice goes up when it is supposed to and down when it is supposed to.

She helps me find books and makes me interested in reading and makes books
exciting for me. Ms. Williams makes us feel special. She knows each kid's name.

Childs school will never be the same without Ms. Williams in the library.

Why are you firing our school librarians?

Anna W.

And there you have it, world. Carry on, librarians, and remember to make your voice go up and down according to what it's supposed to do.

(And while I'm at it: I attribute my life-long love of libraries and books to the children's librarian in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, who always had a smile on her face, and who didn't get one bit upset when my sister threw up all over the reading table.)

Elsa
www.elsamarston.com

Happy Library Week!

Did you know it's National Library Week, not to mention School Library Media Month (whatever happened to the simple School Library- oh, never mind, I know that answer)? No matter. Hug a librarian!

Here's an excellent article about libraries, complete with an extensive bibliography of books featuring libraries and librarians, by Sharron McElMeel.

My own writing wouldn't be complete without helpful librarians. I've been powerfully influenced by some of the best. Hats off to all of you- LePoint, Mrs. Walker, Mrs. Powell, Anne Dawson, Helen Paytas, Diane O'Brien, Doris Nubel- my list goes on indefinitely.

Related post: One Good Librarian

April is Poetry Month!

Oh, my. What fun! Poems out of book spines. Almost makes me wish I were still a school librarian.

Remember those Poetry Magnets? Creating poems out of your book collection is just as much fun. Check out this blogpost and make a few of your own. Feel free to send/post your pictures in my comments or email.

And for all you teachers and librarians reading this- Make it a fun project and click here to post your kids' / library Poetry Spines to the 100 Scope Notes blog.

Or do one yourself. Here's my first effort. (I see myself rearranging all my bookshelves if I'm not careful...) And you thought you weren't poets? Hah. Wait till you get started.



Have fun- it's National Poetry Month!

Another from Gail Carson Levine

Here's a must-read post from that great writer for kids, Gail Carson Levine. Although she writes a lot of fantasy, often set in the Long Ago, the post has some excellent tips for writers of historical fiction also. Check out her online reference sources for looking up words. Top tips for writers whose settings aren't the everyday world of today. Fellow word geeks will love it!

(Did you know why deviled eggs are called "deviled" or why Devil's Food Cake is so named? She'll direct you to the right online reference source.)

Most of her blog posts are long, thought-provoking, smart, and mostly very helpful for writers.

Related post: Maybe My Favorite Writing Blog?

Quote for the Day

"In the course of twenty crowded years one parts with many illusions. I did not wish to lose the early ones. Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again."

Willa Cather, My Antonia

Happy Birthday, Maya Angelou

Today is the birthday of Maya Angelou. How do I know this? I clicked over to the Writers' Almanac site, looking for my Poem-a-Day for Poetry Month. Yes, April is Poetry Month, one of those events celebrated in schools and on publishers' web pages, but really shouldn't poetry be something we think about- celebrate- every day, not just during April?

Here's my favorite quote by Maya Angelou. I've had it tacked up on various corkboards, as I've moved from state to state, house to house, waiting for each house to become home. That's a close-up of my messy board. That's her quote. Can you see it?


You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right.
~Maya Angelou

I love that thought.

And since I kept on clicking and scrolling down the Writers Almanac website, I learned it's also the birthday of blues great Muddy Watters-- (McKinley Morganfield), born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi (1915), who taught himself to play harmonica and guitar. He played in various bands in bars on the south side of Chicago, and in 1950, he made the first recording for Chess Records, a tune called "Rolling Stone." He later became famous for songs like "Hoochie-Koochie Man" and "Got My Mojo Working."

Rolling Fork, Mississippi, right down the road from my real home.


Related posts: Poetry Month, Poetry Month Pt. 2

Here is where the Flowers are!

(Forewarned: this is not a post about reading, writing, books, or anything to do with any of them. Time out for flowers! Although I truly think there's a story in here somewhere.)

We came north optimistically expecting spring bulbs in bloom. So far, it's been mostly forsythia. Then again, it hasn't really felt like spring yet, cold and rainy. My friends keep telling me it's only April 1st and my expectations are too high.

But today a trip to the Macy's Flower Show in the 60-plus degree sunshine fixed my yearning for flowers. Wow.

This year's theme featured lots of balloons, large and small. The guide pointed out that this is the yellow in Martha Stewart's new line of bedding...
Well, it was a beautiful creamy yellow.



Just inside the front door, butterflies, high in the sky, greet the thousands of flower show fans. Inside the little glass windows, tiny, beautiful crystals were tucked inside the displays.






English Garden!

The yellow flowers here were my favorite. Our guide wasn't sure what they were. She fessed up to not being a horticulturalist. I think the guides are mostly out-of-work actors. She was very dramatic. And actually pretty good at pointing out a few things.

But thankfully some of the flowers are marked and this one's a Golden Chain Tree.
I need this beauty in my own backyard.



Speaking of dramatic. You can't go to New York without finding a character, a little local color. We're not sure about this dude. He was having fun posing for pictures. His "necklace" says Happy Easter.


A wall of roses! Thousands of real roses. Perfume bottles suspended in the air!


Upstairs on the 8th floor, tabletop decorations. I don't think the daisy is edible but it sure looked gorgeous.

Macy's employee, making sure the flowers are replaced if they begin to wilt. Those are white orchids in the foreground and white roses on the table. Magnificent!


Did you know the wooden elevators in Macy's are the last department store elevators of their kind in the city?

The Macy's Flower Show is an annual event, the week before and the week after Easter. This year's really was one of the best I remember. Then again, it's been a long, cold winter.

Answers from an Editor

I'm so glad to see Brooklyn Arden (AKA Cheryl Klein) has taken to blogging again. I missed her there for a while. And her latest post, a Q&A with some of her readers, includes this terrific thought, in answer to a question about what makes a "starred review" book stand out from a run-of-the-mill story? Cheryl's answer-

I think people tend to buy books for their plots, but love them for their characters, writing, and ideas.

So there's just no escaping that devil PLOT, is there...


Related post: The Challenge of Plotting

quote for the day...

Something to think about as March wind goes out like a lion:

"Imagination is the highest kite you can fly." -
Lauren Bacall

Bookish Birdhouses

What fun! Click on over to the Shelf Talker's blog to see them. Then again, I do love Bedtime for Frances.

The Help: All You Wanted to Know

Having grown up in mostly the same time/same place--or pretty close to it-- as the characters in the runaway best seller THE HELP, I'm continually asked what I think of the novel. Now that more and more Book Groups are discussing the book, I'm asked even more. When the movie is out, I'm sure I'll take up my role as explainer of the truth of the times. This was a role I accepted when I left the South and moved to Massachusetts in the late 60s, when the Civil Rights Movement was at its most divisive. Back then, I continually defended and sometimes even trashed my home state. Then when I finally figured that everybody's home state had its own set of problems, I let go of some of my negative energy and went with the flow. But now with the publication of The Help (which I truly enjoyed on many levels), I'm back to answering questions. So if you've found this blog post on a search and are looking for answers, you've come to the right place.

In a recent chat session with some Mississippi women, past and present residents that I know and love, we all had strong and slightly different takes on the book. I'll share a few here. These are not necessarily my own opinions, FYI:

The character Hilly was totally false to me. I never knew any debutante, high school sorority sister, or Junior League member in Mississippi who would be so concerned with Blacks using a different bathroom that they would act as Hilly did. Her actions just did not fit the typical Southern women I have known. I think it ruined the book for me because I thought there had to be a better, more realistic way to create the needed tension. I HAVE known mean people who have created trouble for others for no apparent reason other than meanness, so that was realistic to me. But Hilly working for Black people to go to separate bathrooms in the homes where they worked, and some of her other actions, didn't ring true to me. If anything, the girls I knew who would have been activists would have been pro integration!
Now, wouldn't it be interesting if someone interviewed the author and SHE knew some Southern woman who was obsessed as Hilly was------

(Another friend spoke up:)
I agree with you about Hilly. I just wanted to slap her!!

(We focused a lot on Hilly:)
Hilly seems way too much. I'd forgotten the way she campaigned about the toilets. I can't imagine anyone doing that.

(And another:)
I liked the maids a whole lot better than I liked those tacky White People..
I think there were probably people of our grandmother and mother's generation who acted like Hilly, rather than anybody I knew, our age or Hilly's age. But you have to remember that older generation was raised by parents who remembered, vividly, slavery and the Civil War, if only via stories their own grandparents told. Times did change for us all, didn't they.

(Still more:)
I felt that the story was good and told from a different "slant."
However, the characters were stereotypical and the story told almost as another gratuitous Mississippi bashing. By doing so, she trivialized the message. If it has made us look deeper at our past history and relationships, then it has served a purpose. It was good entertainment, but Stockett was in over her head. Rather than a "chick book" for book clubs, it could have been an outstanding piece of literature. The sad thing is that people from other parts of the country will read this book as a documentary instead of fiction. Poor Mississippi. The state is like that proverbial blade of grass that gets mowed down every time it sticks its head up.

(And this from another:)
I will say, I am glad that I read the book. I won't say that I thought it was as glorious, wise and poignant as those who critiqued the book on its dust jacket.I feel that perhaps most of Stockett's characters were over-stated.... the good ones were TOO good, the bad ones were TOO
bad...I could have used more subtlety...I personally find it hard to believe that a female, (even though formally educated) in the deep south in 1962 could have been that aware. Hindsight and knowledge and history and facts and research have been necessary for most of us to become aware of that unique time.. We were so protected.

(In conclusion:)
One of the interesting parts of the book for me is the way it's produced a cultural dialog about our racial past in the South. It was a very compelling book to me, a gutsy book. Those first person voices are very powerful.

Yes, a cultural dialog for sure, even among old friends.

And these comments, from a Book Group discussion a friend in Baltimore (made up of a few Southerners and a few who aren't) related to me:
Most of the group enjoyed the book on some level. Some thought it was merely entertaining, some thought it was enlightening. The greatest difference of opinion seemed to be regarding how the characters were depicted. Generally, most thought that the black women were well developed and interesting characters, although some felt that in real life, they would have been too afraid to speak up as they did in the book. Many thought the white women seemed unrealistic and stereotypical and more shallow and uniformed than college graduates would have been.. I thought this was interesting, given the fact that the book was written by a white woman, who should have had a better understanding of other white women than the black women she so beautifully portrayed.

Most of the group applauded the author's portrayal of the relationships between the black women and the white children they raised and how these relationships can be affected by outside forces. They were more critical of the depiction of the relationships between Skeeter and her friends and Skeeter and her mother, feeling that they were less believable.

Those of us who listened to it liked it even better -- the audiobook is very well done. I played a few excerpts for the group so that others could hear the different voices.

Here are two reviews that might help Book Groups' discussions. Be sure to read the comments at the end of the California Literary Review!

MS Magazine Review
California Literary Review (review by an African American reviewer)

And lastly, click here for Kathryn Stockett, in her own words.

Writing inspiration?

This is where my mind is today! (Related post? Writing inspiration...)

I could stare at these fish for hours...

Cathleen Schine

Reading her newest book and discovering her blog. AND a new (to me) word: SLEEP BLOGGING.

The Three Weissmanns of Westport surprised me, and I really like that. It almost failed my "three chapters and done" test, although I did love the writing right from the get-go. But the story seemed humdrum, and it was a library book... but something made me keep reading, and I'm so happy I did. The writing just delighted me.

Near the end of Chapter 3, daughters and mother discuss their new situation:

"The Joad family is more like it," said Anne.
And she could envision them clearly, their mattresses lashed to the roof of the jalopy, making their trek along the dusty roads...But she was mollified now, smiling at the thought, for "jalopy" was a word she had always loved.

The book offered so many unexpected turns. A story of the "infinite sky of elderly divorce," it's also about relationships- adult siblings, women, new friends, old cousins. New and old places, New York, suburbs. Death and near-death, old lives and new ones, both with secrets.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Just for fun, here's an article I wrote a couple of St. Patrick's Days ago. And good memories, with recipe, from a special dinner with friends (not to mention a very special birthday- Happy Birthday, Kate!).

Maybe My Favorite Writing Blog

How did I not know about Gail Carson Levine's blog? I've actually met this author of so many great kids' books. Right after she published Ella Enchanted, she spent a day at at my school, and she was terrific. But her blog was off my radar till I followed a tip from inkygirl.com - which by the way has lots of excellent leads to follow, and some really funny writing cartoons available for bloggers-- like this one:




But I digress.
Gail Carson Levine's blog brims with carefully thought-out advice, writing prompts, examples. In a recent post about dialog, she answered a commenter's question, used examples from her own work-in-progress, and shared some very good prompts. Here's a bit of what she says about "white space" on the page:

You can achieve comforting white space with short paragraphs, a good technique when a character is alone. But when two or more characters are together, there’s a more important reason for them to talk than mere white space. It’s relationships. Put two people together, even briefly, even strangers, and there’s a relationship.

Most of her posts are answers to questions posed by her blog readers. So hurry on over there if you've got a serious writing question. If she hasn't already addressed the issue, maybe you'll be lucky and get some really great advice.

Quitting Before Finishing

When I was a kid, we had rules in our family like you don't quit piano lessons, don't turn on the TV till you've finished the homework, and don't toss anything out that might still have a few good uses left. In other words, Finish What You Start.

When I was 20-something I had a rule that, once started, I always finished a book. No matter how boring or poorly written. Now I have a different rule about books. Although by and large, I don't really get into a book with the intention of giving up, I'm perfectly happy to close it if the beginning chapters don't interest me. Occasionally I read for a while, find my interest waning and give the book the Page 69 Test. If it fails that, and no one is requiring me to finish, the book is history.

I also feel that way about writing and bad wine. No reason to devote too much time to either if they just aren't working.

Here's an essay with writer Varian Johnson, about his writing process. I totally understand how this feels:
I’ve found that if I still love a story after three chapters, I’ll stick with it. If not, it goes to the big recycle bin in the sky.

Amen to that.

My friend Sue Laneve once cautioned me to explore many options before starting a new writing project, trying them all out before delving into one. Once chosen, it's going to require a lot of energy. Why write past 3 chapters if it's just not working? Is this quitting too soon? Maybe 3 chapters is enough to at least put it in the drawer for a while.

Olive Kitteridge, at last

How could I have missed this book? Actually, the truth is, I didn't. I bought a paperback copy after hearing all my reading friends rave. But the print font was so darn tiny! It sat, neglected, by my bedside for many weeks. Then I needed a book to take along on an airplane trip and eyesight be damned! Olive Kitteridge it was.

And I loved everything about it. Now I'm foisting it on all my friends. My houseguest, Julie, stranded here when they closed the Baltimore airport, read it in two sittings. When my college pals gathered in Atlanta, all had our own strong opinions on The Help and shared them. We decided we needed another book, equally discussable. Olive Kitteridge got the nod.

I've been thinking a lot about believable heroines. Main characters you relate to from the beginning chapters of a novel. Even unappealing characters, if given a redeeming quality, can become someone who makes you continue to turn pages. Blake Snyder talks about this in Save the Cat!, his book on writing. A "save the cat" moment occurs when even the most unlikable point-of-view character does something to redeem himself, to make herself sympathetic to readers. I think Olive might be a bit like that. Elizabeth Strout does a terrific job of making Olive appealing despite her obvious foibles. At first, she's not particularly likable. But she displays humanity and vulnerability. So despite her being occasionally bothersome, frequently grumpy, way too opinionated, Olive has small moments of kindness and vulnerability, and we like her. Or, at least, are drawn to her.

Every time a friend comments on the book, she starts with the wedding chapter. Poor Olive Kitteridge! Dressed in that horrid mother-of-the-groom get-up. Hiding in a bedroom, eavesdropping, overcome, a true case of the vapors (were she Southern).

The book takes form in non-linear chapters,narratives linked by one character. Almost short stories, actually. In each chapter, we see another side of Olive. All the same character, ever changing. Just a really good book. And here's a link to a terrific NPR interview with the author, which includes a bit of the book read by the writer.
(Here's his description of Olive:
Strout’s big, blunt heroine and the book’s namesake, Olive Kitteridge, is tough, wounded, wounding. Big blunt heroine! How true.)


Related post: Save the Cat!

How To Design a Book Cover?

I just love this. A blog that shows us exactly how book covers are designed. I especially love the Eiffel Tower bit!

I don't even know these books but now I'm dying to find out more. Guess that's what it's all about! Thanks to my friend Anne for sharing it on Facebook.

Writing Music

Of course, I don't mean writing music. I haven't attempted that since my middle school buddy Beverly and I sat at my piano and pounded out chords to bad verse. But the idea of listening to music while writing, music to write by, is something I'm trying to get my head around. I need quiet spaces for writing.

But if you know Eric Puchner's writing and especially if you are into 80s music, check out this piece on the New York Times blog, on writing his just-published novel, Model Home.

Since my stack of To Be Read Books is taller than a small child, the librarian in me had to return Model Homes to the library yesterday. It was "overdue and others are waiting." But I'll try to get back to it as soon as my book tower shrinks. 80s California might not be my thing, but the writing was terrific and I was smiling a lot as I read. All good things to say about a book.

And in honor of the recent holiday (remember Valentine's Day?), I'll quote a small portion of Puchner's blog entry's song list . You need to click on over to read the rest.

Girlfriend, the Modern Lovers. This is a night of cuddling in the backseat, talking about what to name the kids you’ll have together some day. It’s the precise antithesis of “Pacific Coast Highway,” by Sonic Youth. This song was originally recorded in the 1970s, but I’m including it here because it was rereleased on vinyl in 1986, when I was 16, and played a large part of my first year behind the wheel.

The Postmistress

THE POSTMISTRESS has a look about it that makes you want to pick it up and read it. Great cover!

I saw the recommendation by Kathryn Stockett, prominently displayed right there on front, hard to miss, and she's "telling everyone I know to read" this thought-provoking novel. I heard an interview with Sarah Blake on NPR. (Click on that link and you can read an excerpt from the book and listen to the interview). The story's set during World War II. Letters play an important role. Everything I love. Everything about it made me want to read The Postmistress.

So I guess my expectations were a tad too high. It was a good book, not a great one.

Iris James is postmaster of a small town on Cape Cod. From her window to the town, she observes the evolving world around her: a young doctor's wife struggling with her husband's decision, the stranger in town, the fear.

Then there's the parallel story of a young American war correspondent, a protegee of Edward R. Murrow. She broadcasts from London and eventually from a train car carrying refugees. The events unfolding around her make Frankie Bard re-examine so much of what she thought was true.

"This is how a war knocks down the regular, steady life we set up against the wolf at the door. Because the wolf is not hunger, it is accident- the horrible, fatal mistake of turning left to go to the nearer tube station, rather than right to take the long way around."

Sarah Blake takes a time in our history that we don't often read about- the run-up to the war-- and weaves the events into a mostly good story. Yes, there were times when the plot seemed contrived, but there's a lot to ponder and discuss after reading this novel. I see it becoming a huge Book Group selection.

But the thing I love- maybe even more than the occasionally formulaic and ponderous writing - is learning about the research the writer did. Transcripts of radio broadcasts, interviews with war journalists, a decade of Life Magazines, old movies. The book book her eight years to write.

At the end of the novel, Frankie admits she has bet her career on advice she was given when she started: "You told a story by letting the small things speak."

Great advice for any writer or journalist.

Quote for the Day

"In America, history never dies - it's reborn as "tourism." -Joyce Carol Oates

(Thanks to my friend Denis Gaston for this one! And check out his blog post about the new Tampa Museum of Art. Since he knows what he's talking about, I'm trusting him on this one.)

Goodbye in Robot

I'm big on setting in fiction, especially in books for kids. I think it adds a necessary element, grounds characters in an interesting place. I like reading books set in places I've lived or am at least familiar with. Plus I'm reading a lot of YA books for some reason. I have one assigned review, one I chose because I'm working with the writer, and this one because I'd heard so much about it.

So for many reasons, I couldn't wait to read Natalie Standiford's HOW TO SAY GOODBYE IN ROBOT.

And I loved it. Yes, it helped that my former home- Baltimore- is the setting, and since Natalie Standiford grew up there, she's nailed the city. The bookstore/ bar, the neighborhoods, even a high-rise apartment building filled with bluehairs (where I just happened to live for a couple of months, sans blue hair, many years ago). Even Morgan & Millard's drugstore/coffee shop, the first strip shopping center in America (1896), makes an appearance.

Using the late-night radio show as a device to move the story along and help us understand the characters was pure genius. What a teen-friendly way to write. Loved their on-air names: Kreplax and his Future People! What an oddball.

The story will appeal to kids, and this novel deserved its Cybil-finalist award. Two high school kids, mostly midfits, find each other. Ho-hum, you might think. Now that's been done before. But these two are so appealing, so unusual, that nothing you know about out-of-it high schoolers applies. Robot Girl and Ghost Boy (their radio names) defy all stereotypes.

It's a love story, a family saga, a tragedy, a mystery, a story filled with hope. One of my favorite Young Adult books of the year. I'm still scratching my head a bit over exactly what constitutes a Cybil Award-winning book, but don't we do that each year with all the awards? Some we love, some we hate. Some we feel don't deserve any acclaim at all. Criteria, like personal taste, seem to change with each year's new committee, and there's no changing that.

But HOW TO SAY GOODBYE IN ROBOT is a book kids will love, their parents will be happy to read, teachers will approve. It spans a very large reading area, wide appeal. Truly well-written, truly fun to read. All good!




Related posts: Baltimore
Cybils Finalists

Quote for the Day

"Literature is born when something in life goes slightly adrift."
Simone de Beauvoir

Related post: Quote for Turkey Day

John Grisham, Kids Lit?

Hmmm. This is interesting. Today's announcement from Publisher's Weekly says John Grisham will be writing a legal thriller for middle graders, a whole bunch of them, it seems. How'd I miss this?

The middle-grade series will focus on 13-year-old Theodore Boone, a legal whiz kid. In the first book, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, Theo gets caught up in a high-profile murder trial in his town. It's scheduled to be released by Dutton Children's Books on May 25.

How To Buy a Coon Dog

Following yesterday's posting about how books never really leave you, I give you Betsy Bird's recent Library Journal blog entry. She's rolling through the top 100 kids' novels of all times, in the opinion of her pollsters. I'll leave those of you with an interest in children's fiction through the ages to head on over to her blog and check out some of the titles.

But today my interest lies in Book #46 on the list: WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS.

The book was published in 1961, and I haven't read it in a while, but one 4th grade teacher who was near and dear to my librarian's heart loved this book and I know the kids in her classes for the many years she taught loved it also.

And this comment from Betsy's blog reminded me of Kathi Appelt's essay from Hunger Mountain:

My 4th grade teacher (30 years ago) read it aloud, and it completely transformed my vision of reading. I revisit the book every few years, and still cry like a baby. I even read it aloud one year to my class-bawling unabashedly several times. They still remember my reaction and love of the book, and (I hope) it made the same indelible mark on them as it did on me. - Tess Alfonsin, Fifth Grade Reading Teacher

Most of the novels on the Top 100 are books that made that kind of impression on readers.

Wondering where I came up with the title for this entry- the coon dog thing? If you read the blog review of Where the Red Fern Grows, you'll see a link to a Mississippi schools classroom study guide. Much as I hate to think about kids reading a book and doing study sheets, it happens. I guess it's better than reading something really boring on a standardized test and answering questions. At least they're reading good literature, and we who love good literature can just hope the questions don't completely turn kids off from reading.

Betsy Bird is a librarian at the New York Public Library so she and some of her pollsters may not see the value in students figuring out how to buy a coon dog, with appropriate links to dog shopping websites. But let me tell you, I think it's brilliant. Or at the very least, fascinating. Whatever works, whatever gets kids reading and remembering.

Kathi Appelt's Blurred Lines

Kathi Appelt's recently published Hunger Mountain essay will make you ponder a lot of things: Accelerated Reading (and I mean that with capital letters, the read and test machine), Librarians and Parents as Guardians of the Book Gates, censorship, parenting, lifelong readers, expectations, death, failure, love and loss.

It's a long essay, one I'm not capable of consuming in one swoop. But I plan to read it again, and that's why I'm sharing the link here.

The debate over requiring kids to read and report is long and complicated. Librarians I trust say it's helped immensely with comprehension. Others despise reading requirements, from standardized testing to book reports to reading discussions. I know kids who love to talk about what they read, while others- like the character Miranda in this year's Newbery Award winner- jealously guard favorite books, refusing to share.

But I believe Kathi Appelt's point that books become part of us, that we read at different life stages and take away things on many levels is so true. Of course, it doesn't hurt that she and I remember and love many of the same books, especially those read by our grandmothers.

She writes of her teenage son, and Ferdinand the Bull. How I adore Ferdinand! So does son Cooper -

"Cooper was fifteen, but Ferdinand was still with him. Remember this when you’re writing: We carry these stories with us all of our lives. There is no delineation. We don’t become fifteen and set aside the stories that we grew up with."

The Underneath, her novel about survival and love and the sheer terror of losing those you need, caused a few adult readers to doubt children would get it. I confess to having reviewed it with a caveat that the cover might draw younger readers who were less likely to appreciate it than older kids. I still think the primary audience is for ten and up, but I've always known that lines are blurred when it comes to book appeal.

We teachers and librarians, parents and writers need an occasional reminder, that Ferdinand and The Underneath, The Runaway Bunny, Hunger Games and way too many books to cite here, may impress us when we are young, but they don't leave us when the book goes back to the library or gets packed away in the attic. The Quiet Old Lady Whispering Hush stays with you long after that little mouse has scampered off the page for the last time.

Quote of the Day

(thanks to my friend, Leslie)

“Map out your future - but do it in pencil. The road ahead is as long as you make it. Make it worth the trip.”

Jon Bon Jovi

Related posts: Two Favorite Quotes

Tim McGraw

MORE Lists

Don't click on this link unless you love books. You'll be lost in lists for the afternoon. Or the day, or even the week. It's MORE Magazine's lists of "Top" books- Fiction, Poetry, Memoir-- and many more-- that Women Should Read.

I've read 9 of the 21 on the Notable Fiction list, but the scary part is that I've not heard of 2 or 3 of them. Not the writer, not the title. Nada. Scary, for a former librarian, lover of books, dabbler in novels.

More for my To Be Read list. Egads, it's growing too fast.

2009 Edgar Award Nominees

Are you a mystery reader? A mystery writer? My friend Kay and I once thought writing mysteries would be a lot of fun. Then I realized how difficult plotting is, and what's a mystery without a plot, right?

But I still love a good mystery, and the Edgar Awards nominations list is an excellent reading guide. The Edgars are given each year in lots of categories, but, truthfully, I never paid attention to anything other than the books. Now I notice screenplays are on the list! (Yay for THE CLOSER!)

And this book about writing detective fiction, by another all-time fav of mine, P.D. James.



Click here to find all the kids' Edgar nominations. (Thank you to the Kids Lit blog from the Menasha Wisconsin Public Library for that link.)

Click here for the complete list, which includes one of my favorite reviewed books of the year: THE LAST CHILD. If the others in that category hold a candle to John Hart's page-turning and beautifully-written mystery set in North Carolina, I'm in for some good reading.

My To Be Read List is getting very long...

Related posts: First in Line for Last Child

Why Read?

Claudette Colvin

My review of this award-winning book is posted today on writer Joyce Moyer Hostetter's Reading, 'Riting & Research history blog. I liked a lot (I liked everything really) about the book, but I especially appreciated the way the book was laid out with lots of easy-to-read sidebars, great photos and facsimiles from the time of the Montogomery Bus Boycott. Movie (or as they were called in South of the 50s and 60s- Picture Show) tickets that cost 25¢ each. Actual newspaper pages reporting the events of the times. And the first-person narration from Claudette Colvin, who was a mostly forgotten player in one of the biggest stories of the Civil Rights movement.

Be sure to scroll down to Friday's post and watch the book trailer posted on the history blog. Hear author Phillip Hoose talk about his discovery of the story and see their National Book Award acceptance. Two videos, both well worth watching.

Home Sweet Home

Where do you consider home? I've lived in 11 places in my life, unless I missed one or two (OK, I'm counting college and a few Navy deployments with my husband- so what, I lived there) but the only one I really mean when I say "going home" now is the Mississippi Delta.

I won't bother telling you where it is. You either know or you sure can figure it out. It's been called a lot of things. Some not worth repeating in polite company. One merited its own book title: The Most Southern Place on Earth.

I grew up knowing about cotton, mosquitoes, not smoking while standing up, high school football, food (especially barbeque, finger sandwiches, Cokes, caramel cake, beer.. OK, I'll stop now), and a whole bunch of other stuff I've probably forgotten and never needed to know. But it was an interesting place to grow up for many reasons, good and bad.

(For all you Yankees reading this? Cotton in bloom- Ready for picking, late summer/ early fall.)


Click on over to this Delta blogger, photographer Kallie Dreher, to see some really fabulous pictures and read what she just introduced me to: CULTURALLY INTENSE. That says it all about the Delta.

Her pictures are for sale and, although copyrighted, she's kindly allowed me to share a couple here.

I didn't grow up in Good Grief. My little town had a few more than 7 people, 5 dogs and probably even more than 4 grouchy old men.

But the Delta was home and I still love it.

When Will There Be Good News?

Finally finished the last of the Jackson Brodie trilogy and fearlessly hoping there's more in the works. (Aha! Amazon UK says there's a 4th, due there in August 2010!)

For now, perhaps I'll try some of Kate Atkinson's earlier books, though I've heard mixed results from friends who've tried and given up on them.

It's not only her writing style I loved in these three books, very literary mysteries with just the right amount of humor to offset the grisly bits. I love the stories and most of the characters.

Jackson, especially, a tired, jaded,former policeman who just can't seem to get his life together. Here's a comment of his as he thinks about Louise, a woman he hoped he might have connected with:
How ironic that both Julia and Louise, the two women he'd felt closest to in his recent past, had both unexpectedly got married, and neither of them to him.

And this from Reggie, another irresistable character, the young, persistent nanny:
She'd identified a dead body, had her flat vandalized, and been threatened by violent idiots, and it wasn't even lunchtime. Reggie hoped the rest of the day would be more uneventful.

You probably want to read these three books in order:
Case Histories
One Good Turn
and then
When Will There Be Good News?

Ah, well. Must return it to the library and cross my fingers it won't take too long for that new book to cross the ocean...




(Word I had to look up while reading and will never use in conversation?

Simulacrum:
1. image, representation
2. An insubstantial form or semblance of something; trace)

Escape from Snowmageddon

I took a blogging break this weekend to play with my friend Julie, a visitor from The North. We had great fun listening to The Help (terrific recording!) and talking about Olive Kitteridge (which we both adored). Although Julie's very good at prodding my writing along, this time we mostly focused on The Weather. When they cancelled her return flight to Baltimore, I got to keep her for an extra day or two. We shopped, walked in the sunshine, ate, and watched Emma on TV.

(Thanks, Kate and Carl, for the pictures!)



Here's what she escaped.
(Her street in Baltimore County.)












And this is my daughter's street in Bethesda... Had the plow arrived yet? She says not until Monday night. (Actually, this is a nearby street. Hers is still unplowed, deep, undrivable...)





Neither rain, nor sleet, nor... HA!

(No mail for a while, I guess.)At least the sun's shining?



Almost 30 inches? Maybe I'll get Julie until April! Lots of books yet to read and talk about.

(What she's recommending I read next: REMARKABLE CREATURES.
Here's what I'm recommending she read next: the Jackson Brodie trilogy by Kate Atkinson.)