Books, Dogs, and Over-population

So many books, too little time. I'm in complete agreement with that t-shirt slogan. So why in the world would I bring another book - two, even! - into this world? Mhmmm. Well, you do have a point.

I'll admit that the absurdity of it hit me like a lead thesaurus while I was editing my second book in a coffee shop. In the rather fashionable (quaint-but-practical) custom of so many coffee shops, the walls in my favorite refueling spot (hello, Scribbles!) are lined with books.

Books without homes.

They are books with fine pedigrees, too - Michael Creighton's works stand next to spines bearing names like James Joyce and John Green and other folks you've heard of. Folks you've read or will read, when you have time.

And that brings me to my point. See, I really do have one!

Hoards of abandoned books can languish on shelves, or even in boxes, for years - each one will be revived and spring forth with new life the minute a loving owner picks it up.

That's not how it works for abandoned dogs. Or cats. Or any animal. So please, please, please - if you're any kind of human at all - spay and neuter your pets. Never, ever, ever, ever dump an animal.

Once you've mastered that, well then, you're ready to pass along your books to other readers who will pick them up and love them. ;)

~Diane Stresing

The Tooth Fairy Meets El Raton Perez

A new picture book by Rene Colato Lainez offers a nice twist to the tale of the Tooth Fairy. 

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My little guy has been wiggling a tooth so long, I can't believe it hasn't given up and fallen out yet. (And when it does, he'll need a new hobby.) Surely, at some point - before he goes to college, I hope - the Tooth Fairy will visit our house.

Apparently, the fairy doesn't visit Spain and Latin America; El Raton Perez does. He's a mouse who travels by rocket ship to homes of children who have recently lost  (healthy) teeth. He collects los dientes using his lasso, if necessary. 

Lainez didn't create the resourceful rodent; El Raton Perez's first appearance in literature was in 1894, in a book said to be written for a young King Alfonso XIII. (Alfonso ruled Spain from 1886 to 1931.)

Published by Tricycle Press/Random House, The Tooth Fairy Meets El Raton Perez explains what happens when young Miguelito loses a tooth. El Raton had taken his mama and papa's dientes, and those belonging to Miguelito's abuelos, too. But Miguelito lives in the Tooth Fairy's territory now, and when both El Raton and the ever-vigilant fairy arrive at the same time to collect the tooth, a brief tussle ensues. 

Spoiler alert: they work it out. If you'd like to add a little depth (and a Spanish accent) to the Tooth Fairy tales you tell, I recommend este libro.   

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.

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.