January Reading Log

All's Well That Ends Well, by William Shakespeare*
The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara*
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen*
The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare*
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz
Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe*

*denotes a title I resolved to read this year

Current Obsession: CafePress

I want this. And this.

And these.

Gearing Up for the Big Anneiversary

Next month Penguin releases their 100th Anniversary edition of "Anne of Green Gables." Isn't it ravishing?

As the official date (March) draws near, you'll hear all about the Anneiversary Tea I'm planning. Anne has somehow stuck as my number-one favorite novel through years of voracious reading, despite the fact that my rational self really likes other books better. There's just something about a story you read at a very young age, a book that had an enormous impact on your innocent brain ... the influence is never replaced.

The extent of my fan-girl status: I went to Prince Edward Island three years ago. Sigh. An amazing experience.

"My Kid's An Artist!"

That’s what Brigid’s mom dazedly repeats in “Purple, Green and Yellow,” by Robert Munsch. Now there’s a lovely book. Calls for more quotes: "They are super-indelible-never-come-off-till-you're-dead-and-maybe-even-later colouring markers. Mom, I need them." But I digress.

It finally came! Such fun. I'm worn out from reading it already!

Coming Soon to My Bookshelf...

Just made some acquisitions for the library-here's a sampling. Now, what to read first?
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Spell Book of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty

Leap of Faith by Kimberly Bradley

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

No Castles Here by A.C.E. Bauer

The Rising Star of Rusty Nail by Lesley Blume

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall

The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin

Dickinson Friday: 774

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It is a lonesome Glee —

Yet sanctifies the Mind —

With fair association —

Afar upon the Wind

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A Bird to overhear

Delight without a Cause —

Arrestless as invisible —

A matter of the Skies.

I'm Registered!

Yah!!! In just 86 days, I'll be on my way to hearing (among others)

Joan Bauer

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and

Katherine Paterson

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speak at the 2008 Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing.

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I remember the first time I read Bridge to Terebithia ... I must have been eleven or twelve. No one told me anything about it, I just picked it up off the shelf. I remember being absolutely numb when I turned the last page.

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And boy, was I obsessed with Hope Was Here when it came out! I'm really looking forward to her new book, Peeled.

A Tale of Two Novels

I just closed Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park," the only one of her six main novels I hadn't bothered to read before (if you count mostly finishing "Sense and Sensibility"). But I really, really liked Fanny Price's story--right up there with "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma."

The reason for my warm praise, however, has more to do with a much lesser-known English author, D.E. Stevenson, who wrote a novel I fell in love with at age 12: "Celia's House." Imagine my surprise when "Mansfield Park" turned out to be Stevenson's obvious model!

She echoed every particular of Jane Austen's plot--a sweet, neglected niece, two vain, flirtatious cousins, a dangerous wooer, a spirited theatrical production, a calm, brown-eyed cousin worthy of any girl's love. Despite Austen's undeniable artistry, though, "Celia's House" will always hold a higher place in my affections. It's such a lovely story--completely indebted to Jane Austen, but really, really lovely in itself, as well. In point of fact, I prefer Stevenson's Mark to Austen's Edmund. (gasp!)

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I've heard generic booing and hissing of the movie ... is it worth renting? "Freely adapted from" usually portends ominous alterations.

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Whatever the case, "Mansfield Park" reminded me of an old love, and brought up a favorite musing, the scholarship of imagination, the debt each new generation owes to the minds of their artistic forebearers.

If you don't have time for a hefty Austen novel, pick up D.E. Stevenson's "Celia's House." You may have to inter-loan an old, tattered copy, but the story is worth your trouble.

Extra, Extra!

I have an interview up at Novel Journey today, with Cybils Award Panelist (and blogger extraordinaire) Miss Erin.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls ...

Or should I say, Good Masters, Sweet Ladies?
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Yes, Laura Amy Schlitz, author of the wonderful "A Drowned Maiden's Hair," has snagged the Newbery Medal with her medieval dialogues, the first non-novel to win in almost twenty years.

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Three Newbery Honor books were named: “Elijah of Buxton,” by Christopher Paul Curtis, “The Wednesday Wars,” by Gary D. Schmidt, and “Feathers,” by Jacqueline Woodson.

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A fairly predictable lot--disappointing, because there's not much in the way of surprise, yet better than 2007's curveball, the obscure "Higher Power of Lucky."

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They sure covered their Issues this year ... War, check. Racial tensions, check, check. Nate Wilson's all-white cast, with its wise father-figure, didn't have a chance. Tack "Leepike Ridge" onto my list of Outrages: Books That Deserved the Medal.

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The Caldecott prize, however, makes up for the lack of astonishing revelations in the Newbery department. Hugo Cabret? A 500+ page novel? The book even Betsy Bird dismissed? Excuse me while I pop my head outside.

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Nope, no sign of Chicken Little. But still. Wow.

Newbery Musings

Does the medal really mean that much? It's easy to assume "winner = novel every child should read," but how much truth is there in such thinking?

It depends.

It depends on the quality of writing that's produced from year to year, on the tastes of judges from year to year, on current politically-correct trends, on many, many variables. Which is the same as saying, no, winner does not equal classic. There are several warts. However, in the course of eighty-six years, this shiny gold sticker couldn't help but land on some real gems. For that, I'm grateful. And impatiently awaiting tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's my version of the good, the bad, and the outrages.

Some Good

2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins

2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

1997: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer

1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

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Some Bad

(Okay, I confess, all the middle titles are just guesses. But I mean, Gay Neck? Young Fu? I leave my readers to make their own deductions.)

2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska

1964: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis

1928: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji

1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon

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Some Outrages: Books That Totally Deserved the Medal

1975: Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbit

2004: The Star of Kazan, by Eva Ibbotson

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2008: My Fingers are Crossed for

Leepike Ridge, by N.D. Wilson

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At least an Honor. I mean, look at some of the great Honor recipients out there. A Ring of Endless Light, The Golden Goblet, Ella Enchanted, Lily's Crossing, Hope Was Here. But then there's the not-so-great Honors, too ... 1931's "Queer Person," for example. Hmm.

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Curious about the award's history? You're in luck.

Little Beauties: Rudyard Kipling

"L'Envoi"

by Rudyard Kipling

When Earth’s last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,

When the oldest colors have faded, and the youngest critic has died,

We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it—lie down for an aeon or two,

Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew!

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And those that were good shall be happy: they shall sit in a golden chair;

They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets’ hair;

They shall find real saints to draw from—Magdalene, Peter, and Paul;

They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all!

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And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame;

And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame,

But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,

Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They Are!

Reading Resolutions for 2008

I’ve never made a book list resolution before—probably because I read plenty without one, in and out of school. Last year I checked off several classics, such as:

Wuthering Heights, Puck of Pook’s Hill, The Divine Comedy, Gulliver’s Travels, Canterbury Tales, A Tale of Two Cities, Frankenstein, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Henry V, Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Hamlet

But this year I’m determined to include quite a few non-required classics, and here to help me is my handy dandy

My Audible List for 2008
KJV Bible
Iliad, by Homer
Don Quixote, by Miguel Cervantes
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
Paradise Lost, by John Milton
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers K, by Feodor Dostoevsky
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Great Gatsby, by John Fitzgerald
The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara
Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell
Bleak House, by Charles Dickens (because Soobie reads it in The Mennyms)
Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott
Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott

Other Misc.
The Mind of the Maker, by Dorothy Sayers
Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton
Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
House of Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Brave New World, by Adolph Huxley
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen
84 Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff
Antony and Cleopatra
Merchant of Venice
Comedy of Errors
Two Gentlemen of Verona
All’s Well That Ends Well

At least five old Newberys

Beginning these lists had a definite Pringles effect. Oh well—seventy-five-foot ambitions never hurt anyone … did they? Besides like, um, Haman.

Cybils Shortlists

Yeah! The first round of Cybils shortlists was announced this morning, and several made me very excited.

Exhibit A




















Now for the Newbery...