Book Spine Poetry

Travis Jonker, over at 100 Scope Notes is collecting book spine poems for a gallery. They're challenging and fun to create (and don't always make sense). I have been discovering books on my shelves that I had forgotten were there!

Waiting on Wednesday

WoW is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine, in which we share the titles of books whose release we are most anticipating.

Thunderstorm by Arthur Geisert. 32 p. Enchanted Lion Books, April 30, 2013. 9781592701339.

Publisher synopsis: Thunderstorm follows the course of a storm through midwestern farm country minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, from late morning into late afternoon. As always with Arthur Geisert it is a meticulously executed and visually stunning piece of work. Other than the timeline that runs along the bottom border of the illustrations, there is not text, and the illustrations are continuous.

Through keen observation, Geisert beautifully captures the nuances and details of a midwestern thunderstorm, from the ever-changing color of the sky, to the actions of the human inhabitants, to the reactions of the natural world to the wind and rain.

I adore Geisert's work, particularly his wordless books. I'm always looking to add to my school's collection of wordless picture books. In addition to the fact that one is never too old for picture books, the ESL teacher does a writing unit with her students using wordless books.

Bonus Non-Fiction Monday: The Long, Long Journey: the Godwit's amazing migration

by Sandra Markle. Illustrated by Mia Posada. 32 p. Lerner Publishing Group, April 28, 2013. 9780761356233. (Borrowed)

One of the perks about being a solo librarian who chooses to manually catalog her library's books is seeing the books right out of the box. Smelling the smells, cracking the books for the first time, reading the cover and jacket flaps. I can catalog a book pretty quickly when I put my mind to it, but more often than not, I get sidetracked by reading the first chapter or two. Or three. 

Ditto when my colleague over at the elementary school sends over some of her oversized picture books for me to cover. I usually take a few minutes to zip through the books she sends over. Such was the case this morning when this beauty came through the inter-school courier.

Godwit eggs hatch out in June on the mudflats of Alaska's western shore. They can walk and scrounge for food immediately and eat madly because within four months, by the next change of season, they must have enough body fat to help them make a tremendous migration south the New Zealand. Alone. In September, first the adult females flock and depart, then the adult males. A month later, the young godwits flock and begin the amazing journey. They just know where to go.

Clear, accessible language describes the life of the adorable nestlings. Soft watercolor collages depict the beauty of the environment as well as the dangers. The palette is watery and the collage pieces provide lovely texture. The end-pages feature downy nestling feathers in front and mature feathers at the end. All the illustrations invite the reader to stay awhile on the page.

Lovely addition to any school or public library. Particularly useful in schools where migration is studied. Maps included as are resources, one of which was a Wikipedia citation, which initially caused some chagrin, since we teachers don't allow use of the website in research. However, this was a link to a video of the birds feeding. Unfortunately, neither computer I tried to view it on had the necessary software to run the video.

I  might purchase this one to pair with Moonbird by Philip Hoose. This is a 2013 favorite.

Non-Fiction Monday: Zombie Makers: true stories of nature's undead by Rebecca L. Johnson

48 p. Millbrook Press/ Lerner Publishing, September, 2012. 9780761386339. (Purchased.)


Well. This book isn't destined to sit on my library shelves for very long. Nope, nope, nope. The lure of zombies, the blood red cover, liberal splashes of puke green and necrotic black color throughout, the intriguingly named chapters like, "The Fungus Among Us," or "The Worms Crawl in, the Worms Crawl Out?" This is gross out science at its very best. I was very happy that I picked this one up before lunch as my stomach most decidedly flipped and flopped more than once.

The parasite/ host relationship is explored in five chapters that are heavily illustrated with full-color photos, informative text boxes containing scientific names and location of infections (there is one from the U.S.) as well as "Science Behind the Story" sections that explain which scientific teams around the world are studying the parasites and how they came to discover their subjects. 

The volume concludes with an Author's note, glossary, source notes, extensive bibliography and urls to websites and videos like this one and that one to link to two of the six websites.

Non-Fiction Monday is hosted by Sally's Bookshelf this week. Pop over there to see what other non-fiction is being reviewed around the blogosphere.

What's New? Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga of Tynga's Reviews. Pop on over there to share your new books and ogle what other bloggers got.

For review:

The Girl Guide: finding your place in a mixed-up world by Christine Fonseca. 228 p. Prufrock Press, April 15, 2013. 9781618210272. 

Publisher synopsis: Finding your unique voice in a noisy world can be hard. Very hard. But not if you have a great guide! "The Girl Guide: Finding Your Place in a Mixed-Up World" is a must read for girls in grades 6-8 as they enter the tumultuous world of adolescence. Packed with fun worksheets and quizzes, as well as stories from older girls and women, "The Girl Guide" covers everything a teenage girl needs to know on the journey toward her own identity. Proven strategies for dealing with stress management, confronting relational aggression, being safe online, navigating the changing mother-daughter relationship, and more make this the ultimate guide for any girl to get through the teen years and discover her unique point of view in the world.


Bought: 

My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald. Unabridged audiobook on 5 compact discs. Read by Cassandra Morris. Brilliance Audio, November, 2011. 9781455857425.

Publisher synopsis: Twelve-year-old Lucy Desberg believes in taking fate into her own hands. When the local homecoming queen shows up at her family’s drugstore with a beauty disaster that Lucy helps to fix, word gets out, and suddenly Lucy has a line of makeover customers for every school dance and bat mitzvah in Connecticut. But it’ll take more than makeovers to save the struggling pharmacy. Lucy searches long and hard for a solution that will resuscitate the family business and help the environment, too. But will Lucy’s spacey mom and stubborn grandma stop fighting long enough to listen to a seventh-grader?

In this funny and sweet debut novel, Lucy knows what she wants and is prepared to fight for it, whether it’s great makeup, a killer business plan, or a better world.

I have had the book on TOM, the tbr, ever since it pubbed. It looks like such fun and I'm mad at myself for not getting to it. When I picked up the arc of the sequel, I made a promise to read this first but I donated my book to my school library and it's always out so rather than borrowing a copy from the public library, I checked to see if was available as an audio. It was and, at a reasonable price. 

That's what's new with me. What's new with you? 

Happy reading!

Book Spine Poetry Time

It's back! Travis Jonker, over at 100 Scope Notes is collecting them. So fire up your imagination and peruse your bookshelves. Take a photo of your creations and email them to join the gallery at Scope Notes in early April. Here's my first one:

Pi in the Sky by Wendy Mass

244 p. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, June 11, 2013. 9780316229586. (Arc chosen at ALAMW from publisher.)

How do I love this book? Let me count the ways:

 1. It’s by Wendy Mass. Anything written by her is basically an automatic purchase by me. I have not read everything she has written, but have enjoyed everything I have read. Plus, her books don’t sit on the shelf in my library much. The kids like them and tell their friends to read them. Ms. Mass is a writer who never condescends to her readers. Her characters are fully fleshed, flawed individuals whom the reader tends to come to love. Each one of her books is unique – even the series books.

2. It has an endearing narrator named Joss, who is supposed to be around twelve, but, since time is relative in the Realms and the inhabitants are immortal, he has been stuck in his tween years for… um, a long time. His opening lines are, “If you think it’s tough being the Supreme Overlord of the Universe, try being his son.

      Or, more precisely, his seventh son.” 

He’s definitely got an identity crisis. Since his older brothers have taken all the cool jobs, Joss is stuck delivering pies. Yes, pies. Pies are the glue that holds the universe together. Besides, as Joss asks, “Who doesn’t like pies?”

3. There are twenty-six chapters in this book and each begins with a quote by a famous scientist/ physicist/ astronomer. The quotes are not only deep and profound in their own right, but relate somehow to the action or theme of the chapter. Totally ingenious. I had heard of most of the scientists and one or two of the quotes, but there are at least three quotes I want to print out as signs and post around my library.

4. There’s real science embedded in an engaging, suspenseful, yet humorous story. Pi in the Sky would make a great read aloud. And why shouldn’t the science teacher do that? (Indeed, when I finished the book, I literally ran over to the fifth grade wing and burst into the science classrooms raving about this book!) If the science teacher can’t/ won’t find the time, (Believe me, mine will because they are that good) the language arts teacher should read it aloud during the space unit. This book can be read on many levels so if your school is all about differentiated instruction, Pi in the Sky is just the ticket. Not only is it deep, deep, deep thematically, with lots of Big Ideas to wrestle with, but also it’s got action and humor that less adept, nay, all readers will appreciate.

5. The Realms may be a figment of Ms. Mass’ imagination but it’s vividly real and totally possible to the reader. And even though Joss can grow wheels instead of legs when he needs to get someplace quickly, he’s very human in his capacity to love as well as worrying about his insecurities. I must say I got verklempt near the end when I realized certain inevitabilities.

So this is my new favorite book for 2013. I favorited two others on Goodreads so far, but gave them four stars. I save the five star assignations for truly outstanding books. Pi in the Sky is out of this world.

Attention faithful blog readers! When I sent an email containing my love for this book to Victoria Stapleton, Queen, Director of School and Library Marketing, she responded with an email for folks interested in reading Pi in the Sky. If you have a real address, no post office boxes, send an email to LBYRBookBuzz@hbgusa.com, and you, too, might share in the wonder of the Realms and the universe.