Little, Brown Spring 2008 Preview: Day Three

So this is Day Three of my Little, Brown coverage. Thank goodness I pre-prepared this - I just returned from meeting Shaun Tan at Scholastic, and I'm just shell-shocked. I think I was more giddy over meeting Arthur Levine than Shaun Tan! But now I'm just exhausted. So I'm sipping a glass of chenin blanc, posting, and hitting the sack. Zzzzz...

Next at our table was Andrea Spooner, editor extraordinaire who had only been back to work for 3 days from maternity leave. She started off with Willow Buds by Mary Jane Begin. The cover states the book has “friendship stories inspired by The Wind in the Willows.” Andrea was clear to point out that these are not retellings, but they are original stories. She also compared the tales to the Muppet Babies, Toad and Badger before the Wind in the Willows days. She also called it a “values book” – which made me cringe a bit – telling us that it teaches kids how to “navigate friendship” but that the book is “not didactic.” Intriguing, no? I do see quite a few people chanting “blasphemy!” about it…

She also presented a really cool full-color graphic novel, In the Small, by Michael Hague (yes, that Michael Hague). It’s an apocalyptic survival story where Mother Nature has exacted her revenge on humanity and made the people only 6 inches tall. I’m not a graphic novel fan, but I made sure to pick up a galley of this one – I might be convinced to switch sides.

Lastly, Andrea showed us The Mighty Twelve by Charles R. Smith, Jr. and illustrated by P. Craig Russell. The idea is that Greek gods are portrayed as superheroes with superpowers. Andrea promoted it as a teaser to get kids interested in mythology, and she also recommended it for reluctant readers. The text is written in what seems to be poetry...however, try reading it out loud. The rhythm is fantastic - it has a slam poetry, hip hop feel to it that could be dynamic in a classroom setting. However, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. There are so few mythology books printed anymore, of any note, yet kids consistently need them for reports. This book won't be your answer - there really isn't enough to support assignments. Nevertheless, the illustrations have a cool classic, comic book feel and they're in full-color. And the text presents lots of possibilities.

PUB DATES: Willow Buds – 4.08, In the Small – 5.08, The Mighty Twelve - 4.08

Where has all the good mythology gone?

It’s a challenge to blog about anything but food – given that it seems I’m always thinking about it, not to mention that I eat more often than I read – but I’ll give it a try:

1. I just got a review copy of a book called Woolvs in the Sitee by Margaret Wild and Anne Spudvilas (Front Street, 2007). Strange, strange stuff. It’s scary in the same way I found Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman (HC, 2003) scary. Or that Victorian short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Sort of creepy. This boy is living in an apartment building and he’s lost his family to these mysterious “woolvs”. He only talks to his neighbor “Missus Radinski.” You never see these woolvs – they’re these dark shadows, which we all know can be much scarier than if we had seen the real thing. The entire text is spelled very phonetically (“I longs for bloo skys. I longs for it to rane.”), which is both infruriating and effective in portraying a locked-up, scared boy in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic setting. This is in a picture book format, but it’s really for an older child – about 4th grade and up. The cover is really striking – I can see it flying off the shelf if you display it in the YA section, perhaps. Overall, I really liked the book. It’s difficult to find good scary books, and the sense of foreboding and fear without giving away too much information make this a very smart addition to the genre. Just beware the spelling - it was difficult not to throw the book across the room.

2. I finally got an account at Good Reads. Right now the only method I have of keeping track of the books I read is an old Excel worksheet I created back in library school. And I haven’t used it for months. I tried LibraryThing awhile ago but found it horribly un-user-friendly. So hopefully Good Reads will fare better. I’m really horrible at remembering books I read so I really need this one to work out!

3. At work, I’m putting together a core mythology selection list. This is a list that the librarians can choose from to replace their older titles or flesh out their collections a little more. The trouble is, do you realize how many of the classic mythology books are out-of-print??? How is that??? Don’t kids read mythology anymore? They must because I’ve had a significant number of librarians ask me for mythology books. This list is not going well.

4. Lastly, I have to post this Unshelved strip. It’s one of my favorites. If only more librarians would have this attitude toward maintaining their collections…