Moo and Monkeys Speaking in Complete Sentences

To answer my titular question it's Moo, by Jane Smiley. I like it, with its setting geographically removed enough from my own midwest-college-town so that I don't feel like the author is making fun of me and my neighbors specifically :)

Once I've finished Moo, I won't read more of Smiley's work right away. She's good - especially at character development, and she offers up lots of characters! - but her sentences run on a bit and her plots move too slowly for my liking. I find it's too easy to put down the book, and when I do, I'm less than eager to pick it up again.

Something I picked up when I put down Moo was a Discover Magazine article about several researchers who have apparently proven that Campbells monkeys (and many other species) have syntax. (Speaking of run on sentences!)

So maybe worrying about grammar isn't uniquely human after all.

Blinded by the Story

Here's my definition of a gifted writer: he tells a story without letting the words get in the way.

That's especially important when the story is as fantastic as  The Blind Side. Yeh, yeh, it's the new Sandra Bullock movie. You know what I'm going to say: read the book before you see the movie.

Neither is disappointing, but trust me, the book offers a depth that can only make the movie more enjoyable.

Can't read it? At least listen to the in-depth interview (heard on NPR last week) with author Michael Lewis, here.

PS - if you love baseball, pick up a copy of Lewis's Moneyball while you're at the library/bookstore/website.  You'll be glad you did!
PPS - I Beat the Odds is the story Micheal Ohr tells of his own life.

A Thousand Acres of Heartache

A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley - Random House (c) 1991

Do the holidays bring out the squabbles (or worse) in your family? I bet A Thousand Acres will make you feel better, if only in comparison to the Cooks and the Smiths.
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I'll admit I took my time through the pages of Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres. The characters share so little joy (a few jolly games of monopoly, some delightful flirting among adults, and two brief sexual encounters) that I nearly quit.

Now I'm darned glad to say I finished it. Not just because I'm done, and not just because it's one more notch on my reading lipstick case.* I'm glad I read it because it moved me. And frankly, I can be a bit lazy about reading stuff like that.

Novels that touch me, make me squirm, make me think, make me feel - they're too few and far between, I'm afraid.

And in this exercise of reading something I didn't really want to read, I have learned. Don't worry, I'm not going to wax eloquently about delving into the human condition; I'm not that deep. Rather, what I want to say is that it's good for a reader to have friends.

A friend introduced me to Barbara Kingsolver many years ago, and I was hooked. Barbara makes me think, feel, and sometimes squirm, but just a little. She doesn't really make me blanch, shake my beliefs to the core, or even snort in exasperation at her characters and their lives. She's a fabulous writer and a word wrangler I admire, but she doesn't draw blood. Ms. Smiley got her hooks in me, and changed me a bit while she dragged me through those acres on a New York family farm.

Ouch.
Thanks.

For those still-tender marks, I have to thank Kara. Kara recommended the book very highly and in such an enthusiastic but vague way that I (erroneously) assumed the book was full of sunshine and goodness. After all, she piped up with her recommendation as I was ballyhooing two feel-good books, Wesley the Owl and The Guernsey Literary and Sweet Potato Peel Pie Society. So I just assumed A Thousand Acres would make me feel good, too.

About a month after she loaned it to me, Kara asked what I thought. Not very cheerful, is it? I replied. Oh no, she said. But it's a good book. I trust Kara, and felt obligated to finish it. But I complained. "I like happy endings. Does it have a happy ending?"

"Oh no. But it's a good book." There it was again, that nagging sense of obligation - mixed with a little bit of dread. (No happy ending?!)

Well, Kara was right; it's a good book. And I'm very grateful to good friends like that, who will give you a little push into uncomfortable territory.

Yesterday I loaned the book to another friend. At first, I tried Kara's approach. "It's a good book," I said, then felt compelled to add, "but it's not the happiest story."

"That's OK," she said. "As long as it moves me. That's what I like."

Well, humph. Maybe Allison should start a reading blog.





*if you got that reference you too must be a closet Pat Benatar fan :)

Informative & Fun Picture Book

(Holiday shoppers, hear this!)

What Do You Do With A Tail Like This? is one of those rare picture books that features fascinating facts and engaging but realistic pictures - it's both readable and fun, and educational too.

"Instant classic" may be a bit heavy-handed, but well worth the $16 list price.

I heard that

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, first published in 1999, could have been written yesterday, or tomorrow. Note to parents: the date-rape thing? get over it. Your girl child really ought to read this.

Even quite-uptight Common Sense Media rated it "age appropriate" for 13 and up. Of course there was that one "iffy" scene because a teacher makes an anti-immigration speech.

(Ohmygoodness!)
(#GetOverIt)

Read on...

Finally, I Know Why "Mockingbird" Sings

I don't know how I escaped high school, let alone two college honors classes in English lit, without reading To Kill a Mockingbird, but I'm sorry. Sort of. Reading Mockingbird any time in one's life is probably good for a person; reading it in middle age sort of keeps one's perspective on track.

Of course as much as I love reading, I'm plagued with writer's reading disease, symptoms of which include losing touch with a story here and there while I puzzle over the author's process, construction, possible disagreements with an editor or publisher, and so on.

Because of that, I suspect I enjoyed Lee's "forward" more than most people; I've lost count of how many times I re-read it. In February 1993, Lee wrote:

Please spare Mockingbird an Introduction. As a reader I loathe Introductions. To novels, I associate Introductions with long-gone authors and works that are being brought back into print after decades of interment. Although Mockingbird will be 33 this year, it has never been out of print and I am still alive, though very quiet. Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity. The only good thing about Introdutions is that in some case they delay the dose to come. Mockingbird still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive the years without preamble.

Well, with apologies to Ms. Lee, that was a hell of an introduction. How could anyone NOT turn the page and commence with To Kill a Mockingbird after that?

So I did. And while I didn't need any (further) introduction, I did re-read the first chapter after finishing the book. It wrapped everything up more neatly for me.

Anyway, if you never read To Kill a Mockingbird, I suggest that you do. Next stop - to the library to borrow the movie, which I also somehow missed thus far...


Interesting -
- that this was the second of my 'favorite books of the year' that featured Charles Lamb rather prominently. (The first being The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.) In addition to Lee's charming non-introduction, Mockingbird is prefaced by Lamb's quote, "Lawyers, I suppose, were children once."


Recommended reading -
I found the National Endowment for the Arts' biography of Harper Lee very interesting, as well as a shorter one at Teenreads.com). Because Mockingbird is Lee's only published novel, it's almost all we have. Though I intend to find those articles...

When a Kiss is Not a Kiss

What I learned before breakfast this morning:

When your dog "kisses" you, he's really just hoping you'll throw up on him.

Have a tail-waggin' kind of day!

Back to School We Go...

I had a heck of a time finding good new picture books intended for new students. Even harder was finding good new books that were really interesting stories, rather than primarily designed to reassure, a la The Kissing Hand.

Not that there's anything wrong with The Kissing Hand - but my son was rarin' to go to school, not worried about it.

Here, my review in The Plain Dealer of five books young students (and their parents) can enjoy.

Happy reading!

Speaking of...

I slipped out of the house yesterday morning to hear Chuck Sambuchino of F+W Media talk about his experience in the publishing world (and his latest Guide to Literary Agents) and he mentioned that writers who are having a hard time breaking in to picture books (those 32-page kids books, more pictures than words) may instead break into YA or MG market, then say to their established agent/publisher, "hey, I have some picture books titles ready to go..."

It made me wonder if that's what Speak author Laurie Halse Anderson did with The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School, which I recently reviewed for The Plain Dealer. I rather doubt it, but maybe...

You can see all five of my reviews of back-to-school picture books in today's print edition/arts section, or check it out on the website.

Pile-up on my Reading Table

What extra time? The kids are in school now and my book table is overflowing. Sigh. I'll get to them, I'll get to them. "Them" being:

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
To Kill a Mockingbird* (PLEASE don't tell anyone I haven't read it yet!)
Crucial Conversations (I'm ambivalent about this one; stay tuned)
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley**
...and a couple more.

I'm already committed - three of the four above (and several others) have me enthralled. I should consider this a bit of training, I suppose. I love reading a pair of books simultaneously - as long as the pair consists of one fiction, one nonfiction. (I can't read nonfiction after dark; is there a support group for that?) To have twice as many books open at once, well, I'm in over my head here, folks. Any suggestions? Words of encouragement?

*Why are the best books the most likely to be banned?

*Has anyone read Jane Smiley's blog (at the Huffington Post) long enough to figure it out? If so, please let us all know.

Christmas in July

I hate to shop, and I make no exception for the biggest shopping excuse of all, the onslaught of gift-giving-guilt that comes with the Christmas season. (Pardon me for a moment; I'm struggling to refrain from a full-blown lecture on the reason for the season and our misguided notion that we must shop instead of reflect at that time.)

My response, right or wrong, is to collect gifts all year. When I see the "just right" thingamajig for so-and-so, I buy it, whether it's August or February. With a little organization (read: a lot of luck) I'll not only have my holiday shopping done way early, I'll also be able to find all of the items and match them to their intended recipients before December 24. I can hope.

Books, no surprise, are some of my favorite things to give as gifts - and picture books are the best of the best. Good picture books are timeless, sturdy, beautiful, and read countless times.

Without further blabbering, here are the picture books I highly recommend as gifts this year:

- There are Cats in this Book
- The Seven Silly Eaters
- The Gruffalo
- Harold and the Purple Crayon

And for moms, again I'll add a plug for two of my favorites that came out before Mother's Day:
-Because I Love Her, edited by Andrea N. Richesin, and
-mothers & children, published by National Geographic

Books I could give to anyone include
-Wesley the Owl and
-The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Of course a gift card is always an easy choice, and while Amazon and the big chains are obvious/convenient choices, there are many good reasons to support your local independent book seller - more on that later!

Let's Go to Guernsey and Read about Reading

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, By Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer (c) 2008

First a (long overdue) confession: I am not a member of a book club.

If I were, surely I would have read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society last year, when it was published. As it is, my ex-mother-in-law recommended the book after I passed along Yes, My Darling Daughter.

(Aside: Yes, my ex-mother-in-law. Divorce or no, there love of books goes on.)

The novel is comprised entirely of a series of letters and telegrams - no dialog, description, or any other prose - sent from the narrator, who is also an author, to her publisher, her dear friend Sophie (sister of the publisher) and to a handful of endearing folks (and one infuriating old biddy), all residents of Guernsey.

The setting is London and Guernsey, an island protectorate of England situated near the coast of France, as the cleanup is beginning following WWII.

How the author gets in touch with the residents of Guernsey and how the titular society came to be unfolds so sweetly I don't dare ruin it for you. And that is only the first few pages. Read it, dear reader. Read it.

Need more prodding? The authors' word selection is superb and the book hinges on the sheer joy of reading. Now, off to the library with you!

So, what's it like to be a cat?

This cute picture book is not as good as There are Cats in this Book, but it is worth a read for anyone who fancies felines. Illustrated by Betsy Lewin (of Click, Clack, Moo fame) the pictures are perfect, but not as cartoonish as her farm series.

The engaging picture book introduces a young boy as he prepares to interview a cat, not necessarily the most willing of subjects. Things go pretty well, though I dare say the cat dodges a few questions :)

Doggone

Cynthia Rylant has written a slew of super picture books, plus the early chapter books series featuring Henry & Mudge and Mr. Putter & Tabby.

They're all delightful. Well, almost all. I have to admit I'm not particularly thrilled with The Great Gracie Chase: Stop that Dog! (c) 2001 - although I love the cover!

My son and I picked up two other books by the prolific author, however, that will be difficult to send back to the library. Dog Heaven is a delight - a must read for anyone with a canine companion - and The Old Woman Who Named Things is also precious.

Probably obvious from the titles: both deal (gently) with death. My son has been talking a lot about death lately, and I hope these picture books help him sort things out in his own way. Whether they help or not, they're great books and the illustrations in both are perfect.

No, David, It's Not Good Enough

I've enjoyed reading a handful of David Shannon's books to my son over the years. Duck On a Bike, for example.) Shannon is probably best known for No, David and rightly so; it's a good through-the-kid's-eyes story about a boy who hears nothing but "NO!" Shannon's picture books are for the "lapsit" set through toddlers, in my opinion, so I was happy when my son (now 5 and learning to read) picked up the level 1 reading book Trucktown: UH-OH, MAX by Jon Scieszka and I saw that Shannon had developed the Trucktown characters. Unfortunately, the book was an utter disappointment, text and pictures alike. Is a thin story and simple cartoonish drawings acceptable if you're "just" trying to get a kid to recognize a few sight words? No, David (and and). Learning to read is a lot easier (and more fun) when the book's a good one.

Wesley's Story Soars

Wanna read something good (and just a tad inspiring) over the holiday weekend?

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Wesley the Owl, so much so I also reviewed it on the Epinions website. Check it out! And happy fireworks and picnics and HAPPY BIRTHDAY USA!!!!!!

State Your Passion

Garrison Keillor Goes to the Fair is justification enough for continuing my subscription to National Geographic. A short version can be found in NG's blog pages; don't stop there - the article is worth your time, the magazine worth your money and the space it requires on your coffee table.

The article is Keillor's best work; of course. (I wonder what it's like to be consistently at your best?) It's so good I'm embarrassed to admit that I once wrote (eloquently, or so I thought at the time) about my favorite state fair.

(For the record, it's the Ohio State Fair, slated for July 29- August 9 this year.)

Now, does anyone have a recipe for deep fried chocolate corn potatoes on a stick?

Moving Beyond ABC: Recommendations for the Pre-K Set

Reading is fun; perhaps most of all when you're reading to a child. Silly voices and fantasy lands and ABCs are the DNA building blocks of all future learning...ah, I can get lost in the grandeur of it all. A few of my long-time favorite and other, more recent picks are listed here for a pre-K, just-about-to-learn-to-read audience. Enjoy-add recommendations of your own-just read!!!!!!!!!!!

A is for Salad by Mike Lester
Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
George Upside Down by Meghan McCarthy
ABC3D by Marion Battaille
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin - see fun related activities here and enjoy the superbly sung version here.

Of course the Dr. Seuss books are wondrous and rollicking reads, but in our house they were so well read, to both kids, that I consider them early preschool rather than pre-K/kindergarten books.

Frog and Toad Are Friends, by Arnold Lobel, is a classic I still enjoy, as are several of the other older titles I remember reading (or being read to?) as an young page-turner:


My daughter enjoyed the Bob books series during kindergarten, and I think their simple method can truly help young readers practice basic skills. I bought 'em from Scholastic, 'cus i love the fact that when you buy books through the school program, teachers get credits they can use to buy new books for their classrooms. That said, the Bob books also appear on this
handy list at Amazon.com.

Happy reading out loud!

Read it: Wesley the Owl

Wesley the Owl, Free Press copyright 2008

Stacey O'Brien's story, Wesley the Owl, transcends genre and is remarkable for many reasons, the most important of which is that Wesley the Owl is an incredible story.

Please, read the book. I'm in danger of becoming a real zealot on this subject.

Read it if you love animals, hate animals, or are afraid of animals.
Read it if you love science, hate science, or are completely ignorant of science.
Read it if you love God, don't believe in God, or don't know what you think of God.
Read it, read it, read it.

If you're a writer banging your head against the wall trying to get published, by all means, read it. This is a story that truly was too good to not get published - such tales are few and far between.

I'd like to list everything I learned from the book, but that would be impossible.

Read it, and pass it on... please.

Library Cuts HURT - Let's Try to Help

Dear friends and fellow readers. You know I love libraries. Please consider contacting Governor Strickland and our representatives to urge them to maintain as much funding as possible for our libraries. My letter follows contact information, below.

For More Information http://saveohiolibraries.com

Governor Ted Strickland
Governor's Office
Riffe Center, 30th Floor
77 South High Street
Columbus, OH 43215-6108
614-466-3555
http://www.governor.ohio.gov/Assistance/ContacttheGovernor/tabid/150/Default.aspx

Senator Kevin Coughlin
Senate Building
Room #222, Second Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215
(614) 466-4823
SD27@senate.state.oh.us

Representative Mike Moran
77 South High Street
Columbus, OH 43215-6111
(614) 466-1177
district42@ohr.state.oh.us

: : : : : : : : : : : : : :

Dear Sen. Coughlin and Rep. Moran:

I am requesting that you reconsider the proposed cuts to library funding in Ohio. I understand drastic budget reductions are required, and cuts hurt no matter where they are made. That said, I suggest that cuts in library hours, services, and staff will have long term, expensive repercussions for Ohio residents of all ages, stages, and socio-economic levels.

At the library, my 5 year old is learning to read, sing, wait his turn, share, and use a computer. My 13 year old is learning about everything that piques her interest right now- with an eye toward high school, college, and job opportunities. My 80 year old mother and 78 year old father visit the library, separately and together, to learn new skills, meet friends, browse the large-print books, and get answers to questions about taxes, medicines, TVs, telephone/internet service, and more. As a writer, I use the libraries (and their staffs, and resources) at least twice a week in the course of my work - and I've visited the library to help find work - as well as simply for relaxation. I've also benefited from the chance to offer input regarding government projects during meetings held, you guessed it, at various libraries.

Libraries are safe, bright, inviting spots that inform and enrich the lives of Ohio's citizens and therefore, support and enhance the quality of life in our entire state.

Please speak up, work hard, and do everything you can to support ALL of our libraries, especially during these difficult times.

Thank you for your consideration and dedication to the people of Ohio.

Ohio Author With a Future

Ohio can be proud of resident Cinda Williams Chima, author of The Warrior Heir, its companion (not sequel) novel, The Wizard Heir, and The Dragon Heir, the final of the three-volume set. More titles are in the works, details at Chima's website.

Chima has, can, and should be compared to Harry Potter creator JK Rowling. Both crafted fantasy worlds about young wizards. Both were relatively unknown until their storytelling talents were delivered to salivating and appreciative readers. Both have made their publishers very happy.

I won't go on, primarily because Chima's tales deserve to be read, period, not just for those readers still pining for another Rowling book to read.

Discover the books for yourself, please; I'm just back from vacation and lack the desire to peck out a fitting review. My rating? The highest I bestow: The Warrior Heir has been granted permanent asylum on my bookshelf.

Reluctant readers (or more accurately, parents of RRs) should know that the book features a host of high school students who are fit and good-looking soccer players - so it should appeal to both male and female readers.

Unfortunately, there's very little romance to lure in my finicky teen reader, so she'll probably wait for the movie. My advice to you: don't!

Highly Versatile Henke

Kevin Henkes' MG Olive's Ocean, a Newbery Honor Book, follows 12-year-old Martha after she learns that one of her classmates - the titular Olive, who died in a bicycle accident - thought Martha was the nicest girl in 6th grade.

The news stuns Martha, because Olive was that girl in 6th grade whom the whole class ignored. Martha gulps down the revelation and digests it over the course of the summer, taking it along on her family's vacation like an invisible friend.

The slice-of-adolescent-life story aimed at 4th-6th grade readers (girls) is a very well written, age-appropriate, somewhat philosophical novel about mortality. Frankly, I think it could use a few more plot points and more conflict, both external and internal. But I'm not a MG expert, and it's hard to find fault with Henkes' work or track record. (They can't all be as good as Lilly!)

Henkes has said (in his website bio) "I like the variety of trying new ways to fill the pages between two covers." And in spite of my silly quibbles, I think he did a fine job filling the pages of Olive's Ocean.

Ah, Vacation

I need a t-shirt that says, "Five days in ARUBA and all I got to read were two books and two magazines." I'm not complaining - they were good books and good magazines. As a good deed, I left the National Geographic mags on the plane to save the next passenger from those hideous Skymall catalogs. (Apologies to the wonderful writers employed by said publication.)

I digress more than usual; let's just say the Aruban sun overheated my brain. More later on the books I read, both fiction, both of which I'd recommend, with caveats - Cinda Williams Chima's YA The Warrior Heir and Kevin Henkes' MG Olive's Ocean.

The vaca wrapped up nicely with a brief but warm chat with my seatmate, another Barbara Kingsolver fan. Ah, I love vacations, those temporary interludes away from most of life's little details.
Te Aworo!*


*Te Aworo means "goodbye" in Papiamento, the language of the people of Aruba.

What Rhymes with Dust Bunnies?

Must runnies? Crust funnies? That's all my sinus-suffering head can produce.

Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas is a great picture book, especially for the just-learning-to-read set. At the risk of giving away too much, I'll tell you the cute mob of main characters - Ed, Ned, Ted, and Bob - get it in the end. (Sorry, I couldn't come up with anything that rhymes with vacuum cleaner, either.)

The book's interactive nature reminded me of another of my recent favorite picture books, There Are Cats In This Book. For what it's worth, I discovered them both through the books section of The Plain Dealer. (Yes, you can consider this a plea for readers to follow the reviews in The Plain Dealer, and/or your local paper.)

Lilly's Not Just for Girls!

Gender defender: Lilly's got something to say to kids.

I'll admit it; I usually buy the old children's book advice that girls will read about boys but boys won't read about girls. Kevin Henkes' lovely mouse Lilly is one good reason to ignore that advice. Case in point: Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Greenwillow Press (c) 1996. I am embarrassed to admit I never read it to my daughter; I am making up for that omission by reading it MANY times to my son.

In fact, Lilly has become the leading lady in my quest for books about going to kindergarten. The title doesn't convey a fraction of the story; the purse is a mere prop. This is a book about loving school - and then having a terrible day that makes you hate school, hate your teacher, hate yourself... and you parents know what happens next. Child learns something. Has an aha! moment. Learns something important about her/himself. Sorta the whole point of childhood, you know?

Look; I'm babbling. I'm always overjoyed to discover a truly delightful author - and beside myself to open a book that speaks directly to my kid! (Thank you, Mr. Henkes! Thank you!) So, since I'm clearly incapable of a decent, succinct description, here's the summary from the book's title page:

"Lilly loves everything about school, especially her teacher, but when he asks her to wait a while before showing her new purse, she does something for which she is very sorry later."

Before kindergarten starts my son needs to learn a little more anger management. Lilly is just the lady for the job - heavens knows mom's lessons have failed!

Let's "book it" to School

School is fun! Well, it can be. Kindergarten, especially. (They still have snacks in kindergarten!) Yet when I was seeking enticing titles about kindergarten, my local librarian offered two titles. Two! The mammoth Amazon came up with fewer titles than I expected, and frankly, fewer still that appealed.

So what's up with the dearth of good, exciting, books about going to school?! If we read about one more kid who is afraid to go to school, my son might get the idea he should be worried about going to school.

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten was OK (in case you like it, there's a series) and The Kissing Hand is also nice, if you like that sort of thing. It's kinda' mushy for my taste, however. And it conveys, like, zero excitement about starting school.

Any suggestions? Anyone? (Psst: You don't even have to raise your hand!)

Slice of Indian Life Lacks Compelling Story

I think Karan Mahajan's family planning (c) 2008 is a very realistic farce, but it was hard for me to be sure just what the author was trying to convey at times...fortunately, his prose was pleasing enough to keep me reading through some of the rough spots in this, his first book.

The HarperCollins website offers a lovely synopsis of the book, so I won't try to duplicate it. In a nutshell, family planning is set in modern Delhi, featuring the large and ever-expanding Ahuja family. Father Rakesh, utterly disappointed in his (deceitfully) arranged marriage, finds he is, thankfully, attracted to his wife - but only when she is pregnant. Ergo, the couple has produced thirteen children and Mrs. Ahuja is pregnant again as the book begins.

Fifteen-year-old Arjun is the only one of the children we get to know, following the teen drama of his crush on the girl who rides his bus, his attempt to form a band explicitly to impress said girl, and Arjun's utter despair when he realizes that he can never have the band over to his house to practice, as he's unable to admit to his friends that he has twelve siblings, not six, as he's always maintained.

Ah, adolescence.

Ironically (and comically) Rakesh's antics at work are as juvenile as his son's high school foibles. But again, it's hard to say whether that comparison was intended by the author, or not.

One of my frustrations with this book is that Mahajan seems to have a lot of talent, but instead of showcasing his best talents in this book, he chose to give us a collage.

Mahajan drops readers into modern India on every page, with descriptions of unfinished flyovers, political corruption, plates of chappati. He drops humor into the mix too, with running gags about Mr. Ahuja's hearing problem and Mrs. Ahuja's pronoun usage. (Mrs. Ahuja rarely uses her children's names; instead, she's constantly saying, "tell him to come here" - which is both confusing and useful in a house with 13 kids.) But at odd spots - sometimes in the middle of one of those gags - the author stops to jab the reader with savvy but melancholy observations on love and marriage and the lives lost in between. At such a spot, however, when the jerky pace annoys, Mahajan's well-crafted narrative soothes.

He knew nothing about this woman, this wife of fifteen-odd years. Vague details, yes--the tough jackfruits of her elbows, the sullen hump of her jaw, the bulbous nose she had proudly passed on to each child except Arjun...a fierce protection of her Right to Eat at the table--but nothing more. He twisted and turned in his head the Rubik's cube of domestic details and arrived at no sustainable patterns. His mind was a drawer rummaged of all its contents.
- p 228

family planning had its merits, but unlike some reviewers, I'm not completely smitten with Mahajan's storytelling. His insight is delightful, and he has a tendency to surprise with it, rather than with plot twists or tension between characters. The lack of external conflict was disappointing to me.

family planning is so ripe with potential clashes among its many unique characters that every chapter seemed ready to burst. It never did. You might enjoy it anyway. I did.

More here:

Buying a Book for Mom?

Consider these, for and about all sorts of moms.

(You are doing something for mom this Mother's Day, aren't you?!)

Books for Every Mom

I got lucky: I'm sifting through a few books for a Mother's Day-themed review round-up. All of the titles are for, about, or addressed directly to, moms. Allegra Huston's Love Child, frankly, doesn't appeal to me - but those who long for Hollywood backstory will surely enjoy it.
The stunner of the pack so far has been Margaret Leroy's Yes, My Darling Daughter, a haunting tale the publisher (Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux) had the audacity to suggest was a modern Rebecca. Well, it is. 'Nuff said, for now; I have some more reading to do. Yippee!

There Really Are Cats in This Book!

There are cats in this book by Viviane Schwarz
Candlewick Press (c)2008

"The cats aren't on this page," the book begins.
"The cats aren't on this page, either. They're on the next page. They'd love to play with you. They're very friendly."

And so begins the charming picture book. The first time I read it I was alone in the library, giggling. (Just in case you saw me, and thought I was insane) I brought it home because I knew my son would laugh out loud when we read it together. I was right!

Playful fuzzballs Moonpie, Tiny, and Andre are as interactive as two-dimensional critters can be as they play with yarn, climb in and out of cardboard boxes, have a pillow fight, and go for a whale of an adventure in a fish tank.

Several die cut pages encourage older preschool age readers to turn the pages gently. Moonpie, Tiny, and Andre are very appurrrciative, too.

"I KNEW you were nice," says Moonpie. The whole book is.

Mighty Nice, Those Queens of Freeville

The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson
Hyperion (c) 2009 225 pages

The Mighty Queens of Freeville is a touching book about a single mom raising a single daughter, with help from her matron-laden family, which apparently accounts for about a third of the gene pool in tiny Freeville, NY.

The "Ask Amy" syndicated advice columnist and NPR contributor skates on trite territory; we've read about mother-daughter relationships, the preschool to pre-college days, many times.

Dickinson's Queens succeeds because it's a good balance of self-effacing irreverence and raw self-reporting. The book also succeeds because it speaks to all mothers (of daughters) rather than specifically to single mothers.

I don't think mothers of boys will relate, however, and certainly, Queens speaks most directly to mothers who have roots in a small town or two. (City chicks may not appreciate the significance of Toads diner, the church barbecue pit, or having encyclopedic knowledge of one's neighbors.)

While I enjoyed Dickinson's light humor and ability to avoid convenient cliches, what I most appreciate is that she steered clear of any man-hating digressions. One can be wronged by a man without blaming the whole gender, but far too many authors bang on the all-girl-band drum.

The Mighty Queens of Freeville is a welcome addition to the shelves full of book-length personal essays on parenting. It could, I think, also serve as something as a liaison between the various factions still (!) fighting the Mommy Wars, by not only illustrating how moms can work together, but how they can work and raise children, which is also work.

Early on, Dickinson explains that divorce "runs through my clan like an aggressive chromosone," but claims she was never exposed to "family ugliness of any sort." [p14] From that perspective, Queens offers some insight into the lives of little girls who grow up knowing little of their fathers. How mom handles dad's absentee status is paramount, of course, and Dickinson provides a rather good example of how to handle life without dad without excessive angst, and how to (possibly) avoid the need for counseling in later life.

My father had limited interest in his children, so there was no question of custody. My mother never pursued him for any sort of financial support - and he didn't offer it. She simply prevailed. Prevailing is underrated. People have the idea that unless they win, they lose. But sometimes surviving is enough. My mother knew this, and I learned it by watching her. [p15]

As an adult, Dickinson acknowledges she maintains a romantic vision of her father, and yet she is clear-eyed about his shortcomings.

My father doesn't see things as metaphors for other things, but I do. As I drove back home to Freeville, I tried not to think about the jobs, the wives, the children he left and the grandchildren he would never know, but about the bees and the honey they make. The honey stands for the sweetness of life, while the bee brings the sting. My father, the self-aggrandizing bear killer, was both the bee and the honey to me. [p195]

Bite Me

Chew On This by Eric Scholosser & Charles Wilson
(c) 2006 302 pages

Sometimes, you can judge a book by its cover. The cover of Chew On This advises it contains "everything you DON'T want to know about fast food." And it does.

At times a tad didactic, more often hard to stomach (sorry; you know my addiction to puns) Chew On This is never subtle, boring, or vague.

Remember the 1993 E. coli outbreak among Jack in the Box customers? Here's a refresher from page 192:

"One of the first kids to become ill, Lauren Beth Rudolph, ate a hamburger at Jack in the Box a week before Christmas. She was admitted to the hospital on Christmas Eve, suffered terrible pain, had three heart attacks, and died in her mother's arms on December 28, 1992. She was six years old."

She was also a month ahead of the curve. In January, doctors in a Seattle hospital noticed an unusually high number of cases of children being admitted with bloody diarrhea - and shortly after health officials connected the dots, Jack in the Box recalled all of the contaminated ground beef.

The authors don't mince words about the fast food business and the enormousness of its impact on health and the economy, but then again, they also didn't point out that gee, it would have been really nice if Jack in the Box (or McDonald's, in 1982, or, or, or...) could have been more proactive, more careful, less driven to sell burgers at all costs. Maybe the book isn't as didactic as it is just plain accurate.

Sure, I'm biased. I don't like grease and I've been avoiding high fructose corn syrup for several years now. I buy "free range" chicken and even harvest a few vegetables from my own (woefully small) garden each year - knowing it's only a nod at the problem. In other words, Schlosser and Wilson had me before I opened the book. Still, I will never look at fast food the same way again.

It's hard to say how individual kids will respond to the book's blatant message - but at least, I think it's very unlikely to make many of them fans of the very, very successful industry. (And the folks at TeenReads.com apparently agree.

Of course, plenty of folks - not surprisingly, many higher-ups at McDonald's, Burger King, et al - don't agree. The industry reacted by creating its own website (long live the fast food giants, but not necessarily their clientele) and campaigning to keep the authors out and pop and branded fries/pizza/etc. in our kids' schools. Sick, sick, sick.

Public relations is about spin more than facts, however, and Schlosser and Wilson did a beautiful job of documenting their facts in a 31-page notes section proving (warning, bad pun coming) meat can be beautiful.

I promise, no more today. Chew On This is highly recommended for readers (12 and up) and contains very, very few puns.

--Can you handle it? More info available here or just buy a copy and dig in.--

Infamous Characters Off to a Great Start

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
(c) 2004 225 pages

Seventh grade isn't easy for anyone (remember?) so when the Flanagan family moves to Alcatraz in 1935, you know it's going to be a rough year for twelve-year-old Moose.

Moose is gangly, he misses his dad (who is pulling double duty as an electrician and a prison guard) and has his hands full watching his sister, who is autistic.

But that word doesn't appear in the first two-thirds of the book. Choldenko's characters are almost all show, no tell - her characters are real from page one; they drive the story.

Readers, both male and female, will enjoy this book, but you don't have to take my word for it. Al Capone Does My Shirts was a Newbery Honor Book, a New York Times Best Seller, A Kirkus Editors' Choice, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and a People magazine Best Kid's Book.

And I could go on, but I won't. Readers ages 12 and up will love Al Capone Does My Shirts. If they don't, I'll eat my shirt. (But only if it's clean.)

-- To learn more about author Gennifer Choldenko, visit her website. --

Editor as Floral Arranger

- - - This post also appears on my writing blog - - -

If you've read one entry you know my bias: I think journalism is here to stay, it's a worthy, beautiful profession, and it's absolutely necessary to a civilized society.

Biased as I am, I think (good) editors are artists; I see an Op-Ed spread, or just about any section of the paper, as a carefully constructed work of art. Balanced, and if not lovely, at least interesting to a variety of viewers. It's not always a floral arrangement; sometimes it's just a collage. But it's art, baby. Art. (Of course, it's not all editing - a good page designer sure helps.)

Consider a recent two-page at a recent two-page book section in The Plain Dealer. Because you won't see the layout online, try to imagine...

Two equal but very different three-column reviews sit front and center: one on the weighty Cheever, a biography by Blake Bailey is balanced by a look inside the lighter Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee. The "grownups" hover over reports on two tales for teens - it's as if the arrangement knows that the kids are growing up fast. Fiction and nonfiction reviews hold up the edges of the spread.

It's big-headed hydrangeas and graceful young buds, a bright spray here, and bit of greenery there. A fresh look at some new-in-paperback books and a few recommendations from the NYT Best Sellers list poke up from the bottom of the page like baby's breath.

There's something for everyone.

Keep reading.

Advice for Magazine Readers

The Home Office Organizer has some good advice for magazine readers at her blog. Her opinion is that five mags a month is enough for anyone. Well, that gives me permission to feel overwhelmed. Thanks, HO-Organizer!

3 Cups for Young Readers - or Not

Three Cups of Tea
for Young Readers (c) 2009 209 pages

We’re all busy, it’s true. In case you’ve been so busy that you haven’t heard Greg Mortenson’s story – the riveting nonfiction Three Cups of Tea – well, OK, I’ll tell you. But I’ll wager you haven’t been quite as busy as Mortenson.

Mortenson served as a US Army medic before surviving years of what most would consider successful mountain climbing. Then, when he failed to reach the summit of K2 (he was about 600 meters short) and got himself badly lost, by the grace of God, or Allah, or Mohammed, or all three, he found himself in very good company, in the village of Korphe, in the Baltisan region of Pakistan.

There ended his climbing adventures and began a much more heroic journey.

Sincerely wishing to repay the kindness of those who nursed him back to health in Korphe – and probably, with a climber’s bravado – Mortenson promised to return to the village and build a school for its children.

How he fulfilled that promise is a great story, and after years on bestseller lists, it is now available in a young reader’s version (Puffin pb 2009). There's also a lovely picture book for the lapsit set. (More on that later.)

Weighing in at 209 pages, the young readers edition about two-thirds as long as the original – so adults who want to read Three Cups but just haven’t made time will have to come up with a new excuse. The Young Reader’s edition is better than a Readers’ Digest Condensed version, but the fact that it is so true to the original story is why, IMHO, it will not resonate with teens the way Three Cups did with adults.

For one reason, by teen standards, it’s a very slow-moving story.

There's little action, aside from some wild drives through Baltistan's Hushe Valley, which is quite dramatic. The rest of the book's drama is social, interpersonal, conversational. It's in the strange and protracted negotiations about concrete and nails. Trust me, it's a lot more exciting than it sounds, but it'll never grip kids like Twilight or (pulling out the obvious here) Harry Potter.

What could be done about it? That's a good question. Three Cups will probably never be a graphic novel. But the writing needs to be a little sharper, a little more pointed to get to kids, I think. It needs to move a little bit faster.

And the conundrum is, well, the book is about slowing down. That's the lesson of the three cups of tea. So a graphic novel or book with more action-packed dialog probably isn't the answer.

I hope I'm wrong in my assessment, and that tweens and teens will pick up and finish Three Cups, because it's an amazing story with an important message that kids - heck, all of us - would do well to grasp.

Click here to read my review in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, which also highlights the picture book, Listen to the Wind.

Great Title!

If I were Thomas E. Ricks, I'd be kicking myself for not having come up with a title like The War in Iraq, Second in a Series. NYT book critic Michiko Kakutani (or her editor) deserves recognition for that, the headline of her review of Ricks's latest work, The Gamble.

You Go, Girl

I've been on something of a kick reading about adolescent girls, Hold Me Close, Let Me Go (by Adair Lara) being the latest. Of the pile I've read so far, it's been the least illuminating but most personal. I found it disappointing, in that I had hoped for a whole book along the lines of Lara's wonderfully clarifying essay referred to in most reprints I've seen as The Cat Years.)

Reviving Ophelia surprised me the most - I didn't want to read it, rather, I thought I should. I had dismissed Mary Pipher's book as "just" the seminal diatribe on adolescent girls and eating disorders, when it is quite a bit more than that, and much more palatable than Queen Bees and Wannabees. (Which scared and scarred me, I'm telling you.)

As the admittedly anxious and confused mother of a teenager, I'm still open to suggestions for reading materials that might make the next few years of my life a little saner and a little safer for us all...

Golf is Bad 4 U, Fixing the Root of the Problem, and Other Interesting Topics

Alas, a new year dawned on my old pile of magazines, finding it nearly as deep as ever. I'm still wading through...and I've learned:

Golfing can make you deaf. (Discover Magazine January 2009)

The hottest treatment for heart attacks is hypothermia. (This link to NYT article dated December 4, 2008; a longer article in Popular Science is quite good.)

The stem cell answer may lie within. (Discover Magazine January 2009) ...

...and I have too many $#%& magazines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Words are Cheap, Laughter is Free

Recently I wrote about what fun my son and I had just hanging out the library. I didn't mention the oodles of hand puppets, games, puzzles, and friends we enjoyed there, nor did I mention that we went to the library that day to sign up for one of its many upcoming programs for children. I didn't mention it because I think we all know: libraries are fun. They're also a great source of free entertainment, and I'm talking about more than just being able to borrow a bazillion books, for nuthin.'

But as we enjoyed several of Doris Cronin's books (Click, Clack, Moo; Diary of A Worm) it occurred to me - she's one of those authors whose books all but guarantee belly laughs. Great big guffaws, even. We laughed so loud I was afraid we might be asked to leave :-0

What authors do that for you? Let me know!

We're Reading More! So, What?

The New York Times reports that we're reading more books - and specifically, fiction.

When I saw the headline, I thought, well, there's one benefit of this economic disaster. But the experts who comment on the National Endowment for the Arts' annual report don't go there...instead, their scholarly opinions seem to be, who knows what that means?

They're probably right. The increase, the first seen in 25 years, is just one increase. According to the report, conducted by the US Census Bureau, just over 50% of adults surveyed said they had read at least one novel, short story, poem, or play in the previous 12 months. In 1992, nearly 57% answered "yes" to the same question.

I'm not going to second-guess the experts; I can only hope that means we're not as dumb as we've been told.

I will hazard a guess (and hope!) that we'll find ourselves spending more time in libraries. My son and I read and played away two hours at our local library last weekend, and we had a blast - for free. :)

Three Cups of Tea For Me

Greg Mortenson is the kind of guy that makes me feel really shallow.

After a couple of decades climbing (real mountains) and a short stint in the US Army, he became an ER nurse - you know, saving people's lives and all that jazz. Then he dedicated his life to building schools in Pakistan. He's still at it, and there are nearly 60 schools to show for it. The schools aren't a true measure of success, of course. The lives the students and their families can lead thanks to what they learn in those schools, now that's success. And joy. And possibly, a road to peace. Certainly, it's a start.

To learn more about the Central Asia Institute that Mortenson founded and the good deeds being done, visit the CAI's website.

If you haven't read Three Cups of Tea, I really think you should. Why should I be the only one getting an inferiority complex?

I'm reading the "grownup" version, and it's not taxing my brain :) but just to let you know, there's also a Young Adult edition and the essential story is soon-to-be-available in picture book format, too, under the title Listen to the Wind. Buy 'em through the link on the Three Cups of Tea website and Amazon makes a donation to the institute. Nice.

Sunrise Over Fallujah = War Lite

Walter Dean Myers' Sunrise Over Fallujah describes the war in Iraq from a soldier's point of view, with a minimal amount of killing and "misting." (Explanation not for the faint of heart, or queasy of stomach.)

The 280+ page book bears a copyright date of 2008, and although the book is timely it's not quite up-to-date - the "war is over" theme repeated throughout might have seemed almost possible while Myers was writing it...but we know better now.

I have no real comparison at my disposal, as I'm just not into war books. As I recall I gave up on Catch 22 before I made it halfway through that dreary work. All I can really say for this book as a YA is there's no sex, and only enough killings to make it seem really, truly a book about soldiers on the ground. There are no answers, no characters that are all right and all wrong, and fortunately, Myers stays out of politics.

Too bad more folks don't.