Where the Wild Things Are Opens Today (updated)
“You can’t get uglier than the kids you have now.”
~Maurice Sendack
I decided I couldn’t wait and saw Where the Wild Things Are today. I’m so glad I didn’t wait. Now I can go see it again.
I could pick apart the movie (read a glowing review from the New York Times for a more complete depiction) but I don’t need to. The intro was fantastic, Max Records (as Max) was amazing, and the pacing (while it lulls in some middle sections) was excellent. Huge praise for the voice actors.
I went with two other Librarians and they both liked it, one absolutely loved it. I was so afraid it was going to be corny but I should have known better. It’s Spike Jonze.
A note to parents, take your kids (ages 6 and up I’d say). It might scare them, but so what. I was scared!
Listen to an interview with Sendeck from NPR’s “All Things Considered“.
If you read this Newsweek interview with Sendack, you’ll discover he is what most would consider, rough around the edges… blunt. I love it. I wish I could bottle his in-your-face realism and prescribe it to some parents I know.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney
Kinney does it again. This time our admittedly lazy hero, Greg, must mend fences with Rowley (his best friend), work off a debt to Rowley’s dad, go above and beyond to attract the attention of the community pool life guard, and become famous by creating a new comic strip for the local newspaper. All this leads to a boring vacation with Rowley’s family, a failed attempt at a V.I.P. Lawn service company, and no girlfriend or fame.
But Greg remains optimistic through it all. Incredulous at the adults around him and baffeled by their misunderstanding of his genius, he holds himself accountable for nothing and is seemingly without empathy. Of course, this results in one seriously funny book.
Greg has been holding on to a library book for a little too long. This is what he imagines will happen if he returns it.
Love, Aubery by Suzanne LaFleur
“I had everything I needed to run a household: a house, food, and a new family. From now on it would just be me and Sammy–the two of us, and no one else.”
I couldn’t help but compare this book to Ann Dee Ellis’s Everything is Fine.
Both books feature a female protagonist whose physical well being has been abandoned by the adults in her life and her mental well being has been disrupted, both by family tragedy.
Love, Aubrey is an excellent first offering from new author Suzanne LaFleur but Ellis’s story is more concise, literary and ultimately more haunting. Both authors navigate their precious girls through the horror and confusion of one life-altering moment and the aftermath with elegance and poignancy. Both also do an excellent job building suspense.
I’ve seen this on some mock Newbery lists but decided to pass on it for our Library’s final list.
Ocean County Library’s Mock Newbery List
The date and time are yet to be determined (possibly January 3, 9 or 10), but we will be meeting to discuss possible Newbery winners! It has been a great year for children’s literature so don’t be daunted by the list. These books are excellent.
If you are in the Ocean County Area and want to join us, let me know! This is the first year we are including Non-Fiction picks 
Fiction
The Prince of Fenway Park by Julianna Baggot
All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg
The Girl Who Threw Butterflies by Mick Cochrane
The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo (review)
The Problem with the Puddles by Kate Feiffer
The Dream Stealer by Dis Fleishman (Pictures by Peter Sis)
Brooklyn Nine: a Novel in Nine Innings by Alan Gatz
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (review)
Neil Armstrong is my Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me by Nan Marino (review)
The Day of the Pelican by Katherine Paterson
A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick (review)
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (review)
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Tate (review)
Non-Fiction
The Great and Only Barnum by Candice Fleming
Traveling the Freedom Road by Linda Barrett Osborne
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone
Strawberry Hill by Mary Ann Hoberman
I was reluctant to pick this one up because of its Pollyanna cover art. It’s initial tone was as I suspected. Set in Connecticut during the Great Depression, it follows eleven-year-old Allie as her family moves from New Haven to Stamford when her father lands a job.
Much of the story is reminiscent of a simpler time when girls played hopscotch and boys played marbles, where mothers were homemakers and divorce was rare. But while these nostalgic images are pleasant, Hoberman reminds her readers that life was equally as difficult then as it is now; jobs were scarce, hobos weren’t bad people but rather men who could not find work, across the ocean anti-Semitism was growing.
As the story progressed, I grew more interested. Allie developed in so many lovely ways. Take this passage on page 160,
When we got home, I went into the dining room and stared at my grandmother’s cups and saucers. My mother has said that someday they would be mine. I wondered whether when I grew up I would let my little girl drink from them like Mrs. Minnick or be like my mother and keep them safe behind glass doors.
The supporting characters were also well developed and while Allie’s best friend and her family met with a happy ending, her other friends and their families had more ambiguous futures. Definitely a contender for the Newbery but it’s not my front runner.
Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) by Lisa Yee
Holly still sounded mad. A couple of years ago, all he had to do was stick a crayon up his nose and Holly would crack up and forget why she was angry. Bobby wished he had a crayon in his pocket now (p 121).
Holly and Bobby are entering that time in their lives when it is uncool to befriend the opposite gender. So they keep their friendship hidden but solid, until Jillian Zarr, alpha female, enters the scene. Soon, Holly has straightened her hair, painted her fingernails and started wearing dresses to school. Bobby warns her, “If you’re not careful, you’ll turn into a girl!” (p 55).
When the two find themselves running against each other for Student Council Representative, Bobby wants to win badly. With depth and humor, Yee tackles a classic boys versus girl plot line with more depth and humor than the usual. I like that Yee doesn’t sell out, turning Holly away from Jillian nor having her blow Bobby off in the end. It takes a strong-minded, centered girl to navigate both sexes and I believe Holly Harper can. And it won’t be long before Bobby appreciates that Holly is, indeed, a girl.
Murder at Midnight by Avi
“There can never be enough books,” said Magnus. ” The pity is it takes years to create each one.”
“Is that true?” said the surprised boy.
“Fabrizio, a book must first be written. To do so, the writer exchanges days for words, months for paragraphs, and years for chapters – time turned into books. There’s your magic” (p 31).
I wasn’t expecting funny but this book was a hoot! Especially in the beginning. It reminded me strongly of the word play humor of R.L. Stine’s (sadly out-of-print) Space Cadets series (see Fabrizio’s misunderstanding of the truth, pg 49 – 50).
Fabrizio was a street urchin before Magnus and his kind wife took him in as a magician’s apprentice. In his extreme naïveté, Frabrizio succeeds in implicating his master in a plot to overthrow King Claudio of the Kingdom of Pergamontio, Italy in 1490. A loyal servant to the end, Fabrizio must prove his master’s innocence before the stroke of midnight or his master shall be killed and Fabrizio will become homeless once again.
Of course, there is a lot of intrigue and mystery leading to a satisfying theatrical ending. Another great book to add to OCL’s suggested reading list.
Publisher: Scholastic Press (September 1, 2009)
I have an ARC copy of this book. First person to leave a comment with email will get it!
Mimi and Lulu: Three Sweet Stories, One Forever Friendship by Charise Mericle Harper
In the same three story style as Dog and Bear, Harper tells short stories about two friends. Like Dog and Bear, there is the clever, caring friend (Bear and Lulu) and the care-free, more ego-centric friend (Dog and Mimi).
While Harper’s story telling (easily recognized themes with short and sweet execution) is excellent, just as Seeger’s is excellent, there is something about Harper’s illustrations that turn me off. What animals are they, anyway?
I can’t wait to see how the kids react. I used to think David Shannon’s illustrations were odd but his books are now among my favorites after seeing the kids enjoy them.
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (August 25, 2009)
Dog and Bear: Three to Go by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
I was greatly anticipating this book and I was not disappointed in its content! Dog and Bear are back and just as funny and cute as ever.
In the first story “Uh-Oh,” Dog uses an old-time tooth-pulling remedy to remove a bucket stuck on Bear’s head, only to launch the bucket into the air and firmly onto his own head.
In “Opps,” Dog is having fun jumping on a bed. It is Bear’s foresight and caring that leads to a happy, rather than tragic, ending for the care-free adventurous Dog.
And finally, “Alphabetical Order” is a great story to introduce the little ones to letters and arrangement.
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (September 1, 2009)
The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
“Magic is always impossible,” said the Magician. “It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it is magic” (p 154).
In true and excellent DiCamillo fashion, the reader is introduced to an array of interesting characters in short vignettes that clearly and subtly endear them to the reader. Then, the characters, like pieces of a mosaic, come together, compliment each other, and form a beautiful piece of art. Like Dickens for children, with all his depth and humor and observational elegance.
Take, for example, our introduction to the countess Quintet and her husband (who plays hardly any role at all and yet his character and their relationship is at once as familiar to me as any one of Jane Austen’s). The countess speaks on page 57:
“I truly feel, I am quite certain, I am absolutely convinced, that I will lose my mind if I hear the word elephant one more time.”
“Elephant,” muttered the count.
“What did you say?” said the countess. She whirled around and stared at her husband.”
“Nothing,” said the count.
“Something must be done,” said the countess.
Or our introduction to Leo Matienne, who plays a larger role, on page 34:
Leo Matienne had the soul of a poet, and because of this, he liked very much to consider questions that had no answer.
He liked to ask “What if?” and “Why not?” and “Could it possibly be?”
Definitely one of the most distinguished books of 2009, but the most distinguished… not sure. It will certainly be discussed in OCL’s mock Newbery.
Publisher: Candlewick (September 8, 2009)
