History in a Hurry

Gimme Rewrite Sweetheart and Front Page Girl are good old-fashioned books, meaning you can't judge 'em by their covers.

Doris O'Donnell and Don Bean have lived - and written - enough history to fully appreciate the current state of journalism, and both are honest enough to admit they can't predict the future of the game. When O'Donnell and Bean started writing for Cleveland newspapers, that's what it was called: the newspaper game.

There were three - count 'em, three - daily newspapers in Cleveland when Bean and O'Donnell got started in the game. The players weren't perfect and the papers weren't unbiased, but they had plenty of watchdogs on staff. As Bean ruefully points out, in his reporting era  reporters would measure the depth of the concrete on the street. And if it wasn't what the taxpayers had coming to them, well, somebody would print it.

In her book, O'Donnell describes discrimination in the business, certainly, but she also describes a business with a lot of principles. Regardless of sex, reporters were supposed to consider themselves representatives of the community. While female reporters were expected to wear white gloves and hats and to say "Yes ma'am" and "No sir," they were also tough enough to measure the concrete on the street and find out just what was buried in Sam Sheppard's backyard. (That's a teaser. Read the book.) They were also given an unbelievably long time to get a story. It's unbelievable today, anyway.

Bean and O'Donnell both spoke at today's meeting of Ohio Professional Writers, attended by about a dozen current college students (journalism majors) and many more with hair long gone gray, fellow journalists who were getting their first beats about the time O'Donnell and Bean were retiring.

O'Donnell likes to say journalism is history in a hurry. And while it's hurrying faster than ever before, it's not dead yet. We can hope that among today's budding journalists are some visionaries who see the value in the old, and a way to make it new again.

The plea from this graying writer: HURRY.

Lois Lowry's Having a Ball

I'm embarrassed to admit I've just gotten around to  Lois Lowry's latest, The Birthday Ball, a delightful new middle grade title that's lighthearted but not easily dismissed. As always, Lowry's writing is just right for her audience. Something of a reverse-Cinderella tale, it was published in April by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, The Birthday Ball will appeal very much to girls and not very much to boys, I'm afraid. Amazon offers an interesting Q&A with the author here.

The Birthday Ball had to wait until I finished the non-fiction NurtureShock, chock-full of important info about kids and their development.  http://what2readornot.blogspot.com/2010/05/welcome-shock-makes-great-teacher-gift.html

An obvious hint for hard-pressed shoppers: Lowry's latest would make an ideal gift for a tween girl's birthday.  And a timely tip for parents: NurtureShock makes a nice gift for teachers. 

A Welcome Shock Makes a Great Teacher Gift

NurtureShock, by psychologists Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, is some of the best non-fiction I've ever read. Each chapter is essentially a meta-review of current large, long-term studies on childhood development issues like sleep, sibling rivalry, achievement tests, and so on.  It could have been drier than toast. Instead, it's enjoyable reading; the authors and editors deserve lots of credit for bringing it to the mass market. Now let's all just take a few days to read it...

If only! Look, even if you don't plan to read it, consider the title as an excellent end-of-year gift for the terrific teachers in your life. (Or even for the bad ones.) The science is solid and the studies worthy of considerable thought and attention. The authors make the clearest case I've ever heard for pushing back the starting time for high school classes, for one thing. And yet they don't make the case - they simply present the information in clear, interesting prose and the book is so well-organized that it's not overwhelming.

I truly believe that the more school psychologists, teachers, and parents that read this book, the better off we'll all be. As a bonus, if you give NurtureShock to your kids' teachers as a gift, I'm pretty sure you'll make the parent honor roll. ;D 

Restaurant News: Green AND Smart

This week I loved reading about a startup called Earthscraps that has a very practical approach to recycling in the restaurant business. Learn more in the article that appeared in the Kansas City Star on April 20.

The article provides some real food for thought. And what a way to take a bite out of the trash problem! (OK, I'm cut off. No more puns for me today.)
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The Kansas City Star article was highlighted in a brief from the National Restaurant Association, a trade magazine or "industry rag," which I enjoy reading. What trade rags do you read?

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet Provide a Puzzle

Reif Larsen's debut novel, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, is a doozy. After reading quite a few reviews and most of the book, I'm sure I'm not the intended audience, but I'm not sure who is. Penguin spent plenty to produce and promote the book - 370+ pages of it - and ultimately, labeled it for middle grade readers.

But is it for middle grade readers? An unfortunately small number of them, I think.

Larsen's wildly imaginative story introduces 12-year-old genius TS Spivet who is, according to his 16-year-old sister, a total spaz. (And I think she's right.) Just pages into the story, TS faces a dilemma: he's won an award from the Smithsonian, but he can't bring himself to share the news with mom, affectionately (or not?) known as Dr. Claire. TS is the kind of kid who diagrams everything, from beetles to books to his sister shucking corn. IMHO, the corn schucking sort of throws the whole setting into a twisted knot; it takes place in the present day. Anyway, the award dilemma serves as framework for the plot, as TS takes off cross-country (from Divide, Montana to Washington, DC) to accept the award, meeting some interesting characters along the way.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet is well written enough to make those characters interesting and the very, very quirky main character endearing, and the story - which occupies a gray area between fantasy and reality - entertaining. In short, it's worth reading. But for whom?

TS might appeal to the same middle school students who liked Artemis Fowl, but the fact that TS is only 12 will preclude some older kids from reading the book. And while the book would certainly appeal to smart MG students (3rd-6th grade) the sepia-toned diagrams in the margins of most pages are not exactly eye candy.

And then there's another little problem: parents. By page 36 the word "shit" appears, and it's spoken quite a few times afterward by both TS's older sister and their father. Also in the first chapter, there's a reference to AIDs. So the question remains, who will read The Selected Works?

Well, as usual, I'm late to the party. TSWTSS was published in 2009 and is now available in paperback. I doubt it has performed as well as Penguin had hoped. But TS is quite a character. If Larsen has been dreaming up and writing down others, we'll hear from him (and perhaps TS?) again.

See a more complete review and additional background on the book and author from The New York Times.

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.   

A Little Help with Spring Reading

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the grass hasn't rebounded yet - in other words, it's the perfect time to relax in a lawn chair and read unaccompanied by the roar of lawnmower beasts. Enjoy it; it won't last long. A quick read to make the most of this time: The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

Employing three female narrators to describe Mississippi race relations in 1962, Stockett delivers a novel that rings true. The women - two experienced domestics and a recent (white) graduate of Ole Miss, make the story anything but dry. Surprisingly, it's not bitter either,  although it could've been. The paperback isn't available until January (2011) so grab it from your local library and dig in. The grass is growing...